Kimberley Burton Heuston

ty of Toledo in 1965. Ms. Mildred married a man by the name of Howard Millhouse. I can recommend this book to people who were being treated like a slave and who are ages 10 and up.
Cassie Logan - The narrator and protagonist. Cassie is the second-oldest Logan child. She has a fiery temper like her Uncle Hammer. Also, she is very naive concerning the facts of racism.
Little Man (Clayton Chester Logan) - A meticulously neat first-grader, Little Man is the youngest of the Logan children.
Stacey Logan - A thirteen-year-old boy, Stacey is the oldest of the Logan children. He is part-adult, part-child.
Christopher-John - A cheerful seven-year-old, Christopher-John is the second youngest of the Logan children. He is timid.
Papa (David Logan) - Cassie’s father. He values his independence highly, leaving to work on the railroad in order not to lose ownership of Logan land.
Mama (Mary Logan) - Cassie’s mother, a schoolteacher.
Uncle Hammer - Papa’s brother, Hammer lives in Chicago. He has a short temper.
B… (altro)

Summary: The book opens with Napoleons birth and early life in Corsica as Napoleone di Buonaparte. Napoleons upbringing including resenting the French, wanting to be in the military and wanting better for his family. Napoleon is granted a chance to go to a military academy in France and soon begins adopting their culture, even changing his name to it's French spelling, as he quickly climbs the ranks of the French military. As his conquests spread, his ego and paranoia grow, leading to his downfall and eventual exile.

Personal Reaction: I thought this biography was interesting. The writing and facts are appropriate for a third, fourth or fifth grader. The illustrations help form a better idea of what was going on.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. Using dots (markers or pencil erasers dipped in paint) have students illustrate on a map how Naopleon's armies spread through Europe.
2. Have the students write a Pro's and Con's list about Napoleons ideas and decide for themselves if he was good or bad.… (altro)

I liked the first half of this book much better than the second half. In the first half, Jude seemed like a quite normal teenager, unhappy about having to move to another country, and the suffocating environment of Communist Czechoslovakia was vividly described. Then she just goes stark raving mad, and I'm like, what? The diagnosis given was borderline personality disorder, but it really didn't seem to fit. I think the author rushed it; it was like she didn't really care to describe Jude's symptoms but only wanted to write about her recovery and everything, which left me blinking and wondering why Jude was diagnosed with BPD in the first place.

I think this was worth reading, but only because there are so few YA books about the Prague Spring and the affects of Communism in Czechoslovakia.… (altro)