This book was pretty good. I felt like Ringgold did a great job at telling the story of Lonnie finding out what happened to his parents and why he's an orphan. He was an orphan in France who longed to find his family. The Love Bird of Paris told him that he would help him find his family, so the bird helped him find his aunt and uncle. While at his uncles and aunts house he is told the story of what happened to his parents. HIs mother a French, Jew and his father an African American that came to France to be free and to marry the love of his life. During WWII his father set out to fight for France in the war and was killed. His mother was captured and also killed. ( )

I liked this book for many reasons. It incororated historical events even though it was a fictional book. When Lonnie was trying to find his parents, it took him to the Mona Lisa and said where the Mona Lisa was located. Also When his grandpa and Grandma were telling the story of how they met and why they came to france, they talked about the World War and who it was with and against. In my opinion this is a historical fiction book. It has lots of magic and imaginary things through out it, but it teaches you about past historical events briefly through out as well. Also what I liked about the book is the words that were in French were Italisised and then defined in either that sentence or the next so children could learn basic French words while reading this book as well. For example on the first page t says "Bonjour, Lonnie. Je m'appelle l'Oiseau d'Amour," said the beauiful bird. "My name is Love BIrd". Children could see the text in French and then continue to read to find out what it means. I also liked this story because it is relate able to a lot of children now. Lonnie found out that his grandpa was black, his grandma was white, his father was half black, and his mom was white and Jewish. He came from a very mixed racial family and was an orphan. His family was discriminated against in a few ways for one being of color and his mother for being Jewish. Kids now can relate to this because there are many children who come from very mixed families who may get discriminated against because so. ( )

In my opinion, this is a good book for children, especially those who are biracial. It explains that it is acceptable in society to have two parents that love each other that come from different races. The style of the illustrations fit the text very well, showing how the two different races of the parents combine and mix together to create the color of their child's skin. Also, the characters are very believable since they consist of biracial children and two different- raced adults. Now in society, more than ever, you see a lot of biracial families and books like these support children who come from those types of backgrounds. ( )

Lonnie, boy from Harlem, dreams a French adventure.