American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

american born chineseYang weaves three seemingly different tales of the Monkey King, of middle school student Jin Wang, and of  Danny and his cousin Chin-Kee.  The first storyline follows the Monkey King on his search for respect from the other gods.  Jin Wang’s story follows the middleschooler’s struggle to fit in in a mostly white school. Danny’s story follows his continued embarrassment at the hands of his cousin Chin-Kee (portrayed as a harsh stereotype) who visits him yearly from China. All tales are told with humor; the art work will keep you visually engaged, and the ending is too good to miss.

Swindle by Gordon Korman

swindleThe condemned Old Rockford House will be smashed to smithereens tomorrow morning to make way for the Cedarville Museum, instead of the Skate and Roller Park that the kids of Cedarville proposed to the town council. Griffin “The Man with The Plan” Bing invites his group to spend the night in the Old Rockford House the day before the wrecking ball swings. Only his best buddy, Ben shows up to spend the night in the old house. When Ben falls off to sleep, Griffin explores the old dwelling and finds an old baseball card, a Babe Ruth baseball card, hidden in a secret compartment of a desk drawer. The next day Ben and Griffin, after narrowly escaping the wrecking ball, take the card to Palominos’s Emporium of Collectibles and Memorabilia to get an appraisal. S. Wendell Palomino explains that although the card is a Babe Ruth card, it isn’t that valuable and he gives the boys $120.00 for the card. Later that afternoon, something on the news catches Griffin’s attention. There in the middle of the screen is S. Wendell Palomino with Griffin’s baseball card claiming he found a rare Bambino card worth a million dollars! Griffin has been swindled! But The Man with The Plan has a plan to get his card back.