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Have you read my
first article, Book Reviews? If you haven't, I suggest you
check it out.
And now it's time for more books from my favorite series -- "Leyla: The
Black Tulip," "Saba: Under the Hyena's Foot," and "Kathleen: The
Celtic Knot"!!! Let's start with Leyla.
Leyla: The Black Tulip Have you ever read the book "Cecile: Gates of Gold" (reviewed in my first article) or seen
the movie "Spirited Away"? (I reviewed that classic anime film in my third article.) Well, this book is a mixture of both of them!! Leyla, a young woman, is
growing up in the country Georgia, where her artistic father is
at war painting battle scenes, although it's against her
religion, Islam. "God gave me His power of creating, and I
shall use it," he tells her. While her mother is striving to
feed a family of 5, Leyla and her brother go in the forest to
look for food. They find beautiful tulips, and Leyla finds
one planted in an onion. Her brother dares her to eat the
petal, which she does, and spits it out! "This is terrible."
she cries. They dig up a few, and plant it in their garden. Then, a town
carnival arrives! Leyla enters the gardening
contest and wins a big cheese, to help her mother feed the
family. Nearby she sees two elegantly dressed men, with
turbans and all talking to the town mayor. She wonders what they are doing, but
she can tell they're talking about her,
because they're looking and pointing at her. When she comes
home, those men come, offering gold and silver for Leyla to
be a wife to a wealthy man. Her mother rejects them. Leyla can
hear their argument from her room, and that night she writes a
letter to her mom, and does something she thought she might
never do. Figure out what happens by reading it! I give it ****1/2 stars.
Kathleen: The Celtic Knot Kathleen is a
poor girl with big dreams. She's always late for school, and is scolded by the
nuns. One day, the head nun talks to Kathleen's mother, about what she has been
doing. She suggests dancing lessons, or a musical
instrument. "What kind of dance?" her mother asks. "Irish
traditional, of course! Very in and patriotic!!" the elderly
nun replies. Well, Kathleen asks two snotty rich girls how
much the dancing lessons costs, because they take them. "Oh,
it's free for us!!" one says "Yep! Absolutely free!" the other
replies. Well, Kathleen tries it. "Where's my money?" the
teacher asks after teaching her. "They said it was free!!" Kathleen
cried. The two girls snickered, "It's free for us because our
daddy's company pays for everything!!" After Kathleen tells
her mom to get her the few pence she has,
the teacher tells her something that might change her
life.... *****
Saba: Under the Hyena's Foot Saba is a
peasant girl living with her gramma and brother. She's afraid of all the spirits
-- and one day while getting water, she think she
hears one! She runs as fast as she can to her hut, where she accidentally breaks the jug, the only one they have! She tells her
gramma, which goes to the market the next day to buy a new jug. While she is gone, she and her brother Mesfin hear a
honey bird call. They know that call leads to honey. They follow it, but the
sound turns out to be solders, and the men capture them! What
are the soldiers here for? What will they do? There's only one way to
find out, by reading this book ***3/4 stars (3 and three-fourths)
See you later dawgs, goths, that's what I am!
Bye bye, sadielo.
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