Makes Me Happy

Brace yourselves as this post may be a bit sappier and a bit preachier than I typically post.  Are you braced?  OK here's the sappy part.  One of the reasons I love books is that they help meet my burning desire to travel and experience new places that my bank account can't quite keep up with.  Don't get me wrong I think it is incredibly important to travel-my study abroad experience in college was one of the most formative times of my life, but the reality is we can't always get where we want to go.  That's why books are so great.
I read this book for free thanks to my schools library (for those of you who aren't teachers or students local libraries typically have a fantastic selection of all books but especially young adult literature-this is the preachy part-go to a library!), but even public libraries are free!!  Which is so awesome.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, read, experience things, go to the library we get it-just talk about the book already.  Ok.  Gloria Whelan's Homeless Bird is one of those books that makes you feel like you have traveled to a distant land.  Through the eyes of the main character Koly I learn more about Indian culture and tradition than I could from any textbook (teacher note-textbooks have their place and are often important).  For the hour or so I spent reading Homeless Bird I wasn't sitting at my desk in Royersford, Pennsylvania, I was in India with Koly.

Koly is 13 years old which means it's time to get married.  Her parents arrange a marriage with a, they believe..., suitable match and after a brief engagement Koly is married.  She leaves the only home she has ever known and moves in with her in-laws.  Life there is nothing like Koly expected and circumstances beyond anyone's control take her places she could have never imagined.

This was just a great book.  I could have written a whole post about experiencing different cultures, or the overarching message of empowerment and all of those things are in the book.  But when I finis
hd this book I felt happy-and that's really the highest praise I can give it.

I think today people get caught up in the hype around a major series or a book that is becoming a movie, or something really flashy.  And those books can be great-I've posted about and genuinely enjoyed many of those books.  But I worry that with all the flashy books out there small, simple, but so profound and enlightening books like this will be overlooked.  Homeless Bird  is definitely a book I will be recommending to students.

Experiencing new cultures...that's kids stuff.