Book Review - Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in cuba by Margarita Engle

Daniel
" My parents are musicians-
poor people, not rich.

They had only enough money
for on ticket to flee Germany,....

My parents chose to save me
instead of saving themselves,.....

Thousands of other Jewish refugees
stand all around me
on the deck of this ship
waiting for refuge."

Daniel's parents have made the ultimate sacrifice, they send him on a boat hoping that it will reach the United States. Instead the boat is sent to Cuba where Daniel is one of many Jewish refugees. He befriends a local girls that has as many painful secrets as he does. Daniel does not know what will happen next, and fears that he will never see his parents again and will be sent back to Nazi Germany.

Book Review - The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine

Have you ever had bad luck? I mean the kind of bad luck that you try your best to avoid but for some reason it sticks to you like crazy glue. Well I had, and guess what? It was the best thing I ever had happen to me and I'm not just saying that.
First let me introduce myself, my name is Harry Otis Sims but every one calls me Dit. There's a story behind how I got the nickname Dit, "when I was little, I used to roll a hoop down Main Street, beating it with a stick as I ran along. One day, two older boys tried to steal my hoop. I hit them with my stick and told them, "Dit away." They laughed. " You talk like a baby. Dit, dit, dit." The name stuck." So that's the story.
Anyway I live in Moundville, Alabama and the year is 1917. The New Postman, Mr. Walker is coming to our town and I'm so happy cause he has a son about my age, and I already have plans for him. We going fishing and hunting and best of all I sure hope he likes Baseball, it's gonna be fun. When the train pulled up and the Walker family step out I get the surprise of my life. He is a She and her name is Emma.