The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs as told by Jon Scieszka. Illustrated by Land Smith. ISBN 0-14-054451-8. $6.99 published by Penguin Putnam
'You may think you know the story of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf-- but the only one who knows the real story is Alexander T. Wolf. He finally gets the chance to tell his side of the story in this groundbreaking picture book. With a clever first-person narrative, and innovative artwork and design, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! is laugh-out-loud funny!'
Novels
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor. ISBN 0-553-25450-2>>350. $3.50 Published by Bantam Starfire (other editions available)
'This is a story of physical survival, but more important, it is a story of the survival of the human spirit. This is Cassie's story -- Cassie Logan, a girl raised by a family determined not to surrender their independence or their humanity simply because they are black. Cassie has grown up protected, strong, and so far, unaware that any white person could consider her inferior -- or force her to be untrue to herself. It takes the events of one turbulent year to turn her safe world upside down.'
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. ISBN 0-8041-0630-4. $5.95 Published by Ivy Books (other versions available)
'In The Joy Luck Club, vignettes alternate back and forth between the lives of four Chinese women in pre-1949 China and the lives of their American-born daughters in California...In the hands of Amy Tan, who has a wonderful eye for what is telling, a fine ear for dialogue, a deep empathy for her subject matter and a guilelessly straightforward way of writing, they sing with a rare fidelity and beauty.' (The New York Times Book Review)
The Circuit (Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child) by Francisco Jimenez. ISBN 0-8263-1797-9. $10.95. Published by University of new Mexico Press.
'These independent but intertwined stories follow a migrant family through their circuit, from picking cotton and strawberries to topping carrots -- and back again over a number of years. As it moves from one labor camp to the next, the little family of four grows into ten. Impermanence and poverty define their lives. But with faith, hope, and backbreaking work, the family endures.'
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines. ISBN 0-553-26357-9. $4.95. Published by Bantam Books.
'This is a novel in the guise of the tape-recorded recollections of a black woman who has lived 110 years, who has been both a slave and a witness to the black militancy of the 1960's. In this woman Ernest Gaines has created a legendary figure, a woman equipped to stand beside William Faulkner's Dilsey in The Sound and the Fury. Miss Jane Pittman, like Dilsey, has 'endured,' has seen almost evertying and foretold the rest.'
