Two Team Owl Double Review: Bitter Melon and Revolution

Today I have to very mini reviews from one of my biggest readers.

First up:

Bitter Melon by Cara Chow

Book Summary
Frances, a Chinese-American student at an academically competitive school in San Francisco, has always had it drilled into her to be obedient to her mother and to be a straight-A student so that she can go to Med school. But is being a doctor what she wants? It has never even occurred to Frances to question her own feelings and desires until she accidentally winds up in speech class and finds herself with a hidden talent. Does she dare to challenge the mother who has sacrificed everything for her? Set in the 1980s.

Team Owl Review
This book is really an amazing book with an amazing plot.  The main character in Bitter Melon is Frances (that's her American name, her real Chinese name is Fei Ting), and her whole life she had been expected to go to a medical school to be a doctor, because that's what her mother wants her to do. She hadn't really challenged that until she ends up in a speech class instead of a calculus class, and discovers her love and talent in speech. This book is really about Frances finding the power and courage in herself to make her own decisions about what she wants to do with her life, and her many struggles along the way.

Best for ages 12/13+

My note:  I tried to read this one and had to stop after about the first 75 pages.  I just couldn't get into, but a think a teenage girl would relate so well to the main character's struggle with her mom.  As a mom I had a completely different perceptive.

Next Up

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Book Summary

BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.

PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.

Team Owl Review

My note first! - I handed this book to this particular student to read because I knew she wouldn't be intimidated by the size.  (It's quite long)  She jumped in.  I asked her a few days later how it was going, and she wasn't so sure.  She was a bit confused.  Like the next day she came in and said it just go sooooooooo much better, and she was really liking it now.  The funny things is - well read her review and you'll see.

What she wrote when considering a review 
I read Revolution and I was going to do a book review for it, but I could not figure out what to say! I loved/liked the book but the book itself is kind of...confusing??? I don't know but it sure made it hard to try to come up with a review! But to basically sum it up, the first few pages or 1 chapter are 100% confusing, but once you get past that, she pretty much lays off the big words, and it gets WAY good. Although she throws a twist in at the end that I wasn't sure I liked that much, but I think that I grew to liking it a little better as the end came near. But the book itself is a little thicker...but once you get into the story, the pages go by fast. Oh and I l<3ve the cover!