Sandy B

I was particularly interested in reading this book because although I have heard about the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the oppression of the Tibetan people, I knew nothing about the history of the country. As a school social worker in a school with 300 refugee students from 80 different countries, I try to read books about people of different cultures as often as possible. I also love historical fiction, as well as books about strong women. I found all three women in the book, the grandmother, Kunsan, the mother, Sonam, and Yangzom, the daughter and author, to be amazing, courageous women in their own distinct way. Anyone who loves to learn about culture and history from stories about real people who lived through it will love this story. When I reached the end of the book, I felt tremendous empathy for the current plight of the Tibetan people.

The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry is a sweet and appealing story about family ties and an unlikely heroine. Ginny Selvaggio is young woman with Asperger’s Syndrome who suddenly loses both of her parents in a freak accident. Ginny has lived with her parents all her life and her older sister, Amanda, feels that Ginny will not be able to live alone – she is making assumptions about her based on her “disability” and not on her abilities. While Amanda was living her own life, Ginny has learned to handle her differences that others might think of as abnormal. Cooking is Ginny's passion and she uses the steps involved in preparing a recipe to calm her anxieties. Ginny has two special friends who believe in her as well as support from people who were close to her who have died (there’s a bit of magic in the story)! Ginny has an unusual way of dealing with the death of her parents but in the end she makes some startling discoveries about her father and about her own capability to handle this crisis. As a school social worker who has worked with children with disabilities, I found the character of Ginny to be a very accurate depiction of a person with Asperger's Syndrome. I think this story can teach us all something about our assumptions about people who are different than we are.