Linda Park Books

I never realized how much (and how little) our state parks have to offer those of us who have mobility limitations. The Mitchell's have taken the time to visit every park in their book - and it shows. I was especially impressed with the detailed descriptions of trails and points of interest. Now I have a very good idea of whether I will be able to enjoy each park. Most importantly, I know which parks I do not want to miss. Thanks for your efforts and awareness of the needs of wheelchair users and others with limitations.

Sure, everybody is concerned about the endangered status of whooping cranes, ocelots, and bald eagles -- and so is Linda Campbell. But her book --Endangered and Threatened Animals of Texas -- deals with many more species than those high-profile ones with which the public has already become familiar. Toads, bats, snakes, even cave-dwelling spiders are every bit as important to the great web of life as are their more celebrated fellow creatures; and Linda Campbell is quick to point this out. Her book, in addition to its beautiful photography and well-researched zoological data, contains workable management plans for the conservation of ALL of the Lone Star State's threatened species -- even the less cuddly ones. Anyone who truly wants to know what animals are in danger, and what they can do to help preserve them, should read this book.

The author draws on her California Highway Patrol experience for background in this emotional drama. A young woman leaves her wealthy family after finding her fiance romancing her best friend. She moves to be near her Grandmother (quite a character) and goes to work for a police department. That's when the action starts and keeps you interested till the end of the book.

Can't wait for the next book by Linda Twist.

Yes, yes, we know we're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but it's tough to gaze upon the whimsical dust jacket of TAP DANCING ON THE ROOF without feeling hopefully giddy about the pages inside. Happily for us and you and children of all ages, the poems within more than live up to the promise of that little red-dressed girl and her very large scissors.

As explained in the Author's Note (a gold mine of information and tips for readers, writers, and teachers alike), sijo is a form of Korean poetry with a fixed number of stressed syllables and a surprise joke or twist at the end. Poem after poem, Linda Sue Park serves up witty observations about everything from long division to bedtime snacks, with plenty of unexpected surprises along the way. Istvan Banyai's playful illustrations -- rendered mostly in gray tones with dashes of color here and there -- wisely complement the poems without ever overwhelming the text. It's the book equivalent of a hot fudge sundae with a cherry on top. Perfect!

Maggie Smith's very colorful and appealing drawings are the highlight of a visual book of colors and flowers in Linda Sue Park's What Does Bunny See? Each page uses flowers to teach associated colors in a very easy reader for the young.

This is such a unique way to present the idea of foreign langauges to children. It isn't meant to make your children fluent, but just to show that people sounds like yum, yikes, yuck, and ah-choo aren't said the same way around the world. The illustrations are colorful and the foldout part lets you guess what the foreign words mean in English before you check for yourself. I highly recommend this fun read.

What an absolutely captivating story! I am somewhat familiar with stories from Japan or China, but I guess I am just oblivious to contemporary child-aimed Korean-inspired literature. What a horrible elementary school teacher I am. Anywho, I first heard about this book back in college in a children's lit class... but never bothered to read it until my little sister found it. She read it and recommended it to me.

And thus I was captivated by its gorgeous simplicity that made a truly inspiring fable as well as a piece of historical fiction.

The story follows the adventures of Tree-Ear, a young orphan who becomes the servant/apprentice of a master potter. Tree-Ear yearns to learn pottery, but his broken-hearted master refuses to teach. When Master Min is summoned to send samples of his work to the royal court, it is Tree-Ear's task to make the delivery.

This is a beautiful, inspiring story that touches on love as well as art. It brought tears to my eyes.

A Single Shard is an adventurous historical fiction that leads one boy's life to an adventure so great he will remember it forever. The boy's name is Tree-Ear and he is an orphan that lives with a man named Crane-Man. The village was Ch'ulp'o, Korea during the twelfth-century. He is barley surviving on scrapes of food under a bridge. He gets curious and accidentally breaks a potter named Min's pot. Then Tree-Ear has to work for Min for nine days. Later on after his work is finished he will work more, hoping to become a potter like Min. An emperor's assistant comes in hope of finding a great potter like Min. There is another potter who is just as great as Min and he is Kang. The theme is Tree-Ear trying to become a potter. The conflict is Tree-Ear's quest to become a potter. I liked this novel because it shows how live was in the twelfth-century at Korea. This is a great book for people who think History is a great genre.

I would recommend this book to all the people because this book has mixed emotions. In the beginning you feel sorry for tree-ear and crane-man because they live under a bridge and because their poor. And you are horrified when tree-ear gets BADLY injured. But towards the end you feel good for tree ear and what he accomplished. But their you go again you are sobbing,horrified to what has happedned to a certain someone death. But on the other hand you feel good about another persons death. IM not only saying that this is a good book to read im saying this is book that gets your hopes up,this is a book that gives you a little boost when your feeling down. Lat but not least this is a book that lets YOU express who YOU are . Thank You for letting me into your homes(computers) well unless you at work so that would mean thank you for letting me into your jobs anyway goodbye and dont forgett to buy this book unless you already have it. Well bye anyway.

The book a Single Shard, is a fiction book. It is about an orphan boy, named Tree-ear, who lives under a bridge in Ch'ulp'o, Korea. He lives with a man named Crane-man. One day, Tree-ear was walking and saw a potter working. When the potter Min left, the boy went over to the already made pottery. The boy was dreaming of creating works of art just like Min. Tree-ear was so caught up in his dream that he knocked over one of his pots. Tree-ear had to help the potter to catch up by collecting wood, for nine days in a row. After those long hard days, Tree-ear decides to work longer, hoping to become a potter. Min then gave Tree-ear the job of cutting clay. Min's wife is very kind to Tree-ear.For example she provided food for him and Crane-man. To thank her for her kindness, Tree-ear goes on a journey to give the king, Min's work. Tree-ear thought that the potters happiness would make her happy as well. Little does Tree-ear know, this journey is long and hard. This book shows the importance of family, Korean pottery, and adventure. I liked this book because it was nice how the potter and the boy come closer, from the beginning of the book to the end. I did not like this book because of what happened to Tree-ear on the mountain during his journey. Overall I thought this book was fantastic!

A Single Shard Book Review


In the book A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park, a young boy named Tree-ear lives with adopted father Crane-man, under a bridge. Later Tree-ear goes to work with a potter and has to travel a long distance. This book isn't really one of my favorites and I would not recommend it because it doesn't really have a climax or anything that is really interesting.
Since this book is in Korea where there is clay there has to be some potters. And since Tree-ear is an orphan and didn't have anywhere to go (besides the monks) he had to have a father, which turned out to be Crane-man. Also when Tree-ear broke Min's pot (a wonderful potter) he had to pay for it by working for him but then decided to keep on working for him. When people really respect each other, most of the time they would do something thoughtful, like Tree-ear did for Min's wife.
In the beginning of the book it was really boring and didn't really make any sense, but later it was kind of better. I think to improve this book the author could of used some humor through out the character and it would help people like it more. Also some of the characters were not really believable. Some of the were orphans that lived under a bridge with a crippled man with crutches. While I was reading this book I wasn't really interested on what was going to happen next. The reason why I was not interested was because there was no foreshadowing.
As a conclusion I sincerely don't think people should read this book. Some of my reasons are that it's really boring, no humor, wasn't really connected to the characters or the plot and it didn't have any interesting words.

this book is essential for kids, they need to know about Asia's war and history, expecially special circumstance in Korea. it is very useful to understand. i was so impressive about there live under Japanese.

This book is a great book. It's not too short and not too long. It is a book all about WWII, the droppings of the bombs and about a family of Koreans living under Japenese order. In the end, it all ends out okay.

Linda Sue Park is a great writer and I recommend this book book for all ages from 10 and up.

This book is a great book. It's not too short and not too long. It is a book all about WWI, the droppings of the bombs and about a family of Koreans living under Japenese order. In the end, it all ends out okay.

Linda Sue Park is a great writer and I recommend this book book for all ages from 10 and up.

"When we chose our new names, I pointed to the letter K. I went around whispering over and over, "Keoko. Kaneyama Keoko. Keoko." I could think about "Kaneyama Keoko" as a name but not as my name." When my name was Keoko makes reading enjoyable for kids eight and above.

Linda Sue Park writes When my name was Keoko to help remind us what happened in Korea during WWII. She writes this book in two different points of view, Tae-yul's and Sun-hee's, a brother and sister. This book focuses on a their life in Korea when it was under Japan's occupation. Koreans are forced to do whatever the Japanese tell them to do. Seeing what the Japanese made the Koreans do like study Japanese at school and speak Japanese everywhere except at home made me realize how cruel some people can be.

This historical fiction novel is filled with adventure. It is an interesting way to learn about a point in history that not many people know about. Change my name, I don't think so!

This is a beautiful and powerful book that every adolescent girl and boy should read. I especially loved the way Park weaves Keoko's coming-of-age story in a way that honored traditional Korean values. It would have been easy to use the story to disparage those values, an all too common technique these days. But Park resisted that urge and the result is a warm-hearted and endearing story that readers will not soon forget.

Hello, I'm StoryMaker. Some time ago, my mom told me to read Project
Mulberry. I was reluctant at first, as I usually am with books Mom
assigns me. However, it didn't take long to discover Project Mulberry
was a great book. At first, I only read a few chapters at a time, but
at one point I got so hooked I couldn't put it down. This book is very
well-written and has a great storyline.

This book centers around a girl named Julia Song. Her parents are
Korean and her best friend is a boy named Patrick. She has an annoying
(to her, at least) little brother who goes by the name of Kenny.
Patrick and her are members of a club called "WGGL", often pronounced
Wiggle. When Julia & Patrick decide to work on a Wiggle Club project,
Julia's mother suggests they raise silkworms. However, Julia fears this
project is so obviously Korean, and dislikes the idea (although she
pretends to like it). Throughout this book, Julia faces many different
struggles. One great feature is that it's easy to feel what Julia is
feeling.

As I said, this book is well-written, and I got hooked. I recommend it
highly. It's up to you to decide if you want to buy it or just get it
from the library - either way, this baby is well worth it. In-between
chapters, there's a section about Julia talking to her creator and the
author of this book, Linda Sue Park (referred to as "Ms. Park" in these
sections). These are interesting and it's kind of nice that they're
there, but one thing that another reviewer mentioned as well: in the
in-between sections, Julia acts rather bratty, and is not very similar
to her main-book counterpart.

One thing that you should probably know about: this book mentions race,
and it's not the type you run in. You see, it's hinted that Julia's
mother is, well, racist. In fact, it's more than "hinted", as Julia
suspects it to some extent. This does not, by any means, make this book
bad, however. It just means you should be cautious.

Overall, this is a great book. It's better if you are in 4th Grade or
older, because A) it mentions race and B) it's pretty long, anyway.
Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!"

Hello, I'm StoryMaker. Some time ago, my mom told me to read Project Mulberry. I was reluctant at first, as I usually am with books Mom assigns me. However, it didn't take long to discover Project Mulberry was a great book. At first, I only read a few chapters at a time, but at one point I got so hooked I couldn't put it down. This book is very well-written and has a great storyline.

This book centers around a girl named Julia Song. Her parents are Korean and her best friend is a boy named Patrick. She has an annoying (to her, at least) little brother who goes by the name of Kenny. Patrick and her are members of a club called "WGGL", often pronounced Wiggle. When Julia & Patrick decide to work on a Wiggle Club project, Julia's mother suggests they raise silkworms. However, Julia fears this project is so obviously Korean, and dislikes the idea (although she pretends to like it). Throughout this book, Julia faces many different struggles. One great feature is that it's easy to feel what Julia is feeling.

As I said, this book is well-written, and I got hooked. I recommend it highly. It's up to you to decide if you want to buy it or just get it from the library - either way, this baby is well worth it. In-between chapters, there's a section about Julia talking to her creator and the author of this book, Linda Sue Park (referred to as "Ms. Park" in these sections). These are interesting and it's kind of nice that they're there, but one thing that another reviewer mentioned as well: in the in-between sections, Julia acts rather bratty, and is not very similar to her main-book counterpart.

One thing that you should probably know about: this book mentions race, and it's not the type you run in. You see, it's hinted that Julia's mother is, well, racist. In fact, it's more than "hinted", as Julia suspects it to some extent. This does not, by any means, make this book bad, however. It just means you should be cautious.

Overall, this is a great book. It's better if you are in 4th Grade or older, because A) it mentions race and B) it's pretty long, anyway. Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!"

This is a great little book.

I love Linda Sue Park. She does her homework! What she doesn't already know about, she finds out about before she writes about it. She already knows about being a Korean American, and she handles this subject deftly and naturally, as only someone who has really been there can do. She didn't know about silk worms, so she recruited family members to raise two different batches. Hence the loving detail with which she describes the life of the silk worms through the eyes of her main character.

This would be a great book for a middle school English class. It's a school story, a friendship story, it deals well with issues of racial prejudice, and brings up questions on animal rights and environmentalism. There's plenty of fodder for good discussion here.

My favorite, favorite part, though, were the clever asides between chapters when the author records conversations she had with her main character in the course of writing the book. As a writer whose characters follow her to the grocery store and pester her while she is doing her housework, I am comforted to know that if I really am insane, at least one other writer I admire and respect is insane in the same way.

So I hope to make Linda Sue Park fans out of all of you. I hope you'll read all her books. Project Mulberry is a good place to start.
-RJC

Julia one of the main characters in the story meets a boy named Patrick,one of her later friends, he comes over to her house. He likes the smell of Kechee, wich none of her other friends like. So now he comes over every week end. they decide to do a project for the fair. They buy silk worm eggs, and they buy special leaves for the silk worms to eat from Mr.Dixon. They raise the silk worms for a while. Right before the fair the worms make caccons. Their project is a poster decarated with silk. They only need a little more until they are done. All they have to do is kill one worm, but Julia doesn't want to kill a worm. Patrick and her argue for a while. Then Julia goes home. Patrick E-mails her a couple times about it. Julia gets around to thinking about killing a worm.

Julia one of the main characters in the story meets a boy named Patrick,one of her later friends, he comes over to her house. He likes the smell of Kechee, wich none of her other friends like. So now he comes over every week end. they decide to do a project for the fair. They buy silk worm eggs, and they buy special leaves for the silk worms to eat from Mr.Dixon. They raise the silk worms for a while. Right before the fair the worms make caccons. Their project is a poster decarated with silk. They only need a little more until they are done. All they have to do is kill one worm, but Julia doesn't want to kill a worm. Patrick and her argue for a while. Then Julia goes home. Patrick E-mails her a couple times about it. Julia gets around to thinking about killing a worm.

This is a fun book about a mom and her daughter making Bee-bim Bop, a very popular and kid-friendly Korean meal. It has simple text and a good rhyming pattern for young children.

My son and I read this book last week and we both loved it. The rhyme and pictures illustrate a wonderful story about cooking and family. After we read it, my five year old wanted to make Bee-bim-bop. We followed the recipe in the back of the book and it was delicious. The book and recipe are now a family favorite.

How lovely! i love the illustration of the book and good story to read to my kids. My son kept me very busy while i was reading to him because he kept asking so many questions on what is the picture of this and that and on and on all day long.

This is a very fun way for the kids to learn about ethnic food, in this case the eponymous Korean dish. Happily it is a very kid friendly dish, so after helping make it (the recipe gives specific duties to the kids), they were very excited to eat it. As were Mom and Dad!

Remember when you were a kid and your mama made your favorite meal? You would smell it cooking and just could not wait? Well, hang on, it's time for Bee-bim bop! The little girl is part of the meal preparation from beginning to end. That is why she can sing a multitude of variations of "Hurry, hurry."

Instead of waiting on the sidelines or in the den, Linda Sue Park pulls the reader along with the child and mother in this adventure in shopping, preparing, cooking, and eating Bee-bim bop, a favorite Korean dish. Ho Baek Lee, the illustrator, creates large strides in the grocery store, crazy whirlwind angles, close-ups of the girl and her dog, a colorful focus on the areas near the girl and grayed, incomplete portrayals of distant areas in the kitchen.

All in all, Park features the little girl in this hurried, practiced look at Bee-bim bop preparation. In fact, mother's head sits invisibly above the picture line in most of the illustrations, which show her cooking. Why? The book is a first-person narration of the girl's excitement and an almost dizzying anticipation of a favorite dish. "Hurry, hurry, hurry," she says in many variations. It is a wonderful thing that Park gives the girl such an understanding and calm mother.

In fact, this book is as much about family as it is about cooking a specific dish. The mother seems to encourage the girl's participation instead of grumpily ordering her from underfoot. As the dog mirrors the girl's every movement, she, too, is allowed her place in the story. When the food is ready, the rest of the family immediately and respectfully appear instead of of being cajoled to the dining area. And lastly, the family immediately says grace instead of being reminded.

The family has an easy, settled routine. Everyone cooperates in serving, there is smiling all around. Grandmother wears a traditional Korean garment, and the prayer indicates a cohesion and unity of family through love. It is the family portrayal that makes this story so significant. Yes, the reader is presented with the fun and excitement of a favorite meal, but the display of connected family members is the crux of the story, intentionally or inadvertently. Park and Lee depict the happy family.

Two more things particularly merit attention. A detailed recipe follows the story, making it an exciting possibility for cooks and little helpers to try at home. As one more piece of the puzzle of family togetherness,
Park also includes a picture of herself and a niece and nephew helping her prepare Bee-bim bop.

This book is such a winner in many ways. Highly recommended!