So Far From The Bamboo Grove

So Far From The Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins

This book was one of two books based in the same area of history that was discussed in our class. To begin the discussion of this book, we discussed parts of the story which we thought were important to us individually. I thought that this was going to be a challenge, but I pinpointed a specific instance where I was touched within the entire book; when Yoko's mother passed away. The passage was about how upset the two girls were that their mother passed away, and that she made it so far from where they first came from. The two girls discuss things that they wished they would have done and wouldn't have done while their mother was still alive, but it didn't change the fact that they were going to have to handle it like adults; which is what they did. Even as young girls, they had to overcome a lot, and this was certainly just another, if not the most terrifying, obstacle that they had to get through. I was touched by this part of the book, mainly because my own mother had a heart attack last year and it really made me wish and think in the same way that the girls did about their mother, particularly Yoko. It not only made me grow up a little bit more, but it really reminded me not to take my family for granted and to always tell them I love them no matter what we are all going through.

In terms of the content of this book, I thought that it was choppy but very accurate in terms of history. I think that's why these books get challenged in school classrooms, because they tell so much information and sometimes, that information is not what parents of children want to hear. I think that this book would be the better one of the two for children to read, because of the vivid pictures it paints in the reader's mind, and because it moved me so greatly. If you can find a book that does that, it is certainly worth reading and exploring.