Isabel in Bloom

Isabel in BloomBy: Mae Respicio A girl discovers a connection between her home in the Philippines and her new home in the U. S. through a special garden in this middle grade novel that celebrates nourishment and growth. Twelve year old Isabel is the new kid in her San Francisco middle school. Its the first time in many years that shell be living with her mother again. Mama's job in the US allowed Isabel and her grandparents to live more comfortably in the

eerily quiet house

Squish them and squiggle them and make them disappear

The pendulum has swung from the reasonable middle to a place where men have been ridiculed in the public square and the importance of fatherhood has been diminished—all to the detriment of women and children

Learn essential coding skills

magnificently recounted here

poetic movements and schools

unexpected splendour

It was a tiny kitten

live in British Columbia

But events build to a (great big) head when the Leader returns

The key to locating his father may be found in a book

Their tribe has moved and escaped for thousands of years- across oceans