Book Picks

Adult Book:

The Hundred Secret Senses  -By Amy Tan
1995

This is an unusual love story about two half-sisters. They meet for the first time when Olivia is six and Kwan is a young adult newly arrived from China. Olivia's inattentive mother soon finds that Kwan makes a useful babysitter. Olivia is alternately embarrassed by her new sibling's ignorance of American life and terrified by her strange stories of Chinese ghosts. Kwan claims she can see and speak to the spirits of the dead.

As adults the two sisters have an uneasy relationship. When Olivia and her husband Simon travel to China on a magazine assignment, Kwan accompanies them as their tour guide. While in China Olivia is confronted with material evidence of the spirit world she has tried so long to ignore.

This is a moving and uplifting story. Tan gives a vivid description of life in present day rural China.

Children's Book:

The Enchanted Castle -By E. Nesbit
1907

Although best known as the author of the Railway Children, E. Nesbit also wrote a number of fanciful children's books featuring magical objects and granted wishes. I remember reading these books as a child and hoping that something similar would happen to me. Actually, I still do!

In the Enchanted Castle, four children are visiting a large manor house during their summer holidays. At first they pretend that the house is an enchanted castle, but they soon discover that real magic is in the air. Statues come to life under the moon, Mabel grows four yards tall and Gerald becomes invisible.

As in all of Nesbit's stories, the children must deal with the practical consequences of the magical events they experience. How do you speak to an invisible companion without looking peculiar or feed one without looking greedy? This is a wonderful book. And when you are finished there are more of Nesbit's treats in store; "The Phoenix and the Carpet" or "Five Children and It" for instance.