Winter Break Reading

 

The first book I read over winter break was All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat. This nonfiction book is about twelve members of Wild Boars soccer team and their coach who got trapped by rising floodwaters in the Tham Luang cave system in northern Thailand when they went exploring after practice on June 23, 2018 and it started raining. They had no food to eat and could only drink the water that dripped down from the walls. When news of the missing team spread, thousands of rescuers came from all around the world to locate the team and come up with a plan to bring all thirteen out of the cave before the heavy rains of the monsoon season.

This book was thrilling from start to finish. Even though I knew that the rescue mission was a success, I wasn't aware of all the details, making the account quite suspenseful. There were several times that the mission could have failed, but somehow everyone involved was able to work together against the odds to rescue the twelve players and their coach. It was amazing reading about how they made the impossible possible, and I especially found it fascinating how they were able to divert the water to slow down the flow of water in the cave. Anyone who loves action and adventure should read this true story.

After I finished All Thirteen, I read Katie the Catsitter by Colleen AF Venable and Stephanie Yu. This graphic novel is about Katie, a girl who is trying to earn enough money to spend a week at summer camp with her best friend, Bethany. During the last week of school before the summer, Katie first tries carrying an elderly man's groceries to his apartment. When that doesn't work out, she gets a job watering a neighbor's plants while she is away for a few days with her young children. Unfortunately, that also doesn't go well. After school ends for the summer, she then goes around her apartment building looking for cleaning jobs, but it turns out that job isn't right for her either. Just when Katie is sure going to camp is a lost cause, her neighbor, Madeline, asks her to catsit her 217 cats. At first, Katie thinks this job will be easy, but it turns out the cats aren't exactly normal. She sticks with the job, though, because it's good money and the cats always makes sure that the apartment is spotless just before Madeline returns. As the summer goes on, Madeline always seems to be out when the Mousetress commits crimes, leading Katie to wonder if Madeline is really the city's most famous super villain.

As a cat person, Katie the Catsitter was one of the Rebecca Caudill-nominated books I was looking most forward to reading this year and it truly was a joy to read. At the beginning, I felt bad that Katie couldn't go to camp with Bethany, but then she started catsitting for Madeline and those scenes were the highlight of the book for me. I thought it was so cool that the cats had special skills and couldn't help but laugh when the cats would start misbehaving as soon as Madeline left. Even though the job was challenging for Katie at first, she began building relationships with Madeline's cats by learning their names, playing with them, and buying them new toys. What I thought was most interesting about the story is that when Katie starts to suspect Madeline is the Mousetress, she also questions if the super villain is really evil because her crimes are against those who harm animals. Finally, the end of the book was so suspenseful when Madeline didn't return home at exactly midnight and Katie and the cats had to come up with a plan to save her. I would recommend this book to all cat lovers and anyone who enjoys comics about superheroes.

Additionally, I read Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson for the second time and my review of that book can be found here.