This week, I am reading two really great books! The English one is called "Half and Half," and is written by Lensey Namioka. The title comes from the fact the main character, 11-year-old Fiona Cheng, is half Scottish and half Chinese. The book begins when Fiona signs up for folk dancing classes at a community center and is supposed to check a box for race. She doesn't want to have to choose between White and Asian, and this gets her thinking (again) about her identity. Things only get more complicated when her Scottish and Chinese grandparents come to visit. Each side is hoping she will perform at the local folk festival, but due to a time conflict, Fiona has to choose between Scottish dancing and modeling a Chinese outfit for her dad's new book.

In French, I am reading "Le creux des maths," which is a very funny book by Christine Avel. It got me hooked right away because the main character, Abel, is about to to turn 11 and wishes that, like Harry Potter, he would get a magical letter admitting him to wizardry school. Instead, he receives a letter telling him that he won a math contest! This is ironic because although everyone in his family is a math genius, including his younger twin brothers, Abel is absolutely horrible at math! His brothers later confess that they took the test and sent it in under his name because the contest was only for 10-year-olds and up. The prize for winning the contest is a trip to Finland to study with a famous mathematician. Right now, Abel has just gotten off the plane in Finland and I am anxious to see how his trip turns out!