We are Young, We are Strong & We Love Indonesia

Another routine program at my girls' school is Bulan Bahasa. During 26-28 October, it's going to be several activities to commemorate the Youth Pledge, such as donating books, school performances (reading poem, writing, dancing, choir, etc), and the final program was celebrated on 28 October with a beautiful parade since all students were asked to wear traditional costumes from all provinces in Indonesia and prepared then ate the traditional food. 

Credit to: Mbak Is

Zea as a 4th grader wore Dayak's costume from Kalimantan while Najla and all 6th graders performed all things related to Sulawesi culture.

Credit to: Mbak Ira

Credit to: Mbak Maya

There it went I turned to be a very hectic (and fussy) mother on that Friday morning. I had to prepare these two girls stuffs nevertheless when I watched their performances and saw their super happy faces, well...everything's paid off. Mom felt nothing but a full heart:)

The Abundance

Title: The Abundance

Author: Amit Majmudar

Metropolitan Books New York

First Edition 2013

259 pages

Another book from Big Bad Wolf  at ICE. A hard cover book with a fancy cover and a price of only Rp 70,000 easily captured my heart.

A story of Indian family who lives in US. The mother suffers from terminal illness and at first she wants to keep it for herself however finally her two adult children find out and they try to spend their mother last days with things that she loves such as cooking Indian food.

I read many positive reviews about this book written by Amit Majmudar. Yet, I don't know I just couldn't finish this book. It is very slow moving that I lost interest before I got halfway through. I tried my best therefore I basically love the characters but I felt so bored with the story even I couldn't remember the page that I just read. I don't care enough to know what will happen to them. 

I guess I need a page-turner book. Tired with all the drama in the books I bought at Big Bad Wolf (just realized that most of the books I bought telling about Indian family).

Well...perhaps it's just an excuse for me to buy new books...hahaha... 

The Eternal Wonder

Title: The Eternal Wonder

Author: Pearl S. Buck

Indonesian Title: Pencarian yang Hakiki

Translator: Lanny Murtihardjana

Publisher: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2016

382 pages

I remember I read The Good Earth, the most famous literature written by Pearl S. Buck back in 1990s. This compassionate portrait of peasants in China that was published in 1931  haunting me and made me curious about Chinese's culture, the life, and everything there. Pearl S. Buck had her own way in delivering her vivid story, since she herself lived in China for a long time following her parents who worked as Presbyterian Missionaries, and made readers wanted to read her works more. She won the Pulitzer prize in 1932 for The Good Earth and she's the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.

I read almost all her works. When I heard that a hand-written manuscript was discovered on January 2013, forty years after her death, I just couldn't wait to read it. The manuscript was found in a storage unit in Texas and finally returned to the Buck family. No body knew how on earth this manuscript could end up in Texas yet Pearl's son, Edgar Walsh decided to have the novel published even though his mother died before she was able to revise it.  Pearl was dead of cancer in 1973.

The Eternal Wonder is a story of a young guy, Randolph "Rann" Colfax, an extraordinary gifted young man whose search for meaning and purpose of life leads him to New York, England, Paris and a mission patrolling in Korea that will change his life forever.   

In his search of the real meaning of life, he meets Stephanie Kung who lives in Paris with her Chinese father. Stephanie's mother is an American woman who left her since she was a small girl. Rann and Stephanie both are young people who have lots of questions about life and other things. Life brings destinies to them and they have to accept it, no matter what.

Not Pearl S. Buck at her best but it is still beautiful. Recommended. If you never read Pearl S. Buck's work before, this one is easy to enjoy.

More on Pearl S. Buck, check HERE

 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Directed by: Tim Burton

Produced by: Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping

Screenplay by: Jane Goldman

Based on: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Casts: Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Judi Dench, Samuel L. Jackson

I saw this book of  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children several times in the bookshop but I didn't know there's always something that stopped me to buy it. Perhaps since the book is full of photographs so I though it's just a children story book until finally I watch the movie with the girls last week and I got to admit that the story is totally AWESOME.

This was a debut novel by American author, Ransom Riggs. I am not a fan of fantasy story but I just found out that Riggs' imagination is enjoyable. When I checked his website I found out that Riggs is into photographs, travelling to places that are tricky to find on maps and exploring places therefore his story is rich with lots of magical things.

Luckily, the book was adapted into a movie by an excellent director, Tim Burton, no wonder that my girls and I stared at the screen religiously  for more than two hours wondering what will happen in the next scene?

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a story about a boy who follows clues from his grandfather's old photographs which lead him on an adventure that takes him to a large abandoned orphanage on a Welsh Island. Miss Peregrine's home is not just an ordinary orphanage, it's a magical place full of residents with their special powers, such as: Miss Peregrine who might turn into a bird, there's a girl who has the ability to float or a very strong girl and even a girl who can control fire, and many more.

The book has been a New York Times Best Seller and praised for its creative use of vintage photographs as well as good characterisation and settings. It is also already translated into Bahasa Indonesia by Gramedia.

And the movie is highly recommended as well. You'll love it.

Find more on the movie HERE 

While for more info about the author, check HERE

Super Camp 2016

We had a quiet Friday night last weekend. The girls were going camping in their school for two days. The programs were designed for grade 4-6 students since Najla is in grade 6 while Zea is in grade 4 so both of them joined that program.

The girls said that they had a good time.  They did lots of exciting stuff like a true scout (including playing with the mud and getting wet all over), cooking, eating together on a big banana leaf,  sitting around the  the bonfire, gazing at the stars, (the school prepared several telescopes for this activity), and they slept in a tent (although the girls said that they couldn't have good sleep since many of them were busy chit-chatting) on the school parking lot (but for them, it's still cool).

Picking them up on Saturday. The girls looked tired yet happy. Arrived home and fell in a deep sleep. While I was so very much relieved to find my home was complete again with the girls, the screaming, the running here and there, the messy home and everything. It feels like living in a real 'home'.