Laskar Pelangi

This book was written by Andrea Hirata Seman, and some people think that this book is telling about Andrea childhood so it can be categorize as an autobiography of him. I’m sure many people have falling in love with this book, and a movie has just planed to be made bas on this book because of the lovely story and popularity of this book.

I falling in love instantly when I was just read the first chapter of the book, so although I am very very busy now (which is why I rarely wrote a review now) I take some of my time to write this review. The book is just too good to be ignored, and I want to share it with all of you and the whole world if I can.

The book telling a story about the childhood of ten young Malay race children (the last one is a girl named flo who join after several story has past), and one Chinese child in Belitong ( ) all of them has a different story and personality but they all have the same condition in live that is poverty. They all join together in a Muhamadiyah school (a poor school in a poor village of Belitong).

Since the first day in the school all of them has bond with a story, the school is in a threshold to be closed down if they can not collect 10 or more student, meanwhile in tit there was just only 9 children, then suddenly a child named Harun at the age of 15^th with mentally disorder (retarded), and Harun has just solve the school problem by accepting 10 student in that time :D

Since that time the entire 10 student has join together in a lifetime bonding and make a group of “LASKAR PELANGI” (Army of the rainbow). Ikal (the main character), Lintang (the science genius boy), Mahar (the art genius boy), A kiong (the kind heart Chinese boy), Syahdan (who wants to be an actor), Kucai (the head of the class for all the time), Borek a.k.a Samson (the muscle boy), Trapani ( the handsome boy who can not be apart from her mother to long, later on he was diagnose as “heavy mother complex”), and Sahara (the only girl in the group before Flo come). The laskar pelangi all have a deep fondness to pelangi (rainbow) and every time after raining they all get together in a filicium tree and stared on the rainbow with story from the art master Mahar.

All of their childhood is full with happiness although poverty was always be around them, but they manage to find their happiness in it, with high educational spirit they all fight for their future and hoping it will be better than the present that they live on.

Their struggle in live has bring a new spirit for me too as I read this book, and I suddenly feel that my live is so much more full of graceful compared to their childhood and it makes me realize to thank God for the blessing.

A very full of inspiration book. Hope it will be translate to English so everybody in the world have bigger chance to read it. A must read for all of you who need a light in your life, and share it if you can to the others..

Toto Chan the Little Girl At the window

Toto Chan was written by a Japanese author name Tetsuko Koruyanagi and this is a semi autobiography of her self when she was just a little girl with the nick name of Toto-Chan. The book recalls her memory in her extraordinary school Tomoe Gakuen elementary school just before the pacific war begun (The Atomic Bomb that falls in Japan).

Tomoe Gakuen was an elementary school headed by Sosaku Kobayashi who uses the Eurythmics method of teaching. He had gone to Europe twice to study the Eurythmics method of teaching music of Jaques-Dalcroze. He loves children and he started his school in six abandoned railroad cars in 1937 with a philosophy that the basic of education have to make the children feel happy and free, which is why in Tamoe Gakuen the children have freedom to pick which lesson they want to study first. All of the activity at school was design specially for each of their student.

Toto-Chan was a student with amazing energy that made her get in trouble even in the first week at first grade of her school life. Toto-Chan was drop out from her ordinary school because the teacher can not handle her. Fortunately for Toto-Chan she has an amazing mother who very wisely keeps the drop out issue as a secret from Toto Chan until she grown up in order to keep Toto Chan dignity and high self esteem.

Toto-Chan’s mother then sends her to Tomoe Gakuen elementary school that was held by Mr. Kobayashi. And all the adventure and lesson for Toto Chan live has just begun in the Tomoe Gakun. Firstly Toto Chan fell in love with the train coach that was use as the classroom then when she met Mr. Kobayashi she felt very comfortable talking to him and immedietlly feel close and a bond was made between them. Tomoe Gakuen made a deep impression in Toto Chan live. Unfortunately in the World War II, Tomoe Gakuen School was destroyed in the American bombing of Tokyo in 1945.

This book brings awareness to us that sometimes letting children to do what they want is a good way to learn for them too. An education should not make the children feel in a prison of mind. So if you are a parent or a teacher or someone who wants to know about child education I really recommend you to read “Toto Chan the Little Girl At the window”.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

This book full with funny story with the background of sorrow, it was written by Dai Sijie, a Chinese writer (born in 1954) who run away to France in 1984 and write this book in his escaping land. The book seems to be a semi autobiography of him self, because the book telling about two young man who get a "re-education" from the Mao's government, meanwhile Sijie himself also got "re-education" in the year of 1971-1974. Maybe this is what inspiring him to make this book, and comes out to be a very touching memorable story. The copyright have been sold to 19 country, although unfortunately this book still banded by the Chinese government.

This novel telling a story about Sijie's unnamed 17-year-old protagonist and his best friend, Luo, are bourgeois doctors' sons. In the era of Mao's government when all of the young intellectuals was send to a program called "re-education" to live with the farmers in a village as a program to clean all the young intellectuals mind in the years 1971-1974. Because "young Sijie" and his best friend was young intellectuals group, and so they condemned to serve four years in a remote mountain "re-education" program.

Every day they have to work in a traditional mine and have to carry pails of excrement daily up a hill. Only their ingenuity helps them to survive. The two friends are good at storytelling, and the village headman commands them to put on "oral cinema shows" for the villagers, reciting the plots and dialogue of movies. One thing that makes them happy in the "re-education" time is their meeting with the "Princess of Hong Mountain" a.k.a "the little seamstress" from the other village who really loves their stories. The two young man very exciting to tell their stories to the little Chinese seamstress.

In other village the two young men have a best friend which they call "the four eyes", he is also in the "re-education" program. He has a secret suitcase which hold lots of book from western writers that was already translate to Chinese. In that time, all of those books were a forbidden book in china, if anyone known to have it they will have to deal wit the mean minister. But both of the young man (luo and "me") very interesting with those book. And after some persuasion they make to "the four eyes", they can read a thin book that is the book of Balzac and make it as an entertainment for them self so they can let their imagination free.

When "the four eyes" leaves the mountains, the friends steal the suitcase full of forbidden books that he has been hiding. They dare to tell the story of The Count of Monte Cristo to the village tailor and to read Balzac to his shy and beautiful young daughter. Luo, who adores the Little Seamstress, dreams of transforming her from a simple country girl into a sophisticated lover with his foreign tales. He succeeds, but the result is not what he might have hoped for. Who about the ending of the story? Well again I won't tell it to much to keep your interest in this book on fire ;). Do enjoy the reading because this book certainly worth it.