Enlighten Me by Minh Lê and Chan Chau
“Who wants to go to a silent mountain retreat? Not Binh! He was at school when someone made fun of his Vietnamese food. He not only fights back but will not tell his parents what happened after he is sent to the principal for it. He knows the retreat will not be like Disney World, but it may be better than he thought. Can he survive?” — Sylvianne D., age 9
When Bình fights back against a bully who makes fun of his Vietnamese heritage, he expects to be cheered as the hero. He defeated the bad guy, right?
Instead, it gets him a stern warning from his vice principal and worried parents. Now he’s stuck on a family trip to a silent meditation retreat. That means no talking—and no video games!—for a whole weekend. Could things possibly get any worse?
However, when a nun gathers all the kids to tell them the Jataka tales—the stories of the Buddha’s many past lives—Bình takes a fantastical dive into his imagination and starts to see himself in these stories. Will he retreat further into himself, or will he emerge from the weekend open to change?
With any luck, these next few days will prove more enlightening than he thought.