Yuvi's Candy Tree

Written by: Lesley Simpson and Janice Lee Porter

First line: I escaped on a donkey in the dark.

Why you should read this book: A fictionalized account of the real-left journey of a Jewish girl from famine-stricken Ethiopia fleeing to a Sudanese refugee camp and then to her ultimate destination, the land of Israel. She dreams of food, bread and candy, as her family is beset, again and again, by thieves and thirst, and imagines sweets growing from trees when she reaches Jerusalem. To her delight, in Israel she learns that "juicy and sweet" oranges grow by the side of the road, and that you can eat as many as you want, because "they grow back."

Why you shouldn't read this book: You think people should just die where they are instead of immigrating someplace more prosperous.