Hmm, now that I think about it, I should post these on Sunday and the other ones on Monday. I will fake that when I post this, as I didn't think of this until after yesterday's post.
High School Nonfiction
Flowers In the Gutter, K.R. Gaddy. WWII history of lesser known teen resistors in Germany. These were loosely organized working class kids, mostly of socialist backgrounds, who hung out in clubs of teens opposed to the Hitler Youth. They'd go on hikes, sings songs on the guitar, and also put up pamphlets and graffiti against the ruling Nazis. Some managed to go as far as obtaining guns and dreaming of resistance. It was hard for them because their opposition to the Hitler Youth made it hard to get jobs or ration cards, and the Gestapo were prone to rounding them up for beatings.
Most of it reads like other descriptions of German resistance -- I think the Cybils had on the White Rose group a few years back. Nazis come to power, people are afraid, family members are sent to camps, but kids try to hit back, some are caught are tortured, etc. Gaddy confirms the memories of the three main characters with Nazi records, and points out that most discrepancies are to be expected, since most people don't track time well while in prison, especially with brutal conditions. The end chapters had some interesting notes on why these kids in the Edelweiss groups aren't that well known; the Nazi's recorded most of their misdeeds as crimes, and when the Allies overthrew the government they weren't always sympathetic to the Socialist kids. Did they steal from a Nazi train because they were hungry, or as a protest against brutal politics? If they were arrested while painting over Nazi propaganda, should they serve their sentence for vandalism? With the tensions between the Soviets and the West growing, no one wanted to hear about these kids from working class, sometimes Communist neighborhoods. They were encouraged to keep quiet about the wartime experiences, and only know are some of them coming forward to tell their stories. That part was fascinating to me, but I'm not sure it would mean as much to kids learning about Germany for the first time know. Everything is new to them.
Youth To Power, Jamie Margolin. Margolin is a youth activist who uses her own experience -- successes and failures, to urge and advise other teens looking to start making a difference. She roams from finding your passion to determining your skill set -- both what you know how to do now and what kind of things you'd be comfortable doing after training, and goes over various types of activism. She also looks at balance your work with your life -- school work, friendships, family, etc. It's a cheerful and encouraging book.
Middle Grade Nonfiction
We Had To Be Brave, Deborah Hopkinson. The history of the Kindertransport, when unaccompanied Jewish children were permitted into Great Britain as refugees, when it was almost impossible for Jewish families to emigrate legally no matter how desperate they were. It's really a wide history of the growth of Nazism, but focuses on three children who ended up on the Kindertransport. There's room to talk about what happened to other kids; other kids who made it out, who escape in different ways, and who didn't make it out in time and were mostly murdered by the Nazis. I like terminology -- nothing passive about it, not "was killed in a camp." A good solid book but this is well worked territory. The back matter and some call out boxes in the text point to online resources where original footage or other primary resources are available, which is neat. And there's a strong bibliography and notes, as well as a explanation of how the primary children were found and researched.
Tracking Pythons, Kate Messner. When Mary Roach wants to write a book, you can see her glee over having an excuse to talk to these people and ask all the questions. That is clearly what is at work here -- Kate Messner found out about the python problem in Florida and became insatiably curious and got to right a book about it and to run along with super cool python scientists in their planes and snake trucks and snake hikes.There's good science here -- Messner asks good questions and explains the answer well, covering the general problem of invasive species and the particulars of Burmese pythons as an example, explaining the limitations of the efforts and what mitigation might look like, but really you can tell she's totally there for the giant pictures of 15 foot pythons in the swamp. Did you see the one that swallowed a fawn bigger than she was? Wow! Backmatter has good resources in several directions, a strong bibliography, index and glossary, and an author's note. It's a good book and you feel smart and educated while reading about GIANT SNAKES LOOSE IN AMERICA.
The Talk, ed. Wade Hudson. Cybils nominee. The talk is the colloquial term for what parents of non-white kids tell their kids to keep them safe in a majority white country. Don't talk too loud. Keep your hands on the wheel when police pull you over. In a variety of essays different authors work with artists to warn the reader, who may be their son or granddaughter or any cherished family member, that despite their value and the beauty there will be people who only see color. That they live in a racist society and this is what that means. There are simple essays and heartbreaking ones and even some funny stories. It's a powerful read and I think it will be very popular with well-meaning teachers and I hope it works for kids as well.
How We Got To the Moon, John Rocco. Cybils nominee. OK, it's a space book. I'm on board already. But Rocco has a neat hook. He approaches the history from an engineer's perspective -- what were the requirements? How were they approached? What were the problems and how were they solved? He frames the process in ways the demonstrate how to be an engineer as well as discuss what these engineers did. There are fun pull out boxes that give quick biographies of key people, and despite the conventional pictures showing pages of white men, he finds a good variety of people who contributed, including the packers and the parachute makers. A good addition to the space book field, may it always grow!
Elementary Nonfiction
Elizabeth's Warren's Big Bold Plans, Laurie Ann Thompson. Biography of a woman who is not the Democratic nominee, showing her life from studious high schooler to wife and college dropout to mom, teacher and lawyer. And then politician. Well done but not quite as immediate as it might've been.
Solar Story: How One Community Lives Alongside the World's Biggest Solar Plant, Allan Drummond. Told through the frame of a child in the school of the community writing a school report and going on a field trip, this book shows both the social and economic effects this plant had on the local communities and the basics of how the solar energy is gathered, which involves a lot more ray-guns than I had supposed. Optimistic and interesting.
All of a Sudden and Forever: Help and Healing After the Oklahoma City Bombing, Chris Barton. A history of the Oklahoma bombing but with an emphasis on how trauma works, who can be affected by it, and the various paths to healing survivors can take. The illustrations are carefully chosen to match the emotional tone of the pages. It's a different take on the telling of a historic tragedy and an effective one. I think the reach might have exceeded the success but I'm glad the writer and illustrator tried.
Digging For Words: Jose Alberto Gutierrez and the Library He Built, Angela Burke Kunkel. The biography of a poor man who made a library for the children around him, because of his boyhood love of reading. According to the pictures he found his first book while working as a garbage man. It's a good story of someone sharing his passion to improve the world for the community. I like how English and Spanish are mixed on the page and the pictures feel like Bogata.
WildLives: 50 Extraordinary Animals That Made History, Ben Lerwill. Short essays about nifty animals from the past few few hundred years to the present, with illustrations and photographs. It's fun to look at and would be a good introduction to reading a book over several sessions. The groupings are rather broad; I think the main theme is really just cool animals -- talking parrots, loyal dogs, military bears, big elephants.
Railway Jack, K.T. Johnston. Interesting story about an early service animal -- a baboon who helped a double amputee do his job as a signalman in 1800's South African. It's a fun story about an amazing animal -- he would have qualified for a note in WildLives. The end of the book has an essay about the eventual fate of Jack (died of tuberculosis) and the man (went back to England), a bibliography showing the original documents from which the story was drawn, and resources to learn more about service animals and baboons. I can see enjoying reading this to or with kids.
But I was uncomfortable with the complete lack of Black people in a book set in South Africa, especially one about a man buying a companion to do his work for him. I can see the baboon characterizations going badly in some situations. It's hard, because this is a true story and the writing isn't problematic, but I was left uneasy.
But I was uncomfortable with the complete lack of Black people in a book set in South Africa, especially one about a man buying a companion to do his work for him. I can see the baboon characterizations going badly in some situations. It's hard, because this is a true story and the writing isn't problematic, but I was left uneasy.
William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad, Don Tate. As Tate states in the afterward, most of the written stories of the Underground Railroad were made by white people, who automatically tended to write about themselves and the people they knew, leaving many of the Black heroes unnamed. This book names one of them, telling of his family, childhood, and career working at a Freedom Organization, being chronically underpaid and under-respected, but starting a database of all the escapees who came through their Aide group, listing everyone's name and description in the hopes of reuniting families who were separated either before or after their escape attempts.
Feed Your Mind: The Story of August Wilson. Jen Bryant. It is embarrassing how long it took me to remember who August Wilson is, especially since I just read Fences a few months ago. I think it hit me like an anvil when he was buying his typewriter with the money from writing his sister's term paper. Anyway, other people were probably appreciating the carefully written passages and the illustrations the show his love of words and people, and his anger at the educators that put themselves between him and literature rather than working to help share them. The libraries were he taught himself how words could be used are depicted stunningly. The timeline at the end gives a good sense of his work.
Kamala Harris: Rooted In Justice, Nikki Grimes. I enjoyed this biography of Harris and actually learned a lot of details from it, but I found the framing story more of a distraction than a help. The little girl mad at the boy who laughed at her for wanting to be president chimes in every few pages as her mom tells her about a woman who ran for president. Her questions are either obviously a boost for the reader "what is justice?" or silly "Is she like Wonder Woman." I preferred to just read about Harris. And of course, the book is overtaken by history already -- although they managed to fit in Harris's decision to end her campaign, printing happened before she became a vice presidential candidate. And maybe history will overtake her again in early November.
How to Find a Bird, Jennifer Ward. This is an introduction to bird watching, exhorting the reader to do more than look up -- birds are on the ground, in the water, in the feeders, and yes, in the sky. The pictures of the children and birds are appealing, and I liked how each bird was identified. I didn't feel I learned much about how to be a bird watcher though; I guess I should set out some feeders. But maybe some mention of how different birds are in different parts of the world? The back matter has more tips and suggestions on setting up a life list.
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