Picture It!

A soldier's sketchbook : the illustrated First World War diary of R.H. Rabjohn by R.H. Rabjohn/John Wilson

Canada : Tundra Books, [2017]     

112 p. : ill. ; 22 x 24 cm.

I'm always interested in WWI, the war that turned the European violence inward instead of outward and ripped the façade off the elegant civilization of Europe at a cost of the deaths of millions of combatants and many civilians.

This WWI book is a special addition to the literature of that "Great War." It consists of the sketches from the war done by R.H. Rabjohn, a soldier from Canada, who saw combat from April 1917 until the end of the war on November 11, 1918. 

It was Rabjohn's official duties as a soldier-sketch artist that allowed him to carry a sketch book (something that was prohibited to other soldiers). He also kept a diary and the author, John Wilson, has done a fine job of organizing the sketches and diary entries into a logical and easy to follow whole.  Doing drafts and support work at the front meant that Rabjohn was frequently in great danger and witnessed first hand the horrors of trench warfare that marked WWI.  

Given its visual appeal, shortness, and direct narrative, this book would be a great way of introducing World War I to teens and hopefully would interest some in wanting to know more about this nation shattering event - the tragic consequences of which continue into the present.

 

     

Piece of My Heart

Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing by Ann Angel

New York : Amulet Books, 2010.

vii, 120 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 27 cm.

This is another outstanding biography for young people, which again confirms my suspicion that the best biographies are those written for young adults. I'm thinking e.e. cummings, Georgia O'Keeffe, Yoko Ono, etc. One of the strengths is that these biographies are lean and specific - and if (as in the case of this biography of Janis Joplin) they include great photos and graphics then it's hard to put them down.  

I really liked the breezy and yet serious tone of this biography.  Breezy, in that it tries to convey the liberating influence of the times (1960s) and the excitement of a talented woman coming into her own, but serious in following Joplin's struggles with bullying and boredom as a teen, insecurity as a rising star, and addiction as she became extremely famous (addiction that would kill her by overdose as a young woman).

I also enjoyed learning about Joplin's roots in Port Arthur, Texas, and her rise to fame based solely on her natural talent and hard work developing that talent. It's really hard to believe that she did not come from any musical or singing background.  I also appreciated reading about the widespread and fertile cultural landscape of the 60s as cafes, music venues, and coffeeshops proliferated. 

It's a sad story, too, of course as we follow Joplin's phenomenal rise to fame, the encouragement of excesss from fans and the industry, and her battle with alcoholism and heroin addiction - a wicked combination that would prove to be fatal to her when she was still very young.   

It's a super biography that I would recommend. Oh, and the title of this post, is the title of one of her well-known songs.

 

Art Lives!

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older 

New York, NY : Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., c2015.    

297 p. ; 20 cm. 

I had been wanting to read this book for quite a while. I was going to read it during Hispanic Heritage Month, but a students checked out the copies we had (which is great!). So when they came back in I checked it out to myself and read it.

Shadowshaper is the debut novel writers dream of - it was a "Top Ten" on ALA and YALSA lists, a "Best Book of the Year" at NPR and Publishers Weekly, and received stellar reviews, etc. The praise was not undeserved. It's a wonderfully creative novel - undergirded by concerns of ethnic heritage, sexism, gentrification, cultural appropriation - that manages to be a supernatural thriller, urban fantasy, and coming of age story all at once.

At the heart of the story is Sierra a Puerto Rican teen artist/muralist living in Brooklyn. As the story unfolds she learns that her powers are not just artistic, but connected to an age old spiritual power that allows her to bring spirits into her works of art - literally bringing them to life.  This of course would be a ho-hum story without an evil force that seeks to destroy shadowshapers like Sierra so as to gather all that power into himself.  It is a life-and-death danger and Sierra must confront it head on with the help of a another shadowshaping artist - Robbie - and her friends and brother.  The battle between the forces of Sierra and her allies and their nemesis provides the action of the novel.

For some this action will be what draws and holds them in the story.  For me this was the weakest part of the novel. The climactic battle scenes feel like they owe too much action movie staging. I found the most moving parts of the novel were the beginnings of Sierra's understanding of her powers and the descriptions of the art works coming to life, and her meeting with her grandmother's spirit.  But that's me, and I recognize that the gruesome creatures and the bone-crunching fights will be what keeps many readers going right to the satisfying end.

Cold (blooded) War - US Style

The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins

New York: Public Affairs, c2020, 2021.

ix, 340 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm  

It's hard to say whether US citizens have very short memories or face such a powerful propaganda apparatus that it takes a bit of hard work and (soul-crushing honesty) to learn the dirty truths of US history and foreign policy. Considering this, books like The Jakarta Method are wonderful (and painful) antidotes to the flood of official misinformation and willful forgetting that plague the US. 

How many US citizens realize that their government actively helped and encouraged the slaughter of about 1 million unarmed, harmless, and law-abiding civilians in Indonesia in 1965 because of their actual or alleged connections to the completely legal and open communist party of Indonesia.  And how many people who know of this vaguely or in more detail, know that it set the pattern for US sponsored/supported ruthless attacks on civilians in Asia, Africa, Central and South America? Bevins does a remarkable job of pulling together this lethal history from the overthrow of Iran to the rise of the extremist president Bolsonaro in Brazil. The reader learns about the deep connections of the Indonesian slaughter with slaughter and atrocities in Brazil, Guatemala, Angola, Vietnam and other states. The numbers and cruelty are truly appalling.

Bevins also does a good job in scoping out to consider the profound effects that such widespread and cold-blooded killing has had in shaping the world we live in now.  He questions what it means to "win" the Cold War when the means were so depraved and terrible.  He wonders about what kind of world we might live in if the pro-democracy, constitutional parties that leaned left or opposed US hegemony had been allowed to survive. Would we see the same appalling wealth inequalities that plague the world, would the rule of law be stronger, and would there be better human rights protections today? 

His book is profound and timely as both in the US and abroad many leaders are encouraging authoritarian rule and promoting lies and violence as a way to preserve their power.

It is a book I highly recommend.

No American Dream

American Street by Ibi Zoboi 

New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2017]

324 p. ; 22 cm. 

American Street is a super book. I'm glad to see it got a lot of recognition - starred reviews and a finalist for the National Book Award. The book is the story of Fabiola, high school aged young woman who was born in the US, raised in Haiti and has returned to the US with her mother so they can rejoin the mother's sister and her three girls in Detroit. Of course, nothing goes smoothly: the mother (not a US citizen) is detained at the NYC airport by ICE while Fabiola is sent on to Detroit and tries to fit in to her aunt's family - a family full of love - but also serious troubles (debts, drug dealing, a dead father, and a crumbling neighborhood). 

The novel follows Fabiola as she tries to navigate the huge, strange country that is the United States, the dicey/lively city of Detroit, and the complicated relationships of her three cousins, who both form a formidable front, though each young woman has a striking and different personality.  

There are many sources of dramatic tension in the novel. Fabiola desperately wants to get her Mom out of ICE detention, she also falls hard in love, and she has to prove herself to her streetwise cousins, etc. In her desperation to get help for her mother, she makes the mistake of becoming an informant to a narcotics detective and things get VERY complicated and VERY dangerous. 

I won't give away the twists and turns of the plot, but after the first chapter things get very interesting. Readers are also easily introduced to the worldview of vodou through the perspective of Fabiola who believes in it and sees the world through that lens - to the point where there is a blurred boundary between the real and the magical/spiritual in many scenes.  In a lesser writer these could be a real weakness, but in this novel they add to its richness.

As you can tell, I'll definitely be recommending this book to readers.

Stunning Science and a Couple of Stunning Mistakes

The Universe in Your Hand by Christophe Galfard

New York : Flatiron Books, 2017, c2016.

First US edition

386 pages ; 22 cm

Christophe Galfard tries and mostly succeeds in leading the lay reader through the current state of knowledge about cosmology and astrophysics - taking the reader through Newtonian, Einsteinian and quantum physics along the way. It's an ambitious undertaking, and I think Galfard succeeds better than most at creatively introducing the reader to mind-bending worlds of quantum fields and some of the truly bizarre quandaries and realms of modern cosmology - dark matter, dark energy, and string theory.  

His was one of the first books I've read about quantum fields where I started to just appreciate and even accept the way in which our "common sense" understandings of the world (which works fine on most of the scales we evolved in) are just not capable of reckoning with the way particles are manifestations of the quantum fields. It's heady stuff, and I'll probably reread those sections later to try and take in more of what they offer. Given the positives about this book, I have to qualify it with the following observation.

There is such a glaring mistake early in the book that I'm a bit befuddled that editors and early readers didn't check it. Galfard describes the future demise of our sun as being one where it "explodes, firing all the matter it was made of into outer space" (6). A while later he describes this ending as "spreading into space all the atoms the Sun has forged throughout its life while creating some more - the heaviest ones of all, such as gold" (19).  This was so unlike any scenarios of the sun's demise I had ever read that I thought maybe I had misread previous books and explanations - or that the latest science was radically different. I searched books and online astronomy sites, and so far, I've found nothing to indicate that the sun will blow away all its mass or that a star of the sun's size can forge anything heavier than carbon in its last stages. From what I've read it will end up as a white dwarf that will then last for billions and billons of years as it slowly cools. 

So I'll suggest the book for its navigation through quantum realities and string theory, but hedge my praise based on the beginning of the book.

       

Tough and Tender

The Closest I've Come by Fred Aceves

New York, NY : HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2017]

310 p. ; 22 cm. 

I'm a sucker for a book with heart, and this novel had me pretty early on.  It's about a Latinx young man growing up poor in Tampa, Florida and struggling to find love, a way out of his impoverished neighborhood, and a way out of the restrictions of having to keep up a tough macho front.  He also is trying to survive a negligent alcoholic mother and her racist and abusive boyfriend who lives with and sponges off of them.

What are the things I especially liked about this book? I love that though Marcos, the main character, is smart and at times humorous, he is not constantly throwing out witty, hip comments and comebacks. In some YA books the protagonist feels like an attempt by the author to come up with a contemporary Holden Caulfield that doesn't ring true. In this novel, Marcos is so believable. He is also believable in his struggle to become a more authentic human being - we get glimpses of his true feelings through his inner thoughts and those feelings get expressed imperfectly (as they do with most people growing up).  I also love the romance (or desired romance) that forms a core of the novel.  It doesn't follow the conventional route in resolving itself and that is refreshing. I appreciated the portrayal of teachers in the book; they are not stereotyped as saviors or villains, but as people who have a tough job and can be really kind. The book also deals with race and cliques in ways that don't feel incredibly heavy handed or unrealistic.

I also love a book that bluntly reveals the struggles of being poor as just the matter of fact situation someone finds themselves in. Marcos just gets by with having to wear crummy shoes and just enough clean t-shirts to look good at school. One of his buddies - the academically most successful of the bunch - starts dealing drugs for an aunt in order to make more money - a decision that is treated realistically. Finally, I should mention that the book helpfully portrays the complicated situation a young person can find themselves  in when an adult in their household is physically and emotionally abusive.

Would I recommend The Closest I've Come? I definitely would. I think it would satisfy a lot of different kinds of readers.

Shadow and Bone Shines

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

New York : Square Fish, 2013.

358 p. : map ; 22 cm. 

If you've seen any of my other posts, you'll know I'm not a huge fan of fantasy/high fantasy novels.  It's not that I dislike them; it's just that they don't completely thrill me.  That being said, I really did enjoy reading this first novel of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the opening book of the larger Grishaverse series of books by Leigh Bardugo. 

The writing is strong in Shadow and Bone; Bardugo is really good at creating atmospheric settings and has a good ear for dialog. She's able to create her imagined world with subtlety and suggestion.  Also the plotting and action builds and accelerates as the novel goes on, so that by the end I found myself racing along to see what would happen and did not want to put the book down.

The novel has been extremely popular (becoming a Netflix series in March of 2021) - receiving favorable reviews, and becoming a NYT's bestseller.

This is a fantasy novel I'd be glad to recommend and we have many more of her novels in the collection so that a fan of Bardugo would have a lot more to read.

Really Big, Really Small - and Just Right

The Cosmic Mystery Tour: a High Speed Journey Through Time and Space by Nicholas Mee

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2019.     

207 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 21 cm.

This was an ambitious little book.  I say "little" in that 207 p. is fairly brief for an attempt to introduce the wonderous scope of current science about forces, particles, fields, gravity, time, the elements, supernovae, galaxies and - well - the whole universe! The book looks at the very small and the very large - from fermions and bosons to a supermassive black hole with an estimated  mass of 8 trillion suns (yes, that's 8 TRILLION!) 

What I liked about The Cosmic Mystery Tour is that it succeeds in being readable, interesting and keeping up a brisk pace.  After reading it, I found myself ruminating on the vast expanses of the cosmos, along with the strange and remarkable subatomic world that is so hard to fathom.

In spite of a few parts that are just hard to follow (the explanation of the fundamental particles being one of these) most of the book does a great job of being very accessible to the lay reader.

If I had a student ask about a good overview of modern science regarding the universe/cosmos, I'd definitely recommend this little gem.

Long Book Sad War

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

New York : Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995, c1940.

 471 p. ; 21 cm.     

I have to be honest, I didn't really plan to read this book, but after watching the PBS series on Hemingway, and then reading a book from our library about the Spanish Civil War, I was curious to read this novel of his. 

I found the PBS series problematic in many ways. It overly lionized Hemingway, and tended to minimize what an awful and incredibly sexist person he was.  But there was great footage and lots of other information worth taking in about this really important literary figure.  

I initially sat down to read just excerpts of the novel, but the writing is compelling and I ended up enjoying reading it, even when I felt like the movement of narrative was overly ponderous.  Like Mario Vargas Llosa in the documentary, I too felt that the love affair in the novel was overwrought, immature and something of a distraction.  However, the portrayal of characters in the guerrilla band that the main character works with and the ludicrous characters running the war for the Republic are really strong points of the novel.  Hemingway's ability to convey the moral degradations and salvations of people at war are also striking. And knowing as we do that the fascists triumph in Spain, it is sometimes exquisitely painful to read this novel that was written before the outcome was determined. 

I can't say I would recommend this book to a student, but occasionally students pick Hemingway for their senior literary research paper and I'm glad I'll have read this as a point of reference going forward.  

A Terrible Beauty

Vincent and Theo: the Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman

New York : Goldwin Books, Henry Holt and Co., 2017.

454 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm. 

This book brings up some of the problems I find with the whole YA book marketing enterprise.  This is a superb book - one that anyone with the slightest interest in the visual art of painting should read, and by anyone I mean young person, young adult, middle-aged adult, or senior citizen.  It is a wonderful book that lovingly tells the story of artist Vincent Van Gogh and his slightly younger brother Theo, who devoted himself to supporting and championing the work of Vincent. But it is packaged as a YA nonfiction selection - and has deservedly won awards in that category. It may seem I'm nitpicking, but it really seems wrong to me that this book didn't get equal promotion as an adult nonfiction book - it's that good! Also, as much as I hate to say it, it's length (454 pages) is just going to turn off a lot of younger readers - even those with an interest in art.

With all that said, I can say that I loved this book.  I learned a lot from it (e.g. how Theo correctly pushed Vincent to add more color to his palette which was originally muted and grounded in earth tones). The book really opens up the terrible mental anguish and affliction that Vincent suffered and also does justice to the truly inspiring (and sometimes difficult and contentious) love between these two brothers.  Both Vincent and Theo emerge from this telling as very, very human and also very heroic figures.  One finishes the book with a great appreciation for how doggedly Vincent worked at teaching himself and practicing his art and how unstinting Theo was in supporting him.  Importantly, Heiligman gives credit to Theo's wife Jo, who also (in spite of being married to Theo for only the last year and a half of his short life) ensured that Vincent's work and legacy was championed and preserved.

Another positive feature of this book is that it includes excellent end material: a descriptive list of prominent characters, a timeline, copious notes, and a thorough index.

I'll add in closing that I was surprised at the emotional impact of the book. Heiligman's retelling of Vincent and Theo's deaths (just six months apart) left me teary eyed. This is a wonderful book and it is one that I'll be recommending to young and older readers alike.

Define Short

A Short History of the Mongols by George Lane

London : I.B. Tauris, 2018.

xvi, 236 p. : ill., maps ; 22 cm. 

This is the second "Short History of" book I've reviewed, the previous one being on the Weimar Republic.  I liked that one, but found this history of the Mongols to be too much information for me to take in.  I can't fault the author too much for that, since I think my own ignorance of the period (ca 1206 - 1300) covered in the book made its broad scope overwhelming for me.

Additionally, the events of this period are very convoluted and complex. I think most readers like me will be able to follow along with the rise of Temujin to become the great Genghis Khan, but will be a bit overwhelmed trying to keep track of the rise and fall of his descendants and their khanates - ending with the famous Kublai Khan.   

I think this short history would be a great resource for a student with some prior knowledge of the Mongol Empire, or doing research on that empire.  I think it's a useful resource to have in the library, but will be of limited interest to the general young adult reader.

Boldly Going

This is What I Know About Art by Kimberly Drew

New York : Penguin Workshop, [2020]

63 p. ; 16 cm. 

This short, little book packs a punch!  I'm always on the lookout for small books that I can drop for a student, hoping that the size and design will not scare them off.  This is one of those.

I had no idea what to expect from this book, but it was a pleasure and an education.  The book is essentially the art-map story of Kimberly Drew's journey from from being a financially pinched and very smart (but unknown) Black college student who feels the pressure to pursue a "realistic" major (e.g. architecture, engineering, medicine) even though what she loves is art.  On the recommendation of a professor, she applies for and lands an internship at the Harlem Studio Museum that changes her life and launches her on the way to become a force in the art world.  

The only drawback of this book is that it lacks an index and has no photographs/illustrations to accompany all the amazing artwork Drew introduces to the reader. And there is A LOT of art she discusses and most of it is stunning, and not widely known.  If she ever puts together a YA book of these artists and their works, I'll buy it in a heartbeat.  

To help me (and you if you're reading this) find/remember the artists she touches on I'm diverging from my usual review and posting the following list of art/artists/collectives in the order that they come up in the book.  Where possible, the first reference is to Drew's Tumblr - Black Contemporary Art.  Just a glance there will show you how superb many of the artists she highlights are!

Any omissions or link/spelling mistakes are mine. I hope you'll read her little book and visit her big world of activism and art.  You won't be sorry.
___________________________________________________________

Glenn Ligon - https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/Glenn+Ligon
http://www.glennligonstudio.com/
 
Jean-Michael Basquiat - https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/Jean-Michael+Basquiat
https://www.thebroad.org/art/jean-michel-basquiat (Los Angeles)
 
Trenton Doyle Hancock – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/trenton+doyle+hancock
https://www.jamescohan.com/artists/trenton-doyle-hancock
 
Lorna Simpson – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/lorna+simpson
https://lsimpsonstudio.com/
 
Jamel Shabazz – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/jamel+shabazz
https://www.annenbergphotospace.org/person/jamel-shabazz/
 
Samuel Fosso – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/samuel+fosso
https://www.walthercollection.com/en/collection/artists/samuel-fosso
 
Nick Cave – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/nick+cave
https://jackshainman.com/artists/nick_cave
 
Mickalene Thomas – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/mickalene+thomas
https://nmwa.org/art/artists/mickalene-thomas/
 
Stephen Wiltshire – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/Stephen+Wiltshire
https://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/
 
Coco Fusco – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/coco+fusco
https://www.cocofusco.com/
 
Guillermo Gómez-Peña – https://www.guillermogomezpena.com/
 
Creative Time - https://creativetime.org/

“Tribute in Light” – https://creativetime.org/projects/tribute-in-light/

Gran Fury’s “Kissing Doesn’t Kill” – https://creativetime.org/projects/kissing-doesnt-kill-greed-and-indifference-do/

Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ “Untitled” – https://creativetime.org/projects/untitled-1995/

 
Felix Gonzalez-Torrres (Foundation) - https://www.felixgonzalez-torresfoundation.org/about/foundation-statement
 
Blues for Smoke exhibition - https://whitney.org/exhibitions/blues-for-smoke
 
Rodney McMillian - https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/rodney+mcmillian
https://vielmetter.com/artists/rodney-mcmillian
 
Alma Thomas – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/Alma+Thomas
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/alma-thomas-4778

Kerry James Marshall – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/Kerry+James+Marshall
https://jackshainman.com/artists/kerry_james_marshall
 
Zoe Leonard’s “1961” – https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/33792
 
Guerilla Girls - https://nmwa.org/art/artists/guerrilla-girls/
 
Dread Scott – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/dread+scott
https://www.dreadscott.net/

Black Lives Matter at Black Contemporary Art – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/Black+Lives+Matter

Misrule of Law

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei [also Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott ; art by Harmony Becker]

Marietta, GA : Top Shelf Productions, [2019]

204 p. : chiefly ill. ; 23 cm.

This graphic novel is a super addition to books on the internment/incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII.  As most people know, Pres. Roosevelt (FDR) ordered the seizure and imprisonment of Japanese Americans shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which officially launched the US into the Second World War.  This act was clearly racist, unconstitutional and immoral - though it took about 40 years for the US government to admit it was wrong and pay restitution to survivors.  It took even longer for the Supreme Court to condemn (in 2018) its complicity in this crime (re the Korematsu ruling of 1944).  All this is covered in the book, but the heart of the book is in Takei retelling the story from the viewpoint of a child experiencing his family's ordeal of being arrested, transported and imprisoned in two different internment camps.

The child's viewpoint is in fact Takei's. He was about 5 years old when his family was ordered out of their Los Angeles home and deported by train to Arkansas.  He captures the innocence of a young child taking in much of the experience as a grand adventure though being confused at the crying and hushed whispers of the adults. The book is also strengthened by the life of George Takei who was one of the original stars of Star Trek and who is currently a significant online personality with millions of followers on Facebook and Twitter.   

I learned a lot in this book.  It was especially painful to see how parents tried to figure out what was best to keep their families safe - as when loyalty oaths were offered to the detainees and some out of conscience refused to sign them.  He also gives kudos to both the young Japaneses American men who chose to enlist and fight in the war and to those who refused and were imprisoned at Leavenworth. 

I thought the book was really tight up until the very end. It felt a little jumpy and didactic in the last 20 pages or so as Takei keeps trying to hold up the successes of the US system of government when it finally confronts this injustice.  That being said, it is a powerful and moving book and I would highly recommend it.

     

Rise Above It

Eiffel's Tower for Young People: the Story of the 1889 World's Fair by Jill Jonnes ; adapted by Rebecca Stefoff.

New York : Triangle Square, 2019.

xi, 354 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

World's Fairs offer excellent subject matter for history writers.  Think of Eric Larson's macabre and fascinating bestseller about the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. World's Fairs offer a glimpse into the way the dominant culture/s of the time viewed themselves, including who and what was celebrated.  The fairs featured extravagance, spectacle, celebrities and adventure.  The 1889 Paris World's Fair was no exception.  There were bitter rivalries between artists, the spectacle of the Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, a hall of inventions, superstar guests like Thomas Edison, and international rivalries, too. Above all there was the now iconic Eiffel Tower at the center of it all - and at the center of this accessible history - an adaptation for younger readers of Jill Jonnes' Eiffel's Tower. 

I like that this adaptation of Eiffel's Tower moves chronologically, but also builds on storytelling by giving ample time to central characters in the fair: Gustave Eiffel (of course), Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, Thomas Edison, the painters James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Paul Gaugin.  Vincent Van Gogh even gets a mention.  Yes, so much was happening at that moment in history.

The book also presents the racism & colonialism running through the fair - exhibits of "model villages and streets" of Frances colonies and targets for colonization. The book also lightly touches on the contradictions of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show whose company included many Sioux Indians who Cody treated well as workers, but who were also part of the propaganda of the show celebrating the "taming of the US west." 

I'd recommend this book for any student interested in history, especially late 19th century history - a fascinating time when Europe dominated the world not long before descending into the murderous self-destruction of WWI, a period covered in much more detail by Barbara Tuchman in The Proud Tower.   

     

Roadtripping the Past and the Present

In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse by Joseph Marshall III

New York : Amulet Books, [2015]

165 p. : ill., map ; 21 cm. 

This is a little gem of a book! I love a brief, emotional and enlightening book.  Marshall succinctly retells the story of Lakota Indian and warrior, Ta-sunko-witko - known more commonly as Crazy Horse.   

Marshall embeds the story of Crazy Horse within the story of Jimmy, a contemporary eleven-year-old Lakota boy growing up in South Dakota.  This boy has light hair and blue eyes and so is teased and bullied by a couple of classmates.  During the summer his beloved grandpa takes him on a road trip through South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana - tracing places in the life of Crazy Horse which the grandpa fills in with storytelling.  As he teaches Jimmy about Crazy Horse's great character and courage,  he also notes that Crazy Horse also was known as "Light Hair" when he was young - something that connects him with Jimmy.

As they trace the places important in the life of Crazy Horse - Nebraska near Ash Hollow State Park, Forts Laramie and Reno in Wyoming, and battle sites like the Hundred in the Hands (Fetterman Fight) in Wyoming and the renowned Battle of the Little Bighorn (Battle of the Greasy Grass) in Montana. They even visit Fort Robinson in Nebraska where Crazy Horse surrendered and was murdered. 

Within all this history, is a lovely story of an elder passing on his knowledge to his grandson.  The grandfather, a Vietnam veteran, is clear-eyed about the cruel nature of war and battle, and also keenly aware that courage also means protecting the vulnerable and those you love.  By the end of the story, Jimmy is starting a new school year and - though fearful of the bullies - has a newfound strength in confronting them.

I definitely recommend this novel.

    

13 in 13

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf 

New York : Abrams ComicArts, 2020.

279 p. : chiefly ill., maps ; 27 cm.

Meticulously researched and passionately drawn and retold, this graphic novel account of the Kent State Massacre of May 4, 1970 is superb.  This is a great book for bringing a tragic history alive.  Having known about the Kent State killings for decades, I was surprised by how much I learned and by the emotional power of Backderf's storytelling.      

In Backderf's graphic novel about the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer he centers it around his actually being a high school "friend" of Dahmer.  In Kent State, Backderf opens the book with a personal touch: his childhood memories of Ohio National Guard troops being used near his hometown to crush a Teamster's strike in the days before they were sent on to the Kent State campus where they wounded and killed 13 people in just 13 seconds. 

In this retelling Backderf manages to recreate the personal lives of significant figures in the Kent State tragedy.  We learn about student life on campus, radical activists, the peace movement, the culture of the college town, and the utter incompetence and immorality of political and military leadership at the time - leadership that was willing to kill, lie, and cover-up.  In the aftermath of the massacre, leaders lie about the protesters, the culpability of the men who fired on the students, and the leaders who gave the orders (one officer, Capt. Ronald J. Snyder even lied under oath about finding a gun on one of the students killed).  

I would highly recommend this book to any adult or young adult.  There is a lot to think about and learn from this terrible event of 1970.  In addition to the carefully structured story and illustrations, Backderf also includes copious notes at the back of the book that fill out information and indicate the pages in the novel that they refer to. 

This Will Be Your Final Notice

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

New York, NY : Harper Teen, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2017]

373 p. ; 22 cm.

Adam Silvera has a brilliant set up for his novel. The time is the near future, but in his future, people receive a cell phone notice shortly after midnight on the day they are going to die.  The notifications are handled by a company, Death Cast, and "Deckers" - recipients of the call - are given no details about how, or how many hours they have left, but only that they will die on that day (and there is no recourse or escaping one's fate).  In this world - set in New York City - Deckers can use an app called Last Friend so they don't have to spend their last day alive alone or utterly lonely.  

So what happens if the Deckers are young, say seventeen or eighteen years old? That's what this novel is all about.  Two young men - one orphaned and troubled, and one with only one parent who is very ill and in a coma - connect on the Last Friend app and push each other to live their last day to the fullest and to really embrace the person they are.  They develop a deep attachment in the short time they have and compliment each other well.  It's a well developed novel and holds up well.

Often I'll find a novel that has a great premise (like this one does) but the author just can sustain it throughout or doesn't finish it in a way that is satisfying.  Silvera delivers on both these counts, and manages to deliver a really poignant and thought-provoking read in the process.  I really appreciated it. 

For me the weakest part of the novel was the opening act of physical violence committed by one of the main characters.  I think it was meant to convey his troubled and angry recent life, but it was jarring for me and left me alienated from the main character.  There are continuing issues that come up with him and his victim that also detracted from the overall read (for me).  In spite of this (and some readers may actually like this aspect of the book) I found the book a solid read. It has great pacing, character development and emotional power.  I would definitely recommend it to a young adult reader.  

Particle Detector

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

New York : Anchor Books, a division of Random House LLC, 2014.

588 p. ; 21 cm.     

The thing I loved about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah is the author's ability to subtly recreate in her fiction those nuanced threads of race, identity, class, politics (and longing) that make up the patchwork of cultures in a country.  It makes me think of the way that scientists sometimes identify invisible particles by studying their tracks.  

When her main character, Ifemelu, is in New Haven with her Black Yale professor partner the reader can feel the bubble of intellectual snobbery and conformity that one often encounters around academics. Adiche does this while also describing the overarching issues of racism that define the US.  When her main character is back in Nigeria, Adiche's immerses us in a world of crass materialism, pretension, and the endless/meaningless pursuit of wealth. 

There is so much one could say about this novel.  It touches on issues of race, wealth, internationalism, immigration, romance, family, corruption, and appearance v. reality.  Adiche does all this while also telling a great tale of young love, exile, disillusion, return, and love pursued. It's a long read, but a great tale.  This is a book that I could see recommending to students who know of Adiche through her short book, We Should All Be Feminists. I also would recommend it to students interested in fiction about contemporary African life since much of the novel occurs in Lagos, Nigeria. 

A Friendly Challenge

The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person by Frederick Joseph

Somerville, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 2020.

xviii, 254 p. ; 22 cm. 

This is a great addition to anti-racist books that have been and are being published in recent years.  It's a book by a Black man (one of those super successful, productive and energetic under 30 types that makes people like me feel like a slow, old turtle. Check out his bio here.) It's a welcome addition because - even though it hits hard at white privilege and white supremacy - it is not a "how to" book or a book meant to drop a heavy guilt trip on white people. Instead, Joseph, invites white readers (like me) in on glimpses into his life and how racism has shaped it, and like a good host at a party introduces you to various anti-racist artists and activists though his interview/conversations with them.  He also knows how to drop in funny asides and nudges to go and learn more about Black history and Black culture.  

He does all this in a mere 254 pages and it's no small accomplishment.  The book even concludes with rich end matter: an "encyclopedia of racism" section, a people and things to know section, a playlist section, endnotes and an index! 

I think it would be a great book for high school readers. It would be a good discussion starter on topics such as systemic racism, Black Lives Matter, microaggressions, affirmative action, etc.  His use of anecdotal stories from his own life makes a lot of the learning feel personal and genuine.  Finally his book is a heartfelt call to white readers to become accomplices in dismantling white racism and white supremacy. 

The only thing I found wanting in this book was a recognition of class oppression and how white folks might want to consider that dismantling white supremacy could go a long way toward more economic justice for everyone.  But beyond that, I think Joseph's book is a must for high school libraries. Can you tell I enjoyed this book? Yes I did.

Got Blood?

Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin

New York : Wednesday Books, 2020.

326 p. ; 22 cm. 

This novel calls up the Elizabethan & Jacobean revenge tragedy.  I had to chuckle in that while looking for references on revenge tragedies I found this in an article by Justin Cash in The Drama Teacher:   

Revenge tragedies typically consisted of one or more of the following:

• ghosts and the supernatural
• murder
• insanity/mad scenes
• a character seeking revenge against a strong(er) opponent for a real or imagined wrongdoing
• personifications of revenge / the supernatural
• a clear villain (although interestingly the character of Hamlet was a hero seeking revenge)
• onstage violence, often sensational
• blood-filled conclusions
• disguise
• corpses
• often isolated revenger(s)

Yep, Foul is Fair has most of that in spades! The novel is about Jade, a wealthy it-girl who is drugged and gang raped by wealthy/arrogant prep-boys after she and her "coven" of friends crash a party.  The assault is not graphically portrayed, but the victim recalls the words and brutality of the four assailants and their accomplices and promises murderous revenge. Let's just say she keeps her promise! 

This book got a starred review from Booklist which notes: "...this isn't a how-to-murder-your-classmates manual; it's a ferocious, frenzied reaction to a world that has, for too long, treated women as collateral damage in stories that have been deemed more important than theirs....The plot is not rooted in any sort of reality; it is a fever dream, a vicious fantasy, an allegory with bloody teeth." That gets it about right.  In my mind it gets to what is the strength and weakness of the novel.  

I liked a lot about the novel; it is a good escapist read, but Jade and her friends who assist with the bloody revenge plot are extremely unlikable souls themselves. There are no heroes in this tale, just a group of depraved characters who get to exact revenge on a set of even more depraved villains.  I also found some of the supernatural overtures a bit distracting (weird flocks of birds, sudden storms, visions of winged flying characters, unhinged stream of conscience, etc.). But some will love that overwrought drama, and if they do fair enough (of should I say foul enough!). 

If I mention the book to a student, I would definitely let them know it deals with some serious triggering issues - sexual assault, violence, and murder. But if they are looking for a bloody read, I'd suggest it. Oh, and it also strongly echoes Shakespeare's Macbeth, something that students who are reading the play might really enjoy.

  

More Tangled Than a Chromosome

She Has Her Mother's Laugh: the Powers. Perversions and Potential of Heredity  by Carl Zimmer

[New York, N.Y.] : Dutton, [2019]

xiv, 656 p. ; 24 cm. 

This was a long read and - to be honest - a bit above my pay-grade so to speak.  I love science and this is written for lay readers, but the subject matter is pretty darn complicated.  However, it is readable, super interesting and worth the effort.

Though I was pretty good in math and science as a student, the intricacies of probability and statistics always gave me headaches. So, it's no wonder that some of the complexities of inheritance are a bit foggy to me.  That being said, there is a lot that anyone can get from this fine science book.

I think the most interesting take-away from this book is its deep dive into what "heredity" actually means and how the concept is far more messy than many of us think of it.  Zimmer wants us to see that inheritance (even genetic inheritance) is far more complicated than the sum of what we each get from our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc. He notes that there is in essence a "heredity" that occurs within each of us as our cells divide and divide and divide - both in their determined specifications and also with accumulated mutations of those cells. He also points out how unusual occurrences such as an individual who is the combination of two fused zygotes can really challenge our ideas of genetic certainty (e.g. a mother whose children do not test as being her children!) He also explores how environment can affect heredity. 

The book also takes a good long look at what we inherit culturally and what an impact it has.  Finally the book really goes into the cutting edge (literally) technologies that genetic engineers are using/developing.  The hardest for me to get are CRISPR (gene cutting DNA code discovered in bacteria and other archea) and gene drives (which spread traits through a species far more than natural reproduction/inheritance).

I read this book because it is one a student requested for the library when they were one of our yearly scholars.  It is a good read, but one that would likely challenge all but the most scientific minded readers.

      

Dancing Free

Every Body Looking by Candace Iloh

New York : Dutton Books, [2020] 

403 p. ; 22 cm.

This is a book that gets better and better as you read it.  I wasn't really hooked at the beginning, but by the end I was turning the pages, and really rooting for college freshman, Ada, who is in her first year of college at the esteemed HBCU, Howard University.  Ada is a first generation Nigerian-American and has a devoted (but intensely religious) father who is divorced from her toxic mom. 

I really loved Ada's journey of embracing her real passion - to be a dancer - in the face of expectations from family to be a studious accounting major.  She also has to figure out her sexuality and what will make her life meaningful.

The book has received outstanding praise. It is a Michael Printz 2021 honor book and a 2020 National Book Award finalist! Like Elizabeth Acevedo's Poet X, it is written in verse, but it is organized in sections that have a staggered timeline - moving back and forth from high school, to college, to grade school. I liked Poet X better, but someone who likes dance, or a first year college experience, etc. might like this book as much or more. 

I would love to see how students respond to this book.  I will definitely recommend it to any student looking for a coming of age novel, a novel in verse, a book with a strong female lead, or just a read with a lot of heart.

Pip Still Pops

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 

Austin : Holt, Rinehart and Winston [2000]

554 p. : 22 cm.

Sometimes, in reading, you just want to return to an old favorite or old classic.  Though not really a "favorite,"  I remembered enjoying Great Expectations decades ago when I first read it, and so took it home with me for reading over the winter holidays.

Though hailed as a masterpiece by contemporary critics, Great Expectations is probably not as celebrated as it once was.  Dickens, extremely popular in his own lifetime and publishing his work to eager fans through serial installments does at times feel a bit more like popular fiction instead of literary fiction.  That being said, I have to say that this novel has aged pretty well.   

The novel revolves around the fortunes of Pip, an orphaned boy being lovelessly raised by his sister and his sudden inheritance of a fortune from a secret benefactor. I really enjoyed Dickens' mastery of keeping the reader interested throughout.  He's an exceptional plotter and his characters are a delight to discover. Yes, there's a bit of moralizing in Dickens, and occasionally ridiculous coincidences used to further the action, but one can't help but enjoying the ride.  There are lots of enjoyable twists and surprises and at it's core, a deeply humane and progressive sympathy for humans with all their good qualities and disturbing flaws.

I would definitely recommend Great Expectations to a student wanting to read some of the classic novels of the English literature canon.