The Dusty Jacket

How We Got to Now by Steven Johnson (J Non-Fiction)

How We Got to Now

How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World

Steven Johnson (Juvenile Non-Fiction Science)

Ever wonder how a plant in Syria could enable scientists to study galaxies and supernovas billions of light-years away? Or how one man’s desire for a cold drink in the tropics would ultimately change the political map of America? Or how a 19-year-old boy daydreaming in a church pew would lead to the ability to trace humans crossing into the Americas more than ten thousand years ago? Well wonder no more as Steven Johnson shows readers how big ideas changed the world and how ordinary people were able to accomplish some rather extraordinary things.

Steven Johnson’s young reader adaption of his New York Times bestselling book has its own “How We Got to Now” story. His non-fiction book was made into a television version for PBS and the BBC. After several airings, Johnson began hearing from families (and later schools) who enjoyed watching the show with their children. He was then approached by Penguin Random House with the idea of adapting his work for a middle grade audience.

How We Got to Now covers the topics of glass, cold, sound, clean, time, and light and Johnson presents each subject in a fascinating step-by-step, connect-the-dots-type story full of interesting facts and tidbits. If you are familiar with James Burke and his television series Connections, this book follows a similar format so if you enjoy Burke, you’ll find Johnson to be an equally talented historian and storyteller.

How We Got to Now is an ode to the tinkerers, dreamers, inventors, hobbyists, scientists, and reformers who had an idea to make life easier or the desire to make something better. Some achieved their goals through grueling trial and error while others stumbled upon greatness purely by accident. Whether it’s a flat and filthy city, a thirsty businessman, or a bored teenager staring at the ceiling of a church, every problem leads to an idea and that idea—however outrageous, ludicrous, or preposterous—marks the beginning of an amazing, unpredictable, and never-ending journey. To all the future scientists, inventors, innovators, and dreamers, here’s to your success and here’s to now.

Rating: 5/5

* Book cover image attributed to www.amazon.com

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Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (J)

Shadow of a Bull

Shadow of a Bull

Maia Wojciechowska (Juvenile Fiction)

When Manolo was nine he became aware of three important facts in his life. First: the older he became, the more he looked like his father. Second: he, Manolo Olivar, was a coward. Third: everyone in the town of Arcangel expected him to grow up to be a famous bullfighter, like his father.

To be a bullfighter was to be revered for a bullfighter was a hero, a magician, and a killer of death. In Arcangel, death came in the form of a bull and to conquer death brought glory to yourself, your family, and your country. Manolo was the son of Juan Olivar, the greatest bullfighter in Spain. Ever since his father’s death, everyone anxiously awaited the day when Manolo would take his father’s place and Spain would once again have a hero. But unlike his father, Manolo’s future was not prophesied for greatness and he worried that his heart would never allow him to live up to the expectations of his town or the legacy left by his father.

Maia Wojciechowska’s Shadow of a Bull (winner of the 1965 Newberry Award) is a book brimming with valuable lessons and important messages of self-worth, self-confidence, and self-importance. She encourages the reader to question the idea of heroes and those we choose to idolize—the celebrated sports figure or the wizened town physician—and she shows us the emotional and physical price of sacrificing your own future in order to carry on someone else’s. She writes of life versus death, bravery versus fear, and a dream versus destiny. It’s a lot to take in, but Wojciechowska lays out all of these issues as smoothly as a matador works his cape.

Shadow of a Bull is rich in its history and detail regarding the art of bullfighting. Readers will learn the training involved and will be introduced to several Spanish terms (pronunciation guide and definitions are included at the back of the book). It’s an effective primer for the sport that may test the patience of a few readers, but proves interesting nonetheless. Above all else, Wojciechowska doesn’t let us forget that the heart of this book is young Manolo, a boy wishing to bring honor to his family by fulfilling a future that is beyond his desire or control. He carries the hopes and dreams of an entire country on his very small shoulders and we feel the weight of this burden grow heavier as the day of his testing nears. It’s a beautifully told coming-of-age story of a boy trying to discover his place in the world.

Walter M. Schirra, Sr.—a fighter pilot during World War I and father of Wally Schirra, the only astronaut to fly in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs—once said, “You don’t raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they’ll turn out to be heroes, even if it’s just in your own eyes.” By being true to himself, Manolo found honor beyond the shadow of a bull and was able to become a hero in his own right.

Rating: 5/5

* Book cover image attributed to www.abebooks.com

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Paris Is Always a Good Idea by Nicolas Barreau

Paris Is Always a Good Idea

Paris Is Always a Good Idea

Nicolas Barreau (Adult Fiction)

“A few days later, on a springlike day in April, the story of the blue tiger entered Rosalie Laurent’s life and changed it forever. Ultimately there is a story in every life that becomes the fulcrum about which it revolves—even if very few people recognize it at first.”

Rosalie Laurent is the owner of Luna Luna, a charming postcard shop in Saint-Germain. She sells stationery, paperweights, beautiful pens, and wishing cards—beautiful and unique cards lovingly painted by Rosalie herself. She is happy (her mother would rather she have a more “respectable” job) and content and although several of her own wishes have gone unanswered, she can’t imagine her life to be any more fulfilled until the day when celebrated children’s author Max Marchais walks—rather trips—into her shop and brings with him a book in need of an illustrator. Just when Rosalie thinks that all of her wishes are beginning to come true, a handsome American literature professor enters her life with accusations of plagiarism. So much for wishes.

Nicolas Barreau has written a book as light and sweet as a freshly baked croissant, as colorful and expressive as a Monet painting, and as beautiful and vibrant as the city of Paris itself. It’s a delightful and charming story brimming with hope, loss, regret, and love…beaucoup d’amour! It’s endearing without being sappy and the relationship between Rosalie and Max shows us that love and compassion can bridge any age gap and provide two souls with the belief that each day is full of promise and possibility.

One of the sweetest aspects of this novel is the blue notebook that Rosalie writes in every night just before going to bed. In it, she writes just two things: the worst moment of her day and the best. If I had a blue notebook right now, I would write that the worst moment of the day would be reading the very last sentence of Nicolas Barreau’s lovely book and having to say goodbye to Rosalie, Max, Luna Luna, and the splendor that is Paris. The best moment of the day would be knowing that there is another book out there with a story and characters who are waiting to touch my heart and brighten my day just like this book has. After all, reading, just like Paris, is always a good idea.

Rating: 5/5

*Book cover image attributed to www.amazon.com

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The Breaker Boys by Pat Hughes (J)

The Breaker Boys

The Breaker Boys

Pat Hughes (Juvenile Fiction)

Nate Tanner was born into privilege. For several generations, his family has owned coal mines near Hazelton, Pennsylvania allowing Nate to have anything he desired: the best education, the finest clothes, and a bevy of servants to see to his every need. What Nate didn’t have was a single friend. Perhaps it was because of his temper or that he was spoiled or that he was always getting into trouble. Maybe it was all three. Like his teacher said, when you had so much, what was left to try for? But then he met Johnny Bartelak, a Polish American boy who sorts coal in one of his family’s breakers. Theirs was a friendship that started with a simple bike ride, but would slowly be built with lie upon lie. How could Nate tell Johnny the truth about his family and how could he possibly tell his family about Johnny? As the miners begin to talk of joining a labor union, Nate must make the ultimate choice between friendship and family.

The Breaker Boys is based on actual events that occurred on September 10, 1897 at the Lattimer mine near Hazelton, Pennsylvania. Known as the Lattimer Massacre, nineteen striking immigrant coal miners were killed and thirty-nine others were wounded. The miners were mostly of Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian, and German ethnicity and author Pat Hughes brings their story and struggles to life in this thoughtful and moving story about friendship, honor, forgiveness, and betrayal. Although Hughes fills her novel with plenty of conflicts—rich versus poor, father versus son, labor versus management, immigrant versus native—the story never feels bogged down or overly preachy and the action and emotions slowly intensify as Nate’s secret becomes closer and closer to being discovered.

Hughes also takes her time in allowing the reader to get to know Nate Tanner—a spoiled, self-indulgent, self-centered, rude, and disrespectful twelve-year-old boy whose mother died while he was quite young and who has still not forgiven his father for marrying the family’s governess. To her credit, Hughes made Nate very human and avoided giving him an Ebenezer Scrooge or Grinch moment where he sees the error of his ways and experiences a complete moral transformation. Nate is, after all, a young boy with a lot of growing up to do and so we continue to see moments of selfishness, arrogance, and stubbornness throughout the book, which makes his character all the more relatable and sympathetic.

The Breaker Boys is gripping and insightful and offers readers a glimpse into American history while illustrating the importance of honesty, the value of friendship, and the gift of second chances. American educator, author, and businessman Stephen Covey said, “Strength lies in differences, not in similarities” and Pat Hughes shows us that despite differences in class, ethnicity, and religion, two young boys found strength and friendship through something as simple as a bike ride.

Rating: 5/5

*Book cover image attributed to www.amazon.com

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The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka (J)

The Stinky Cheese Man

The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales

Jon Scieskza (Juvenile Fiction)

Meet Jack: adventurer, trespasser, thief, giant agitator, and—for this particular occasion—narrator of our story. But this isn’t just any story, but rather several stories. Stories of a princess, a fibbing frog, a giant, a tortoise and a rather hairy hare, an athletic little girl, an obnoxious chicken, and yes, a stinky cheese man. These stories will not only entertain, amuse, and delight, but they may—one day—just save your life! Don’t believe me? Just ask Jack.

The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales is a wonderful read-out-loud book that will undoubtedly induce a few chuckles, giggles, guffaws and perhaps an eyeroll or two. But make no mistake that the star of this book is not the stories, but rather the incredible, award-winning artwork of Lane Smith (who collaborated with Jon Scieszka again in creating The True Story of the Three Little Pigs!). His over-the-top, dark, eclectic, multi-media illustrations earned Smith the 1993 Caldecott Medal Honor award and are the very vibrant and outlandish heart of this outrageously enchanting book. Lacking any moral lessons whatsoever, unless you count “When in the presence of giants, it’s best to keep your mouth shut” or “Sometimes there is no happy ever after so get over it”, Scieszka encourages us to see the ridiculous side of life, to accept life for what it is, and to remind us that sometimes tales, even fairly stupid ones, can simply be enjoyed without having an ulterior motive.

Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, known for his own fairy tales, once said, “Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.” Indeed, it is. So, here’s to living life to its fullest, filling it with plenty of laughter and silliness, and creating your own happily ever after because if you don’t, you just might get eaten up by a giant. The End.

Rating: 4/5

*Book cover image attributed to www.amazon.com

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The Sea by John Banville

The Sea

The Sea

John Banville (Adult Fiction)

Recent widower Max Morden, looking for respite and solace from his grief, returns to the seaside town where he spent his summer holidays as a youth. Once there, he rents a room in the Cedars, the same house where he met the affluent, affable, and alluring Grace family. But memories can be both haunting and comforting and as Max begins to remember his first experiences with love and death, he understands just how fragile and unpredictable life can be.

The Sea was the 2005 winner of the Man Booker Prize and despite its bestseller status and numerous accolades, I was counting the pages to its completion (I don’t provide a review unless I finish a book in its entirety). I agree with critics and reviewers that the writing is indeed superb, but I found it so over-the-top in its detail that I quickly became a victim of prosaic poisoning. Here is an example of Max describing his mental haze before his wife, Anna, receives her fatal diagnosis: “In the ashen weeks of daytime dread and nightly terror before Anna was forced at last to acknowledge the inevitability of Mr. Todd and his prods and potions, I seemed to inhabit a twilit netherworld in which it was scarcely possible to distinguish dream from waking, since both waking and dreaming had the same penetrable, darkly velutinous texture, and in which I was wafted this way and that in a state of feverish lethargy, as if it were I and not Anna who was destined soon to be another one among the already so numerous shades.” Again, simply beautiful in its artistry and imagery, but completely exhausting to absorb and resulted in more frustration than enjoyment on my part.

Another aspect of this book, which only added to its incredible weightiness, is that it lacked chapters and was only separated into Book I and II. The Sea was simply paragraph after paragraph after paragraph with the occasional (and much welcomed) double-spaced separation. It’s as if John Banville was feeding us a wonderfully delectable five-course meal and never giving us the opportunity to savor, swallow, and digest each bite. We just keep getting spoonful upon spoonful and end up pushing ourselves away from the table for our own self-preservation—leaving a perfectly lovely meal unappreciated.

The downfall of writing a story where each word and phrase are so meticulously constructed is that you have characters that feel a bit one dimensional and lacking true warmth or vulnerability. It’s like a room staged for an opulent magazine spread. While it’s gorgeous and truly exquisite, you really can’t imagine living in it for it’s missing the heart and soul that allow you to connect with it. That immersive feeling that wraps around you like a warm blanket or well-worn bathrobe. But we’re not talking about a room or a home, but something majestic and vast and powerful and in the end, that is the problem with this book. The problem is that we’re dealing with the sea.

Rating: 3/5

*Book cover image attributed to www.amazon.com

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Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen (YA Fiction)

Nightjohn

Nightjohn

Gary Paulsen (Young Adult Fiction)

“It was in the flower bed that I first heard about Nightjohn. Not by name, but by happening.” Sarny remembers that moment well. That and other moments—both horrible and hopeful—that has happened on Master Clel Waller’s plantation: the beatings, the constant humiliation, the rapes, but also the songs and stories that provide some comfort to her and her fellow slaves. But most precious of all were the moments spent with Nightjohn for he brought with him freedom. Freedom that only knowledge could bring, and Nightjohn was bringing it to Sarny and anyone brave enough to accept this unique and powerful gift.

Gary Paulsen notes that the events written in Nightjohn (with the exception for variations in time and character identification and placement) are true and actually happened. Knowing the atrocities, brutality, and savagery that happened during the period in American history where slavery was practiced and largely accepted, the story of Sarny and what she witnessed and experienced should come as no shock. Unfortunately, it does for Paulsen is relentless in his detail and spares no sensibilities when it comes to depicting the treatment of slaves and the punishment ravaged upon those attempting escape. The book is recommended for ages 12 and up and although the message is important and the details written are accurate, I would suggest a slightly higher starting age due to several highly graphic scenes and some mature subject matter.

I appreciated the theme of this book and the heroism shown by Nightjohn who had successfully acquired freedom in the north, but chose to return south so that he could teach slaves to read and write. During one pivotal scene, Sarny’s “adoptive” mother, Mammy, asked Nightjohn why teaching the slaves to read and write mattered. “They have to be able to write,” Nightjohn responded. “They have to read and write. We all have to read and write so we can write about this—what they doing to us. It has to be written.” The singular problem I had with Paulsen’s book was the overuse of violence. Paulsen describes what runaways endured when the dogs finally caught up with them and he did so not once, not twice, but three times. The reader understands the gruesomeness of this action and the utter deprave satisfaction the master gets in seeing a man or woman being literally torn to shreds, but to restate it numerous times was borderline gratuitous.

Nightjohn is a quick read (the hardback edition is ninety-two pages with large typeface and a narrow page width), but its characters and their unfailing faith, their struggle for dignity, and their fight for a better life will have a long-lasting impact on you and will forever change how you view the everyday things that are often taken for granted. In that respect, Nightjohn has given each of us a very valuable lesson.

(Reviewer’s Note: In 1997, Paulsen wrote Sarny: A Life Remembered, a sequel to Nightjohn, which follows Sarny after she fled the Waller plantation in the last days of the Civil War.)

Rating: 4/5

*Book cover image attributed to www.amazon.com

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Jewel by Bret Lott

Jewel

Jewel

Bret Lott (Adult Fiction)

“I say unto you that the baby you be carrying be yo’ hardship, be yo’ test in this world. This be my prophesying unto you, Miss Jewel…The Lord smiling down on you this way.” This is what Jewel Chandler Hilburn was told about her unborn child—her sixth and last. It was 1943 and she had already been blessed abundantly with a good marriage to a loving man, five beautiful children, and a comfortable life in the woods of Mississippi. With this child, Jewel just wanted a living, breathing baby with ten fingers and ten toes. Certainly, that couldn’t be too much to ask? But life can change in an instant and Jewel soon finds herself with a baby who is both a blessing and a burden and who will forever change the way she views life and love.

Bret Lott delivers a poignant and touching story about a mother’s relationship with her special needs daughter. Jewel is a woman who has lived a thousand lives and has seen hardship and tenderness, cruelty and kindness, but the heart of this story is the bond she shares with her daughter, Brenda Kay. Lott brings to the surface the gut-wrenching and life-altering moment when a mother looks upon her precious child—when heart and head finally reach mutual agreement—and says the words, “Something’s wrong”. We feel the heartbreak as Jewel mourns the future that she has imagined for her daughter that will never be and we see her burdened with the regret of not being there for her other children or her husband. Life is no longer measured in minutes or months, but in milestones and Jewel is there to celebrate each and every one of Brenda Kay’s. She even organizes a family picnic when Brenda Kay takes her first step at age five.

Jewel is a celebration of the love between a mother and child. Bret Lott reminds us of the tremendous gift that our children give us. As each day brings with it some amount of pain, joy, frustration, heartache, sadness, and love, we are also reminded that it is one day less that we have with them all to ourselves for the job of a parent is to love our children, protect them, guide them, and then let them go so that they can make lives of their own. It is a bittersweet role that we take on willingly and relinquish reluctantly. Our legacy is often measured through our children. They carry on our hopes, our dreams, our stories, and a bit of ourselves. As Jewel said, “My life would never end, I saw, not even in my own Brenda Kay, because of those eyes turned to me and asking what to do, the only true victory any mother could ever hope for: the looking of a child…to you for what wisdom you could give away before you left for whatever reckoning you had with the God who’d given you that wisdom in the first place.” Our children are indeed a blessing and a burden, but through their words, actions, and deeds, we too are able to see the Lord smiling down at us.

Rating: 5/5

*Book cover image attributed to www.amazon.com

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Dovey Coe by Frances O’Roark Dowell (YA)

Dovey Coe

Dovey Coe

Frances O’Roark Dowell (Young Adult Fiction)

“My name is Dovey Coe, and I reckon it don’t matter if you like me or not. I’m here to lay the record straight to let you know them folks saying I done a terrible thing are liars. I aim to prove it too. I hated Parnell Caraway as much as the next person, but I didn’t kill him.”

The youngest of the three Coe children, twelve-year-old Dovey would just as soon carry around a pocketknife than a pocketbook. She’s wasn’t a skilled tracker like her brother Amos and she certainly wasn’t pretty and charming like her sister Caroline, but Dovey was loyal and honest and had a mind of her own. You never had to guess what Dovey Coe was thinking because she would tell you exactly what was on her mind…whether you cared to hear it or not. As you can imagine, this resulted in a few awkward situations and quite a number of bruised egos. Such was the case with Parnell Caraway. Son to the richest family in town, Parnell always got whatever he set his eyes on and at the present moment, his eyes were set on Caroline Coe. No other girl in Indian Creek, NC deserved his arm more, but Caroline was set on going to college in Boone. Covey was certainly not going to let the likes of Parnell Caraway tear her family apart, but would she resort to murder to keep her family together?

I am an absolute and unashamed pushover for plucky and feisty heroines: Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables), Francie Nolan (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn), Matilda Wormwood (Matilda), and Fern Arable (Charlotte’s Web) to name a few. Dovey Coe handily earns a spot among these lovable, irrepressible, undaunted, and spirited young ladies. Whether she’s confronting a school bully or the son of the man who owns half the town, Dovey is righteous in her convictions and uncowering in the face of injustice, unfairness, or just plain meanness. No matter how few nickels she had to rub together, Dovey never considered herself or her family poor. Her life was simple and satisfying and when something got her down, it wasn’t anything that a slice of her MeMaw’s chocolate cake or hammering a few nails into a two by four wouldn’t make right again. Failure was not only not an option for Dovey, it simply wasn’t in her vocabulary.

Dovey Coe was shelved under the Young Adult section in my local library; however, the book is listed for ages nine to twelve and I highly recommend younger readers seizing the opportunity to meet Dovey and her entire family. Older readers may feel the writing style is a bit simplistic, but the lessons Frances O’Roark Dowell lays out for her readers are ageless. Loving who you are, standing up for what is right, defending the weakest among you, and finding joy in life’s smallest pleasures are things we should all aspire to do. I think Dovey summed it up best when she said, “The way I seen things, us Coes had everything we needed in this world. Some might see us as poor, but that was their problem.”

Rating: 5/5

*Book cover image attributed to www.amazon.com

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The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer

The Girl in the Red Coat

The Girl in the Red Coat

Kate Hamer (Adult Fiction)

“We took the train that day. I wanted it to be special for Carmel and taking a train rather than the usual bus was a treat.” That is how the day started for newly single mom Beth and her daughter, Carmel. A day that Beth would look back on as Day 1. A day brimming with excitement and anticipation, but ending with every parent’s worst nightmare. On Day 1, Carmel disappeared during an outdoor festival. You wouldn’t think that an eight-year-old girl wearing a red coat could be so easily overlooked. Could so easily vanish. But a heavy mist had settled on the grounds, visibility was deteriorating, and just like that, Day 1 had started. While Beth begins an exhaustive search for her missing daughter, Carmel starts her own harrowing journey into a religious sect with a man she must trust to survive. As days turn into weeks and then months, will Beth ever see her little girl in the red coat again?

I have yet to read a modern British author’s work that I didn’t enjoy and Kate Hamer’s The Girl in the Red Coat is surely no exception. Hamer—born in Plymouth and raised in Pembrokeshire (she’s says she feels Welsh)—gives readers a thrilling story that alternates between the points of view of Beth and Carmel. As a parent myself, I’m not sure which of the two stories was more disturbing to read: a mother helpless and tormented by guilt over losing her child or a child being emotionally manipulated and fearful of losing her identity. Both stories keep the reader breathlessly captivated and drawn into a nightmare scenario that no one should have to bear. Hamer delves into the subtleties of loss, grief, and shame as Beth seeks personal absolution for Carmel’s disappearance. We feel her guilt when she completes an errand or leaves the house and only realizes later that she didn’t think of or search for Carmel during that time. Her stages of grief are excruciating and Hamer boldly lays it out so that we may process and endure it with Beth. In turn, she allows us equal time to share in Carmel’s isolation, confusion, and fear as she is ripped from everything she knows and loves and is forced to accept a new way life with a stranger whom she feels obligated to trust. Both Beth and Carmel feel an overwhelming amount of guilt and regret over their actions, yet they desperately cling to the smallest modicum of hope that they will once again be reunited.

The color red is used liberally throughout this book and represents different things. This story has a strong religious component so for Christians, red symbolizes atonement and sacrifice. Red is also an intense color representing extreme emotions such as hate, jealousy, and anger which we see through certain members of Carmel’s “surrogate” family. It’s the color of danger and Carmel’s beautifully unique coat unfortunately turns into a beacon for an unscrupulous stranger. For Carmel, it serves as an interesting color choice. She is fiercely drawn to this color whose main purpose is to make the wearer stand out, yet Carmel is desperate to break loose from her overprotective mother and often seeks out dark, far-off spaces to hide. For someone wanting to disappear, red wouldn’t be an obvious fashion option. But it would be this same color that would serve as Carmel’s anchor to holding on to her identity. Red would remind her that she is Carmel Wakeford and that red, above all else, is the color of strength, heart, and love.

Rating: 5/5

*Book cover image attributed to www.amazon.com

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