Reviews: Moonbird and Seraphina

Review: Moonbird: A year on the wind with the great survivor B95
Published by: Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-374-30468-3
Reading Level: Grades 5 and up

AND


Review: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
Published by: Doubleday Canada, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-385-66839-2
Reading Level: Grades 9 and up

I've chosen to review Moonbird and Seraphina in the same entry NOT because they have overwhelming similarities but because what I have to say applies to both. One is a fiction novel about a half dragon caught up in a mystery, the other is a non fiction tale of a bird migration and of B95, a bird who has made the journey over 18 times - flying the distance one would travel from Earth to the Moon and halfway back again. So, no true similarities but one: I disliked both but knew I was reading good stuff.

I don't like dragons - or even half dragons and thus a plot surrounding them is not to my taste. 'Seraphina' reads well and the storyline is interesting - murder, intrigue, fighting between groups. However, make those groups dragons and humans and throw in descriptions on how to clean your scales and I'm out. I enjoyed it more in this second reading (I reviewed it previously for 'Resourcelinks and had a ARC). I can see literary merit in this book - well written, strong plot, well developed characters. I just did not like it. 

The same is true of 'Moonbird'. In this saga about the migration of the rufa red knot, we learn about the travel and diet patterns of this bird species. These birds travel from Terra del Fuego in South America to the breeding grounds of the Canadian Arctic. The migration habits of this group have been tracked as well as their population. Scientists have tagged and identified many of the rufa, tracking them year after year. B95 was tagged 18 years ago and is still flying. Given the fact that the population of the rufa has dropped 80% in the past 20 years, his survival is fairly epic. This is a full colour book, pullouts of bios, features and facts an dis nicely written. However, I couldn't find it in me to care for these birds. That sounds callous but honest - I thought the story was fascinating, I was just not inspired to help. I did like that they mentioned Parks Canada in the list of groups and resources of people for those who are inspired to help - Parks Canada does great work and should be mentioned.

Both books received a 4/5.

Good reads page Seraphina
Good Reads page Moonbird.

Review: Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson

Review: Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson
Published by: Scholastic Press, an Imprint of Scholastic Inc, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-11674-9
Reading Level: Grades 5 and up

 I am a Newfoundlander. My grandfather on my mothers side was a sea captain and lived through at least one shipwreck. To leave my island you must take a boat or a plane - or swim, I guess! The Titanic has always been part of our consciousness - when I was a child we sang a campfire song about how "They built the ship Titanic just to sail the ocean blue" (full lyrics here). Even when I didn't know what it was, I knew of it. I knew of the perils of the sea and the majestic danger of ice burgs. I have gotten sunburned walking around the graveyard in Halifax looking for Titanic graves, I have spent time in exhibits in local museums looking at artifacts from the Titanic and replicas of items that might have been used. I even followed the live twitter feed last year as they tweeted as if it was real time and the ship was sinking. I have an interest in the subject matter - not necessarly a great knowledge but an interest, much of which was naturally obtained by my location and personal history.

This particular look at the Titanic is nicely done. Hopkinson takes the reader from the first short voyage with passengers, from London to Queenstown and then for it's final fatal voyage from Queenstown and onwards. Throughout the entire book there are pictures of life aboard the Titanic - some taken by passengers who were part of the first short voyage, others taken on ships with similar offerings as the Titanic. There are also copies of items such as work orders, menus, distress telegrams and other such print items to further illustrate the historical importance of the events contained within. 

At times this book gets a little unclear as it jumps around from survivor to survivor. However, the clarity in which it describes the fatal voyage, while staying true to the young reading level makes up for any occasional lack of focus. The pictures will please readers who.want to see the historical items but are also a great addition when trying to "sell" this book to a reluctant reader.

I give this book a 4/5.

Goodreads Page

Review: Wondershow by Hannah Barnaby

Review: Wondershow by Hannah Barnaby
Published by: Houghten Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-59980-9
Reading Level: Grades 9 and up

Sometimes it's the little things about a book. Things which have nothing to do with the story. With this book, it was the dedication. It states:

For the lost and the lonely
For the different and the same

The longing and the beauty conveyed in these two lines made me realize I was in for a treat of a book. I was not disappointed.
To explain the plot of this story gets complicated and detailed. On the one hand, it's a story of a girl in search of her family who joins a circus, telling stories as a "normal" and finds her true family. On the other hand, this is the story of Portia, set in the United States during the 1930s. Portia is our main character - a young girl in search of her family. Portia has always had a way with stories. Her father was her constant audience; her mother was "lean and restless" and departed, leaving a space which was quickly closed and was never spoken of again. Her father and his moods controlled the stories Portia told and through that, as a young child she learned the art of storytelling, the difference between a lie and a tale and how a family can fly away. A visit to the circus was quickly followed by the disappearance of her father, leaving the two mixed in Portias mind: her father must have left to follow the circus. Portia is left with her Aunt, a no nonsense woman who taught Portia to cook and sew and who eventually decided that she was unable to care for Portia as she should be cared for. Portia is left in McGreavey's Home for Wayward Girls with the Mister, a man who uses the home as a front to get cheap labour - the girls are put to work sewing mail order uniforms or picking apples. Portia quickly becomes friends with Caroline, a girl who has caught the eye of Mister. She becomes one of the house girls, who, with Caroline and Delilah the cook, take care of the main home where Mister lives. It is there she finds the files and knows that Mister knows where her father is - she just has to earn his trust enough to be able to access it. When tragedy strikes, Portia leaves and finds the circus, hoping she can find her father, or, failing that, employment. Through the strength of her storytelling skills she finds a place as a "normal' in the Mosco's Traveling Wonder Show and it is there she discovers what family truly means.
So... big set up for a fairly pat plot - discovering family, discovering self, discovering what a freak means vs what a normal means, finding out who the true monsters are in the world. However, all of this is boiled into beautiful prose where the reader is able to watch Portia develop from a headstrong young girl into a woman who is secure in her family and her future. As well, it gives a glimpse into the world of the traveling 'freak' show - shows popular in the 1930s. Through this novel the reader gets a glimpse into part of the world of the 30s. Barnaby creates a set of characters that the reader wants to learn more about and of whom the reader will form definite opinions. Beautifully told, a little different and smart - a fantastic novel.
I give this book a 5/5
Goodreads page

Review: Steve Jobs: The Man who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal

Review: Steve Jobs: The Man who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal

Published by: R.R. Donnelley and Sons Company, 2012

ISBN: 978-1-250-01445-0

Reading Level: Grades 9 and up

I am not really an Apple person. There, I said it. I am awaiting my iPad for the library but admit that part of the reason it was purchased was because that's what is being used by the board, not because that's what I really wanted. Yes it does really cool things but, I guess, I've never been able to buy into the whole 'Apple is God' way of thinking. However, many many many people are into the Apple is all thinking - and many of the things that I enjoy using were impacted by Apple, so even if I don't have Apple products, I still have Apple to thank for a number of the things that I use everyday.
Perhaps some of my lack of passion about Apple comes from my dislike of Steve Jobs. There - an even bigger admittance from me. I'm not a huge fan of Steve Jobs. In works that I've viewed and bios I've encountered, he just seems like not a great guy. Give me The Woz any time, with his sense of humour and appreciation for others. Or even Bill Gates with his dedication to charity and giving away his money. That is if I have to choose. Steve Jobs photographs like he cares but really, the more I learn the less I like him.
So, I approached this bio with a bias. Jobs and his drive to be the best and lack of appreciation for others has been well documented. From early life with his adopted family and his issues in school to his later life with his wife and children and his company, this bio tells the good and bad about Jobs and does so in a clear and concise way. The story of Steve Jobs is a complicated one - you want to admire the man for what he brought to modern technology and yet, so often, learning the truth of his life, his attitudes and his behaviours, it's hard to like him. His abandoning of his first child, his behaviours to his employees, his refusal to contribute to charity, his inability to realize that his choices impact others - all of these things make him appear to be a pretty crappy guy. The good things he has done - helping the world modernize, helping others become financially solvent through their work in the company, his reach for perfection in the products he delivered to his customers - sometimes pale in comparison. How would his first daughter have felt, knowing her dad named a computer after her even though he didn't want to be part of his life? How would business partners feel knowing that he shared what he wanted to share - even financially? After almost any bio I have read or watched about Steve Jobs I am struck with the idea that he wasn't such a great guy. I remarked to my mom after reading this that I knew it was a YA bio of him - I left feeling he was a jerk as opposed to any stronger word I might have used after a non-ya bio!
Despite the flaws of the subject, Blumenthal has created a great profile. Students who are wondering from what brain their apple products emerged will be able to read about one of the people who helped make them happen and do so in an accessible and well written format. She has plenty of pullaway information boxes but puts them at the end of chapters so that the reader is not drawn away from the narrative of her biography. She presents testimony and stories from a number of people who were in the life of Jobs to help develop her story, which aids in trying to understand what kind of man Steve Jobs was.
I gave this book a 4/5.
Goodreads Page.

Review: The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

Review: The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

Published by:Balzar + Bray, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, in 2012

ISBN: 978-0-06-202056-7

Reading Level: Grades 9 and up

I was a teen of the 90's. The grunge scruffiness, the bands trying to make a mark, the general questioning of the age. Who am I and why did I used to wear florescent shirts and all that jazz. Reading a book set in that era was nice, especially one that wasn't focused on the popular culture of the times but instead the living in the culture of those times. It felt familiar.
The subject matter was less personal but was still familiar. The story of a girl trying to find her place and her self during her teen years in the 90s sounds like the story of my life. Less like my life was the life of Cameron Post. Her parents die suddenly in a car crash and she's relieved - relieved they will never find out that she was kissing a girl at the time of their crash. Once she is orphaned, Cameron has to live with her well intentioned but old fashioned Grandmother and her very conservative and Christian aunt Ruth. She knows her home life will never be the same and knows that to fit in in her small town she's going to have to lay low and blend in, no matter what inner angst she is feeling. Then, SHE moves to town - beautiful cowgirl Coley Taylor with her perfect life and her perfect boyfriend. Cameron and Coley strike up an intense friendship, one which becomes intense in many ways. When the intensity turns to something physical, Cameron is sent away by her Aunt to be "fixed". Cam is forced to face the reality of what it will mean to deny her true self - and the reality of figuring out who her true self really is.
This book was visually quite beautiful - the descriptions of vistas, towns and places were striking and appealing to the reader. Cameron was a character I enjoyed meeting - and about whom I'd love to read more. Danforth scripted her characters beautifully and believably, and their joys and angst were quite visible and tangible as you navigated their lives. Character, setting, plot - all of these tenants of storytelling were beautifully developed and left the reader informed and wanting more.
This is one book I can't wait to share with my students.
I rate this book 5/5.
Goodreads page.

Review: We have a job

Review: We've got a job: the 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson

Published by: Peachtree Publishers. 2012

ISBN:978-1-56145-627-7

Reading level: Grades 5+

Every year I travel to DC with a student group. We go with a program called 'The Asper Human Rights and the Holocaust' program and spend four days in DC. The Holocaust Museum is a full day adventure; the rest of the time is spent going through DC. Each year I stand on the spot where Martin Luther King Jr gave his 'I have a dream' speech, on the stairs of the Lincoln memorial. Last year for the first time I went to the MLK memorial, a beautiful bas-relief positioned between the Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln memorials (and just a quick walk along the tidal basin from the FDR memorial). I know some of the history behind his importance - the general history which included his fights for equal rights, his sacrifices and his assassination, but I did not know a lot of the details, especially about those who fought along with him. Yes, the sit ins, the walks, the bus strikes, the restaurant sitins are all part of my knowledge, but who and where and how - and what happened to them has been less clear in my learning.

'We have a job - the 1963 Birmingham Children's March' by Cynthia Levinson helped fill in some of those gaps. Levinson follows the story of four different freedom fighters, all of whom were children during 1963. They entered the civil rights movements in different ways - by accident, by choice, reluctantly, passionately - but they all worked hard and risked much to fight for equal rights. When the adults were hesitant to fight the racist culture of Birmingham because their jobs and lives were on the line, the children of the city stood up and answered Dr. Martin Luther King's cry to 'Fill the Jails'. The children marched and filled the jails and then some, causing their fight to receive national attention and helped bring about the repeal of segregation laws. Their actions inspired thousands of other young people to demand their rights and fight for their freedoms around the world.

Levinson puts a focus on four children: Audrey, a 9 year old child of activists, Washington Booker III, a high spirited child child of the projects who just wanted to be allowed to eat a Banana Split at the local Department store, James W. Stewart, a teen child of professionals who had to deal with racism from both sides, given his light skin tone and Arnetta Streeter, who with her light skin could have 'passed' but chose not to, feeling colour should not matter. Each of this children were part of the actions taken by children in Birmingham. Whether they were like Audrey who was inspired by her parents and could articulate at her young age that she needed to go to Jail or like Arnetta who kept trying to get arrested and found she kept getting sent home, or like Washington who got involved almost by accident. Throughout there are pictures of many of the main people and incidents involved, further illustrating some of the dangers in which people found themselves. In addition, there are sections pulled from the main text with song lyrics, legal rulings and other information which informs the reader on some of the text needed to fully understand the book and the times in which the book is set.

Beautifully designed, this telling of a major event in Modern American history is well told and illustrated. I appreciated the use of black, white and grey throughout the entire book. At times, when the focus was on people other than our four main profiles, I wondered what the use of those profiles was. However, Levinson continued to return to our fearless four, and it was nice, after reading of all the confusion to then return to four people and ground your thinking. In reflection, it was also nice to be able to look back on this momentous story and think of a few of the ordinary people who were involved. A personal connection to a story that was larger than one person. As with many non-fiction novels, I wish the text pull outs were at breaking points in the text as I found leaving the narrative to read the pull out before I turned the page distracting - I didn't want to leave the narrative but didn't want to miss the additional info. I am looking forward to putting this book into my collection and know of several research based units in which it will come of use!

I rate this book: 4/5
Goodreads page.

Review: Love and Other Perishable Items

Review: Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buza

Published by: Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children's Books. Originally published in Australia by Allen and Unwin, Sydney (2010). American Publication 2012

ISBN: 978-0-373-87000-2

Reading Level: Grade 9+

Love, when you're a teenager, is almost always complicated. Love, when you're 15 and the person you're in love with is 21 is a little more problematic. 'Love and Other Perishable Items' addresses the question - what do when your first love is someone you shouldn't love?
Amelia and Chris both work in their local supermarket. Chris is a university student who is finding the motivation to finish his last year difficult to find. Amelia is finding high school to be not quite what she wants. Amelia, at first sight, fell head over heels with the sophicated Chris, but knows enough to not act on it. Instead she plays it cool and strikes up a friendship where they compare the injustices of growing up as well as bantering about books and b movies. On the surface they're perfect for each other - witty, funny and with similar interests. As time progresses, Amelia does not seem like the only person who longs for a romantic relationship. Yet those six years stand between them - inconsequential when they're in their sixties, miles apart when they're spanning their teens and twenties. Told in alternating sections of Amelia and Chris, the reader wonders if these two can find love - or is their relationship about to meet it's best before date?
This book details the firsts that Amelia is experiencing - her first love, her first real party, her first job, her first hangover. She's a very observant and mature fifteen, forming opinions on literature and feminism and practicing the ability to spout these opinions when she can. At the supermarket, she is not one of the girls who's 15-going-on-35 in terms of social maturity and sexuality. It is her opinions, not her actions, which makes her stand out to Chris. Chris is in search of something - badly burned by Michaela and finding solace at the Uni bar and in his crush on his coworker Kathy he goes from day to day unsure of where his life is leading. He is intrigued by Amelia and her mix of maturity and innocence and enjoys discussions with her, especially those where he can mentor her on books and popular culture. They are well suited and their friendship is one that develops organically, romantic feelings aside. The conclusion of their story is one which does not demean either character and which allows for the idea that the future is always wide open.

I found this book to be nicely written. It captured the angst of unrequited and inappropriate love without making it seem taudry and unrealistic. The issues presented are ones that the characters are quite aware of and it never becomes a 'he and I against the world' kind of Romeo and Juliet tale. Both Amelia and Chris grow and develop as characters, finding their places with each other but also in their own worlds. The alternating of voices, especially since they tell of the same times and events when appropriate, is done quite well, as is the conclusion where these voices are shared. At times, Amelia seems a little too perfect for Chris, Chris seems a little too aimless and the secondary characters seem a little too much like caricatures, however, overall they exist together in the world they inhabit, helping each other find what they want and begin to figure out how to get it.

I give this book a 4/5. Nicely written, draws on the simplistic at times, well concluded.

Goodreads page.

Review: After the Snow

Review: 'After the Snow by S. D. Crockett

Published by: Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-64169-6
Reading Levels: Grade 8+

When I give book talks to students, I don't only discuss books that I enjoyed. I bring out books that I didn't like as well, letting them know they weren't to my taste and why, including a plot review. One book like that is 'Blood Red Road' - I disliked the bleak dystopia and the plot that kept going and going and going. Unfortunately, while reading 'After the Snow' I was constantly reminded of 'Blood Red Road'. The bleakness, the journey, the family revelations, the violence and the times of inaction. It was 'Blood Red Road' all over again and I had to push to finish it.
'After the Snow' tells of a world that has suffered a brand new ice age. The oceans have stopped, America has become inconsequential and survival is of the utmost importance. Willo has only known the world in this state - ice and snow is his normal. He learns from the animals and spends time trapping them for food and for their fur, imitating them whenever he can and recognizing their power and their beauty. One day his family is taken away while Willo is out trapping. Unused to being the pack leader, Willo does what he can to survive, bringing as many supplies as he can to the top of the mountain so he can build a shelter and try to figure out how to find his family. On his way, he discovers a young girl and her brother who are starving and alone. Choices he makes from that point on will jeopardize his chances of survival and alter his destiny forever.
For me, when I read, I need to care about the characters. They could be doing something I've never done (to this point), such as fight cancer, participate in a battle to the death again other people their age, come to terms with the fact their father is a prolific serial killer, or go on a quest to kill the dark lord who-shall-not-be-named. The character of Willo was as bleak as the landscape and even his revelations about his family could not endear him to me. This character, when combined with the abysmal setting of snow and ice, could not make me care about him or his journey. Having not met his family, I had no connection of hope to his finding them, other than not wanting a young boy to be alone. I couldn't connect with the main character, thus, my connection to the book was one of suffering as I pushed to finish it.
I give this book a 2/5. It has merits, it's just not for me and I would not reread it.
Goodreads page.