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Archive for the ‘History’ Category
Book review: Angle of Repose
Saturday, March 25th, 2006Book review: Al Capone Does My Shirts
Saturday, March 25th, 2006 | Tweet |
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| Author: | Gennifer Choldenko |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction, autism |
| Year of publication: | 2004 |
Some books are of their times. This book takes place at Alcatraz prison in the 1930s but is very much a reflection of contemporary culture. The first-person narrator is a boy whose family moves to Alcatraz so that his sister may apply to a school for autistic children near San Francisco. | |
The characters' understanding of the disease and of each other is no doubt very anachronistic. My daughter enjoyed the local color and the family relationships seemed truthful, for a child of today at least. -- Emily Berk | |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Al Capone Does My Shirts | |
Book review: The Lost Years of Merlin
Monday, March 13th, 2006 | Tweet |
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| Branwen: | I have no idea what your powers might be, my son. I only know that God didn’t give them to you without expecting you to use them. … | |
| Emrys: | But I didn’t ask for powers! | |
| Branwen: | Nor did I. … But with every gift comes the risk that others may not understand it. … | |
| Emrys: | Don’t you sometimes wish … [t]hat you didn’t have your gifts? That you weren’t so different? … | |
| Branwen: | Of course. | |
| — T.A. Baron, The Lost Years of Merlin |
Book review: The Big Wave
Monday, March 13th, 2006 | Tweet |
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| Author: | Pearl S. Buck |
| Illustrator: | Hokusai and Hiroshige |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1947 |
Two Japanese boys survive a tidal wave. Living as we do near the coast, I was surprised that it took my ten year old more than a week to react to the recent devastating tsunamis. Last night, finally, she began to take the tsunamis very personally. "We live at the top of a high hill," she said. "So I'm not worried about what would happen if I were here and the tsunami hit. But, my school is much closer to sea level. What would we do if the tsunami hit when we were at school?" Run uphill, I told her. Run fast. What else should I have said? Today, I paid a visit to my daughter's school. I asked them whether they would be notified if a tsunami were detected. I asked what the procedures would be in case that sort of a warning is issued. I suggested that everyone at the school get together to discuss what the plan would be. | |
Tonight, I read The Big Wave all the way through in one sitting. It is only 80 pages long and it packs a punch. The lovely woodblock prints in the hardcover edition were selected by the author. Here are my favorite quotes in order. The Big Wave: every child over 10 living on a coast should read it. But although the words are simple,
the ideas are difficult to deal with.
-- Emily Berk | |
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Big Wave, The | |
Book Review: A Single Shard
Monday, March 13th, 2006 | Tweet |
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Book review: Understood Betsy
Monday, March 13th, 2006 | Tweet |
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Book review: King of the Wind
Monday, March 13th, 2006 | Tweet |
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| Author: | Marguerite Henry |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | non-fiction: animals |
| Year of publication: | 1948 |
Newbery award-winning story of Sham, the father of the modern thoroughbred, and the slave boy who believed in him. | |
Gently written, but the facts of the tale are harrowing. The boy, his horse and his cat are regularly tossed out on the street by uncaring adults. I won't share the ending, but we found the boy's fate disturbing as well. | |
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: King of the Wind | |
The Selfish Gene: Reviewed
Monday, March 13th, 2006 | Tweet |
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| Author: | Richard Dawkins |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Sophisticated readers |
| Genre: | Non-fiction: Science |
| Year of publication: | 1990 |
Richard Dawkins' take-no-prisoners-style riff on how evolution has made all of us. | |
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Selfish Gene, The | |
Book review: The Red Tent
Monday, March 13th, 2006 | Tweet |
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| Author: | Anita Diamant |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | For grown-ups |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | For grown-ups |
| Genre: | fiction, historical |
| Year of publication: | 1997 |
Riff on life of biblical woman, Dinah | |
A passage in the book of Genesis refers to Dinah, the only daughter of Joseph. Dinah's brothers "avenged" her by killing her husband and all his men. Diamant's novel gives voice to Dinah, who is granted only this one passage in the Bible. In so doing, Diamant muses on the way the roles of women changed as Abraham's descendants' allegiance to the single God, El, became stronger. Contrasts in an interesting way with The King Must Die, which also describes a transition from a culture where women were acknowledged to possess some divinity to one in which male deities were ascendent. -- Emily Berk | |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Red Tent, The | |
Book review: At the Back of the North Wind
Monday, March 13th, 2006 | Tweet |
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