Off She Goes Into the Wild Blue Yonder



Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean

by

Sarah Stewart Taylor and James Sturm

Taylor and Strum, S.  (2010). Amelia Earhart: this broad ocean . New York:

     Disney Hyperion Books.

Taylor and Strum’s Amelia Earhart was really fun.   I genuinely enjoyed the way the authors combined biography, graphic novel, and historical fiction to tell the story of this amazing aviatrix.  Showing us the real-life Earhart through the eyes of a fictional young girl named Grace builds a bridge with the young readers for whom this book is geared.  It seems that Grace is almost a reflection of Amelia in that they both had a dream:  Grace to be a reporter and Earhart to fly across the Atlantic.  Moreover, Ben Towle’s illustrations make them even look so much alike they could have been related.  The illustrations are very artistic and simple, but there were times I wished they had more color to better depict such a colorful and vibrant heroine.

To the combination of writing styles the authors employed, I should add “inspirational novel” since Amelia Earhart could very easily inspire young readers – male and female alike – to pursue their dreams.  That’s admirably illustrated by the fact that the introduction to the book is written by Eileen Collins – a female astronaut.   This inspirational element in particular makes this a book to recommend to students.

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Reach for the Sky



Skywalkers: Mohawk Ironworkers Build the City by David Weitzman

Weitzman, D. (2010). Skywalkers: Mohawk ironworkers build the city . New York:

      Flash Point.

I motivated to read this book because I was born and raised in the same part of the country where the Mohawks have lived for centuries.  In retrospect, I think my New England schoolteachers were admirably multicultural, because they constantly used the Mohawk and other tribes as points of reference when teaching us about government, sociology, history, etc.  So many of our present-day governmental and cultural practices were inspired by these Native Americans.  I was very glad to see this explained so well in Weitzman’s book for others to read and learn about.

Many years after my high school graduation, I moved to Hawaii, where I found an ironic similarity between the Islanders and the Mohawks.  Both did not have a written language, so they relied on storytellers to orally perpetuate and teach their history to future generations.  But when outsiders arrived on their shores, they were forbidden to continue this practice; so much of their heritage is lost to us forever.  Hopefully books like Skywalkers will teach our youth to be sure this kind of cultural loss never happens again to any people.       

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The Title Says It All



The Horrors of Andersonville: Life and Death Inside a Civil War Prison

by Catherine Gourley

Gourley, C. (2010). The horrors of Andersonville: life and death inside a Civil War prison . Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books.

I chose to read Catherine Gourley’s The Horrors of Andersonville: Life and Death Inside a Civil War Prison partially because I’m an American history buff and partially because I was very moved after seeing a play on the same subject – Saul Levitt’s The Andersonville Trial.  With an award-winning Broadway hit as my point of reference, I found Gourley’s book less impressive than the play, but still very moving because of the simple but horrible facts it shared about the worst Confederate prison camp of the Civil War.

As I read The Horrors of Andersonville, some dismal thoughts came to mind.  First, as genuinely terrible as Andersonville was, that seems to be the only Civil War POW camp we hear about; when, there were also Yankee camps for Confederate prisoners that were as bad or worse than Andersonville.  But there are not many Broadway plays or popular books written about them because the North won the war.  And I say that as a born-and-raised Yankee.  It also seems sadly ironic that people always seem to look for a lone scapegoat to blame for the wrongs of a multitude.  So, Andersonville’s commander, Captain Henry Wirz, is the only Confederate hanged after the war for running a camp that was only able feed the Northern POWs the food that was sent to them by a Confederate government that did not have enough food to feed its own troops.

Still, I think Gourley’s book would be a good one for students to read.  It gives a startling honest depiction of atrocities that were just one part of the bloodiest war in U.S. history – because it was the only one where Americans were fighting Americans – so the death toll was therefore doubled.

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The Facts of Life



It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris

Harris, R. H. (1994). It’s perfectly normal. Somerville: Candlewick Press.

At the start of this school year, our local newspaper said: 127 girls in our city’s schools were returning to class pregnant (the youngest being only 12); over 40% of those expectant girls also had STDs they contracted while having sex; and a majority of parents are still opposed any kind of sex education in school.

As a dedicated realist, I believe that ignorance is the greatest threat to people today.  Ignorance –whether it’s in our children or in their parents – breeds a long list of subsequent problems, including pregnancy, STDs, bullying, bigotry, etc.  The only way to combat ignorance and its consequences is with education.  To this end, I found Robie H. Harris’ It’s Perfectly Normal to be perfectly wonderful!

It discusses the “facts of life” in a factual way that young people can easily understand, without hedging on controversial points or trying to gloss over basic issues with vague language.  Consequently, I am sure this book will be condemned by religious zealots, helicopter parents, and arch conservatives.  I can only hope this amazingly simple, straightforward text will nonetheless make its way under the table to students everywhere in the hope that the basic truths it expresses so honestly may make an impression on young readers who will become part of planned parenthood instead of becoming a statistic in next year’s newspaper.

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A Ray of Hope



It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying and Creating a Life Worth Living

by Dan Savage

Savage, D. (2011). It gets better: Coming out, overcoming bullying and creating a life worth living . New York: Penguin Group.

While reading Dan Savage’s It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying and Creating a Life Worth Living, two old sayings came to mind.

First, it’s been said that people who fall in love feel that no one has ever loved like they do now.  Sadly, the same thing in reverse can be said of the victims of bullying – they can feel that no one has ever felt as alone and tormented as they do now.  One of the best things about Savage’s book is that it lets gay teenagers know they are not alone.  The essays it contains show young victims know they are part of a human community of other gays who likewise survived bullying; so they can too.

Second, an old truism says that one of the greatest human needs is hope.  If we can cling to some shred of hope, we can survive almost anything, and if we lose all hope, we too are lost.  Sadly, people who commit suicide – including the alarming number of gay teens – do so because they feel hopeless.  Another great thing about Savage’s book is that it holds out to gay teens a ray of hope – a ray that begins with the book’s title and shines through all the pages that follow.  Things will get better.

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Big Things Come in Small Packages



Cool Salsa:  Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States

by L. M. Carlson

Carlson, M. (1994 ). Cool salsa: bilingual poems on growing up Latino in the United States. New York: H. Holt and Co.

L. M. Carlson’s Cool Salsa:  Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States was a surprisingly small paperback book of 136 pages, but it had a lot of features I really liked.  The contributing poets should collectively appeal to a broad range of Latino teenage readers since they come from a wide range of geographic backgrounds including:  U.S., Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Argentina, Guatemala, Bolivia, Salvador, Chile and Columbia.  It was interesting that some of the poems rhymed, like “Abuelito Who” while other were blank verse, like “Home and Homeland.”  Some of the poems were in English, some were in Spanish, and some, like “El Monstrous” were translated from English into Spanish.

 

One element of Cool Salsa that I especially liked was a glossary at the back that mentioned each poem and gave footnote-style explanations of certain things within each piece that students might need explained.  I think this made the book much more kid-friendly and accessible to teenage readers.  However, I felt my age when I saw a note for “A Puerto Rican Girl’s Sentimental Education” that felt it necessary to explain who Cantinflas was.  I remember, as a little boy, seeing him in movies and marveling at the comedic genius of the man known as Mexico’s Charlie Chaplin.

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What About the Good Kids?



What Have You Lost by Naomi Nye

Nye, N. (1999). What have you lost. New York: Greenwillow Books.



Naomi Nye’s What Have You Lost would be a real surprise for a teenager expecting singsong poems about flowers and rainbows.  The poems have a blank verse grittiness that seems like a poetic version of realistic fiction.  Abbot Cutler’s “Letter to Terry Dobson” and Diana Der-Hovanessian’s “Secret to Life” especially moved me, perhaps in part because they refer to the Maine-N.H. area where I grew up.  The photographs in the book are as stark as the words.

 

The only thing that bothered me about the collection of poems was that they seemed to focus on teenagers who were stressed, lost, etc.  Since this was a collection of poems that could encompass any and all themes, it would have been nice to have also included some works that the classic All-American kids could also relate to.  Wouldn’t it be nice if the teenagers who stay out of trouble, study hard and try to be just good kids could have someone write poems for them that acknowledge their hard work, encourage their efforts and inspire them to continue to stay on the right track.

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