Graphic Novel (two Trade collections) Thor, God of Thunder: The God Butcher & Godbomb; Jason Aaron & Esad Ribic

I've been slowly dipping my toe back into reading serialized comics again (God help me), starting with the new Thor (she's lovely! - but only two issues so far) and the "off-duty" Hawkeye series.  I heard good things about this one, and thought I'd give it a whirl, as it's a fairly-stand-alone story.

Thor: God of Thunder; Vol.1: The God Butcher
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Esad Ribic
Color Artists: Dean White & Ive Svorcina
Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino
Graphic Novel: collecting Thor: God of Thunder, issues 1-5


Thor: God of Thunder; Vol. 2: Godbomb
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Esad Ribic
Pencils: Butch Guice
Inks: Tom Palmer
Color Artist: Ive Svorcina
Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino
Graphic Novel: collecting Thor: God of Thunder, issues 6-11


In this graphic collection, we get not one, not two, but THREE Thors!

We first encounter our God of Thunder many thousands of years in the past, before he has become worthy of wielding Mjolnir, and has to make do with flying goats and the great axe Jarnbjorn.  Poor guy.  He's on earth, enjoying the adoration and warmaking of the early Vikings, when he gets his first indication that something is very wrong with the universe, as an encounter quickly becomes deadly.

Next up is of course Thor of the Avengers in the present day (whenever that happens to be), familiar to most via the recent Marvel movies.  He's tooling around the universe, and stops to answer a child's prayer for rain - the gods of her world have stopped answering them.  Naturally brash and curious, Thor investigates, and to his shock, he's dragged into another deadly encounter with a foe he had long-ago forgotten, back on earth.

Finally, we get Ancient Thor, a dead ringer for Odin (and about as snarky) who weilds Mjolnir in an abandoned and ruined Asgard, pinned down and repeatedly tormented by inky liquid void creatures who won't ever kill him, but leave him there to rot in bitter solitude.


From these introductions, we gradually learn, as Thor does, the story of a disillusioned young person who becomes ever more bitter and vengeful, until he finds great power and uses it to revenge his slights.  As he travels his dark road, he becomes so much worse than the evils he set out to annihilate.

There is time-travel here, and it's handled decently well (I was grateful to the call-outs to the X-Men's greater familiarity with such things, and with the inevitable forgetting that occurs to prevent this being expected by the elder two Thors).

I will say the climactic sequence was a little confusing with multiple iterations of the same person flying about being Godlike, in what I think were several different locations.

Still, the gist of the story was always clear, the character(s) of Thor are actually amazingly differentiated, there are secondary characters who are interesting and seem to have lives outside of their appearances here.

There is also drama and humor, evil and benevolence, great power to overcome or co-opt, a villain that is always treated sympathetically by the text, even as he's being pummeled by Gods, and an underlying question of whether these "gods" even deserve to be named such and worshipped (said question is left unanswered, in a bravura moment of introspection by a normally less-than-thoughtful Thor).  

Not bad for a comic book, huh?

Graphic Novel (Trade collection) Wonder Woman: The Circle, Gail Simone

Wonder Woman: The Circle
Gail Simone
Pencils: Terry Dodson, Bernard Chang, Ron Randall
Inks: Rachel Dodson, Bernard Chang, Ron Randall, Jon Holdridge
Colors: Alex Sinclair, I.L.L., Lee Loughridge, Pete Pantazis
Letters: Rob Leigh, Travis Landham, John J. Hill
ISBN: 9781401219321
Finished November 24, 2014


This one has been on my desk for months, but for some reason, intelligent apes and super-Nazis just bugged me too much, and I never got rolling with it until today.  The Nazi's and apes petered out pretty quickly, but I'm still confused by pretty much everything that happened in the modern world, and would have been totally happy to stay on the island (in the past and the present) to watch the political / religious / jealous intrigue work itself out over time.

Tuesday Storytime: Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving storytimes.  There are so many good and interesting Thanksgiving books to hunt through and familiarize myself with, and it's lovely to have them all up on display to tempt patrons to check them out.  However, finding books that suit my particular style and age-group is a little harder, and I've fallen back on a few favorites over the years.  This year is no exception.

A Plump and Perky Turkey

Teresa Bateman, illustrated by Jeff Shelly

ISBN: 0761451889

Cartoonish, crowded spreads and vignettes capture loads of energy, expression, and emotion.

This one is just barely short enough for my kids to handle - it's got some impressive chunks of rhyme in it, and I wonder if the little ones are actually catching the story itself, but no matter if they don't quite get it.  Squawk Valley has not managed to procure any turkeys for their communal Thanksgiving Feast, because the birds have wised up and fled.  Instead of hunkering down to bowls of shredded wheat, the townies decide to lure a bird in by pretending they need a model for a "turkey-themed" art fair.  Pete the clever turkey (a very large part of me deeply wishes that he'd been named Tom) decides he's just the bird for the job, models and preens and eats his fill - then skips out right before dinner.  The ending is a tad quick, and therefore a bit anti-climactic, but it's still a funny take on Thanksgiving turkey shenanigans, without the problematic kidnapping flavor of Eve Bunting's A Turkey for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Cats

Jean Marzollo, illustrated by Hans Wilhelm

ISBN: 0590037145

Soft-edged and soft-colored "vintage" drawings show happy cats prepping and enjoying a rustic feast.

I've used this book three years in a row now, and I am still quite happy with it.  It's short, snappy, the pictures are adorable, and the storyline is easy to follow as we see "Farmer cats" harvesting veggies, fruits, and dairy, and then "Kitchen cats" prepping them all into lovely foods, all the while "farmer kittens" and "kitchen kittens" play around underfoot.  I love that there seems to be a purposeful presentation of both farm and kitchen cats as being both genders.  Adorable, short, and sweet.

Thanks for Thanksgiving

Julie Markes (Good Thing You're Not an Octopus), illustrated by Doris Barrette

ISBN: 9780060510985

Rich saturate colors call to mind Victorian holiday cards, featuring child-focused scenes.

This is another that I've used for several years running, and again, I continue to be quite happy with it.  The length is perfect, the illustrations are lovely and clear, and the language is simple without being cloying or cutesy.  The concept is roughly like a prayer, but the "Thank you" phrasing is non-religious and non-directed.  Each spread offers thanks for a situation or scene that is relevant and understandable to a child; "Thank you for play dates, for swings and for slides" and "Thank you for Mommy, and warm, cozy cuddles." A perfect ending for storytime, and a nice contemplative and gratitude-filled read.

Nonfiction, Microhistories: How We Got to Now, Steven Johnson

Related to a PBS special, this book is oddly flat, especially considering the interesting innovations and conceptual foundations it deals with.  It took me several weeks to finish, which is rare for me - I kept putting it down and procrastinating getting back to it.

How We Got to Now: Six Innovations that Made the Modern World
Steven Johnson
ISBN: 9781594632969
Finished November 24, 2014

Our six innovations are:
Glass
Cold
Sound
Clean
Time
and
Light

The idea is that while individual "gee whiz" inventions like lights or phonographs or detergent are really great and all, what really matters to society and the development of culture and technological advances are the underlying relations between scientific concepts, and that the area of the "near possible" - the stuff that is just close enough to current technology and social mores to imagine - drives the great majority of the underlying stuff we all take for granted as part of a modern world.

Interesting idea, but somehow the execution of it just fell a bit flat for me.  I don't know if it was because it's tied-in to a television series, and the passion and energy went towards the visuals and the presentation there, but it just didn't click with me.

Still, really nifty information, and that concept of the "near possible" is a newly named one for me, and one I'm going to keep in mind.

New Nonfiction Picture Books: Ferris Wheels, Edward Hooper, the Holocaust, and Ocean Navigation

A varied set of books today, and all of these were notable, and beautiful.

All of these are technically biographies, but all of them are listed as nonfiction in their respective subject matters, which I prefer.

From the least to most profound:

Mr Ferris and His Wheel
Kathryn Gibbs Davis, illustrated by Gilbert Ford
ISBN: 9780547959221
Lovely light-infused spreads showcase the challenges and the glory of the first Ferris Wheel.

The illustrations here really are spectacular, but the story is well-paced and clearly presented.  After the Eiffel Tower stole the show at the Paris World Fair, Chicago was in a panic to find something extraordinary to present the very next year that would not leave American reputations in the dust.  After a failed contest to spark new ideas, the committee finally gave Mr Ferris permission (but no money) to attempt his monstrous wheel, which everyone expected to be a folly at best, and a hazard at worst.  Everyone expected it to fail, but they underestimated the strength and utility of the newly produced steelworks.  After months of labor (grittily illustrated in sepia) the wheel rose majestically into the sky, worked perfectly, entranced the nation, and inspired copies to be built across the county.  A sources section gives the origins of specific quotations, but could have used a larger bibliography.


Dare the Wind: the Record-Breaking Voyage of Eleanor Prentiss and the Flying Cloud
Tracy Fern, illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully
ISBN: 9780374316990
Beautiful watercolors in striking compositions enlivens a straighforward tale of sailing.

Ellen (Eleanor) Prentiss was trained by her sea-faring father in the arts of sailing and navigation, at a time when most women remained in the home.  After marrying another sailor, the two joined forces as captain and navigator, which became useful when they purchased an experimental clipper ship (designed for speed at sea) and discovered an experimental "scientific method" of following better winds and ocean currents to achieve better travel times between far-flung ports.  At this time, the only way to get from New York to San Fran by sea was to go alllllll the way around South America first.  Ellen Prentiss and her husband shattered the record of roughly four months by making the same voyage in just under 90 days, then years later, cutting nearly another day off her own record.   A beautiful book, with a fun, fast-paced story of an adventurer and scientist, pushing boundaries and making history in the process.


Edward Hopper Paints His World
Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Wendell Minor (How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow?)
ISBN: 9780805087529
Loving re-creations (and re-imaginings) of Hopper's work do a lot to add resonance to a narrative that strives a bit too hard for deeper meaning.

An excellent early biography of a famous American painter (Hopper's most generally-known work is Nighthawks, showing a pair of well-dressed patrons at a 24/hour diner with a white-clad cook, surrounded by the darkness of city streets at night) is straightforward and direct, but has a very odd, somewhat off-putting way of forcing the reader to consider things in a deeper way.  Not content to present the life and paintings of the artist in context, the narration tries to force a connection between the artist and the subjects he painted, and the style of his paintings.  Perhaps the background is there to support it, but it felt forced and slightly pretentious.  Still, the paintings in the book are beautiful, and do a great deal to support and magnify the biographical information.


Gifts from the Enemy
Trudy Ludwig, illustrated by Craig Orback
ISBN: 9781935952978
Haunting oil-paintings and expressive faces carry this slim hopeful narrative of the Holocaust.

It is really hard to make a picture book about some subjects, but it is equally important that somehow we make difficult subjects and hard conversations in a way that children impacted by them can feel seen and justified. (Eve Bunting has been involved in many books of this nature, but even with her masterful touch, most of them are just way too haunting and shattering for me to feel comfortable presenting them to children)  The Holocaust has always seemed like one of those topics that a picture book just can't handle effectively for smaller children.  This book has changed my mind.  Our narrator begins as an elderly man, recounting in clear but understated language how the persecution began, turned to oppression, and then to extermination.  Still, in the midst of terror and hunger and persecution, he found an ally in a German woman who left him food daily, in defiance of posted orders.  This act of compassion, and that gift of food, made him realize that the very stereotypes that allowed Germans to persecute Jews for their "differences" was making him hate all Germans for evil actions they may not have know about, or may be acting against to the best of their ability.  The story ends on this note of hope and peace and compassion.  A short Afterword uses much stronger language to present the deprivation and fear he faced, but reiterates the message of understanding and peace.  A short paragraph explains the Holocaust itself, and a Vocabulary explains the concepts presented in the story.  A final spread includes Questions for Discussion, and Recommended Activities for Young Readers.

Tuesday Storytime: Creativity and Hard Work

This storytime was inspired way back in spring of this year when I was looking through STEM-related books for our Summer Reading Program.  I found this in late spring, and reviewed it in June, and I finally got to use it today.

The Most Magnificent Thing

Ashley Spires

ISBN: 9781554537044

A girl inventor and her pug battle through the struggle to get your inventions to 'just go right' in a series of comic-book vignettes of cartoon-outlined figures and minimalist spaces.

This book is a really excellent representation of so many important things, it's hard to know where to start.  

First, the inventor is a girl, who invents with no help or input from other people, or even parental figures. 

Second, the process of invention is clear and un-idealized, from initial concept to drawing to the sometimes drawn-out process of trial-and-error building.  

Thirdly, the book hits on the importance of motivation, persistence, self-soothing, re-evaluating, and finding different approaches, all without being preachy or dragging the story along.  

Fourthly, each of the "wrong" things is shown being "right" for some other use, getting into re-use and repurposing.  

Finally, the constant conflict between the ideal concept in your head, and the physical manifestation of it in the world (which is always worse, because of natural laws and applicable skill-levels, and is never really understood by anyone else, because they can't see inside your head) is explained so very well for a younger set.

LOVE.

Beautiful Oops

Barney Saltzberg

ISBN: 9780761157281

Board-Book with flaps, "tears" "folds" "spills" and other imperfections and damage, used creatively to become artistic expressions.

I really hesitated to use this book for a few reasons.  First, it's a board-book, so about 6" square - a bit on the small side for group use.  Second, it's got all sorts of flip-out, fold-down, turn-over, open-up, stretch-out fiddly bits on each page, which are awesome, but difficult for me to manipulate and still focus on the presentation of the book.  Third, well, here's where things get philosophical.  The concept of the book is that "oops" moments like spilled paint or torn paper or folded corners or food stains aren't necessarily bad things, and can be used as a springboard for creativity.  Which is a great lesson - for things that are your own (ie, not library books, as this is), and if you weren't wanting to preserve the state of the original thing as it's own work of artistic creation (ie, like a finished picture book, as this is).  So, I was really hesitant, but I loved the concept, and decided to just go with it, and I'm glad I did, because the kids and parents really loved it.  I'm still a little iffy over having maybe presented a subtle argument that damaging library materials is really ok because it can be "fixed" with creativity, but I'll just hope for the best.  

(This is ending up as a very list-heavy posting today.)

The Dot

Peter H. Reynolds
ISBN: 0763619612

Scribbly-drawn black and white characters with loose sloppy colors marking emotionally important concepts or moments.

An older book, but still very good.  Vashti (excellent name for our protagonist, and again a girl creator) does NOT draw, and when her teacher insists, she stabs the paper with her marker, creating a violent (but very small) dot.  The teacher insists she sign it, and the next day, it's hanging in an ornate frame behind the teacher's desk.  Inspired (or more appropriately, challenged) Vashti embarks on an artistic journey of dottyifying.  Colorful dots, big dots, little dots, negative-space dots (amazing description in kid-language for that endeavor), great big enormous dots.  At the art showcase, her works are admired by a younger boy who also "can't draw" but she encourages him to create one small work, and then on the very last page, to "sign it."  Really deep thoughts about the perceived "professional" status of artists, about the difficulty of trying something new, about being personally challenged, about legitimacy, and all wrapped up in a lovely picture book that event the toddlers enjoy.  Excellent work all around.

Next week is Thanksgiving!

Motivational Biography: The Art of Asking, by Amanda Palmer

The Art of Asking
Amanda Palmer
ISBN: 9781455581085
Read November 10, 2014

Basically everything I want to say about this book was said better and faster by Cory Doctorow in his article/review/philosophical musings hosted by The New Statesman, published November 11, 2014.  Because I like to link to people rather than organizations as much as possible, you're headed over to his blog, where there's a short snippet and a click-through to the article itself.

Short version for click-averse or in the wilds of the future where links are broken and chaos reigns:

This is a really great biography of Amanda, and an even greater manifesto to artists and really to people in general to just accept that the majority of people are good and helpful, and to quit feeling like it's an imposition to ask people for help or to contribute.  Most people WANT to help, and it's incumbent on us to learn how to ask without being greedy or pompous, but also without needlessly presenting as a terribly guilty shame-faced imposition.  Just bloody ask already.

The impetus for the book came from a duo of TED talks focused on the same subject, and here in the book she attempts to find the reasons why it's so hard for her (and for others) to just ask people for help.  It's a great social commentary, and a really necessary one for the "business" of the arts right now, as everything is in flux and funding is becoming less and less corporate and businesslike and impersonal.

The book left me excited for the future, and hopeful about humanity, and a little bummed at myself that I don't feel at all brave enough to follow her advice.  I hope when/if the time comes, I can summon the courage to Ask.

Fantasy Romance: The Hearts and Thrones Series 2&3, Spy's Honor and Prince's Fire, by Amy Raby

These are the last two of the trilogy published by Signet, but Amy Raby's got a fourth (Healer's Touch) self-published, as well as a novella in e-pub, and another entire mystery series set in the Indus valley in early pre-history.

Anyway, back to the point.

First book in the series (Assassin's Gambit) I read a while ago, and enjoyed it.  It helps that it's a light-hearted fantasy romp, with less romance and more wacky hi-jinks.

These two were added to the collection at the same time, so I was able to read them together, which was nice.  The other wasn't so far back in the mists of memory that I needed to read it again, but I do suggest that you read all three close together, as the characters do pop back and forth through each other's stories (and this continues in the fourth book, based on the excerpt on the author's website).

Spy's Honor (Hearts and Thrones, book 2)
Amy Raby
ISBN: 9780451417831
Read November 8, 2014

Prince's Fire (Hearts and Thrones, book 3)
Amy Raby
ISBN: 9780451417848
Read November 9, 2014


Spy's Honor is the first, chronologically-speaking, and cover's Rhianne's involvement with the Mosari heir to the throne, in disguise as a slave in her Kjallan imperial gardens.  Despite my preference for reading books in chronological order, I have to say that I feel that this series works much like The Chronicles of Narnia, in that the mid-series adventures of Emperor Lucien and Vitala works much better as the entry point, allowing the reader to then go back and see how "history" unfurled to link his cousin with a neighboring (and somewhat hostile) country.

Prince's Fire then jumps into the future, after Lucien has been ruling peacefully for years.  Despite the glorious history (insert sarcasm) of arranged marriages in his immediate family, Lucien has decided to offer his youngest sister, the Imperial Princess Celeste, in marriage to another neighboring prince (less sarcasm here; the first one apparently worked quite well with Rhianne) as the sweet enticement to a trade agreement.  Hearkening back to the first book, Riorca and assassins feature prominently, as does a lovely island nation that bears a striking resemblance to Hawai'i.  The match is fraught with misunderstandings and prejudices on both sides (naturally) but the duo fall in love (equally naturally) in time to prevent another royal coup and save the island from a natural disaster.

Are these amazing works of plotting and characterization?  Nope.  But they're fun, they are quick reads, the plot zips along with just enough speed that you almost don't notice the plot-rails underneath, and the world-building, although derivative, is actually interesting and cohesive.  The magic style (infinite magic powered through personal connections to a spirit realm) isn't my favorite (I much prefer limited and costly magic) but it's coherent and understandable, and actually reflected in the social/political landscape of the books, which is more than I can say for a lot of more "serious" literary fantasy.

Enjoyable and lighthearted - perfect for a fall afternoon.

Storytelling: "Chain" tales; The Scarecrow's Hat, by Ken Brown

The Scarecrow's Hat
Ken Brown
ISBN: 9781561452408
Picture Book: sketchy/blotchy vibrant watercolors illustrate the tireless "swapping" a hen does to secure a scarecrow's hat (swapping items from barnyard and forest animals) til she achieves her goal: a cozy nest.

This book is another that I need to be careful in using, because while I love this particular story dearly, I don't feel comfortable taking the story "as-is" from the lovely text and illustrations here.  I feel like I can build up a knowledge base of similar "chain," "cumulative," or "circular" fairy and folk tales.  With that background, I can then create a similar story with a more overt cultural background or setting.  That way I will have a story that will be mine creatively, that I can tell (and screw up, and embellish, and cut down...) without feeling like I am disrespecting another artist's creation.

The story of The Scarecrow's Hat (as far as I can tell from limited research) is unique, but the concept of swapping items is not, and a visit to the "Chain of Deals" page on TV tropes shows us the concept is alive and well today.  The oldest versions are folk-tales (Aarne-Thompson category 2030 "Chain" folktales) and a decently representative example can be found collected here and here.

What I find interesting about The Scarecrow's Hat specifically, and what I hope to incorporate into my own version, is the concept that the swapping is not punitive (there's lots of chain stories where the only thing being chained is threat of physical harm) nor is it "tricksy" where a character is purposefully trying to gain advantage over others, or play them for fools while he (usually a Clever Jack) comes out ahead.  Instead, the hen is straightforward and perseverant, and her knowledge of the animals and their habits allows her to create a chain that is mutually beneficial and transparent (although none of the animals ask her WHY she is trading, or to whom).

My goals for the moment are to spend a lot of time with these chain tales, to research Appalachian mountain settings and local animals, and to use that research to create a similar mutually-beneficial chain of swaps that echoes the gentle, quietly clever, deeply persistent effort that the hen makes in The Scarecrow's Hat.

Juvenile Nonfiction: The Many Faces of George Washington, Carla Killough McClafferty

(Talk about an awesome name for our author!)

The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon
Carla Killough McClafferty
ISBN: 9780761356080
Re-Read November 7, 2014

This one came back through the library system, and I actually took the time to read through it properly this time around, instead of simply admiring the artistry of the three mannequins that were created.

I suppose I ought to start from the beginning.  So everyone's seen dollar bills, and we all know what George Washington looks like - old, grouchy, and sort of fat-faced.  Except, that's only what he looked like after he WAS old, grouchy, and sort of fat-faced (most likely caused by inflammation due to those awful dentures).  So - what did the people who VOTED for our very first President see in him?  Sadly, we really haven't had any pictorial evidence - all of his portraits are from after he was old and tired, and the one life-cast taken of him was never really used for references, outside of the one specific statue that had commissioned it.

So a mixed group of awesome people got a truly stupendous grant to research this famous man, to use all the artistic and forensic and re-creative tools at our disposal to figure out what he most likely looked like at three different important points in his life: as a nineteen-year-old "nobleman" surveyor, as a forty-five-year-old General at Valley Forge, and finally at fifty-seven years old, taking the very first American Presidential Oath of Office.  Pretty cool, right?

The absolute stand-out here is the care and dedication and EFFORT put into making these representations as perfect and accurate as possible for each age.  It's a truly multi-disciplinary approach, and it is amazing how lifelike and much more interesting the results are than the boring old portraits on our currency.

Fair warning, if mannequins or uncanny-valley representations of faces and hands creep you out - steer clear!

Nonfiction: biography/ethnography: Dr. Frau: A Woman Doctor Among the Amish, Grace H. Kaiser

Found while weeding the collection.

Dr. Frau: A Woman Doctor Among the Amish
Grace H. Kaiser
ISBN: 0934672342
Finished November 6, 2014

I was interested in this book because I've always had a bit of an interest/soft spot in my affections for Amish and Mennonite peoples.  My own church upbringing was rural and similarly sheltered from secular influence, so I see a lot of my own background in their culture and lifestyles.  One of my favorite nonfiction books as a child and young adult was Rosanna of the Amish by Joseph W. Yoder,("Restored Text" edition with editor Julia Spicher Kasdorf ISBN: 9780836194081).  I read it often, and was very interested in the lifestyles and religious practices which sometimes matched so closely to my own background, and sometimes seemed so strange and alien to me.

This book wasn't as good as I hoped for, the author is obviously not a natural writer (expected, as she's a professional credentialed working doctor), and her vignettes, while interesting, aren't written in a way that enhances or embellishes their natural circumstances.  On the one hand, that means that the stories are un-polished and sometimes lacking in narrative tricks to sustain interest, but on the other, they are obviously true and natural memories of real-life events in all their chaotic and messy undertones.

If you really adore the Amish, this is an interesting outsider's perspective on them, focused almost exclusively on the experiences of birthing mothers and expectant families (much like James Herriot's stories of veterinary life, there's lots of getting up in the middle of the night from a warm bed and rattling around a cold or rainy countryside, hoping that you get to far-flung farms in time to help).  There is very little internal information - the author never learned much (really any) Pennsylvania Dutch, and her experiences and friendships remain the somewhat reserved and professional contacts between patient and doctor, Amish and English, even though in the countryside, both of those boundaries are less restrictive or formal than they would perhaps be in other situations.

While the narrative voice is clear and appealing, the writing skills are a bit lacking, and for me, that lack of polish was a great detriment to the vignettes that were presented, and the vividness of the people and events suffered.

Writing Resource: Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade against Child Labor, Russell Freedman

Working on (probably will always be working on) a possible novel, and this is a great collection of Lewis Hine's stunning and heartbreaking photographs of child laborers across the country, in a softbound 9x12 horizontal-orientation book.  Most useful to me for the photos and info on mill and textile workers, and of cannery workers and cotton pickers.

Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade against Child Labor
Russell Freedman, photographs by Lewis Hine
ISBN: 9780395797266
Goodwill Find, November 5, 2014

New Arrivals! Nonfiction Picture Book: Plastic Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

This was a new arrival to my library today, and it's an excellent nonfiction science-inspired book, very like The Dolphins of Shark Bay, only this time focused more on much smaller life-forms.

Plastic Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Patricia Newman, photographs by Annie Crawley
ISBN: 9781467712835
Read November 6, 2014

We follow a trio of (women) graduate students on their scientific mission to the Pacific Garbage Patch, each with their own specific purpose, experiments, and scientific focus, and after being introduced to the mechanics of the ship and the scientific method, and to the Garbage Patch itself, we follow along with each student as she explains how she got interested in oceanography, how she became interested in the Garbage Patch, what her experiments are meant to show, and how she's collecting and storing evidence to further her research.  In a really excellent dedication to academic reality, the text doesn't shy away from one girl who does her research, then upon return home, takes her work in a different direction, and doesn't follow up on her Garbage Patch findings at all.

The illustrations are magnificent, and the photos are all scrupulously identified and placed in context.  The overall book focuses on the science being done, with the environmental-clean-up message relegated to the end.  There are extensive Source Notes, a lovely Glossary, and Index, and a page full of varied Further Reading suggestions.

Excellent and interesting nonfiction read that really goes into surprising depth and detail on a specific mission and trio of experimental research.

Goodwill Find! Fantasy: The Coelura, Anne McCaffrey, illustrated by Ned Dameron

Found this at the Goodwill, in the children's section, which I disagree with slightly - I don't think the story would hold a child's interest very well, being a glorified love story.

The Coelura
Anne McCaffrey, illustrated by Ned Dameron
ISBN: 0312930429 (this illustrated edition from 1987, original story from 1983)
Read November 5, 2014

I want to say this is a good book, because the story and the world and the illustrations (let's be honest here and say that my delight was MOSTLY because of the illustrations) were so much fun to jump into for a short afternoon read.  I read it over lunch, it's only 156 paperback-sized pages, and many of those pages are illustrations.  If it weren't for the copyright page, I'd be highly temped to say that the illustrations came first, and the story was created as an attempt to mesh them all together, but knowing the story was written first makes me somehow gleefully happy at the bonkers illustrations of characters, environments, and poses that Dameron decided needed interpreting.  His vision of the protagonist at age 14 is especially delightful, and very reminiscent of the eighties.

So, is this a good book?  Sadly, not really.  The language is stilted and grasping for "alienness" in phrases and descriptions, the characters all speak and act like they're college theatre majors doing their first Shakespeare production, with lots of expansive gesturing (in the text, as well as the illustrations) and very proper, very formal, very unrealistic dialogue.  The plot isn't any great shakes either - in 120 pages, it ought to be trim, but a lot of time and energy are wasted on the wordy dialogue-laden intro, then the follow-up manages both to totally fulfill cliche expectations while missing a giant Chekov's gun in regards to one specific character which changes the entire climax and denouement of the story (in my opinion for the worse).  Also, egregious editor fail:  bells "peal" and one can "peel" fruit.  Different words, different meanings.

Summary: (spoilers?)
Caissa is the "body-heir" of a planetary regional governor (no more specifics, just that he's obviously rich and important and part of "society" in this place - our descriptions of jobs and titles are forever maddeningly vague) and thus will inherit all of his wealth and glory and positions, in addition to whatever she manages to accrue on her own.  Her "womb-mother" is obsessed with fashion and the high-life, and doesn't spend much time on this small world with nothing other than hunting and a small court of provincials.  Mom leaves one day in a huff, declaring that she's still owed part of her "contract" that dad hasn't fulfilled, and Caissa is now curious.  She discovers that there is a missing species on the planet, but meanwhile she just had her first serious proposal to be a mother to a body-heir of another society person (her dad is adamant that she consider the proposal for political reasons that STILL, even after finishing the story, remain unclear), and she's so miffed by his inept and condescending advances that she runs away to fly her personal aircraft out in the wilderness to seethe and pout.  Out there on her own she hears a faint distress beacon from the restricted islands which are connected to the missing species, finds a crashed ship, and the rest of the story proceeds according to exactly what you're thinking it will, discovering the "missing" species and their purpose and value, establishing a love-interest, and putting very shaky legs on a mystery/conspiracy.  There are random detours and red-herrings that spawn at random intervals, flap around wildly to be sure to be noticed, and then are utterly ignored.

So, good story?  Not exactly.  It was a bit frustrating, and more amusing to read than actually good or interesting, but it was a fun experience, and there were those excellent zany illustrations to pore over!

Tuesday Storytime: Counting on Animals

So many good counting, sequential, and numeracy books out there, it's very easy to subdivide them into really specific categories.

Nine Ducks Nine
Sarah Hayes
ISBN:09780763638160
Bright white ducks (and one mallard hen) count down from 9 preparing a tricky surprise for a fox.

This one is very similar to Judy Hindley's Do Like a Duck Does, and I've used it with that one, putting the wordless Rosie's Walk (Pat Hutchins) in the middle for an 'outwit the fox' storytime.  Here I went with the count-down aspect of the story, as the nine ducks begin luring and teasing the fox to chase them down to the "rickety old bridge" as individual ducks keep slipping off to prepare the trap.  Cute, but a couple of comments calling characters "stupid" at the end get redacted by me, just to be on the safe side.



One, Two, Cockatoo
Sarah Garson
ISBN: 9781842709443
Saturated colors in the background make the white cockatoos (in the wild) stand out vividly.

Very cute, but VERY short.  A nice look at addition, on an extremely basic level, and slowly counting up to ten total, with a bonus baby chick bringing us to (an unstated) eleven.  The birds are drawn beautifully and expressively, with lots of inclusive and friendly gestures that don't ever cross the line into too-human.


One-Dog Canoe
Mary Casanova (Utterly Otterly Night), illustrated by Ard Hoyt
ISBN: 9780312561185
Consistently shocked expressions on our narrator's face really sell this cumulative canoe trip.

Our narrator is setting off on a canoe ride, but her sweet pup begs for a ride, which she agrees to, calling their craft firmly a "one-dog canoe."  Her decision gets repeatedly overruled by larger and larger wilderness-appropriate animals - a beaver, a loon, wolf, bear, moose, and finally the one frog that is more than the canoe can take.  The animals are sketched loosely for comedic effect, but remain mostly anatomically correct, and certainly are all size-correct.  The canoe at the end is barely visible.  Everyone naturally gets a dunking, then narrator and dog are back on their way, having reiterated that it really IS a "one-dog canoe."