Sunday, March 23, 2014

'Elijah of Buxton' by Christopher Paul Curtis

Curtis, Christopher Paul. (2007). Elijah of Buxton. New York, Scholastic, Inc. ISBN: 9780439023450

Photo by: L. Propes
Most American schoolchildren are taught about the effect of the Fugitive Slave Act, passed in 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850 that admitted California as a free state; gave Texas 10 million dollars in exchange for relinquishing claims on disputed territory and set its present-day boundaries; and abolished the slave trade in Washington, D.C., but kept slavery legal.  The Fugitive Slave Act meant that former slaves who had successfully escaped into the North now risked recapture back into slavery.  Free African-Americans were also targets for slave catchers to be sold into slavery.  The Underground Railroad was at its most active in this period, ferrying escaped slaves into Canada (PBS, 2014).

But what happened to the freed slaves once they were in Canada?

Elijah of Buxton tells the story of Elijah, the first (fictional) child born in the settlement of Buxton, in what is now western Ontario.  Buxton was founded by an abolitionist white Presbyterian minister to be a town for freed slaves.  Buxton was not the only town whose initial residents were mostly former slaves, but it was the most successful (Curtis, 2007).  Elijah's status as the first child born in Buxton means he receives just a bit more attention than the other children born there after him.  Over the course of the story, Elijah learns to appreciate the very freedom he has because of his birthplace.  Between overhearing stories from the adults in Buxton and his own involvement in an attempt to aid a fellow resident purchase his family's freedom, Elijah sees his freedom for the precious gift that it is.

Elijah Freeman is an ordinary eleven year-old boy.  He has school, chores, his friends, and a talent for throwing stones at his intended targets.  Elijah's mother calls him "fra-gile".  Elijah isn't physically fragile.  He's a sensitive and often perceptive young man who often wears his heart on his sleeve.  Elijah also happens to have a healthy fear of snakes. His parents, both escaped slaves, want Elijah to make the most of the opportunity that freedom have given them all.  The novel covers the rhythm of life in Buxton over the course of several months.  New residents arrive in Buxton with origins shrouded in mystery.  One resident finally has acquired enough money to purchase his wife and two children.  Slave catchers are rumored to have made it as far north as Canada.  A carnival comes to the neighboring town.

An underlying tension permeates the novel, introduced in the opening pages.  It often revolves the character of the Preacher, a man Elijah can't bring himself to trust completely, even though he feels a minister ought to be trustworthy.  Elijah's dealings with the Preacher always leave him unsettled, and feeling that something wrong has happened and unsure of how to articulate his feelings.  Plus, the Preacher refuses to live in Buxton and abide by its rules.  His past is a blank page to the Buxton residents.  The stories he spins about how he manages to acquire certain things, like a pair of matched pistols, ring hollow.  But, he is the Preacher.  There's also the tension between the adults, who remember their lives of often harsh servitude, and the children who have only known Buxton.  There is also the tension of the escaped slaves, remembering their family members that were left behind in the South.

The pace of the novel meanders a little.  It feels like a river, flowing placidly along its course, curving and twisting as the landscape changes until it hits a sudden drop and the action comes in a rapid burst until it levels out again.  There are several instances in the book where the action rises and falls, but the actual climax of the novel occurs late in the book.  It does, however, drive the final nail into the coffin for Elijah's "fra-gile" nature.  The pace of the novel complements Elijah's maturation, as it happens with so many children, in fits and starts.

Curtis writes the narrative of the novel from Elijah's point of view, so not only is the dialogue written in dialect, so is the narrative text.  There are a few terms that might be unfamiliar to some readers, but  their meaning is clear from the characters reactions.  Their voices can clearly be heard inside a reader's head, and this novel would lend itself well to a read-aloud.  The language is appropriate for the time period and for the age of the story's narrator.

Curtis is a master in this book of showing the reader events and their effect on the characters, rather than just telling them.  He often shows the readers the effect of slavery on families, particularly when a new family, the Taylors, arrives in Buxton.  The Misses Duncan, sisters, recognize Mrs. Taylor as their baby sister, sold to Arkansas from North Carolina when Mrs. Taylor was just a small child with their brother.  Curtis allows the situation of unfold through the dialogue between the Misses Duncan and Mr. Taylor and Elijah's private observations about the way the adults act in this potentially disruptive situation.   Elijah is, in fact, an ideal observer of the life in Buxton.  As a child, he often fades into the background and overhears conversations that he would otherwise not be privy to had the adults known he was listening.   Elijah's internal commentary also displays his growing maturation and provides a window into the community politics of Buxton.

This is a look at a place that isn't even on the radar of most American history classes.  Of course most students have been taught that many escaped slaves ended up in Canada, but their class narrative ends at the 49th parallel.  Curtis visited the settlement of Buxton (it still exists, but primarily as a museum) and used many of their resources to construct the history of Elijah and his community.  Several events in the book were inspired by actual events, which he notes in an author's note at the end of the novel. He even remarks that Buxton was such a successful town due to the strict rules that governed the appearance of houses and their property in a mid-eighteenth century precursor of a homeowners association.  Small details, like how long it would take for mail to be delivered to Buxton from the United States or the value of a nickel, bring the historical era to vivid life.  Curtis offers a small reference list in a brief history of Buxton (aka the Elgin Settlement at Buxton) as well as a timeline of the history of Buxton, and encourages readers to try to visit the museum.

This would be an excellent resource to use in a history class, especially if they are studying the role of slavery in U.S. history.  This would also be an excellent story to tell during African-American History Month, because it would probably be a brand-new episode of African-American history for many students to experience.  The Buxton National Historic Site and Museum has a website that includes teaching resources for classrooms (see "The Learning Centre" tab).  The Día Family Book Club has a free downloadable lesson plan that can be used in a family literacy program about Elijah of Buxton.

Elijah of Buxton is a Newberry Honor book, the winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, and the winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for historical fiction.  It is also available as an audiobook, read by Mirron Willis.  

Other books suggested by the Buxton museum include: I Came as a Stranger by Bryan Prince, The Last Safe House by Barbara Greenwood, North Star to Freedom by Gena K. Gorrel, and Many Thousand Gone by Virginia Hamilton.  

 Christopher Paul Curtis has written many books about the African-American experience throughout history.  His novels include The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963 (Newberry Honor; Coretta Scott King Honor); Bud, Not Buddy (Newberry Medal winner; Coretta Scott King Award); The Mighty Miss Malone, Bucking the Sarge; and the upcoming The Madmen of Piney Woods, a companion book to Elijah of Buxton.

Readers can also visit Curtis' website at www.nobodybutcurtis.com.

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"It's funny, it's sad, and it has characters who do their best to stand up to what's in front of them and do the right thing.  Humor and horror and courage are never far apart in this story, sometimes intertwined in a single scene.  Curtis is a masterful storyteller, and this is his best work yet." -- Dean Schneider, Book Links, 2008
"Elijah is an engaging protagonist, and whether he is completing his chores or lamenting his Latin studies or experiencing his first traveling carnival, his descriptions are full of charm and wonder.  Although his colloquial language may prove challenging for some readers, it brings an authenticity and richness to the story that is well worth the extra effort it might require... His guileless recounting of the people he meets and the horrors he sees will allow readers to understand the dangers of the Underground Railroad without being overwhelmed by them... Curtis's talent for dealing with painful periods of history with grace and sensitivity is as strong as ever." -- Kim Dare, School Library Journal, 2007
"Curtis deals with the difficult topic of slavery from a youthful perspective, allowing Elijah to learn of its sadness and pain first hand.  This is done without overwhelming the reader, by infusing the novel with humor.  Character development and voice are great strengths of this terrific novel." -- Spencer Korson, Library Media Connection, 2008
"Curtis' rare combination of humor, suspense, and emotional depth approaches the subject of slavery obliquely at first but gradually leads Elijah to the human tragedy at its core." -- Booklist, 2008
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References:

Curtis, Christopher Paul. 2007. Elijah of buxton. Boston: Sandpiper.




Schneider, Dean. 2008. Holding on to hope. Book Links 18 (2) (11): 11-5, 
       http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?           
       direct=true&db=a9h&AN=35265694&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

 The compromise of 1850 and the fugitive slave act. [cited March 23 2014]. Available from  
       http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2951.html.
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Saturday, March 22, 2014

'Okay For Now' by Gary D. Schmidt

Schmidt, Gary D. (2011). Okay For Now. Boston: Sandpiper.  ISBN: 9780544022805 (paperback)

Photo by: L. Propes
Doug Swieteck has problems.  His father's abusive.  He's the youngest of three boys.  The middle brother is a bully.  His oldest brother is overseas, fighting in a war.  And on top of it all, his family is forced to move.  For Doug, a Long Island boy, born and bred, the move to Marysville in upstate New York might as well be to another planet.  Ostensibly a fresh start, the problems from their working-class Long Island neighborhood have followed them to Marysville.  For Doug, Marysville marks the place where everything comes to a head, and he -- and the other members of his family -- must confront their personal demons.  It's a situation that will either destroy Doug or help him find out who he really is.

Okay For Now is a companion book to Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars.  Written from the perspective of Doug, Schmidt examines a fraught family dynamic that initially seems as if it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Mr. Swieteck takes out his frustrations on his wife and sons, leading Doug and his middle brother to wonder if the same fate awaits them.  Mrs. Swieteck shows Doug that there is room for compassion and sympathy in the world, often managing to thwart Mr. Swieteck's stated wishes in small acts of passive resistance.  While the initial relationship between Doug and his brother is antagonistic, they manage to find common ground in their shared fears of turning into their father.  Their oldest brother returns home from the war, wounded and seemingly broken.

Doug's struggles are legion and almost seem too much for a fourteen year-old to bear, let alone endure.  His early views of Marysville as a prison slowly change as he finds refuge, first in the local public library, then later when he begins to make friends at school.  Doug's friends introduce him to a way of thinking about life, art, and music in ways that he could never have imagined.  His first positive male influence is Mr. Powell, one of the librarians who notices Doug's rapt fascination with their original volume of John James Audubon's Birds of America.  Mr. Powell takes Doug under his wing and teaches him how to draw, using the Audubon prints on display as a teaching tool to explain the finer details of art.  More positive influences emerge in Doug's life: some of his teachers at school who help Doug tackle and cope with some of his bigger problems; neighbors who grow to trust Doug, in spite of a spate of thefts that implicate Doug's brother; and Lilian Spicer, the daughter of the owner of the local grocery and deli, who becomes Doug's ally and best friend.

Schmidt's voice for Doug is a little disjointed in the beginning, jumping from thought to thought.  As Doug gains more and more confidence, the prose becomes more fluid.  The more Doug comes out of his defensive shell, the more he is able to see the world and his own family with more clarity, and that things aren't always how they seem on the surface.  It is at this point that Schmidt allows Doug to see his middle brother's humanity.  For most of the first half of the book, Doug's middle brother has no name.  It isn't until Lucas, their oldest brother, returns home from Vietnam, wounded and disabled, that we learn his name.  Christopher.  The Christopher that we see in the second half of the novel is a revelation.  Schmidt allows his characters' deep-seated emotions to burble to the surface at unexpected moments.  It is like receiving a small gift, wrapped in a bundle of conflict and hostility.

The other characters in the book are almost stock characters: the eccentric playwright, the odd science teacher, the bullying P.E. teacher.  As lovely as the character of Lilian Spicer is, she almost crosses the line into Manic Pixie Dream Girl territory.  With the exception of his immediate family, the other characters in the book are merely players in the stage of Doug Swieteck's memory.  Like all characters, they serve their purpose in giving Doug a glimpse at what his life can become.  The saving grace for many of the characters is that Schmidt offers a peek at the person beneath the facade.  This prevents them from becoming caricatures.

Schmidt frames each chapter with an Audubon print.  Events and characters in that particular chapter are often described in terms of the birds in the print and insights gained from Doug's discussions with Mr. Powell.  The title of the book even comes from one of Doug's observations about the snowy heron in one of the plates.  A hunter lurks in the background, gun poised to shoot the bird.  However, in that moment, just before the gun goes off, Doug realizes that the snowy heron cannot see the hunter, and in that particular moment, his life is okay for now.  Sharp-eyed readers will be able to read between the lines when Doug talks about certain events.  Doug isn't always forthcoming with some of the more painful or embarrassing episodes of his life, and Schmidt withholds details, letting the reader figure them out as the plot unfolds.

The Vietnam War is something relegated to the background, but its presence is a shadow that hangs over the Swieteck family, brought to flesh when Lucas comes home.  Schmidt's depiction of Lucas' homecoming matches the manner in which many Vietnam veterans were greeted as they disembarked from airplanes, trains, or buses.  In age before the Americans With Disabilities Act, Lucas' struggles to just get in an out of buildings or find a job is hampered by buildings and people who cannot accommodate his wheelchair.  Coach Reed, Doug's P.E. teacher is also a veteran of the Vietnam War, but his wounds are much more hidden than Lucas'.  Now, veterans would have access to mental health services, but the lack of such services available to Coach Reed and his attempts to deal with his personal demons neatly describe how veterans were expected to bury the past and move on with their lives.  Mr. Spicer's efforts to pay the medical bills when Lilian becomes ill are timely in an era before health insurance was a given.  Doug's voice sounds just like you might imagine an adolescent boy from a working-class Long Island neighborhood might sound.  The vocabulary and attitudes are also accurate for the late 1960s.

There are a few quibbles with the book.  Late in the novel, Mr. Swieteck undergoes a radical personality change that seems a little too pat and rapid.  Some plot points are wrapped up and tied neatly with a bow at the end.  Sometimes Doug seamlessly integrates himself into his friends' lives, but in all honesty it doesn't take anything away from the book. They are basically minor issues.

As a teacher, I've seen many boys like Doug come into my classroom. Sometimes we can help, like Mr. Ferris and Miss Cowper.  Sometimes we cannot.  The book hearkens back to an time in education where a teacher would have had the time to commit to reaching out to a boy like Doug, to give him time to settle into place, and work through some of his issues with school, without standardized tests hanging over their heads like the Sword of Damocles.  The book also illustrates how easy it would have been for a boy like Doug to slide through the cracks at the time.

Excerpts of this book could be used in an art class, in conjunction with the Audubon images, to teach the concepts Mr. Powell explains to Doug.  Students studying the Vietnam War, or indeed, the effects of any war on its service members, could use this book to examine the issues veterans face when they return from the war front.  Students in a creative writing class can use this book as an exemplar text for writing historical fiction.  While the history forms the backdrop of the novel, it doesn't beat the reader over the head.

Students can also use the book as an entry point to become involved in veterans' groups.  The Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans,  Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, or the Wounded Warriors Project might be good places to start.

Okay For Now was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2011 and the audiobook version (read by Lincoln Hoppe) was an Odyssey Honor audiobook in 2012.  You can find an interview with Schmidt from the National Book Awards Dinner here and a video of Schmidt reading an excerpt from Okay For Now here.

Schmidt is also the author of the Newberry Honor book The Wednesday Wars and the Newberry and Printz Honor book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy.  Schmidt has also written Trouble and What Came From the Stars.

Students might also want to read Walter Dean Myers' Fallen Angels, Dean Hughes' Search and Destroy, or Lt. General Hal Moore's We Were Soldiers Once... and Young.  Readers can try Laurie Halse Anderson's The Impossible Knife of Memory if they would like to read a novel that deals with a family coping with a loved one returning from a more recent war.

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"It's the summer of 1968 and Doug Swieteck has just moved to Marysville, New York.  His father is a mean drunk, his older brother seems to be a juvenile delinquent, and his mother his just trying to hold the family together.  Before the summer ends, Doug has a friend (Lil), an obsession (the work of John James Audubon), and a job (delivering groceries).  Over the course of the school year, Doug begins to change from a wary, closed boy into an open, engaged young man, despite the challenges he faces... The book closes on a bittersweet note, with hope tempering a character's serious illness; but a really happy ending would have felt out of place.  There are laugh-out-loud moments here, and passages that will move a reader to tears; it's brilliant, and beautiful, and very nearly a perfect book." -- Susan A. M. Poulter, Library Media Connection, 2011
"Schmidt incorporates a myriad of historical events from the 1968 setting (the moon landing, a broken brother returning from Vietnam, the My Lai massacre) that makes some of the improbable plot turns... all the more unconvincing.  Still, Doug's story emerges through a distinctive voice that reflects how one beat-up kid can become a young man who knows that the future holds 'so much for him to find.'" -- Betty Carter, Horn Book Magazine, 2011
"Fans of The Wednesday Wars will find that this companion novel has more in common with it than just a charismatic narrator and pitch-perfect details of daily life in the 1960s. In addition to a mix of caring adults and comically unreasonable authority figures, Schmidt also revisits baseball, theatrical escapades, and timely preoccupations like the Moon landing and the Vietnam War.  But Doug's blue-collar story is much darker than Holling's in the earlier novel, and, as a narrator, he more psychologically complex...through study of Audubon's [Birds of America]... the volume itself becomes a metaphor for  his journey from fragmented to whole self.  Schmidt manages a hard balance of relatable youth-is-hard humor and nuanced family trauma." -- Riva Pollard, School Library Journal, 2011
"We slip conventionally enough into "Okay For Now" when a city kid behind a whole rack of metaphorical eight balls heads to a new school in a Catskill backwater.  He's Douglas Swieteck, an eighth grader last seen in Gary D. Schmidt's much praised "Wednesday Wars"... In the literature of outsiders, Doug is as far out there as any... But beneath the jumble of tragedy and tragicomedy is a story about the healing power of art and about a boy's intellectual awakening... The story takes place in 1968, with Doug's family driving their pickup down to Port Authority to collect a brother, home from Vietnam.  But centered on lives badly balanced on the ragged edge of survival and uprooted by poverty, with a distant war rumbling in the background... this is a novel that could easily have been set in the present." -- Richard Peck, The New York Times Book Review, 2011 
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Works Cited:




Poulter, Susan A. M. 2011. Okay for now. Library Media Connection 30 (1) (Aug): 78-, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=82154646&site=ehost-live&scope=site. 
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Friday, March 21, 2014

'The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906' by Laurence Yep

Yep, Laurence. (2006). The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.  ISBN: 9780060008468 (pbk)

Photo by: L. Propes
Imagine waking up in the early morning hours.  It's still dark and you can't see anything.  Then all of a sudden, the house begins to shake.  It lasts less than a minute, but it seems as if it goes on for much longer.  It stops just as suddenly as it starts.  The house isn't the same as it was thirty seconds ago.  The entire front of the house has disappeared, crumbled into the street.  Throughout the day, as you try to salvage what you can from your house, the earth under your feet trembles, and you worry that it will be just like the one that morning.  But it isn't over yet.  Fires break out all over the city and before they die out, much of the city lies in smoldering ruins.

Laurence Yep has written a fascinating (and entertaining) look at the 1906 earthquake that all but destroyed San Francisco.  Henry and Chin are best friends, but Henry lives in the Nob Hill neighborhood and Chin lives in Chinatown.  Chin's father, Ah Sing, works as the "houseboy" for Henry's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Travis.  Yep tells the story of the earthquake through the eyes of Henry and Chin, interspersed with explanations of how the 1906 earthquake happened and the subsequent fires that ravaged what the earthquake left behind.

Yep portrays Henry and Chin as typical young boys, eager to find the heroes that exist in their dreams and the "penny dreadful" books they both obsessively read.  Mr.  and Mr.s Travis are kind and benevolent, treating Ah Sing as an equal.  Ah Sing has a seemingly endless supply of patience with Chin and Henry that serves him well in the aftermath of the earthquake.  Perhaps the relationship between Ah Sing and Mr. and Mrs. Travis might be a little more familiar in the story than what would be historically accurate, but Yep has also painted the Travises in a progressive light.  Henry's San Francisco is miles apart, both literally and figuratively, from the San Francisco where Chin lives.  Yep manages to illustrate the stark differences between Henry's wealthy neighborhood and Chin's poorer one without resorting to lots of exposition.  The descriptions of Chinatown are borne on the recollections of Chin's immigration to the United States and his first impressions of his new home.  Yep describes Nob Hill in terms of the devastation after the earthquake.  The Travises and their neighbors discuss the damage to their homes, often containing priceless heirlooms.  The multifamily dwelling of Ah Sing and Chin is contrasted with the single family homes on Nob Hill.  One thing Yep does particularly well is demonstrate how in the face of brutal natural disasters, ordinary people are capable of heroic deeds.

The book is intended for younger readers (ages 8-12) as indicated on the back cover.  The language in the chapters written from Chin and Henry's point-of-view might not be historically accurate for the time period, but the chapters that describe the earthquake and fires have a lyrical, mystical lilt that separates it nicely from the rest of the story.  The narrative moves at a good pace, and never drags.  Yep includes the date, time, and location of of each chapter, giving the reader a sense of how quickly things progressed.

Yep has a special connection to San Francisco and her earthquakes.  In an afterword, he explains how his own grandfather, who worked as a houseboy, returned to San Francisco from a visit to China the day after the 1906 earthquake.  One of the first stories Yep ever sold was inspired by an earthquake that hit when he was a child.  He also survived the 1989 earthquake that hit just before Game 3 of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics.  He consulted a historian who has done a great deal of research into the 1906 earthquake for this book.  Yep's descriptions of the destruction caused by the earthquakes and fires is certainly accurate, and he also includes events that are known to have occurred.  In a few instances, there helpful footnotes give more detailed explanations of a phrase in order to avoid disrupting the flow of the narrative.  At the back of the book, Yep offers short reference list and photographs of San Francisco after the earthquake.

There is one thing omitted from the book that would give it even more of an effect for the reader: a map of San Francisco.  It would help readers immensely if they could see Nob Hill in relation to Chinatown.  It would also help to be able to find Oakland, where many of the refugees fled.  The lack of a map doesn't detract from the overall effectiveness of the book's depiction of the 1906 earthquake, though.

The Earth Dragon Awakes can obviously be used in a history class.  Students can use it as an example of writing about an event from two separate perspectives.  It could also be used in a science class about plate tectonics and earthquakes.  It can just as easily be used in an elementary classroom as it can an high school class.

Yep lists two websites students and teachers can visit for more information about the 1906 earthquake: the U.S. Geological Survey's website about the earthquake at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/ or the Museum of the City of San Francisco at http://www.sfmuseum.org.

The following websites have information about Laurence Yep, including videos of interviews:

http://www.learner.org/workshops/tml/workshop4/authors5.html

http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/professional-development/childlit/yep.html

http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/yep

Yep is a prolific author and winner of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal.  Some of his many books include Dragonwings (Newberry Honor), Dragon's Gate (Newberry Honor), and the American Girl series about Isabelle.  For a more complete listing of his books, please see the following webpage: http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/professional-development/childlit/yep.html.

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"Yep looks at the San Francisco earthquake from two points of view...  Yep's research is exhaustive.  He covers all the most significant repercussions of the event, its aftershocks, and days of devastating fires... the story as a whole should appeal to reluctant readers.  It's "natural disaster" subject is both timely and topical, and Yep weaves snippets of information about plate tectonics and more very neatly around his prose." -- Catherine Threadgill, School Library Journal, 2006

"Among the horror and devastation, both boys witness acts of heroism as people help each other... Each chapter is marked with a time, date, and location so readers can follow the boys' alliterating perspective.  Some chapters present facts about such things as how the earthquake begins and how and where the fires start.  These factual chapters flow seamlessly with the rest of the novel and provide much needed background information.  Young readers will find the story engaging and the disaster fascinating." -- Michelle Glatt, Library Media Connection, 2007

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References:

Glantz, Shelley. 2007. The earth dragon awakes: The san francisco earthquake of 1906. Library Media Connection 25 (4) (01): 72-, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=23594585&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Threadgill, Catherine. 2006. The earth dragon awakes: The san francisco earthquake of 1906. School  
       Library Journal 52 (5) (05): 138-40, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?   
      url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=20844123&site=ehost-
      live&scope=site. 
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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

'The Boys' War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War' by Jim Murphy

Murphy, Jim (1990). The Boys' War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 0395664128 (pb)

Photo by : L. Propes
How old was the youngest wounded Civil War soldier?  Sixteen?  Seventeen?  Try twelve.  William Black, considered the youngest wounded soldier in the Civil War, was wounded by an exploding shell.  He was only twelve years old.

Slightly more than 3 million people fought in the Civil War.  It's been estimated that 250,000 to 420,000 were boys.  Jim Murphy examines the American Civil War from the perspective of some of those boys, who either signed up because they could pass for someone older, had a parent vouch for them, or joined as drummer boy.  A photograph of Johnny Clem, who joined in Michigan as an eleven-year old to be a drummer boy, adorns the front cover.  His thousand-yard stare is a testament to the violence he had seen in the course of a year.  At the time of the photograph, he was twelve years old.

How did so many children manage to join the Confederate and Union armies?  Murphy answers this, and other questions, in his book The Boys' War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War.

Rather than a chronological depiction of the Civil War, Murphy divides it into a series of chapters that each deal with a specific issue facing the boy soldiers, as well as their adult counterparts.  One chapter discusses their experiences in battle, moving from wide-eyed innocence to hardened veteran, unfazed by the sight of death and destruction that had made them ill just months before.  Another talks about life in the camps, and how in the lulls between battles, Union and Confederate soldiers met in the middle for card games and socializing.  Yet another outlines some of the more unpleasant aspects of the war: the hospitals and prison camps.  Details are presented in the voices of the boy soldiers through their diaries, letters, and memoirs.  The chapter that examines the role of drummer boys traces the journey some of the drummers took from playing the drums in the thick of the battle to actually fighting in the next one, like Johnny Clem.  He was a non-commissioned officer by the time he was thirteen.
Photo by: L. Propes

The effect of the structure of the book means that it does not have to be read in order, provided the reader has some basic information about the Civil War.  This book isn't quite the book to read for an overview of the war, but it offers a viewpoint of the war that isn't told very often in history classes.  It's also a perspective told from boys who were neither famous, nor leaders.  Their version is often unvarnished and honest.  Murphy peppers the descriptions of events during the war with the observations of their younger participants, giving them a human voice. Selected photographs (generally one every other page) move beyond the familiar Matthew Brady images seen so often in textbooks.  There are portraits of the boys who appear in the book, their round, smooth faces in contrast to their hirsute commanding officers.  Photographs of life in the camp, like members receiving Mass before a battle, are set in contrast to photographs of the aftermath of a battle, showing bodies where they fell.  The photographs are sepia-toned, which gives students a nonverbal cue of the age of the photographs.  The text is also printed in brown, which complements the photographs and gives the book a unifying appearance.

Murphy's book is well-researched, as evidenced by his selected bibliography at the back of the book.   The book accurately describes what life was like for the average soldier -- boy or adult -- during the Civil War.  It gives a deeper look at an event that is often reduced to a series of battles and a litany of names, punctuated with Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in classrooms.  Larger events, like Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia are pushed into the background, or relegated to a less prominent role, in favor of the individual soldier's reactions to them, which is probably the book's biggest strength, as it pinpoints specific voices in what can otherwise be a roaring wall of facts and details.
Photo by: L. Propes

The book does feel a little dry, and the monochromatic nature of the photographs might not hold the interest of some students.  However, the non-linear nature of the book means that students do not have to read the entire book.  Teachers can assign groups to read a single chapter and create a presentation to the rest of the class.  The individual chapters can become an introduction to a deeper investigation of some of the topics presented in the book.

The book can easily be used in parts or in its whole form in a history class studying the Civil War.  It can also be used in an English class to demonstrate the use of primary sources and personal narrative in writing, as well as writing about events.  Psychology or sociology classes can use the book to begin a discussion about the affect of witnessing violence on young children.

Jim Murphy has written several other books about historical events.  The Great Fire, a Newberry Honor book about the 1871 fire that levelled Chicago.  An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793, about an outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia (which can be read in conjunction with Laurie Halse Anderson's Fever 1793).  Murphy has even written a biography of the tuberculosis microbe: Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure.  Texas history teachers might appreciate his book Inside the Alamo.

Books that can be read as part of a unit about boy soldiers with The Boys' War include Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and Sharon McKay's War Brothers as a novel or graphic novel (illustrated by Daniel LaFrance).

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"Making extensive use of the actual words... of boys who served int he Union and Confederate armies as fighting solders as well as drummers, buglers, and telegraphers, Murphy describes the beginning of the Civil War and goes on to delineate the military role of the underage soldiers and their life in camps and field bivouacs...  Private Henry [Graves] and his contemporaries were direct and simple in their observations and possessed, says Murphy, 'an eye for everyday details.'  Their accounts bring to life, as no other versions can, the Civil War and all of its glories and horrors." -- David A. Lindsey, School Library Journal, January 1991
"Jim Murphy draws widely on actual letters and diaries in developing his examination of the participation and experiences of boys under the age of sixteen who fought in the Civil War, whether because of patriotism or a thirst for adventure...  Although the author does not dwell on suffering and death, they are an inescapable focus...  Murphy ranges over the bright expectations of enlistees, the realities of fighting, problems of foraging for food... Finally he looks at the psychological effects of the war on these young men..." -- Margaret A. Bush, Horn Book Magazine, January/February 1991
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Works Cited
Bush, Margaret A. 1991. The boys' war: Confederate and union soldiers talk about the civil war. Horn Book Magazine 67 (1) (Jan): 86-7, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9103182035&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Lindsey, David A. 1991. The boys' war: Confederate and union soldiers talk about the civil war (book). School Library Journal 37 (1) (01): 120-, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=12689591&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

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Monday, March 10, 2014

'Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe' by Benjamin Alire Sáenz


Sáenz, Benjamin Alire. (2012). Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781442408920

I'm going to unashamedly admit that I love this book.  I had heard about the book on an NPR program, and mentally filed the title so I could read it later.


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Friday, March 7, 2014

'Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow' by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. (2005). Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow.  New York: Scholastic. ISBN 9780439353793

Photo by: L. Propes
A young boy stares out from a photograph in the center of the cover.  His beardless round cheeks and smooth complexion belie the cold expression in his eyes.  A pair of hands grip his shoulders, and as the eye travels up, the identity of the hands' owner is revealed to be none other than Adolf Hitler.  Only the lower half of Hitler's face is visible in the photograph, but the distinctive moustache cannot be denied.  Fitting, then, that Hitler is reduced to a shadowy background figure here.  Susan Campbell Bartoletti's book trains its focus on the children and teenagers who devoted their lives to serving the Nazi Party and Germany, with many of them paying the price with their lives.

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow begins, not with the formation of the Hitler Youth organization in 1926, but with an event now obscured in the mists of history.  In January 1932, a member of the Hitler Youth was murdered by a rival gang of Communists, and the Nazi Party opportunistically turned it and the young man's funeral into a tool of the Nazi propaganda machine. Bartoletti uses this event to introduce the rise of the Nazi Party in German politics and society.  She traces its subsequent takeover of Germany, entry into World War II, and eventual defeat and downfall through the eyes of boys and girls, and young men and women who made up the ranks of the Hitler Youth.

Bartoletti uses the words and images of twelve children, ranging from ardent supporters of the Nazi Party to a German Jewish boy, to tell the story of Nazi-era Germany.  Most of them were either born in the waning days of World War I or in the early 1920s, when Germany struggled to emerge from the constraints laid upon them by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I.  Surrounded by hopelessness, the children gravitated to the single person they saw who offered a glimmer of optimism in the future of Germany.  The message of conformity, blind obedience, and submission to something greater than themselves was not only hammered into their psyches during Hitler Youth activities, but as the Nazi Party began to insinuate themselves into more and more sections of German life and in their schools.  Education in the arts, sciences, and history was eventually sublimated to the study of Nazi propaganda.  For the members of the Hitler Youth, there was no escape, unless one was able to find refuge and solace in the recesses of their intellect and imaginations, as Sophie Scholl was forced to do.

Photo by: L. Propes
None of the children in this book speak as a monolithic entity.  Several of them began their time in the Hitler Youth as committed, loyal members of the Hitlerjungend, but chafed under the restrictions placed on individuality.  One, Bert Lewyn, a Jewish boy, paints a picture of daily persecutions and humiliations suffered at the hands of the Nazis, culminating in his parents' deportations to a concentration camp and Lewyn's own efforts to hide during the war.  Others remained steadfast supporters of the Nazi Party until the very end, often climbing the ranks in the SS or SA.

The book opens to a two-page spread that contains photographs of all but one of the twelve children featured in it as well as a short biography.  It serves to put a human face on the subject of the book.  It is no small feat, as too often historical events are presented with the human element as part of the background, and the photographs remind the reader that these were real people, and there were real consequences to their actions.  Bartoletti uses other archival photographs throughout the book.  Hitler Youth propaganda photographs that present an idealized version of the organization are used to contrast photographs of burnt-out synagogues or concentration camps.

Photo by: L. Propes
Bartoletti presents the story of these young men and women in a readable neutral prose.  By using their words as often as possible, she attempts to help readers understand what drove them to join the Hitler Youth, and what kept them in it.  Bartoletti describes the indoctrination into Nazi dogma through the Hitler Youth and German schools.  She ties the Hitler Youth members from its early days in the late 1920s to the leaders of Germany at the beginning of World War II.  This makes the reader realize that many of the German leaders had grown up hearing the propaganda during their most impressionable age.

It is not a short read at over 160 pages of text and photographs, but it is compelling.  Once I started reading, I found myself unable to stop.  At the end of the book, Bartoletti includes an epilogue that details what became of the twelve children featured in the book.  Several of them wrote books based on their experience, which she names in their respective entries.  An author's note describes what drove Bartoletti to write the book, as well as an overview of her extensive research methods.  She also includes her bibliography, with the outline of a book next to sources that might interest young readers who wish to learn more.  The book's biggest strength is that Bartoletti steps back and lets the subjects' own words speak for themselves.  The reader can hear the absolute certainty in their voices at the beginning of their involvement in the Hitlerjungend, and then their confusion and disillusionment as they began to rebel against the Nazi Party or in the aftermath of Germany's surrender at the end of World War II.

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow was a 2006 Newberry Honor book and a 2006 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book.

This book could be part of a unit about Germany in the 1930s and 40s.  It could be part of a unit about the Holocaust.  It could also be part of a unit about peer pressure and bullying.

Other books by Bartoletti include: The Boy Who Dared (Newberry Honor Book), Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850 (Sibert Medal winner), Kids On Strike!, Growing up in Coal Country, and They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group (YALSA finalist for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults).

If this book is taught as part of a unit about the Holocaust, The Diary of Anne Frank is an option as a companion book.  However there are other narratives that a teacher may offer as an alternative to The Diary of Anne Frank.  One is Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer prize winning, groundbreaking graphic novel Maus.   Another is The Upstairs Room, a Newbery Honor book by Johanna Reiss, based on her experiences hiding with her sister on a Holland farm during World War II.  Lois Lowry's Newbery winner Number the Stars is a work of fiction, but is based on the real event where the people of Denmark whisked their Jews away under the noses of the Germans to neutral
Sweden.  Older readers might wish to read Wladyslaw Szpilman's memoir of his experience hiding in the Warsaw Ghetto, The Pianist.

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"Hitler's diabolical plan unfolds to mold Germany's children  and teenagers into a generation devoted to and obedient only to himself.  In fluid prose that brings history alive, Bartoletti shows how the Hitler Youth began... As Hitler continued his rise to power... the Hitler Youth evolved into the recruiting ground for the military... but some Hitler Youth turned their backs on their indoctrinations and formed the basic German resistance to Nazism... The book is an excellent starting point for class discussions of "What would you have done?"" -- Library Media Connection, 2005
 "Bartoletti explains the roles that millions of boys and girls unwittingly played in the horrors of the Third Reich.... Their stories evolve from patriotic devotion to Hitler and zeal to join, to doubt, confusion, and disillusion.  The large period photographs are a primary component and they include Nazi propaganda showing happy and healthy teens as well as the reality of concentration camps and young people with large guns... Bartoletti lets many of the subjects' words, emotions, and deeds speak for themselves, bringing together clearly to tell this story unlike anyone else has." -- Andrew Medlar, School Library Journal, 2005
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Works Cited
Glantz, Shelley, Julie Scordato, and Suzanne Manczuk. 2005. Hitler youth: Growing up in hitler's shadow. Library Media Connection 24 (2) (10): 76-7, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=18438325&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Medlar, Andrew. 2005. Hitler youth: Growing up in hitler's shadow. School Library Journal 51 (6) (06): 174-, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=17390950&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

"Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt's Remarkable Life" by Candace Fleming

Fleming, Candace. (2005). Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt's Remarkable Life. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 9780689865442

Photo by: L. Propes
Did you know Eleanor Roosevelt had one of the largest FBI files?  She was a feminist before Betty Friedan; learned how to shoot a pistol (badly); criss-crossed the globe, amassing what would now be a mountain of frequent-flyer miles; and was one of the first delegates of the United States to the United Nations.

I've always admired Eleanor Roosevelt.  She set the standard for the modern First Lady, and her successors have used the role to promote issues ranging from civil rights and literacy to addiction and breast cancer to global women's rights.  In Eleanor's hands, the First Lady was no longer relegated to serving as a social events hostess.  Even more admirable, to an admitted painfully shy introvert, was how someone as shy as Eleanor managed to become, in the words of Harry Truman, "the first lady of the world."

Photo by: L. Propes
Most of us know the bare outlines of Eleanor Roosevelt's life story: She was born into the Oyster Bay branch of the Roosevelt family.  Her uncle was President Theodore Roosevelt.  She married her distant cousin Franklin (a member of the Hyde Park Roosevelts) and had a family.  After Franklin recovered from polio Eleanor became his eyes and ears as she traveled all over New York when Franklin was the governor, then the United States during his tenure as President.  Candace Fleming's biography of Eleanor, presented in a scrapbook format, examines Eleanor Roosevelt's life from birth to death, not only highlighting the Eleanor Roosevelt that we all know, but also revealing the less-well known events that influenced the person she would become.  Fleming's biography is well-written and offers a fascinating look at a person who has become a symbol in the United States. At times, it teeters on the edge of hagiography, especially once Eleanor becomes Franklin's political partner during his term as New York governor, and for the rest of the book.  It should be noted, however, that Fleming's unabashed and evident admiration for her subject does not make the book any less readable or interesting.

The book opens with a timeline of important events of Eleanor's life, followed by an abbreviated Roosevelt family tree (showing both the Oyster Bay and Hyde Park branches of the family).  Fleming provides the reader with some background for Eleanor, namely through introducing us to her parents: the wealthy and beautiful Anna Hall and the troubled, but handsome and wealthy Elliot Roosevelt. Fleming's narrative follows a linear path, but she does not organize the book into concrete chapters.  Each page contains a snippet of information, as if it had been clipped from a newspaper, and archival photos or documents, like a copy of a letter Eleanor wrote to her father.  Fleming does not shy away from the controversial topics.  She examines Elliot Roosevelt's alcoholism; Eleanor's difficult and fraught relationship with her domineering mother-in-law, Sara Roosevelt; Franklin's affair with Lucy Mercer; or even speculation regarding Eleanor's sexuality.  Fleming made liberal use of oral histories that were in the FDR Presidential Library, and the recollections of Eleanor's children paint a portrait of a conflicted mother, whose chaotic childhood and discordant relationship with Sara did little to prepare her for motherhood.  This contrasts nicely with the self-assured and confident First Lady Fleming presents later in the book.  More importantly, it humanizes Eleanor and prevents the book from falling into outright hagiography.

Photo by: L. Propes
There are elements about Eleanor that deserve a spotlight.  She traveled tirelessly around the country, learning to drop by unannounced so supervisors could not tidy things up and look at the small details in order to give Franklin a truthful account of whether or not his New Deal programs were working.  She shamelessly used her connections to help the less fortunate, a lesson drilled into Eleanor from a young age by her uncle Theodore, who felt the Roosevelts should use their privilege to help others.  Eleanor was an early proponent of civil rights for African-Americans, pushing to have the well-trained, but unused Tuskegee Airmen, serve in combat in World War II.  She resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution after they denied the acclaimed African-American soprano Marian Anderson the use of Constitution Hall for a performance.  (Fleming includes a draft of Eleanor's resignation here.)  She traveled to the Pacific theatre, earning respect from the soldiers, Marines, and sailors for taking the time to greet them personally, instead of doing a staged photo-op.  Conversely, she earned the ire of people who felt she ought to stay home and host teas, like a "proper" First Lady.  It is this section of the book where Fleming begins to treat Eleanor as a sainted figure, rather than a real person.  She often sounds too good to be true.  The only instance that really stands out from this virtuous turn is Eleanor's anti-Semitic position regarding Jews, although it must be noted it was not unusual for the time.  Her viewpoints did turn in the aftermath of World War II, when Eleanor came into contact with Jewish refugees in Europe, and she supported the establishment of the state of Israel. Fleming neatly sweeps under the rug any ill-regard Eleanor had for the Arabs in Israel, aside a brief mention framed by a visit by Eleanor to Israel.  In spite of all this, placing Eleanor on a pedestal does make for interesting reading, because there are many things Eleanor did in this period that shifted and changed the foundation of the role of the First Lady, but after several pages praising and admiring Eleanor it starts to sound a bit one-note.

Photo by: L. Propes
Fleming's use of the scrapbook format divides Eleanor's life into neat chunks that is easy to read, but a little fragmented.  It's a nice introduction to an complex and fascinating figure that should be presented with a  more linear look at Eleanor's life.  The format almost invites a reader to flip through the book and read a section here, and a page or two there instead of reading it from page one to the end.  Fleming's liberal use of photographs of Eleanor are appealing to visual learners, as well as to people who like to put a face to the name in the book.  Many children could gain entry to the book through the photographs.  It is engrossing to just turn the pages to watch how the ladies' fashions change from Eleanor's childhood to her death in 1962.  Even more so would be the discussion of how technology changed during this period and its implications in the larger society.  Frequent quotes from the oral histories, letters, diaries, and books inject humanity into the text.  Fleming went straight to the source for information about Eleanor -- the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Library in Hyde Park, New York.  In her notes, Fleming mentions using the Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Manuscript Collection with its two million pages of letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, and so much more.  The oral histories Fleming uses range from Eleanor's children and grandchildren to family friends and professional colleagues.

The dust jacket cites this book as appropriate for ages 10-14, but as always, it does rather depend on the student reading the book.

This book could be part of a US history unit about the Great Depression and World War II.  It could also be used in an English class unit about biographies and autobiographies.  A sociology class could use this book to highlight the changing roles of women in the 20th century.

Other biographies by Fleming include: Ben Franklin's Almanac: Being a True Account of the Good Gentelman's Life, Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary, The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum, and Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart.

Fleming recommends A Picture Book of Eleanor Roosevelt by David A. Alder, with illustrations by Robert Casilla; Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman; Eleanor Everywhere: The Life of Eleanor Roosevelt by Monica Kulling; and Eleanor Roosevelt: Freedom's Champion by Deborah A. Parks and Melva L. Ware.

Students and teachers can also visit the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum website at http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu.  Parts of the archive have been digitized and allow for remote searching.  They also offer curriculum guides, photos, and many other online resources.
The gift shop even offers other resources about Eleanor an Franklin.  There is a CD of FDR's speeches and Fireside Chats, which would make for a neat interactive lesson, where a teacher has their students listen to one of the Fireside Chats and discuss how it might have made a family feel during the Depression.

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"This richly rendered account of the life and accomplishments of Eleanor Roosevelt is both unabashed tribute and absorbing history.  Fleming draws on numerous scrapbooks and diaries as well as copious primary and secondary sources in developing her text and selecting the accompanying photographs... " -- Horn Book Magazine, November 1, 2005
"Presenting more than an analysis of her tenure in the White House, the work covers Roosevelt from birth and continues beyond her death in a discussion of her impact on politics, feminism, and future First Ladies.  Fleming does not shy away from some of the more controversial details of her subject... but presents enough evidence and perspectives to allow readers to draw their own conclusions... An extensive offering of drawings, photographs, and handwritten documents interweave with the main text... that do indeed result in a browsable, scrapbook effect." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December 1, 2005
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Spisak, April. 2005. Our eleanor. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 59 (4) (12): 180-, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=brd&AN=510497559&site=ehost-live&scope=site. 

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