Charles and Emma: the Darwins' Leap of Faith

Heiligman, Deborah. Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith. Henry Holt and Company, 2009. 268 pages, $18.95 ISBN: 9780805087215 (trade)

Plot Summary:

Heiligman opens her biography of the influential British scientist, Charles Darwin, right after his return to England after his five year voyage on the HMS Beagle.  Upon returning home Darwin decides his life is missing the love of a wife and a family and at age 30 he married his cousin Emma Wedgewood.  Over the course of their marriage the couple had ten children, seven that lived to see adulthood.  Darwin respected Emma immensely and even though they never did agree on religious issues, Darwin being an atheist and Emma a devote Christian.  Both Emma and Darwin were extremely well read and intelligent.  Emma acted as Darwin’s editor, helping his to strengthen his arguments and refine his research.  With Emma’s help, Darwin spent 20 years perfecting his best known work On the Origin of Species. 

Critical Review:

I was touched by the relationship between Charles and Emma.  Theirs was truly a marriage based on love and respect.  While Emma feared for her husband’s soul, she was never anything but supportive of his career and his research.  They never lost the romance of their marriage continuing to write each other love letters long after they were married.  Heiligman’s biography is a winner for those who love science and for teens who are looking for a beautiful love story. 

Genre:

Nonfiction-biography

Interest Level:

Grades 7 and up

Subjects/Themes:

Evolution

Religion

Charles Darwin

Awards/Honors:

Michael L. Printz Honor 2010

National Book Award finalist 2009

YALSA Award for Excellence in Non-fiction 2010

Junior Library Guild Selection

YALSA Best Books for Young Adults 2010

Author’s Website:

http://www.deborahheiligman.com/index.html

Annotation:

Charles and Emma is the story about the marriage between pioneering scientist Charles Darwin and his devotedly Christian wife Emma. 

Anya's Ghost

Brosgol, Vera. Anya’s Ghost. First Second, 2011. 221 pages, $19.99 ISBN: 9780316056212 (trade) 

Plot Summary:

Walking to school one day Anya stumbles into an open pit, where she encounters the remains and the ghost of the last person to fall down the pit.  Lucky for Anya she is rescued, but the ghost hitches a ride when one of her bones ends up in Anya’s bag.  Initially Anya is annoyed by the ghosts hitchhiking, but when she helps Anya cheat on her test and impresses Anya’s crush, Anya changes her mind about having the ghost around.  That is until the ghost starts getting demanding and Anya discovers the true nature of her dead friend and how she really died.  

Critical Review:

Brosgol’s first book is a stunning graphic novel.  Anya is a funny and clever narrator struggling with fitting in without betraying her Russian and Jewish heritage.  Like many teens Anya feels like an outsider and yearns to fit in and be accepted by her classmates.  Brosgol’s graphic style of drawing is similar to the style of artist and writer Marjane Satrapi. 

Genre:

Graphic Novel

Fantasy

Multicultural

Interest Level:

Grades 7 and up

Similar Books:

Persepolis Marjane Satrapi

Subjects/Themes:

Ghosts

Teenage girls

High School

Judaism

Awards/Honors:

ALA Notable Children’s Books 2012

Cybil Award 2011

School Library Journal Best Books 2011

YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens 2012

YALSA Top 10 Graphic Novels for Teens 2012

Author’s Website:

http://verabee.com/

Annotation:

After falling down an old well Anya meets a ghost who returns home with her and becomes her new friend. 

Ghostopolis

TenNapel, Doug. Ghostopolis. Scholastic, 2010. 262 pages, $24.99 ISBN: 9780545210270 (trade)

Plot Summary:

TenNapel’s graphic novel revolves around Garth, a terminally ill teen who is accidentally sent to the afterlife by affable ghost hunter Frank Gallows.  Determined to rescue Garth, Frank enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and ghost Claire Voyent to help him travel to the afterlife.  Meanwhile, Garth finds himself in a strange land with only a ghost horse named Skinny as a friend until he runs into someone who knows him, his grandfather.  With the help of Skinny and his grandfather Garth makes it to the capitol of Ghostopolis, where he meets up with Frank and Claire who have recently landed in the afterlife.  Unbeknownst to Garth, the ruler of Ghostopolis, Vaugner sees the living boy as a threat and enlists his minions to capture him and his accomplices.  In order to return home Garth must defeat the evil Vaugner and restore peace to the afterlife. 

Critical Review:

Doug TenNapel has created a classic hero tale in his boldly illustrated graphic novel Ghostopolis.  Garth’s sudden appearance in the afterlife and his mission to defeat the evil overlord and bring peace coincides with the classic hero archetype.  TenNapel’s characters are well developed and his illustrations are bright and beautifully colored.  Ghostopolis is an edgy, fast paced, tongue in cheek tale that will leave readers wanting more. 

Genre:

Graphic Novel

Fantasy

Adventure

Interest Level:

Grades 9 and up

Similar Books:

Anya’s Ghost Vera Brosgol

Subjects/Themes:

Death/dying

Tyranny

Author’s Website:

http://tennapel.com/

Annotation:

Ghostopolis is an edgy graphic novel in which teen Garth must defeat the evil overlord of the afterlife and bring peace to Ghostopolis. 

Getting Away With Murder: the True Story of the Emmett Till Case

Crowe, Chris. Getting Away With Murder: the True Story of the Emmett Till Case.  Phyllis Fogelman Books, New York: 2003. 128 pages. Tr. $18.99 ISBN 0803728042

Annotation

Getting Away with Murder is the story of murder of 14 year old Emmett Till and the subsequent acquittal of the murderers and how this trial helped launch the civil rights movement.

Review

Emmett Till was a 14 year old African American boy visiting Mississippi from Chicago in the summer of 1955.  It was while visiting family that this young boy was dragged from his bed in the middle of the night, tortured, and horrendously murdered by two white men for whistling at a white lady.  Till’s horrifying murder and the photograph of his bloated and beaten body in Jet magazine, outraged the African American community and sparked the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.  What is most unfortunate about Emmett’s murder is that it is often left out of American history texts.  Till’s story is important because it reminds us of injustice and racism that once existed in this country and why it is important to stand up to bullies and fight for what is honorable and right. 

Awards/Honors

YALSA Best Books for Young Adults 2004

Front and Back Matter

TOC, Acknowledgments, Time Line, Bibliography, Additional Resources

Author’s Website

http://www.chriscrowe.com/

Hole in My Life

 

Gantos, Jack. Hole in my Life.  Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York: 2002. 200 pages. Tr. $16.00 ISBN 9780374399883

Annotation

In Hole n My Life, Newberry Award winning author Jack Gantos recounts his youth when he was arrested for smuggling drugs from the Virgin Island into the United States and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Review

In his autobiographical book, Hole in My Life, author Jack Gantos bravely and honestly tells the story of his experience on the wrong side of the law, when he was arrested for conspiring to smuggle 2,000 pounds of hash from St. Croix to New York.  Gantos makes no excuses or apologies for his action, but fully owns up to his mistake.  Gantos sense of invincibility as a young man will resonate with many teens, but hopefully reading his story will cause other teens to think twice before making similar mistakes.  Despite being caught and being sentenced to six years in prison, Gantos was actually lucky.  He quickly earned a position working in the jail hospital, which came with his own cell, away from the dangers of the dorm with the other prisoners where he risked being beaten, stabbed, or raped.  Gantos also counts himself lucky because it was in prison that he finally realized his dream to become a writer and gained the motivation to make his dream a reality. 

Awards/Honors

ALSC Notable Book 2003

Printz Honor Book 2003

Sibert Honor Book 2003

Front and Back Matter

None

Author’s Website

http://www.jackgantos.com/

Phineas Gage: a Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science

Fleischman, John. Phineas Gage: a Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science.  Houghton Mifflin Company, New York: 2002. 86 pages. Tr. $216.00 ISBN 0618052526

Annotation

Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science is the incredibly story of Gage, a man who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 1848 and miraculously survived. 

Review

In 1848 Phineas Gage worked as a railroad foreman in Vermont and on September 13^th his life changed forever when a tamping iron shot through his head.  A tamping iron is a 3 foot 7 inch iron rod used for packing gunpowder.  In a horrifying accident the tamping iron shot through Gages cheek and out through his frontal lobe, literally leaving Gage with a hole in his head.  It is incredibly that he survives this injury, but that he is able to walk and talk directly after.  To all appearances Gage recovers from his trauma, but upon closer examination Gages personality is completely changed.  This is because every part of the brain controls a specific function in our body, but in 1848 doctors did not know this and even today scientists still do not know what every part of the brain does.  Gage is no longer the man he was before his accident, but he is still able to maintain a fairly normal life for the next 12 years until the brain damage he suffered early finally catches up with him and he passes away in 1860 in California.  However, Gage did not die in vain, his accident and case greatly helped doctors and scientists of the time to better understand the brain and it’s different functions.

Awards/Honors

ALSC Notable Book 2003

Orbis Pictus Honor Book 2003

Front and Back Matter

Acknowledgements, Glossary, Resources, Index

Author’s Website

No website

Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado

Aronson, Marc. Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado.  Clarion Books, New York: 2000. 222 pages. Tr. $20.00 ISBN 039584827x

Annotation

Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado is a well researched biography of a man few Americans know of beyond his failed attempt to colonize the island of Roanoke off the coast of Virginia.

Review

Most of us know Walter Ralegh simply as the explorer who set up the doomed Roanoke colony off the coast of Virginia.  But Roanoke was only a footnote in Ralegh’s life of adventure on the high seas.  Ralegh was born a commoner, but quickly made a name for himself as a fearless soldier and moved up in the court of Queen Elizabeth.  It was not long before Ralegh was considered one of the Queen’s favorites and she rewarded him with wealth and position.  Ralegh was an adventurer at heart and he longed to find fame and fortune in the new world, but his position at court allowed him few opportunities to explore himself, so he was forced to settle on backing enterprises to the new world.  Ralegh finally was given the opportunity to launch an exploration to the mythical El Dorado after falling out of favor with the queen.  Ralegh believed he would find the mythical city of gold and regain favor in Elizabeth’s eyes.  Instead of locating El Dorado, Ralegh witnessed a beautiful and untamed land and realized that this was a place that Europeans were doomed to destroy.  Unlike many explorers of his time, Ralegh did not see the rainforests of South America as a place to conquer and tame, but as a Garden of Eden, which should remain pure and untouched by humans.  This did not stop Ralegh from launching yet another adventure to find El Dorado after Elizabeth’s death.  This time Ralegh hoped to gain favor with the newly crowned King James, but instead Ralegh’s mission failed and led to his trial for treason against the king and eventual execution.    

Awards/Honors

ALSC Notable Book 2001

Sibert Medal Winner 2001

Front and Back Matter

TOC, Acknowledgments, Note to Readers, Map of Voyages to the New World, Cast of Characters, Endnotes and Bibliography, Time Line, Index

Author’s Website

http://www.marcaronson.com/

An Inconvenient Truth: the Crisis of Global Warming

Gore, Al. An Inconvenient Truth: the Crisis of Global Warming.  Viking, New York: 2007. 191 pages. Tr. $16.00 ISBN 9780670062720

Annotation

An Inconvenient Truth: the Crisis of Global Warming is an adaptation of Al Gore’s 2006 bestselling book for adults, which explains the crisis of climate change and what humans can do to help avert a global disaster.

Review

The young readers’ edition of Al Gore’s bestselling An Inconvenient Truth, explains the process of global warming in simple and understandable terms without talking down to readers.  In fact the book addresses teenagers as the answer, a new generation with new ideas to combat climate change.  Gore goes beyond just explaining what global warming is and what it will do, he explains how global warming is already affecting the planet and all of us: stronger storms, such as Hurricane Katrina, devastating heat waves in Europe, and destructive droughts in Asia are just a few ways global warming is changing the planet.  In addition to a strong narrative, An Inconvenient Truth, is richly illustrated with lots of photographs and persuasive graphics.  This is truly a wonderful and important book. 

Awards/Honors

ALSC Notable Book 2008

Front and Back Matter

TOC, Take Action, Acknowledgments, Credits, Index

Author’s Website

http://www.algore.com/

Sugar Changed the World: a Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science

Aronson, Marc and Marina Budhos. Sugar Changed the World: a Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science. Clarion Books, New York: 2010. 166 pages. Tr. $20.00 ISBN 9780618574926

Annotation:

Sugar Changed the World is a history of how sugar spread throughout the world, changing economies and lives of people from Asia, Africa, Europe, and all the way to the new world in America. 

Review:

Authors Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos were inspired to write Sugar Changed the World, after discovering that sugar played a prominent role in both of their family’s histories.  Today sugar is one of those items everyone has in their pantry.  Most of us in the Western world use and eat sugar everyday without thinking about where it comes from or the bitter history of this sweet and popular spice.  But there was a time when sugar was hard to come by, a time when even kings stooped to beg for allotments of sugar.  Why was sugar so hard to come by?  For starters, it only grows in tropical climates.  Also, to produce sugar in large quantities requires not only the right climate, but large swaths of land and huge amounts of human labor.  There was no way to make sugar profitable without a large, cheap work force.  The European’s discovery of the Americas was the first part of making sugar profitable.  In America there were large, uncultivated, tracts of land perfect for growing sugar cane.   The fact that there were already people inhabiting these lands did not stop the Europeans, they simply saw the Native peoples a possible work force for growing sugar.  When enslaving the natives did not work the Europeans began and active slave trade with Africa, shipping millions of African slaves to the Americas to work on the sugar plantations.  Growing and refining sugar was a dangerous business that required long hours of physically exhausting work and many slaves were killed in the process.  The mills used to crush the cane could easily kill a person caught in the machinery and the fires used to refine the cane mash were hot, dangerous, and kept burning at all times.  All it took was for a slave to nod off for a minute and slip into the boiling liquid.  The world continued to change and slaves revolted in some areas of the Caribbean and in other areas of the world slavery became taboo and in others people searched for other ways to produce sugar more safely.  One of these methods led to the discovery of beet sugar by one of Aronson’s ancestors, and other led to safer methods of refining cane.  Sugar truly did change the world in the exchange of money, ideas and people.   

Awards/Honors

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist

Front and Back Matter:

TOC, How we Researched and Wrote this Book, Acknowledgments, Timeline, Web Guide to Color Images, Notes and Sources, Abbreviations Used in these Notes, Bibliography, Websites, Index

Author’s Website:

 http://www.marcaronson.com/

 http://www.marinabudhos.com/

The Trouble Begins at 8: a Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West

Fleischman, Sid. The Trouble Begins at 8: a Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West. Greenwillow Books, New York. 2008. 224 pages. Tr. $18.99 ISBN 9780061344312

Annotation

Sid Fleischman’s biography of Mark Twain, The Trouble Begins at 8, focuses on the early life of the great American author, before he gained fame as a writer and was known as Sam Clemens, a young man ready for adventure. 

Review

In The Trouble Begins at 8, Sid Fleischman recounts the early life of one of America’s most beloved authors, Mark Twain.  Before he gained fame as a writer, Twain was Samuel Clemens, a boy who grew up in the South, spending his boyhood exploring the landscape along the Mississippi, much like his characters Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  Also, like his characters, Twain’s life was full of adventure; from working a printing press, as a steamboat captain, to mining for gold, Twain’s life was never dull.  Fleischman does his subject justice, with a witty and humorous writing style that evokes Twains own sense of humor and would have been appreciated by the author know for his wit and sense of humor.  Fleischman does an excellent job describing Twain’s character and writing style; he even includes the celebrated piece that gained Twain fame as a writer, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” to give readers a true sense of Twain’s writing style.  This is the kind of biography that will spark reader’s interest in learning more about the great author and reading his celebrated novels. 

Awards/Honors

ALSC Notable Book

Orbis Pictus Award 2009

Front and Back Matter

A Mark Twain Sampler, Timeline, References, Illustration & Photograph Sources, Bibliography, Novels and Other Works, Index

Author’s Website

http://sidfleischman.com/

The Called Themselves the KKK: the Birth of an American Terrorist Group

 

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. They Called Themselves the KKK: the Birth of an American Terrorist Group. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, New York: 2010. 172 pages. Tr. $19.00 ISBN 9780618440337

Annotation

They Called Themselves the KKK is a history of the South after the Civil War.  Bartoletti describes the disparity between the whites and blacks in the South during Reconstruction and how the Ku Klux Klan was founded as a medium to continue racism and the white establishment. 

Review

In They Called Themselves the KKK Susan Campbell Bartoletti has written a comprehensive and unflinching history of one of America’s best known terrorist groups.  The Ku Kluxers, as they were referred to, was started in Tennessee by six former Confederate officers.  The men began the club by disguising themselves and harassing locals at night, but soon the group spread throughout the South and focused on the intimidation of African Americans who the Ku Kluxers deemed too successful, who dared to exercise their right to vote, or who thought themselves equal to whites.  The KKK also targeted whites who aided blacks by helping African Americans register to vote or educating them. Bartoletti appeals the readers emotions with the inclusion of firsthand accounts of the atrocities the KKK committed against freedman in era of Reconstruction.  She accurately describes the terror that must have reigned in the South for blacks who dared exercise their new rights and demand equal treatment. 

Awards/Honors

ALSC Notable Book

Front and Back Matter

TOC, Note to Reader, Civil Rights Timeline, Quote Attributions, Bibliography and Source Notes, Index

Author’s Website

http://www.scbartoletti.com/

With Courage and Cloth

 Bausum, Ann. With Courage and Cloth: Winning the fight for a Woman’s Right to Vote. National Geographic, Washington D.C.: 2004. 111 pages. Tr. $21.95 ISBN 0792276477

Annotation

With Courage and Cloth is a history of the women’s suffrage movement in America focusing on the time period between 1913 and the passage of the 19^th Amendment in 1919. 

Review

I first became fascinated with Alice Paul and the National Women’s Party (NWP) after seeing the HBO movie Iron Jawed Angels and reading Doris Steven’s, a fellow suffragist of Paul’s, book Jailed for Freedom.  I was extremely pleased to find such a comprehensive and interesting work on the women’s suffrage movement in America as Bausum’s With Courage and Cloth.  Bausum has presented an honest and well researched history of the movement.  Many history books do not describe what women went through to get the vote.  Paul and the NWP organized peaceful protests in which they picketed the White House, turning President Wilson’s own words against him with their banners demanding enfranchisement and liberty.  Despite the fact that their protests were peaceful and nonviolent, their words incited anger and violence in others.  The violence of others led to the unlawful arrest and incarceration of suffragists.  In jail the women were severely mistreated and those that participated in a nonviolent hunger strike, such as Paul were forcibly fed and underwent psychiatric review.  Despite the obstacles they encountered these brave women never stopped fighting, even after the passage of the 19^th Amendment, they continued to fight to equal rights for women.  Bausum’s With Courage and Cloth, is an inspiring book that truly makes me grateful to the women who worked so hard to ensure that women had a voice in the government.  With Courage and Cloth  is an excellent reminder of why everyone, but especially women, should exercise their right to vote. 

Awards/Honors

ALSC Notable Book 2005

Orbis Pictus Award 2005

Front and Back Matter

TOC, Afterword, Profiles, Chronology, Resource Guide, Sources, Acknowledgments, Bibliography, Illustrations Credits, Index

Author’s Website

http://www.annbausum.com/