Eyes Wide Open

I am a Cybils second round judge. I am currently reading the all the nominated books in a fun "armchair readalong" way with the first round judges. My reviews and opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the work of the committee.

Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines Paul Fleischman

Fleischman (who’s probably most known for his Newberry Prize winning Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices) offers a book about the real issues facing us environmentally while, at the same time, teaches teens how to evaluate their sources and be an informed consumer of news. It’s a really great call to action, pointing out how we need to change things, and maybe should have changed them yesterday.

I really liked the design of the book, but I think it would have worked even better in color.

The margins contain a lot of extra reading or watching for more information. It was a great way to recommend some great titles. I also really like what he chose--a good mix of books, articles, movies, and videos. Additionally, a lot of the things he chose are for adults, but are things teens could totally read and understand. It shows a respect for his audience that I really appreciate.

It also has excellent back matter and extensive endnotes--not only are all the sources documented, but many also give further information.

That said, there is a “how-to-think how-to manual” vibe to the book that grates a bit--it seemed condescending. I’m also wondering at who it’s aimed at--are teens no longer cynical about what they’re being told by THE MAN?

Fleischman’s writing often uses many of the same logical fallacies he warns readers against falling for. And, some of his points were interesting, but he didn’t have anything to back them up (like lack of food is what led to the Rwandan genocide and the crisis in Darfur. I think that’s an interesting argument to make, but the argument has to actually be made.)

Two things really irked me though--one is that he really hates think tanks (wonder if he feels the same way about the left wing environmental ones?) and paints them with such a brush that what he describes just doesn’t resemble what they are (and yes, this is personal, and yes, I know a lot about think tanks from the inside.) He tends to equate them with lobbyists (they’re not the same thing) and also all lobbyists are bad (what about the ones who lobby for the environment? According to Fleischman it doesn’t matter, because they’re not as well funded. Um, no. If you have a problem with the tactics, you have a problem with the tactics, if you have a problem with funding imbalance, that’s something else.) He also says that all talking heads on the news are PR flacks. Nope.

The other is the overblown hyperbole he resorts to. According to him, Foundations are a way for think tanks to hide where their money comes from and is the same thing as how drug cartels launder their money. Also, when talking about the psychological phenomenon of regression (trying to make the point that people would rather watch TV, play video games, care about a sports fandom or hang out on social media than face reality and learn about the world around them, which is problematic enough, but wait) he talks about how it regression causes childish reactions--his examples? Credit cards [note: not credit card debt, but credit cards in general] and tax revolts are childish reactions to wanting it now and not being able to save for the future or long term. And shootings are a crazy-people childish reaction to annoying people.*

And then my head exploded.

He makes some great points, but so much of it is undermined by his tone and writing, that it undoes everything that's right about this book.


Exact quotation: “With the daunting issues facing us, it’s easy to see the appeal of retreating to a childlike stage without responsibility. This is the defense mechanism regression. Where can you see it? Credit cards. You haven’t saved enough money but you really want something now? Go ahead and buy it anyway! Tax Revolts. Maturity demands looking beyond our narrow interests. Contributing to the public good from our private pockets causes some adults to throw tantrums. Shootings. Don’t like your boss/ex-wife/gum-chewing coworker? Blowing them away is a childish fantasy with such appeal that some mentally unstable people act it out.” p. 69


Book Provided by... my local library

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Gaia Warriors

Gaia Warriors

Starting with a discussion of climate change-- why it's happening, the proof that it's happening, and the effects it will have, this book then introduces the reader to several people who are working to make a difference in saving the earth.

The first part makes a clear, concise, and terrifying argument about climate change. I liked how the book focused not on things kids can do, but rather on people who are already doing things in order to inspire the readers. I also like the wide-range of people we meet. Jim Logan designs green housing. Nin Castle is a fashion designer using recycled fabrics. Holly Bruford helps make biking to school easier for London students. After meeting each person, the readers learns things that they can do along those lines to help the earth.

Where the book really stands out is design. Pages are brightly colored and patterned, fonts and font size change regularly, but it still manages to look clean and not overly busy.

Book Provided by... my local library

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World Without Fish

World Without Fish Mark Kurlansky

Fish are dying out because of over-fishing, climate change, and a whole host of other issues. Once fish die out, it’ll start a chain reaction to other animals and then land creatures and surprisingly soon we’ll see catastrophic effects to human life.

This is a book with a MISSION. It’s written to turn us on to the problem facing fish and our oceans, written to spur us into action (there’s a whole chapter on how to start a movement.) Despite that, Kurlansky does a WONDERFUL job of explaining the complexities at play here. You can tell how much he’s studied this because there’s not one simple solution, there’s not one simple problem. This guy gets the sheer complexity and tiny facets of the issue and does a fantastic job of explaining them to younger readers. It also gets props for its excellent design. Major points in the text are handwritten in large letters, often in varying colors. There’s a comic that runs throughout showing how everything can die off within a generation. There are several solutions on how to help, and not one is stop eating fish, because Kurlasnky seriously respects fisherman and the role they play in alerting us to, and helping solve, the problem.

That said... the text is a bit alarmist and while I don’t doubt its accuracy, if you’re going to have something this extreme, you need some source notes and a bibliography to back it up. The only thing that gets cited is The Origin Of Species.

Seriously people--CITE YOUR SOURCES! Give us a bibliography of where we can check your facts instead of just organizations to get involved. Why is this such an issue?

Book Provided by... my local library

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Nonfiction Monday: Disasters

Disasters: Natural and Man-Made Catastrophes Through the Centuries Brenda Z. Guiberson

Guiberson takes readers on a tour through 10* disasters, largely American, throughout history-- everything from the effects of smallpox on the new world** to the 2004 earthquake and tsunami to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. While many disasters seem natural, Guiberson points out how they were also partially manmade (the Dust Bowl, the Johnstown Flood, Katrina)

Guiberson gives the reader background leading up to the disaster, a full account of the disaster itself, the aftermath, and also ties it in to life today. For instance, the section on the flu pandemic of 1918 contains information about Bird Flu (H5N1) why we worry about it today, and what we're doing about it-- paying close attention to direct applications of the lessons of 1918. Overall, her writing is clear and concise offering a great age-appropriate introduction to readers without dumping down the material or downplaying the horror or blame.

There are also a lot of visuals-- photos, drawings, and maps that add to the text. It would have been even better if the modern photos were in color (obviously, the ones on the San Fransisco Earthquake wouldn't be!) but that's a minor wish, not a criticism.

Overall, a great introduction to some major events in world history-- many of which happened in an instant and took years and decades to recover from.

*The two disasters I didn't manage to work into the review text: Chicago Fire and Titanic

**She gets props for including the information that once Europeans realized that Native Americans were extremely susceptible to smallpox, they used it as weapon to try and wipe out the population.


Round up is over at MotherReader. Be sure to check it out!

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Heroes of the Enivornment

Heroes of the Environment: True Stories of People Who Are Helping to Protect Our Planet Harriet Rohmer

This book introduces readers to a dozen people of all ages and walks of life who are doing something to help the environment. Will Allen started an organic farm in the middle of Milwaukee. Keyladra Welcker invented a water filtration system to deal with a local pollutant--when she was in high school. Omar Freilla started a cooperative that sells construction waste to other builders to use in new construction projects. Debby Tewa helps houses in the Hopi Indian reservation get hooked up to solar power. Margie Richard got a big oil company to pay for residents to move out of Old Diamond--a town that the company had polluted so badly it was no longer safe to live there. John Todd invented a system that treats sewage and waste through a series of mini-ecosystems. At the age of 11, Alex Lin and his friends set up a site to collect e-waste. When that wasn't enough, he got his school to teach kids how to refurbish old computers and helped lobby for Rhode Island's e-waste law. Julia Bonds campaigns against mountaintop removal mining. El Hijo del Santo, a popular lucha libre star in Mexico gets kids to help him fight pollution. Barry Guillot gets his students to help him protect the wetlands around New Orleans--teaching science and helping the environment at the same time. Sarah James works to educate people about the importance of the Arctic areas and the caribou birthing grounds. When Erica Fernandez was high school with limited English skills, she campaigned to halt an offshore processing plant that would pipe highly explosive gas through Erica's Hispanic, farm-worker community.

All the stories are presented in a few pages, showing how normal people took something they found to be important and went with it, no matter if they didn't have skills, or if they were just kids.

What really struck me was that, with many of these projects, the fact that it helped the environment was secondary-- many of them are community projects. Debby Tewa helps Native American families use solar power, but she really just wants them to have access to electricity, but they live too far away to be connected up to the power lines. Will Allen wanted the people of Milwaukee to have access to fresh produce. Many of these projects show that no matter what you want to do to help your community, it can also help the environment and often community and environmental issues are intertwined.

A cool and easy to read, easy to browse book to show kids how people around them are quietly changing the world.


Round up is over at Check It Out!

Book Provided by... my wallet, for Cybils judging.

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Get this Pot off my Head

Do you know what I like in my books? Subtlety. Subtlety is always a good thing. It is sadly lacking from Wolf Totem: A Novel by Jiang Rong (translated by the incomparable Howard Goldblatt.)

I read this book and refused to put it down because it is the most widely read book in Mainland China since Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung... which you might know as a little, red book... by Chairman Mao... that everyone waved about like mad during the Cultural Revolution...

So... Chen Zhen is a Beijing student sent to the grasslands of Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution. He is obsessed with Mongolian culture, especially their reverence for wolves. He decides to raise a wolf cub in order to learn from it. Throughout the course of 1 year, we travel with the nomadic herders as they move across the grasslands and face the destruction of their land and way of life by farming Han Chinese.

(The Han are the majority ethnic group in mainland China.)

What I liked about this book: The sense of daily life as they move across the grasslands and the struggle between the traditional ways and what the government thinks is best-- a struggle that is still being experienced in many areas of China. Also, it was refreshing to read about people who embraced being sent into the countryside. Chen Zhen and his classmates miss Beijing, sure, but they make the best of the situation they're in and try to learn from the peasants and blend into the community's daily life.

What I didn't like: Chen Zhen's obsession always teeters on the land of infantilizing Mongolian culture. Also, as much as he reveres Mongolian culture, he totally doesn't get it. Raising a wolf cub is amazingly offensive but he just... doesn't care, even when he's chastised by elders he deeply respects. He retains a lot of Han chauvinism while being pissed off about the same quality in other characters. I wanted to smack him. Also, the book whacks you upside the head with the point ALL THE TIME. Really, it reads like this

"Hey! Did you know that Mongolians are totally awesome!"
"I know! They do A, B, C!"
"I know! And X, Y, Z! They're awesome!"
"Totally!"

"Did you know that wolves are totally awesome, too?!"
"They're killers!"
"No! They're a key part of the balanced grassland ecosystem! Plus, all that stuff we just talked about on why the Mongolians are cool? They totally learned that from the wolves!"
"Wow! Wolves rock!"
"I know! Plus, they do L, M, N, O, and P! Wolves are awesome!"
"Totally!"

"But we Han Chinese totally suck! We don't understand any of this!"
"Yeah, we keep messing everything up! We do suck!"
"We totally suck!"
"Totally!"


over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again...

Seriously. Characters never have real conversations. They only time they talk is to discuss the topics I mentioned above. 98% of the dialogue is just a vehicle for Jiang to educate his readership about why Mongolians and wolves rock and the Han Chinese totally suck.

but... I had it out on the reference desk so I could check it back in and a 10 year old really really really wanted to read it. I told her it was an adult book, that she was welcome to it. So she checked it out. I wonder how she's faring? It wasn't on of my regulars, so I don't know if I'll get a chance to ask her about it...