Nonfiction Monday: Blizzard of Glass

Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917 Sally M. Walker

As regular readers may remember, last year I was on the committee for the Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. In addition to our winners and finalists, the committee also publishes a list of vetted nominations (what I like to call the "long list.") I'm in the process of highlighting these titles during Nonfiction Monday.

In December 1917, war was raging in Europe. In Halifax Harbor, two ships were on their way to the action, one on it's way to pick up relief supplies, the other full of munitions. The two ships collided, causing a fire. As the munitions ship drifted, fire on its deck, it crashed into the pier and exploded, leveling most of of the harbor area and creating a shockwave that blew out almost every window in Halifax proper. 2000 people died, 9000 more were injured. Rescue and relief efforts were further dampened when a blizzard blew in the next day and dumped over a foot of snow on the area.

Until the advent of nuclear weapons, the Halifax explosion was the largest man-made explosion ever.

Walker tells this story (one that's very well known in Canada, but not so much in the US) through the eyes of children who lived around the harbor at the time. Children getting ready for school, running errands, and going about their day. She weaves these daily accounts in with the context of shipping lanes and traffic, and what was happening in the Harbor. Walker also covers the communities on the other side of the Harbor who were affected by the explosion, resulting shock wave, and tsunami. The book is also very good at detailing what happened after the explosion to everyone.

Fun fact: The Halifax coroner's office had a tested system in place to deal with a mass casualty event like this. It had been developed 2 years earlier, when they brought in the bodies from the Titanic.

Today's Nonfiction Monday roundup is over at a wrung sponge. Check it out.

Also check out today's YA Reading List post, in honor of Yom HaShoah.

Book Provided by... the publisher, for award consideration

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.

Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather Jacqueline Winspear

This is the second book in the Maisie Dobbs series. Maisie's new client is a very wealthy businessman. Having worked his way up from the bottom, he now owns a national chain of upscale supermarkets. His socialite daughter has gone missing. Charlotte has run away before, but Mr. Waite would like her brought home before the press gets ahold of it, which is why he contacted Maisie.

When Maisie starts digging, she finds very conflicting views of Charlotte. She also discovers that her school friends are turning up dead, and they shared a terrible secret. The case is no longer simple.

Along the way, Billy's up to something strange and Maisie must deal with a change in the relationship with her father.

Since we got Maisie's backstory in the first book, this one doesn't have the same flash-back dual narrative. Winspear instead adds several subplots, but none of these hold the same tension as Maisie's backstory and so it didn't flow in the same way and some parts dragged a bit.

That said, I did still really like it. I think it's a wonderful look at how long the scars of war (both visible and invisible) last. We so rarely see something that examines how a nation and society at large continues to be affected by something like WWI. And while these books aren't about the war, they really are about the effects of it. We also start to see how the worsening economy at the start of the Depression is playing out in London.

I also enjoyed the mystery itself. It quickly becomes apparent that something else is going on besides a petulant daughter running away but it takes several twists and turns before Maisie (or the reader) can figure out where it's going. Both Charlotte and her father are difficult characters to understand and decipher, which makes their actions (and therefore the mystery) more layered than they initially appear.

I'm very much looking forward to reading the next one in the series

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.

Maisie Dobbs

Maisie Dobbs Jacqueline Winspear

Maisie Dobbs is a private detective who uses her knowledge of human emotion and body language to help her solve her cases. She used to be the assistant and protege of the greatest in the field. He's retired and Maisie's trying to take up the mantle, which is hard when you're a woman in inter-war London.

Maisie's first case is simple enough--a man knows his wife is gone for long stretches during the day when he's at work. He worries that she's cheating on him and wants Maisie to find out what's going on. Maisie solves the case easily enough but it leads her to something deeper. The Retreat seems harmless enough--originally it was a place where men with horrible facial wounds from the war could live together and away from the stares and comments of the general public. Eventually it opened up to any WWI vet who had visible or invisible wounds from the war that made them want to get away. But something about the Retreat seems a bit off to Maisie, and so she finds a way to discover more about it.

Throughout the mystery we get Maisie's back story-- her years in service, her time at University, her apprenticeship with Maurice, her own services in the war as a nurse and the wounds she carries from that.

Oh my, how I loved it!

Regulars know I'm a sucker for anything WWI related. I also love that it really looked into the after effects of the war, especially dealing with the horrible facial wounds and scarring.

I loved how it wove Maisie's back story in with the mystery.

I loved the side characters, especially Priscilla. How can you not love a character that gives us the following line? Dear God, give me a drink that bites back and good tale of love and lust any day of the week.

Most of all, I loved Maisie herself, and how she went from a working class girl to where she is now, how she struggled with her new place in society and the effects it had on her and those around her. I also loved her struggle with her own memories and experiences of the war and how much baggage she is still carrying around.

Her way of solving the case reminded me a bit of Poirot. (Thinking things through a lot.) It reads like a cozy, but the issues it brings up are much deeper and more serious than the cozies I'm used to reading.

Luckily for me, it's a series, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest.

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.

World of Downton Abbey

The World of Downton Abbey Jessica Fellowes

I still have a slew of Cybils-related reviews to parcel out on Nonfiction Monday, but I really wanted to share this one today, which is For Fans Only! (Which I know is large parts of the kid/teen book blog world. I read your recaps every Monday.)

Fellowes (wife of series writer and creator Julian Fellowes) gives us a beautiful companion book to help us through now that Season 2 is over.

The best part is that, for the most part, this book is not about the mechanics of the show, but placing the show in the greater context of history and giving the fan more background. There are chapters on such things as family, society, war, style, and estates. General information about things like typical aristocratic Edwardian family life is given and then tied into the show-- examples often come from history and the series. The series examples are the best, because they often give us story and character background that we don’t know. Like the fact that Cora’s from Cincinnati and her father’s fortune was in dry goods.

It’s lushly illustrated with large stills from the series (often with insight and commentary from the actors), as well as historical memorabilia and photographs. There are many side bars and pull-out boxes that are, frankly, often in a weird spot. flow wise. Eventually I went back to reading the way they taught us in junior high-- read all the side bar stuff first and then go back and read the chapter.

Then, of course, there is a chapter on the workings of the show. This is where you learn about their continuity issues-- the downstairs set is in the studio outside London, and the upstairs set is on location at Highclere Castle. So, when a footman is filmed carrying a dish upstairs from the kitchen... it has to appear the same way 2 weeks later and 60 miles away when he’s filmed coming into the dining room.

It’s fascinating and beautiful, just like the show itself.

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.

Goliath

Goliath Scott Westerfeld

Dylan/Derwyn, Alek, and the Leviathan are off to Japan when they make a detour to Siberia, to pick up a most unusual cargo, including Dr. Tesla. Tesla claims he has a weapon that is so terrible it’s sure to end the war. The Lady Boffin thinks he’s bonkers, but Alek wants to end this war, especially as it looks like Tesla will give the weapon to the British and use it against the Austrians. The Leviathan then heads to North America where our characters get entangled with actresses, media moguls, reporters, and Mexican rebels.

The main conflict is Tesla and his new weapon. Tesla is more than a little... unhinged and he’s a polarizing figure, especially between Alek and Derwyn. His weapon to end the war is clearly parallel with the nuclear bomb and the tensions at the end of WWII and adds interesting twists to the history.

I loved all the history woven in-- the stuff we now about and remember, and the stuff we may have never learned, and the semi-obscure (like the 1908 Tunguska explosion).

A most fitting end. Just wonderful. I wanted more time in Japan than we got*, but I did like the portrayal of America and William Randolf Hearst. I also liked the history woven in of battling newspapers and Mexican politics at the time. Plus, just the right amount of Derwyn/Alek drama and suspense and some super-exciting scenes on top of the Leviathan during a hurricane.

I loved, loved, loved, loved, loved this trilogy. I might have to buy it. I want to reread all of it in the middle the night.

*I’ll admit it, I was hoping for a Chinese detour, not a Russian one. I did really enjoy the extra history thrown in with the Russo-Japanese War-- a good reminder that conflict is always larger, longer, and deeper than we remember.

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: Unraveling Freedom

Unraveling Freedom: The Battle for Democracy on the Home Front During World War I Ann Bausum

While American soldiers fought abroad, making the world safe for democracy, they steadily lost freedoms on American soil. Labor leaders and peace activists were shunned and even jailed for voicing anti-war sentiment. It became illegal to teach German in the public schools (and foreign language instruction in the US has never recovered) and many immigrants were treated with suspicion and derision.

Bausum explores these issues and more (I never thought about Prohibition gaining traction because of anti-German sentiment and the amount of German-American ownership of the brewing business...) in her beautiful book on free speech and other civil rights on the homefront during WWI.

My only complaint is that it's too short. (Including notes, bibliography, citations, etc, it's still only 88 pages.) As such, it fails to provide some necessary context. In the afterword, it discusses that one of the lasting effects of WWI was that "residents began to think of themselves as American's first, immigrants second (if at all)." (page 73) but it never really discusses the way the American landscape looked before WWI for readers to fully understand what a cultural change this was. It also draws frequent parallels between our WWI and our current situation. After the sinking of the Lusitania, we were pulled into a large war and lost many freedoms. After 9/11, we were pulled into a war and lost many freedoms. While these parallels are interesting and make sense to adults without much explanation, the target audience of this book (upper middle grade/tween) does not remember a pre-9/11 world. In a year or two, the target audience of this book will have not lived in a pre-9/11 world* and so these comparisons are more confusing than useful.** And the book doesn't provide the pre-9/11 context needed.

These are issues that would have been easily solved by adding in some more material, and it wouldn't have bogged down the book or made it too long.

Visually, this book is very stunning. It makes good use of a faded red, white, and blue color scheme and very consciously mimics WWI propaganda posters. There's even a lengthy design note which discusses this and other design decisions included with the CIP data on title verso. Am I such a geek that a design note gets me overly excited? Yes, yes I am.

So overall, I really liked it, I just wanted (and I think younger readers will need) more.


Round up is over at Chapter Book of the Day.


*yes, I feel really old now, too.

**A few years ago, a 9-year-old asked me if I had heard about this time "a long time ago, when some guys flew airplanes into some big buildings." And this was a kid who had lived his entire life within 15 miles of the Pentagon.

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.

Moon Over Manifest

Moon Over Manifest Clare Vanderpool

Abilene's father has a new job and so he sends her to live with a preacher in Manifest. Abilene quickly learns that Shady isn't your average preacher and that Manifest holds secrets that may point to her father and why he sent her away. While working for Miss Sadie, a Hungarian fortune teller, Abilene starts to hear the story of Manifest 20 years ago.

It's two stories in one-- Abilene's story in 1936 as she makes friends and searches out the past, and Manifest's story in 1917.

This is going to sound weird, but... Abilene's story reminds me a bit of Pollyanna (and I mean that in the BEST way possible. Hot damn did I love that movie as a kid. Even more, I loved the Disney TV movie, Polly.) But it has that same sort of "abandonded child comes to town and heals it of past hurts" feel to it. I loved Abilene's friendship with Lettie and Ruthanne. I loved Shady and Miss Sadie and, most of all, Sister Redempta. I loved how, even though the Depression is there, this isn't a book about the Depression.

The 1917 story has a bit of "orphan saves town!" feel to it to, but it ends with the hurts that Abilene has to fix. I loved the way the town banded together, how they bonded over their immigrant status instead of letting culture and linguistics divide them. I loved the Temperance society and the bootleggers, and the running gag of Miss Velma T blowing up the chemistry lab mixing her elixirs. Also, WWI doesn't hurt. Although... there's one point where Ned is saying that he doesn't know what country he's from, and he could be French or German or even from Czechoslovakia. Except that in 1917, Czechoslovakia didn't exist yet-- it was part of the dismantling of Austria-Hungary after the war. I know that's being nitpicky, but errors like that pull me right out of a story. Because I see that and think "wait, what? no... that's not right" but then I spend the next 30 minutes researching that bit of information and not reading the story. It takes a very strong story to let me fall back in after something like that. This one did.

While I got into right away, it took me awhile before I stopped demanding that it prove itself to me. Prove to me why you're worthy of the Newbery! Prove to me you're more awesome than One Crazy Summer! PROVE IT! PROVE IT NOW! One Crazy Summer still gets my vote for Newbery, but I know why Moon Over Manifest was chosen. It made me laugh and broke my heart and left me with one lingering questions... did Abilene ever get the compass back from Miss Sadie? Did she want it back, in the end?

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.

Poetry Friday

Frank Buckles passed away last week. He was the US's last living WWI veteran. Today's Poetry Friday offering is in honor of Mr. Buckles and everyone who served in WWI.

My Boy Jack

“Have you news of my boy Jack?”
Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Has any one else had word of him?”
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind —
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!

--Rudyard Kipling

Roundup is over at The Small Nouns

Behemoth

Behemoth Scott Westerfeld

I loved Leviathan. I even took a risk and recommended it to a patron that I talk to a lot* but usually don't recommend books to, as he and I read very different things. (Ok, not too big a risk. He's a steampunk kick and last year was on a huge WWI kick.) We were both very excited for Behemoth. I was even nice and let him put a hold on it before me (but I was #2 on the list, so it's ok!) And we waited. And it came in. Two days later he came in shouting and raving "JENNIE! DID YOU READ IT YET? IT WAS AWESOME! IT WAS SO AWESOME IT MAKES LEVIATHAN LOOK LIKE A PILE OF CRAP!" He was so excited that I didn't have the heart to tell him that he shouldn't (a) shout in the library (b) shout the word crap in the children's room.

But guess what dear reader, HE WAS TOTALLY RIGHT. Compared to Behemoth? Leviathan, which used to get a "love love love OMG love" out of me now gets a mere "meh"

AND! No sucker punch cliff hanger ending. THANK YOU Mr. Westerfeld. You clearly know how to write a second book in a trilogy. It didn't just serve to further the plot and set up the next book. NO. It is it's own perfect book that will lead nicely into the next adventure.

Deryn and Alek are headed towards Constantinople, with the lady boffin's beastie peace offering. But, of course, nothing goes according to plan. When they land, the two are soon separated as we're thrust into an Istanbul where the 1908 revolution was unsuccessful. I also loved how much of the conflict between England and Turkey wasn't of Westerfeld's making. Turkey is upset because it ordered a warship from England, but when WWI broke out, instead of shipping it to Turkey, Churchill (as head of the Admiralty) kept it "temporarily" so the Brits could add it to their navy. Turkey is caught in a between great forces on a strategic point of land** and where England failed, Germany is more than happy to give Turkey what it wants. All that is true. The twist Westerfeld adds is that in addition to a warship, the Brits also kept a beastie...

Lots of adventure and building relationships and tension***. I loved seeing a Clanker Istanbul, but one where the machines were built to look like animals. I loved how the characters worked things that are special to Istanbul into their plans (oh! the spice! so wonderful!) It was very exciting without being totally plot-driven, which is hard to do. I love how Westerfeld is writing an alternate steampunk history, but is still very true to historical detail and sense of place-- a very hard balance to strike, I imagine.

So... why is this better than Leviathan? Part of it is that the world and characters are established so they are free to grow and fill out even more. Part of it is that they are now in the middle of things, action and intrigue-wise. And part of it is just that certain je ne sais quoi.

Also, a shout out for Keith Thompson's illustrations. We need more illustrations in novels for older readers. His black-and-white pictures add a lot to the story and Deryn's facial expressions are priceless. AND! I love the endpapers (I did with Leviathan, too.)

So, if you haven't read Leviathan yet, GO! And if you've read Leviathan and not Behemoth, WTF? GO!




*Things that make me happy-- when the children grow up and leave me for the teen section, but still stop by the children's desk just to say hi and have a chat. I FEEL SO LOVED WHEN THAT HAPPENS.

**Seriously, if you ever play Diplomacy, start a large portion of your force in Turkey. It's the BEST starting position.

*** While I'm mainly referring to the political tension, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the sexual tension that is there, but isn't because Alek doesn't know that Dylan is really Deryn and Deryn's worried about Alek's desire to not marry common and OH! It's not the main focus at all, but I love that it's there and I love the plot line.

Book Provided by...

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Year of the Historical: Age 14

Age 14 Geert Spillebeen

Ok, y'all know how much I loved Kipling's Choice. And how much I love a book about WWI in general.

This is based on a true story. While Spillebeen references the research he did and how looking through John Condon's files, his story came alive again and Spillebeen wanted to tell it, the author's note does not go into detail on what exactly is true and what is imagined.

The story is this-- Patrick Condon always was big for his age. When he was 10, he dropped out of school and told the boss he was 14, so he could work on the docks* in Ballybricken with his father and older brothers. Not content with dock life, he steals his brother's name** and says he's 16, so he can join the Irish guard. When WWI starts, he ups his age to 18 so he can go fight. When he is killed in Flanders field, his real age is only 14.

There are several ins and outs of this story-- Patrick's story from the docks to the army and various posts of the army and his coming of age when everyone thought was was of age. Also, the friends he meets and his family's reaction along the way. There's also the story of the building war, and the realities versus romantic notions of war. And then, we occasionally get chapters from the lab with the development of mustard and chlorine gas for use in warfare.

This historical note deals mainly with chemical warfare and is interesting, but the chemical warfare chapters were too sparse-- I wanted that storyline to be much more, or entirely cut. I think the historical note about chemical warfare was important either way, because it was very important to Patrick's story, but I also wanted a lot more information about Patrick's true story.

Overall though, a very good book that I really enjoyed. I hope we continue to see more of Spillebeen's work translated into English and available in the US.

*Ok, so there's one incident while working on the docks that gets mentioned A LOT in reviews and shocks people and blah blah blah and I was really surprised when I got to that scene because I was like "Really? That's what everyone is so worked up about?" Basically, there is a bit of pederasty and it's not entirely necessary to the plot, which is why I'm wondering how much is true, because if that's a true part of the story, then yes, it should be there, but if it's something that Spillebeen added, eh. BUT, here's the thing. It's rather veiled and you have to know some things about life in order to understand what's going on. A lot of readers who aren't ready for that sort of thing aren't going to understand the scene at all. I wouldn't have commented on it AT ALL, except that in everything I've read and heard about this book, everyone mentions it, so I wanted to mention it, if at least to tell people that it's minor and not graphic and not as huge a deal as everyone makes it out to be.

**At which point he becomes John, but I'll keep calling him Patrick here to make it less confusing.


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.

Year of the Historical/Poetry Friday: Crossing Stones

Crossing Stones Helen Frost

It's odd to do a verse novel review for Poetry Friday, without quoting. But so much of Frost's work in this book is visual, and I just can't get the formatting right. Also, my favorite poem, which shows how much work went into it, is a major spoiler.

Like most of this book, my favorite poem is extremely well-crafted but not in-your-face so, it's the things you find when you turn back and look after analyzing, the craft never gets in the way of the story.

Muriel graduates from high school in 1917. She has strong opinions and is caught between what she feels and wants, and what others expect her to be. Across the creek live her family's best friends. All members of the family are constantly traveling over the stones in the water, running back and forth between the houses. But when each family sends a son to the war, some things will never be the same.

But... it's about the friendship and the homefront during WWI, but it's also about discovering who you are, the suffragette movement, the wider world, Anne of Green Gables, and possibility.

I mentioned the visual nature of the book before. It's told in three voices--Muriel's, her brother Ollie, and their friend across the creek Emma. Muriel's poems are free-verse, in the shape of a meandering river. Emma's and Ollie's are cupped sonnets, in the shape of the stones that connect the families and lives. There's more structure hidden in there, all explained in the author's note, but I suggest you read that after finishing the story, because she reveals a lot of information about character relationships in the structure of the poem.

This was a near perfect book, with the exception of the blah cover and 1 historical error that has been FIXED in the most recent printing, so that doesn't even count anymore. And when the worst thing I can say is that the cover is blah?

Round up is over at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

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.

Leviathan

Leviathan Scott Westerfeld

I'm usually not a huge steampunk fan and no matter how true the descriptor of "rollicking good adventure" is, it won't draw me in. Neither of these are things that will turn me off a book, but they also won't make me go "ooooooo" the same way saying "China" or "Fairy Tale" or "Hysterical British Girly Book" or "World War I" will. Oh, wait, "World War I?" Yeah, that's what made me pick up Leviathan. World War I will get me most of the time.

So, Leviathan is World War I, but a steampunk slightly alternate history version of it. Alek is the only child of the Archduke Ferdinand, roused out of bed and sent running for his life after his parents are assassinated in Sarajevo. Derwyn has disguised herself as a boy to join the British Air Force. All she's ever wanted to do is fly like she did with her hot-air ballooning father. There's more, of course. The Central Powers are known as Clankers, relying on intricate machinery for their armed forces. The Allies are Darwinists, combining several strands of DNA from different species to create fabricated beasts for theirs.

The action follows both of these characters before their stories collide. Beyond the intriguing premise (and the rollicking good adventure) it's just a damn fine story of people finding themselves and trying to save themselves and war and friendship and all sorts of good things. I like the conflict within the Darwinist countries-- there's a subgroup called Monkey Luddites who feel that fabricated creatures are soulless and evil. I also like how much politics comes into play, especially with Alek's plot line, which closely follow the actual politics of the day. Westerfeld's ending note is also great, commenting on what is real and what isn't, both in terms of war and politics, and also the technology used. Cannot WAIT for the sequel. (Also, due to the placement of the ending, you might actually want to wait to read this until the sequel is out, so you can read them together.)

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.

More Winners and the like

Now Reading: Un Lun Dun
Just Finished: The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, The Brothers Grimm: Two Lives, One Legacy, The Talented Clementine,Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages was this year's winner for the Scott O'Dell prize for historical fiction.

Dewey is a weird kid-- there's something wrong with her leg that makes her limp and she spends all of her time making gadgets and fiddling with stuff. Her dad is working on some top secret project that is going to help win the war and when her grandmother dies, she goes off to live with him.

Dewey didn't realize how top secret this project was. She didn't realize she was moving to a place that didn't officially exist... All she knew was everyone was living out in the desert working on the gadget. The gadget would win the war. The gadget would make everything better.

Suze has been living at Los Alamos for awhile when Dewey moves there-- Suze is a bit awkward and bossy and both of her parents are working on the project-- her mom's a real scientist, not just a typist or secretary like the other moms. When Dewey's dad has to go to Washington for awhile, Dewey moves in and the pair form an unlikely, but entirely realistic, friendship.

What's great about this book is the portrait of day-to-day life at Los Alamos-- you never think about kids living with their families, going to school, and being kids. You never think about the divisions between scientist kids and military kids. And you never think about Los Alamos just plain not existing... (well, at least I never thought about those things.)

This balances the line perfectly of being meticulously researched and historically wonderful, while not letting this detail overshadow the actual story. I liked how realistic the interactions between the kids were-- this unlikely friendship took a long time to develop and it never came across as hokey or simplisitic.

My favorite part of the book was how delicately it dealt with some very large issues that need to be tackled when dealing this topic-- it put them in there so you knew people were worrying about them, but Dewey hears about them and deals with them in a way that is very true to her age. In Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) Feynman (a minor character in this book, much to my delight) talks about the horror of what they had done after the first test. The book captures this horror well with the adults and the confusion of the kids at what's going on.

Something happens about 3/4 of the way through the book that is a bit of a spoiler so I'm not going to talk about it too much, but it was just too much and I don't really think it was necessary (but it might be for the sequel that I am very much looking forward to!)

The other thing is... I'm assuming that if you're reading my blog, you know what the gadget was-- you know what was invented at Los Alamos during WWII to win the war. Dewey and Suze, and therefore the reader, never find out was the gadget was, and I'm not sure how much sense the ending of the book is going to make if you don't know. I also don't know if the intended audience is going to automatically know what the gadget was...

Still, an excellent book and a well-deserving win.

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I promised I'd review this years Newberry winner, The Higher Power of Luckyby Susan Patron.

I wanted to wait down until all the fervor over SCROTUM faded away. And then it came back. And then it faded again.

Anyway... Lucky really surprised me. I hadn't heard anything about it before Newberry day and in reading the description-- it didn't sound kid-friendly. It sounded like it was going to be really nostalgic and an adult book written for kids.

It wasn't! I was so happy!

Lucky lives with her French guardian (he absent father's ex-wife) in the middle of the desert. She likes to eavesdrop on 12 step meetings to find out how people find their higher power-- higher power sounds like a handy thing to have, but Lucky's hoping to avoid hitting rock bottom in order to get it. Hitting rock bottom doesn't sound like much fun.

At the same time, Lucky's worried her guardian is going to go back to France-- she seems homesick and her passport was out the other day.

Deep down, this is a really sweet tale that will appeal to younger readers, but also has some really big issues for older readers to get into.

Most enjoyable was the large cast of wacky, but believable, characters. A good book and my favorite Newberry winner of the last few years.

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Lawson was a Newberry Honor book that is being found in the YA section at all the libraries I've visited!

Hattie is an orphan who inherits a homesteading claim in Montana. In order to keep the claim, she has to cultivate a large portion of it (which involves clearing it first!) and fence off most of it. By hand. By herself. She knows nothing about farming. Or cooking. Or anything. She wants to keep the claim, but she'll be lucky if she even survives.

Her next door neighbors are helpful and nice and the first friends Hattie makes, but one of them is German, and it's smack in the middle of WWI. Montana is rife with anti-German sentiment, loyalty leagues and other things making things hard for Hattie's friends. How can she reconcile her soldier-friends killing Germans across the ocean with her German neighbor fencing her claim in the middle of the night?

Tragedy and hope about in another great example of what historical fiction should be in this book that's perfect for Tweens and those right on the kidlit/YA break.

My favorite part was the ending and how it was handled. The author's note at the end is great, as are the recipes!

The Pull of the Ocean by Jean-Claude Mourlevat won the Batchelder award for translated work this fall.

The Doutreleau children are all sets of twins, except for the Yann, the seventh and the last. Yann is small and mute, but notices everything and communicates with his older brothers silently. One night he wakes up to his parents fighting and lets his brothers know they have to leave, to escape. For days they walk, following Yann's inner compass to the ocean.

This is more than just a retelling of the Tom Thumb. This story is told in brief accounts of people who saw the children and interacted with them only briefly-- sometimes only seconds, never more than an hour or so. Interspersed are the accounts of the children, but never Yann.

This book is surprisingly powerful and moving without ever being overwrought, over-contrived, or melodramatic. I couldn't put it down and it haunts you long after you turn the final page-- I highly recommend!

War is Hell

FYI, Flickr and Blogger aren't playing nice at the moment, so book covers should come later...

Before I get to the reviews, FYI, the new Georgia Nicholson book, Love Is a Many Trousered Thing, is slated to come out in May and available for pre-order now on Amazon. Woot!

Also, dear, dear Amazon. I have told you how much I am in lurve with Jasper Fforde , why then, did you fail to tell me back in August that he had a NEW Nursery Crime book out, The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crime. I depend on you for such details!!!! And I didn't know! And I feel sad. Well, I was sad that you had betrayed my heart in such a way, but then I got a copy at the library (which was easy to do, given that, you know, I work there.)

Anyway, y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.

First off, this August, my plan was to read Barbara Tuchmann's Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Guns of August, about the first month of WWI. Well, I started it in August but with all the other reading I've had to do for work and school, I didn't get to actually finish it until Saturday. Given that Saturday was Armistice Day, I find it appropriate. This book has been critically acclaimed a million times and I don't have much to add. It was well worth the read and an immensely fascinating look at how paranoid the Kaiser seemed and how steadfastly those in charge committed to a plan and refused to be swayed, despite the consequences.

Interestingly enough, when outlining the causes of war, the assasination of Archduke Ferdinand barely garned a sentence. To be fair, when outlining the scope of the book, Tuchmann states that she wasn't going to touch the Balkan question, as to address it fairly would be a whole book in and of itself.

This book was obviously written in a time when the average reader had a more extensive knowledge of European History. Now, I'm fairly well trained in history, but I've only had two college classes in European history (one was focused soley on England and the other was just general Europe) and I was constantly looking things up. (For instance, there were all these references to animousity between France and Germany in 1870, but never gave it a name, which made it hard to look up. It was the Franco-Prussian war. Luckily, I live with a British History scholar, and he knows a lot more about general European stuff than I do.) Also, the maps are very focused and it can be hard to see where the area of detail was in the greater European context. (At point I was looking at a map of airport routes in my inflight magazine trying to figure out what bit of German coast I was looking at.)

That said, this book is the perfect reason to buy yourself an Historical World Atlas.

Also, Tuchmann is very funny. She often slips in dry little comments, such as this one from p. 267

German soldiers, posted as informers, were found dressed as peasants, even peasant women. The latter were discovered, presumably in the course of non-military action, by their government-issued underwear.

But for now, let's talk about some YA war books, shall we?

By far, the hands-down best YA war book I've read recently is Kipling's Choice by Geert Spillebeen. A fiction account of John Kipling's (Rudyard Kipling's son) last moments, it tells the story of a young man desperate for the glory and honor of war.

Rudyard had always wanted to serve in his Majesty's service and was denied entry due to his poor eyesight. His hopes and dreams trasnfered to his only son, John. His grades weren't good enough to go to the best naval academies, but his gets into an acceptable army school. But John has his father's eyes and the lifestyle befitting the priviledged sons of Britian's elite...

When war breaks out in Europe in 1914, Rudyard Kiplin is one of the loudest voices calling for British involvement. WHen England joins, he leads the recruitment calls. It breaks his and his son's hearts that John cannot be in the first wave, especially as his friends keep going over. He still feels this way even as his friends start dying. Rudyard pulls every string he can to get his son a commission.

John's first battle is also his last. This heart-breaking tale is framed as his life flashes before him somewhere in Belgium.

Spillebeen grew up near Flanders and has written several YA novels about the oft-neglected WWI, but as far as I can tell, this is his first to appear in English. There are several aspects that set this book apart from the rest of the genre. The bulk of the story takes place before the war and before John deploys, but because of how the story is framed, it transports you to the battlefield horror on a regular basis. Because Kipling is killed so early in his army career he never loses that pre-war optimisim--life never gives him the chance to turn battle hardened and cynical--which is rare in war books.

Another difference between Kipling's Choice and most others lies in John's societal status. He is not a grunt. He's not escaping an impoverished background--even in boot camp he takes his friends partying in London's most exclusive clubs. His father's wealth and status and fame means John starts as an officer. He is not an everyman, but he'll still die like one. The book also follows the reaction of John's parents in greater detail than the standard epilogue. I highly recommend this book and hope that we'll see more translations of Spillebeen's work.

Another WWI book--also with interesting framing--is Michael Murpago's Private Peaceful. Thomas (Tommo) Peaceful grew up living on an estate (but the son of a worker, not fortune like Kipling) in England. His older brother Charlie has always looked out for him. The first half of the book deals with the day to day struggles of being poor and the estate owner is mean and Charlie and Tommo fall in love with the same girl... WWI breaks out and the brothers join up, Tommo lying about his age to be eligible.

The story then shifts to the general horros for war and the specific horros of trench warfare. The story is told as Tommo stays up all night (for a reason we find out at the end--he's not on watch, despite wahat the book jacket says!) The chapters are labeled with the time of night as he stays up and remembers.

Unlike Kipling's Choice, Private Peaceful follows the more common form of "bright-eyed poor boy becomes a hardened man by witnessing the horrors of war" but Peaceful is much better than most. My main complaint is the relationship between Charlie and Tommo. At it's worst, Tommo gets pissed off when he realizes that Charlie has one Molly's heart. But these emotions are fully explored and seem to quickly fade away. Generally, Tommo idolizes Charlie and Charlie can never ever ever ever do wrong. It just doesn't make sense, nor does it ring true and sours the rest of the story.

The other complaint, which is not my own by I'll pass it on anyway, comes from a fellow librarian, and that is that most of the pre-war plot is supposedly lifted directly from some classic mini-series. Now I haven't seen it and can't even remember the name, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Final verdict? Good, but no Kipling's Choice.

Skipping ahead a generation, we land in WWII with B for Buster by Iain Lawrence.

The Kakabera Kid lies his way out of his small Canadian town and into the British Airforce. Instead of being the 16 year old son of an abusive drunk, he is now an 18 year old orphan. He loves to fly and one day dreams of being a pilot, not just the wireless operator. He also sees his adventure as parallels to his comic book character heroes.

He's desperately afraid of being found out as being too young and avoids hanging out with his crew, lest his actions give himself away. (Of course, his flight crew just thinks he doesn't like them.) Once they start flying missions, he befriends the pigeoner as the only person he can talk to about his extreme fear of being shot down and dying.

This book is meant to illuminate a long forgotten aspect of the warr--the role of pigeons in the BAF. Flights carried homing pigeons so if they got short down (and survived) or had to bail out, they could write a message about where they were and get rescued. The problem is that this is where Lawrence take sthe most historical liberaties. These are all countered in his ending historical note, but hte fact that he's writing this book to tell this story but messes with the story? It completely detracts from the story and a better story could have been told without these changes.

However, the best part was the descriptions of burning German cities. Just the sense of fire and destruction and the questions of how anyone could survive such a horror (and they didn't even go to Dresden) are questions that are treated very subtley and well. It really comes to a head when the flight crew goes down to London and gets caught in the Blitz... what makes this show well done (I think) is that it's not overly-dwelled upon.

Another book about a little known episode of WWII, and one that is done much better is Graham Salisbury's Eyes of the Emperor. Hawaii resident Eddy Okubo is sick of hearing about "The Japanese Problem"--if it comes to war, will those of Japanese descent be loyal to the US? Or to Japan? After his family is targeted, Eddy lies his was into the army to prove where his loyalties are-- the US.

After Pearl Harbor, when it does come to war, Eddy and the other Japanese-American soldiers aren't allowed to fight. At first, they're even held prisoner! Eventually Eddy and some of the other Japanese-American soldiers are taken to Mississippi (on the journey, they're not allowed to open the shades because people would freak out at seeing a "car full of Japs".) In Mississippi they're stuck on a desolate island as part of a dog training program. Japanese people, supposedly, smell differently than other people. Eddy and his friends are being used as bait--their service to their country was to be hunted down and attacked by dogs.

Strikingly told in Eddy's voice this is a well-done account of a true episode in American history. My one complaint is that Eddy's speaking voice/grammar/sentence construction doesn't match his inner, narrative voice at all, which can be a bit jarring, but he doesn't talk a lot, so it's a minor complaint.

Jumping back a few more wars, I recently read The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane for the first time.

Um... the coolest part about this book is that I read it through DailyLit, which is awesome. (Currently, I'm slogging through War and Peace.)

Crane paints well the bravado and fear of war as a young boy marchs off to war. It's not as introspective as the other ones I've discusses, and really, what can I say that generations of high school students haven't said already? I have nothing really to add nor profound to say.

Overall these books are all pretty good and I do recommend all of them. Kipling's Choice is by far and away the best, but these are all exemplary titles. ATTENTION TRANSLATORS! I WANT MORE GEERT SPILLEBEEN!