Book Review Roundup #15
January 22, 2025
There Was Once A Slave by Shirley Graham
If all history books were written in Graham’s style, no child would ever say, “I hate history.” With lyrical descriptions of time and place, she quickly drops the reader into her subject’s setting. The fear and despair of the opening scene are palpable. Graham doesn’t relate facts, she tells a story of real people with real feelings and motivations.
Prior to reading this book, I knew almost nothing about Frederick Douglass other than his name, that he began life as a slave, and that he worked for the abolition of slavery. Graham’s extensive research allowed her to integrate Douglass’s own words into her narrative, which brings him to life.
What’s Inside a Caterpillar Cocoon by Rachel Ignotofsky
Rachel Ignotofsky’s What’s Inside a Caterpillar Cocoon is a delightful and educational journey through the fascinating transformation of caterpillars into butterflies. Like What’s Inside a Bird’s Nest, this book is perfect for curious young readers, introducing the magical world of metamorphosis with engaging text, vibrant illustrations, and just the right amount of science to awaken wonder without overwhelming.
I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
For adults by the author of Peace Like a River. I Cheerfully Refuse is the story of a man, Rainy, who becomes a fugitive, innocent of any crime, but pursued by a villainous lawman in a dystopian world that has traded law and order for despotism and chaos. It was unclear to me whether nuclear war or climate change or something else or a combination of things made the setting, in and around Lake Superior in Michigan and Canada, so degraded and oppressive. However, something happened to the country and then something else to Rainy in particular, and Rainy is caught in a hellish predicament, not of his own making. So he sets sail in a dilapidated old sailboat to escape the bad guys and find the good.
Ice Cream Man by Glenda Armand and Kim Freeman
Ice Cream Man is a delightful picture book biography that introduces readers to Augustus Jackson, a creative entrepreneur who invented the ice cream industry. Glenda Armand and Kim Freeman bring to life the fascinating story of how Jackson, a former White House chef, used his ingenuity and industry to improve the process of making and storing ice cream. This book is sweet and satisfying, offering readers a wonderful true history lesson wrapped in a fantastic story of creativity and resilience.
The Contender by Robert Lipsyte
Alfred, who lives with his aunt and her daughters in an apartment and works at a local Jewish-owned store, isn’t interested in the siren call of crime and drugs that his tormentors are offering and that his best friend James is yielding to. But Alfred doesn’t really know what he does want to pursue, what his true adventure might be, until he steps over the threshold of Donatelli’s Gym and commits himself to training to become a boxer.
The Contender is a book for older teens and adults, especially for those young men who are considering what it means to become a man. It’s about boxing and drug abuse and the temptations that come with racial hatred and poverty and aimlessness. But it’s mostly about coming of age through struggle and discipline and perseverance to find the person you want to become.
Rudy Rides the Rails by Dandi Daley Mackall
Rudy Rides the Rails: A Depression Era Story by Dandi Daley Mackall is another good story in the Tales of Young Americans. The theme is inherently sad, but the story is well told and very interesting.
“You gotta look out for you and yours, and nobody else.” That is what Rudy’s Pa has taught him. But, ever since Pa lost his job, he can’t do that for himself or his family. Instead, Ma sneaks out to the relief line while Rudy’s little sisters wait at soup kitchens...
Firestorm by Robb White
Firestorm is about a forest fire. It’s a short book, only 111 pages, but it’s perfect for reluctant but intelligent readers. The plot and characters and the ending are all surprising and give the reader food for thought. I was especially moved to think about what I would do in similar circumstances, as a boy and the forest ranger who believes him to be an arsonist are trapped together in a ring of fire that threatens to kill both of them.
Ain't Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson
I remember singing some version of “The Ballad of John Henry” when I was in grade school, but I don’t remember anyone explaining what it meant. Since we learned it along with silly songs like “Froggy Went a-Courtin’” and “Señor Don Gato,” it didn’t occur to me to wonder if John Henry had been a real person.
But it did occur to historian, Scott Reynolds Nelson. Ain’t Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry is a children’s version of his book for adults on the same subject, Steel Drivin’ Man: The Untold Story of an American Legend.
Nelson says he had listened to hundreds of versions of the song and visited every place that could possibly be connected with it, but the trail was cold. Then, one day, he noticed a clue on an old postcard he had looked at thousands of times. From that clue, he takes the reader back to the very beginning of his search.
Brother Hugo and the Bear by Katy Beebe
I found inspiration for the figure of Brother Hugo himself in an Oxford manuscript. At the end of an eleventh-century copy of St. Jerome’s Commentary of Isaiah, now kept in the Bodleian Library, I came across the endearing self-portrait of a Benedictine monk who had labeled his picture Hugo pictor: “the painter Hugo.”
Beebe built her story upon a comment by Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, a Benedictine monastery. In a letter to another monastery asking for the loan of a manuscript, he wrote: And send to us, if it pleases you, the great volume of letters by the holy father Augustine, which contains his letters to Saint Jerome, and Saint Jerome’s to him. For it happens that the greater part of our volume was eaten by a bear.
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan
It was the worst forest fire anyone had ever seen, and the end result was over 100 people dead, about three million acres of forest burned to a crisp, and the National Forest Service with a mandate for the future: Prevent Forest Fires.
Aside from the availability of helicopters, better communications, and some more advanced firefighting methods, this nonfiction book about the worst wildfire in U.S. history sounds a lot like the newspaper articles and stories from the fires that we read about every year in California. We still don’t know exactly how to manage forests and fires in forests.
Viking Quest series by Lois Walfrid Johnson
The Viking Quest series by Lois Walfrid Johnson is a truly excellent historical fiction saga that immerses teen readers in the riveting world of the 10th century. Spanning five books, this series transports readers from the lush coasts of Ireland to the cold farms of Norway and then to the icy shores of Greenland (and beyond), always incorporating the fascinating culture of the people in those places. An exciting story of adventure, hardship, faith, and conversion, this is a story that young readers will find hard to put down.
Kadooboo by Shruthi Rao
The word “silly” in the subtitle signals to the reader not to expect anything too profound from this adapted South Indian folktale, but the fact that it’s a folktale, passed down from grandmother to granddaughter, means that the story certainly has some significance and meaning. And it’s fun. Fun is not twaddle, and comedy is not useless. Therefore, classify this one as a humble living book.
Anya’s Appa (dad) is making kadooboo, “pouches of dough filled with sugar and grated coconut.” (Yes, there’s a recipe in the back of the book.) Anya’s friend Kabir is asked to take some home to his Amma (mom). As he runs home, hurrying to beat the impending rainstorm, Kabir collects other friends who come along to share the kadooboo and to get in out of the rain. But Kabir also becomes more and more confused about the name of the treat he is carrying. Is it bookoodoo? Dubookoo? Duckooboo?
Summer Birds by Margarita Engle
Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian is an enchanting picture book biography of 17th-century naturalist, Maria Merian. The illustration is breathtaking and the story is compelling.
Living in a time when the scientific study of the natural sciences was in its infancy, Maria Merian knew that the superstitions surrounding butterflies and moths were based in misunderstanding. Her fascination with the “summer birds” as butterflies and moths were called, drove her to capture caterpillars and study them. Excellent for nature study, history, or just for the joy of reading aloud, this book is lovely.
Orris and Timble: The Beginning by Kate diCamillo
Kate diCamillo is one of my favorite contemporary authors, and she has had a great year. Ferris was probably my favorite middle grade novel of 2024, and now Orris and Timble: The Beginning is set to be my favorite new easy reader of 2024, and maybe my favorite series, if the other two books in the projected trilogy are as good as this first one.
“The old barn was abandoned. Only Orris lived there.” So the story begins. Orris is a rat, a solitary soul who has made a nest for himself and filled it with his favorite recycled treasures. He’s happy and seemingly self-satisfied.
Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco
This is my fourth review of Polacco’s autobiographical books. In each one, I mention that Polacco has lived a very storied life. A life marked by suffering and hardship, but one also seasoned with stories and good people who cared fiercely for her. All of her life, Polacco loved stories and longed to read. But by the time she was fourteen, she was resigned to the fact that she was “dumb” and that somehow she lacked something in her brain necessary for decoding books.
Polacco was miserable. Until Mr. Falker changes all of that for her. In this sequel, Polacco begs her father to let her live with him this school year so she can start fresh. In a school where no one knows that she just learned to read last year. Ultimately her parents decide to let her stay in Michigan for her ninth grade year. She is elated, until the first day of school when she finds out she isn’t in a normal class. And that this fresh start means being grouped with the “junkyard” kids.