Happy Blogiversary to Me!

I realized the other day that I had recently passed a blogging milestone of sorts--my one year "blogiversary."  I started my blog on May 17, 2010, after learning about book blogs in one of my library school classes and having an "aha" sort of moment.

Why add my voice to the approximately 126 MILLION bloggers out there (a statistic tracked through BlogPulse)?

I wanted to do something a little different than everything else out there--blog about historical fiction, one of my favorite genres, and specifically about historical fiction for kids and teens.  I expanded into some history-related non-fiction as well as I developed a focus for my blog.  At the beginning I wondered if anyone would read my blog--like the hostess who throws a big party and wonders if anyone will come!  Much to my delight, people started to follow my blog (and they're not members of my immediate family, for the most part) and I quickly discovered that blogging can become a bit of an obsession--both writing my own and reading those of other bloggers.  One of the great parts is a very supportive on-line community of book bloggers.  I even got to meet some fellow bloggers in person this past year at Kidlitosphere in Minneapolis and at the American Library Association Mid-Winter conference in San Diego, where it was great fun to put some faces to some of the names I've been following on-line.  

I also wanted to give a shout-out to fellow blogger and librarian Lisa Taylor at Shelf-Employed for co-organizing with me an inaugural Kidlit Celebrates Women's History Month blogging event, in which so many supportive authors and bloggers participated.  Over the past year I feel some sense of accomplishment to have reviewed over 150 books on my blog and published over a dozen author interviews.  I hope I'll be able to keep up my pace!  I wanted to thank all the supportive readers out there who've kindly commented on my blog and made me feel like someone is paying attention out in cyberspace.  

Book Review: Dear America: The Second Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart: Cannons at Dawn, by Kristiana Gregory (Scholastic 2011)

Recommended for ages 8-12.

As part of their relaunch of their hugely successful Dear America series, Scholastic has published a sequel to one of the earlier diaries in the series, The Winter of Red Snow, published in 1996.  Two years have past since Abigail chronicled the despair and misery of the terrible Valley Forge winter of 1777-78, but the war still drags on, now nearly four years old.  Her father is camped with Washington's main army in New Jersey when Abby and her family are forced to flee their home after a fire destroys everything they own.  After seeking shelter with a cousin who cannot keep them, they soon join the many women and children who are encamped with the American troops.  They must earn their keep by laundering and mending, and return are given rations by the army.  Martha Washington and her slave, Oney, also live by the camp (although in better accommodations!) and appear numerous times during this story.

When the army moves, Abby and her family must follow along, part of a "ragged, noisy crowd."  The winter is once again brutal and food is scarce and often rotten, filled with maggots.  All are waiting for the Marquis de Lafayette to return from France, with French ships and supplies.  But life goes on, with babies being born in the camp, some new friends being made, and romance blooming between Abby and a young soldier, Willie.  The soldiers build huts for shelter from the winter weather, and Abby tries to keep some normalcy by attempting to teach the younger children their letters.  Spies are everywhere, including the treacherous Benedict Arnold, and with rations and pay scarce and non-existent, the American troops are threatening mutiny.  The British seem to be having victory after victory in the Southern colonies. Will the war ever end?

Although this book can stand alone without having read the first book about Abby's family, I would recommend reading them in order for a richer experience.  Once again Kristiana Gregory captures the adventure, trials, misery, and triumph of this exciting period of American history through the eyes of a sympathetic young colonist.  Highly recommended!

Blog Tour: When Bob Met Woody: The Story of the Young Bob Dylan, by Gary Golio and illustrated by Marc Burckhardt (Little Brown, 2011)

Recommended for ages 6-12.

I am delighted to participate in the blog tour for Gary Golio's terrific new biographical picture book on music icon Bob Dylan.

Gary Golio's last picture book was the stunning award-winning collaboration with Javaka Steptoe, Jimi Sounds Like a Rainbow, about rock legend Jimi Hendrix.  In his newest release, Golio turns to another 20th century musical legend, Bob Dylan, and fans of his early work will not be disappointed.

Much like Golio's book about Hendrix, this volume does not attempt to be a traditional biography and tell the entire story of Dylan's life.  Instead, he concentrates on Dylan's youth in Minnesota, when he was just Bob Zimmerman, a Jewish kid who loved music, although he hated taking lessons!  In fact, he taught himself both piano and guitar as a kid.

Golio shows us some of Bob's early influences, as he listens on the radio to the great blues musicians of the time such as Muddy Waters and B. B. King, as well as country star Hank Williams.  Bob's parents thought music was a waste of time, and Bob grew up feeling different--teased for his Jewish heritage, and belittled for his musical ambitions in the small mining community where he lived.  But Bob knew he'd show them all one day, and be a bigger music star than Elvis!

To please his parents, Bob started college in Minneapolis, although he spent most of his time in coffeehouses singing folk music.  At an audition, he told a cafe owner that his name was Bob Dylan--after Dylan Thomas, his favorite poet.  And he practiced and practiced, learning all kinds of music, even forgetting to brush his teeth sometimes because he was so engrossed in his practicing!

When Bob was introduced to the music of folk singer Woody Guthrie, he found a singer/songwriter whom he grew to idolize, so much so that when he heard the singer was in the hospital in New York, he found out the phone number and hitchhiked cross-country at 19 years old just to see him.  He visited his hero in the hospital, even singing a song he had composed just for him:  "Song to Woody."

An afterword explains how by meeting Woody Guthrie, Bob became part of an inside circle of the most important people in American folk music, many of whom helped him find work and even "fed him meals and lent him their couches."  Less than a year after arriving in New York, he had a record deal with Columbia Records.  Golio also describes how Bob's ability to blend different music styles changed the face of American popular music.

The book includes a brief bibliography of books, audio sources, videos, and internet resources on Bob Dylan.

Marc Burckhardt's illustrations are a perfect fit for the folksy style of Golio's prose and for Dylan's status a folk music idol.  From Austin, Texas, Marc lives in the "live music capital of the world," and has illustrated several other picture books as well.  In this book, he uses acrylics and oil paper mounted on board to create a vibrant folk art look that reminded me of the monumentality of the figures of Grant Wood and other great American painters.

This is a terrific picture book to share with young people, even better if you can combine it with some song tracks (try Youtube for some free links, including rare surviving footage of Guthrie performing) from both Dylan and Woody Guthrie, making together a valuable lesson in the evolution of American folk music!  Adult fans of Dylan will enjoy sharing this book with children in their lives as well, as a way to introduce them to a great figure in American music.

For more on When Bob Met Woody, check out the remainder of Gary Golio's blog tour:

Wednesday, 5/18: Marc Tyler Nobleman
http://noblemania.blogspot.com/

Thursday, 5/19: Gail Gauthier
http://blog.gailgauthier.com/

Monday, 5/23: Anastasia Suen
http://picturebookday.wordpress.com/ 

Tuesday, 5/24: Jone MacCulloch
http://deowriter.wordpress.com/

Thursday, 5/26: Kathy Burnette
http://www.thebrainlair.com/  



Also, here's a link to the New York Times' review of Golio's book:

Civil War Sesquicentennial Book Review: Will at the Battle of Gettysburg 1863 (Boys of Wartime series), by Laurie Calkhoven (Dutton Children's Books, 2011)

Recommended for ages 8-12. 

This second offering in Laurie Calkhoven's Boys of Wartime series for middle-grade readers tells the compelling story of 12-year old Will, who lives in the quiet town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and dreams of glory as a Union drummer boy. He's too young to enlist without his parents' permission, which his mother is not about to give, but when the book opens Will has no idea of the important role he'll be asked to play for the Union cause.

As Confederate troops march into the town, prowling the streets "like hungry wolves," even forcing the local candy story owner to open his shop so they can clear out the goodies, Will makes an unexpected friend--a drummer boy his age from Tennessee, a friendship that will soon prove more valuable than he can imagine.  Will is as surprised as can be when he finds himself inviting the hungry and dirty boy to supper, where he is greeted with courtesy by Will's family (his mother even offers the ragged boy clean clothes).  Through Will's eyes, we see how the battle came about, with the two sides meeting pretty much by chance at the crossroads of ten major roads at Gettysburg, making a battle at a town the commanders of both armies had never heard of all but inevitable.

As the battle draws near town, Will's sisters are taken to a neighbor's farm nearby, where his mother thinks they will be out of the way of the battle.   As Confederate soldiers take the town on July 1, Will meets an injured Union officer who is desperate to get a message to General Meade.  Can Will help him get through the Confederate lines to complete his mission?  Should he join up with the Union officer and become his messenger?

This is an exciting war novel for middle grade students; as a civilian, Will's character offers a different perspective on the war than we find in many children's novels.  First he's excited to see all the soldiers, and dreams of enlisting himself.  Soon, however, he experiences the horrible sights, sounds, and even smells of battle as he discovers that the peaceful farm where his sisters had been sent has been converted to a hospital, crammed with injured and dying men moaning in pain, begging for water, and filled with the noise of the surgeon sawing off ruined limbs.  He finds himself on the battle's front lines in spite of himself, as the battle progresses to different locations around the town.  Calkhoven vividly describes the sights and sounds of the battlefield--the cannon fire shaking the earth, the roaring of the guns--making us feel that we are right beside young Will.  She also gives us a good perspective on what is happening in the town, where Union soldiers are hiding in Will's mother's house, which is searched by Confederates who Will's mother winds up cooking dinner for.  His house, too, fills up with wounded soldiers. 

Calkhoven concludes her novel with Will hearing Lincoln's very short--but later very famous--address at the dedication of the cemetery for the thousands of dead soldiers at Gettysburg.  Will even has a chance to shake the famous man's hand. 

The novel includes an historical note, brief biographical information on real historic characters who appear in the novel, a timeline of the battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War, and a glossary.

Book Review: The Friendship Doll, by Kirby Larson (Delacorte, 2011)

Recommended for ages 8-12.

Release date:  May 10, 2011

Award-winning author Kirby Larson's newest historical fiction novel for children tells the story of four girls whose lives are intertwined with a remarkable nearly life-size Japanese doll.  Larson was inspired by a photograph she found while researching her earlier book, Hattie Big Sky.  This photo showed a 1920's Montana farm girl dressed in overalls standing next to an exquisitely detailed Japanese doll, dressed in traditional kimono.  Larson's research unearthed the true story of 58 dolls sent to the United States from Japan in 1927 as Ambassadors of Friendship, a gift from Japanese schoolchildren.  The dolls were three feet tall, with real human hair and handpainted faces, dressed in a silk kimono and accompanied by sets of miniature accessories, including chests, tea sets, parasols, and even tiny passports.  Sadly, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the rise in anti-Japanese sentiment, most of the dolls were removed from public display, and while some have been recovered, others were lost forever.

Larson's tale follows the adventures of Miss Kanagawa, "a doll like none other," from the 1920's to the present day. Miss Kanagawa narrates parts of her own story, and her proud and courageous personality, imbued with true samurai spirit, shines through the narrative.  She is honored to be an ambassador, with an important role to play; "I simply happen to be a doll," she writes.

Miss Kanagawa's musings are interspersed with the stories of four girls whose lives she influences, girls from very different backgrounds:  Bunny, a rich upper-class girl from New York City, who is part of the contingent to welcome Miss Kanagawa to New York City; Lois, whose grandmother takes her to the Chicago World Fair in the height of the Depression, where Miss Kanagawa is on display; Willie Mae, a small-town Kentucky girl, who finds herself with a job reading to an elderly woman who now owns Miss Kanagawa; and Lucy, an Okie who with her out-of-work father travels to the West Coast in search of work.  There Lucy, an aspiring writer, visits a small museum where she, too, encounters Miss Kanagawa.

Each of these stories could easily have become overly sentimental, but I found them charming and moving, as each girl learns what friendship is all about, and Miss Kanagawa herself learns to feel love bit by bit.  The stories include rich historical settings, including the Chicago World's Fair, a packhorse librarian who delivers books to Willie Mae, and the plight of the Okies.  It's a perfect book for doll-lovers, young and old, although you don't have to be a doll person to appreciate the book's message.  For me, it made me remember some of the doll stories I loved as a little girl, particularly Dare Wright's Lonely Doll stories about Edith the doll, and Raggedy Ann and Andy's many adventures. This novel would be terrific fun for mother-daughter book groups to enjoy together.

While the book does not include any pictures of the real dolls, there is an author's note with additional information about the history of these unique ambassadors, as well as historical notes about each girl's story.  The author also provides some information on contemporary Americans who are working to keep the spirit of the Friendship Dolls alive (see in particular Bill Gordon's website).

Book Review: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand (Random House, 2010)

Recommended for ages 14 and up.

While I don't usually review titles published for adults on my blog, I was so taken with Laura Hillenbrand's amazing saga of World War II veteran Louis Zamperini--a terrific read for teens as well as adults--that I had to share it with my readers.  You may recognize Laura Hillenbrand's name from the best-seller she wrote a few years ago, Seabiscuit:  An American Legend, which inspired a very popular movie based on her book.

While doing research on Seabiscuit, Hillenbrand kept coming across newspaper articles on Louis Zamperini, and was so intrigued by his story that she hunted down the still-alive vet and became obssessed with telling his story.  Zamperini's story is so gripping and amazing that it's a clear case of "truth is more amazing than fiction." 

Zamperini as a young athlete

Zamperini, born into a large Italian-American immigrant family, grew up in Torrance, California, where he was on the verge of becoming a juvenile delinquent until his older brother, Pete, recognized Zamperini's athletic abilities and began encouraging him to train as a runner. Pete was so good that he made the 1936 Berlin Olympic team, and was widely expected to be the first runner to break the four-minute mile mark.  The war interfered with his plans to continue training for the next Olympics (ironically scheduled for Tokyo) and soon he was serving as an airman, stationed in Hawaii.  On a mission to find a missing aircraft, his plane, too, went down over the Pacific in May, 1943, with only Louis and two others surviving the initial crash.  After a harrowing journey over 47 days and thousands of miles of ocean, emaciated, dehydrated, and dogged by hungry sharks, the survivors are finally picked up--by the Japanese. 

While the reader breathes a brief sigh of relief, unimaginably worse horrors are yet to come for our hero, as he is sent to Japanese POW camps, where he is starved, beaten, emotionally abused, worked practically to death, and humiliated.  Barely surviving the war, Louis' torments are not over; returning stateside, he is haunted by unspeakable nightmares populated by his tormentors, and slides into alcoholism, despair, and obssession with revenge on "the Bird," the most odious and sadistic of his Japanese captors.  Louis' journey to redemption is guaranteed to be one of the most inspirational stories you will ever read, and, much like many stories I've read of Holocaust survivors, his story of surviving the almost-unbelievable conditions of the Japanese POW camps is an incredible testament to the power of the human spirit and Zamperini's towering will to survive. 

Zamperini at age 94 (from The Daily Breeze)

Hillenbrand's vivid writing is a model of page-turning narrative non-fiction, as engrossing as any novel.  She illuminates an area of recent history that is fading away as the last of the World War II veterans pass away.  Zamperini himself is still alive at age 94 and back in the spotlight as Hillenbrand's book, released in the fall, stays on the bestseller lists and Zamperini has been widely interviewed in conjunction with the release of the book, even participating in a book tour.  Zamperini himself puts in better than I can in an interview with the local Torrance paper, The Daily Breeze:  "Laura Hillenbrand is something else--the way she writes - it's unbelievable. It grips you and pulls you into the story. I know when I was reading it I had to stop and look out the window to be sure I wasn't back in prison camp." Although Hillenbrand and Zamperini have never met in person, the author conducted more than 75 telephone interviews with Zamperini over a seven-year period and the two became close friends. 

This is a real-life timeless survival, adventure, and war story not to be missed, and it's sure to appeal to teens, particularly boys.  Highly recommended for high school libraries in particular!

Note:  For more on Zamperini, including lots more photos, see this profile from the Wall Street Journal.

Nonfiction Monday Book Review: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship that Changed the World, by Penny Colman (Henry Holt and Company, 2011)

Recommended for ages 12 and up.

Publication date:  May 11, 2011


Award-winning non-fiction author Penny Colman has written extensively for young people about the history of women in America, and her newest book focuses on "a friendship that changed the world"--Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, two of the leaders of the 19th century American suffragist movement.  While there are many women who fought for the right to vote, Colman points out in her preface that these two women in particular are remembered for "their fierce, relentless, groundbreaking leadership and their powerful friendship in the fight for women's rights."  Their friendship lasted a remarkable 51 years, sustaining the whole movement, although sadly neither lived to see Congress pass the 19th amendment.

Colman paints a fascinating dual portrait in this book, which although published for young people, is equally suitable for adult readers looking for a well-written and reasonably comprehensive introduction to both women's lives.  In the beginning of the book, she alternates chapter by chapter, telling the story of both women's childhoods separately.  They grew up in quite different circumstances, Elizabeth in a large, wealthy family with servants,  her father a prominent lawyer and judge.  When her older brother died at twenty, eleven-year old Elizabeth decided to "be all my brother was," becoming an excellent student (the only girl in a class of all boys, relishing her studies of advanced mathematics and languages) and an accomplished rider.  She was shocked at the injustices women suffered under the law, and resolved to take her scissors and cut all the "odious laws...out of the books."  Her father gently explained to her that this would not make any difference in women's conditions, since there were many other lawyers and libraries.

Susan, on the other hand, was born into a large Quaker family, with a father who also believed strongly in education for girls as well as boys.   Her father managed a textile mill, and Susan was expected to help care for the younger children and pitch in with many household chores.  By fifteen, Susan became a teacher in her father's private school, and continued her own education later at a female seminary near Philadelphia.

We see their lives unfold side-by-side:  Susan, who had no shortage of suitors, remained an unmarried teacher, and Elizabeth, married to a prominent abolitionist and soon with a house full of children.  When Elizabeth moves to Seneca Falls, New York, she begins to plan together with her friends the first "Woman's Rights Convention."  They drafted a Declaration of Sentiments, based on the Declaration of Independence, with a resolution on the right of suffrage.  Elizabeth's own husband would not agree to it, and the convention was ridiculed in newspapers across the country.  But Elizabeth was not intimidated; more women's rights conventions followed, although Elizabeth was unable to attend due to pregnancies and her small children.  However, she would write speeches and letters that were read at these meetings by others.

Elizabeth and Susan were eventually introduced by fellow suffragist Amelia Bloomer and immediately hit it off, although at this time Susan did not share Elizabeth's intense commitment to women's rights, being passionately committed instead to the temperance movement. However, Susan's focus soon shifted to the issue of suffrage, as she began to realize that without the vote women couldn't push effectively for any other political changes. 

The two women's skills complemented each other very well; Elizabeth didn't have the freedom to travel and make speeches as often as Susan because of her many children, so she often wrote the speeches that Susan then delivered all over the country.  Colman takes us chronologically through both of these icons of women's rights long lives, as each continued fighting to the bitter end to see the vote passed for women. 

There are many excellent web resources on these two remarkable women.  Just to name a few to start with, for more on the web on Susan B. Anthony, see the website for her home in Rochester, New York, now a museum and Winningthevote.org, a project of the Rochester Regional Library Council.  For more on Elizabeth Cady Stanton, see Elizabethcadystanton.org and the website for Elizabeth Cady Stanton's house, now run by the National Park Service, which includes this attractive brochure/flyer from the Park Service on Elizabeth's life in Seneca Falls.

I highly recommend this book for purchase by school and public libraries; it could be used for both school reports and also for pleasure reading by young people interested in biographies of great figures from history.

For more on Penny's research and travels for this book, check out her Facebook page at the following link:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Penny-Colman/121670284513664

Disclosure: ARC provided by publisher.