A Home for Mr. Emerson

A Home for Mr. Emerson. Barbara Kerley. Illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham. 2014. Scholastic. 48 pages. [Source: Review copy]

 More than anywhere else, Ralph Waldo Emerson loved his home in Concord, Massachusetts. As a boy, he'd moved with his family again and again as they struggled to make ends meet. He wandered the narrow, noisy streets of Boston, dreaming of "a home, comfortable and pleasant." He longed to live amid broad, open fields and deep, still woods--in a place he could make his own. In college, he still dreamed of fields and woods and home. But by his junior year in 1820, he also found new things to love: reading stacks of books, discussing them with friends, and recording "new thoughts" in a journal. He named his journal The Wide World. His thoughts took him everywhere. And when he finished school and set out on his own, he wondered: Could he build a life around these things he loved?

I definitely enjoyed reading Barbara Kerley's picture book biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The end papers share lovely thought-provoking quotes. And the richness of the quotes continue throughout the text. Kerley pulls in many quotes and provides readers with sources for each one. But the quotes never weigh down the text, the text remains lively and inviting--just what a nonfiction book should offer young people. The book celebrates more than a life, it celebrates a community and a lifestyle. One of my favorite things about this one was how it celebrated reading and writing and learning. I also liked that it covers many decades. Readers see him first as a young boy and student and then as an old man. I liked the continuity of it: how his love of community and learning remained strong and passionate throughout his life.

I found the author's note fascinating. It shares many things that the text does not. For example, it mentions the loss of his first wife (the book only mentions his second wife, and fails to mention the fact that she's a second) and the loss of his first child, Waldo. I also liked the list of suggested activities.

The illustrations are very distinctive. I liked that they were recognizable. I immediately thought of Those Rebels John & Tom, The Extraordinary Mark Twain, and What To Do About Alice.

Text: 5 out of 5
Illustrations: 4 out of 5
Total: 9 out of 10

© 2014 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Dolphins of Shark Bay (2013)

The Dolphins of Shark Bay. Pamela S. Turner. 2013. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 80 pages. [Source: Review copy]

I enjoy reading nonfiction with a true narrative. The Dolphins of Shark Bay has personality. This nonfiction book for young readers presents research about bottlenose dolphins in Australia's Shark Bay. But. It is done with great enthusiasm. There are plenty of general facts included, of course, about dolphins: female dolphins, male dolphins, dolphin calves, the general socialization, the mating of dolphins, various things putting the dolphins at risk, etc. But the reason why this one is oh-so-compelling is because of the personalization, the fact that individual dolphins are the focus, their personalities revealed. Big questions are explored, I suppose, one being why are dolphins so very, very intelligent. We know that they're super-smart. DID YOU KNOW that some dolphins use tools to hunt? If, like the scientists in this book, you consider a sponge-on-the-nose a tool. This book tries to examine the why of their intelligence. The book was certainly an entertaining read. I didn't love all of this one, however, I could have done without some of the evolution-talk and the illustration. But still, for the most part, well worth the time.

© 2014 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain (2014)

Angel Island. Russell Freedman. 2014. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 81 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Alexander Weiss had just started his job as a California state park ranger on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay when he came across an old abandoned building. Off-limits to the public, its windows boarded up, the two-story wooden structure stood dark and deserted behind a barbed-wire fence. On an impulse, Weiss decided to venture inside and look around. He pulled open the door. The floor creaked as he entered. The electricity had long since been turned off, so he found his way through the empty rooms and up the stairs with his flashlight, stepping over litter and broken glass. Paint was peeling from the walls and ceiling. The building smelled musty.
In a large room on the second floor, Weiss noticed markings that seemed to be carved into the walls. Moving closer, he saw that the marks appeared to be Chinese calligraphy, covered by a thin layer of chipped paint.

Angel Island is a compelling nonfiction read. This nonfiction book for young readers tells the story of Angel Island; it is the story of Asian immigrants (mainly Chinese) entering the United States. While immigrants on the East Coast faced their own problems and to some extent discrimination, it is nothing compared to the West. The story begins in the nineteenth century around the time of the California Gold Rush. The narrative focuses on the history of immigration and discrimination. It has a very personal feel to it, Freedman uses many primary resources in his account, some of these resources were poems written on the very walls at Angel Island. I would definitely recommend this one.

© 2014 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

How The Barbarian Invasions Shaped The Modern World

How The Barbarian Invasions Shaped The Modern World. Thomas J. Craughwell. 2008. Fair Winds Press. 320 pages. [Source: Library]

The full subtitle of this one is "The Vikings, Vandals, Huns, Mongols, Goths, and Tartars Who Razed the Old World and Formed the New."

I'd describe this book as readable. It is a broad overview of the subject; it provides a framework for further study perhaps. It serves as a good introduction. It isn't the most thorough book on the Vikings or the Vandals or the Huns or the Mongols or the Goths or the Tartars.

I found it fascinating and quite entertaining. I knew practically nothing on the subject, and yet I found this one compelling instead of confusing. I wasn't sure what to expect when I began, but by the end, I was a fan. I loved the middle section the best. The Viking chapters were just what I was looking for.

• "The Brightest Light of the Whole World Is Extinguished" The Goths Sack Rome
• "They Filled The Whole Earth With Slaughter and Panic" The Arrival of the Huns
• The Scourge of God: Attila the Hun
• King of the Land and the Sea: Gaiseric and the Glory Days of the Vandals
• An Empire of Their Own, The Vandals and the Second Sacking of Rome
• The Groans of the Britons: The Angle, Saxon, and Jute Invasion of Britain
• The Long-Haired Kings: The Franks
• The First Viking Invasion of England: The Sacking of Lindisfarne Abbey
• The Last King: Alfred the Great
• "Floods of Danes and Pirates" The Vikings in Ireland
• The Wasteland: The Vikings in the Frankish Empire
• The Resurrection of Hastein: Vikings in the Mediterranean
• The Blood of Heroes: Irish and Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf
• The End of the Viking Age: The Battle of Stamford Bridge
• Vengeance On Her Mind, Olga of Kiev
• The Prince Who Made Kiev Christian: Vladimir of Kiev
• Spitting on the Emperor: The Mongols in China
• The Golden Horde: The Mongols in Russia
• Sacks Full of Ears: The Mongols in Eastern Europe

The legacy of the Vikings in England is destruction. Libraries burned. Rare works of art looted and lost forever. Towns and villages wiped off the landscape. Lives destroyed. And the future of England--the nation that has had an immeasurable impact on the world's ideas about civil rights, representational government, and personal freedom--placed in severe jeopardy.
Some historians have tried to find positive contributions that the Vikings brought to England. But aside from teaching the English a better method of shipbuilding and adding Scandinavian words such as "skate" and "skiff" and "anger" and "muck" to the English language, and giving Scandinavian names to about 1,400 locations in England (places ending in -by, -thorpe, -toft, and -thwaite), Viking influence in England was almost nil. With one exception: By annihilating six of the seven English royal families, the Vikings inadvertently transformed the country from a patchwork of little kingdoms into a single realm under one kind. And once England was unified, it became a political and cultural powerhouse. (128)

Once the Vikings and the English intermarried, and especially once the Vikings began to convert to Christianity, their assimilation into English society was virtually painless. But that integration came decades after the first Viking raid in England. Between 793 and 865, the Vikings were marauders who brought nothing but pain and anguish to the people of England. (130)

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Sunday Salon: Reading Our Island Story

Our Island Story. H.E. Marshall. 1905/? 512 pages. [Source: Bought]

Our Island Story blends fact and fiction. It is technically a history book, an introduction to British history. But included in this "history" book are legends and myths. Marshall definitely attributes motives to various historical figures and makes definite judgments. It is a subjective history book with an emphasis on story and personality. It isn't exactly scholarly and accu-rat. (In fact there were a few chapters here and there where I was singing right along with "It's Not True.") But it is almost thoroughly enjoyable all the way through. True, I didn't always agree with her conclusions, and she was very reliant on Shakespeare's history plays perhaps. But. Still I think this one offers an enjoyable overview of a large period of history--over a thousand years! It covers Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans, and all the rest! Every monarch gets covered, some more than others. So even if you find yourself disagreeing with a fact or two in a couple of stories, chances are you'll find something to appreciate at least! The narrative style is "for children" in that it is simplified and written in a traditional story style. It is a tame presentation of history in a way. If you're familiar with some of the monarchs, you'll understand why that might be needed!

The edition I read went through World War I and discussed the founding of the League of Nations. I cannot find a date for a subsequent edition or reprinting.

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews