You Can Learn a Lot from a Book (Soldier Dog Edition)

Did you know that 5% of deployed military dogs develop PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome)?  I didn't know the percentage, but after reading Robert Crais' detective novel Suspect last year, I did learn that war dogs can suffer from "shell shock," as WWI veterans termed it.

Do you get a thrill when things you've learned start to pop up all around you, adding to and confirming your new pocket of knowledge?  Call me a librarian :-), but I just love it.  And I was inspired to write this post over the summer when National Geographic's June cover article was "Hero Dogs: A Soldier's Best Friend," and featured Layka, a German Shepherd soldier dog just like Maggie, the canine heroine of Suspect.

The accomplishments of canine soldiers are also explored in a non-fiction book published last year (more literary synchronicity) titled Soldier Dogs: The Untold Story of America's Canine Heroes.  There's even a recent graphic novel that tells the based-on-true-stories accomplishments of combat dogs in three different wars: Dogs of War.

If you love dogs, are interested in details of military life, or just get a thrill from learning about new things from a bunch of different sources, you can learn a lot from a book.  I hope you read (and learned) this summer.

School's about to start.  See you next week!

Cute Lil' Critters: Sheep to Shawl

Sarah B's needle felted critters

 A couple of weeks ago, two high school students came by to ask for a plastic bag.  As a librarian, I naturally followed up with a "reference interview," in order to determine what kind of plastic bag would best meet their needs.  Turns out, they had absolutely adorable needle-felted animals made in Magnus Edlund's "Sheep to Shawl" short term class, and were taking them home on a rainy day.  I had to take pictures!

Julia K.'s creations (with special friend)

We don't yet have any books specific to needle felting (Wool Buddies is on the way), but Magnus has a couple I'm sure he'd let you borrow, even if you didn't win the "All About Yarn" experience he and wife Anna offered in the silent auction.  The "Sheep to Shawl" display in the high school commons illustrates the many steps in getting wool from the back of a four-footed animal onto two-footed people -- shearing, carding, spinning, dyeing, weaving or knitting.

Sheep-To-Shawl class exhibit in the High School commons.

We do have several other resources on wool and woolcraft (included felted knits).  Come have a look and get your wool on!

Fournier, Nola.  In Sheep's Clothing: A Handspinners's Guide to Wool.
Galeskas, Beverly.  Felted Knits.
Muir, Sally.  Knit Your Own Dog: Easy to Follow Patterns for 25 Pedigreed Pooches.
Righetti, Maggie.  Knitting in Plain English.
Taylor, Kathleen.  Knit One Felt Too: Discover the Magic of Knitted Felt.
Burgess, Rebecca.  Harvesting Color: How to Find Plants and Make Natural Dyes.

Sheep Station NZ (2 DVD set). Dylan Winter explores a variety of sheep enterprises from all parts of New Zealand.

Year End Reading (and Giving) Recommendations

The fall Long Term is almost ended, and on tomorrow afternoon (at precisely 3:10 pm) we begin December break, oh blessed break!  Some folks will have a giving and getting holiday, some folks will have birthdays, and some folks will simply rejoice in the extra time to hit the library, home bookshelf or bookstore for some winter reading.  So, for your consideration, I offer this second annual list of "Books You Might Like to Give or Read," with teen and teen parent readers in mind.

All titles are in print and available at your local independent bookstore (Little Shop of Stories is ours) or online.  Title links go to more info in our Surpass Safari library catalog. If you'd like to borrow one or more for December break reading, come on in!

~~

If your reader likes
contemporary fiction, the Internet, books, or ancient and mysterious societies:

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Shop  by Robin Sloan
(also in audiobook on CD and downloadable audiobook)

A favorite of the high school reading club (and New York Times readers), Mr. Penumbra is just plain old fun reading that also raises some big questions.  When an unemployed 20-something graphic designer (of the Google generation) takes a job in a old-fashioned bookstore with some decidedly odd customers and a whole off-limits section, curiosity trumps the rules and the power of the microchip solves centuries-old puzzles.  Will men or machines decipher the key to everything?

Mystery for book lovers: The Shadow of the Wind  by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  A boy becomes the protector and patron of The Shadow of the Wind, a book from the Cemetery of Lost Books. As an adult he searches for the truth about the book's author and the mysterious man who is destroying all existing copies.  Zafon has written more novels about the Cemetery of Lost Books, but I haven't read any of them (yet).

For obsessive book lovers: Fangirl  by Rainbow Rowell.  Cath's entire world revolves around loving the Simon Snow series, but now that they are in college, twin sister Wren has moved on.  Can Cath grow up and move on too, if it means leaving safety and Simon Snow behind? 

Fun for book lovers: The Eyre Affair  by Jasper Fforde.  In the first Thursday Next novel, an evildoer has kidnapped Jane Eyre from her novel, and without a narrator, there's not much of a story.   Thursday's division of Literary Crimes is on the case, and about to change literary history.

~ ~

If your reader likes
romance, historical-ish fiction, or magical realism, religious mythology:

The Golem and the Jinni  by Helene Wecker
(also available in the ebook collection)

Two mythological beings, a masterless golem, made of European earth and an enchained jinni, a creature of desert and fire, become unlikely friends in exile. Struggling to make their way in 1899 New York, Chava and Ahmad try to fit in with their immigrant neighbors while masking their true selves.

More romance: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell.  A sweet, painful and funny exploration of two "star-crossed misfits" finding first love. 

Magical realism: Snow in August by Pete Hamill.  A golem protects an Irish Catholic boy and a solitary rabbi from anti-Semitic toughs in 1947 Brooklyn; ebook also available.

~~

If your reader likes
police/detective novels, stories of redemption, or stories about dogs (who don't die at the end!)

Suspect  by Robert Crais.

Maggie is an traumatized ex-Marine on the verge of washing out of her K9 training. Scott James is a wounded cop for whom the K9 unit is a last chance to stay with the force.  Both struggle with PTSD and physical damage, the German Shepherd from a sniper attack in Afghanistan, the cop from an unexpected midnight shootout that left his partner dead.  Scott chooses Maggie to be his partner, and everything, including their futures, hinges on their ability to heal while digging into the mystery of that fatal shootout.  Also available in the ebook collection


Historical mystery: Leaving Everything Most Loved  by Jacqueline Winspear.  In 1933 London, WWI nurse, psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs looks into the murder of a beautiful Indian immigrant.  Rich in the history of Europe between the Wars, this is the 10th in the compassionate and well-crafted Maisie Dobbs series.  Also available in the ebook collection

Murder mystery/thriller: I Hunt Killers  by Barry Lyga.  Small-town Jazz helps the police solve a series of murders that echo the style of his imprisoned father, the country's most notorious serial killer.  Also in the ebook collection.

~~

If your reader likes
medieval-ish fantasy & romance, no-nonsense heroines, or assassin nuns (!)

A Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

The convent of Saint Mortain isn't your ordinary medieval Breton nunnery. After teenaged Ismae, a child of the God of Death, becomes a novice as escape from a brutal arranged marriage, the nuns train her in the arts of lethal poison and feminine wiles.  As a skilled assassin, Ismae is sent as a spy to the high court of Brittany, to protect and kill anyone who threatens the young Duchess, even if it's the gallant Duval, who has stolen Ismae's heart.  Dark Triumph is next. Both also available in the ebook collection.

More romantic fantasy: Days of Blood and Starlight  by Laini Taylor.  The battle between chimera and seraphim continues. Monster-apprentice Kairu, who loved and was betrayed by the angel Akiva, creates an army of revenants to combat Jael, the cruel emperor of the angels, before he succeeds in invading the human world.

Absurdly funny alternate history fantasy: The Woman Who Died A Lot  by Jasper Fforde.  In the continuing adventures of literary detective Thursday Next, an angry god threatens to smite all of downtown Swindon before young Tuesday perfects the Anti-Smite Shield, and the evil Jack Schitt has something up his sleeve besides a series of worthless stolen medieval manuscripts.

~~

If your reader likes
psychology, neurology, marketing, the mysteries of human behaviour :

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business  by Charles Duhigg

Why are habits so hard to break?  How do marketers create and exploit habits to sell products?  NY Times business reporter Duhigg's book explores the neurological pathways created by repetitions of a cue--> routine--> reward loop that creates a craving for the reward, and how keeping same cue & reward, but changing the routine in between, can transform bad habits into good ones.  Using examples from Febreeze to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and gold medalist Michael Phelps, The Power of Habit makes ingrained behaviours really easy to understand, and a bit easier to change.

Natural history/meditation:  The Forest Unseen  by David George Haskell (also in the ebook collection).  Each journal entry in this year-long observation of a small patch of mountain forest (to be specific, Shakerag Hollow in my hometown of Sewanee, Tennessee) is part observation, part natural history lesson, and part meditation on the meaning of life.   The Forest Unseen has won numerous accolades, including nonfiction finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and 2013 Best Book Award from the National Academies of Science. Haskell is biology and environment professor at the University of the South in Sewanee.

~~

If your reader likes
graphic novels, bizarre superpowers, continuing series, or oddball mysteries:

Chew  by John Layman and Rob Guillory

Special detective Tony Chu's superpower is cibopathy -- he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats, which makes him stick to vegetables most of the time.  In the Special Crimes division of the FDA, the job requires a nibble of a murder victim every now and then, which is pretty gross but also solves the crime. The individual comics have been collected and published in 7 paperback volumes (to date). Volume 1 is  Taster's Choice.


Graphic novel with a paranormal twist: Mind the Gap by Jim McCann.  Young, rich, beautiful, and lying in a coma after being attacked in a Tube station, Elle Peterssen's spirit detaches from her body. Trapped between life and death, Elle tries to find out who was behind her attack, and why.  The first story arc is collected in paperback Volumes 1-3, and the series continues.

Humor:  Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary  by Keshni Kashyap.  Sophomore Tina Malhotra captures the cliques and ironies of her tony private school, and the foibles of her upper class intellectual Indian American family, through a year-long "existential diary" addressed to one J.P. Sartre.

Historical Fiction:  Boxers and Saints  by Gene Luen Yang.  In separate volumes, Yang shows the intersecting lives of Little Bao, who joins the violent uprising against interfering Christian missionaries, and of Vibiana, an unwanted fourth child, who has found a home with the Christians and inspiration in Saint Joan.

What books would you like to give or receive this winter?  Enjoy your December break to the fullest, and leave your recommendations in the comments.

A Few Book Giving Ideas for Teens and Adults

Our elementary librarian creates annual gift-giving guides for elementary-aged readers, but I get stumped.  There are so many terrific books every year, and reading is so personal.  How to create a single list that's manageable and that can actually be written in a day??  Personal roadblocks aside, this year I'm going to throw out a few book-giving ideas -- recently published titles that I liked a lot (reading is personal, remember :-) and that might hit the spot with different readers.   An online reader's consultation of sorts.  Here goes . . .     (links go to Paideia Library catalog records)

If your reader likes
video games, puzzles, science fiction, or action conspiracies 
(or was young in the 1980s):

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

The year is 2044, the real world is a mess and the safest place to be is in the OASIS, a vast virtual universe (or "shared synthetic environment") created by the late visionary geek genius James Halliday. Halliday's last message revealed an "Easter egg," a secret message deeply hidden in the OASIS.  The first person to find the Easter egg will inherit Halliday's entire massive fortune, including the OASIS itself.  Overweight, lone teenager Wade Watts by chance finds the first key, and suddenly the world, including a murderous mercenary corporation, races to solve Halliday's puzzle.  May the best player (well versed in classic arcade games, lines from John Hughes movies, and Dungeons & Dragons trivia) survive.

Readalikes: Little Brother (2010) by Cory Doctorow; Circuit of Heaven (1999) by Dennis Danvers
~ ~

If your reader likes
complex graphic novels, mermaids, or brooding fantasy:
 
 
Sailor Twain, or, The Mermaid in the Hudson
by Mark Siegel.

 A lonely, middle-aged riverboat captain rescues, then falls in love with a mermaid, while remaining faithful to a wife back home.  The well-liked French riverboat owner suddenly disappears, while his reprobate brother embarks on a manic mission to court seven lovers at once.  And a reclusive best-selling author decides to make a public debut, shattering all assumptions about his true identity.  Love, humanity, identity and wholeness collide with mythology and an ancient curse as the Mermaid of the Hudson's plan ensnares them all.

More complex graphic novels: Homeland Directive by Robert Venditti, or  Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan (2008)
~ ~

If your reader likes
high fantasy, dragons, medieval settings, mysteries, or romance:

Seraphina  by Rachel Hartman

Forty years ago, dragons and humankind signed a peace treaty.  Dragons, in human form, now live among men in Goredd, but as second-class citizens; peace has not brought them equality.  Seraphina, outwardly the gifted new assistant court composer, hides her secret self from the world, for half-dragons, though believed to be impossible,  are also illegal and outlawed as an abomination.  As the anniversary of the treaty approaches, anti-dragon factions are agitating, the heir to the throne is found murdered ( dragon-style -- his head was bitten off), and Seraphina becomes involved in royal intrigue through her student Princess Glisselda, and Selda's bethrothed, the compassionate, intelligent and very attractive Prince Kiggs.  If dragons do rise up and return to war, where does that leave Seraphina?

Other unexpected fantasy novels:  The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson; Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.
~ ~

If your reader likes
psychology, business, self-improvement or is an introvert (or in a relationship with one):

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking
by Susan Cain.

Oh, how I loved this book, because it's about me (and approximately a third to half of the Western world).  Do you often look forward to staying in on Friday and Saturday nights to re-energize after a week at work or school?  Would you rather say nothing than fight (or talk over folks) to get a word in edgewise?  Do you have a horror of collaborative group work, preferring to work on projects on your own?  You might just be an introvert.  Cain's argument is that by idealizing the Extrovert (energetic, quick decision-making, talk-then-think) personality, American culture misses out on the leadership and creative potential of the non-talking, thoughtful and deliberate Introverts in school, business and government.  Introverts can become outgoing and assertive when involved in an area in which they are passionately interested, and as leaders are likely to foster and nurture talent rather than insist on the limelight for themselves.  Are you an Introvert married to an Extrovert, or an outgoing parent with a quiet child?  She also has much to say about negotiating successful relationships with a person of the opposite personality type (be it parental, romantic or business).

Related non-fiction: Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney, and Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative  by Austin Kleon.
~ ~

For lovers of straight-up narrative non-fiction (truth that reads like a story):

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: 
Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity  by Katherine Boo.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist documents the struggle for survival in a Bombay slum.  I have not yet gotten to this book -- it's been checked out by one of the library's most dedicated and voracious customers, who reports back that it's fabulous (but very sad).  It's also on any number of "Best Books of 2012" lists including the New York Times', so I'm confident in recommending it.

Right now I am reading  The Black Count, a biography of the original Alex Dumas, the mixed-race son of a white French aristocrat and a black Carribbean slave.  Dumas received a gentleman's education in France, and rose through the military ranks to become a successful Revolutionary general, only to fall afoul of Napoleon, be imprisoned and die young. What's fascinating, aside from the amazing success of a black man in white aristocratic France, is that this Alex Dumas was the father of Alexandre Dumas, author of such swashbuckling tales as The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.
~ ~

And if your reader likes contemporary, modern fiction:

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk  by Ben Fountain

An Iraq War novel that's not about the war at all.  Enduring their 15 minutes of fame after being broadcast on CNN during a firefight with the enemy, the 8 surviving members of Bravo Squad are stateside starring in a government-sponsored dog-and-pony show, otherwise known as a "Victory Tour."  The absurdity culminates on Thanksgiving Day, with the squad's participation (behind a booty-shaking Beyoncé and Destiny's Child) in the Dallas Cowboys halftime show.  In real time, the entire book happens in one day, following the actions and thoughts of 19-year-old Billy, older and wiser in one year as a soldier than the kid who chose the army over jail.  Nina leven, wore on terrRr, eye-Rack, currj, acks of sack-rih-fice, dih-mock-cruh-see, ire way of life --  congratulatory gushing of wealthy football patrons and jingoistic fans who celebrate and encourage Billy, Bravo and the war from their comfortable distance.  Famous or not, Bravo's victory is shorty and tomorrow (the true meaning of Black Friday??) their 15 minutes is over and it's back to war.

And if you are a reader fascinated by recommended and "best of the year" lists, check out these  compiled 'best books' lists from the EarlyWord blog.  Separated into Adult fiction, Adult non-fiction and Children's best books, the Excel spreadsheets list books included on 16 influential consumer and library lists, including National Book Award and New York Times lists, and which books appear on which lists (and the overlap).

What was your favorite book of 2012?  Any 2013 releases you're anxiously awaiting??

We Have the Best!

Lists, lists, lists! Seems like everybody makes them, especially at year's end. Below are books in the Paideia Junior High & High School Library that have been included in one or more national "Best of 2011" lists. Most were originally published for the "Young Adult" market, but as the NPR feature noted:

young adult fiction has developed into one of the most complex and extensive genres in literature. 2011 brought us a wealth of new reads that continue to twist traditional formulas and take risks that are, by and large, paying off with wholly unique reading experiences.

The links go to the book's page in the library catalog.

Fiction

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater - Kirkus Reviews, NPR, School Library Journal (SLJ), NYTimes

Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard - SLJ

Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol (graphic novel) - SLJ, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (BBCC)

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor - NYTimes, SLJ, Kirkus, BBCC, Publisher's Weekly (PW)

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake - Kirkus, NPR

Chime by Franny Billingsley - National Book Award Finalist, Kirkus, SLJ, PW

Delirium by Lauren Oliver - NPR, SLJ, Kirkus

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - PW, Kirkus, SLJ, NYTimes

Blind Sight by Meg Howry - SLJ, Nancy Pearl/NPR

The Queen of Water by Laura Resau - SLJ

Vietnamerica: A Family's Story by GB Tran (graphic novel) - SLJ

Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding - SLJ

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick - PW, Kirkus, NYTimes, SLJ, Washington Post

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (a college classmate :-) - SLJ, Booklist

The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern - Booklist, Washington Post, Library Journal

In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard - People Magazine, Nancy Pearl/NPR

Non-Fiction

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson - NPR

Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer - SLJ

Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy by Albert Marrin - National Book Award Finalist, SLJ, PW

No Biking in the Library (except on November 15)

November 15, 2011 at 7:30 pm,
in the Junior High & High School Library

An exciting evening event in the library is coming up in about two weeks. On a Tuesday evening, award-winning author (and Paideia parent) Melissa Fay Greene will read from and talk about her latest book, No Biking in the House Without a Helmet.

The New York Times wrote:

“It’s time for a laugh-out-loud selection … No Biking in the House Without a Helmet is a chance to revel in the joy that one wonderful writer takes in this messy, exhausting, life-changing process of parenthood."

Melissa and her husband are the parents of six sons and three daughters, and much of No Biking in the House chronicles the joys and chaos of growing from four to nine children through international adoption. If it's one thing a mother of four teenage boys ought to be good at, it's picking her battles -- hence the "without a helmet" clause. Even the best mom can't control everything (especially after the fact)!

With a crazy book tour schedule as well as a, shall we say, FULL home life, it took a while to coordinate with Melissa for this evening. As it is, I'm pleased that it will fall in the middle of National Adoption Month, a fine time to celebrate Paideia families of all stories and sizes.

Melissa Fay Greene is the author of several other acclaimed works of non-fiction, including two National Book Award finalists (Praying for Sheetrock and The Temple Bombing, about the historic bombing in Atlanta), There Is No Me Without You and Last Man Out (a New York Times Notable Book), and a contributing writer to numerous national publications (a piece on adopting from Africa is here on the All Things Considered website.)

Copies of No Biking in the House Without a Helmet will be available that evening for $26 (through Decatur bookstore Little Shop of Stories). A dessert reception and book signing will be held after Melissa's talk.

Wednesday Website:TED & William Kamkwamba

Technology, Entertainment, Design. TED sponsors two annual conferences, one in California, the other in Oxford (UK) to bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less). The best talks and performances from TED are made available to the world, for free, on TED.com. More than 700 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week. I like to download interesting-sounding TEDTalk videos to my iTouch, and watch them when I have waiting time (like at the doctor's office).

One of this year's Junior High Summer Reading Bowl choices is The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, an autobiography/memoir by a young man from Malawi, William Kamkwamba. When he was a young teen William had to drop out of school. Unwilling to stop learning, he read science books from his village library and managed to build a windmill that generated electricity for indoor lights and a radio. Five years later, when he was about 19 years old, William first spoke about his achievements with co-author Bryan Mealor at TED Global 2007, in Arusha, Tanzania. He was very nervous.






Two years later, after many more achievements and triumphs, William spoke again, at TED Global 2009. A much more confident and experienced speaker, this short talk tells his story of determination, ingenuity and wonder.



Since 2007, William has been able to attend a pan-African boarding school for emerging leaders, begin a foundation to support similar self-help projects in Malawi, and write a blog. A short film about his windmills is being turned into a feature-length documentary. His book is one of my top books of the year (as well as an Amazon.com and Publisher's Weekly Top 10).

And all because 14-year-old William wanted to read his books after dark.

Essential Reading for Junior High Parents

A good school works hard to educate not just its young people, but the entire community of people who surround it. Our Junior High leaders hold a series of parent meetings every year to discuss various topics about raising, teaching and understand young teens (ages 11-14 or so).

The 2009-2010 Junior High Parent Reading list for this year's meetings is available online on Paideia's library catalog. In this list you can see, not only the recommended titles, but which ones are in the library right now for immediate checkout. If you a Paideia parent, you can e-mail me to place a hold on any title that is currently checked out to someone else.

A comprehensive list of Junior High Parent reading (including this year's as well as previous years' discussion titles), plus LOTS of other reading lists for adults and students, can be found on the library catalog's Recommendations page. Visit it under Browse Recommendations in the purple sidebar of the main catalog page.

PiLibrarian's Best YA Non-Fiction for Adult Readers

Why read non-fiction for teens when there's so much out there written especially for you, a grown-up?

I offer several reasons, aside from the best one of all, Quality Reading.

Time - A well-written, engaging 160-page book (with pictures!) is a great way to start learning about something new. If you are hungry for more at the end, there's always the 500-page biography for later.

Appeal - If you tend to be a novels/fiction-only type, good YA non-fiction is perfect for you. The narrative is often written as a story (rather than an analysis of an event or person), with character and plot development. And did I mention lots of pictures? Russell Freedman's photobiographies (Martha Graham, Marian Anderson, Abraham Lincoln and several others) simply can't be beat. They're also easier to share with differently-aged people in your house than are many adult-targeted books.

Variety - Young adult non-fiction includes a range of really interesting topics, presentations or formats that aren't usually found in the adult market: a blank-verse biography of George Washington Carver, for instance, or the life and death of Malcolm X in comic book (graphic novel) format. Also, the page design itself offers more variety: unlike in adult books, where the pictures are often bunched together in 8 page sections, in YA non-fiction, text and illustration appear on the same page, working together to entertain and inform.

Price - Books published for teens are usually $5-$15 less expensive than similar books marketed to adult readers. Important if you're not among the millions of clever folks who get most of their reading from the local library.

~~~

In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer by Irene Gut Opdyke

A first-person account of everyday resistance and heroism, written with Jennifer Armstrong, author of several notable YA non-fiction works. Opdyke was seventeen, blonde, Polish and fluent in German when WWII began. Captured by the Russians, she escaped and returned home to Poland. Pressed into working for the Nazis, she had access to food, supplies and information, and hid Jewish refugees in the basement of her employer, a Nazi officer.

Irena's Vow, a play based on Opdyke's story, premiered in New York last fall and opens on Broadway in March 2009.


Good Brother, Bad Brother by James Cross Giblin

A dual biography of brothers Edwin and John Wilkes Booth, two of the most commanding stage presences of the late 19th century. Edwin was dreamy, moody, and an outstanding classical actor. John was dashing, impulsive and a ladies man. Imagine if today, one of the Sheen or Baldwin brothers shot the President! Using historical documents, Giblin re-creates in detail the plot to assassinate President Lincoln and the intense manhunt for John Wilkes Booth. United States history was changed forever, as was Edwin Booth's life. Despite great later success on the stage, the ghost of his disgraced brother overshadowed all.

The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler is another outstanding title by Giblin.



Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX by Karen Blumenthal

In 1972, Congress passed a little law with a little name, Title 9, that said any school receiving government funds couldn't treat boys and girls differently because of their gender. Originally written with math & science classes in mind, the law soon reached outside the classroom, and schools who wanted to have sports programs for boys became required to offer sports for girls too. You know the Olympic women's gold medal soccer teams? The WNBA? This is where those stories start.




Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson

In 1864, a slave girl named Mary and her infant son George were stolen from Moses and Susan Carver. Only the baby was found by the bounty hunter.

When I handed him to Missus Carver,
you never seen such a carrying-on.
All that over a puny black baby.
You'd have thought that Mary
was her sister or something.
Carver give me his best filly as a reward.

The Carvers raised George, who grew to be a botanist, an artist and a gifted teacher. George Washington Carver spent most of his adult life at Tuskegee Institute, working to find solutions to black poverty through better agriculture and new uses for common crops. The poems are illustrated with photographs of Carver and important people & places in his life.

Marilyn Nelson has written other non-fiction works in verse. Find them via the Library Catalog.



The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marion Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russell Freedman

How did a quiet, hard-working woman who lived only for singing become a seminal figure in the Civil Rights movement? Marian Anderson's voice was so beautiful, strong and compelling that everyone, black and white, royalty and commoners, wanted a chance to hear her sing. Racism denied her an indoor auditorium in the Nation's Capitol, so First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, thumbing her nose at racist society, arranged a alternate. On Easter Sunday, 1939, Anderson gave a stunning, record-breaking concert from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, to a crowd of 75,000, plus a national radio audience. She later came to take her own stand against racism, and because she refused to sing for a segregated audience, in 1955 Anderson became the first African American soloist at the Metropolitan Opera.

Freedman is the author of many other award-winning (and highly recommended) photobiographies. Add his books on Abraham Lincoln, Martha Graham, The Wright Brothers, Eleanor & Franklin D. Roosevelt, Crazy Horse, The Declaration of Independence, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott to your youth non-fiction must-read list. The Library Catalog shows all the Russell Freedman books we own.



Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography by Andrew Helfer and Randy de Burke.

The short life and times of charismatic civil rights fighter Malcom X, in words and sharp black-and-white drawings. The narrative draws heavily on The Autobiography of Malcolm X (written with Alex Haley), but also points out the inconsistencies in X's self-reported history. Compelling reading for both those familiar with the autobiography and readers new to his story.



America Dreaming; How Youth Changed America in the 1960s by Laban Carrick Hill

Almost as big as an LP cover (remember them?), this book is a illustrated portrait of the Boomer generation. It includes full-page photos, captions, sidebars, and chapters on the several civil rights & protest movements, the Kennedys and Camelot, the Space Race, and fundamental shifts in society that took place during this nation-changing decade. A great introduction to the era for readers who lived it, and those just visiting for the first time.

Reading Across Borders #6/Non-Fiction Monday:After the Wall

After The Wall is a quick-reading trip into the mysterious territory of communist East Germany, in the years just before and after the end of the Berlin Wall. Your tour guide is a young German woman - who until 1989 was a typical young East German teen. When Jana Hensel was 13 years and 3 months old, her childhood ended. The Wall fell, her country was no more, and an entire nation's identity as "East Germans" disappeared overnight.

First published in Germany in 2002, Zonenkinder was a smash best-seller, on the best-seller charts first in hardback, then in paperback, for over two years. The dislocation/disorientation she describes makes me think of someone born on February 29 - the birthday was real, the child is real, but the date vanishes. Unlike Leap Day birthdays, though, the GDR won't be back.

Feeling insecure and ill-at-ease compared to their better-dressed and worldlier fellow (former West German) Germans, Hensel and her peers tried hard to pass as "regular" Germans. The ease with with other Europeans moved through the Western world made them see what had been normal and everyday in the Eastern Bloc had been, in fact, very different from the world outside.

At the ripe old age of 25, Jana Hensel writes:

Now, when I look back on those years before the Wall fell and the whole world changed around us, it seems like a far-away, fairy-tale time. . . It's not easy for people my age -- the last generation of GDR kids -- to remember the old days, because back then we wanted nothing more for them to hurry up and end . . . Nothing remains of our childhood country -- which is of course exactly what everyone wanted -- and now that we're grown up and it's almost too late, I suddenly miss all the lost memories.

In many ways, Hensel's no different from most young adults, questioning identity and allegiance, and feeling nostalgic for the pre-responsibility life. Who am I? Where did I come from? Can I go back? For years they had wanted to be just German, and the wish was granted. For everyone who was once "East German," there is nowhere back to go.