Review of Mythmakers, by John Hendrix

Mythmakers

The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien

by John Hendrix

Abrams Fanfare, 2024. 218 pages.
Review written December 4, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This book will completely charm anyone who loves Narnia and Middle-earth.

Like John Hendrix’s amazing book, The Faithful Spy, this is a full-on well-researched work of nonfiction, complete with an index. But the format is very visual. It’s not quite a graphic novel – for one thing, it’s not a novel, but there’s also plenty of text (my one complaint is the teeny-tiny print used for most of that) giving background information. There are plenty of scenes with speech bubbles and panels, and there is some kind of picture on every spread. John Hendrix also used two characters – a wizard and a lion – to talk about the ideas that Tolkien and Lewis discussed.

I thought that was a strong point of the book. There are “portals” you can go through – referring you to a page at the back of the book – to get more in-depth information about “The Roots of Myth,” “Origin of the Fairy Tale,” “The Fantasists,” and “The Artifact Attic.”

Now besides these diversions, the wizard and the lion do a great job giving the reader the context of the two authors’ lives, including how they both saw combat in World War I and lived to see World War II – so that greatly affected their world views and their writing. We also get the story of how C. S. Lewis lost his faith during the Great War – and later was “Surprised by Joy.” Tolkien didn’t convert him, but Tolkien loomed large in his life as a man of faith.

The highlight of the book is how it shows how much their friendship affected both their lives and their writing. There’s a central chapter on the Inklings group they founded, and honestly I don’t see how anyone could read it and not wish for a group like that themselves. And it shows how Tolkien and Lewis were the heart and leaders of the group.

There’s also a contrast in their writing methods, though. Tolkien was slow, methodical, and perfectionist – working for decades on his magnum opus, The Silmarillion, which was finally published after his death. But this book makes the case that Lewis’s encouragement may have been what helped Tolkien get The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings published at all. Despite all his perfectionism, I’m still stunned to read that he didn’t realize Bilbo’s ring was the One Ring of Power until he got the hobbits to the inn at Bree. Sounds like he didn’t exactly plan things out in advance.

On the other hand, Tolkien’s comments on the beginning of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe almost prompted Lewis to throw the whole thing away! This book did, though, give me sympathy for his short-sightedness. I mean, if you’ve been spending your life painstakingly working out the background of your mythical world, and then you friend dashes off a story that combines talking animals and mythology and Father Christmas – well, I can understand that it’s not quite Tolkien’s thing. But I’m also super glad that Lewis found another reader to run the story past. He went on to write seven books about Narnia in seven years – a dramatically different pace than Tolkien published. Oh, another fun tidbit is that Ransom, the main character of Lewis’s Space Trilogy, is based on Tolkien, and the books were written as the result of a coin flip – Tolkien was supposed to write a time travel book, but never completed it.

And the book also covers the way Tolkien and Lewis drifted apart in their later years. But the author indulges in a scene of the two reuniting after death, talking about how much they appreciate each other and how fortunate they were to have each other – before they “enter the west.” In fact, after reading this book, I fully believe that the whole world is better because of their friendship and the books that would never have been quite the same if they hadn’t found each other.

If you’re at all a Lewis or Tolkien fan, get your hands on this book! I’m listing the book in Teen Nonfiction, but it’s suitable for upper elementary and middle grade readers – as long as they’re aware there’s a whole lot of text. But yes, if they are a fan of either or both authors, this is a wonderful way to find out more and think about the ideas behind their work.

johnhendrix.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teen_Nonfiction/mythmakers.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Shackled, by Candy J. Cooper

Shackled

A Tale of Wronged Kids, Rogue Judges, and a Town that Looked Away

by Candy J. Cooper

Calkins Creek, 2024. 192 pages.
Review written November 18, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Shackled is a book that’s painful to read, but is tremendously important. It tells the story of a group of men, including judges, who made millions of dollars by locking kids up.

The book opens telling the story of a fourteen-year-old girl who, with her friend, wrote with Sharpie on a few street signs in 2005. She was brought before judge Mark Ciavarella in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

Carisa and Agelia listened as Ciavarella judged the two girls “delinquent,” or guilty, of eighty-six counts of vandalism. In the next breath he imposed their sentence: an indefinite stay at a wilderness camp that relied on extreme discipline and boot camp-like drills. With those words the girls heard a rattling sound from a corner of the courtroom. Soon a court worker appeared holding two medieval-looking sets of shackles. The worker enchained Carisa and Angelia like cartoon criminals – wrapping heavy leather belts around their narrow waists; snapping iron handcuffs to their child-size wrists; and clamping leg irons around their slender ankles. The girls looked to their stunned parents. The court worker turned the girls away. Ciavarella called the next case. The girls clomped in their high-heeled dress shoes past the judge’s bench and toward the door.

The book goes on to explain the full scope of the judge’s scheme. He was getting kickbacks from a man who’d gotten a contract to build a new detention center for youth, as well as various other money-making opportunities to go with every child he managed to sentence. The judge and his friends made millions of dollars in a few years and found ways to hide the money. Eventually local news reporters began to uncover suspicious details – like the much higher than normal incarceration rate of teens in Luzerne county – and eventually the FBI got involved. One of the men turned informant, and they were caught in a scandalous trial.

The sad part, though, is the many young lives devastated by the judge’s arbitrary rulings – designed to line his own pockets.

The author doesn’t leave us entirely discouraged, telling about the Restorative Justice movement now gaining ground across America, and about the judge’s victims who were able to tell their stories and win justice in a civil case. Though they admit that the now-grown victims will probably never see the money – but they gained something important by getting to tell their stories.

It’s all sobering and sad, but I’m so glad this book exists to shine light on a horrible injustice carried out on thousands of kids – in the worst possible way, the name of justice itself.

candyjcooper.com
astrapublishinghouse.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teen_Nonfiction/shackled.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Folding Tech, by Karen Latchana Kenney

Folding Tech

Using Origami and Nature to Revolutionize Technology

by Karen Latchana Kenney

Twenty-First Century Books (Lerner), 2021. 104 pages.
Review written September 20, 2022, from a library book
2023 Mathical Book Prize Honor Book, Ages 11 to 18
Starred Review

Here’s a fascinating look at something I didn’t even realize was mathematical — origami. And the book explains how engineers and mathematicians studying origami have created some amazing and helpful technology.

The beginning talks about how there’s not much room in a spacecraft, but a large area is what’s needed for solar panels to power them. So in 1985, Koryo Miura proposed using an ancient folding pattern he’d studied to fit a solar array into a spacecraft. Japan launched such a craft in 1995.

Then the book talks about the long history of origami, particularly in Japan. But it’s been revived in modern times, and studying it mathematically has helped create intricate and beautiful patterns. And then when stiff materials are used instead of paper, engineers can create foldable structures easy to assemble and inexpensive to create.

Engineers also find folding in nature. I was fascinated by the way they studied how ladybugs fold their wings under their elytra (the red and black shell on top). In order to get a good look, they 3D printed a clear plastic elytra and replaced the ladybug’s own. Then they could see how the wings fold and unfold so quickly and neatly.

And there are so many uses for this technology! Besides outer space, there are even uses for tiny folds, including a foldable heart stent to go inside human arteries. There are also many uses in architecture and robots, and, really, the human imagination is the limit.

This book includes some origami designs the reader can try out. My one quibble is that I would have liked many more pictures. Some structures created using principles of origami were described in detail, and a picture would have helped visualize it. I read about a crushable beverage can with a diamond-shaped folding pattern and the Al Bahr Towers in Abu Dhabi that have a folding facade that changes shape in response to the sun. I would have liked to see pictures. Also, the James Webb telescope that made news recently as it began sending back photos of space did get a picture, but the only discussion of the folding that made that telescope possible was in the picture caption.

However, besides my little quibble (I just wanted more), this book is packed with fascinating information. My eyes are opened now, and I know I’m going to notice more folds, both in nature and in technology. A section at the end tells kids how they can pursue the path toward becoming an origami professional.

latchanakenney.wordpress.com
lernerbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teen_Nonfiction/folding_tech.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Road Home, by Rex Ogle

Road Home

by Rex Ogle

Norton Young Readers, 2024. 264 pages.
Review written June 26, 2024, from an Advance Reader Copy sent by the publisher.
Starred Review

Rex Ogle began telling about what it was like growing up in poverty in the book Free Lunch. He continued, telling what it was like to grow up while getting hit by his mother and stepdad in Punching Bag. He moved in with his father. Then, in Road Home, he tells about living on the streets after his Dad found out he was gay and kicked him out.

It’s not an easy story to read. It’s good to know, right from the start, that he survived the experience and went on to become a successful writer.

You do get pulled into his plight. How can you get a home without a job? And how can you get a job without clean clothes and a shower and a phone and a home address?

At first, Rex moves in with an older guy who gave him his phone number. But eventually, he’s on the streets and learns tricks to finding food and a place to sleep.

As always, this book completely pulls you into Rex’s shoes, so it’s a gut-wrenching story. I’m so glad I knew from the start that the story has a happy outcome and he did not in fact turn out like his father told him he would — dying alone with AIDS. All the same, no one should have to live through what he did. I hope that telling his story will help others who come after him. As he says in the Author’s Note at the front, “No matter how dark the past, or even the present, the sun will always come up tomorrow.”

nortonyoungreaders.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teen_Nonfiction/road_home.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Homebody, by Theo Parish

Homebody

by Theo Parish

HarperAlley, 2024. 224 pages.
Review written June 7, 2024, from a library book.

Homebody is a graphic novel memoir about the author’s search for home in their own body — their coming-out journey as transgender nonbinary.

I’ll be honest — it’s harder for me to understand nonbinary gender than other transgender journeys. But Theo telling their own story helps me understand better. I love their depictions of gender euphoria — of feeling happy and at home in their own skin after realizing that nonbinary was the right fit for them.

As a graphic novel, this is a quick read. I had trouble distinguishing between different people in the pictures — they mostly looked alike to me, but the most important character is Theo themselves, and I could tell which one they were.

This book tells about Theo’s journey feeling at home in their body, and mentions they are attracted to women (so first thought they were lesbian), but there is no mention or depiction of sexual experiences, unlike Gender Queer, which is a favorite target for book banners. I’m guessing they’ll still take offense at someone explaining how they know nonbinary is the right description of their gender, but let it be known that this book is not about sex.

And it is a book about joy. Reading this book lifted my heart with gladness for Theo learning to make her own body feel like home.

EpicReads.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teen_Nonfiction/homebody.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Ink Knows No Borders, edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond

Ink Knows No Borders

Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience

edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond
foreword by Javier Zamora
afterword by Emtithal Mahmoud

Seven Stories Press, 2019. 183 pages.
Review written May 18, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

Ink Knows No Borders is a collection sixty-four poems by skilled poets with stellar credentials – who are all immigrants or children of immigrants and many have been refugees.

Our library has this in the young adult section, but there’s no reason old adults wouldn’t enjoy these poems as well.

There’s a wide variety in the poems – in style, form, and the ethnicity of the authors. But they’re all well-crafted poems, and they’re all hard-hitting. They each succeed in shining a light on one aspect of the immigrant experience. I had considered very few of these aspects before.

I read this book slowly, a poem or two per day. They made me think – and they helped me feel empathy for those who have had to leave their homes to come to America.

Here’s a bit of what the editors say at the front of the book:

Ink Knows No Borders celebrates the lives of immigrants, refugees, exiles, and their families, who have for generations brought their creative spirits, resilience and resourcefulness, determination and hard work, to make this land a home. They have come from the Philippines, Iran, Mexico, Russia, Vietnam, El Salvador, Sudan, Haiti, Syria, you name it. Enter the place of these poems, bordered only by the porousness of paper, and you’ll find the world’s people striving and thriving on American soil….

These poets know that the pen holds a secret, a secret that can only be uncovered by putting that pen to paper, in a crowded coffee shop or some solitary place, maybe in the middle of night or when the dawn won’t let you sleep, inspired, as you are, by birdsong or your own song. They know that “This story is mine to tell.” These lived stories, fire-bright and coal-hot acts of truth telling, are the poet’s birthright – and a human right.

Whether you were born in this country or another, whether you came here with the help of a “coyote,” crammed in a too-small boat, or with a visa and papers in order, whatever your skin color or first language may be, whomever you love, writing poems is a way to express your most authentic truths, the physical ache of despair, the mountaintop shout of your joy. Writing poetry will help you realize that you are stronger than you thought you were and that within your tenderness is your fortitude.

Not only does ink know no borders; neither does the heart.

patricevecchione.com
sevenstories.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teen_Nonfiction/ink_knows_no_borders.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Accountable, by Dashka Slater, read by Ariel Blake

Version 1.0.0
Accountable

The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed

by Dashka Slater
read by Ariel Blake

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2023. 9 hours, 12 minutes.
Review written April 18, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
2024 Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award Winner
2024 Capitol Choices Selection
Starred Review

I did not enjoy listening to this audiobook. But it completely deserves the recognition it’s won. This book is on an important and timely topic, and it is thoroughly researched and presented clearly and in great detail, with lots of nuance and with respect for the people involved. It gets you in the heads of all the kids, not simply the ones on one side of the issue, and you fully appreciate how complicated and complex the matter is.

The subtitle explains what’s in this book. A high school kid in a small California bay area town made a private Instagram account and invited thirteen of his friends to follow it. He posted “edgy” memes trying to get approval from those friends — and they got more and more racist, targeting mostly Black girls who attended their high school. The images progressed to pictures of nooses and other horribly racist content.

When the targets found out, it started a big scandal. But staff and administration didn’t really know how to handle it. Should those who followed the account but never commented receive consequences, too? The whole high school community got involved and the account followers — not only the account owner — were shamed and threatened. Eventually even the courts got involved – mostly as to whether the schools had violated their students’ first amendment rights in their response to the account followers.

But every single kid on either side of the event had their life disrupted by it. The girls who were targeted had visceral reactions, from not feeling safe at school to having nightmares and going into deep depression. But the perpetrators, no matter how remorseful they felt, seemingly had no possible way to live it down and get past it, so their lives, too, were dramatically affected.

But shouldn’t their lives have been affected? I like the author’s choice of title, because that’s the question: In what ways should 16-year-old kids be held accountable for terrible things they did when they didn’t fully understand how terrible they were? And what is the appropriate way to make them understand? And how can we bring healing to those who were harmed?

Before I listened to this audiobook, I didn’t begin to understand how difficult and complex answering those questions can be.

This book is a resource for administrators and teachers everywhere in the age of social media. But I’m especially glad that it’s written for teens and targeted to teens, because it’s also a cautionary tale and will surely save at least some kids from making similar mistakes.

dashkaslater.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teen_Nonfiction/accountable.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Impossible Escape, by Steve Sheinkin

Version 1.0.0
Impossible Escape

A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe

by Steve Sheinkin
read by Rob Shapiro

Listening Library, 2023. 5 hours, 45 minutes.
Review written March 25, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2023 CYBILS Award Winner, High School Nonfiction
2024 Sidney Taylor Book Award Silver Medal, Young Adult

Impossible Escape tells the story of Slovakian teen Rudi Vrba, who in 1942 tried to escape Slovakia in order to avoid being “resettled” by the Nazis. That escape started out fine, but ultimately did not succeed, and he got pulled into the Nazi Concentration Camp network.

When reading this book, I knew he was going to escape because of the title, but the tension kept building as I wondered when it would happen. The odds against him mount as he gets sent to more and more secure camps, but the escape happens with two hours left in the audiobook. And yes, it’s certainly legitimate to call the escape impossible.

His story is so full of human details, I thought the author must have interviewed him. But realistically, we’re getting past the time when that is possible, and the Author’s Note revealed that the author instead researched in a library of Rudi’s papers. (Rudi ended up becoming a professor.) The story is gripping, and even though I have read many books about the Holocaust, the horrible barbarity he endured and witnessed is something my heart doesn’t want to believe is even possible.

Why was his story important? Because he was the first eyewitness to escape Auschwitz and testify to the systematic mass murder taking place there. At the time of his escape, Hitler was beginning to convince the Hungarian government to deport the Jews of Hungary — and Rudi’s testimony helped sway world opinion so that the remaining Jews of Hungary were saved — including his childhood friend, whose story we get alongside Rudi’s, as she did manage to leave Slovakia and escape capture.

This audiobook had me riveted — the kind of story it’s hard to stop listening until the book is done. I also wish it weren’t necessary to keep reminding the world how much evil can come from dehumanizing your enemies. May this never be repeated, and if and when it is, may heroes like Rudolph Vrba arise and escape with the truth.

stevesheinkin.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teen_Nonfiction/impossible_escape.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of ¡Ay, Mija! by Christine Suggs

¡Ay, Mija!

My Bilingual Summer in Mexico

by Christine Suggs

Little, Brown and Company, 2023. 328 pages.
Review written April 27, 2023, from a library book

¡Ay, Mija! Is one of those wonderful creations – a graphic novel memoir looking back on what it was like to be a teen figuring things out.

In this book, Christine Suggs tells about traveling on their own to visit their mother’s family in Mexico. Their Spanish wasn’t very good at the start, but they loved these people, and that love was returned. We see them carrying out more interactions as the visit goes on.

They also, naturally enough, have questions about their identity. They see things in their Mexican family that they’ve inherited, like a love of pan dulce. But their father is a pale white American, and their skin is lighter than any of their relatives in Mexico. And their Spanish isn’t very good, so they don’t always understand what their relatives are saying.

I love their drawing style, simple and loose. I could mostly keep track of who was who, and I enjoyed the little character they used to express their own thoughts and feelings in dialog.

I have never taken a Spanish class, though when I was in grad school I lived in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood of Los Angeles, and part of the time reading this book felt like that. I started to let the Spanish words rush over me. Though I think that accurately reflects how the author felt.

I do think this book would be perfect for someone who’s studied Spanish a little bit and would help them progress. There are a few English translations given, but mostly what’s on the page progresses as Christine progresses – and I was left a little behind by that. Though in a graphic novel, the pictures convey enough of the story, I didn’t feel lost. So I do think this strategy worked for this book, even though for me personally I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I would have if I felt like I understood more of the words used.

But even with my lack of Spanish slowing me down, I still thought this was a lovely story of making family connections and a teen making their way outside their comfort zone.

christinesuggs.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teen_Nonfiction/ay_mija.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Those Who Saw the Sun, by Jaha Nailah Avery

Those Who Saw the Sun

African American Oral Histories from the Jim Crow South

By Jaha Nailah Avery

Levine Querido, 2023. 277 pages.
Review written October 30, 2023, from a copy sent to me by the publisher.

Those Who Saw the Sun is a collection of interviews with African American elders, most of whom were born during the 1940s and 1950s, and all of whom were kids in the Jim Crow era.

The book feels important – hearing the voices of people who lived through those times. It harnesses their wisdom and we get insights on the things they saw during their long lives.

I was very interested that none of the interviewees were big fans of integration. Although segregation had been harmful and unjust, they had also been part of vibrant Black communities. Outstanding Black teachers taught in their schools, even though many also mentioned they always used school books passed on after white schools had used them. Once integration happened, some Black businesses failed, and some Black teachers lost their jobs.

But it’s also true that most of the elders heard about lynchings when they were kids and other racist acts of violence. So their stories were filled with progress and hope as they witnessed great changes.

Although I think this is an important book, I wish some more helpful content was added to make it more accessible to teens and, well, to me. I would have liked a timeline for each person interviewed. Each interview started by asking where they were born, but I would have also liked to know when they were born. In an oral history, folks skip around in time, so I would have liked a scaffold to fit their remarks onto.

Some of the subjects also rambled a bit and repeated themselves. Though that does communicate their personalities, a little more editing might have increased readability. After finishing the book, I don’t really remember which person said which thing, so some commentary explaining why the order was chosen or something about the subjects in the present day – with present day pictures – might have helped it all stick in my head. It was certainly fascinating while I was reading it, though!

All the interviewees were asked, “Do you believe Dr. King’s dream is possible in this country?” Eleanor Boswell-Raine’s answer catches the spirit of what most of them said:

I think anything is possible. I like his method better than the let’s-shoot-and-kill-everybody mentality. I am definitely a nonviolent person. I really thought, though, given my age and everything, that we would almost be there by now. And so I’m deeply disappointed in terms of . . . of where we are in this country. So I want to say yes, I believe it’s possible. But I would also have to say that I doubt seriously that it will be in my lifetime.

levinequerido.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teen_Nonfiction/those_who_saw_the_sun.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?