Review of The Woman Who Split the Atom, by Marissa Moss

Biography, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

The Woman Who Split the Atom

The Life of Lise Meitner

by Marissa Moss

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2022. 264 pages.
Review written January 8, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Mathical Award Honor Book, Grades 6-8

I read this book specifically to consider for the Mathical Book Prize (so I’ll wait to post this review until after our winners are announced) – and I put off reading it because the cover didn’t grab me. Oh my goodness, I was completely unprepared for how gripping this true story is!

It’s the story of Lise Meitner, a woman who loved nothing more than doing physics – at a time when women had to fight to be allowed to do science at all. She was Austrian, and one of the few women to attend the University of Vienna in 1901. She went on to become only the second woman to get a PhD there, and the first in Physics. But her next battle was finding a place that would hire her – or even let her work in a lab for free. That’s what she ended up doing in Berlin, still publishing scientific papers and doing translation work, until she finally got a small salary at the newly opened Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin.

Meitner did most of her work collaborating with Otto Hahn, a chemist. He would do the chemistry part, and she would tackle the physics, as they worked with radioactivity and transuranic elements. Even though there was always a tendency for her contribution to be ignored because she was a woman, she was happy to have the chance to work. This was all interrupted by World War I. Meitner unhappily went to work with x-rays on the front with the Austrian army, while Hahn developed chemical weapons for Germany.

After the war, Meitner happily went back to work with what she cared about most – doing physics. But as Hitler rose to power, more and more backlash developed against Jews. Meitner was a Jew, but had been baptized as an adult, and didn’t practice any religion. She didn’t give the Nazis lots of thought. “She never once considered leaving her home over stupid politics.”

It was interesting reading this section the same time I was listening to the audiobook of In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson, about the rise of Hitler. I hadn’t realized this all started in 1933. Meitner kept right on ignoring the situation, and finally just barely made it out of Germany – without her equipment – in 1938. She again had trouble finding a place to work, but did some work in Stockholm, near her nephew Robert Frisch. He worked together with Meitner as she looked over the strange results of Hahn’s experiments that he had sent to her, telling her he was going to publish as a failure.

Well, Meitner and Frisch took a closer look, did the math, and realized that the uranium atom was splitting and giving off energy. But even though she wrote up her thinking – Hahn ended up getting the credit.

But then came the debate about whether this energy could be harnessed in a bomb. Meitner was in the middle – hiding from German scientists what allied scientists were figuring out might be possible. But she only wanted this work harnessed for peaceful purposes, and when she was asked to join the Manhattan Project, she refused. Years later, when a reporter called her “the Mother of the Bomb,” that made her cry. And she worked all her life for peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

That summary just gives an idea of all the big parts of history this woman lived through and how much she had to struggle to even get to do her work, let alone get any credit for it. Each one of the 39 short chapters has a one-page cartoon dramatizing an event to lead off that chapter, and it does help pull the reader along. I had thought reading this book would be a chore, but it turned out to be hard to put down, and when I did manage to put it down, I kept thinking about it and eagerly went back to it.

[As for Mathical: At this point I don’t know what the committee will decide. If this book does not become an honor book, it’s not for any lack in the story. But something our committee always has to grapple with is this: Is it Mathematical enough? Lise Meitner was a physicist, not a mathematician, but it was her mastery of math that was fundamental in her calculations that the uranium atom had split. So we’ll see what the committee decides….] [And obviously, it did decide to include this book.]

One more note before I post: Although this book is listed as a juvenile biography, it’s also listed as for ages 11 to 15. I’m going to start listing books for upper elementary and middle school on my Teen Nonfiction page, to help them stand out from the many nonfiction picture books that dominate my Children’s Nonfiction page. So this is going to be a book on the younger end of Teen Nonfiction rather than the older end of Children’s Nonfiction. And teens will certainly enjoy it, too. A story of a woman overcoming all kinds of obstacles and prejudice and changing the world.

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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.

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Review of Black Girl, You Are Atlas, by Renée Watson, fine art by Ekua Holmes, read by Renée Watson

Audiobooks, Biography, Poetry, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Black Girl, You Are Atlas

by Renée Watson
fine art by Ekua Holmes
read by Renée Watson

Kokila, 2024. 81 pages.
Listening Library, 2024. 52 minutes.
Review written February 10, 2025, from a library book and eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2025 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book
2025 Odyssey Honor Audiobook
2025 Rise List Top Ten
2025 Cybils Winner, Poetry Collection

Black Girl, You Are Atlas is a book of poetry about growing up as a Black girl, as a sister, a daughter, and a Black girl seeing how the world around her treats Black girls.

The title poem refers to the Greek hero Atlas who held the weight of the world. But it also talks about an atlas that shows the way forward and the way back. It expresses all that a Black girl carries.

Other poems talk about turning 7, turning 13, turning 16, and turning 17, about being a sister, about surviving the teenage years. And about holding onto happiness.

Both the audio and the print versions of this book are exquisite. I always listen to every Odyssey Honor audiobook I can get my hands on. This one is read by the author and expresses her powerful words. The print version, on the other hand, has Ekua Holmes amazing art accompanying it. Both versions are short, so there’s no reason not to enjoy this book both ways.

As a white woman, I did appreciate these poems – but get them into the hands of every Black teenage girl you know. There are powerful words in this book.

reneewatson.net
ekuaholmes.com

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Review of How the Boogeyman Became a Poet, by Tony Keith Jr.

Audiobooks, Biography, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

How the Boogeyman Became a Poet

by Tony Keith Jr.
performed by the Author

Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. 5 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written February 4, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2025 Odyssey Award Winner, Young Adult

I try to listen to all Odyssey Award winners and honor books, because they’re specifically given for the best audiobooks, and the quality is always outstanding. This book was no exception.

How the Boogeyman Became a Poet is a memoir from a Black poet and spoken word artist about his years in high school and starting college when he was coming to terms in his own heart and mind with being gay.

And he tells the story himself, with many poems included and performed. There are sound effects adding to the production, and this is a powerful audiobook.

The story starts his senior year of high school. He’s missed deadlines to apply to college and is taking the SAT for the third time, but gets a chance to apply. He’s got a girlfriend, but somehow is never in the mood to “do business” with her, and he doesn’t dare tell anyone that he thinks he might be gay – that fear is a boogeyman that he sees in the mirror and hiding in his closet – but he works out a lot of his thinking and feeling by writing poems and playing with language.

He was known as a poet in high school, writing love poems for his friends to give to their girlfriends on Valentine’s Day to make a little money, and performing in the student talent show. In college, he found that open mic nights with all their acceptance were better for him than competitive poetry slams. But always, poetry was where he turned with his feelings that he didn’t always understand.

I think my favorite poem was about the joy he got out of singing in youth choir. Yes! It’s a lovely expression of what singing in a choir can be. Unfortunately, it was also at church that he was taught that being gay would send him to hell, and why he resisted so hard admitting what was going on inside.

This book is a true coming-of-age story, told in an award-winning audio package. When I looked up the author’s website, I was delighted to learn that he went on to earn a PhD. Not bad for the first person in his family to go to college! Listeners are honored to get to share in his journey.

tonykeithjr.com

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Review of Gamer Girls, by Mary Kenney

Biography, History, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Gamer Girls

25 Women Who Built the Video Game Industry

written by Mary Kenney
illustrated by Salini Perera

RP Teens, 2022. 148 pages.
Review written January 9, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Wow! I had no idea so many women were fundamental to developing the video game industry. Yes, there are 25 featured women, but each feature has at least one “Side Quest” about a woman who achieved similar things to the featured person, and often more than one. So if anybody has any doubt that women can do great things with video games, this book completely obliterates those doubts.

Each story was fascinating. Many of the women are contemporaries with me, and so I watched most of these innovations to video games happen in my lifetime. We’ve come a long way – and I’d had no idea how many women were responsible for that. Oh, and I also loved that the author included more than one trans woman, without making a big deal of them, but including them in this book featuring accomplished women, where they belong.

Yes, there’s a lot about how innovative ideas – for example, actually making video games targeted to women, who’d have thought? – led to huge popularity, and how women overcame prejudice and stereotypes in their own creative lives. So this is especially a book to inspire girls who love computers or video games, but it’s also for anyone interested in the history of how video games developed.

I have two peeves with the book itself. The first is the horrible use of a neon orange font for headings and for the Side Quests. So terribly hard to read! I had to use a ruler slid down the page to read it at all. Maybe just a problem for my old eyes.

My second peeve is that I still have no idea why the women are presented in the order they are. It’s not alphabetical. It’s not in order of their births. It’s not in order of when they worked in the industry (which is part of the headline for each woman). I’m thinking it can’t possibly be random, but I still can’t figure out what the reasoning is, and that was distracting.

I read this whole book very slowly, a few pages and one profile at a time. It was very enjoyable that way, though perhaps if there was an overarching organization, I lost sight of it. The women did start to run together in my mind because I hadn’t figured out how to organize the information in my own brain – but mind you, I was super interested as I was reading each page.

Here’s how the author summarizes her goals for the reader in the Epilogue:

You might not remember every name, studio, and game featured in this book, and that’s okay. What I hope you do remember is this: A profound sense of joy and purpose. The knowledge that there is work to be done in this beautiful, messy field, and that you could be part of it. I hope this book dispels your fear. I hope you see a future that is growing brighter with every new developer who decides to make games. And I hope you realize that developer could be you.

I think she’s hitting those goals with this inspiring and interesting book.

marykgames.com

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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.

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Review of Mythmakers, by John Hendrix

Graphic Novel, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

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

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Review of Shackled, by Candy J. Cooper

History, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

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

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Review of Folding Tech, by Karen Latchana Kenney

Mathematical, Science, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

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

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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.

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Review of Road Home, by Rex Ogle

Biography, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

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

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Review of Homebody, by Theo Parish

Biography, Graphic Memoir, Teen Nonfiction 0

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

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

Poetry, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

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

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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.

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