Review of You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), by Felicia Day

Biography, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

youre_never_weird_largeYou’re Never Weird on the Internet (almost)

by Felicia Day

Touchstone (Simon & Schuster), New York, 2015. 261 pages.
Starred Review

Geeky girl makes good! I have to love this book – being so much of a geek myself.

Felicia Day was even a math major! Of course she’s cool! (What? That’s not how everyone defines coolness?) Never mind that she was also a music major. And homeschooled before that. And a gamer.

Oh wait! The flap says she’s the eighth most followed person on Goodreads. Now I’m jealous!

Felicia Day is familiar to me because of seeing her star in the fabulous internet show, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. I was delighted to read the story of her life, because she’s as quirky as I am, and she has achieved her dreams.

She’s open and honest and entertaining about her life. She hasn’t led a traditional life, and she talks frankly about a time when her video game playing did creep into addiction. Growing up homeschooled, people she met online were her first friends. Perhaps it’s fitting that her eventual success came via the internet.

Joss Whedon wrote the Foreword to this book. He explains well why it is worth reading:

It’s hard being weird. No – it’s hard living in a culture that makes it hard. This book deals with hard – without rancor, without the ugly flush of one-upmanship. Felicia created a persona of the bewildered waif who somehow manages to manage (and occasionally triumph). That persona is a gloss on a similar, but more painful, reality. Her odd, compelling journey was more difficult than a lot of us who knew her knew. But that’s part of her gift: she makes crippling anxiety look easy.

Another part of her gift is that she’s damn funny. Even if she’d come from the heart of normcore, her tale would be worth telling and well told. But she was raised in Crazytown, and the more foreign her territory, the more delightful – and somehow more relatable – her tale becomes. Reading this book is like spending an afternoon with Felicia, hearing breathless tales (they’re always breathless – Felicia doesn’t pause when she talks) of achievement, despair, and dazzling, almost transcendent nerdiness. This is the story of someone who found her place in a corner of the world that literally didn’t exist till just before she showed up. Felicia’s place is always off the edge of the map, where dragons wait, and this story is more than a memoir. It’s a quest. If you wanna survive, stay close to the redhead.

She knows her way.

This book is conversational, inspirational, and good silly fun. Felicia Day comes across as an enthusiastic little sister with good ideas. Here’s a little bit of her philosophy in her summing-up chapter:

That same motto “I am determined to create something or express myself, no matter how hard it is, even if my mom is the only one who sees it!” is the embodiment of how I view the web. For the first time, everyone has a chance to have his or her voice heard, or to create a community around something they’re passionate about and connect with other people who share that passion. Best of all, it rewards people and ideas that never would have made it through the system and allows the unique and weird to flourish. . . .

I was raised incredibly weird, but one day I accidentally got brave and thought I had a unique point of view about gaming. I decided to jump into web video – a world I knew very little about – to express it. Who knew there was anyone out there who wanted to listen?

I believe the next Oprah Winfrey or George Lucas will not come from a local news desk or college film program. He or she will come from the world of the web. Where the bar to entry is low, and where a group of kids can dream up a story and shoot it in their backyards. Regardless of whether someone gave them permission or not.

I hope all my copious oversharing encourages someone to stop, drop, and do something that’s always scared them. Create something they’ve always dreamt of. Connect with people they never thought they’d know. Because there’s no better time in history to do it.

There you have it! Felicia Day’s copious oversharing is delightful reading for anyone who’s even slightly geeky. She’s one of us, and she is achieving her dreams and learning about life along the way. What’s not to like?

feliciaday.com
feliciadaybook.com
@feliciaday
SimonandSchuster.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 I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Swan, by Laurel Snyder

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

swan_largeSwan

The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova

by Laurel Snyder
illustrated by Julie Morstad

Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2015. 48 pages.
Starred Review

This is an evocative, poetic, and beautiful picture book biography of the great ballerina, Anna Pavlova.

The actual text is short on details and long on atmosphere, but it gets the story across. A well-written, still mellifluous Author’s Note at the back fills things in.

Anna started out the daughter of a laundress. Here’s how Laurel Snyder puts it in her note:

It was a hard life, and Russia under the czars was generally a world where the poor stayed poor. Anna’s life should have been dismal.

But one night Anna’s mother told her, “You are going to enter fairyland,” as the two climbed into their sleigh and sped off to the Mariinsky Theatre. There, Anna heard Tchaikovsky’s music for the first time. She watched the dancers step out onto the stage, and her life was changed forever. Anna knew what she wanted to do with her life.

The main picture book text begins with this incident of Anna and her mother going through the snow to the ballet. Julie Morstad’s illustrations are perfect for this book, capturing the beauty of Anna’s grace as a little girl in a plain dress all the way through her triumphant performances as The Dying Swan.

Here’s the poetic way Laurel Snyder tells about the start of Anna’s career:

Until one night she takes the stage . . .

Anna becomes
a glimmer, a grace.
Everyone feels it,
and the lamps shine brighter.
The room holds its breath.

It shouldn’t be that she should be
this good.
Her legs too thin,
her feet all wrong –
and ooh, those toes!
She is only a girl –
so small – so frail –
but
see her face, her flutter?

Anna was born for this.

I didn’t know before reading this book that Anna Pavlova worked to bring ballet to everyone, where before it had been primarily an art form enjoyed by the rich. But ballet changed Anna’s life, and she wanted to bring its power to others and traveled around the world doing that.

laurelsnyder.com
juliemorstad.com
chroniclekids.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 I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Stories of my Life, by Katherine Paterson

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

stories_of_my_life_largeStories of my Life

by Katherine Paterson

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2014. 299 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a wonderful book from a beloved writer. Katherine Paterson, former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, has lived an amazing life. She was born in China to missionary parents, was evacuated multiple times because of war, went on to be a missionary herself to Japan, became an adoptive mother, and achieved great success as a writer. There are fascinating stories here, in the hands of someone who knows how to tell a story.

The stories are from her family and friends as well as her own life. They are remarkable and entertaining. I found one a day was a good pace for reading them, like having coffee with a friend and hearing a memorable, warm and human story.

At the front of the book, she answers some common questions like, “Where do you get your ideas?” I like this paragraph from her answer:

Some of my writer friends have so many ideas, they’ll never live long enough to turn them all into books. I look at them with a certain envy, for when I finish a book I say, “Well, that was a great career while it lasted,” because I am sure I’ll never have an idea worthy of another book. But by now I’ve written a lot of books, so I must have gotten those ideas from somewhere, and that somewhere is most often from my own life. Another lesson I’ve learned along the way is that there are no truly original ideas. There are no truly original plots. As the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes said three thousand or so years ago: “There is no new thing under the sun.” Except you. Except me. Every individual is new and unique, so we may be stuck with the same old plots, but because a new person is telling the story, bringing his or her singular life to bear on the story, it is fresh and new. So the only excuse I have for daring to write is that no one else in the world would be able to tell the stories that only I can tell. And an aside to those of you wishing to write — that is your excuse as well. The raw material for our unique stories is our unique lives and perspective on life.

This is a beautiful book from someone who’s living a beautiful life.

The book is written with simple enough language that kids can read it, but it will definitely make good reading for adults, too. In fact, I could see reading this book aloud as a family. They aren’t dramatic cliff-hanger stories, but they’re cozy, warm, and interesting stories, and a delight to read.

terabithia.com
penguin.com/teen

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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 I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 In Search of the Little Prince, by Bimba Landmann

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review 0

in_search_of_the_little_prince_largeIn Search of the Little Prince

The Story of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Written and illustrated by Bimba Landmann

Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2014. First published in Italy in 2013. 36 pages.

Here’s the life story of the author of The Little Prince in oversize picture book form. The pictures tend to be fanciful – showing Tonio’s boyhood dreams – but I like that the narrative is straightforward and easy to follow.

The book tells about how early Antoine became interested in flying, and how he eventually was able to fulfill that dream. It also gives us a poem he wrote at 12 years old about his first flight in an airplane – showing us that his love of writing began early, too.

This book doesn’t have notes at the back. Words are put into the mouths of family members and we’re told about Antoine’s dreams. Many quotations come from letters, but we’re not explicitly told where something like this comes from:

Only writing gave him comfort.
Short stories. Stories to calm his desire to flee.
And to try and get his soul, heavier and heavier by the day, to fly.
“What’s wrong with you?” his friends asked him. “You’ve got a good job; you earn plenty. What more do you want?”

Tonio’s coworkers only ever talked about money, houses, golf, and cars.
They did not feel, as he did, that they were the inhabitants of a wandering planet suspended in the Milky Way.
“I’m bored,” he sighed.
He needed to be in touch with the wind, with the stars.
He had to start flying again.

So this might bother sticklers. I have to admit – it didn’t bother me.

We also see how he developed the themes that eventually made their way into The Little Prince.

The more Antoine drew, the more the boy resembled him.
Like him, the boy didn’t understand people who want to be rich.
He too was sad at seeing his planet smothered by baobabs,
The way the earth was smothered by war.
He too had tamed a fox.
He too loved a rose . . .

Antoine wrote a fairy tale like the ones he used to listen to as a child:
it was a fairy tale about a little prince who came from far away,
and it helped him find the innocence of his childhood once more,
when he was simply Tonio.

This book will make readers – children or adults – want to pick up The Little Prince again. And perhaps think a little more deeply about the ideas behind it.

bimbalandmann.com
antoinedesaintexupery.com
eerdmans.com/youngreaders

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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 I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 One Plastic Bag, by Miranda Paul and Elisabeth Zunon

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, History 0

one_plastic_bag_largeOne Plastic Bag

Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of Gambia

by Miranda Paul
illustrations by Elizabeth Zunon

Millbrook Press, Minneapolis, 2015. 36 pages.

In 2012, Isatou Ceesay won a World of Difference 100 Award from the International Alliance for Women for her work establishing the Njau Recycling and income Generating Group in her village in Gambia. This picture book tells her story in a way that children can understand – but which adults will also appreciate.

The book begins with Isatou as a child when a basket breaks. When a basket breaks, people could simply drop it and it would crumble and mix back with the dirt. However, then people in the village began using plastic bags. When you drop a plastic bag on the ground, it leads to a problem with trash.

Goats began to die from eating the plastic bags. There was a bad smell. Isatou and some other women gathered up plastic bags, washed them – and made plastic thread from them. Then they used this plastic thread to crochet purses. And selling the purses made money to buy a new goat – a goat that was not confronted with plastic trash it was tempted to eat.

The note at the back tells more about Isatou Ceesay’s work. I like the way the story is told simply, with beautiful collage art, and then details are given at the end for adults. This is an inspiring story of a woman making the world a better place.

oneplasticbag.com
mirandapaul.com
lizzunon.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 I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Leontyne Price: Voice of a Century

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

leontyne_price_largeLeontyne Price

Voice of a Century

by Carole Boston Weatherford
illustrated by Raul Colón

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2014. 36 pages.
Starred Review

Several years ago, I read When Marian Sang, by Pam Munoz Ryan, and The Voice that Challenged a Nation, by Russell Freedman, and so felt I knew about how Marian Anderson showed that the beauty of a voice does not depend on skin color.

Leontyne Price: Voice of a Century tells a later chapter in the story, about a girl inspired by Marian Anderson. This picture book biography imaginatively conveys the beauty of her voice with swirling colors of art.

The text tells a simple story of a girl who dared to dream.

1927. Laurel, Mississippi.
The line between black and white
was as wide as the Mississippi River was long.
All a black girl from the Cotton Belt could expect
was a heap of hard work – as a maid, mill worker, or sharecropper.
Her song, most surely the blues….

Wasn’t long before Leontyne was finding her voice.
Singing along to her daddy James’s records and listening
to the Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday-afternoon radio broadcasts.
She soaked up the sopranos, if not the foreign words.
Art songs and arias, shaping a brown girl’s dreams.

The text tells about Leontyne playing the piano, singing in the choir, and being inspired by the voice of Marian Anderson. The accompanying illustrations show the swirling beauty of song.

Leontyne went to college in Ohio to study to be a teacher, but after the college president heard her sing, she went on to study voice instead and went on to Juilliard.

The illustrations of Leontyne’s international career in opera, and as the first black opera singer to perform on television in America, are particularly lovely.

Leontyne was never more majestic than as Aida,
playing the part she was born to sing. As the Ethiopian princess,
with her skin as her costume, she expressed her whole self.
Standing on Marian’s shoulders, Leontyne gave the crowd goose bumps.
The song of her soul soared on the breath of her ancestors.

The book finishes up with the line:

Her song sure wasn’t the blues.

An Author’s Note at the end fills in details for adults.

This is a lovely and inspiring story for anyone to read – about a person with a beautiful voice who transcended the obstacles in her path.

CBWeatherford.com
randomhousekids.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 I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Winnie: The True Story of the Bear Who Inspired Winnie-the-Pooh, by Sally M. Walker and Jonathan D. Voss

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

winnie_largeWinnie

The True Story of the Bear Who Inspired Winnie-the-Pooh

by Sally M. Walker

illustrated by Jonathan D. Voss

Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2015. 36 pages.
Starred Review

It’s books like this that make me wish we had a separate children’s browsing section for Nonfiction, rather than interfiling them with adult books. This is not a book for children looking for the subject of Bears, although that is where it is filed. This is a heart-warming picture book story that happens to be true.

I knew that the name of Winnie-the-Pooh was inspired by a bear Christopher Robin visited at the London Zoo. This book tells the story of that bear.

The bear was born in Canada during World War I. A veterinarian who took care of the horses in the Canadian army saw the bear for sale when his regiment stopped at a train station. The man said he didn’t see the cub until after he’d shot her mother, so Harry Colebourn bought the bear and named her Winnipeg, after his company’s hometown.

Winnipeg, whose name was quickly shortened to Winnie, was friendly and affectionate to the whole troop, but especially to Harry. She traveled with them to training camp in Quebec and then across the Atlantic Ocean.

But when the company was sent to the fighting in France, Harry decided that Winnie would be better off in the London Zoo, which had a new exhibit for bears. Winnie adjusted so well that four years later, when the war ended, Harry decided she should be allowed to stay.

Even though this book has a back story of war, the author and illustrator have made a very readable, light-hearted tale. They show Winnie cuddling and playing with Harry and the other soldiers. I was very surprised that the London zookeepers actually let children ride on Winnie’s back and feed her condensed milk with a spoon. It’s hard to imagine any zookeepers anywhere allowing that today, but perhaps it’s a testament to how gentle Winnie was.

And it’s fitting that the bear who inspired one of the greatest books of children’s literature should now have her own story told. Fans of Winnie-the-Pooh will love hearing the back story, but this story goes beyond that and simply tells a heart-warming story of a young man and a bear who was generous with her affection.

sallymwalker.com
jonathandvoss.com
mackids.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 I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Mr. Ferris and His Wheel, by Kathryn Gibbs Davis

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review, True Stories 0

mr_ferris_and_his_wheel_largeMr. Ferris and His Wheel

written by Kathryn Gibbs Davis
illustrated by Gilbert Ford

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. 40 pages.
Starred Review

I love this kind of nonfiction for kids – It’s engaging and simply told, with plenty of facts, but written to be read and enjoyed, not to use as reference for a report.

This is a picture book, and the illustrations are beautiful, evoking the time of the Chicago World’s Fair, when Mr. Ferris built his wheel.

The author tells the tale as a suspenseful story, with supporting facts alongside. Here’s an example page:

Now it was America’s turn to impress the world at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. But what could outshine the famous French tower? And who would build it? A nationwide contest was announced.

Here’s the sidebar on that two-page spread, in a corner and printed in a smaller font:

Before TV and the Internet, people from around the globe gathered at World’s Fairs to share their different ways of life and new technologies. Tasty inventions such as hamburgers and Cracker Jack first appeared there!

It goes on to dramatize George Ferris getting the idea, submitting his plans, and the large technological challenges they faced. One of the pages during the construction phase shows spectators who are critical and skeptical that the thing will stay up, let alone actually work.

The author and illustrator dramatize the completion, and the very first ride, giving us a feeling of the majestic spectacle the wheel made, as well as the sweeping view of Chicago.

All summer, visitors from around the world traveled to the Chicago World’s Fair. It didn’t matter whether one was a senator, a farmer, a boy or girl. Everyone wanted to take a spin on the magnificent wheel. Adventurous couples asked to get married on it! On hot, steamy days, the wheel was the perfect place to escape up, up, up into the cooling breezes. All you needed was fifty cents.

[Sidebar:] During the nineteen weeks the wheel was in operation, 1.5 million passengers rode it. It revolved more than 10,000 times, withstood gale-force winds and storms, and did not need one repair.

Let’s hear it for a book that highlights the heroism and accomplishments of an engineer! This book tells a good story, but it will also capture kids’ imaginations. A page at the back supplies further reading and websites. Who knows? This book may inspire future engineers.

gibbsdavis.com
gilbertford.com
hmhco.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 I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Edward Hopper Paints His World, by Robert Burleigh and Wendell Minor

Art, Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

edward_hopper_paints_his_world_largeEdward Hopper Paints His World

by Robert Burleigh
paintings by Wendell Minor

Christy Ottaviano Books (Henry Holt), New York, 2014. 44 pages.
Starred Review

I’ve got a soft spot for picture book biographies of artists, especially when the illustrator does such a wonderful job of evoking the subject’s artwork.

Both author and illustrator of this book did their homework. The author tells how, from childhood, Edward Hopper planned to be an artist. He doesn’t linger long in childhood, but talks about how Edward pursued his goal singlemindedly, even though it took years before he won recognition. Here’s a typical page:

Because he was fascinated by the look and feel of old houses, Edward began to make paintings of them. Once he remarked: “All I want to do is paint sunlight on the side of a house.”

But maybe Edward liked to paint houses for another reason. Many houses in his paintings seem moody, quiet, and alone. Were Edward’s houses a bit like Edward himself?

Another page explains one of his most famous paintings, and the illustration, with Edward Hopper looking at the scene, isn’t exactly like the painting.

But Edward didn’t just copy what he saw. His paintings often combined things he sketched on his travels: a café on a deserted street corner, customers drinking coffee, lost in thought – or dark shadows on an eerie green pavement.

Starting with scenes and details like these, Edward used his imagination to create some of his best-known pictures. One famous painting shows solitary people sitting at a counter in an all-night diner. The painting is called Nighthawks.

“I was painting the loneliness of a large city,” he later explained.

The paintings illustrating this book are beautiful in their own right. I found the Artist’s Note especially interesting:

. . . In this book, I tried to create the feeling of Hopper’s art while maintaining my own style. Upon careful observation, the reader will notice many differences in my interpretations of the four famous Hopper paintings in this book. My idea was to evoke the familiar through Hopper’s point of view. . . .

In this book, Robert Burleigh and I have attempted to give the young reader an introduction to the artist’s process of discovery. We see Hopper observing subjects, and we try to imagine what it might have been like to be there with him. Hopper sometimes sketched and painted his subjects on-site, but other times, he would return to his studio and sketch his observations from memory. His work is a combination of the real and the imagined. The best example of this is perhaps his most famous painting, Nighthawks. My research has shown that the all-night café in his painting never really existed. Hopper created this imaginary place from the many different scenes he encountered on his walks through New York City’s streets – and he did it in such a way that the viewer is convinced they know this café to be real. Such is the power of creativity! Robert Burleigh and I hope that we will inspire young artists everywhere to observe and then create wonderful pictures of their world.

I feel confident the author and artist are succeeding in that goal.

robertburleigh.com
minorart.com
mackids.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 I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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.

Review of Struck by Genius, by Jason Padgett and Maureen Ann Seaberg

Biography, Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

struck_by_genius_largeStruck by Genius

How a Brain Injury Made Me a Mathematical Marvel

by Jason Padgett and Maureen Ann Seaberg
performed by Jeff Cummings and Kate Rudd

Brilliance Audio, 2014. 7 hours, 29 minutes, on 8 compact discs, including one bonus disc with illustrations by the author.

The subtitle of this book explains what happened. Jason Padgett suffered traumatic brain injury in a mugging — and immediately started seeing the world differently. It turned out that he had Acquired Synesthesia and Acquired Savantism. And his life changed dramatically.

Before the attack, he was interested in nothing more than partying and having a good time. Afterward, he spent years inside his house, thinking about the nature of the cosmos. He had a sudden interest in math and the geometry underlying all things. He figured out how to draw what he saw naturally.

This book tells the story of his life and the dramatic changes. It tells about the process he went through to find out what had happened to him and trying to make sense of it all.

Jason’s case is unique. There aren’t many synesthetes who acquire it as an adult, and the same is true for savants. So his case gives fascinating insights into the brain and consciousness. As well, his visions of the geometry underlying the world may also bear fruit in math and physics.

Now, I have to say that the book felt repetitive, and I got tired of hearing about Jason’s excitement every step of the way. Some name-dropping went on, too. Mostly, he didn’t need to tell us every time he got super excited — we could figure it out from the extraordinary things that happened to him. I think the book could have been cut down to about a third of the length.

However, I was listening to it on my commute, and it was more interesting than just sitting in traffic. If it was repetitive? Well, I never felt like I’d forgotten what went before.

Above all, Jason’s story is fascinating. Do we all have those kinds of amazing abilities covered up by our other brain functions? How did a brain injury enable him to think more clearly on certain topics? Why did it change his whole personality? There’s plenty of food for thought in Jason’s story.

The audiobook included a CD with images Jason had drawn, and they are indeed amazing. The only catch to listening to the book was not having those images alongside, so I made sure to look at them afterward. There are even more images now available on fineartamerica, so you can take a look before reading the book. The crucial and amazing point you need to know is that all the images were drawn by hand.

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

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