Making and Unmaking at the Library

Uncategorized 0

Deconstruction5

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted in my Librarians Help! series – but a program that happened this week was so awesome, I have to report it here.

For years now, I’ve heard about Makerspaces in libraries and wondered if there’s a way we could bring that to our customers. At my level, a Youth Services Manager at a regional library in a system of twenty-two branches, there didn’t seem like a way I could bring this to my branch. How would we find space for equipment? How would we provide expertise? And how would customers pay for things like 3D prints? We already have a complicated system for regular print-outs. It just seemed beyond my resources to bring to our branch.

However, libraries are about learning and creating! Our mission dovetails so nicely with the ideas of Makerspaces!

And then I mentioned to a friend that my cousin is Mark Hatch, CEO of TechShop, a for-profit Makerspace. Shortly after his name came up, Mark’s Mom posted on Facebook that President Obama had recently toured the newly-opened TechShop location in DC/Arlington. Now that TechShop is in our neighborhood, I wondered if they think about doing outreach. Their mission is much the same as that of the library – about creating and learning.

I contacted my cousin, and he put me in touch with the Education Coordinator at TechShop DC/Arlington. That such a position exists was a great sign. After some discussion, we set up three programs for teens at City of Fairfax Regional Library this summer!

The partnership works wonderfully. TechShop provides the equipment and expertise. We provide the space and the publicity, reaching out to our neighborhood teens. Our Friends of the Library pay TechShop’s fee (just like paying for puppet shows or other performers) and we are able to offer the programs free of charge to the teens who come.

For the first program, TechShop brought in their vinyl cutter and the teens designed vinyl stickers and cut them out on the vinyl cutter.

VinylCutter

For the second program, TechShop brought two Sphero Robotic Balls. The teens got into two teams and created obstacle courses from cardboard which they then ran the robots through.

Sphero

The third program happened this week. TechShop brought in two old computers and lots of tools. Then the kids took apart the computers and learned about how they work.

As with all the programs, the kids started out kind of reserved and holding back…

Deconstruction1

But once the drill came out…

Deconstruction2

They got more and more engaged.

Deconstruction4

I simply loved seeing them get better and better at figuring out how to take each next layer apart. They were having a fantastic time; they were feeling empowered; and they were discovering really cool stuff deep inside the computers!

Deconstruction3

It was an awesome thing to watch!

I’m hoping to do more programs with TechShop in the future. We’ve planned a 3D printing workshop in October, and I’d like to do another Computer Deconstruction program. Next summer, maybe we can plan some workshops at more branches.

Now, I do always want to think through how I can improve the program. Next time, I’ll pull out more books on making and creating. (The library recently purchased my cousin’s book, The Maker Movement Manifesto, for example.) I think for the Deconstruction program, I’d like to bring in more craft materials, to give the teens more ideas of something to do with the computer parts they uncover.

I think that other libraries out there that don’t feel quite ready to open a Makerspace of their own might think about this approach. Is there a Makerspace in your neighborhood that might be able to bring programs to your library? It’s a natural partnership.

Once again, as a Librarian, I got to help! In this case, I got to help kids learn and create in exciting and engaging ways. By working with TechShop, we were able to open teens’ minds to a world of possibilities. And we all had a lot of fun, as well!

Deconstruction6

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 Hearing Heart, by Hannah Hurnard

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Old Favorites, Starred Review 0

hearing_heart_largeHearing Heart

by Hannah Hurnard

Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois, 1986. First published in 1978. 139 pages.
Starred Review

I read and loved all Hannah Hurnard’s books when I was in high school, including this one. This little book was a lovely choice for bringing on my vacation. My usual quiet times include reading bits out of several books — for vacation, I read a chapter each day out of this book.

This book reminds the reader of the importance of walking with God. Long before John Eldredge’s book Walking with God, I read about listening to God’s voice, as God’s people in the Bible did.

The book is autobiographical, outlining Hannah Hurnard’s journey, including missionary work in Palestine before, during, and after World War I. This journey included some steps that looked crazy, but she walked in obedience, and God did amazing things.

Here are some things the author says in her concluding chapter:

It did seem perfectly natural to suppose from the teaching in the Bible and our Lord’s own sayings that all heard his voice in the same way, and that there were not some endowed with a special and mysterious faculty for hearing which was not granted to others. The least child of God can hear in the same way, and be sure that it is the voice of God speaking to him, as any holy man of old, provided he knows and practices the one principle by which the spirit of man can develop a hearing faculty.

Again, this does not mean that we shall ever become infallible or that all our thoughts at all times will be from God. Far from it, especially, of course, at the beginning of our Christian experience. In matters of Christian truth and understanding of the Scriptures, we learn slowly and by stages; a hearing heart, too, may in some cases develop more quickly than a seeing understanding. Every new obedience, however, leads to a fuller understanding, but is always accompanied by an ever-increasing realization that there is infinitely more beyond our present ability to comprehend, and that there is an ever-present danger of becoming self-confident and being dogmatic to others. Nothing deafens a hearing heart more quickly than unwillingness to keep open to further light.

The great principle of the hearing heart is that we become as little children, utterly dependent and always ready to obey. We have to learn to obey his guidance in small personal matters, before we can receive and understand more of his will and purposes.

I like the practicality of this paragraph:

The very fact that spiritual hearing can so easily be confused with imagination is a great safeguard against spiritual pride and ought to develop in us holy cautiousness and humble dependence. But to insist that unusual guidance is only imagination, and that real guidance is really using one’s common sense, did seem to me extraordinary. For most of the guidance which came to me in those early years did not make common sense at all, and generally involved me in the risk of appearing an absolute fool in the eyes of others. Of course, common sense and all one’s intellectual faculties, as well as the experience and wisdom of others, are all part of the wonderful equipment and means by which God does reveal to us his will.

And here’s her final offering to the reader:

So in loving sympathy and understanding with all who long to find a deeper reality in their spiritual life and to know what it is to be drawn into intimate, daily communion and fellowship with the Lord and Savior himself, I would joyfully and humbly share these experiences, praying that he who is so real and so full of understanding love will use them to help others into the radiant happiness of those who can say.

This book offers lovely encouragement to Christians who want to learn to listen to and hear God’s voice.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/hearing_heart.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 my own copy.

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.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Mathematician’s Shiva, by Stuart Rojstaczer

Contemporary, Fiction Review 0

mathematicians_shiva_largeThe Mathematician’s Shiva

by Stuart Rojstaczer

Penguin Books, 2014. 366 pages.

Sasha Karnokovitch, a lowly professor of atmospheric sciences, is the son of one of the greatest female mathematicians of all time. The book opens when his mother is dying. His family shows up at her bedside, but he knows that many more people will arrive when she dies.

When my father warned of the horde of mathematicians that would descend upon our house after my mother’s death, I knew what to expect. They would be grieving, but not like my family. They would be mourning not my mother but the loss of ideas, the loss of intellect. They would no longer be able to sit in a room with her and feel the magical presence of someone with the talent to find the hidden gem in what is thought to be all dross.

The Hasidic Jews have a word, dveykus, for men who always possess the spirit of God inside them. My mother, unlike my grandfather, did not believe in such things literally, but when it came to understanding mathematics, she knew that she possessed the equivalent of dveykus. Like a rebbe with acolytes who feel blessed just to be around someone whose goodness and spirituality are always present, my mother had her followers. I had been with them all of my childhood. They sought me out for my secondhand dveykus even as an adult. Now they would come and I would have to be their gracious host for seven days, the days of shiva that are a traditional part of Jewish mourning. My uncle called them the szale?cy, the crazy people. Yet he would supply the vodka, and soothe them in his own way.

This book is about that shiva. Indeed, the mathematicians descend, especially those, like Sasha’s mother Rachela, from Poland and Russia. They are convinced she proved the Navier-Stokes Theorem before she died. But where would she have hidden her work? They will search the house; they will interrogate her parrot; they will even work together to try to prove it themselves.

This is a rambling novel, with quirky characters, mostly academicians. There are stories of Rachela’s childhood during World War II and stories of how it was for Sasha growing up as the child of a genius. There are family stories and mathematician stories.

Having been in a math graduate program myself, even though this novel wasn’t a page-turner, I kept coming back to it and couldn’t resist reading about the world created here – about genius and math and family and fate and love and faith and recognition and whether cold weather helps you think clearly.

stuartr.com
penguin.com

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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 signed copy I got at ALA Annual Conference.

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 Edgar’s Second Word, by Audrey Vernick and Priscilla Burris

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

edgars_second_word_largeEdgar’s Second Word

by Audrey Vernick
illustrated by Priscilla Burris

Clarion Books (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), Boston, 2014. 32 pages.
Starred Review

This book is simply too sweet not to review it.

Big sister Hazel has long been dreaming of reading to her new baby brother. She reads to her stuffed bunny, Rodrigo, but it wasn’t the same. When Edgar finally comes along, she’s excited.

But Edgar wasn’t much different from Rodrigo.
Or a pillow.
Or a watermelon.

Then Hazel thinks Edgar’s first word will make the difference. Now he mostly points and grunts, “like a pointing, grunting watermelon.”

But when Edgar speaks his first word, let’s just say it’s the most common first word of any baby.

And he practices it often.

My favorite picture in the book is from when Hazel’s mom takes them for a change of scene to the library, and Hazel asks Edgar to choose some books.

Edgar’s “NO!” was so loud that people stared. Some covered their ears. A librarian fainted.

But the book finishes up with such a lovely cozy scene, the pastel pictures matching the warm cozy tone of the words:

The day’s no’s added up.
Everyone was tired.
Finally, it was bedtime.

Hazel reached for her no-saying grump of a brother.
Edgar got as far as “Nnn” before a tired-baby gravity settled him on her lap.

Edgar felt as weighty as two Edgars.
He leaned back, a heavy-headed, warmly cuddled, not-no-saying lamb of a ram.
Hazel began to read.

(Can’t you just feel warm baby in your lap?)

When Hazel finishes reading, they think Edgar’s gone to sleep. But instead, he says his second and third words. And let’s just say that they’re a lot more positive.

This book brings something interesting to the party of new-baby books for the bigger sibling. There’s plenty of talk about the frustrations, but the cozy ending does point out that it’s all worth it.

And if nothing else, parents will be charmed.

audreyvernick.com
priscillaburris.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/edgars_second_word.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 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.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Goodbye Stranger, by Rebecca Stead

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

goodbye_stranger_largeGoodbye Stranger

by Rebecca Stead

Random House Children’s Books, August 2015. 286 pages.
Starred Review

I got an Advance Reader Copy of this book at ALA Midwinter Meeting, and got it read on the flight to ALA Annual Conference.

I love Rebecca Stead’s books. Hers are about character — and always feature a character who feels like a normal kid — but with quirks.

Bridge Barsamian was in a terrible accident when she was 6 years old and almost died. As she left the hospital, a nurse told her, “You must have been put on this earth for a reason, little girl, to have survived.” She’s always wondered what that reason might be.

Now Bridge and her two best friends, Emily and Tabitha, are in seventh grade. And things are changing. Emily has suddenly grown curves and has become hugely popular. A boy is sending her pictures… and wants a response.

Bridge started wearing the cat ears in September, on the third Monday of seventh grade.

The cat ears were black, on a black headband. Not exactly the color of her hair, but close. Checking her reflection in the back of her cereal spoon, she thought they looked surprisingly natural.

And once she gets started wearing the cat ears, it’s hard to stop.

This book follows three different voices. One is Bridge, dealing with seventh grade, and how things are changing between her friends. Another is Sherm. He’s writing letters to his grandfather, who recently left their family. He doesn’t send them. Along the way, he writes about this girl who wears cat ears.

Another voice is someone using second person who has decided to take a mental health day on Valentine’s Day. She tries to keep her parents from worrying, but isn’t successful. But she still doesn’t go home. She’s thinking about all that led up to this day.

All the plot threads of the book lead up to Valentine’s Day. There’s no big reveal or plot twist. (There is a little reveal of who is skipping school.) But all the threads wind up, in a nice satisfying story. You can’t help but like these kids, living their lives and figuring out why they were put on this earth — in lovely, quiet, quirky ways.

This is very much a novel about friendship — and friends who let their friends down. But don’t we all let our friends down, in some way or other? This book is about the hard decision of when to give our friends another chance.

rebeccasteadbooks.com
randomhousekids.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/goodbye_stranger.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 an Advance Reader Copy I got at ALA Midwinter Meeting.

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.

What did you think of this book?

Sonderling Sunday – No Longer Exiled

Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, Sonderling Sunday 1

It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! That time of the week when I play with language by looking at the German translation of children’s books. Sort of a Traveler’s Phrasebook for Very Silly People.

Sonderlinge 1

This week, I’m back to my stand-by, the ever-so-Sonder Der Orden der seltsamen Sonderlinge, by James Kennedy — The Order of Odd-Fish.

Last time, we left off with some alliterative headlines. Jo has learned that Aunt Lily is no longer exiled!

We’re on page 236 in the original English version, Seite 298 auf Deutsch.

As usual, we’ll look at whatever interesting phrases catch my eye. Trust me, this won’t give away the plot — though I do hope it intrigues a few people.

Let’s start with the key word:
“exiled” = verbannt

As in:
“This means you’re not exiled any more?”
= Das bedeutet, du bist nicht mehr verbannt?

May you never need to use this sentence:
“The mayor’s dropped the case.”
= Der Bürgermeister hat den Fall eingestellt.

But this is a good phrase to know:
“For now, at least.” = Jedenfalls fürs Erste.

Oh, I like this word!
“nap” = Mittagsschläfchen (“midday-little-sleep”)

Another useful phrase:
“Are you crazy?” = Bist du verrückt geworden?

“she whispered fiercely” = flüsterte sie hitzig

Oo, I like how this sounds in German:
“That the Silent Sisters have gone away?”
= Dass die Stummen Schwestern verschwunden wären?

“They are all on the move.”
= Sie alle sind sehr umtriebig.
(“They all are very go-getting.”)

I hope you don’t need this sentence:
“But I’m living a lie!”
= Aber ich lebe in einer Lüge!

I’ve mentioned this before, but still like knowing the word:
“Inconvenience” = Ärgernis

“people who’ve been sticking their necks out for you”
= die Leute, die für dich ihren Hals riskiert haben

Again, I hope you don’t have reason to say this, but best to be prepared:
“It’s the worst possible plan!”
= Es ist sogar der schlimmstmögliche Plan!

Think about the situation where you might want to say this!
“prying at a mishmash of intertwined mechanisms.”
= wühlte in einem Haufen miteinander verhakter mechanischer Teile.
(“rummaged in a heap together entangled mechanical parts.”)

I always like James Kennedy’s lists of interesting phrases:
“Months of silence, of awkward pauses, of avoiding the topic broke down.”
= All die Monate des Schweigens, der verlegenen Pausen, der Vermeidung dieses Themas forderten ihren Tribut.
(“All these months of silence, the embarrassed pauses, the avoidance of these themes demanded their tribute.”)

“the least thing” = der kleinste Kleinigkeit

“Her face had warped and sagged.”
= Ihr Gesicht war verzerrt und eingefallen.

I like this word:
“Doorknob” = Türknauft

“escape” = Fluchtweg (“flight-way”)

“sheepish” = schüchtern

“No hard feelings?” = Kein Groll?

Here’s a grand collection of long words!
“Minor difference of interpretation of city ordinances.”
= Das waren nur unbedeutende Meinungsverschiedenheiten hinsichtlich der Interpretation der Stadtverordnungen

And we’ll finish with the end of the scene:
“Jo left the room as quickly as possible and didn’t look back.”
= Doch Jo veließ den Raum so schnell wie möglich und blickte nicht zurück.

If you are ever verbannt, I hope your exile will be lifted quickly. Bis bald!

Review of The Real Thing, by Ellen McCarthy

Musings, Nonfiction Review, Personal Growth, Relationships, Romance, True Stories 0

real_thing_largeThe Real Thing

Lessons on Love and Life from a Wedding Reporter’s Notebook

by Ellen McCarthy

Ballantine Books, New York, 2015. 263 pages.

Written by a wedding reporter, this book is composed of stories — stories of people committing to each other. But Ellen McCarthy didn’t stop with weddings and also includes stories of couples whose love has lasted decades. Along the way, she throws in some good advice about finding and keeping the love of your life.

Bottom line, even if you don’t take any of the advice, this book is fun to read. It doesn’t hurt to be reminded that people out there are finding love.

The author throws in her own story — she started as a wedding reporter when she’d just finished a major break-up, but wrote the book as part of a married couple with a child.

Here’s some of her introduction:

When I first started on the weddings beat — also starting, as I’ve mentioned, a new chapter of single life — I wasn’t sure how it would affect me to spend my days interviewing deliriously happy couples and watching them walk down the aisle. It could have been like salt in a wound.

But the job had the opposite effect. All of these people — young, old, rich, poor, plain, beautiful, sophisticated, and simple — they’d all found someone. I was reminded again and again that love happens every day, in all kinds of ways, to all kinds of people. And when it does, it adds a beauty and richness to life that nothing else can match.

So a couple of months after the breakup, I found my dating legs again. This time I had the lessons of the people I’d written about swirling around in my head. Their experiences pushed me to be more open and optimistic, and at least try to enjoy it.

Even more important, the collective wisdom of these couples challenged me to rethink what I was looking for. So much of what they taught me about love ran contrary to what we learn in pop culture and society. Don’t look for lightning. Forget about presenting your best self — it’s your real self that counts. And dreams do come true, but almost never how you dreamed them.

Yes, reading these stories could have been like pouring salt in my wounds. But it wasn’t. Instead, this book left me smiling and encouraged.

ellen-mccarthy.com

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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 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.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Safest Lie, by Angela Cerrito

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

safest_lie_largeThe Safest Lie

by Angela Cerrito

Holiday House, New York, 2015. 180 pages.
Starred Review

Full disclosure right up front: The author of this book is a friend of mine. We were in a writers’ group together in Germany. So naturally, I snapped up an Advanced Reader Copy of her book when she told me they were available at ALA Annual Conference.

This is a Holocaust book. So honestly, I might not have picked it up if my friend hadn’t written it. But it’s yet another story of the Holocaust I hadn’t heard before. This book is about a Polish Jewish girl from the Warsaw ghetto who is smuggled out and stays in a series of homes, finally with a Polish Catholic family whose own daughter looked like the “master race” and had been sent to Germany.

Anna Bauman is nine years old when she’s told that she needs to be Anna Karwolska. Her Mama and Papa send her away to keep her safe, and she goes along with different heroic people, learning how to appear Catholic at an orphanage, always afraid of the ever-present German soldiers, seeing other people resisting and other children in hiding.

Anna has to learn Anna Karwolska’s birthday and history. She remembers her grandmother’s saying: “The safest lie is the truth.”

I like the scene where a German soldier is questioning the children at the orphanage. It’s sinister, but I like the way Anna turns it around.

Then he asks a question that I’ve never practiced. “What type of work does your father do?”

“My father is dead, sir.” I don’t feel sad or afraid telling him that my father is dead. I never knew Anna Karwolska’s father. Maybe it would help if I share a bit of truth. “He made furniture.” I want to catch the words as soon as they are out of my mouth. I don’t know if making furniture is a job only a Jewish papa would have.

But the soldier just nods his head, as if he’s bored. “What type of food did you eat for Christmas dinner?”

“The very best of food.”

“What type?”

“All types. There were sweets and meat and vegetables and . . .” — I swallow, thinking of all the good food — “sweets.”

“What exactly?”

“I’m not sure. I was very young and it was so long ago.” It’s true. Anna Karwolska would have been even younger than I was before the war began.

“Anna. Anna. Anna.” I don’t like the way he says my name. “Have you answered every question truthfully?”

I swallow. “Yes, sir.”

The soldier reaches under the table and a moment later metal clinks against the wooden tabletop. “Do you know what that is?” I do, but I can’t speak. “It’s my gun.” He smiles.

It’s a shiny silver gun with a black handle. There’s a screw connecting the handle. It seems like if I had the right tool and a moment to myself, I could remove that screw and the whole gun would fall to pieces.

“It’s your gun,” I say.

“I will use this gun, Anna. If you’ve told me a lie, I will shoot you and all the other children here. Do you understand?”

The screw is a small silver circle on a black rectangle. “It’s not made properly,” I say, staring at the screw.

“What?”

“The gun. It’s not made properly. There’s a screw showing on the outside.”

“Anna. This is very serious.”

I know it’s serious. I understand that more than any of the other girls in this room. “My papa always said that when furniture is made correctly, no one can see how the pieces are put together. But with your gun –”

He laughs. “Anna, you really are the daughter of a carpenter.”

A nice addition to the book is the Author’s Note at the back, where Angela Cerrito tells of her chance to meet Irena Sendler, a Polish woman who saved Jewish children, was tortured for it, and continued to save Jewish children during the war. This explains the ring of truth to the book. I love that this book is a tribute to those who risked their lives to save others.

angelacerrito.com
holidayhouse.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/safest_lie.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 an Advanced Reader Copy I got at ALA Annual Conference.

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.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Defender of the Flame, by Sylvia Engdahl

Fiction Review, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

defender_of_the_flame_largeDefender of the Flame

by Sylvia Engdahl

Ad Stellae, Eugene, Oregon, 2013. 452 pages.
Starred Review

I like Sylvia Engdahl’s writing. I’d ordered copies of all of her Flame books, then hadn’t gotten around to reading them because they aren’t library books and don’t have a due date. So I got this one read on vacation. I’d accidentally purchased two copies of this third book, so thought I’d bring it along and leave that copy behind after I finished it. This plan worked well — it is a book I’m happy to pass on to family.

And even though this is the third book, the cover explains that it takes place 200 years after the events in the earlier books, so you can read it without having read the earlier books. I do now have a good idea of what happens in the earlier books, but I’m hoping that won’t spoil them.

This is a book about humanity’s future. It’s consistent with Sylvia Engdahl’s view, hinted at in the wonderful Enchantress from the Stars, that mankind’s future evolution depends on learning to use the powers of our minds.

Defender of the Flame takes place when humans are on the cusp of discovering all their minds can do. Terry Radnor is a starship pilot, and he gets in on a secret project — defending a planet colony founded two hundred years earlier, where everyone is telepathic.

Terry also goes into training and learns to harness his full potential. He finds out why he was never satisfied in relationships before. Only with the telepathic connection can he truly link with others. On the planet, he finds an idyllic situation. He will dedicate his life to protecting what they have built here.

But things on Earth, in general, are not going well. There is overcrowding, slums, poverty. And the idea of psychic power is ferociously opposed by many, even some in power.

Though I didn’t foresee what would set Terry Radnor’s life drastically off the course he was trying for and the way he would be called upon to protect the colony.

If you let it, this book can read like propaganda for Sylvia Engdahl’s world view, or perhaps I should call it her view of humanity’s future. She’s got a prime directive of non-interference that everyone seems to believe in much more firmly than I ever would.

However, ultimately it’s a hopeful view — and makes a really good story. This is fun reading, about a starship captain facing many tough choices and several different seemingly impossible scenarios and coming through. If you choose to think more deeply about the view of humanity’s future, that’s icing on the cake. Enjoyable and thought-provoking reading.

stewardsoftheflame.com
sylviaengdahl.com

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