STACKED

books

Double Take, Part XX

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I love when these pop up in unexpected places. The contrast (or not!) in subject matter this time is too good.


Deadline by Chris Crutcher was published in September 2007 by HarperCollins/GreenWillow. Nice, very memorable cover.

Compare that bad boy to this one:

Conquer Back and Neck Pain: Walk It Off! by Mark D. Brown was published June 2008 by Sunrise River Press. This is a non-fiction, adult title.

The images are just flipped 180 degrees, but it’s the exact same one.

What do you think? One book’s about a boy knowing he’s going to die and the other is a non-fiction book about how to get over aches and pains in your back and neck. This one’s too good to be true.

What I’m Reading, Twitter Style.

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I’ve been busy – between moving and reading for Cybils, my personal reading has been a little everywhere (and a little spare). But here’s what I’m reading or have recently read, Twitter-style!


Wish / Alexandra Bullen: Disappointing fairy tale w/ predictable plot, uninteresting characters, & off-putting writing style. Cannot believe there’s a sequel coming.

Leaving Gee’s Bend / Irene Latham: Historical fiction set during 1930s w/o being about the Depression. Engaging & one that will be considered a “best” in 2010. Low teen appeal.

The Happiness Project / Gretchen Ruben: Eager for perspective on happiness. Think this year-in-my-life may be valuable guide, rich w/insight w/o preachiness. Husband loved it.

Along for the Ride / Sarah Dessen: Audio book has some voice & volume inconsistencies, but the story is engaging enough, though predictable & same as rest of Dessen’s oeuvre.

Searching for Whitopia / Rich Benjamin: Unscientific but interesting non-fiction about what quality makes a community feel “safe” and “special.” Black author on whiteness = unique.

Travels with Charley / John Steinbeck: Professing the love of one’s country w/ trip through it. Highly entertaining, beautiful descriptions. I underlined many passages for memory.

Non-fiction: The Great and Only Barnum

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Welcome to the big top! One of STACKED’s goals this year is to post more and a wider variety of content (believe it or not, we have a huge, varied list of topics we want to cover in a Google Doc). To start, we’re hoping to post more non-fiction reviews and discussions. And onward.

The Great and Only Barnum by Candice Fleming was one of the first young adult non-fiction books I’ve read. Not to mention it’s a biography, which is another genre I’m pretty poor at reading in. But let me say, this title did NOT disappoint.

TGAOB follows the life of show man P. T. Barnum from his birth to his death, highlighting his younger years as a sales clerk, shuffling between Connecticut and New York City and his decision to go into show business. His circus career began, as it seems, quite accidentally, after a long stint in the museum business. I thought Fleming’s narrative was engrossing: I found myself flying through the text, eager to learn more about the man of infamy. At the beginning of the book, we meet his lineage, and throughout the text, I kept thinking back to a connection Fleming made between Barnum’s prankster grandfather and himself. The likeness was not only amusing, but it really did shed a lot of light into why Barnum chose the path he did in life and why, even though he has had so many critics, he is still a fascinating and likeable character.

Throughout the book, there are ample photographs, and there is a fascinating spread of sideshow trading cards. I thought the section about the people Barnum brought to the spotlight left him more of a good person than a bad person — if there were a bias in this book as a whole, it would be that it was quite apologetic for Barnum’s decisions to showcase people with different physical traits from the norm. But at the same time, it didn’t delve deeply enough into the criticisms he received to make these apologetics worth including in the text; it almost seemed like a preemptive band-aid for those reading the text who might be ready to be angry. From the text, it seemed to me that Barnum really and truly cared for his people, putting them to spotlight to showcase the varied nature of humanity (and while there was absolutely financial gain here for him, he also took great care of these people who may otherwise have been outcasts in society).

Some of the issues I had with the book included the facts that were brought up but not elucidated further. I wish I could learn more about the strange relationship Barnum had with his first wife (though we hear about his quick marriage overseas) and I would love to learn more about the race relations. Barnum’s museum had a policy to not allow African Americans in, except for a few hours one day a week. Knowing the museum was in New York City, I had a lot of questions about whether this was the norm and whether Barnum’s policy was groundbreaking because he let them in. Here’s perfect fodder for a future book!

I thought the use of sidebars and photos was well done, with just enough to keep me interested. I appreciated how, for the most part, the narrative ended on the page where a side bar was so I could read those without flipping pages; unfortunately, this did not last throughout the book and became a point of frustration for me. More frustrating, though, were the sidebars that jumped pages and the use of the black box with white text. It is well-known this is the hardest way to read text. But aesthetically, the book showcased a nice use of font to text to decorative elements, and it felt like a lengthy magazine article. This will definitely appeal to teen readers AND to adult readers who want to know about Barnum but don’t want to invest time into a lengthier biography. I got just enough to pique my interest.

My other criticism on this title is that there was not enough discussion of the circus. I went in believing to know about Barnum’s circus career and decisions, and though I learned these came near the end of his life, I wanted more. I wanted to know how the various circuses came to meld together and become what they are in today’s society. Again: here’s another prime book opportunity. Something of that nature would be a great readalike to this one. Authors – take note!

More Claudette!

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Kirsten over at Curious City left a comment on my last review with a video — she wove together Claudette’s narrative and Hoose’s comments on his inspiration for writing the book. It’s really well done, so I had to share it:

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

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Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose is the fourth book in my quest to read all five National Book Award nominees for Youth Literature. Unlike the prior three books, Claudette Colvin is a work of non-fiction.

Claudette Colvin was the catalyst for the Montgomery Bus Boycotts during the 1950s and Civil Rights Movement. But unlike Rosa Parks, she was forgotten and overlooked for her major contribution to integration.

Hoose’s story is meant to share Colvin’s story and shed light into her role into the monumental and oft ignored Browder v. Gayle case that ruled integration the law in Montgomery and all of Alabama.

Claudette refused to give up her seat on the bus as a teenager, and she didn’t go quietly. She was beaten and degraded as police officers dragged her off the bus for not giving up the seat upon the bus driver’s request (which, back then was de facto for blacks). She was sentenced for the crime, but her cause was taken up by Dr. King and Rosa Parks shortly thereafter. As students of American history, we have an idea of what happened when they became involved in the situation in Montgomery.

But Colvin faded from the spot light, even though it was her action that spurred movement from blacks and equal rights supporters of all colors and backgrounds. Why? She became pregnant and birthed a light-skinned baby. Scorned by white culture for being black and refusing to follow Jim Crow and equally scorned by her black community for having a child out of wedlock with what they assumed was a white father pushed her story to the periphery.

Hoose’s book was engaging and solid — I felt like the prose moved in a story-like fashion enough to keep audiences who may not otherwise have found a non-fiction book about a lesser-known history maker reading. Fortunately for Hoose and for readers, Colvin is still alive today and was able to provide insights into the story herself.

The book has segments of her interviews, along with a selection of photos, sidebars, and other graphics to tell the story. Additionally, Hoose fills in many of the holes between Colvin’s interviews to give the book shape and structure.

This, however, made me sad — I actually found Hoose’s additions the dullest and slowest portions of the book. I wanted to read more of Colvin’s own words and I feel like she got short changed for his prose. I’m a big fan of graphics, and I almost would have preferred more, as well. I consider myself a fairly well educated reader and I felt like having more visuals would have helped me better construct an understanding; I imagine for the age range this book is intended for that adding more graphics would be not only helpful but crucial to better capturing the essence of the Civil Rights struggle, particularly in Montgomery.

Although I believe this is a fantastic book, I do wonder how receptive audiences would be to this if it were not hand sold or used as part of a classroom collection/unit on the Civil Rights movement. I think this because she is (unfortunately!) a little known member of such an important era and she will be overlooked on the shelves in favor of King or Parks. That’s not to say she doesn’t belong, for sure. Additionally, I did find the section about her becoming pregnant a bit non-essential — the graphic details about sex here were tangential to the larger issues, and I think they will be a sticking point for use with younger readers.

I think this is a worthy NBA nominee, for sure, but I still hold my torch for Lips Touch. Fortunately for Claudette Colvin, the nomination will get more librarians, teachers, and book loves to read this story and talk up this lesser known but utterly important member of the Civil Rights movement and perhaps will bring a renewed interest in learning about the faces and stories behind it.