Steve Sheinkin’s obvious passion for his topic is evident in The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery. His enthusiasm has paid off because the book won the 2011 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature in the nonfiction category and it has been nominated for a Cybils award in the MG/YA nonfiction category.
Starting off with a grim scene of a man about to be hanged (which those unfamiliar with Benedict Arnold’s life may assume to be his hanging since his name is synonymous with “traitor”), Sheinkin jumps back in time and tells Benedict Arnold’s life story in chronological order. And what a swashbuckling story it is, with high-stakes adventure, dark deeds, and power struggles galore. Putting a brilliant but flawed man in the context of the turbulent times that swirled around him, this book is a fast and powerful read. In tone and pace it gallops ahead like a thriller.
The book includes several maps that help visualize the action, particularly of some of the critical battles. As to be expected because Sheinkin has added many new tidbits to the story, the source notes are extensive. Although the reading level is appropriate to middle grades, some of the battle scenes may be too intense for sensitive advanced readers.
Once again showing how biographies written for children and young adults can add significantly to literature, The Notorious Benedict Arnold is a thrilling addition to any library shelf.
Reading level: Ages 11 and up
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Flash Point; 1 edition (November 9, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1596434864
ISBN-13: 978-1596434868
Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. We invite you to join us. For more information and a schedule, stop by the new Nonfiction Monday blog to see who is hosting each week.
If you are an ardent Janeite (Jane Austin fan), you already know that this year is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Sense and Sensibility. To celebrate, Clarion Books has published a new biography, Jane Austen: A Life Revealed by Catherine Reef. It has been nominated for a Cybils award in the MG/YA nonfiction category.
The first thing you notice about this book is the striking silhouette on the cover, a nod to the popularity of that art during Jane Austin’s time. Inside, right after the Table of Contents, is Jane Austin’s family tree (more about that in a minute). Scattered throughout are drawings and paintings from the time, as well as black and white photograph stills from modern movies based on Jane’s books. In the end, after the author’s extensive notes and bibliography, is a list of Austin’s six novels in the order they were published between 1811 and 1817.
The author starts the book with Austin’s unfinished final manuscript that she was working on at the time of her death. Reef then follows Austin’s life chronologically, adding summaries of each of Austin’s novels as they appear. Her account is rich in detail, a difficult feat since Austin’s relatives lost or destroyed much of her correspondence after her death, only leaving tantalizing glimpses into what Austin was really like based on recollections of surviving family members and quotes from her novels. She fills in with careful explanations of the culture of the times, for example explaining how the classes were structured and how difficult it was to be an educated single woman. Jane Austin could not even travel unless one of her brothers went with her.
Cybils Notes: This book is not light reading. It requires devotion of time and sharp attention to fully comprehend, First of all, Austin’s family is huge. She has seven siblings alone. You will need to refer back to the family tree often to keep all the characters straight, especially due to the common practice of naming offspring after other members of the family. Secondly, I wish the the publisher’s had somehow set off the summaries and quotes from novels from the text. There is no subheading, no change of font, nothing but a word or two to indicate the reader is moving from Austin’s life into a summary of the novel. Busy students would have benefited if the summaries were more distinct and easy to find.
Jane Austin’s life was not a particularly happy one, but her position did allow her to observe people of many different stations. Her witty descriptions of human behavior are as relevant and popular today as when they were written.
Janeites will love this new biography of their favorite author. Those who are studying one of Austin’s novels will benefit from the careful analysis of the times and circumstances under which it was written.
Reading level: Ages 12 and up
Hardcover: 208 pages
Publisher: Clarion Books (June 6, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0547370210
ISBN-13: 978-0547370217
Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. We invite you to join us. For more information and a schedule, stop by the new Nonfiction Monday blog to see who is hosting each week.
Wideness & Wonder: The Life and Art of Georgia O’Keeffe by Susan Goldman Rubin is a lovely new biography of the iconic 20th-century artist.
This book is an incredible visual treat. Despite its relatively small size, the superb full-color reproductions of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings fairly glow. Interspersed with her artwork are photographs of the artist, some taken by her husband, Alfred Stieglitz. Even the pages of text add visual interest, as the pages and fonts vary in the colors of the rainbow throughout the book.
Rubin’s description of O’Keeffe’s life is quiet, simple and straightforward, which in a way captures the essence of the artist herself. She uses many quotes from O’Keeffe throughout, so we can clearly hear the artist’s voice.
The author also does a good job of putting O’Keeffe’s accomplishments in the perspective of her times. When Georgia was a young woman, females were allowed to teach art, but weren’t thought to be able to produce great art. Georgia O’Keeffe broke the barrier and then some. She became the first woman to have a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art, as well as many other accolades. Women artists who came after her owe a lot to Georgia O’Keefe’s quiet strength and determination.
Wideness & Wonder is sure to be inspiring to young artists, history buffs and especially those interested in women’s history. It is a perfect choice for Women’s History Month. It also could be used to accompany O’Keeffe-influenced art projects.
This book was nominated for a Cybils award in the MG/YA category. Susan Goldman Rubin also wrote another Cybils nominee, Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein.
Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. We invite you to join us. For more information and a schedule, stop by the new Nonfiction Monday blog to see who is hosting each week.
Our highlighted book today has been in the news. Last week Publisher’s Weekly announcedFlesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and its Legacy by Albert Marrin is a finalist for the 2011 National Book Awards in Young People’s Literature. It has also been nominated for a Cybils in the MG/YA nonfiction category.
Written to be released right before the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Fire which occurred on March 25, 1911, Flesh & Blood sets the scene by describing a spring day at Washington Square (with a bit of foreshadowing in mentioning that it was built over a cemetery) where Frances Perkins was visiting one of her friends. Suddenly they saw smoke rising from a nearby building and heard fire engines. Racing to the scene, she became one of the witnesses to the horrible Triangle Fire that killed 146 people. It was New York City’s worst workplace disaster until 9-11, involving mainly immigrant women working under sweatshop conditions in a garment factory.
Marrin then travels to Europe to investigate why and how the immigrants had arrived in New York City. Most came from southern Italy or were Jews from Eastern Europe. Both were fleeing racism and poverty, although the southern Italians also experienced natural disasters that drove them from their homelands.
He follows immigrants in their often sordid journey to New York City. Leaving the boat at Ellis Island, most faced low-paying jobs and living in cramped tenement buildings. People had already begun to protest the horrific conditions of many of the factories when Marrin leads us back to the events of the fire, which he now recounts in shocking detail.
The remainder of the book follows the reforms that were eventually passed. Frances Perkins, who was introduced in the first chapter, was one of the leaders of the reform movement and becomes the first female cabinet member as Secretary of Labor for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The final section is an overview of modern day sweatshops, found throughout Asia. In an even-handed way, Marrin investigates not only the problems with these factories, but also the fact that people that work in them find the alternatives even worse.
How does Flesh & Blood stack up against the other historical accounts I have been reading for Cybils, for example Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibitionby Karen Blumenthal or Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos? Marrin has done a very competent job of covering the events. While reading, however, I got the impression he took up this book as an assignment. Somehow it lacks the passion or heart of the other two books, which makes it less memorable for me.
Regardless, Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and its Legacy is definitely going to be a talked-about book this year.
Have you read it? What do you think?
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (February 8, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0375868895
ISBN-13: 978-0375868894
Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. We invite you to join us. For more information and a schedule, stop by the new Nonfiction Monday blog to see who is hosting each week.
Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by the husband-and-wife team of Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos is a riveting account of how the human craving for sweets led to the development of a product that has quite literally changed the course of history. This book was nominated for a Cybils award in the MG/YA nonfiction category.
Aronson and Budhos start out with a prologue explaining how personal history drove them to research this book. It turns out that each of them had a tie to sugar processing, Aronson’s through an aunt by marriage and Budhos through her Indian ancestors who moved to Guyana in South America to work on the sugar plantations. Discovering these commonalities led them to want to learn more about the history of sugar.
And what a history it is. Sugar cane was thought to have originated in New Guinea and from there spread to India, where it was used in Hindu ceremonies. Over time, the Indians developed techniques to extract and refine the sugar. By the 600s (AD) sugar was spreading through the Islamic regions, and in the 1200s the Egyptians invented a technique for refining sugar to a pure white form. Once Columbus took sugar cane to the island of Hispaniola in the New World, things start to heat up with the development of sugar cane plantations throughout the Caribbean.
Sugar cane is a difficult crop to harvest, and it must be done quickly because the sugar content of the plant drops rapidly once it is cut. Sugar cane required a vast workforce and the landowners turned to slavery to provide it. Although we often associate cotton with slavery, Aronson and Budhos make a compelling argument that sugar cane was crop that truly led millions to suffer, in some areas even up to modern day. The authors give many details of what life was like for the slaves. They even researched the music and dance that the slaves developed on the plantations and provide sound and video clips on their website.
The power of sugar began to wane, however, when people began to worry about the health effects of eating too much. The authors also point out that not all the changes were negative ones, and now technology has made the processing of sugar cane less arduous (see video below).
In the back of the book is an essay entitled, “How We Researched and Wrote this Book,” giving insights how tangled up together history is and how it should be presented with some of the messiness intact instead of as separate events. The authors also have compiled extensive “Notes and Sources” where they reveal how they arrived at their versions of events. Quite possibly they should have added their prologue here. It seems out of place at the beginning, and it ties in nicely with the personal tone of the back sections.
Sugar Changed the World is not a quick read. It is full of so full details it requires quite a bit of processing itself. It would be a fantastic supplement to a world history course, or even a course unto itself. Students interested in history are going to love this book. For teachers, it’s a valuable resource for courses outside of history, as well. The accompanying Teacher’s Guide has science lessons, as well as history, geography and economics. In any case, you will never look at sugar in quite the same way.
If you have read this book, I would love to hear what you think of it.
In this video is a fascinating look at how juice is extracted from sugar cane in India to be used as a beverage.
This How Its Made episode shows the modern equipment now used to make sugar.
Reading level: Ages 12 and up
Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: Clarion Books; 1 edition (November 15, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618574921
ISBN-13: 978-0618574926
Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. We invite you to join us. For more information and a schedule, stop by the new Nonfiction Monday blog to see who is hosting each week.
