Nonfiction Monday Review Archives - Page 32 of 40

October 24, 2011November 11, 2011

Wideness and Wonder: The Life and Art of Georgia O’Keeffe

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.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 124 pages
Publisher: Chronicle Books (April 6, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0811869830
ISBN-13: 978-0811869836

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.

This week’s post is at Apples with Many Seeds.

October 16, 2011October 23, 2011

Flesh and Blood So Cheap

Our highlighted book today has been in the news. Last week Publisher’s Weekly announced Flesh 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 Prohibition by 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

This week’s post is at Simply Science.

October 10, 2011July 17, 2015

Sugar Changed The World

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)ISBN-10: 0618574921
ISBN-13: 978-0618574926

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This week’s post is at Practically Paradise.

October 3, 2011October 8, 2011

Books to Celebrate World Space Week

Did you know that it is World Space Week, starting October 4, 2011?

Why October 4? That’s the day Sputnik was launched into space. Participants throughout the world attend related events and learn more about our exploration of space. I’ve put together a list of books that would be perfect to use to excite future astronauts about space.

Books to celebrate World Space Week (links go to earlier full reviews):

	Have you ever wanted to visit the laboratory of a ground-breaking research scientist? Now you can, because Planet Hunter: Geoff Marcy and the Search for Other Earths by Vicki Oransky Wittenstein will allow you to feel like you are standing right next to Dr. Geoff Marcy in his quest to find extrasolar planets (planets that revolve around stars other than our sun).
	Look to the Stars by Buzz Aldrin and Wendell Minor (Illustrator) is remarkable because it is much more than merely an account by the second human being to touch the surface of the moon. Dr. Aldrin shows us how this incredible accomplishment is part of a long history of discoveries and advancements, and how it may lead to many more new things in the future.
	Spacecraft (Machines Close-Up) by Daniel Gilpin and illustrated by Alex Pang Full color cut-away illustrations show the ins and outs of space vehicles past, present and future.
	Is There Life on Other Planets?: And Other Questions about Space by Gregory L. Vogt and illustrated by Colin W. Thompson Another in the Is That a Fact? series, this one investigates some silly myths as well as serious, such as, “Is the moon made of green cheese? and “Do astronauts wear diapers?”
	Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca is an extraordinary book. You can tell the minute you open it and see the front endpapers, which have exquisite, detailed illustrations of Apollo 11.
	Space, Stars, and the Beginning of Time: What the Hubble Telescope Saw by Elaine Scott A history of the Hubble Telescope and overview of how the images it has captured have added to the field of astronomy.
	13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System by David A. Aguilar Explains the most recent view (2011) of the planets in our solar system, with eight planets in the classical sense and five dwarf planets.