Symphony for the City of the Dead

Symphony for the City of the Dead; Dimitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

By M.T. Anderson

This not a book everyone will love, or even should read. But it is powerful, and I am glad to have read it. If you are interested in classical music, Russian history, or World War II, you might enjoy this incredible true story....and M.T. Anderson is such a great writer! I visited St. Petersburg last summer--formerly known as Leningrad--and read this before I went. Unbelievable history.

Review from School Library Journal:

This ambitious and gripping work is narrative nonfiction at its best. Anderson expertly sets the scene of the tumultuous world into which Dmitri Shostakovich was born in 1906 and traces his development as an artist and a public figure. He also tells the story of the composer's beloved Leningrad, focusing on the creation and legacy of the symphony written in its honor at the height of World War II. In his author's note, Anderson poses an intriguing question: "How do we reconstruct the story of someone who lived in a period in which everyone had an excuse to lie, evade, accuse, or keep silent?" The compelling, well-researched narrative relates what is known of Shostakovich's story, what is speculation, what is revisionist history, and what new sources have revealed. The chilling details of the Stalin regime and the plight of the Russian people even before the Germans arrived will be eye-opening to many teen readers. The book has all the intrigue of a spy thriller, recounts the horrors of living during the three year siege, and delineates the physical oppression and daunting foes within and outside of the city. This is also the story of survival against almost impossible odds. Through it all, Anderson weaves the thread of the composer's music and the role it played in this larger-than-life drama. 

School Library Journal (September 1, 2015)

Bad Girls

Bad Girls: Sirens, Jezebels, Murderesses, Thieves & Other Female Villains
By Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple
Illustrated by Rebecca Guay

I really enjoyed reading these short, lively accounts of real women (girls, in some cases) who made history--infamously--for different reasons and all in different ways.
The mother/daughter team of Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple present some of their own research process in the form of a brief, fun comic strip at the end of each chapter.
Each chapter is about a different "villainous" woman, and in the end, the reader is left to decide whether or not these women deserve their titles of "Sirens, Jezebels, murderesses, thieves...and villains."

Includes brief biographies of: Delilah, Jezebel, Cleopatra, Salome, Anne Boleyn, Bloody Mary, Elisabeth Báthory, Moll Cutpurse, Tituba, Anne Bonney & Mary Read, Catherine the Great, Mata Hari...and many others!

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Young Readers Edition

by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

What an inspiring story! What an impressive young man!
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is the true story of how William Kamkwamba--a young teenager driven by curiosity--built his own wind turbine out of junk to generate electricity for his home in rural Malawi, a small country in Africa. Not only did he succeed with this challenging project (and several others), he overcame many obstacles: like being kicked out of school because his family couldn't afford to pay, and a severe famine in his country that left him and his entire village starving for many months.
And, by the way, this boy completely taught himself the science necessary to build a windmill, with books from a small library...and no access to the Internet.

I am Malala

I am Malala: how one girl stood up for education and changed the world
By Malala Yousafzai
With Patricia McCormick

(Young Readers Edition)

Malala always had a passion for education--ever since she was a very little girl, she loved school and excelled at learning. When the Islamist militant group known as the Taliban began to take control of her hometown in Pakistan, all girls were suddenly forbidden to attend school. Along with her father, Malala spoke out about this injustice (she was 11 years old at the time) and through interviews and blog postings she gave the world an understanding of the horrors of Taliban occupation.
One day, inside the school bus on the way home from school, Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban...miraculously, she survived, though she underwent many serious operations.
To this day Malala speaks passionately all over the world about the rights of children and women to receive an education.
In 2014, at age 17, Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize--the youngest person ever to win this prestigious honor.
An amazing, inspiring true story of courage and perseverance.

Brown Girl Dreaming

Brown Girl Dreaming
By Jacqueline Woodson

This is a beautiful collection of story-poems about author Jacqueline Woodson's own childhood in both the South and in New York. Her perspective of the Civil Rights Movement is particularly interesting and engaging, since she was a little girl at the time and just beginning to understand what it was all about.
Brown Girl Dreaming won the National Book Award in 2014 for YA literature; click here to see the author speaking about her book when she received this prestigious award!

Bomb

Bomb: The race to build--and steal--the world's most dangerous weapon
By Steve Sheinkin

Steve Sheinkin tells the gripping true tale of the construction of the first atomic bomb, dropped on Japan and ultimately ending WWII.
A story chock full of the world's "greatest scientists,  the most expert spies, hardened military commandos, and some of the most ruthless dictators who ever lived. The prize: military dominance over the entire world."
Read and find out what it took to build such a weapon, and why it is so important for countries to avoid using them now.

Queen of the Falls

Queen of the Falls
By Chris Van Allsburg

I'm a big fan of all of Chris Van Allsburg's books. I love his detailed illustrations--sometimes creepy, sometimes haunting--and the unusual stories that accompany these pictures. Queen of the Falls is the biography of an unusual and little-known woman who, at age 62, climbed into a wooden barrel and plummeted over Niagara Falls in an attempt at fame and fortune! She survived, but didn't make a lot of money for her efforts, even though it was a very daring feat. That was in 1901! Annie Taylor remains the only woman to have ever gone over the falls alone (and only one of nine who have survived the trip at all).

The Great Brain

The Great Brain
By John D. Fitzgerald

This book, the first in the humorous Great Brain series, was published way back in 1967 but takes place when the author was a little boy, growing up in small town Utah way, way back in 1896. I learned a lot about what life was like back then--getting the first indoor toilet in town, making homemade ice cream with a wooden, crank ice cream maker and ice from a frozen pond, and the types of games kids played before there was television or--gasp!--computer games. However, the types of games include things that are kind of unacceptable nowadays, like "Cowboys and Indians." There are many references to Indians, in fact, and many of them are not very kind or accurate. But that's how a lot of white folks--especially those new to the West--viewed the local tribes, so it gives a critical reader something to think about.
Mostly the story is about little John D. getting swindled by his older brother, Tom, who is a smart kid, and always looking for a way to make money (a few pennies, or a whole dollar was a LOT of money back then!). There are other important--and tragic--parts of the story, however, like when the mostly-Mormon community realizes a Jewish man new to town has allowed himself to starve to death rather than ask for charity. Or the cruel treatment of a family of Greek immigrants by some of the townsfolk.
All in all, The Great Brain is a surprisingly funny tale of brotherhood, childhood, and changing attitudes in small town America at the turn of the last century.

Smile

Smile
By Raina Telgemeier

From the creator of the very popular Baby-Sitters Club graphic novels, comes the author's own true dental nightmare story from her middle school years...

Poor Raina knocks out her two front teeth when she accidently falls while running to her front door. She has to endure many major trips to the dentist--and the orthodontist, endodontist, and periodontist to deal with the damage, and also to get braces! Meanwhile, middle school is happening: crushes, puberty, issues with friends, etc. I loved this graphic novel, and especially how it takes place in our own foggy, earthquake-prone San Francisco! Raina Telgemeier grew up in SF, so the book has a very familiar setting.

Fred Korematsu

Fred Korematsu: All American Hero
By Anupam Chander and Madhavi Sunder
Illustrated by Angelia Loi


This informative graphic novel tells the story of Fred Korematsu, who spoke up and fought for justice for his Japanese American community despite great challenges. During WWII, Fred and his family and 120,000 other Japanese Americans living on the West coast were forced to live in internment camps for no reason but that they were of Japanese ancestry. Fred Korematsu took his case to the Supreme Court--twice--before the U.S. officially apologized to him, and to the entire Japanese American community. He continued to fight for justice for all people in the United States until his death at age 86, in 2005.
The story also mentions similar unfair treatment of Muslims after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.

  

California now commemorates this impressive civil rights activist each January 30th (this began in 2011) with Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberaties and the Constitution.

Satchel Paige

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow
By James Sturm and Rich Tommaso

Leroy "Satchel" Paige was the most popular, highest paid and most photographed baseball player in the Negro League from the 1920s to the 1940s.  Satchel Paige was a master pitcher who got the crowds laughing with his warm-up tricks and jokes.  This was all during a time in U.S. history when African American athletes were not allowed to play on the same teams as white athletes--so they formed their own professional leagues.  This graphic novel tells the story of one great ball player and the obstacles he overcame because he loved the game so much.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X:  By Any Means Necessary
By Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myers has written a fascinating account of the life--and death--of one of the greatest and most influential but also most controversial leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
Malcolm X was the "militant leader of hundreds of thousands in the Nation of Islam, a Muslim minister, a target of the F.B.I., a guest of Arab princes, at one time a streetwise, blade-sharp teenager" on the streets of Harlem.  He spent 6 1/2 years in prison as a young man, and used that time to read and learn, emerging as a powerful force for change in the years afterward.

The Harvey Milk Story

The Harvey Milk Story
By Kari Krakow
Illustrated by David Gardner

The inspiring story of our country's first openly gay elected city official, right here in San Francisco.  Everyone should know this story.  Every kid and adult should read this book.
(ISBN: 0-9674468-3-x-51795)

The Man Who Walked Between The Towers

The Man Who Walked Between The Towers
By Mordicai Gerstein

Whoa, this is an amazing story!  Author Gerstein has written a picture book about the true story of a Frenchman named Philippe Petit, who tightrope-walked between the two World Trade Center towers in New York City.  This happened in 1974 (the year I was born!), when the towers were first built.  By this way, this tightrope was stretched--illegally--a quarter of a mile up in the sky.  That's 1,340 feet!  The Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in New York City, and some of the tallest in the world.  Mr. Petit, an "aerialist" by profession, figured out a way to sneak into the towers with a team of friends dressed as construction workers.  They shot an arrow, connected to a wire, from the top of one tower to the other.  And Philippe Petit danced and performed for over an hour on the wire while police waited to arrest him on the roof!
Why would someone do this?  Was Philippe Petit crazy?  These were the questions I found myself asking as I learned about this wild story.  A documentary film was made about Petit, the Twin Towers, and many other adventurous stunts he pulled off with beauty, grace and style.  This film is called "Man on Wire" (2008) and directed by James Marsh.  It's so worth seeing!  Mr. Petit himself talks about what drives him to perform at such dangerous heights, why he risks his life to tightrope-walk, and what it feels like to balance at the top of the world.
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers and "Man on Wire" are also powerful tributes to the collapsed Twin Towers and the people who died on September 11, 2001 during the terrorist attacks.  The memory of Philippe Petit's brave act of artistry lives on in New York, just as the memories of the towers and those who perished live on.
(ISBN: 978-0-7613-1791-3)

Claudette Colvin

Claudette Colvin;  Twice Toward Justice
By Phillip Hoose

Before Rosa Parks, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat for a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama.  Police boarded the bus and dragged Claudette off, kicking her and arresting her.  Throughout it all Claudette never swore, never fought back, and never gave in.  This multiple award-winning book is the amazing story of a strong, determined teenager living in the South under Jim Crow.  With photos and background information, Phillip Hoose tells of a past we have all read about, but presents the story of a young woman we may not know.  And we should.
(ISBN: 978-0-374-31322-7)

The Dreamer

The Dreamer
By Pam Muñoz Ryan, illustrated by Peter Sis

This is a beautifully told story about the childhood of Pablo Neruda, the Nobel-prize-winning Chilean poet.  Neftalí Reyes--Pablo Neruda's original name--grew up in the rainy south of Chile.  His father worked in the woods cutting trees, and treated young Neftalí harshly because he was so quiet, and different.  Surviving a rough childhood, Neftalí goes on to become one of the world's greatest poets.  The story is similar to Billy Elliot in many ways (see previous blog entry);  these two boys both know they have something inside of them they must not only respect, but share with the world.  Anyone who loves poetry or feels poetry inside of them should read Muñoz Ryan's lovely book.  And the illustrations are wonderful, too.
(ISBN: 978-0-439-26970-4)

Charles and Emma

Charles and Emma;  The Darwins' Leap of Faith
By Deborah Heiligman

There were several moments during this book that I thought perhaps adults would like it more than kids would.  I picked up Charles and Emma mostly because I'm interested in science.  I enjoyed learning about Charles Darwin's family life and the origins of his Theory of Evolution.  Much of the story is told in the language of the times--the 1800's--through letters written by Charles and his wife (and first cousin!) Emma.  The love story is wonderful.  It's incredible that Charles and Emma had such a strong relationship despite their religious differences.
(ISBN:  0-8050-8721-4)