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Reading Through Africa: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

Feb9

Still reading through south central Africa, today we’re in the country of Malawi. Malawi is another country that borders Zambia, where a group from my church will be traveling this summer to work at Kazembe Orphanage. (If you are interested in participating in this mission trip by donating books to the Kazembe Orphanage, see this post at Semicolon for details.)

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind has been billed as a story of scientific and technological innovation, but it couldjust as well be advertised as a survival story. Much of the first half of the book tells how William and his family survived a horrendous famine in 2002 brought on partly by natural disaster (drought), but also exacerbated by government ineptitude and apathy. William is unable to attend school past the primary level, since his family can only afford one communal meal per day during the famine. School fees are out of the question.

By the time the famine is over, with William’s family still too poor to send him to school, William borrows a book from the local lending library. The book, Using Energy, tells about windmills, and William sets out to build a windmill for his family to generate electricity using old bicycles, scrap metal, and tractor parts. He calls his invention, “electric wind.”

The story of how William manages to study on his own and then scrounge and save to beg, borrow, and buy the things he needs for his windmill is inspiring but also somewhat sad. Why do I have so much when others have so little? It’s amazing that William Kamkwamba was able to overcome opposition, prejudice, and a lack of education to build something that improved the life of his family. I wonder what I would have been able to make of my life without all of the advantages that I have enjoyed as a citizen of one of the richest nations in the world.

I would suggest you read the book if you’re interested at all in this sort of story; however, you can also read more about Mr. Kamkwamba and his windmill at the following websites:

William Kamkwamba: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Bryan Mealer’s website
Moving Windmills

Reading Through Africa: Blood River by Tim Butcher

Feb6

I’m focusing my Reading Through Africa project on south central Africa because of the mission trip that some members of my church are planning for this summer to Zambia. They will be working at Kazembe Orphanage in July, God willing, and I am trying to help them to prepare for that journey.

However, my reading has distributed itself around and about Zambia for the most part because I’m finding very little fiction or nonfiction actually set in Zambia itself. I have a list of a few titles that someone very kindly suggested to me, but so far I haven’t found too many of them available at the library. Anyway, the following book takes place in the Democratic Republic of Congo which borders Zambia, and it has given me a feel for the political situation, the culture, the peoples, and the rhythms of the entire region of south central Africa, although of course, conditions in one country cannot be generalized and made applicable to all nations in the region. Kazembe Orphanage is located just across the river from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart by Tim Butcher. Mr. Butcher set out in 2004 to retrace the footsteps of the famous British explorer Henry Morton Stanley across the Democratic Republic of the Congo from east to west, from the eastern border town of Kalemie on the shore of Lake Tanganyika to the Congo River and downriver to the Atlantic coast. Stanley was the first outsider to map the Congo River as he traveled its length in 1874-1877, almost losing his life in the process. Tim Butcher hears repeatedly while planning his own journey that the trip is “impossible” and at the least “very dangerous.” In spite of war, terrorism, widespread corruption and lack of governmental authority, Mr. Butcher makes his way across the DRC by motorbike, steamer, and dugout canoe, and as he travels he recalls the history of the places he travels through and reports on the present-day conditions. In almost every case, the state of the towns and the people in the DRC is pitiable and far more perilous and poverty-stricken than it was back in the mid-twentieth century before and immediately after the country gained its independence from Belgium (1960). From Wikipedia:

The Second Congo War, beginning in 1998, devastated the country, involved seven foreign armies and is sometimes referred to as the “African World War”. Despite the signing of peace accords in 2003, fighting continues in the east of the country. In eastern Congo, the prevalence of rape and other sexual violence is described as the worst in the world. The war is the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II, killing 5.4 million people.
Although citizens of the DRC are among the poorest in the world, having the second lowest nominal GDP per capita, the Democratic Republic of Congo is widely considered to be the richest country in the world regarding natural resources; with untapped deposits of raw minerals estimated to be worth in excess of US$24 trillion.

The contrast between the wealth of natural resources in the country and the poverty of the people is astounding and heart-breaking as Mr. Butcher travels through one wrecked, crumbling, and lawless town after another. He concludes that the greatest need in the DRC is not money or even education, but simple stability and even justice and the rule of law. Without a framework and infrastructure of honest government the people cannot be safe enough to begin to improve their lives or to educate their children to something better. Blood River gives consequently a tragic picture of prospects for the future in the DRC, as Mr. Butcher sees little or nothing that would lead him to hope that the DRC will change or become a more law-abiding and decent place to live. Indeed, according to Wikipedia again, “In 2009 people in the Congo may still be dying at a rate of an estimated 45,000 per month, and estimates of the number who have died from the long conflict range from 900,000 to 5,400,000. The death toll is due to widespread disease and famine; reports indicate that almost half of the individuals who have died are children under the age of 5. This death rate has prevailed since efforts at rebuilding the nation began in 2004.”

Hope for The Democratic Republic of the Congo and its people:
Among Congo’s hardened rebels: 500+ baptisms (Baptist Press)
Frontline Fellowship: From Communist Chaos to Christ in the Congo.
Congo Initiative. To train and develop strong, indigenous Christian leaders to transform their communities and their nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Heal Africa

The Eye of the Elephant: An Epic Adventure in the African Wilderness by Delia and Mark Owens

Jan24

Epic is right. Mark and Delia Owens first went to Africa in 1974 to study lion behavior in the Kalahari Desert. They lived in the desert for seven years and wrote a book about their experiences, Cry of the Kalahari. The couple then returned to the U.S. to complete their graduate work and then attempted to return to their work in Botswana. However, when the government of Botswana declared them persona non grata, they were forced to look for another place to carry on their vocation in wildlife management and conservation. North Luangwa National Park in Zambia and the preservation of the endangered elephant population there became their mission.

Mission, obsession, calling—all these words are somewhat inadequate to describe the dedication with which Mark Owens in particular approaches the task of protecting the elephants from poachers who are slaughtering the elephants for the meat and for the ivory trade. Mr. Owens literally endangers his own life while trying every trick, weapon, and argument in the book to stop the poachers. He flies daily (and nightly) “missions” to find the poachers. He begs and encourages and bribes the native Zambian game guards to do their jobs and arrest the poachers, without much success. He sends letters of appeal and sends radio messages to anyone he thinks might help. And all the while, the elephants are being killed at the rate of several thousand per year.

Finally, in October 1989, seventy-six nations vote to list the African elephant as an endangered species and to forbid trade in ivory and all other elephant parts. This action along with the Owens’ work in confronting poachers and educating Zambian villagers about the value of wildlife in attracting tourism dollars is instrumental in slowing to a near-halt the poaching of elephants on a large-scale basis.

Of course, after reading an entire book about the anti-poaching efferts of Delia and Mark Owens, I had to see what the couple is doing now and what the status of the elephants in North Luangwa is now. The Owens have returned to the U.S., but their conservation and education project in North Luangwa continues under the auspices of Zambian Hammer Simwinga and the Owens Foundation for Wildlife Conservation. The Owens have most recently been working on grizzly bear conservation in North Idaho. The elephant population in North Luangwa is said to be slowly increasing.

I’m not really an animal person. While I think it is a worthwhile goal to save endangered species, such as the African elephant, it’s not a cause I feel called to give my life to. Still, I am interested in Africa, and particularly in Zambia this year, so I found the adventures of Mark and Delia Owens fascinating.

You Are What You See: Watching Movies Through a Christian Lens by Scott Nehring

Jan20

The author begins this book about the Christian’s attitude toward movies with his conversion as an adult to the truth of Christianity and his life-changing encounter with near-death as he experienced a heart attack in the lobby of his bank. Mr. Nehring then shares that he is and has always been a film geek. Great introduction.

Then, in what is called “Section 1” of the book, we get almost 100 pages of what’s wrong with Hollywood. This first section of the book felt repetitive to me and can be summarized in this quote taken from chapter 8:

“Though many filmmakers may not recognize this desire for God, they know how to take advantage of it. The creation of figureheads, heroes, and celebrities is central to everything they produce. These products, in turn, attempt to fill our need for the Lord’s guidance. . . . When people remove God from their lives, they must replace Him with something. Just as generations have done for eons, we replaced Him with ourselves. It is not too late for us to learn from those previous generations that this is a bad idea.
We may try to remove God from our lives, but that does not mean we will not miss Him. What distracts us from God can never replace Him.”

True stuff, and Mr. Nehring is repeating a message that our culture needs to hear and that I need to be reminded of. Nevertheless, Section 2 of this book, entitled “The Structure of Film: Seeing What’s Right in Front of You,” was the part that I most enjoyed.

Each story begins with a Central Question—Will the boy get the girl? Can the hero learn to forgive? Can you fight city hall? The hero struggles through various trials on his way to learning the moral of the story—and in that ending we see the Answer to the Central Question.

This section continues by giving the reader an introduction to plot development, story arc or structure, heroes, villains, and other archetypes. This exposition of how characters and plot work together to produce a good story, either in print or on film, is the meat of the book. Even though I’ve seen some of this material before in other places (books about writing), Mr. Nehring brings a coherent voice and style to his explanations, and he also includes a wealth of examples from all the movies he has seen and analyzed. The author says that after reading this section of the book you will never watch movies in the same way again; you will see where the story is going and often be able to predict what will happen next and why. You will be intrigued by the choices the screenplay writer and the director made, and a bad movie or story will be seen as bad for a reason: it doesn’t follow the unconscious “rules” that we expect to see in a satisfying work of fiction.

I agree with Mr. Nehring’s prediction. I have been watching movies and reading in a different way since I read this book. I want to go back and review Section 2, though, because I am not as skilled as I would like to be at picking central questions (or themes), following the protagonist’s rise and fall and subsequent “resurrection,” and discerning the other character archetypes and heroic traits in any given narrative. This book is a reference tool that critics and literary and film “geeks” can use to understand the structure and meaning of the stories we are consuming. It would also be a useful source for aspiring writers of fiction, whether they be screenwriters, playwrights, short story writers, or novelists.

Section 3 of the book gives guidelines and suggestions, not rules, for Christians who want to watch movies intelligently and and grow in their discernment about which movies to watch and how to watch those that we do choose to view. Finally, Mr. Nehring’s thesis is that “movies matter. Movies impact your life every day, even if you never watch one.” If this statement is true, and I believe it is, then it behooves us as Christians living in this day and time to learn what we can about the impact of our cultural icons (movies) on us and on those around us. And since we are further commanded to be salt and light in a fallen world, You Are What You See is a good resource for Christians becoming that salt and light in the area of cinematic culture.

Scott Nehring is a film critic whose reviews have been syndicated on Reuters, USAToday, Fox News, and The Chicago Sun-TImes websites. Mr. Nehring’s reviews are available at www.GoodNewsFilmReviews.com.

The Narnia Code by Michael Ward

Jan9

Subtitle: C.S. Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens.
Clive Staples Lewis was an awesomely talented, gifted, subtle, and boisterous genius!

Douglas Gresham on Lewis’s genius:

“He was a complete genius. He also was a very fast reader, but he had honed the talent and perfected the strange memory that resulted in never forgetting anything he had read. Now he could, he could ask you to pick any book off of his shelves, and you would pick a page and read him a line and he would quote the rest of the page; in fact, quote the rest of the book until you told him to stop. He had this enormous capacity to remember everything he’d ever read.”

In The Narnia Code by Michael Ward, Dr. Ward, who is also a minister in the Church of England, demonstrates Lewis’s genius by showing how all seven of the Narnia chronicles are linked together by a single unifying motif or plan. Ward’s thesis is that each of the seven Chronicles of Narnia takes as its central underlying imagery and atmosphere one of the seven “planets” of the medieval, classical astrological world. These “planets” are not the eight or nine that we moderns know and memorize but rather the medievals believed that the seven heavenly bodies, each with its own influences and associated imagery, were the Sun, Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Each of these planets is featured in a particular Narnia book in a sort of “code” of symbols and images that Lewis never spelled out for anyone but about which he left clues both in the Chronicles of Narnia themselves and in his other writings.

I found Dr. Ward’s reasoning compelling and fascinating. The Narnia Code is a popular abridgement of a longer, more scholarly dissertation on these ideas, a book called Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis. Despite the somewhat misleading title, The Narnia Code is no DaVinci Code knock-off, associating C.S. Lewis and his Narnia books with some hokey new age interpretation and bad theology. Instead, I found in The Narnia Code a new appreciation for C.S. Lewis’s genius and for his heartfelt desire to communicate the truth of the gospel in a way that would enter deep into the imaginations and souls of both children and adults. No, C.S. Lewis didn’t believe in astrology, the telling of fortunes and of the future by means of the stars. However, Lewis did believe that the ancient mythologies and symbols and worldviews contained God’s truth and had ways of speaking to us that would break through and shake up our modern paradigms.

Psalm 19
The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.

In Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis said of Psalm 19, it is “the greatest psalm in the psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.” In the Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis apparently left traces of his love for God’s handiwork in the stars and planets and of his delight in the medieval cosmology and the mythology associated with the heavenly bodies. My next reading of The Chronicles of Narnia will be richer because of the ideas and explanations that I read about in The Narnia Code. If you are a Narnia lover, I highly recommend either Planet Narnia or The Narnia Code as an introduction to the use of cosmological symbology in the Narnia books.

Blood on the River: James Town 1607 by Elisa Carbone

Sep28

Ms. Carbone says she wrote this historical novel abut the founding of Jamestown partly because teachers and librarians asked her to do so. Apparently, there’s not much out there, fiction-wise, for young people set in Jamestown.

Blood on the River is the story of Samuel Collier, a street urchin with an attitude from the streets of London. Samuel was a real person about whom little or nothing is really known, so Ms. Carbone made up this story about him. It’s a good, adventurous, historically educational tale full of sound and fury and of course, blood. Samuel is flawed, but likable hero, servant to Captain John Smith. Samuel’s difficult childhood has taught him to fight for whatever he needs or wants and not to trust anyone. Life in Jamestown and especially the example of Captain Smith teach Samuel that in the New World everyone must work and work together in order to survive.

The book highlights the tension between the “gentlemen” settlers of Jamestown who were looking for gold and quick riches and those who were sent or came with the intention of making a new life for themselves. Tension and finally enmity also developed between the English settlers and the Native groups who were already resident in the land. Samuel, however, learns that he can avoid trouble by using his head and controlling his temper.

I started teaching my co-op class on American History and Literature on September 3rd, and if I had already read it I would have had this book on the reading list. I would recommend it for any group of young people (middle school to high school) who are studying this time period.

My U.S. history class was reading about Roanoke and Jamestown colonies this month, as I would guess many other U.S. history classes all over the nation are doing about now. The following books are from the children’s and young adult sections of the library, but I enjoyed them all. Actually, I find the best nonfiction in the children’s book area. Children’s authors seem to have honed the ability to explain history and science and other topics in economical but engaging prose. And children’s and young adult historical fiction usually emphasizes the history and the adventure rather than trying to work romance into every story.

Roanoke, the Lost Colony
The Lost Colony of Roanoke by Jean Fritz. Putnam, 2004.

Mystery of the Lost Colony by Lee Miller. Scholastic, 2007.

Roanoke The Lost Colony: An Unsolved Mystery from History by Heidi Stemple and Jane Yolen. Simon & Schuster, 2003. I tried to get this one, but my library system doesn’t have a copy. This series sounds like something I would really enjoy since it includes several other “mysteries of history.”

Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America
1607, A New Look at Jamestown by Karen E. Lange. Photographs by Ira Block. National Geographic, 2007. Published in honor of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, this book features National Geographic-style photographs taken on site at Jamestown Rediscovery, a working archeological site where new discoveries about the life and history of the Jamestown settlers continue to be made. The most important change in the modern views of the history of Jamestown comes from tree ring research that shows that the colonists’ descent into chaos and starvation may have been due to drought more than to laziness and ineptitude. John Rolfe’s superior tobacco plants imported from Trinidad and the arrival of 147 “Maids for VIrginia” in 1619 may have saved the day and the colony.

John Smith Escapes Again! by Rosalyn Schanzer. Another title from National Geographic (2006), but with a totally different feel and character, Schanzer’s biography of John Smith brings out the legendary qualities of a man who lived big and told even bigger stories. “In his day, John Smith was probably the greatest escape artist on the planet. He escaped from danger over and over, and not only from Indians, but from angry mobs, slave drivers, French pirates, and even the deep blue sea.” The illustrations are cartoon-like with lots of detail, and the text is exciting to match an exciting life. This one is my favorite of all the books on this list.

The Double Life of Pocahontas by Jean Fritz. An historically accurate account of the life of Pocahontas, the Indian princess who moved between the worlds of her own Powhatan tribe and that of the British settlers in Jamestown.

Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker. In Written in Bone, Ms. Walker accompanies forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley, a scientist at the Smithsonian Institution, at his invitation, as he and colleagues from several related disciplines study the remains of some of the Jamestown settlers and of other early colonials who lived in the Chesapeake region of Maryland. Full Semicolon review here.

The World of Captain John Smith by Genevieve Foster. I really like the series of books by Ms. Foster that take a time period and focus on the life of a specific person from that time while also telling about what was going on all over the world in history.

Who’s Saying What in Jamestown, Thomas Savage? by Jean Fritz. 13 year old Thomas Savage arrived in Jamestown in January, 1608. In this book, Jean Fritz tells Thomas’s story in her inimitable style.

A Fictional Look at Jamestown and Roanoke
Cate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein. Catherine, one of Queen Elizabeth’s ladies in waiting and an admirer of Elizabeth’s favorite Sir Walter Raleigh, is banished to Raleigh’s colony at Roanoke. Semicolon review here. YA fiction.

Sabotaged by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Simon & Schuster, 2010. I read the first book in Haddix’s Missing series, Found, but I have yet to read the second book, Sent, or the third, Sabotaged. Sabotaged, I am told, features a missing child who turns out to be Virginia Dare. Middle grade/YA fiction.

The Lyon Saga, a trilogy about Roanoke by M. L. Stainer; the first volume is The Lyon’s Roar. Circleville Press, 1997. I read about this trilogy at The Fourth Musketeer. YA fiction.

Our Strange New Land: Elizabeth’s Jamestown Colony Diary by Patricia Hermes. Sequels are The Starving Time and Season of Promise. These three books are a part of Scholastic’s My America series for younger readers.

The Serpent Never Sleeps: A Novel of Jamestown and Pocahontas by Scot O’Dell. Serena Lynn follows her beloved Anthony Foxcroft to America to make a life in Jamestown. Protected by a magical serpent ring given to her by King James I himself, Serena will dare anything to follow her dreams. Later in the book, she becomes friends with the Indian girl Pocahontas and learns what it means to truly be a citizen of the New World. O’Dell is always good, and this particular novel, although not his best, is quite readable and informative. I got a fair idea of what King James I might have been like, and I’m not thinking I would want to be anywhere near his court.

The Corn Raid: A Story of the Jamestown Settlement by James Lincoln Collier. An indentured servant becomes friends with an Indian boy, but plans by the Jamestown colonists to steal the Indians’ corn threaten to derail and destroy the friendship.

Winter of the Dead by Elizabeth Massie. Nathaniel and Richard accompany Captain John Smith to Jamestown, and they find not gold, but rather hardship and starvation as they struggle along with the other colonists to survive their first winter in the new world.

Blood on the River by Elisa Carbone. Karate Kid read this book, too.

1776 and Forge: Serendipitous Reading

Sep21

1776 by David McCullough.

Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson. Sequel to Chains by the same author. Nominated for 2011 Cybil Awards, Young Adult Fiction category. Nominated by Amy at Hope Is the Word.

I really didn’t plan it this way, but what a fortuitous sequence of reading events.

1. I am teaching U.S. History at our homeschool co-op. We’ve been reading about Jamestown, the Pilgrims and colonial life in general. We’ll be studying the American Revolution in about a week, or maybe two.

2. I finally read David McCullough’s 1776 about the beginning of the Revolution and all of the characters and events of the year 1776. I really fell for Nathaniel Greene, General Washington’s young Quaker-born protege, and Henry Knox, the stout young former bookseller turned artillery expert. McCullough writes vivid, informative history, and he makes the people of history especially full of life and approachable. I wanted to meet General Green and Colonel Knox. I cheered for them when things went well and felt sorry for them when they made mistakes which ended in tragedy. I did copy a few passages into my notebook as I read:

Washington to the army defending New York, August 23 1776: “Remember officers and soldiers that you are free men, fighting for the blessings of liberty—that slavery will be your portion and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.”

New York, August 1776, on the lack of uniforms in the Continental Army: “In the absence of uniforms, every man was to put a sprig of green in his hat as identification.” I thought this brief sentence was so evocative of the David and Goliath nature of the fight, backwoods, country Americans, in their worn, homespun work clothes going up against the best-trained, best-equipped army in the world in their scarlet uniforms. And only a spring of greenery to identify friend from foe.

British General Grant after a British victory in the same battle of New York: “If a good bleeding can bring those Bible-faced Yankees to their senses, the fever of independency should soon abate.” It didn’t bring them to their senses, and the fever did not abate.

McCullough on General George Washington: “He was not a brilliant strategist or tactician, not a gifted orator, not an intellectual. At several crucial moments, he had shown marked indecisiveness. He had made serious mistakes in judgment. But experience had been his great teacher, and in this his greatest test, he learned steadily from experience. Above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake, and he never gave up.”

3. Immediately after I finished 1776, I started Laurie Halse Anderson’s Forge, a sequel to the award-winning Chains. These books are set during the American Revolution, a fact I knew since I read Chains last year, but I had forgotten that Chains ends in 1776 with the British in control of New York and our two protagonists, Isabel and Curzon, escaping from slavery and from a British prison into the wilderness of upstate(?) New York. Forge covers the time period of the winter and subsequent spring at Valley Forge 1777-78 where General Washington and his ragtag army spent a miserable time trying to survive and recover from their defeats and victories at the hands of the British army.

There are a few flashbacks that tell the reader what happened to Isabel and Curzon between their escape from New York and October, 1777 when the book actually picks up the story. Suffice it to say the two friends have not remained together, and Curzon is now on his own with no idea where Isabel is. This book evokes and enumerates all of the hardships experienced by the common soldiers at Valley Forge from the viewpoint of the lowest of the low, an escaped slave and enlisted man in the Continental Army. Curzon experiences prejudice, misunderstanding, persecution, deprivation, and near starvation, sometimes because of his skin color and also as a result of the deficiency of supplies and organization in the army as a whole.

My friend General Nathaniel Greene reappears in fictional form in this book. and the men are glad to see him! It seems, according to Halse Anderson’s telling of the story, that General Greene saved the day at Valley Forge and finally got the men there some food and clothing and arms. Greene’s wife, Caty doesn’t come off too well in the book, but I didn’t have a crush on her anyway.

So, friends, I would suggest that if you’re interested in the American Revolution and historical fiction set in that time period that you read the following books in the following order, by plan rather than by happenstance:

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. This classic Newbery award-winning novel set in pre-revolutionary Boston gives a fantastic picture of the causes of the warand its effect on the people of Boston.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1, The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson. Semicolon review here.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume 2, Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson.

1776 by David McCullough.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. Semicolon review here.

Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Only one word of warning: Anderson’s story still isn’t complete. I read an ARC of Forge, and it won’t be out according to Amazon until mid-October. If you want the entire story you’ll have to wait and read all three volumes together when the third book comes out, whenever that is. By the way, I see that Laurie Halse Anderson will be at the Texas Book Festival in Austin in October. That would be fun to attend, but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it this year.

Happy Birthday: Celebrating Jim Arnosky

Sep1

Jim Arnosky was the first writer of nature books for children that I fell in love with. Oh, I’ve gone on to enjoy others–Joanna Cole, Ruth Heller, Nic Bishop, Gail Gibbons, Anne Rockwell, Jerry Pallotta—but Mr. Arnosky was the first to catch my attention back in my elementary school librarian days. Such fine detailed pencil and pen and ink drawings! And then, in other books, beautiful, realistic paintings that look as if you could reach out and touch the animals depicted! Arnosky includes just enough information for primary age and even beginning middle school naturalists without overwhelming the newbie with too many textual details. The illustrations, however, are full of fascinating detail. If I want to introduce a certain animals or class of animals to my children, I’ll look for a book by Arnosky first (then one by Gail GIbbons, a topic for another day).

Arnosky has several series of books:
Crinkleroot’s Guides include Crinkleroot’s Guide to Knowing Animal Habitats, Crinkleroot’s Guide to Animal Tracking, Crinkleroot’s Guide to Walking in Wild Places, Crinkleroot’s Guide to Knowing the Trees, Crinkleroot’s Guide to Knowing the Birds, Crinkleroot’s Guide to Knowing Butterflies and Moths, and Crinkleroot’s Nature Almanac. Crinkleroot is a little dwarvish man with a long white beard who guides the reader through the wonders and experiences of various aspects of nature, particularly in the forest. Crinkleroot, the nature guide, first appeared in a 1988 title called I Was Born in a Tree and Raised by Bees, a title that I assume encapsulates Mr. Crinkleroot’s autobiography, even though I’ve never seen the book.

Then there are the All About books: All About Frogs, All About Lizards, All About Manatees, All About Alligators, All About Turtles, All About Sharks, etc. I count ten books in this series so far. The books are picture book length, 32 pages, and the text is appropriately preschool/primary level. The series is published by Scholastic and available in both hard cover and paperback although some of the books are out of print.

Another series is called Jim Arnosky’s Nature Notebooks, and it includes the books Shore Walker, Animal Tracker, and Bug Hunter. These are how-to books telling kids how to observe, sketch, and write about wildlife. Like a lot of other Arnosky books, these are as much about the artwork as they are about natural science. If you have a budding young naturalist with a gift for or interest in drawing what he sees, these are the books to encourage that bent. Actually, even “ungifted” children can benefit from keeping a nature journal and at least trying to sketch what they see.

Mr. Arnosky also has a series of “Video Visits,” VHS and DVD adventures in nature with Mr. Arnosky as the host.

Mr. Arnosky’s single titles are just as lovely and evocative as the series books. I especially like Crinkleroot’s 25 Mammals Every Child Should Know and Sketching Outdoors in All Seasons. The titles are self-explanatory.

In visiting Jim Arnosky’s website I found some wonderful resources. First of all you can buy Crinkleroot’s Nature Library on 2 CD’s, all of the Crinkleroot books for $95.00 plus coloring pages for 100 animals every child should know. But if you don’t have the money, you can get the boks at the library (probably) and print the coloring pages straight from the website for free. Wouldn’t the coloring pages make a lovely preschool nature curriculum? Color and read about one animal a day. Then, take a trip out into the wild or to the zoo to see how many of the animals you could see for yourself.

Mr. Arnosky also writes songs, sings and plays the guitar. I haven’t heard any of his songs, but the titles sound like fun: Manatee Morning, Rattlesnake Dance, and Big Jim and the White Legged Moose, for examples.

You can read more about Jim Arnosky, author, artist, and naturalist, in his book Whole Days Outdoors. Jim Arnosky has written and illustrated more than 90 books for children. He lives with his family on a farm in Vermont, and he’s celebrating his 64th birthday today (b.1946).

Author Fiesta: Jim Arnosky. Blogger Cay Gibson gives lots of links and ideas for a month-long celebration of Mr. Arnosky and his work.

Animal Tracks Unit Study.

Jim Arnosky’s WIldlife Journal website, in case you didn’t click on one of the links above.

Mr. Arnoskys new book, Man Gave names to all the Animals (from the song by Bob Dylan) is due out September 7, 2010. Has anyone seen a copy? It sounds like something we will all enjoy.

Sparky: The Life and Art of Charles Schulz by Beverly Gherman

Aug22

Ms. Gherman has a head start in the game of selling her latest biography for children. I couldn’t find many other juvenile biographies of Mr. Schulz, nothing as design-friendly as this biography, and Schulz certainly is an engaging subject. As the book lay on my bed for a day, three of my children picked it up and started browsing through it and asking questions: “Is this a good book?” “Would I like it?” “Does it tell where he got the ideas for Charlie Brown and Snoopy?”

Yes, it’s a good book, and yes, most children who are interested in cartooning and art and Peanuts in particular would like it. The book has lots of pictures, and it’s written on an elementary level. Some aspects of Schulz’s life that can be found in a cursory internet search are left out in consideration of the child audience: depression, adultery, loss of faith. The result is not so much sanitized as distilled to focus on the aspects of Schulz’s life that matter to kids: his growing up years, his family, and especially his work and career as a cartoonist. Ms. Gherman does write about Mr. Schulz’s messy divorce and about his childhood insecurities that followed him into adult life, but these negative events and traits come across as endearing elements that made Charles Schulz a deeper, more insightful artist and writer.

Sparky works for an adult audience, too, at least this adult audience of one. The book itself is beautiful and, as indicated by my children’s interest, inviting. Kudos to the designer(s). I don’t really know if Ms. Gherman herself designed and placed the artwork inside the book and the cover and dust cover, but whoever did it was something of an artist herself. The book is quite colorful with text that jumps out at the reader from multi-colored pages and yet never becomes overwhelming and intimidating to the young reader. And still with the text consistently broken up by pictures and cartoons that illustrate the story, there’s lots of information to reward the reader and hold his interest.

Altogether Sparky is a great tribute to a talented man. Charlie Brown’s football-kicking, kite-flying, baseball-pitching, cloud-watching, little red-haired girl watching, adventures have captured the imaginations of several generations of Americans and given us ways to talk about the insecurities and the hopes and desires that we carry inside. And Snoopy the World War I Flying Ace is my hero! It’s fascinating to get a glimpse of the man behind the cartoon characters and to understand a little more of the creative process in his life’s story.

Sunday Salon: Reading Through Africa

Aug21

The Sunday Salon.comI have so many fascinations that I’m either a Renaissance woman or a complete dilettante. One of my areas of reading interest is fiction and nonfiction set in Africa. All of Africa. I’ve been collecting a booklist of books set in or about Africa for sometime, categorized by country. I look through the Saturday Review each Saturday for books that I might want to read, especially for books set in Africa. (I also look for lots of other kinds of books: Texas-related, Christianity, YA with depth, historical fiction about certain eras and places, anything related to the Inklings, etc.)

I don’t even know why I’m so interested in Africa. I’m not African American. I’ve never been to Africa, and actually I’d rather visit Europe than Africa. But I like to read about the clash of cultures in Africa. I like to read about a continent in which Christianity and Islam and animist religious beliefs compete for the allegiance of the people. There’s something mysterious and yet often inspiring about Africa’s transition into the modern technological era while retaining old cultural modes and ideas.

This week I found one book set in Africa in the list from the Saturday Review of Books: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. It was reviewed and recommended by Heather at Capricious Reader. I had already seen this book at the bookstore and planned to read it. Heather says it’s about an inquisitive young man who essentially taught himself science, engineering, and technology and used that knowledge to improve his own life and that of his village. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.

Right now I’m reading another book partially set in Africa: Tracy Kidder’s Strength in What Remains. The protagonist of this book, also nonfiction, is from war-torn Burundi. So, do you have any favorite books set in Africa or written by African authors or related to Africa? Steer me in the right direction in the comments, and I’ll add your favorites to my list of African books by country, a list I plan to add to the blog eventually.