Travels in History

YA History: The Kennedy Assassination

Last night I finished The President Has Been Shot! The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by James L. Swanson.  The first part, which I read last week, was pretty basic stuff about JFK's life and presidency. I was not that impressed, any student could find these events, Kennedy's family life, World War II, the Bay of Pigs, the March on Washington, well recorded in any history textbook or encyclopedia. But last night I dove into the hard part, the trip to Dallas in November, 1963. It is very hard to read, knowing what comes next, but Swanson has done an excellent job distilling what is essential from his adult work, and telling a strong story, even when we all know the end. His portrait of Lee Oswald is well crafted, and his empathy for every character is powerful. The only part I felt left me hanging was his coverage of Jack Ruby. It felt to me like he did not want to let the story of Oswald's murder to overshadow the story of Kennedy's, but at the same time I would have liked just a little more on Ruby. 

I read the book on my Kindle, part on the iPad, and part on the Paperwhite, and at first I found the moving photos and captions and the strange white space that can be created sometimes a bit distracting. But the photos are high quality, and I like being able to see them full page, so I think the kindle version is fine.

The Adventures of Superhero Girl by Faith Erin Hicks

Last week I also read The Adventures of Superhero Girl by Faith Erin Hicks. It was cute, but it really felt like a daily comic, not a book. Of course it started as a web comic, and I think it probably could have stayed there. I am not sure why it was published as a book, let alone won an award. She is a fun character, and I like the humor, but a little of that goes a long way. I read the hardcover, I don't think there is a kindle edition.

Civil Rights in a graphic novel

I have not read many graphic novels, but I figure the point of a reading challenge is to read things I might not normally pick up, so last night I read March: Book 1 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. It is a quick read, and it left me looking for book 2. The text and the images work together to give the feeling of the times in a way that I think is very accessible to people in the 21st century, regardless of how much they know about John Lewis and the Civil Rights movement. Fantastic book.

And this is an interesting book to read electronically. It is well set up for Kindle, you can click though frame by frame or read a page at a time. But on my Kindle Paperwhite the images were too grey for me. On the iPad Kindle app, however, it was stunning. So a mixed review on electronics here.

Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles

Last night I finished reading Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles, America’s First Black Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone. My first observation is that no matter how much I love my kindle, some books are just better with the layout intact. This book started, as the author points out in the afterward, as a picture book, and the images are very important. And the kindle version includes all the images, but the captions are not always on the same page as the image, and some of the images are so low resolution that zooming at all makes them useless. So the one thing that should be better in the electronic version, the ability to zoom in on the primary source images, is only sometimes possible. 

The book traces the story of the Triple Nickles from the first jobs they had in the army (all service jobs) though their training and eventual deployment to fight fires on the west coast, rather than serving in combat.

I was familiar with most of the story (everything except the fire fighting) but it is well put together. For someone who did not know anything about African-Americans and their service in World War II, I thinkt the story would hang together well, even though there is plenty of background, which can feel like it interupts the story of the main characters.

Two of Castilleja's librarians told me they were turned off by the title, and I was hoping to find the phrase "Courage Has No Color" in a quotation, which would make the title more clear. I found the idea, but not the phrase. But given my husband's experience with editors and titles, it is clear the the author does not write the title, the marketing department does. 

It is a good book, well researched, but I am not sure I would recommend it to anyone who was not already a fan of non-fiction about war, or African-American history.

Reading like a Librarian Challenge

The Castilleja Library, always looking for new ways to get students and employees reading, has been promoting their own version of the Read Like a Librarian Challenge. It occured to me, that since I have put my name up on the list, and started adding stars, that this was a good project to get me back into writing on the blog, so I will try to keep my reading updated here. Of course I will also put stars on the chart in the library, the point of a public list of contestants is a bit of competition, right? And while this might not all be "travels in history" it is certainly part of the travels of this middle school history teacher, so that fits in pretty well.

I started with Handbook for Dragon Slayers by Merrie Haskell, since I always like a good coming of age dragon story. It was good, but a bit young compared to what I normally read. I guess it is "middle grade" rather than YA, which makes sense. It won the Schneider Family Book Award honors a middle grade and YA title that has the best “artistic expression of the disability experience.” Which is interesting, since I had not really focused on what kind of award it won when I picked it off the list, and while the main character is disabled, she walks slowly because of a deformed foot, I did not think about it as a book about a disabled girl. Which, now that I think about it, is probably why it won an award! I read this book on my kindle, and I don't think that lessened the experience at all. No images, no problems with layout.

The next book I took on was a great design guide for all ages, Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design by Chip Kidd. I love a good book on fonts and layout, and this book is BEAUTIFUL. It is a walking example of why some books just don't work electonically at this point. The illustrations are amazing, but the feel of the book itself, with thick board covers, is part of the design. 

I have read a few others, but I will leave that blog post for later.