100 Years Ago Today

Today is November 11^th, 2018 one hundred years-to-the-day that World War I ended with the signing of the armistice.

The Vimy Oaks: a Journey to Peace by Linda Granfield tells the true story of a young Canadian soldier, Leslie Miller, who fought in France during World War I.  Based on his field journals, Granfield extracts snippets of text that describe his observations and experiences as he goes about doing his job as a member of the Signals Corps.  Many of the excerpts are descriptions of the landscape noting the beautiful woods and large trees or the terrible devastation wrecked on the countryside by the constant bombardment from both sides.  On April 9, 1917 the battle for Vimy Ridge began and while fighting in this area, Leslie Miller collected a number of acorns that had been blasted from oak trees, mailing them home to Canada.

After returning to Ontario, he started life again as a farmer. Miller planted the acorns he had sent home during the war. This becomes significant in 2004 when Monty McDonald, a family friend to the Millers, traveled to France and Belgium to see the battlefields of both wars. He noticed, while visiting the National Vimy Memorial, that the landscape, though green and forested again, was missing oak trees. He wondered if the trees that grew in Canada from the acorns collected by Leslie Miller could be used to re-establish the oaks at Vimy Ridge.

The Vimy Oaks Repatriation Project was launched with the intention of having oak trees once again growing at Vimy Ridge in time for the 100^th anniversary of the end of World War I, November 11^th, 2018. The book describes the process by which the Canadian oaks are being propagated and then taken to France or planted across Canada.

The book has been illustrated by Brian Deines but also contains numerous photos of people, places and things from that time period. I especially love the photo of Leslie Miller’s field journal that shows a couple of sketches he did of the trees he admired and his beautiful cursive penmanship. It provides lots of context that will help readers understand what was happening and some of the significance of those events. The connection between the past and the present is perfectly encapsulated here. 

Also included are a glossary and index.

I recommend this book for the middle grades when doing units about trees, Remembrance Day, Canadian history, World War I but also looking at topics of peace. The planting of these oak trees is such a wonderful symbol of healing, peace and remembrance.

“They will call upon us to remember the past – and a Canadian soldier who once held hope and rebirth in the palm of his hand.” (p.33)

Perfection

Town is by the Sea by Canadian author, Joanne Schwartz and illustrated by Sdyney Smith, is perfect.

It perfectly captures a time and place with its simple, evocative writing. The illustrations also perfectly convey a sense of tranquility in this small community at this time.

The story tells of, what feels to me, to be an average day in the life of a boy living in a 1950s small town in Maritime Canada located close to the sea. We learn that his father is a coal miner who works deep underground, under the sea. It becomes a refrain throughout the story that the boy remembers, time and again that his father works deep below the surface away from the light, the town and the sea.

There’s a rhythm of life that is palpable whether it’s depicted with everyday activities such as waking up, eating or playing on beat-up swings in the playground and going to bed; through nature's sun rising and setting; and work that will connect generations of family. The boy visits his grandfather’s seaside grave and at the end of the book remarks that he too will likely become a coal miner as the other men in this family and community have become.

The illustrations perfectly capture the calmness of this life (maybe there's an element of small town sameness that might be part of what I'm feeling) that I think reflects life for this time period. Subtle earth tones colour the illustrations giving them a sepia wash that contributes to that sense of a time in the past.  I especially love the picture which shows sunlight reflected off the sea water which is almost too bright to look at. This picture was perfectly realized.  The illustrations of life on the topside contrast with the illustrations depicting his father at work in the dark of the coal mine.  I can feel the density of the land and water that bear down on the miners and feel claustrophobic seeing the men bent over in the cramped dark space.

I highly recommend this book for elementary grades. It is especially relevant when studying curriculum about community, family, and Canada.

Inspirational Photos Instilling Wonder While Teaching

In looking closely at the three books I’m blogging about today, I realized that there was a connection between them going beyond the fact that these are all coffee table books filled with beautiful photographs. The connection is that these beautiful books engage our imaginations, opening up the worlds they present to us, provoking questions, instilling wonder and informing us, along the way.

First up is a book published by National Geographic, Stunning Photographs compiled by Annie Griffiths. As soon as I mention National Geographic, you’re assured that this book will not disappoint. Divided into six sections, Mystery, Harmony, Wit, Discovery, Energy and Intimacy, the photos in each embody some sense of the section’s title. I especially enjoyed the section, Wit as there was a great deal of humour and playful tweaking of our perceptions in these pictures. Really lots of fun. There are hundreds of pictures in this book, created from every corner of the world, I’m sure, and that will amaze viewers of any age.

My next recommendation is, Microsculpture: Portraits of Insects by Levon Biss.  I adore macro photography and this book is fantastic. Using preserved insect specimens from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History collection, Biss takes thousands of pictures of each insect and its parts and then reconstitutes them to give the viewer an amazing close-up. We get to see every pockmark, scale, whisker, hair, and ridge, plus an array of beautiful colours and shapes of 36 insects from various parts of the world. Each insect is given a short descriptive paragraph often discussing some weird feature and the importance of this particular adaptation. There are some amazingly bizarre looking creatures out there. When thinking about the number of science fiction and fantasy movies  that incorporate ‘out-of-this-world’ looking creatures, designers need go no further than Earth’s own insect population for inspiration.

My last selection is Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad by Jeanine Michna-Bales. This photographer recreated a 1400-mile journey, from Louisiana to Ontario that slaves may have taken when trying to escape to freedom. Based on her research, she went looking to document some of the areas that slaves and sometimes, those helping slaves escape, would have passed through but also convey the sense of what it might have been like traveling, mostly at night, through unknown landscapes, living in fear of being recaptured.  The photographs are not necessarily the most interesting as they’re often murky and show deeply shadowed forests, meadows, and wetlands. But taken in context of a fugitive running for their life, the book does convey the danger, fear, and beauty that might have been experienced. The accompanying essays also provide a lot of interesting information about the Underground Railroad. This book will be most effective in the classroom that is already studying American slavery and the Underground Railroad and would be an interesting companion book to novels such as Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker, Crossing to Freedom by Virginia Frances Schwartz, and A Desperate Road to Freedom by Karleen Bradford.

I recommend all three of these books for all ages.

Food for thought

A couple of recent additions to the Doucette Library’s collection made me realize the number of books that are in the library relating food to social issues and current events.  What a great way to explore contemporary issues and something we can all relate to in an interdisciplinary way, if we wanted to.

Below I’ve created a list and grouped books according to what they focus on.  Click on the titles of the books to go to the library’s catalogue to read a short summary about the exact content.

  

Global Food Issues (such as access, international trade, etc.)

-Chocolate: Sweet Science and Dark Secrets of the World’s Favorite Treat by Kay Frydenborg (Gr.6-10)

 -Down to Earth: How Kids Help Feed the World by Nutritional Issues (Gr.3-6)

Sugar Changed the World: a Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science by Marc Aronson (Gr.4-7)

Growing Food (eg. where does it come from)

-Before We Eat: From Farm to Table by Pat Brisson (Gr.K-2)

-Eat Up!: an Infographic Exploration of Food by Antonia Banyard (Gr. 4-7)

-The Children's Garden: Growing Food in the City by Carole Schaefer (Gr.K-2)

-Potatoes on Roof tops: Farming in the City by Hadley Dyer (Gr.4-8)

History and Culture

-Fifty Foods that Changed the Course of History by Bill Price (Gr.10 and up)

-Footprints: the Story of What We Eat by Paula Ayer (Gr. 6 and up)

-Man Eating Bugs: the Art and Science of Eating Insects by Peter Menzel (Gr.8 and up)

 -What's for Lunch?: How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World by Andrea Curtis (Gr.3-6)

-What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets by Peter Menzel (Gr.8 and up)

Issues and Events we hear about in the news (organic foods, eating locally produced food)

-Eating Local by Laura Perdew (Gr.4-7)

 -Meatless?: a Fresh Look at What We Eat by Sarah Elton (Gr.3-7)

-Hijacked: How Your Brain is Fooled by Food by David Kessler (Gr.7 and up)

-The Dorito Effect: the Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker (Gr.10 and up)

These books become an interesting way to discuss health issues, current events, science, history. Tie these books to some of the kits also available in the Doucette Library like the "How Much Fat?" kits that looks at the quantity of fat found in common foods, "How Much Sugar?" kit, also showing us in a very visual way how much sugar we consume. There's great potential for developing an interdisciplinary unit about a subject that is relevant and important for all of us.

Peace Bridge

Today’s recommended title will be of particular interest to Calgarians, Albertans and Canadians.

Bridges: an Introduction to Ten Great Bridges and Their Designers by Didier Cornille introduces us to 10 bridges from various countries spanning the globe providing a brief entry about the architects who designed them and sometimes a little about the construction process.  Each bridge has a something distinct about it, whether it was for a new construction process, a new design, extraordinary length, or a design feature.

Among the selected few is Calgary’s own Peace Bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava (2012).

The other bridges include:

Iron Bridge designed by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard (England, 1779)

Brooklyn Bridge designed by John Roebling, Washington Roebling and Emily Warren (United States, 1883)

Forth Bridge designed by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker (Scotland, 1890)

Plougastel Bridge designed by Eugene Freyssinet (France, 1930)

Sydney Harbour Bridge designed by John Jacob Crew Bradfield (Australia, 1932)

Golden Gate Bridge designed by Joseph Baermann Strauss (United States, 1937)

Rio-Niteroi Bridge designed by Jean Muller (Brasil, 1974)

Millau Viaduct designed by Norman Foster and Michel Virlogeux (France, 2004)

Mucem Footbridge designed by Rudy Ricciotti (France, 2013)

Each entry is very brief. I love the format of the book, which is oversized and read turned on its side so we are flipping the pages up. This is great for giving the reader a sense of length, giving the illustrations of each bridge lots of room to span the page. The details usually include a little information about the designer including other projects they’ve been involved in and most often specifics about the construction process.  The illustrations are simple, uncluttered and placed on pages with lots of white space.

The entry for the Peace Bridge in Calgary features several of Calatrava’s other structures giving only two short pages dedicated to the Peace Bridge itself. However cool looking this bridge there is not a lot of information about it in terms of construction.

Another thing I noticed is that with the exception of Emily Warren, who stepped in when her husband died building the Brooklyn Bridge there are no women featured here. There have to be some noteworthy bridges designed by women, right?

This book will be of interest to teachers for science (building things, designing), STEM, and social studies (Alberta, Canada, local politics). I would recommend this for middle grades.

Harbingers of spring

Spring is just around the corner here in Calgary. Despite the little snow flurry we had this morning the temperatures are rising and the snow is melting. And the University of Calgary awaits the arrival of a mating pair of peregrine falcons any day now.  According to the webpage dedicated to tracking the falcons, they had already arrived by this time last year.  The falcons have been using a high ledge on a campus building since the mid 1990s to nest and raise their young. Check out their website for more information.

I always feel like the arrival of peregrine falcons is a triumph somehow. As recently as 1995 they were still considered endangered in Canada and now, are ‘watched’ for further decline even as their numbers increase. The pair that resides here on campus always seem successful at raising their chicks and I love to hear them calling to each other as I walk across campus.

This means that I buy many books and artifacts for the Doucette Library’s collection that focus on these exceptionally beautiful, resilient birds. Here are a few recent purchases:

The title of this book, Maggie, the One-Eyed Peregrine Falcon: a true story of rescue and rehabilitation by Christie Gove-Berg pretty much tells the whole story. It’s an interesting story about the lengths that a rescue team go to save Maggie, ensure her wellbeing and eventually, give her a job to teach children about falcons. The many photographs and clearly written short paragraphs make this a terrific classroom resource for early elementary grades.

In Skydiver: saving the fastest bird in the world by Celia Godkin relates how the peregrine falcon became endangered through the use of DDT. A clutch of eggs are taken from a pair of falcons in the wild by scientists who raise them to either stay in captivity to breed or be released back into the wild. We learn about the dangers, resiliency and efforts to save this breed of falcon.  Good for grades 1-4.

Queen of the Sky by Jackie Morris is another recent book but is best suited for higher grades. This is a story of a rescued bird by a woman who nurses ‘Hiss’ back to health eventually releasing her back to wild. The artwork is brilliantly done with woodcuts, watercolour drawings and photographs. The art paired with the narrative of the struggle to nurse the falcon and the growing bond between the bird and her rescuer makes for an interesting story. This is a wonderful book to share with grades 9 and up.

Another very informative book is Falcons in the City: the story of a peregrine family by Chris Earley. This particular family of falcons decided to roost and nest on the balcony of a high-rise building in Chicago. There are some amazing photographs taken from the balcony of the chicks hatching, growing and flying. Close-ups of the birds as they fly and glide by the balcony are captivating. Students in elementary grades will learn all about falcon behavior, habitats, food and challenges to survive in an urban environment.

The last book I’ll recommend is the Peregrine’s Journey: a story of migration by Madeleine Dunphy. Here we learn what it takes for a female falcon to make an 8,000 mile journey from Alaska to Argentina. Again, this book is appropriate for elementary grades.

Pair these books with the Doucette Library’s peregrine falcon puppet, replica skull, replica egg and talon to have a variety of interesting resources to complement this component of your spring unit.

Copyright 2015 -Really!

I really, really wanted to give Timeline: a visual history of our world by Peter Goes a rave review.

It was going to include: “fantastic graphics”, “wonderful design”, “beautifully produced” and “interesting if random selection of facts”.  I particularly liked the black band that runs across the middle of every page where all the events take place. It conveys the fluidity of time and how time periods merge and evolve.  It starts with the big bang, covering the beginning of life on earth, the age of dinosaurs, early hominids, early civilizations mostly in Europe and central Asia moving through the centuries up until the 2010s. (Whew! It’s quite a ride.)

And all of these observations are still valid.

It is an oversized, beautifully produced and designed book. I love the illustrations.  This is a great book for browsing. There’s lots to look at and minimal text.  It is fun to find small comical drawings (look for Big Foot in northern Canada), but --

But…

I was kind of willing to overlook how the perspective was predominantly Euro-centric  until I noticed a couple of graphics portraying the aboriginal peoples in North America.

Sigh.

I’m having a problem with the images selected for the pages Explorers from All Periods and North America in the 18^th Century. The images in the Explorers panel places a tepee, a seated Native with a feathered headdress, smoking a pipe, a woman with a baby strapped to her back and a totem pole all placed smack dab in the middle of the United States. The images in the 18^th Century panels show several tepees and almost every single Native sports a feather in their hair. And again a totem pole is placed next to the teepees and herd of buffalo. Problematic, anyone?

I realize that any timeline that undertakes representing the history of the world in 73 pages is huge. This means that not all significant events will make the cut. It also means the illustrator will want high recognition factor from the images so that text is minimal and space is maximized. I would agree that these images are very recognizable but totem poles were not part of the indigenous cultures located on the plains of America. There were carved by the peoples living along the northwest coast of North America. The feathered-headdress, peace-pipe smoking Indian is such an overused stereotype and cannot represent the all North American indigenous peoples.  In a word, inappropriate.

This is my main beef with this book.  I know my perspective is based on becoming very aware of how indigenous peoples have been, and sometimes, still are depicted in children’s literature.

I’m not recommending this book outright but I’m not condemning it totally either.  I do think it could be useful in classrooms with careful teaching. Discussing what these images represent, how they are misleading and why other choices would have been better, becomes an opportunity to talk about stereotypes.

I think the best way this book can be used in a classroom is by looking at what constitutes a timeline, the significant events that were selected for their defined time periods, what they included (the first James Bond movie) and excluded (Arab Spring) and have students research their importance or perhaps figure out what events they would include, as well.  I think grades 6 and up may find this book useful.

Nonfiction Roundup

As life in the Doucette Library is becoming quieter with teacher-education students out on practicum, I’m getting caught up on some reading.

Today I’m highlighting some interesting nonfiction books for all levels.

Elementary

A Place for Turtles by Melissa Stewart

Despite the commercialism of the jingle, “I love turtles”, I do, in fact love real turtles. They are fascinating creatures and this book lays out many interesting facts about various species of turtles predominately found in the United States. Along with these facts are the conditions and challenges that turtles face today. The illustrations are well done and provide abundant details about what the turtles look like and their habitats. It emphasizes the interconnectedness within ecological systems and the importance of protecting turtles.

Emmanuel’s Dream: the true story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thompson

What an interesting story! This is about a young man from Ghana who overcomes a physical challenge and societal prejudices proving that “disability does not mean inability”.  Born with only one strong leg Emmanuel had to learn to do things for himself fairly quickly. He learned to carry water and climb coconut trees.  He hopped two miles each way to get to school. He learned to make friends when the other kids didn’t want to play with him.  He was resourceful and resilient. As a young man he decides to honour a promise he made to his dying mother by cycling close to 400 miles across Ghana to spread his message that “disable does not mean being unable.” Loved it.

Colors of the Wind: the story of blind artist and champion runnerGeorge Mendoza by J.L. Powers

This book also explores the life of an artist who lives with what could have been a debilitating condition, going blind at a young age, but ends up becoming a world class runner and renowned artist. It’s an interesting story with good classroom potential to teach about resiliency, inclusion, and art.  I did find the writing somewhat abrupt, a little choppy with no sense of what the time line was for George’s life.

Middle School

The Snow Baby: the Arctic Childhood of Admiral Robert E. Peary’sdaring daughter by Katherine Kirkpatrick

Another fascinating look at an atypical childhood. We are introduced to Marie Ahnighito Peary, born in a shed in Greenland in 1893, the daughter of a naval office obsessed to become the first person to reach the North Pole. Marie and her mother were often willing participants of Peary’s expeditions (and there were many) that placed them far from Washington D.C. society and living in the high Arctic with sailors, explorers and local Inuit people. Marie was adventuresome and saw her father as a hero for trying to attain his goal. There are lots of photos of Marie, her family, the ships she sailed on and various locales that are mentioned in the text. The book has a lot of text which may put off younger or struggling readers but the story here is so interesting that it’s worth having in the classroom.

Flying Cars: the true story by Andrew Glass

“Is this for real?” asked my partner when he saw this book sitting on the coffee table at home. That’s exactly what I thought when I came across this one, too. I had no idea that so many attempts had been made by so many innovators to construct a vehicle that would allow a car to fly or a small aircraft to drive like a car.  Many configurations of areocars have been designed between the early 1900s and today. It’s a fascinating idea that sparks the imagination but within a heartbeat raises a myriad of questions about the challenges of just anyone flying/driving a vehicle. Nevertheless, a really cool idea.

Secondary

Garbology: our dirty love affair with trash by Edward Humes

Okay, I’m going to fess up that I haven’t read all of this one – yet. This is an interesting, well-written account of the practical and societal issues about garbage.  What drew my attention to this book was an article that came my way about Boise High School using this book to engage its student body with reading and sustainability issues. Check out the article to read more about this initiative or read about the school's objectives for this project here. I love the idea that this sort of enterprise can have such a big payout for both literacy and social change in a school setting. This is an interesting and informative read that really does impact all of us.

Coffee Table Book Roundup

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll know how much I love coffee table books that have lots of oversized, glossy photographs.  I promote them in my workshops for student teachers, across the grades as a way to engage students. Whether a student is able to read the text of the book is less important in my mind than as a way to get a person interested in the topic.  If they’re keen enough maybe they’ll ask questions or even attempt to read the passages related to the pictures.

I’ve always been fascinated with macro photos. If this appeals to you too then you need to check out Hyper Nature by Philippe Martin.  The photographs are stunning. He’s developed a special technique making digital photos that brings the entire image into focus.   Blurry backgrounds and foregrounds are minimal and the creatures are in total focus.  This creates very sharp, almost 3-dimensional images.

His work is primarily of animals, insects and plants, found in their natural habitats around the world. Each photo tells us the common and Latin names of the living thing and details about how he achieved the photo including light conditions.  He does not always provide the location which is a minor quibble. I can’t say enough about the amazing, brilliant images in his book.

With spring about to get fully underway in Calgary, more and more bird life is becoming prevalent in our backyards and parks – at least for us in the northern climes. Life-size Birds: the big book of NorthAmerican birds by Nancy J. Hajeski, is one book to consult if you’re into bird watching and looking to hook a younger person.  With 95 birds featured including songbirds, raptors, gamebirds, waterbirds, among others we get to see and learn about them up close. This oversized book tries to show the birds on a 1:1 scale. For the smaller birds this is pretty easy.  We get to see hummingbirds, tits, warblers and wrens as they fly, feed, nest and care for their young. The larger birds such as the pileated woodpecker, bald eagle, vulture and larger owls are often depicted in part on the 1:1 scale to get a sense of size and also include other images on a 1:2 or 1:4 scale to see the entire bird.  All four sides of every page has a size gauge (in inches) to help with the sizing. Each entry also includes details about the bird's physiology, habitat and distribution. There are a few ‘features’ that focus on nest, eggs, birdsongs, bills, migration and threats to species. It’s a fascinating book that would be great in a math or science classroom teaching about measurement, scale, ratio and proportion.  I recommend this for grades 5 and up.

I should tell you right up front that I don’t get any kickbacks from National Geographic for recommending their books. I promote them all the time as they really know how to pull these kinds of books off.  Their explorers go to amazing places, often having adventures while taking remarkable photographs of their subjects of landscapes, people or animals.

First up are Ocean Soul by Brian Skerry and PristineSeas: journeys to the ocean’s last wild places by Enric Sala. Both of these books focus on the richness, wildness and beauty of the oceans of the world but Ocean Soul really looks at the wildlife that abounds and those that are under threat whereas

Pristine Seas showcases similar environments as ecological landscapes. Both give us what we love in these kinds of books; lots and lots of beautiful, informative images with well written commentary.

My last recommendation is Bear: spirit of the wild by Paul Nicklen.  This explorer must have nerves of steel and a big lens or two to get such close-up photographs of polar bears, grizzlies, black bears and spirit bears. There are shots of him only a few feet away from the bears as he makes his photos. Interspersed throughout the book are many contributors offering their personal perspectives about bears and their place in their environments. This book mixes pleasure viewing the images and informative, personal narratives. The outstanding kind of picture book in my opinion and one that anyone can enjoy.

Pop-up Appeal.

I do love a well-done pop-up book. 

For a library to purchase a pop-up, you know that you’re buying a resource that does not have longevity going for it. But what we lose in the durability category, I think we can gain in engagement factor.

Two recent additions to the Doucette Library:

Welcome to the Neighborwood by Shawn Sheehy

                As the title suggests, this takes place in a wooded ecosystem.  I would stretch this to include ponds or wetlands, too.  Seven animals are featured with a special focus on their building abilities but also include a tidbit of trivia that indicates its size compared to an everyday object (eg. a female ruby-throated hummingbird is about the size of a crayon).   The pop-ups showcase the ‘homes’ that each critter builds. For example, a land snail builds its home on its back using calcium derived from its own body adding layers as it grows to create a shell. The garden spider weaves a new web each day, eating the same web at night. Nothing is wasted. Also included are hummingbird, honeybee, potter wasp, beaver and stickleback fish.  The quality of the pop ups is fantastic and adds a 3-D element that engages.  I especially liked the honeybee’s hive which is a series of hexagonal combs. Suggested for primary grades.  Using a book like this presents an opportunity to teach young eager hands how to gently use fragile resources. 

Take a chance with this one.

And

Legendary Routes of the World: a Pop-up Book by Alexandre Verhille and Sarah Tavernier

So, how do you depict travel 3-dimensionally? It’s not easy.

This is one of those books that I really liked and enjoyed perusing but wondered what kids would make of it.  The legendary routes that are highlighted really speak to me about the ‘romantic era of travel’ when long distances meant long travel times.

So the routes are: Route du Rhum, The Silk Road, Route 66, Aeropostale, and the moon. I’ve always had a thing about the Silk Road, finding it immensely interesting because of its vastness and the whole East and West convergence. Loads of interesting history to really engage with but it is only barely scratched here. The pop-up for this route, I thought was well done and gave the reader a sense of the epic scale of the Silk Road. However, the nature of the book is so cursory with only a few details/factoids given about each of the routes that you miss out on the stories behind what makes them legendary. The pop-ups themselves are very well done and explode off the page.

I’d recommend this book for upper elementary grades but as a supplementary addition.

Walking in someone else’s shoes

John Marsden can certainly set a scene that makes you think – “What would I do if this happened to me?”

With so much in the news about Syrian refugees, Home and Away by John Marsden is a book that’s timely to post about.  His book really brings home the ‘me’ part of my question.  What would I do if this was happening to me and my family?

This is not an easy book with a happy ending. 

We are introduced to a typical Australian family (though there’s little that identifies them as specifically Australian) Mom, Dad, Claire, Toby, Grandma (who lives next door) and an unnamed narrator.

Initially, our narrator documents briefly a few defining things about each family member so we can get a sense of who they are, their hopes and dreams and includes a family picture. We get a glimpse of a typical day of everyone busy with their work or school day.

And then the war starts.

Within a couple of months food becomes desperately difficult to find.  A few weeks later, Toby becomes sick, Claire doesn’t speak and Mom and Grandma are shadows of themselves.  They are reduced to eating roadkill and scavenging in abandoned gardens.

By the fifth month, Dad has made arrangements, at great expense, to get the family out and to a country where they’ll be safe with plenty of food and medical care. Escaping their war torn home means taking a leaky boat filled with strangers to a distant place called Hollania.  They spend 11 days seemingly adrift with few resources where even a few scraps of fish can cost a life. When they see another boat they think they will be rescued but that is not the case.  The naval vessel is there to drive them away but because the boat is in such bad shape they are allowed to land and are taken to an isolated camp in the middle of a desert. The government doesn’t want to encourage more illegal immigrants from coming so provides minimal care. Others say that these people aren’t really desperate refugees and are there to make money.  And then there are those who do provide the detainees with some help and kindness. People die including some of the family members we’ve gotten to know at every stage of this drama.

Sound familiar?

None of this is new.  We’re reading about people like this in the news right now. What is different is the family is from a country like our own.  The author and illustrator have made this narrative where we can easily place ourselves. The illustrations are often dark and bleak.  Some of them are drawn in crayon as if by five-year old Toby and show us what he sees if not how he’s making sense of it all; lots of planes flying overhead, explosions and dead bodies.

The diary entries are brief and intermittent bringing us up-to-date about what’s happening in a very matter-of-fact way.  Being so matter-of-fact made reading the story bearable. I was adding my own layers of emotion and understanding as I read through the book.  I kept going back over the timeline to see how quickly normal life breaks down when all our conveniences are taken away. Life quickly becomes very basic – food, water, safety.  Also, this story shows just how tenuous life really is and how much we take for granted. I’m having a difficult time imagining losing a father in the manner described in this story. The mental toll that this situation takes on everyone: Toby’s conviction that he’s done something bad (killed everyone) and that’s the reason he’s living in prison and Claire’s confinement in a psychiatric ward keeps coming back to me. 

So, the question is what would you do if this happened to you?

I’m recommending this as a terrific, powerful and difficult classroom resource for grades 5 or 6 and up.

It’s all relative (sizing)

If…

How big is Earth or the Solar System or the Milky Way galaxy?

How old is our planet and when did the first animals and people appear on it?

Some things are so huge or so old that it’s hard to wrap your mind around them. But what if we took these big, hard-to-imagine objects and events and compared them to things we can see, feel and touch? Instantly, we’d see our world in a whole new way.

This is the start of the introduction to If…a mind-bending new way oflooking at big ideas and numbers written by David J. Smith.  (Just a note: David J. Smith wrote If the world were a village which I adore for a lot of the same reasons I love If.)

And Smith has been stunningly clever in presenting objects and events in a highly engaging way, holding our attention and allowing us to make new connections to the natural and human world.  All those concepts that can seem too big to really get a grasp on (example: the whole 4.5 billion year history of our planet condensed into a 2 hour DVD, humans only show up for the last two seconds.  Whoa, Nelly! That puts us in our place, I’d say) become much more comprehensible.

As he did in If the world was a village, he reduces really big numbers in ways that we understand more easily.  We know exactly how long a two hour DVD is.  We know what a year feels like or an hour.  Or what 12 inches looks like or an average sized drinking glass. An on it goes.

Part of what is fascinating are the subjects that the author has focused on such as the vastness of the universe, evolution and physical attributes of the planet such as land mass and quantity of water.

Also, the appearance of humans, our activities and things that impact our quality of life are well represented here.  For example, significant events are compressed into one calendar month (31 days) and include happenings such as when Buddha, Muhammad and Jesus were born, when paper is invented in China and when enslaved Africans first come to the Americas.  On the last day of this month he includes the discovery of water on Mars in 2013.

Another example that really speaks to a current social issue is the distribution of wealth around the world.  This is illustrated with just 100 coins stacked into piles.  Here are a few of the facts: the richest 1% have 40 coins; 9% would have 45 coins; 40% would have 14 coins; and finally, 50% of the world’s population would have one coin among them to share.  Talk about keeping it real.

The last example, I’ll share is the one about our everyday lives and what we do with our time.  Based on the size of a jumbo pizza cut into 12 pieces 4 slices represents the time we spend at school or work; 4 slices represent time getting ready for bed and sleeping; 1 slice denotes time spent traveling between places including holidays; 1 slice shows how much time we spend shopping, doing household chores including caring for others; 1 slice relates to eating and preparing our food and lastly, 1 slice represents time spent on the fun stuff.

The illustrations by Steve Adams are bright, bold and clear at representing time, space, and quantities.

I would highly recommend this book for math, science and social studies classes for grades 3 to 7 and even higher.  The universe, the earth and our lives all become much more coherent when looked at through the lens of relative size.