Red Madness.

Jarrow, Gail.  Red Madness.   Boyd's Mills/Calkins Creek    2014  192p  $16.95  ISBN 978-1-59078-732-8      ms/hs   Nonfiction  VG-BN

Jarrow’s non-fiction medical history reads like a fast-paced mystery thriller.  Casual readers and student researchers will find themselves tearing through the story of the pellagra epidemic of 1902.  Set in the past, the story resonates with issues that readers still face today: the threat of pandemic, delayed response in the face of disaster, and human nature (fear, superstition, and ignorance).  

Pellagra is a devastating illness that presents as a red rash, but rapidly progresses the longer it goes untreated to leave victims weak, disfigured, insane, or even dead.  One hundred years ago, little was known about the illness that struck tens of thousands of victims in the American South.  Scientists did not know what caused it or how to treat it.

Supplemented with 100 archival photographs, Jarrow’s text chronicles how doctors, scientists, and public health officials raced to defeat the disease.  Particularly gripping are the stories of real-life pellagra victims and accounts of scientific investigations.  Researchers will also find the glossary, timeline, resource lists, author’s note, bibliography, and index useful.          

Summary: Jarrow tracks the history of pellagra, a disease that leaves its victims weak, disfigured, insane, and sometimes dead.

Pellagra                                                    --Hilary Welliver

Ziarnik, Natalie. Madeleine’s Light.

Ziarnik, Natalie.  Madeleine’s Light.  Boyd's Mills Press   unp  $17.95 978-1-59078-855-4 elem        E-BN       

This is the beautifully told and illustrated story of the artist Camille Claudel and her friendship with a small girl who inspired her to try to capture the souls of her subjects in her sculptures.  Camille goes to a small chateau looking for some rest and a place where she could work quietly.  To her surprise she encounters the granddaughter of the owner of the chateau, who had a brightness inside of her, a spirit that Camille wants to capture in her sculpture.  They form a friendship, and while little Madeline works on a miniature sculpture of a bird, a gift for her grandmother, Camille is using her as a model.
 

It is the sculpture of the little girl that changes the direction of the artist’s work and leads her to try to capture the souls of her subjects.   In reality, little is known of the little girl who inspired the artist.    -- Magna Diaz

Beautiful and vivid water-color pictures create a magical story.

Yolen, Jane. Bug Off! Creepy Crawly Poems.

Yolen, Jane.  Bug Off! Creepy Crawly Poems.     Boyd's Mills/Word Song  30p  $16.95  978-1-59078-862-2     elm/ms      VG-BN         

As they did in Mirror to Nature and Wild Wings, Jane Yolen and her son, Jason Stemple, offer a beautiful pairing of poems and photographs, this time exploring the fascinating world of insects.  In her introduction, Yolen admits that insects are not her favorite species, but she felt that the stunning photos needed a poetic accompaniment.  The result is a beautiful, whimsical, humorous and lyrical introduction to bugs.  Each poem is accompanied by factual information about each insect, and a breathtaking photo. Each is a two-page spread.  While some poems outshine others with their evocative qualities, each one is enjoyable.  The stars of this book, however, are the photographs.  They are truly stunning.  Yolen encourages young readers to write their own poems in the introduction.  This book will provide a wonderful springboard for writing activities in the younger and middle grades.  It is a delightful and visually stunning book.        

This book works on so many levels, visually, poetically, and as a introduction to writing activities, that it should be on the shelf in every elementary-school library.  As poetry, middle-school readers will enjoy it as well, and find the factual content useful.                                       -- Pat Naismith  

Woelfle, Gretchen. Write On, Mercy!

Woelfle, Gretchen.  Write On, Mercy!  Boyd's Mills/Calkins Creek  unp  $16.95  978-1-59078-822-6        elem      E-BNe   Biography  

Mercy Otis Warren was an exceptional woman.  Born outside Boston in the eighteenth century to a prosperous lawyer and member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, she was educated equally as well as her older brother Jemmy.  After she married James Warren, she continued to write poetry while raising their five sons.  When the call for revolution began, she took an active part in the political discussions that were held in her home.  After her brother was severely injured in a Loyalist attack, she became the unsigned author of many political plays and writings that circulated through the Boston area.  After the war she began her most ambitious project, a three-volume history of the American Revolution.

This picture-book biography about one of the lesser-known women of the Revolutionary era will open young readers’ eyes to the unusual life of Warren.  A highly educated writer in a time when women were supposed to care only for family and home, she was an active participant in the war effort.  Woelfle’s lively and informative narrative holds the reader’s interest, and the lovely gouache paintings are true to the styles of the time.  The book is enhanced by excerpts from Warren’s writings and ends with an author’s note, a reproduction of her portrait done by John Singleton Copley, a timeline, and a bibliography of books and web sites.  This is a highly recommended purchase for elementary-level libraries.                                                        -- Susan Ogintz 

Swain, Gwenyth. Hope and Tears.

Swain, Gwenyth.   Hope and Tears.   Boyd's Mills/Calkins Creek    115p  $17.95  978-1-59078-765-6     ms/hs       E-BN      Historical fiction/nonfiction

This beautiful book would best be used by a classroom teacher or teacher-librarian who is leading a study of immigration to the US. The author has researched some of the many immigrants who made their way to America through Ellis Island, as well as the people who worked there, and even some contemporary people who have immigration-related stories to share.  From her research, and the wonderful photos she dug up, she has written poems, letters, and even e-mail messages ostensibly "by" the historical figures she discovered.  The concept is perhaps a little "hokey", but the end result is fascinating and thought-provoking.  The book is a creative mix of fact and imagination that will draw kids into the Ellis Island immigration experience of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  However, students may not pick up this book and read it on their own (unless they are personally fascinated with Ellis Island to begin with).  So they may need a teacher or librarian to introduce the book to them, in the context of a unit on immigration.

Or, parents may want to purchase the book after a family visit to Ellis Island or a browse through old family photos of the "old country".

The organization, writing, and choice of photos are all brilliant. This is highly recommended! Don't let it be neglected on a shelf!      This is recommended for middle schools and high schools that study immigration to the United States, and for any public library.    

Immigration, Ellis Island                                        -- Carol Kennedy  

Rosen, Michael J. Running with Trains: A Novel in Poetry and Two Voices.

Rosen, Michael J.   Running with Trains: A  Novel in Poetry and Two Voices. Boyd's Mills/Word Song    102p  $15.95      978-1-59078-863-9       ms/hs     VG Realistic fiction

It is not difficult to see why Michael J. Rosen is a prize-winning poet.  In this book, three strengths stand out: the unique plot, the creative writing style, and the fully-realized characterizations. 

The story weaves back and forth between the lives of two young boys, farm boy Steve and traveler Perry.  Perry rides the train weekly between his mom’s house and Gram’s house, and he despises it.  He wants to be with his mom full-time, but she must go to school to provide for the family that remains after Father has gone missing in action from the Vietnam War.  Steve has responsibilities too great for his young age, but that is expected of a farmer’s son.  He is ordered around until he can’t stand it anymore, and he seeks solace in chasing the train that crosses his family’s farm, wishing he could board it and go far away.  The poetic meter simulates the whooshing of a train as it flies along the tracks, and before the reader even knows it, he/she is drawn into a reading rhythm.  At the end of the book, the author explains all of the poetic forms he used to write this book.  Mostly it is written in blank verse with a meter of iambic pentameter. 

Finally, the characterizations are wonderful.  More mature readers will relate to some of the feelings that the boys experience about their situations.  We especially feel regret for Perry when he tries to communicate through letters to his sister who is away at college.  He tries to use guilt to convince her to write to him, but she resists.  The chapter about Steve that one can connect to is his chapter on rules.  Even younger readers will relate to this section!  The lives of the two young men intersect when cows escape the meadow and stop the train.  The conductor, Steve and Perry join forces to corral them, and both boys experience an exhilaration that unites them.  Perry discovers that happiness has to happen in the “now”, and that is the greatest message that comes out of this book.  Teenagers who love poetry will undoubtedly enjoy this book.  Teenagers who loathe it will have trouble with the setting and the characters’ stories and the time period.  Language-arts teachers will find a use for this book at the high-school level.  It could easily be used to teach theme, compare/contrast and character traits.  With support, middle-school language-arts classes could read this book as well.       

Stories in verse, Vietnam War–Fiction, Farm life-Fiction    

-- Martha Squaresky    

Pringle, Laurence. Billions of Years.

Pringle, Laurence.      Billions of Years.      Boyd's Mills Press      102p  $17.95      978-1-59078-723-6       ms/hs       E-BN       

The story of evolution begins with the simplest of organisms and traverses millions of years and billions of changes in the history of Earth.   Scientific studies began with the early geologists who studied alterations in the rocks and discovered the immense diversity of fossil remnants of extinct animals that were left within them.  They reached the conclusion that Earth must be much older than originally thought, but it took the great works of Charles Darwin to postulate the theories of evolution, origin of species, and natural selection that would explain their findings.   Pringle opens a window into this complex science in his well-balanced, succinct, and insightful look at the natural world and its development.  He supplements the basic information about evolution with more current discussions about carbon dating, genetics, missing links, and plate tectonics that are understandable to the intended age groups.  The writing is crisp and concise, explaining the science of evolution with clarity, and it is enhanced by extraordinary color photographs, illustrations, and maps.  There are fact boxes and a wealth of secondary material in sidebars that enrich the text.  The book ends with a glossary; a bibliography of books, periodicals, and web sites; and an index.    All in all, a most stimulating and exciting book.         This is a “must purchase” for middle- and high-school libraries.           -- Susan Ogintz           

Buonanno, Graziella Pacini. Dancing on Grapes.

Buonanno, Graziella Pacini.   Dancing on Grapes.  Boyd's Mills Press    unp $16.95  978-1-59078-833-2       elem        VG           

In this delightful picture book, the author is chronicling her own experiences as a child in Tuscany, where all the children participated in the annual ritual of dancing on the grapes to make wine.  There is a glossary of Italian words at the beginning, and Claudia’s situation is described ... she is a six-year-old child with a fear of heights who is finally old enough to do the grape-dancing with the older children.  The drawings are colorful and lively, and the text focuses on Claudia and her feelings as she participates in this ancient ritual.

The author’s note at the end of the story gives some background information about her own childhood, on which the book is based, and the old ritual of including the children in wine-making in Tuscany.                                                                        --Carol Kennedy

Brimner, Larry Dane. Black & White.

Brimner, Larry Dane.    Black & White.    Boyd's Mills/Calkins Creek    112p $16.95 978-1-59078-766-3       ms/hs       E-BN           

This pictorial history of the confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connor takes readers through the years of the late 1950s to the mid 1960s when the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing.  The author has chosen Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth to follow during this era, and although he is not as famous as some other African Americans, he did play a major role in fighting and confronting Bull Connor.  The progression of the confrontation led Bull Connor to ignore the fact that the whole world was watching it on TV.  Despite the violence shown the African American marchers, which left many of them injured, their persistence won the day.

The pictures in this book chronicle the movement for civil rights and the violence it encountered.  It is an excellent book to complement the African American curriculum, with plenty of photos, little known facts, an author’s note, a bibliography, and source notes. -- Magna Diaz

Peot, Margaret. Inkblot.

Peot, Margaret.    Inkblot.     

Boyd's Mills      2011  53p   19.95 978-1-9078-720-5

      all ages                VG-BNe     

The book demonstrates how the inkblot

has been used for centuries by famous people like Victor Hugo, Leonardo DaVinci,

and others to stimulate creativity. Detailed instructions and examples are

provided for the reader.          

This is a beautifully written and illustrated text for anyone interested 

in painting, writing, and enabling their creativity.

As the cover states, you will “drip, splat, squish your way to creativity”.

     Included in the book are several lists of the supplies needed in general

and those specific for certain activities. The author activities coordinated

with her examples and colorful illustration will entice even the most reserved

reader. 

     The text of the book is well organized for the reader taking them through

the various processes from making inkblots, drawing into them, learning how to

look at them and see something, setting up a sketchbook, and finally a

bibliography for future reference.

     I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I also spent many an hour playing

around with the activities in the book. Readers will just have fun and teachers

or art teachers can use this technique to stimulate creativity in young readers.

            McNeil, Linda

Holbrook, Sara. Weird? (Me, too!) Let’s Be Friends.

Holbrook, Sara.    Weird? (Me, too!) Let’s Be Friends.  

WordSong (Boyds Mills Press)  2011  56p   16.95 978-1-59078-821-9 

elm/ms                  VG-BNe      

This is a collection of poems about friendship in all of its aspects.  These poems

are very well crafted, and varied.  There are poems for two voices, poems that

rhyme and poems that do not.  Some of the poems are in free verse, others are in

meter.  All of them deal with the ups and downs of elementary-age and middle-

school-age friendships, and represent very genuine feelings that kids experience

with their friendships, both positive and negative.  The illustrations are

relevant and quirky, and add to the whimsical mood of the poems.

Interspersed with the poems there are suggestions for writing poetry, which a

teacher may want to use with a class.  A student who is “into” poetry may even

want to try some of these suggestions independently.        Kennedy, Carol

Garland, Michael. Grandpa’s Tractor.

Garland, Michael.  Grandpa’s Tractor. 

Boyd's Mills      2011  unp   16.95 978-1-59078-762-5 

elem    Historical        VG-BNe      

Timmy and Grandpa Joe visit the family farm and reminisce about Grandpa’s old red tractor.     

 Inspired by a rusty tractor embedded in a hillside near his home, Garland interviewed the

vehicle’s owner and was inspired to write “Grandpa’s Tractor.”  Tractors have

ongoing appeal for many young readers, who are fascinated by large, powerful

vehicles.  On a farm, tractors can be used for a variety of tasks, and are

endlessly useful.

     Timmy and Grandpa visit the site of the family farm, now run-down and

ramshackle.  Here they discover a rusted tractor.  Grandpa brings the tractor’s

usefulness to life and shares with Timmy the many ways that the tractor was

useful on the farm: to till fields, gather the harvest, transport workers to the

orchard, and bring fruits and vegetables to market. Timmy’s imagination is

sparked, and young readers will enjoy the cheerful artwork that recreates a

bygone era.  The brightly colored double-page spreads will complement the read-

aloud experience, especially with large groups.

Welliver, Hilary

Dunning, Joan. Seabird in the Forest.

Dunning, Joan.     Seabird in the Forest.   

Boyd's Mills      2011  unp   17.95 978-1-59078-715-1     

elem              E-BN  

Follows the life cycle of the marbled murrelet, a small seabird indigenous to coastal 

pacific waters. In the process, the author all presents information about the redwood forests found up and down the northernwestern, coastal states.      This is an absolutely beautiful book

that addresses not just marbled murrelets and redwood forests, but through

beautiful illustrations and well written text informs young readers of the

importance and value of every living organism on the planet. While this message

is subtle, it is nontheless integral throughout. Little, informative snippets

are placed throughout the book that talk about different aspects of redwood

forest canopy ecosystem such as the plants found growing up high on tree

branches and the fauna found up in the canopy as well. The book concludes with

additional sources both print and nonprint.           Fisher, Lynn

Clement, Nathan. Job Site.

Clement, Nathan.   Job Site.    

Boyd's Mills      2011  unp   16.95     978-1-59078-769-4

elem  R    ealistic Fiction       VG    

Follow a construction project from start to finish with particular emphasis on the types of vehicles used in constructing a public park. Preschool through 2nd grade.     

Excellent crisp illustrations in primary colors of seven construction vehicles as they perform the jobs necessary to construct an amphitheater, reflecting pool and tower in a public park. The

operators of the vehicles are appropriately dressed in work boots, reflective

vests and safety glasses. Caution tape surrounds the construction area. This

book provides an accurate depiction of each vehicle doing its job. Readers who

are enthralled by the huge size of the vehicles and their moving parts will

learn the correct title of the vehicle as well as the purpose of the vehicle.

Great reading and sharing for toddlers and easy vocabulary for second graders. 

A sure hit with the younger set.            McNicol, Lois

 

Cheng, Andrea. Where Do You Stay?

Cheng, Andrea.  Where Do You Stay?      

Boyd's Mill     2011  134p    17.95    978-1-59078-707-6

 elm/ms      Realistic Fiction       VG    

“Eleven-year-old Jerome Mason goes to live with his aunt and cousins following the death of his mom, and although Aunt Geneva tries to make him feel welcome, Jerome misses his mother and his

piano which has been sold to cover expenses, and the only person who seems to

understand his feelings is Mr. Willie, a man who does odd jobs to support

himself while living in the carriage house of an empty, dilapidated mansion.”

      When eleven year-old Jerome Mason’s mother passes away from cancer, his

aunt, Miss Geneva, moves him into her home across town from his Cincinnati home. 

His aunt’s two sons (his cousins), Monte, ten, and Damon, fifteen are mean and a

nuisance.  Jerome misses his Mama and the life they enjoyed together, as well as

the piano that they shared.  Even though his aunt’s good gestures to adopt and

reach out to Jerome are evident, the tension between he and his cousins are real. 

Jerome meets Mr. Willie, an elderly man who sleeps in a carriage house beside an

empty mansion. Mr. Willie survives by taking on odd jobs.  Since Jerome and Mr.

Willie both  love playing the piano, the two make a good connection.  As a child,

Jerome took piano lessons at the mansion next to Mr. Willie’s carriage house and

wonders if the piano is still in the mansion.  Mr. Willie is a good listener and

the two create a garden together.  When Mr. Willie disappears and the house

sells, Jerome wonders where he went.  When he gets a note from Mr. Willie, he

and his aunt and cousins go for a visit.  As the story progresses, it’s nice to

see Jerome’s acceptance of his new family and of being adopted by his aunt. 

Throughout the text, Jerome’s Mama words are interwoven, making her presence and

connection to Jerome very real.           Forba-Mayer, Charleen