Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles, America's First Black Paratroopers

I love when a book such as this is available as an audiobook and that is how I read it.  Then I read it again in the hardcover version.  What an awesome story!  And the photographs – all this history.  I LOVE learning about parts of history that are just surfacing, have been in some way covered up, or brushed under the rug and then come to light in a blaze of glory.  And a blaze is a good way to sum up the story of the Triple Nickles and the part they played as smoke jumpers in Oregon. 

I am NOT a WWII buff, but I do love to learn and over the years, I’ve learned of the internment of our own Japanese citizens out West in the United States as well as the persecution of Italian Americans (after reading Penny from Heaven by Jennifer Holm), but I did not know about the Japanese balloon bombs which sparked forest fires in the American West.

Additionally, this book highlights the many injustices of the times.  Black Americans trained to be soldiers and were only given the opportunity to serve the white soldiers as cooks, mechanics and in other service roles, but they were not given the opportinty to fight.  At the same time, stereotypes were continuing to depict Black Americans in such a way in movies and advertising to indicate that they could not be trusted with decision making in a wartime situation.  Many black soldiers were ready to fight that stereotype and fight the enemy overseas as well. 

If I didn’t already have enough reasons to LOVE Eleanor Roosevelt, this book made clear the part she played in fighting for equal rights for ALL Americans.  And perhaps that she also nudged her husband in the “right” direction too. 

Overall Tanya Lee Stone does a fantastic job of putting together a veritable puzzle of pieces to put together a cohesive story and in a timely fashion before our first person accounts are lost.  Her documentation of sources is impeccable with quotations cited carefully and an extensive bibliography.  After both listening to and looking at the book, you can NOT just listen to the story.  Though it is still certainly impressive, the photographs and imagery is necessary to the full understanding of the story.  For example, when I read about the “balloon bombs” I pictured much smaller party size helium balloons.  I have no idea why I thought these would be effective weapons.  Well, actually, I thought they were not very effective weapons as many did not detonate and those that did very likely did not ignite the intended forest fires.  Regardless, the photographs of inflated balloon bombs gave me a much better understanding of them but I don’t know how so many did go unnoticed.

Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles, America’s First Black Paratroopers

ISBN: 978-0-7636-5117-6

Published 2013 by Candlewick Press

I borrowed this copy from my public library to read and review.

Eight Dolphins of Katrina: A True Tale of Survival

I really liked this story.  A lot.  When Jackie surfaced and Tim jumped in the water (not to give too much away there…) I cried.  Literally.  I may also be overly emotional.  But I did.  I cried.  This book is really well written by Janet Wyman Coleman.  Really.  And the illustrations are really interesting.  A public librarian friend helped to give voice to my concern over the visual piece.  When you look at the cover art, a photograph of two dolphins (presumably two of the eight), you form an expectation to see more photographs of the dolphins.  You won’t see that in this book.  No, that’s not true.  There is “An Eight Dolphins Scrapbook” that documents the dolphins and the destruction that occurred at their habitat, “The Marine Life Oceanarium”.  But the book’s text itself is not complemented by photographs.  How could it be, really?  During the onset of Hurricane Katrina, no one was stopping to take pictures of the storm brewing, of the dolphins being transported to hotel pools, etc.

And, let me be clear, the illustrations by Yan Nascimbene, are spectacular, but going from a photo cover to illustrated content is a bit jarring.  My public librarian friend stated, “I question the publisher’s decision to put a photograph on the cover.”  I agree and I’m glad she was able to put it in words.  I couldn’t quite explain it myself at the time, but consistency would definitely have helped me as a reader.  I think that kids will be more likely to pick this book up with two dolphins on the cover.  Plain and simple.  But I don’t know that the same kids will stay for the story.  I hope they do.  Because it’s awesome.

Eight Dolphins of Katrina

ISBN: 978-0-547-71923-8

Published 2013 by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

I borrowed this copy from my public library to read and review.

Wild Horse Scientists

Just this past summer, I had a personal experience that really helped me to build schema for this book.  As a result, I devoured this book. 

On a Sunday evening, a friend called who had just arrived at her vacation rental in Ocean City, Maryland.  She was vacationing with her family, her sister’s family, her brother, and her father.  Her brother and father were planning to leave on Tuesday and even with all of those people in the house, there was still an extra room on its own floor.  She was calling to ask if we would like to join them on vacation for the remainder of the week.  As luck would have it, I didn’t have any other plans for the week (that is quite rare for me) so I planned to start packing and be down with two kids in tow on Wednesday.  The next day, she called to ask if we would like to join them on a boat trip called “Assateague Adventures.”  As I felt we were already “crashing” their vacation, I was up for whatever was already on the agenda.  We were along for the ride, literally and figuratively.  And I’m so glad we went.  Unlike my friend’s sister, I had not read “Misty of Chincoteague,” so I wasn’t really familiar with the wild horses of Maryland and Virginia.  Through my experience with my friend’s sister and the tour itself, I learned a lot that helped me understand everything I was reading in “Wild Horse Scientists.”  Basically, there are two methods of population control for wild horses.  Well, there were three, but now there are two. 

1)    On the Virginia side of Assateague Island (which I had mistakenly come away from the tour thinking WAS Chincoteague – it is the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, a “pony swim” takes place where saltwater cowboys drive the ponies across a channel to Chincoteague, Virginia, where the ponies are up for auction.  Some implications of this method are that horses tend to have more foals when their ponies are taken away as opposed to when they are raising their own offspring.

2)    Out West, on the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in Montana, there used to be “gathers” sponsored by the Bureau of Land Management.  These gathers involved a roundup by cowboys with the assistance of helicopters.  Then once rounded up, some of the horses would be removed for adoption.  These methods were deemed inhumane and a new method was needed for population control as the wild horses have no natural predators in the areas in which they were living.

3)    PZP, the method being adopted out west after being piloted on the Maryland side of Assateague island, involves darting the horses with birth control that mimics injecting the horses with a porcine (pig’s) embryo casing tricking the horse’s system.  The method was deemed to be 95-100% effective.  Mares are tending to live longer not going through the stress of delivering many foals over a lifetime. 

For me, seeing the photographs of the horses was really great because on the day that we visited the island, there were no horses to be seen, which can be expected when dealing with wild animals.  Interestingly to me was seeing the photographs of people in the parking lot and the brazenness of the horse’s there.  For starters, I thought the only way to visit the island was on this sort of guided tour that allowed you to visit for a short time and leave the habitat as undisturbed as possible.  But it seems you can visit the island and even camp there.  I’ll have to look into that the next time we “crash” a vacation in Ocean City, MD.

The question of how the horses got to Assateague Island still remains a bit of a mystery with two answers.  And maybe both are true. 

1)    The horses ended up on the island after a shipwreck.

2)    The horses were released by colonists who would have been taxed on fencing to keep the horses penned in.  By releasing them on an island, they avoided taxation and still kept the horses contained.  The original offshore banking!

Overall, the information was laid out in a very logical way for the reader and connections were made between the two different locations that were most featured: Assateague Island and Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range.  The photographs of the rangers help the readers to imagine the difficulty of the job to let wild animals live undisturbed while also protecting them from their own overpopulation which would result in less food and water for the herd and more struggle for survival.  Kay Frydenborg does a great job of engaging the reader and telling the story of the wild horses and the scientists who have studied them over the years.

Wild Horse Scientists

ISBN: 978-0-547-51831-2

Published 2013 by Houghton Mifflin

I borrowed this copy from my public library to read and review.

10 Plants that Shook the World

Wondering what the 10 plants are?  

Spoiler alert!  Drumroll...

1) Papyrus

2) Pepper

3) Tea

4) Sugarcane

5) Cotton

6) Cacao

7) Cinchona

8) Rubber

9) Potato

10) Corn 

In reading about each of these world shaking plants, it occurred to me that early civilizations were really onto something.  I am also writing this post on Columbus Day though it won't post until later, and though I'm not at all a fan of his methodology, it makes me think of Chris and all those other explorers of the late 1400's and their shock at early cultures valuing plants or spices in higher regard than...gold.  But the joke's on the explorers because once you have gold, you use it to get...your hands on those super valuable plants and spices.  Am I right?

Author Gillian Richardson does an awesome job of engaging readers with fun factoids, history, and even present day anecdotes as well as frame of reference for the impact we have on the growing climate for many of these plants and conservation as well.  

Artist, Kim Rosen, has a unique style that lends itself to creating artwork to complement the Richardson's text.

One more spoiler - herbal tea does NOT contain tea.  Who knew?

Reading about wars waged for control of supply and supply routes of many of these natural resources made me think of the present day situation we find ourselves in waging wars or...conflicts to protect what seems to always end up being countries that are situated with vast access to oil.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Likewise, for the first time, Great Britain's land grabs and colonization efforts made sense to me for the first time.  Again, not that I agree with the methods.  At all.  But it made sense.  They needed tropical lands to grow plants in the "right" climate in order to control the supply chain.  The Revolutionary War and the dumping of ALL that tea in the Boston Harbor must have REALLY ticked them off.  Just saying.

And the revelation that potatoes did not originate in Ireland was an eye opener for me.

I do so love to learn and 10 Plants that Shook the World kept me engaged and wanting to read more.  Kudos to Richardson and Rosen!

10 Plants that Shook the World

ISBN: 968-1-55451-445-8

Published 2013 by Annick Press

I borrowed this copy from my public library to read and review.

The Tapir Scientist

Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop are a super team when it comes to collaborating on "Scientists in the Field" type books.  Following in the footsteps of:

• Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot
• Saving the Ghost of the Mountain: An Expedition Among Snow Leopards in Mongolia
• Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea
• The Tapir Scientist: Saving South America's Largest Mammal 

Takes the reader to an exotic destination, The Pantanal.

Quite frankly, just writing out that list of amazing nonfiction titles makes me want to be in on this "Scientists in the Field" writing team. Traveling to New Zealand, Mongolia, New Guinea and now South America for "work" doesn't sound too bad to me.  Having wild animals still roaming from prehistoric times named after you (spoiler alert), also not too shabby.

In Tapir Scientist, Sy Montgomery captures the daily trials and successes of Pati Medici and her tapir team.  Nic Bishop's photography helps the reader to feel as if they are there.  The photographs capture the landscape of the Patanal and the diverse population of wildlife besides the tapirs that are found there.  In addition to learning more (much more than I had known before) about tapirs, I learned how to properly pronounce their name.  I never thought to question my pronunciation before, pronouncing it tuh-peer when in fact, it should be pronounced tay-peer.  Good to know.  I liked reading about the length to which the veterinarians and scientists go to not stress out the animals when they are trying to collect data or radio collar the tapirs.  Interesting too was Gabriel's, the master marksman's, backstory of learning to hunt and not liking the feeling of hunting a creature, so he turned his skill to a good cause of helping to learn more about the animals and hopefully justify further conservation of their land by helping to sedate them from afar by a dart instead of having them caught in traps which can cause higher anxiety.

Tapirs are such interesting looking creatures.  So cool that they have remained unchanged since the Miocene period.  They must be doing something right if evolution hasn't touched them!  Likewise, Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop have also been doing something right to create such awesome nonfiction reads that take the reader to places they might not otherwise encounter.  Although, evidently we are all welcome to stay at the ranch.  I'm booking my flight there now.  Check it out: Baia das Pedras

The Tapir Scientist

ISBN: 978-0-547-81548-0

Published 2013 by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

I borrowed this copy from my public library to read and review.

The Beatles Were Fab (and They Were Funny)

The Beatles were (and their music still is) fab.  Reading about their instrument choices on page one made me wonder.  What if Paul continued to play the trumpet instead of the guitar?  Could have been a whole different music scene!

Stacy Innerst's illustrations are perfect for this book.  The caricature-esque style of the Fab Four on the cover and the picture of Ed Sullivan capture the moment.  The end papers with jelly beans remind us that jelly beans are harder than "jelly babies" and hurt when thrown.  I love the guitar roller coaster image as well as the speech bubbles to show the joking nature of their interviews.  

Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer show how Beatlemania got dangerous and ended when the Beatles got to the "Toppermost".  This book is tops too, just like the music of the Beatles.

The Beatles Were Fab (and They Were Funny)

ISBN: 978-0-547-50991-4

Published 2013 by Harcourt Children's Books

I borrowed this copy from my public library to read and review.

My First Day

So, I had a baby.  And before I had that baby, I visited the library to stock up on books to read while I was (inevitably) feeding that baby and staying up late at night to do so.  One of the books I picked up was “My First Day.”  Thinking it would be a sweet book to read to my sweet baby boy on his “First Day.”  And it was. 

Fast forward three months and I was delighted to see “My First Day” on my Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction nominee list for the CYBILS. 

Steve Jenkins and Robin Page bring to life the first days of 22 very interesting animals.  Each animal is labeled with its name and illustrated in Jenkins’ unique and endearing style.  Children (and their parents/teachers/older readers) will learn some fun new facts about little ones in the wild.

Did you know a zebra mother will memorize her young’s pattern of stripes and would be able to find baby among the thousands of zebras in a herd?

In the end matter, there is a paragraph about each animal highlighted throughout the book with information about the size, location, diet, and interesting facts. 

“My First Day” is a great introduction to many different rare animals and their baby behavior.  It makes for a great read aloud or bedtime book for young readers or independent readers.  I can see many young readers searching for more nonfiction books about some of the animals featured in “My First Day.”  Speaking for myself, I’d like to read more about

My First Day

ISBN: 978-0-547-73851-2

Published 2013 by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

I borrowed this copy from my public library to read and review.