Smile

By Raina Telgemeier

This appears on the 100 books to read before you grow up so I've picked up a copy for my class set and here I am reading it. It's autobiographical in the main part, which is of real interest to me, and tell the story of the author's trials and tribulations around knocking her teeth out. The artwork is delightful, the story engaging and the discussion it has raised in my class this week is fantastic, I highly recommend this book to sit in your class library and to be enjoyed by all ages.

Synopsis

Family, friends, boys... dental drama?!

A True Story

Raina just wants to be a normal  sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth. What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgury, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there's still more to deal with: a major earthquake, boy confusion, and friends who turn out to be not so friendly. Raina's story takes us from middle school to high school, where she discovers her artistic voice , finds out what true friendship really means, and where she can finally... smile. 

Author

Raina Telgemeier is an American cartoonist whose works include the autobiographic webcomic Smile, which was published by Scholastic Press's Graphix imprint as a full-color graphic novel in February 2010. Wikipedia

Other Books

• Smile (2010)
• Drama (2012)
• Sisters (2014)
• Ghosts (2016)

 

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House

By Michael Wolff

I must confess that when I finally got to read this book it felt somewhat out of date. My sister and I have a tradition of getting each other a some strange book that we would not otherwise buy. Here was her choice for last Christmas, for me. It's taken me all this time to get to.

Having read it now I have a deeper appreciate of how hard it might be for all those working in the White House right now. it all seems so unpredictable. The rules of decorum seem to have shifted, it certainly reads as if there is a lack of a compass in the White House right now...

Having said that, all I know of White House politics is from The West Wing, Madame Secretary and Designated Survivor and I know some would just call that a bunch of idealistic, left-wing clap trap.

Synopsis

Almost everyone in the Trump campaign thought of themselves as clear-eyed and realistic. The unspoken agreement among them: not only would Donald Trump not be president, he should probably not be. Conveniently, the former conviction meant nobosy had to deal with the latter issue.
As the campaign can to an end, Trump himself was sanguine. His longtime friend Roger Ailes liked to say that if you wanted a career in television, first run for president. Now Trump, encouraged by Ailes, was floating rumors about a Trump network. It was a great future.
He would come out of this campaign, Trump assured Ailes, with a far more powerful brand and untold opportunities. "This is bigger than I ever dreamed of." he told Ailes in a conversation a week before the election. "I don't think about losing because it isn't losing. We've totally won." What's more, he was already laying down his public response to losing the election: It was stolen!
Donald Trump and his timy band of campaign warriors were ready to lose with fire and fury. They were not ready to win.

Author

Michael Wolff is an American author, essayist, journalist, and a columnist and contributor to USA Today, The Hollywood Reporter, and the UK edition of GQ. Wikipedia

 

By the same author

• White Kids (1979)
• Where We Stand (1996)
• Autumn of the Moguls: My Misadventures with the Titans, Poseurs, and Money Guys Who Mastered and Messed Up Big Media (2003)
• The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch (2008)
• Rupert Murdoch: The Master Mogul of Fleet Street: 24 Tales from the Pages of Vanity Fair (2011)
• Television Is the New Television: The Unexpected Triumph of Old Media In the Digital Age (2015)
• Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House (2018)

 

 

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

By Lynne Truss

I was given this book on my 30th Birthday. As someone who struggled with reading, then writing as I grew up I've always had a fascination with the English language and how we all tend to get it wrong from time to time. I've enjoyed revisiting this book but seems to bring out the worst in me as a teacher; expecting my seven year-olds to know how to make accurate use of the oxford comma.This is great little book to share, especially with those friends of yours who may, like me, want to take a marker to the signs outside green grocers and petrol stations.

Synopsis

A panda walks into a cafė. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then he draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tossesit over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
So punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death.
This is the zero tolerance guide.

Author

Lynne Truss is a writer and journalist who started out as a literary editor with a blue pencil and then got sidetracked. The author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, she spent six years as the television critic of The Times of London, followed by four (rather peculiar) years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Women's Journal. Lynne Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation. She now reviews books for the Sunday Times of London and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. She lives in Brighton, England. (GoodReads) 

Books by the Author

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (2003)
Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door (2005)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really DO Make a Difference! (2006)
Cat Out of Hell (2014)

Other Works

The One Minute Teacher

By Spencer Johnson and Constance Johnson

I read the One Minute Manger a few weeks ago and, having spent some time translating into my classroom I discovered that Constance had done that already and it was good. SO much so that I've spent the long weekend planning and resourcing to make this work for my kids. It sounds a really practical application, simplew nad straight-forward. Will the other staff go for the change? I'm not sure but I certainly can make the shift in my own classroom, grow my students self-esteem, build their self-motivation.
It's certainly worth a shot.

Synopsis

The invaluable book shows how teachers, despite the many difficulties they face in today's school systems, can make an important contributionto their students' lives and educations, Johnson and Johnson describe how the use of goal setting, praising and recovery reinforces self-esteem and creates a new kind of learning processthat will become lifelong. The One Minute Teacher reveals simple, positive ways to:
Discover and instill the love of learning
Foster success and achievement
Feel more confident and happy
Bring out the best in ourselves and others.
Practical, wise, and useful in dozens of everyday situations. The One Minute Teacher is essential reading for anyone who teaches and anyone who learns.

Authors

Dr Spencer Johnson helps people gain a better health through better communications. He has pioneered the field of medical communications for over twenty years, by taking seemingly complex technical subjects and making them more understandable and useable for millions of people.

Constance Johnson has many years teaching experience in public, parochial , and private schools, including two years with the Peace Corps in the Middle East at the University of Bahrain, College of Education, where she taught English as a second language and adn supervised student teachers.

Blame it on ABBA

By Lisa Nimmo

What a heart warming, beautifully written book. When I borrowed this book a few weeks ago I thought "This is gonna be a bit of chick-lit". But it's not. Not really. It a honest telling of the highs and lows of an individual who gave up the day job to chase the dream of performing on stage. I loved the honesty. It just goes to show that through grit and determination anything is possible. I highly recommend you give it a read. Especially, if you feel like you're reaching the point in your life when you feel those dreams you had at were sixteen/ seventeen are starting to slip away.

Synopsis

ever felt like quitting your day job to chase a dream?
Lisa Nimmo did, and this daring musical adventure is proof that it's never too late to follow your heart, reinvent yourself and become the person you were born to be.
With no pior experience and armed with only her business savvy and determination, 32-year-old Lisa embarks on a bold quest to transform herself from closet-karaoke-singing salesperson to professional singer.
Six years on she's a mum, a recording artist and her band Pearl share the stage with Sir Elton John and Eric Clapton. She is living the dream. But what if this life, that she's worked so hard to create, isn't the life she wants now? What if it has all been a terrible mistake?

Author

Lisa Nimmo is a Wellington based author, songwriter and speaker with a proven history of personal transformation.
In her twenties she mustered the courage to overcome a debilitating fear of public speaking. In her thirties Lisa embarked on a radical career change in pursuit of a childhood dream, transforming herself from closet-karaoke-singing salesperson to professional musician. In her forties Lisa brought another dream to life by becoming an author. Her memoir Blame It On Abba tells the story of her journey from fear to freedom in pursuit of her childhood singing dream. (Full Bio)

A Walk in the Woods

By Bill Bryson

I love Bill Bryson's travelogues. By now this is an oldie but a goodie. I really enjoyed the first portion of the book when he walks the major portion of the Appalachian Trail in one go. I felt the last quarter fell away to nothing as his went out for a day here and there. Having said that he writes in a very accessible and humorous way. I think I'll have to get the movie out and give it a watch.

Synopsis

The longest continuous footpath in the world, the Appalachian Trail stretches along the East Coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine. through some of the most arresting and celebrated landscapes in America.
At the age of forty-four, in the company of his friend Stephen Katz(last seen in the best selling Neither Here nor There), Bill Bryson set out to hime through the vast tangled woods which have been frightening sensible people for three hundred years. Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing ticks, the occasional chuckling murderer and - perhaps most alarming of all - people whose favourite pastime is discussing the relative merits of the of the external-frame backpack.
Facing savage weather, merciless insects, unreliable maps and a fickle

Author

William McGuire Bryson OBE HonFRS is an Anglo-American author of books on travel, the English language, science, and other non-fiction topics. Wikipedia

Other books 

The Lost Continent (1989)

Mother Tongue (1990)

Neither Here nor There (1992)

Made in America (1994)

Notes from a Small Island (1996)

A Walk in the Woods (1998)

Notes from a Big Country (1999)

Down Under (2000)
Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words (2002)
Bill Bryson's African Diary (2002)
A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003)
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (2006)
Shakespeare: The World as Stage (2007)
Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors (2008)
A Really Short History of Nearly Everything (2009)
At Home: A Short History of Private Life (2010)
One Summer: America, 1927 (2013)
The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes From a Small Island (2015)

The subtle art of not giving a f*ck

By Mark Manson 

I loved this book. It is a real self help in the most surprising way possible. It's all about realising your own potential, or rather lack there of, and accepting it. Living happily rather that wasting time striving for something you see in a movie, on TV or more likely these days, online. Constantly trying to aspire to greatness and seeking meaning in it will only lead to disappointment and heart-ache as you will quickly realise that if if you make that goal a reality you will quickly become dissatisfied with you new position and long for next. Its that spiral of hell and the only way to get out of it is "not give a f*ck". More positively, this book is about re-prioritizing your life in a more realistic fashion and becoming content with oneself.

Synopsis

In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Mason doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected American society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited—"not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault." Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.

There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.

Author

Mark Manson (born March 9, 1984) is an American self-help author, blogger and entrepreneur. He is the author of the website MarkManson.net and two books, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living the Good Life, and Models: Attract Women through Honesty. He is also the CEO and founder of Infinity Squared Media LLC. 

The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly

By Jean-Dominique Bauby

This was Rob's choice of book for our book club this year. I was delighted it was a short book until I got into it and discovered it was short for a very good reason: the author dictated using the blink of the single eyelid which he had control over following his massive stroke. I can't imagine what it would be like to suffer such a catastrophic event. But through this very beautifully written book it is possible to have a small insight into that world of locked-in syndrome.

Synopsis

After suffering a massive stroke, Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of French Elle and the father of two young children, found himself completely paralysed and speechless. Anblt only to move one eyelid, he 'dictated' the remarkable book.
The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly records Bauby's lonely existence but also the ability to invent a life for oneself in the most appalling of circumstances. It is a remarkable book about the triumph of the human spirit.

Author 

Jean-Dominique Bauby was a French actor, author and editor of the French fashion magazine ELLE. He had two children with Sylvie de la Rochefoucauld, a son named Théophile and a daughter named Céleste.

Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind

By Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick

I really enjoyed the Habits of Mind. I will be identifying maybe 6 which I can discuss and teach my class about. I look forward to seeing them put them into practice. The problem with the Habits of Mind is that they are not particularly "cognitively portable" meaning they don't naturally sping to mind like the coloured thinking hats of De Bono or the zone of proximal development. It's a long list without a helpful mnemonic. Which is why I will be teaching my seven and eight -year olds perhaps 6 over the course of this year.

Synopsis

In Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind, noted educators Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick present a comprehensive guide to shaping schools around the Habits of Mind.
The habits are a repertoire of behaviours that help students and teachers successfully navigate the various challenges and problems they encounter in the classroom and in everyday life. The Habits of Mind include:
Persisting
Managing impulsivity
Listening with understanding and empathy
Thinking flexibly
Thinking about thinking
Striving for Accuracy
Questioning and posing problems
Applying past knowledge to new situations
Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision
Gathering data through all senses
Creating, imagining, innovating
Responding with wonderment and awe
Taking responsible risks
Finding humour
Thinking interdependently
Remaining open to continuous learning

Authors

Arthur L. Costa is professor emeritus of education at California State University, Sacramento.  He has served as a classroom teacher, a curriculum consultant, and assistant superintendent for instruction, and the direction of educational programs for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  He has devoted his career to improving education through, more “thought-full” instruction and assessment.  

 

 

Bena Kallick is a private consultant providing services to school districts, state departments of education, professional organizations, and public agencies throughout the United States and internationally.  Her area of focus include group dynamics, creative and critical thinking, and alternative assessment strategies in the classroom.  Kallick has taught at Yale University of Organization and Management, University of Massachusetts Center for Creative and Critical Thinking, and Union Graduate School.  She served on the board of Jobs for the Future. 

 

I am, I am, I am

By Maggie O'Farrell

I'm so pleased I joined the two book clubs I did last year. I've met some great people I otherwise would never have really known. One of those friends recommended this book to me. It reads a chapter after chapter of close encounters with death. It begins with teenager on a lonely wilderness track narrowly avoiding a man making uncomfortable-advances and later discovering the same guy had throttled a young girl with a binocular strap on the same stretch some weeks later. 

Synopsis

I AM, I AM, I AM is Maggie O'Farrell's electric and shocking memoir of the near-death experiences that have punctuated her life. The childhood illness she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape the nearly ended in disaster. A terrifying encounter on a remote path. A mismanaged labour in a understaffed hospital. 

This is a memoir with a difference: seventeen encounters with Maggieat different ages, in different locations, reveal to us a whole life in a series of tense, visceral snapshots. Spare, elegant and utterly candid, it is a book to make you question yourself. What would you do if your life was in danger? How would you react? And what would you stand to lose? 

I AM, I AM, I AM is a book you will finish newly conscious of your own vulnerability and determined to make every heartbeat count. 

Author

Maggie O'Farrell is a Northern Irish novelist. Her book The Hand That First Held Mine won the 2010 Costa Novel Award. She appeared in Waterstones'25 Authors for the Future.

Wikipedia 

Other Books

After You'd Gone (2000)
My Lover's Lover (2002)
The Distance Between Us (2004)
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (2007)
The Hand That First Held Mine (2010)
Instructions for a Heatwave (2013)
This Must Be the Place (2016) 
I Am, I Am, I Am (2017)

Mind Hunters

by John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker 

I've always been interested in Criminal Minds the TV series. I think its one of those series that has never lost its edge. But this is not that. Rather it tells the story, through the dramaisation of interviews and discussions held with those first FBI agents who were charged with researching those murders that we later come to know as 'serial killers' in fact it is this particular fledgling department that creates such terms. The Netflix series was quiet and 'ploddy' but well written and produced as it explored the minds of the killers and the hunters.

Synopsis

He has hunted some of the most notorious and sadistic criminals of our time: The Trailside Killer in San Francisco, the Atlanta Child murderer. He has confronted, interviewed and researched dozens of serial killers and assassins, including Charles Manson, Richard Speck, John Wayne Gacy, and James Earl Ray - for a landmark study to understand their motives. To get inside their minds. He is Special Agent John Douglas, the model for law enforcement legend Jack Crawford in Thomas Harris's thrillers Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs, and the man who ushered in a new age in behavorial science and criminal profiling. Recently retired after twenty-five years of service, John Douglas can finally tell his unique and compelling story.

Authors

John E. Douglas heads the FBI Elite Serial Crime Unit and is widely experienced in the field of serial killers. This work explores psychology and motives in this area of crime.

Mark Olshaker, author of four novels and producer of the Emmy-nominated The Mind of a Serial Killer, lives in Washington DC. 

Other titles

Mindhunter (1995)
Journey Into Darkness (1997)
Obsession (1998)
The Anatomy of Motive: The FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals (1999)
Broken Wings (1999)
The cases that haunt us (2000)
Law & Disorder: The Legendary FBI Profiler's Relentless Pursuit of Justice (2013)

The Art of War

By Sun Tzu

I am sure this classic is enormously helpful to military strategists and those at the Imperial War College. It might even be required reading for corporate raiders and winners on Wall Street but for this lowly old teacher it was little more than a time filler between other, more interesting reading material. The reason I chose to read it was the classic read that it is, most recently published in the orange cover by Penguin PLUS it is constantly mentioned in dialogue in movies and I wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

Synopsis

 Conflict is an inevitable part of life, according to this ancient Chinese classic of strategy, but everything necessary to deal with conflict wisely, honourably, victoriously, is already present within us. Compiled more than two thousand years ago by a mysterious warrior-philosopher, The Art of War is still perhaps the most prestigious and influential book of strategy in the world, as eagerly studied in Asia by modern politicians and executives as it has been by military leaders since ancient times. As a study of the anatomy of organizations in conflict, The Art of War applies to competition and conflict in general, on every level from the interpersonal to the international. Its aim is invincibility, victory without battle, and unassailable strength through understanding the physics, politics, and psychology of conflict. (GoodReads)

Author

Sun Tzu was a Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher who lived in the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China. His birth name was Sun Wu. The name Sun Tzu by which he is best known in the West  which means "Master Sun".

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

By Eleanor Coerr

This is another of the 100 books to read before you grow up that I spotted at Barnes and Noble in New York when I was there a while ago. It's a very simple story, easy to read, but it'll pull at your heart strings more than any book I've read so far. The girls in my class, particularly, are going to really enjoy it. But hopefully it'll get them thinking, and questioning.

Synopsis

Hiroshima-born Sadako is lively and athletic - the star of her school's running team. And then the dizzy spells start. Soon gravely ill with leukemia, an aftereffect of the atom bomb that fell on her city when she was only and infant, Sadako approaches her illness as she did her running - with irrepressible spirit. Recalling a Japanese legend, Sadako sets to work folding paper cranes. For the legend holds that if a sick person folds one thousand cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again.

Author

Eleanor Coerr was a Canadian-born American writer of children's books, including Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes and many picture books. She was born in Kamsack, Saskatchewan, Canada, and raised in Saskatoon.
Her Japanese childhood best friend inspired her enduring interest in Japanese culture and history, which, in turn, eventually led her to write her most famous literary work.
She was born and raised in Saskatchewan, Canada. During her three-decade marriage to diplomat Wymberly De Renne Coerr (which ended with his death in 1996), she lived in the Philippines, Thailand, Brazil, Taiwan, the United States, and Japan.

Other books she has written:
Twenty Five Dragons (1971)
Biography of a Giant Panda (1975)
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (1977)
The Big Balloon Race (1981)
The Bell Ringer and the Pirates (I Can Read Book) (1983)
The Josefina Story Quilt (1986)
Lady with a Torch: How the Statue of Liberty Was Born (1986) 
Chang's Paper Pony (1988) 
Chang's Paper Pony (1993)
Mieko and the Fifth Treasure (1993)
Sam the Minuteman (1995)
Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express (1995)
Sadako (1997)
Prairie School (2003)
S Is for Silver: A Nevada Alphabet (2004)
Circus Day in Japan: Bilingual English and Japanese Text (2004)
Josefina Story Quilt (Spanish: Josefina y la colcha de retazos) (2006)

The Silver Moon

By Bryce Courtenay

Hastings District Library category says “Read a memoir or a biography”. This is my choice. Bryce Courtenay’s swan song, as it were. It’s a collection of musings and insights on his life, his death and his writings. As all of Courtenay’s writing, it is well thought out, reflective and thought provoking. It’s 123 pages and the longest book I’ve read in one sitting. I’m quietly proud of myself for that, though it has more to do with Courtenay’s captivating use of language and pace than it has to do with my perseverance. I loved this little memoir. It was a delight to me and, although I’ve only read 3 of his novels in the past, it’s encouraged me to take a fresh look at his work. Little did I realize so much of The Power of One was based on Courtenay’s early life, should’ve known, that I thought about it.

Synopsis

 “Forever since, when I go to think, I go to the place where the giraffe comes to drink from the silver bowl of the moon.” Each of us has a place to return to in our minds, a place of clarity and peace, a place to think, to create, to dream. For Bryce Courtney this place was a waterhole in Africa where he used to escape to as a boy, in search of solitude. One evening, while lingering there, he witnessed the tallest of the great beasts drinking from the waterhole in the moonlight, and was spellbound. Ever since, he drew inspiration form this moment. The Silver Moon gathers together some of the most personal and sustaining life lessons from Australia’s favourite storyteller. In short stories and insights, many written in his final months, Bryce reflects on living and dying, and how through determination, respect for others and taking pleasure in small moments of joy, he lived life to the fullest.  

Author 

Bryce Courtenay was born in the Lebombo Mountains, South Africa. In 1955, while studying journalism in London, Courtenay met his future wife, Benita Solomon, and they emigrated to Sydney in 1958. They married in 1959 and had three sons – Brett, Adam and Damon. His novels are primarily set in Australia, his adopted country, or South Africa, the country of his birth. His first book, The Power of One, was published in 1989 and, despite Courtenay's fears that it would never sell, quickly became one of Australia's best-selling books by any living author. The story was made into a film, as well as being re-released in an edition for children.

Other Books

 The Power of One (Power of One #1) (1989)
 Tandia (Power of One #2) (1992)
 A Recipe for Dreaming (1992)
April Fool's Day (1993)
The Potato Factory (The Potato Factory #1) (1995)
The Family Frying Pan (1997)
Tommo & Hawk (The Potato Factory #2) (1998)
Jessica (1998)
The Night Country (1998)
Solomon's Song (The Potato Factory #3) (1999)
Smoky Joe's Cafe (2001)
Four Fires (2001)
Matthew Flinders' Cat (2002)
Brother Fish (2004)
Whitethorn (2005)
Sylvia (2006)
The Persimmon Tree (The Persimmon Tree #1) (2007)
Fishing for Stars (The Persimmon Tree #2) (2008)
The Story of Danny Dunn (2009)
Fortune Cookie (2010)
Jack of Diamonds (2014)
The Silver Moon (2014)

The Complete Idiot's Guide to U.S. History

By Kenneth Hite and Shepherd Hendrix

I've really enjoyed this graphic novel explaining, in really simple terms, American History. I've been sharing it with my boy and it's been very accessible to him. It's opened up a dialogue about American History as he asks me about the Boston Tea Party, American Independence, The Civil War, Civil Rights and so on. Its been a start for us both, simply getting the events that we know about in chronological order has been so helpful.

Synopisis
You're no idiot, of course. You know there are exciting, meaty stories buried in American history books. But with most history tomes, it's hard to stay awake long enough to get to the good stuff.
Get a better picture of the events that made history! This book shows you action and explains what it means. In it, you get:

• Captivating stories of the people and events that shaped our nation. 
• Vivid depictions of how Americans won independence and sovereignty from sea to shining sea. 
• Enlightening explanations of domestic struggles over abolition, worker's rights, racism and minority rights. 
• Compelling examinations of America's role in international affairs, from total war to peaceful diplomacy.

Authors

Kenneth Hite
Award winning author with an academic background in history, has designed, written adn co-authored more than 70 role-playing games and supplements including Star Trek: The Next Generation RPG, Lord of the Rings RPG, and Call of Cthulhu d20.

Shepherd Hendrix
In 1991 Hendrix began as a professional comic book artist. The illurstrator of Stagger Lee, Swamp Thing, Tarzan, and many other comics. He took on other creative roles such as storyboard artist, background designer, and concept artist. His animation credits include work on the Extreme Ghostbuster TV series. 

 

Climate Changed - A personal journey through the science.

By Philippe Squarzoni

It's about time I took a look at Graphic Novels. Apparently, there is more to them than comic book nonsense. I've always been interested climate change and the arguments around it. I bought Al Gore's movie when it came out and looked into some aspects when I was studying geography in Lancaster.

I really enjoyed this book. It was an interesting format for a fascinating subject. I learnt so much about climate change, what the factors are and the weighting of these issues. For example, greenhouse gases are made up of a variety of gases including methane and carbon dioxide. It seems from what I have learnt that we are beyond the point of no return regarding global warming. The only thing we are able to do is to reduce our Carbon Emissions by, 62% by 2020 and we stand a chance of minimising our damage. When I say 62% I think that's right for New Zealand, for the US its more like 75%!

I can't read a book like this and not feel like I have a DO something to make my life a little more 'carbon-friendly'.

There are several areas of my life that I can make a change:

• Limit Travel, especially by AIR, which is by far the worst way to travel. 
• Look into Solar heating for the house. 
• Look into an electric car option. 
• But most of this means that I have to look into changing my electricity provider, to one that is more focused on using renewable energy sources e.g hydro-electric, solar, wind or wave. 

Synopsis

The causes, controversies, and consequences of climate change - and what we can do about it.
Documentary, diary, and masterwork graphic novel, this up-to-date look at our planet and we live on it explains what global warming is all about. Climate Changed: A personal journey through the science weaves together scientific research and interviews with experts to make the most complicated concepts clear. With the skill of an investigative journalist, Philippe Squarzoni provides a balanced perspective on all the facts and fuss in diagrams, charts and stunning illustrations of Earth's cities and farmlands, deserts and oceans, shopping malls and wildernesses.
Does Climate change really matter? Can we avoid the worst consequences but still preserve our freedom of choice and standard of living? Where in the world do we start?
Weighing the potential of some solutions and the false promises of others, this ground-breaking work provides all citizens of planet Earth with an unflinching view of the choices we need to make, and make soon.

Author

Philippe Squarzoni attended college in Lyon, France. He visited Croatia and the former Yugoslavia several times as a volunteer in a conflict-resolution project and travelled through Mexico, Palestine, and Israel as a human-rights observer.(Wikipedia)

Books by the same Author

Homicide, une année dans les rues de Baltimore T01 : 18 janvier - 4 février 1988 (2016)
Climate Changed: A Personal Journey through the Science (2014)
Saison brune (2012)
Un Après Midi Un Peu Couvert (2008)
Dol (2006)
Zapata, en temps de guerre (2003)


Garduno, En Temps De Paix (2002)

Helen Keller, Girl of Courage

By Francene Sabin

Each Friday in assembly each teacher picks a 'Duffy book' from from the box to give to a student who has put in a lot of effort in some regard. The box is filled perhaps twice a year.  This book has been sitting, unread in the Duffy box waiting for a home to go to since half way through last year. Helen Keller keeps appearing in my 'quote of the day' over recent weeks and it reminded me that this book is sitting, waiting for a home. 

I loved this little book. Its write with 9 year olds in mind and its vocabulary, font size and illustrations show that. But its a great little summary of Helen's life, her trials and challenges. Its made we want to find out more. To dig deeper about this strong, Medal of Freedom winner. I strongly recommend you have your kids read and reflect upon this amazing life.

Synopsis

When Helen Keller was two years old, she got a terrible disease that left her deaf, blind, and mute. But despite her challenges, she worked hard to speak, read and write - and inspired many people to do the same.

Author

Francene Sabin is a published author and an illustrator of children's books and young adult books.

Joanne Mattern is the author of many books for children. Her favorite topics include animals, biography, and history. She lives in the Hudson Valley of New York State.

Other books by Francene Sabin.
Other books by Joanne Mattern.

Hit and Run

By Nicky Hager and John Stephenson

This book has hit the headlines this week in New Zealand. Its calling for an independent inquiry into what some may call a war crime.

'Investigative Journalism' is not a priority in New Zealand. The media, it seems is more of a echo chamber for government and big business. It seems that the press only goes so far when 'calling power to account'. I believe it is their principle role in a democracy. Its why I watch Q&A or The Nation. Why I listen to John Campbell and Duncan Garner when I can on the radio. There is only a handful reporters, let alone news outlets that take this role seriously.

Nicky Hager and John Stephenson have done that here, which is why I sent $30 on the book. Not only to read for myself of issues at hand but feel like I am paying them to do such work on my behalf.

Synopsis

In August 2010, a New Zealand soldier died in a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan. In retaliation, the New Zealand SAS led a raid on two isolated villages in search of the fighters they suspected were responsible.
They all knew the rules. Prior to firing weapons, their freshly issued orders said, 'the commander approving the strike must determine that no civilians are present.' If they could not assess whether civilians were present, firing was prohibited. But it all went horribly wrong.

Great summary of events described in the book found here.

Authors

Nicky Hager is a New Zealand investigative journalist. He has produced six books since 1996, covering topics such as intelligence networks, environmental issues and politics.

 Jon Stephenson is an Auckland-based investigative journalist with extensive experience reporting conflict and trauma.

My opinion:

Despite Nicky Hager's reputation as having a flare for the dramatic I am of the opinion that the New Zealand government need to initiate an independent inquiry.

These are serious allegations that Hager and Stephenson are making and they are being refuted in the strongest possible terms by Tim Keating and others from the Defense Force, someone is not being truthful.

If Tim Keating is correct about the NZ SAS forces working in another village that night, elsewhere, then I am sure an independent inquiry will bring that to light and the Defense Force will be vindicated.

However, having read the book, at this point I found myself convinced by Jon Stephenson's version of events.

I was shocked and saddened to think that my government would condone such actions and respond in such a questionable when these allegations have come to light.

I believe the New Zealand public needs to be convinced that this mess is brought to a fair and satisfactory conclusion and I don't see us being satisfied by the Prime Minister merely saying that he is happy with the Defense Force saying they were simply not involved.

Finally, I am concerned that if the New Zealand public allow the government to sweep this under the carpet our integrity and standing as a nation may well be compromised.

Let's have an independent inquiry which can sift the truth from the lies.

 

How do you feel about the allegations made in the Hit & Run book reported this week in NZ media this week? 

 

Other books by this author: 

Hit & Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the meaning of honour (2017)
Dirty Politics: How Attack Politics is Poisoning New Zealand's Political Environment  (2014)
Other People's Wars: New Zealand in Afghanistan, Iraq and the war on terror (2011)
The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception (2006)
Seeds of Distrust: the story of a GE cover-up (2002)
Secrets and Lies: The Anatomy of an Anti-Environmental PR Campaign (2002)
Secret Power: New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network (1996)

 

 

 

A Long Walk to Water

By Linda Sue Park

 Based on a true story 

And that is what made this story so powerful; the fact that it was based on a true story. It cut me deep. It touched my heart in a way that a book really hasn’t done.
 But that’s not the story I want to share. It’s been the school holidays, I handed this book to my son (11) who had just finished a favourite book whose sequel we couldn’t get hold of. I said to him to try this one. I told him its outside his usual type of story, but I said that its quite a good thing, to challenge yourself with different genre. I’m not sure what else I said but somehow I managed to talk into reading it.
After the first day I asked how he found it. He said a non-committal “it’s ok”. But he went on an said that he wasn’t sure he wanted to read it. The same conversation happened the next day and I managed to talk him into persevering.
When he’d finished it, when I’d finished The Spire, I picked it up and began reading. It was only then that I realized why he wanted to stop reading. I said I’ve just read the first four chapters. Is that when you said you wanted to stop reading? It was when the lead character’s friend is devoured by a lion. “Yep” he said.
The next day, I get to the point where the lead’s family member is shot by bandits. Was this when you wanted to stop reading? “Yep” he said.
I felt quite bad. For a while. But what I’ve noticed is change in his perspective. His prayers are have taken on a depth, a concern for oppressed children, the less fortunate. I’ve had conversation with him about ‘how the other half live’. We talked about the age of the lead character being about my age and the age of the other lead being a little older than him. I think this book has cut him deep too. Touched his heart, got the better.

 I need to plug the Water for Sudan project that Silva Dut (the lead) began. I want to urge you to read this little book. I’m betting it’ll cut you deep, too.

Synopsis

Two young people, two stories, one country - Sudan
Home for just long enough to eat, Nya would now make her second trip to the pond. To the pond and back - to the pond and back - nearly a full day of walking altogether.
This was Nya's daily routine seven months of the year. Daily. Every single day.
Salva ran until he could not run anymore. Then he walked.
For hours, until the sun was nearly gone from the sky. As Salva walked, the same thoughts kept going through his head in rhythm with his steps. Where are we going? Where is my family? When will I see them again?

Author 

This mesmerising dual narrative by Newbury medalist Linda Sue Parks shows us that in a troubled country, determined survivors may find the future they are hoping for.
She worked as a journalist, a copywriter, and a teacher of English as a second language, she now writes full time.

Books by the author

A variety of picture books
Seesaw Girl (1999)
The Kite Fighters (2000)
A Single Shard (2001)
When My Name Was Keoko (2002)
Project Mulberry (2005)
Archer's Quest (2006)
Keeping Score (2008)
Long Walk to Water (2010)
The 39 Clues: Trust No One (2012)
The 39 Clues: Storm Warning (2013)

Teacher Resources

• A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park - SuperSummary Study Guide
• A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park l Summary & Study Guide
• University of Queensland Press: Study Guide
• Tindley Collegiate: Study Guide

The Boys in the Boat

It is oftentimes that I feel a smattering of grief when coming to the end of a book. More-so a biography and none more than this particular novel.
1936 is such an age ago, Seattle is possibly as close to the Arctic as I am from the Antarctic and as for Berlin, that is quite literally half a world away. Yet I have come to feel such a connection with these "Boys in the Boat".
I must confess that I didn't really go looking for this particular book. It came to my attention via a search I did in the Book Depository for "Dan Brown" novels. Daniel James Brown, is clearly not the same guy but took a second look as it was a narrative non-fiction which I have enjoyed before in the form of Stephen E. Ambrose's plethora of war stories. But clearly The Boys in the Boat wasn't really that either. I took a chance that I might like it. Look at something a little different to Lee Child or Tom Clancy novels, something a little more cultured, a little more interesting for the fact that it's all true.

To say I enjoyed this book will be a huge understatement.  the narrative was written at pace and with with such clarity that is was easy to follow. The characters described in detail and their challenges and faults laid bare that you can't help but connect with these young men and their determination to succeed.

Synopsis

The Boys in the Boat follows the story of Joe Rantz and his working-class crew mates from the University of Washington as they make their way through qualifying for and finally winning the Olympic Gold in Berlin in 1936. Knowing the ending does not spoil the story one bit, for story lies in the journey there not in the arriving.

Have you read any decent biographies lately?

Author

 Daniel James Brown studied and then taught in California before turning his hand to writing narrative non-fiction full time. The Boys on the Boat is his third novel. He has been nominated and won a variety of awards over the years including being ainalist for the 2007 and 2010 Washington State Book Award for Under a Flaming Sky, The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894 and The Indifferent Stars Above, The Harrowing Sage of a Donner Party Bride, respectively.
He won the 2014 Washington State Book Award for Nonfiction for The Boys in the Boat, Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Olympics.

Daniel James Brown, Author of The Boys in the Boat discusses his writing with participants and supporters of the 2013 Lake Leelanau Chase Regatta on October 26, 2013.

Books by the same author:
Under the flaming sky (2006)
Indifferent Stars (2009)