Catch-up #2: Imprisoned by Sandler, Boxers and Saints by Yang, The Haunting of Hill House by Jackson

Another day, another attack on the sidebar. We can party when I'm finished.


The subtitle of Imprisoned by Martin W. Sandler says it all: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans During WWII. I don't know what made me mentally reduce this horror to the thought that perhaps it was merely immigrants, not naturalized citizens that were forced into prison camps in the U.S. during WWII, but boy was I wrong. They were not only citizens but some some were 2nd or 3rd generation and they were people who owned businesses, contributed immensely to the American economy as well as farming practices in the U.S. and were incredibly proud of being American citizens. As a result of hysteria, they were forced to sell their land and possessions for next to nothing, rounded up, and imprisoned in deliberately remote and hellish places. Now, I understand.

Imprisoned is an oversized book published for children by Walker Books for Young Readers (a Bloomsbury imprint) so it has lots of nice photographs and slightly large print but the author doesn't talk down to his audience. He clearly describes the politics involved in the unconstitutional decision to put American citizens in camps, the racial prejudice Japanese Americans had been dealing with since their arrival, the living conditions and the horror of losing everything they'd worked for, the amazing strength of character and creativity shown by those imprisoned and the various attempts at reparation and results. So, there's plenty of material that adults may enjoy every bit as much as the targeted younger audience. I bought my copy and I'm glad I did. I'll be referring back to it and looking up some of the other books mentioned.

Yet another purchase, I bought both Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang, companion graphic novels that tell the story of the Boxer Rebellion from two differing viewpoints.

Boxers tells the story from the viewpoint of a young boy called Little Bao who sees the Christians in China as foreign devils and a threat, while Saints tells the side of a young Chinese girl (called Four Girl by her family) who becomes a Christian and is able to acquire a real name of her own, Vibiana. Their stories intersect when they cross paths as children and again when one kills the other as the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fist (to which Little Bao belongs) violently overtakes the Christians.

I read Boxers and Saints because I loved The Eternal Smile and American Born Chinese by Yang. I can't say I loved Boxers and Saints as much, but I did like them and reading graphic novels is a tremendously palatable way to learn a bit about history. I'd heard about the Boxer Rebellion but if you'd asked me what it was before I read Boxers and Saints, I probably would have said, "The year everyone decided to leave out the Christmas decorations, maybe?" or something equally inane.

There are elements of magical realism to the stories but I don't feel like saying much more. Andi's review of Boxers and Saints is much better than anything I can think of to say. You should read it.

Speaking of Andi, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is a book I read casually as part of a read-along (IOW, I didn't officially sign up to participate), although I never saw any mention of a hashtag and it took me forever to figure out the read-along was hosted by The Estella Society, not Estella's Revenge. Close but no cigar.

I've read Shirley Jackson's short story collection, The Lottery, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (pre-blog), but this was my first reading of The Haunting of Hill House.

Known as a horror classic, The Haunting of Hill House tells the story of a man named Dr. Montague who has spent years seeking out a haunted house to observe as an experiment. Four characters end up staying in Hill House. Dr. Montague is in charge, of course. Eleanor is a lonely single woman who is looking for adventure and a fresh start after spending much of her adulthood caring for her mother. Theodora is a spirited, happy-go-lucky woman; to her the stay at Hill House is a bit of a lark. Luke, son of the owners and future inheritor of Hill House, is described as a liar but never really gave me the sense that he was an unreliable character, although I wouldn't think of him as trustworthy, either.

The house gives off evil vibes and Eleanor, in particular, seems to be targeted by its antics, inside and out. Even outdoors, bizarre things happen. Eleanor is the most sensitive to psychic phenomenon, having been the victim of a possible gremlin (I think -- not sure I'm remembering right) when she was young. Dr. Montague has informed them that once the house decides to claim someone, they will die trying to get away. Will the 4 visitors survive the escalating terror alive?

I'm not going to give anything away but there were definitely moments The Haunting of Hill House scared the bejeezus out of me. I particularly loved reading the book for the historical perspective, though. Since it was published in 1959, there were oddities of speech and perspective from that time period. I particularly found it interesting that Eleanor thought she was being just a little bit wild when she set out a pair of slacks to wear and mentioned how horrified her mother would be (dresses and skirts only, ladies!) I've been around long enough to have lived with an elementary school dress code in which girls were forbidden to wear pants with one exception: matching pantsuits were allowed. Hard to fathom, today, isn't it? Definitely recommended. I really enjoyed The Haunting of Hill House and will return to it when I want to be creeped out, in the future.

I recommend all four of these books, but among them Imprisoned and The Haunting of Hill House were my 5-star reads; Boxers and Saints got 4 stars.

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Good Question Series - books about the American West, Plants, the Senses, Butterflies, the Civil War, Our Planet and the Solar System by Carson, Sandler and Stewart

It took me quite a while to decide exactly how to handle reviewing this lovely little pile of question/answer books that were sent to me by Sterling Children's [unsolicited but appreciated!] but I've finally decided it's best to keep the entire Good Question series in one post and describe each book briefly.

In general, I tend to dislike Q/A books because they're self-limiting or seemingly random in the questions they address. The advantage to each of these titles is that they're focused on a specific topic. While I think some are better than others, I really did like this particular series because of the large illustrations and (in some cases) photographs.  The titles on Westward Expansion in the U.S. and the American Civil War have some gorgeous photographs that are crystal clear and large enough to really get a good look at the people and places. The illustrations are also large, colorful and clearly labeled. So, visually, the entire series is exceptional.

Who Were the American Pioneers? and other questions about Westward Expansion by Martin W. Sandler is gorgeous but I have to admit I was a little upset by the fact that it took quite a while before the author got around to asking a question about Native Americans and that was, "Why did Native Americans and Pioneers fight?"  It seemed to me that the first thing that ought to be asked was, "Were there people living in the West before European immigrants moved in?" However, when the topic was addressed, it was answered well and with respect toward the Native Americans, in my humble opinion.

Otherwise, Who Were the American Pioneers? was one of my favorite books from the Good Question series.  It has a few beautiful period photos: a log cabin, a sod house, children and their teacher in front of a one-room schoolhouse, a cowboy.  There is a map of various trails to the West Coast and a timeline. There's talk about the Pony Express and the railroad's contribution to expansion.

How Does a Seed Sprout? and Other Questions about Plants by Melissa Stewart is, again, a book with gorgeous illustrations and photos. I particularly love the full-page photo of a bird with tiny worms in his beak.

But, I had a problem with How Does a Seed Sprout? Instead of answering the questions in the first sentence and then elaborating upon them, I felt like I had to dig to find the answers. However, apart from that issue, the questions were answered well and I was reminded of a few things I'd forgotten about plants. I do think it would have been preferable to answer the questions clearly in a single, beginning sentence, first. My opinion. That was, as I recall, true of all of the books written by Melissa Stewart.

How Does the Ear Hear? and Other Questions about the Five Senses is another book by Melissa Stewart.  Oddly, I marked a page and can't figure out for the life of me why I did.  That tells you how long it's taken me to get around to writing about the book but perhaps I just liked the questions in that spread because from a glance, actually, I do.  One is, "What causes an itch?" and the other is, "Why can't you tickle yourself?"

I remember wondering about the tickling thing when I was young. On the negative side, allergies aren't mentioned as one of the causes of itching. Believe me, that's on my mind, right now. We're in the midst of tree pollen season and getting "high pollen" alerts daily. That's a petty complaint, though, as the author's answer to "What causes an itch?" is a broad one.

How Does a Caterpillar Become a Butterfly? and Other Questions about Butterflies by Melissa Stewart is one of my favorites. I read a book called An Obsession with Butterflies, a few years back, and I think I can safely say I'm not obsessed but I find butterflies fascinating and love reading about them. My favorite photo is a full-page photo of a luna moth (which I've had the privilege of seeing, long ago, on the bricks of my childhood home).  My favorite quote follows a list of 4 easy ways to tell the difference between moths and butterflies:

Have you heard that all butterflies have bright colorful wings? Or that all moths have brown or gray wings? Don't believe it. The next time you see a large-winged insect flitting through the air, don't look at its color. Think about the time of day.  Look at the insect's antennae and scales, and watch how it perches. Then you'll know if it's a butterfly or a moth.  ~p. 24

Why Does Earth Spin? and Other Questions about Our Planet by Mary Kay Carson describes all sorts of things -- weather, the layers of the planet, the reason for earthquakes, the layers of the atmosphere, the moon's importance to the earth. When I closed the book, I found myself thinking about the layers beneath my feet all day. You'd think I'd be beyond that, but I guess once you exit school and no longer have little kids to pummel you with questions, those things no longer tend to roll around in your head the way they used to.

So, I enjoyed Why Does Earth Spin? for the reminder of the geology that used to fascinate me. The only problem I had with Why Does Earth Spin? was the following quote:

Mountains are made by clashing tectonic plates. As plates shove into each other and up and over one another, rock is pushed up into a growing mountain range. ~p. 12

I would have liked to see something on the order of, "Sedimentation and carving from glaciers are also part of the processes that create mountains," just to keeping children from thinking the movement of plates is the singular cause of mountain range creation.

What Was America's Deadliest War? and Other Questions about The Civil War by Martin W. Sandler is a great example (and one of my personal favorites) of why the Good Question books would be well suited to use as jumping-off points for study units.  There's only so much you can squeeze into one tiny book, but if you're thinking about doing a unit on the Civil War in your classroom or at home, for example, or you're preparing to go on vacation to a city with a nearby Civil War site, the questions in What Was America's Deadliest War? will give you a nice general overview of the war and from there you can branch out.

What Was America's Deadliest War? does have one issue that jumped out at me: the author didn't mention Vicksburg, Mississippi's 43-day siege, one of the major turning points in favor of the Union.

On the plus side, right off the bat you learn some basic information like which states were slave-holding states, which were not and those that were divided. You get to see photos of soldiers (a full-page photo of soldiers standing beside a cannon and the many individual portraits are all wonderful), read about the Gettysburg Address . . . enough to pique a child's interest so he or she will want to learn more.

Last but not least is, How Many Planets Circle the Sun? and Other Questions about Our Solar System by Mary Kay Carson I've said more than I planned to say about all the other books so I'm just going to mention the one thing I loved about this book most: the illustrations. Some of the illustrations are so detailed and realistic that I stared at them and thought, "Wait, this is an illustration?" They are photographically detailed. Gorgeous, gorgeous. Seriously, one of the best things about the entire series, in general: the photos and illustrations rock.

I recommend them all. Some I like more than others but I really enjoyed reading all of the books in the Good Question series and I know my kids and I would have enjoyed reading them to see which particular subjects really grabbed the kids enough to go out and look for more information.

I received all seven Good Question books from Sterling Children's Book and will be passing them on to a local elementary school teacher. Hopefully, they'll get good use.  

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.