A poetic description of a life in two languages.
Engle, Margarita. Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2015.
Margarita Engle is the daughter of a Cuban mother and an American father. Born before the Cuban revolution, she grew up mostly in California, but spent her summers with her grandparents in Cuba. There, she learned to love the land, the language, and its people. In free verse that is both detailed and evocative, she speaks of the "otherness" she recognizes in each place. She calls the first half of her book "Magical Travels." Then the Cuban revolution changes everything. She can no longer travel to Cuba; even letters back and forth between the families become difficult. Her Cuban-American family is caught in a web of suspicion, especially after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
For young readers, it is both a history lesson and an evocation of a life bifurcated by immigration, lost contact with family, and dual languages. It is also an example of the power of language to enable readers to feel as well as understand the experiences of others, and a timely reminder of how world events intrude upon the everyday lives of ordinary people.
Engle notes at the end of the book that as she was writing it, she was hoping for normalization of relations between the two countries. "That prayer has been answered," she writes. Well, maybe.
Sis, Peter. Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei. New York: Farrar, Straus Giroux, 1996.
Sis's many children's books range from the whimsical to the profound. The Starry Messenger is the story of a young boy fascinated by the world around him, spending hours watching the sun, the moon, and the stars. It is also the story of a man who stands up to the authorities who are threatened by his findings, even at the cost of his freedom. Though many people believed his revelation that the earth travels around the sun and not the other way around, others were threatened by this new idea, especially the leaders of the Catholic Church, a powerful force in 16th century Italy. But Galileo remained faithful to the truth as he saw it, and spent the last years of his life under house arrest for his "heretical" beliefs.
Sis brings his own vivid imagination and delight in the natural world to the illustrations in this book, which at first glance appear almost childlike, even as they convey a profound sense of wonder and a wealth of information.
I had the pleasure of meeting him at an ALA conference years ago, and he signed my copy of his book in his own inimitable way.
It's Still Baseball Season
Curlee, Lynn. Ballpark: The Story of America's Baseball Fields. New York: Atheneum, 2005.
As Curlee's exquisite drawings illustrate many of the baseball parks that live in the legends of the game, he also discusses how changes in the location and design of these parks reflect changes in the social structure of the country. Early parks such as Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and Wrigley Field on the north side of Chicago were wedged into city neighborhoods and became part of that neighborhood's identity. They were accessible by subway, bus, and foot. As populations moved out of the cities and into the suburbs, so did ballparks like the Astrodome in Houston, surrounded by vast parking lots and accessible only by car. Then in the 1990s came a new trend, a reversal back to the city and back to the style of the older parks,with the addition of modern facilities. Baltimore's Camden Yards is a prime example. Viewing the game through the physical structures in which it is played offers a different perspective on the ways in which baseball both reflects and influences our cultural experience.
Living History
Freedman, Russell. In Defense of Liberty: the Story of America's Bill of Rights. New York: Holiday House, 2003.
Freedman opens his discussion of the Bill of Rights by listing a few questions that spark heated debates in 21st century America. Can school children be required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance? Can a rap group be prosecuted for using "obscene" lyrics. He then goes back in time to discuss the reasons that the framers of the Constitution believed they needed to add amendments that specifically stated the rights of citizens. In each succeeding chapter, he examines one of the amendments, discussing the various interpretations of that amendment over time, and describing a few of the cases that have been brought before the courts and decided on the basis of that amendment. His clear and compelling discussions remind us that these ten amendments to our Constitution, written more than 200 years ago, remain vital to our democracy today. This book offers the best civics lesson I've ever had.
A Tale of Two Cultures
Fitzpatrick, Marie-Louise. The Long March: The Choctaw's Gift to Irish Famine Relief. Illustrated by the author. Choctaw editing and foreword by Gary WhiteDeer. Hillsboro, Oregon: Beyond Words Publishing, Inc., 1998.
This book tells two intertwining stories. Tom, an elder member of the Choctaw nation, recalls a time in 1847, when he was a 14-year old youth and all the members of his tribe were called together to hear the latest news of their people. Among the stories told at that gathering was the story of a great famine in a far-away land called Ireland. The young Tom, who was called Choona in his youth, was perplexed. What did a famine in an unknown land have to do with the Choctaw nation?
Then his great-grandmother rose within the meeting to retell the story of "The Long March," when the Choctaw peoples were forcibly removed from their homelands in the southeastern United States and made to march to "Indian Territory," now part of the state of Oklahoma. For many, it was a death march. Choona had been only vaguely aware of that story from his tribe's distant and misty past. His great-grandmother thought it necessary for each generation to know that story and to see its connection to the stories of other displaced persons. As she saw it, "their story is our story."
The Choctaw nation collected $170, more than $6,000 in today's currency, and sent it to an Irish famine relief agency.
Marie-Louise Fitzgerald, the writer and illustrator of this book, traveled from her native Ireland to Oklahoma to work with Gary WhiteDeer, a Choctaw, to research the story for this book. According to information on the book's jacket, the project was supported by CAIT, Celts and American Indians Together, a bi-national organization that raises money for World Famine Relief. CAIT is headquartered at Iona College in New Rochelle New York.
Note: I tried to research CAIT on the Internet, but was unable to find any current information.
http://www.worldcat.org/title/long-march-the-choctaws-gift-to-irish-famine-relief/oclc/812206335&referer=brief_results
In recognition of Bloomsday, June 16
Allison, Jonathan, ed. William Butler Yeats. Series title: Poetry for Young People. Illustrated by Glenn Harrington. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. 2002.
The Irish poet William Butler Yeats remains one of the most admired and often quoted poets of the last century. In his introduction to each poem, editor Allison recalls the mystical traditions of Ireland and also explains the historical context in which the poem was written. Illustrator Harrington's paintings help readers to envision the haunting beauty of Ireland, so deftly evoked by the poet's words.
http://www.worldcat.org/title/poetry-for-young-people-william-butler-yeats/oclc/329858974&referer=brief_results
In honor of Flag Day
Rubin, Susan Goldman. The Flag with Fifty-Six Stars: A Gift from the Survivors of Mauthausen. Illustrations by Bill Farnsworth. New York: Holiday House, 2005.
Having heard, on their jury-rigged radios, of the advancing American army, and having watched their German captors flee, the prisoners in the Austrian concentration camp Mauthausen decided to welcome their liberators with an American flag made from whatever scraps of material they had at hand. Not knowing the number of stars to put on the flag, they guessed 56. When the Americans arrived, the prisoners gave the astonished commander a gift of the flag. Together, the prisoners and soldiers raised the flag over the camp. That flag now resides in the Simon Wiesenthal Museum in Los Angeles.
http://www.worldcat.org/title/flag-with-fifty-six-stars-a-fift-from-the-survivors-of-mauthausen/oclc/962196233&referer=brief_results
