Library Matters: Anthropocene

Showing posts with label Anthropocene. Show all posts

#IMWAYR August 21, 2023

Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.

We have the worst air on the planet these days. It's nasty. Forest are burning all around us, but not close enough to us that we are worried for our own safety. Still, friends, family and so many other people are either on evacuation alert, or have been evacuated that our provincial government has stopped all nonessential traffic into our region.

I think I complained about the smoke last time I posted. We had a fabulous family reunion on the August long weekend in spite of it. Then we had a bit of respite for about a week after the fire to the south of us was brought under control. This was good because two of our granddaughters stayed with us and besides reading books together, going outside to tire them is part of our keeping sane strategy. Then their parents came and collected them just before all hell broke loose. This link will take you to a time lapse video of the fire about 100 kilometres north of us.

We started out their visit with trip to the library where we stocked up on books. I've shared some of them here.

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

MOST RECENT BLOG POST

FREE VERSE FRIDAY #8 AUGUST - VACATION

CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS

Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff January 1, 1958

My three year old granddaughter chose this (as well as a whole lot of other dinosaur books) from the library. There can be unfortunate consequences when a dinosaur practices its manners. We all laughed at this one.

How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague (Illustrator) January 1, 2009

This is another one the dinosaur mad granddaughter picked from the library. We read it at least three times during the 7 days she and her older sister were with us.

How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague (Illustrator) February 1, 2003

We read this at least once a day during the 7 days my granddaughters were with us. After the youngest had gone to sleep, her six year old sister chose it as one of the books to read with me.
This one is a winner.

Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn & Rosalind Beardshaw (Illustrator) January 1, 2006

This is one of the books my six year old granddaughter picked to bring home from the library. She read it on her own a number of times. It wasn't til they returned to their parents that I found time to read it myself. I can see why she loved it.
Rosalind Beardshaw's art is gorgeous. I love how multicultural the characters are.

Duck, Duck, Porcupine! by Salina Yoon May 17, 2016

My granddaughters and I enjoyed this hilarious graphic novel for beginning readers. The six year old could read it by herself. We will definitely read more of this series!

Dragon's Halloween by Dav Pilkey January 1, 1993

My six year old granddaughter loved this beginning chapter book. I read it to her and her little sister first, then she picked it up and read it on her own.

Perfectly Imperfect Mira by Faith Pray April 12, 2022

My six year old granddaughter picked this out from the library shelves. I'm so glad she did, as I might have overlooked it.
Mira wants to be perfect and frets when she can't do things perfectly the first time. Eventually she realizes that she needs to do something and so she begins to practice different gymnastic moves on her own. Even though she doesn't do them perfectly, she doesn't give up and continues to improve. In the end Mira realizes she is perfect at growing.
This is a brilliant book that shows all of us how perfection is the enemy of the good.
I love Faith Pray's soft illustrations and how rounded and healthy Mira looks.

Carson Crosses Canada by Linda Bailey & Kass Reich (Illustrations) May 30, 2017 🍁

When Annie Magruder learns that her sister, who lives on the other side of Canada, is ill, she decides to go see her. She fills her VW Bug up with her tent, baloney sandwiches, her dog Carson, and his favourite toy, Squeaky Chicken. She promises Carson there will be a surprise for him when they get there. We enjoyed reading about their adventures in the different parts of the country. The best part is when Annie goes to get a souvenir at Niagra Falls, and Carson leaves his own souvenir there.
Eventually they make it to Annie's sister's place and Carson is delighted with his surprise.

CHILDREN'S NONFICTION PICTURE BOOKS

A Seed Grows by Antoinette Portis June 21, 2022

I wish I had remembered that I had this book on my iPad when my grandchildren were visiting. We could have read the book and then, after reading about the different phases of a this plant, gone outside and admired the sunflowers growing in my garden.
Not only do I love the illustrations here, I love how the simple text can be embraced by beginning readers.
I appreciated the additional information at the back of the book that includes a visual lifecycle.
This is a brilliant nonfiction text for new readers.

Being Frog by April Pulley Sayre February 4, 2020

This was a reread for me, but I had to introduce my grandchildren to the wonders of frogs. I chose this and the following title. You can read my original review of this book here.

The Frog Mother (Mothers of Xsan, 4) by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson), Natasha Donovan (Illustrations) 🍁

The Mothers of Xsan Series highlights the Gitxsan’s way of knowing the world by showing the integration of culture and nature. I've reviewed this one in full here.
Not only were the grandchildren engaged by this one, the six year old, just after we started reading, remarked that it seemed like an indigenous book.

What Will Hatch? by Jennifer Ward & Susie Ghahremani (Illustrator) February 5, 2013

This is a delightful information board book. Each section is made up of two, two page spreads. The first includes a setting with a clutch of eggs and includes the question? What will hatch? The next page names and shows the hatched creatures. Each set of pages also includes a rhyming couplet. Readers will learn about turtles, tadpoles, penguins and crocodiles. Did you know that crocodiles are doting mothers?

MIDDLE GRADE FICTION

The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt & Fred Berman (Narrator)

Gary Schmidt is one of a handful of authors who I read just because I am guaranteed to fall in love with their male characters.

There is a lot going on here. Hercules Beal and his brother, Achilles, are left to run their family farm and nursery after their parents are killed in an automobile accident.

Hercules starts out at a new school with a hard core, ex marine, home room teacher who assigns unique projects for each of his students. Hercules’ assignment is to find parallels between his life and the labours of his mythical namesake.

The book is full of adventure punctuated by ethereal moments of calm as Hercules, his dog, and pirate cat greet each dawn on a sand dune by the ocean. It’s also loaded with screaming hilarity.

It shows a community, even the most crotchety members, stepping up to support their own when they need it. It shows us a boy dealing with grief and coming into his own. It’s just bloody lovely.

Winterkill by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch &. Michael Gallagher (Narrator) September 6, 2022

I become besotted with Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's writing all over again after reading one of her novels. She writes about historically horrific and brutal times with such compassion and tenderness for her characters, without whitewashing any of the reality.
This book is very timely since it is set in the Ukraine. It deals with the Holodomor, a genocide by famine deliberately engineered by Stalin.

ADULT/YA NONFICTION

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green May 18, 2021

I savoured this book. I mostly listened to one or two essays at a time. If it was at night and I fell asleep, I was happy to go back and start where I began the night before.
At one point I stopped reading and spent the rest of the afternoon listening to The Mountain Goats.
I give The Mountain goats 4 stars.
John Green narrated this himself. His voice added layers of nuance to the pieces. While some pieces might be more personal than other's I really appreciated Green's honesty & ability to make a personal connection to everything in the book.

I give "The Anthropocene Reviewed" five stars.

CURRENTLY

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Global by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin, Giovanni Rigano (Illustrator)

UP NEXT

I have no idea.

READING GOALS

#MustReadFiction 16/24

#MustReadNonFiction 12/20

Canadian Authors 29/75

Indigenous Authors 12/20

Big Books Summer 2023 - 12 - one in progress

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 127/200

#IMWAYR July 26, 2021

Hello everyone. It's #IMWAYR time again, when readers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to in the past week. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. Whatever you are looking forward to in your next great read, these are fabulous places to start your search.

The world is on fire. At least, our part of it is. As of Sunday, we have 1,217 fires burning in our province. One of them is raging across the valley from where I live. So far it has burned 6,871.8 hectares (16,980.6 acres) It's moved from the grassland areas where people live into the treed area above it. On Sunday evening we sat on our front lawns with friends. Looking through our binoculars, we watched trees candling. I wept.

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

PICTURE BOOKS

4 stars

A Boy Like You by Frank Murphy & Kayla Harren (Illustrator)

This book features a diversity of boys engaged in all kinds of activities. They all focus on positive attributes. The books works to eliminate toxic masculinity from boys and men.

4 stars

Story Boat by Kyo Maclear & Rashin Kheiriyeh (Illustrations) 🍁

A family of refugees makes their home in different places on a daily basis. It’s the small things: a special cup, blanket, or light, that comfort them.
Rashin Kheiriyeh’s lovely artwork “was created with the coloured pencil and watercolour, oil and acrylic paint and painted paper, with additional natural materials including wood, wall and cut paper.”

4 stars

Escape Goat by Ann Patchett & Robin Preiss Glasser (Illustrations)

When this adorable goat decides it wants to see more of the world, it ends up getting accused of all kinds of things it didn’t do. I loved Robin Preiss Glaser‘s detailed artwork. She used ink and watercolour to create these illustrations. Many thanks to Shaye Miller for turning me onto this book.

4 stars

The Rock from the Sky by Jon Klassen 🍁

This is dark and weird and screamingly hilarious.

NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS

4 stars

The Bat by Elise Gravel 🍁

Elise Gravel creates absolutely delightful nonfiction titles for younger readers. They are so much fun, you hardly know you are learning. She proves that bats are fascinating in this one. I appreciate that she even mentions how we humans are threatening bats with extinction.

5 stars

Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued by Peter Sís

I knew about the kindertransport, but this similar story is new to me. Nicolas Winton was a young man in 1938 when he arranged for 669 Jewish children to leave Czechoslovakia before the German invasion. Vera is one of the young girls he saved. This beautiful book, that celebrates the good that an ordinary person can do, gave me shivers.

CHAPTER BOOKS

4 stars

Jo Jo Makoons: The Used-to-Be Best Friend by Dawn Quigley & Tara Audibert (Illustrations) 🍁

Jo Jo is a first grade Ojibwe girl. Her first best friend is a cat. She’s not sure about Fern, her school best friend. At the same time as this book is delightfully funny, it also deals with the important topic of how to be a friend.

Jo Jo reminds me of Junie B Jones.

Tara Audibert is Canadian.

NOVELS

4 stars

Ways to Grow Love (Ryan Hart, #2) by Renée Watson

There is less cooking in this second Ryan Hart novel, but that's because Ryan has so much going on in her life! Her pregnant mom is on bed rest so she spends more time with her Grandma. She's busy reading books from the library for their summer reading program. There is the excitement of summer camp with her best friends. It isn't until the end of the book that we see this young chef cooking up a storm again.
Ryan learns a lot about caring for all your neighbours, even the ones you don't know. She comes to understand forgiveness. At the end of the book, Ryan discovers the overwhelming love of a baby sister when she arrives.

5 star reads

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon & Bahni Turpin (Narrator)

Every time I read something by Nicola Yoon, I fall more in love with her writing. If you add Bahni Turpin's narration into the mix, you get about as close to perfection as is possible.

I thought this would be a light fun romance. I needed it after all the intense adult nonfiction I've been reading. It has many of the aspects of a fun filled romcom. It's even got a bit of magic.

Ever since Evie Thomas caught her father kissing another woman, she doesn't believe in romance. Then she developed the ability to read the past and future of kissing couples. None of them have had happy endings. This new ability of hers led her to a dance studio where she ended up partnering with X, a gorgeous young man. The two of them enter a dance contest. Of course they fall in love. It seems perfect until Evie has one of her visions while the two of them are kissing.

What suprised me about this book is how deeply it looks into the nature of love. It's a lot about forgiveness, living for the moment, and embracing the love you get for however long you are lucky enough to have it.

5 stars

If I Tell You the Truth by Jasmin Kaur 🍁

This book deals with sexual assault.

Kiran Kaur was raped by her brother in law to be, a police officer, when she was still in Punjab. She left to go to Simon Fraser University, and didn't tell her mother about her pregnancy til she had safely arrived in Canada. Her mother doesn't believe her.

Kiran was lucky to make a good friend, Joti, at university. Kiran moved into their house and Joti's family became Kiran and her daughter, Sahaara's family.

Kiran remained in Canada as an undocumented immigrant while Sahaara grew up. When Sahaara was eighteen, Kiran was picked up by border officials. This is when Sahaara learned about her mother's history.

This book tells the stories of Kiran and Sahaara. At first Sahaara wonders about who her father was, and then when she finds out she struggles with hating herself.

This is written in both poetry and prose. It's intense - so intense that I could only read it in bits and pieces. It's an emotionally hard read that speaks authentically about the reality of sexual assault and it's ramification for survivors. It's a story of love, survival, and speaking your truth.

NON FICTION

5 stars

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert & Rebecca Lowman (Narrator)

“This [is] has been a book about people trying to solve problems created by people trying to solve problems.”

We are living in the Anthropocene age. In our meddling with ecosystems, we always end up making things worse. We have destroyed our planet to such an extent, that we have put our species at great risk. A review in the New York Times states, "Leaving the natural world to repair itself isn’t an option anymore — or, at least, it’s not an acceptable one, considering the death and suffering that would inevitably ensue."
Kolbert writes about different mega projects either in the works, or in the research stage, in an effort to mitigate the worst of the damage. All this just so we can save ourselves from ourselves. She shows us an electrified river created to keep the voracious Asian Carp out the the great lakes water system. She talks about the terraforming attempts to return land to the areas around New Orleans. There are attempts to remove carbon from the atmosphere and turn it into rocks, ideas for seeding the atmosphere with diamonds, and projects to genetically modify coral polyps in hopes of saving the Great Barrier Reef. It isn't very hopeful.
As I finish this we have another wildfire burning out of control across the valley from us. It's the fourth fire in our vicinity this year. We haven't even reached the traditional fire season yet. While Kolbert didn't talk about fires in her book, I can’t help but make the connection between the constant roar of the helicopters and airplanes in the air here trying to keep us safe and what it's costing us to cope with this aspect of the climate crisis.

CURRENTLY

Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon with Barrie Kreinik & Peter Ganim (Narrators)

The Disability Experience: Working Toward Belonging by Hannalora Leavitt

History Is Delicious by Joshua Lurie

UP NEXT

The Fabulous Zed Watson! by Kevin Sylvester & Basil Sylvester

Bruised by Tanya Boteju

I'll continue to work at getting the picture book pile under control.

BLOG POSTS PLANNED FOR NEXT WEEK

A Kid Is a Kid Is a Kid by Sara O'Leary
History Is Delicious by Joshua Lurie

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

#MustReadIn2021 20/25

#MustReadNFIn2021 8/12