Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has written ten books, and is known for his ability to communicate the thrill of science to a general audience. His latest is about the future of space travel. Tyson is director of the Hayden Planetarium (attached to the Museum of Natural History in NYC), and host of PBS NOVA scienceNow. The Norton tumblr features a photo that displays his geeky sense of humor.
Back in August it was announced that Fox picked up a new TV series,“Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey,” a sequel to Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.” Tyson will host the 13-episode series, scheduled to air in 2013.
I was fortunate to hear Tyson speak as part of a lecture series when I was a librarian at Mercersburg Academy, a boarding school in Pennsylvania. It was over 10 years ago, but I still clearly remember just how engaging he was. His talk was riveting (and funny) and the way the students responded to him was amazing.
TYSON, Neil deGrasse. Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier. 384p. appendix. index. Norton. 2012. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-0-393-08210-4. LC 2011032481.
Adult/High School–The brilliant organization of this book develops what could have been simply a collection of Tyson’s essays, interviews, speeches, and tweets into a nuanced and ultimately persuasive argument for continued research and funding of space travel and exploration. Structurally, the argument falls into three part: “Why,” an interlocking series of claims for space travel for both utilitarian and utopian reasons; “How,” a detailed discourse on the very real scientific and technological problems with long distance space travel; and “Why Not,” an engaged discussion and refutation of a variety of dissenting opinions. Beyond this overall structuring, each chapter benefits from its position in the argument as small points made in one are developed over the course of succeeding chapters. Indeed, some might object to the repetitious nature of some of his arguments (his repeated discussion of the tri-part justification for all great national expenditures, for example), but in fact, these repetitions serve a greater need, as they help the reader to see the same problems from multiple perspectives. What is most refreshing about Tyson’s views is how clear-headed he is about the political, economic, and scientific obstacles the space program faces, even as he makes clear his own tremendous joy and awe in the pure beauty of exploration and discovery. Tyson writes in a breezy style, particularly in the numerous tweets that pepper the text that should be readily accessible to anyone interested in the discussion. And his attitude is so good-natured that even those who disagree with him should find much to like.–Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Vallejo, CA
Deborah Feldman was born into the Satmar sect of a Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her memoir addresses her coming-of-age and eventual departure from that community. The book’s publication created a flurry of publicity.
An author video, available on Feldman’s homepage, shares a bit of what she was hoping to achieve and how attending college, in secret, helped give her courage to change her life. Her February 14th appearance on The View created quite a bit of controversy.
FELDMAN, Deborah. Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots. 272p. map. photos. S & S. 2012. Tr $23. ISBN 978-1-4391-8700-5. LC 2011001386.
Adult/High School–“An empty vessel clangs the loudest.” Outspoken, insolent women in the Satmar Hasidic sect of Judaism are likely to be spiritually hollow. From an early age, this adage is repeated to intellectually curious, always questioning Devoiri Feldman. Her oldest aunt, controlling, take-charge Chaya, constantly reminds her to obey, as do her teachers and her Yiddish textbooks. Feldman carries a stigma of shame in the Satmar community of Brooklyn, NY. Her father’s childlike behavior and lack of personal hygiene leave him all but unemployable. Her mother flees her untenable arranged marriage, leaving young Devoiri to be raised by her strict paternal grandparents. She yearns to take control of her future even as she knows the restrictive path her religion dictates. Compulsively readable, Unorthodox relates a unique coming-of-age story that manages to speak personally to anyone who has ever felt like an outsider in her own life. Feldman bravely lays her soul bare, unflinchingly sharing intimate thoughts and ideas unthinkable within the deeply religious existence of the Satmars. She finds solace and inspiration in the pages of forbidden novels like Little Women that she keeps hidden beneath her mattress. At 17, she is completely unprepared for the intimacy and strictures of her own arranged marriage. After giving birth to a son just over two years later, Feldman musters the courage to take the steps that will ultimately sever her ties to this community. Teens will devour this candid, detailed memoir of an insular way of life so unlike that of the surrounding society.–Paula J. Gallagher, Baltimore County Public Library, MD
With the latest in her series of teen opinions, here is guest blogger, Jess deCourcy Hinds:
For previous columns in this series (see posts from July 2011 and November 2011), I interviewed teens on their reading preferences. Although I learned a lot, I wanted to give teens even more of a chance to have their own voices.
So I invited three students in my library to review recent fiction, graphic novel and memoir releases. I placed a pile of Advanced Reader Copies on my desk and asked students to sort through them. They dove into the books like children tackling a piñata at a party, grabbing titles that caught their eye.
Here are the three top titles – and my students’ book reviews:
Feynmanby Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick (First Second) is a graphic biography that tells the story of Richard P. Feynman’s life using mainly pictures instead of text. It fully captures the life of a hardworking scientist. Not only are readers let into his world as an icon in science, but they are also let into his social life including love and marriage, strife and failure. The novel would definitely pique the interest of an individual that enjoys science, but it is also suitable for anyone looking for a good read. Feynman is truly a feel-good book that causes us to look into our own lives. Through failure, the death of loved ones, and illness, Feynman managed to continue his work and become a success—which sparks hope for all of us.–Mamfatou, 10th grade
The Maid by Kimberly Cutter (Houghton Mifflin) tells the story of Joan of Arc (called Jehanne in this version) from beginning to end. For those unfamiliar to the story, Jehanne was born a peasant in France, and claimed to hear divine voices. Upon guidance from these voices, she led the French Army to victory in the Hundred Years War during the fifteenth century. This novel is certainly directed at mature readers—if one gets hung up on the language, curses or bloody events, they may miss the true nature of the novel—but the plot of this story is excellently portrayed, in a strange mix of confusion and fear that fits the situation as well as Jehanne’s own perspective. The novel itself is written in vivid (if slightly horrifying) detail, showing Jehanne as a leader, a patron, and a girl all at once. Though it is quite a different world from the one we live in today, the author shows each scene in a believable and detailed manner.–Emily, 10th grade
Townie (Norton)is the memoir of Andre Dubus III and his growing up in a broken family along a Massachusetts mill town. As a teenager moving from town to town, Dubus and his siblings are the target for violence and hatred from other kids their age. Tired of being bullied, Dubus learns to fight back, eventually becoming not only a boxer, but feared on the streets. Townie is not only a narrative of Dubus’ life, but the story of how writing potentially saved his life. The message behind “Townie” is inspirational for teenagers because it shows them that education really can be the way out of hardship.–Skye, Year One in the Early College program
My students’ enthusiastic responses to these sophisticated adult titles reaffirmed my belief that teenage girls appreciate challenging texts on diverse subjects—not just the fun, breezy, bubble-gum pink books marketed to girls.
Physics, Joan of Arc and boxing…I can’t wait to see what topics strike a chord next!
–Jess deCourcy Hinds is the library director of Bard High School Early College Queens and a freelance writer. Her essays, stories and reviews have appeared in Newsweek, Ms., Reuters.com, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, School Library Journal and literary journals.
from graphic novel guest blogger Francisca Goldsmith:
Those who recognize the name of Bryan Talbot as the creator of one of the first graphic novels to be permitted into 20th century teen collections (courtesy of being named to YALSA’s Best Books for Young Adults list), may wonder if that story had its grounding in his wife Mary’s own unhappy childhood after reading the beautifully distilled but hard hitting joint biography they have now co-authored. While James Joyce’s daughter served as her father’s muse and beloved companion when she was a girl, her efforts to become independent were rebuffed by him as well as the rest of her family in young adulthood, turning her bitter about the role she had played as inspiring some of his poetic lines. Mary Talbot, on the other hand, learned early that her father’s moods were frightening in their intensity. That James Joyce served as his muse brings Mary and Lucia into an alignment of disappointments and makes them an excellent comparative study in defeat (Lucia) and ultimate triumph (Mary).
The title of this joint biography is a pun that is not only clever but also revealing of the entrapments laid by these fathers who were separated by a generation: their daughters, both wanting approval in their fathers’ eyes, became, instead the corrections, the “dotters” of their “I’s”. That Mary Talbot’s academic career has focused on gender politics as well as literature is not only fitting but invigorating. Older teens reading this sequential art introduction to her childhood may be moved to attempt to explore her interests further, to discover how social ramifications in a given period and class can break a family as well as nourish its successes and the successes of its individual members.
A beguiling detail of this joint work is Mary’s marginalia as she corrects or shakes her virtual head over Bryan’s imaginings of the details of her life. While her birth family may have led much to be desired, it’s clear that Mary’s comfort with this husband and wife team effort is the result of shared concerns and healthy communication.
TALBOT, Mary M. Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes. illus. by Bryan Talbot. 89p. illus. bibliog. notes. Dark Horse. Jan. 2012. Tr $14.99. ISBN 978-1-59582-850-7. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–This husband and wife team provides readers with the unusual and gracefully nuanced opportunity to explore several biographical and literary threads through one compelling and concise narrative. Mary Talbot, the youngest child of a James Joyce scholar, grew up during the latter half of the 20th century repressed by her father’s rages and her British Catholic schooling. The Talbots align her life with the promising early development and later decline of Joyce’s own daughter, Lucia. Moving between the two households through the years of the two girls’ childhoods, youth, and early adulthoods, readers watch Lucia as her father’s pet and muse, and Mary as her father’s whipping boy. Lucia, coming of age in the ‘20s, believes she can stake a career for herself as a dancer, but her parents–including her once doting father–remove her from that possibility. Her psychological state declines, and her brother commits her to what becomes the first in a string of asylums. Mary, for her part, escapes her childhood family when she and Bryan start their own family. Bryan’s imagery captures the young women’s worlds, their parents’ moods, and the emotional traumas the girls suffered. Using monochrome, duo-tones, and full color according to both period and mood, and including perspectives emphasizing the feelings of Lucia or Mary, the art is essential to the telling here. Mary’s composition of the combined biography underscores both the literary and gender scholar she is, without political asides intruding on the stories. This is a fine book for those who are troubled by their parents, as well as for those curious about the author of Portrait of the Artistas a Young Man, or about Bryan Talbot’s own muses.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA
Pure is the first in a new dystopian trilogy that seems made for teen readers; film rights have already been sold.
Julianna Baggott has written a few books for young readers, but is best known for adult literary fiction and poetry. I had a chance to hear her speak at ALA Midwinter in January. She has a 16-year-old daughter who pretty much hates everything her mother writes. Except this. Baggott figures that is because the teen years ARE dystopic.
Laini Taylor (author of Daughter of Smoke and Bone) wrote about it wonderfully on her blog last week. The Huffington Post reviewer recommends Pure to readers of The Hunger Games.
BAGGOTT, Julianna. Pure. 431p. Grand Central. 2012. Tr $25.99. ISBN 978-1-4555-0306-3. LC 2011046209.
Adult/High School–Baggott, also known as N.E. Bode, delivers an often disturbing but emotionally distancing dystopic adventure. In a post-apocalyptic future, a small protected society lives within a dome and everyone else lives outside. These “wretches” range from scarred to inhuman, the result of a nanotechnology-laced atomic detonation. Heroine Pressia, 16, has a doll’s head in place of one fist; revolutionary Bradwell has fluttering birds embedded in his back. Tensions abound in their world; the military OSR takes everyone over 16, food is scarce and health failing, and people either wait for the Dome to save them or fight against it. Meanwhile Partridge, a teenaged Pure from the Dome, is finding that things are not as he believed, and his journey to find the truth will take him into the outside world. Vivid descriptions–the once-suburban fierce mothers, stunted children fused to their bodies; the Dusts, people fused with the earth–will haunt readers long after the book is over. But the pacing is sometimes glacial, and it’s hard to relate to Pressia, the most prevalent narrative perspective (though most of the other perspectives are also teens). This has great potential as a crossover title (and might be mistaken for straight up YA), so while it doesn’t have the pulse-pounding appeal of crowd-pleasers like The Hunger Games, many teens will be willing to muscle past the slow parts and enjoy the complexities of plot and world; the fact that it’s first in a trilogy will only make the patient readers happier.–Karyn N. Silverman, LREI (Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School), New York City
Thomas Caplan’s romp has one thing that I’m not sure any other spy novel can claim — an introduction by Bill Clinton.
Turns out they met as freshmen at Georgetown, were later roommates, and Clinton advised Caplan on this novel early in the editing process, since they have always been fellow devotees of the spy thriller genre. You can learn more about their friendship and shared interest in Caplan’s article in the Huffington Post, and more about the novel in this CBS News interview.
Caplan is nearly finished with a sequel, and is planning to stick with Ty Hunter for the foreseeable future.
CAPLAN, Thomas. The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen: A Novel. 400p. Viking. Jan. 2012. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-0-670-02321-9. LC 2011032992.
Adult/High School–Ty Hunter is a spy for the modern era, an era that includes rogue nuclear warheads from the former Soviet Union and problems in the Middle East. He is a true patriot, serving in army intelligence as a covert operative when he is gravely wounded. Those wounds, however, lead to a near-complete facial reconstruction (no visible scarring) that give him a second, highly lucrative career as a movie star. Think Delta Force meets Harrison Ford with a twist of Jason Bourne and you’ve got Ty. The problem is those rogue warheads. Ty’s casual meeting with the man supposedly behind the sale, tycoon Ian Santal, and Santal’s ward, the very beautiful Isabelle Cavill, gives the government an opportunity to figure out what’s going on and stop it before real damage is done. Ty is also contending with Philip Frost, who is Santal’s protégé as well as Isabelle’s fiancé, and highly connected to the U.S. Government, in charge of the nuclear decommissioning process. Visiting exotic locales like Tangier, Gibraltar, Cannes, and even Camp David, Ty plays “dumb actor” while trying to unravel the puzzle’s threads. This is the perfect bridge from Alex Rider and Young James Bond to John le Carré or Frederick Forsyth.–Laura Pearle, Venn Consultants, Carmel, NY
Today I am very happy to introduce a book that is, so far, mostly flying under the radar. This is a wonderfully written memoir by a woman who slowly, gradually convinced her grandmother to share her past. And part of that past, the part that changed everything, was spent in a Japanese internment camp.
Obaachan met her husband in the internment camps, she lost her mother there, and had her first child. All during a time when she thought she would be attending college and moving forward with her life under very different circumstances. This story has a good chance of opening teen eyes to the effects of the Japanese internment.
GRANT, Kimi Cunningham. Silver Like Dust: One Family’s Story of America’s Japanese Internment. 325p. Pegasus. 2012. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-1-60598-272-4. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Growing up as a Japanese American in rural Pennsylvania, Grant knew she was different from everyone else but never knew the complete story of her family’s history. Although she spent every summer in Florida with her grandmother, little was said about the years spent in a Wyoming internment camp. As an adult, Grant patiently extracted the family tales from Obaachan, hearing about her brothers who served in the American military, the house and belongings so carefully paid for that had to be left to a tenant, and the shame of being exiled from their community. The author weaves stories from the past with the present day and makes what could be a dark and depressing moment from American history a captivating life story. Readers hear firsthand from someone who lived through a crucial moment in our history, and the memories she holds dear. Obaachan relates the story of her life with honesty and modesty. She was just 20 when Pearl Harbor was bombed and attitudes toward Japanese in America started to change. She had been accepted at college and was excited to start a new chapter of her life. However, her life, like 112,000 others, was forced to take a very different path. For further reading, suggest Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience (Heyday, 2000), edited by Lawson Fusaso Inada. Told with clarity and a storyteller’s sense of style, Silver Like Dust paints a portrait of one family’s harrowing experiences during a war that for many is a patriotic remembrance.–Sara Campbell, Rowan Public Library, Salisbury, NC
The Winter Palace became a bestseller in Eve Stachniak’s native Canada during its first week of publication. Stachniak believes that is partly because, as far as she knows, it is the only historical novel about Catherine the Great in any language. How is that possible?! Stachniak has long been fascinated by Imperial Russia, has the multilingual chops to do the research, and is already working on a sequel.
And Catherine is hot right now. Robert Massie’s tome (Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, Random House) is in its 12th week on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list.
Give this one to teen readers of Philippa Gregory and Michelle Moran who might be looking to expand their horizons. It has appeal — two young girls, both immigrants to Russia, navigating not only a foreign land but a court full of intrigue.
STACHNIAK, Eva. The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great. 434p. Bantam. 2012. Tr $26. ISBN 978-0-533-80812-4. LC 2011004928.
Adult/High School–In 1745, 16-year-old Vavara, the orphaned daughter of a bookbinder, enters the Russian court as a servant. She soon catches the attention of the Chancellor, who teaches her to spy for him. Trained to listen and report, Vavara is tasked to befriend the young Princess Sophia, who is to marry the Empress Elizabeth’s nephew, and then disclose all her secrets to the Chancellor and the Empress. But Sophia and Vavara become confidants and friends and Vavara switches sides, assisting Sophia in her transformation into Catherine and her subsequent rise to power. Narrated by Vavara, this historical novel takes readers on a grand tour of the 18th-century Russian Court. The Court is ruled by rumor and innuendo, and lives rise and fall upon the whim of the Empress Elizabeth. Decadent and decaying, desperate and hopeful, Russia longs for justice and the rule of law, but even as the peasants face grinding poverty, war, and injustice, Court members participate in deadly games of deception and treachery in order to gain personal favor with the Empress. Catherine and Vavara each navigate the palace intrigue in their own way according to their stations, but Vavara, loyal to Catherine, uses her influence as a “tongue”–a teller of secrets–to help Catherine gain power. The book ends as Catherine takes over the throne, leaving readers wanting to know more about Russian history and just how Catherine became “the Great.” Teens will look forward to the next installment of the story.–Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, CA
Working through barriers of language, culture and gender, American Katherine Boo spent over three years in the Mumbai slum of Annawadi. Her extraordinary book reveals the truth of life in urban India. Again and again, reviews mention her novelistic writing, the uncovering of Dickensian depths of corruption, and the detail with which she brings to life the families who live in Annawadi. Boo accomplishes all of this by focusing her account on a few families, and particularly 16-year-old Abdul, a boy who supports his entire family by reselling garbage.
As the New York Times review reveals, the author “used written notes, video recordings, audiotapes and photographs; some of the children of the book used her Flip video camera to document events. She also made use of more than 3,000 public records.”
Last week’s NPR interview addresses where Boo found the title of her book, how she discovered Annawadi, and how heavily she felt the importance of making her readers care about the families in her book.
Katherine Boo won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a series of articles about group homes for the mentally disabled, published in the Washington Post.
* BOO, Katherine. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. 262p. Random. Feb. 2012. Tr $28. ISBN 978-1-4000-6755-8. LC 2011019555.
Adult/High School–As much crime novel as nonfiction is imparted in the opening line–“Midnight was closing in, the one-legged woman was grievously burned, and the Mumbai police were coming for Abdul and his father.” Abdul is 16, and he’s been accused of driving his neighbor to suicide, a crime in India. Abdul and the one-legged woman are just two of the many people readers meet in the Annawadi slum behind the Mumbai airport and hotel district. Three thousand squatters live in patched together huts in the literal backyard of these upscale hotels, surviving depths of poverty and corruption that are never ending. Abdul is one of the better off thanks to his “job”–he buys the garbage other slumdwellers pick from sewage lakes and trash piles and resells it to recyclers. As the drama unfolds, readers meet many other teenagers, including Manju, who hopes to be the first girl from Annawadi to graduate from college, even though her schooling involves memorizing plot summaries rather than actually reading the books. Or she may get married off to a boy from the countryside, a life worse than slumdwelling because women there are treated as near slaves. Sunil is only 12 but is trying to earn an honest living as a garbage picker rather than the more profitable life of a thief. Meanwhile, the mothers of Abdul and Manju are the driving force behind actions that quickly spin out of control. Boo frames the story around the accusations against Abdul, but informs readers about a multitude of social conditions. This book belongs on reading lists as a work that allows high schoolers to see the incredible hardships of life in a developing country.–Jamie Watson, Baltimore County Public Library, MD
In this rather extraordinary memoir, Jamal Joseph recounts his journey from Black Panther to prison to professor at Columbia University.
Joseph gave the Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture at ALA Midwinter in Dallas last month, which was followed by this interview with American Libraries Associate Editor Pamela A. Goodes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzKLO2fdXiU
Goodes begins by asking, “So many lessons to be learned, especially for the youth today. Is that why you decided to tell your story?”
Joseph answers, “Yes, it actually is. I work with young people in New York. I travel the country speaking to high school students and college students. And every one of them has a similar question, and it’s What was it Like? What was the experience like of growing up in the movement? How did you become who you are today? So the book is written from that perspective through the curious eyes and passionate heart of a 15-year-old…”
That being said, fortunately, the book doesn’t come off as a history book, or as an adult trying to instruct young people. It is a thrilling you-are-there narration of his amazing life. Take a look at the book trailer.
JOSEPH, Jamal. Panther Baby: A Life of Rebellion & Reinvention. 272p. Algonquin. 2012. Tr $23.95. ISBN 978-1-5651-2950-4. LC 2011032139.
Adult/High School–In 1968, America was coming apart at the seams. Protests against the war in Viet Nam and demonstrations for racial justice turned violent. The assassinations of King and Kennedy bookended the spring. The Beatles sang Revolution. Jamal Joseph, 15, realized that the only way to overcome racism and the oppression of the poor was by fighting back, revolution. He attended his first Black Panther meeting that summer, willing to be a soldier for the cause of black power. But instead of guns he was handed books and began to learn that empowerment depended on education and that power belonged to all people. He was not averse to violence and was prepared to die for the cause at a time when police brutality and government retaliation against black activists was rampant. He was arrested, fled as a fugitive, and eventually served time in prison where he earned three degrees and emerged a playwright and poet. His writing talents make his memoir a series of riveting events that will have readers hooked from the first pages. That he is the godfather of Tupac Shakur will attract many teens to the book, but it is Joseph’s life dedicated to change and community that will inspire them. His experiences provide a unique insight that contributes to our understanding of a time of profound social upheaval in America. It should be a part of any reading list for students studying the ‘60s.–John Sexton, Greenburgh Public Library, NY
Angela Carstensen is Head Librarian and an Upper School Librarian at Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York City. Angela served on the Alex Awards committee for four years, chairing the 2008 committee, and chaired the first YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adult committee in 2009. Recently, she edited Outstanding Books for the College Bound: Titles and Programs for a New Generation (ALA Editions, 2011). Contact her via Twitter @AngeReads.
