Nonfiction review: JANE AGAINST THE WORLD

I always tend to read books with either a librarian's or a teacher's eye. That was certainly the case as I read Jane Against the World: Roe v. Wade and the Fight for Reproductive Rights by Karen Blumenthal. First as a librarian I had to check the call number to see if the book would be shelved with other court cases or with books about sexual/social issues. 342.7308 falls within the category of books dealing with constitutional or administrative law, so now I can picture where it would sit on the library shelf and who its companion books would be. 😊 Secondly as a teacher  I always try to imagine students actually reading the books I am reviewing. with this book I can only imagine students reading it, or part of it, if they are assigned Roe v. Wade as a topic for their AP Government class. 😕

That said you'd think I didn't really like the book and there you would be wrong. This book is tremendous. It pulls together historical aspects of sexual and reproductive rights, and knowledge and legislation on this topic, focusing not only on abortion but on birth control and education leading up to the landmark case of Roe v. Wade in 1973. 

Before I was a librarian, I was a high school health teacher. Just about every other page of Jane Against the World gave me some new information that I should have known as I was teaching about reproduction to my students or elaborated on known details. The author, Karen Blumenthal, said in her notes that she started the project as a look at abortion through the history of the famous lawsuit Roe v. Wade. But she found as she was trying to understand Roe she realized she needed to understand how the lawsuit came about and about the laws that preceded Roe. Before she knew it she was enmeshed is a larger story about women's rights, reproductive rights, racial discrimination, medicine, and religion. It is amazing that the book wasn't twice as it is.

My daughter and I had a heart-felt conversation about abortion and reproductive rights after I finished Jane Against the World. She is a genetic counselor who sometimes delivers information to her patients about the genetic condition of their fetus that cause couples to consider aborting. These patients have that option because they live in a state where abortions are available and considered a viable health treatment. But she reminded me that all of her patients have health insurance and have gone through the testing to determine genetic conditions. Many women in the USA and the world do not have the money or the option to do this. Even today if abortions were made illegal, women with money would obtain them while women with fewer financial resources would be left to suffer back-room abortions or carry a pregnancy to term against their will. The hypocrisy of the situation is deplorable. While many right-to-lifers rail against abortion they also do not want people to receive free birth control. It is quite maddening.

Every high school and public library must purchase a copy of this book. It is excellent.

What I liked about the book:

• It is very readable and thorough.
• It is an excellent research tool with over 60 pages of chapter notes, a long bibliography,  a timeline of reproductive rights, and an index.
• The story doesn't stop when Roe passed. A whole section covers what has happened around abortion rights since its passage.

What I didn't like about the book:

• At times I did feel like the book got down pretty deep into the weeds of all the details. Occasionally I found myself speed-reading through those sections. I was interested but not that interested. But by in large, the book is an excellent research tool and a fascinating read in its own right.

Source: print edition checked out from my public library.

-Anne

Nonfiction review: THE TALK: CONVERSATIONS ABOUT RACE, LOVE, AND TRUTH

In the forward of The Talk: Conversations about Race, Love, and Truth the editors Wade and Cheryl Hudson talk about their own experience giving "the talk" to their two children because they wanted to make sure that they knew the ways to stay as safe as possible in a society that is too often hostile to African Americans. Other contributors talked about how they broached the subject with their daughters about staying safe around their gender and about sex. Others talked about their Native American heritage or recalled the time they received "the talk" from one of their own parents. The universal theme in all of the conversations: parents love their children, want them to be proud of their heritage, and pray that they will be safe as they go out into the world. Parents want to empower their children. All of the conversations are are real and honest. If an event caused the child to feel small, these parents wanted to turn the conversation around so the child could embrace the truth: they were born to be big.

The essays and illustrations are created by a diverse cast of authors and artists using a variety of mediums, styles, and forms. There are letters, lists, poems,  short stories, and essays. Illustrations (all in black and white) rendered in watercolor, collage, pen and ink, acrylic, comics, and digital styles. The messages shared are diverse and heart-warming in their sincerity.

I devoured the book, smiling, laughing, crying, and sighing as I read these tender remembrances of tough but necessary conversations.  I recalled "the talk" I had with my mom after I started menstruation. Oh, was that mortifying. I cringed at the thought of the parent having to teach their child what to do if a police officer pulled them over---hands on the dashboard, move slowly, speak calmly. Oh, to live in a society where that conversation was not necessary. A Latinx parent reminded her child to not be ashamed of her first language. "Our words are beautiful. Our words belong here. They give you more ways to understand people around you...Remember that no language is better than another." An Asian-American parent tells her daughter to not accept the cliche "China Doll" from people or men, because it diminishes her. They think she is as cute as a toy, but she is really strong and fierce! So many wonderful empowering messages in this book to contemplate and to savor.

What I liked about the book:

• At the end of the book all the authors and artists were named and their accomplishments highlighted. Some I had heard of before, most I hadn't. I was glad to learn more about each of them.
• The variety of contributors was refreshing: Blacks, Jews, Muslims, LGBTQIA+, Native American, Asian-American, Latinx, and immigrants.
• All the conversations, whether personal or historical in nature, and in whatever writing style moved me and helped advance my own empathic knowledge.

What I didn't like about the book:

• Once again I am wondering if this book is being marketed to the right audience.  As a Cybils Award nonfiction judge I am told this is a Middle-grade book, for students from 5th to 8th grade. I do think all people would benefit from reading this book children to adults, but I just have a hard time imagining young pre-teens picking this book up on their own. Note to parents: If you want your kids to read it, check it out (or purchase it) yourself and read it together!
  

-Anne

TTT: Books I've read since the coronavirus invasion that made me laugh

Top Ten Tuesday: Admittedly there isn't enough to laugh about these days, but every once in a while I find myself reading a book which helps lighten my mood. All of these books I've read since last March when the coronavirus invaded our world.

1. Cicada by Shaun Tan

Cicada is made to work day and night. When he finally retires he has his revenge. I love this illustrator and all his books. This one makes me laugh just to think of it.  (Read in March 2020.)

 

2. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

The second book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series which is almost slap-stick funny. (Listened to audiobook in May 2020.)

 

3. Weather by Jenny Offill

I don't think this book is meant to terribly funny but I found this story, about a woman whose life isn't what she thought it would be, quite funny at moments, especially some of the turn-of-phrases. (Listened to audiobook in July 2020)

 

4. Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by Kimberly and James Dean

Okay, I know this is a children's book, but honestly few things delighted me as much this past year as reading funny books with my grandson. (Read aloud to grandson in August 2020.)

 

5. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Not meant to be a humorous book there were some funny, off-beat moments. (Read in September 2020)

 

6. James Herriot's Cat Stories

If you are familiar with James Herriot's stories they almost always include some cute, humorous event involving animals. (Reread in September 2020.)

7. The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The book, like the film, has some very funny, memorable lines. (Read e-book in October 2020.)

 

8. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

What would you expect when a comedian writes a book? (Listened to the audiobook in October 2020)

9. The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry

This book is both hilarious and poignant. (Reread aloud with family in December 2020)

10. Anxious People by Frederik Backman

Not laugh-out-loud funny but there were a few choice scenes and one particularly cartoonish character that lightened the mood. I haven't read very funny books since the beginning of 2021 so I had to pick the most funny of the not-so-funny books to choose from. (Read in February 2021.)

 

-Anne

Nonfiction review: NORMAL: ONE KID'S EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY

Normal: One Kid's Extraordinary Journey (Young Reader's Edition) is a memoir written by a mother-son duo. Nathaniel Newman and his mother, Magda, tell the story of his growing up with the same craniofacial syndrome as the boy, Auggie, in the book/movie Wonder.

By the time Nathaniel was fifteen he'd endured over 65 surgeries to his face and neck. He and his family had moved eight times which required making all new friends every time. Yet he and his family tackled ever situation with love and resilience.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio was published when Nathaniel was eight. It's publication had a huge impact on Nathaniel and his family.  Nathaniel and his family were involved in the making of the "Wonder" movie. Nathaniel was even given a screen test to see if he could act the part of Auggie but the director opted for using an actor wearing makeup and a mask. Wonder also helped his brother, Jacob, tremendously because he had had to cope with all the bullying directed toward Nathaniel.

The book is written in an engaging way, seamlessly moving back and forth between mother and son dialogue. It also utilizes hilarious black and white cartoons that help the reader know Nathaniel and his sense of humor better.This is an example from the dedication page:

What I liked about the book:

• First off, Nathaniel and his mom are both very likeable so I was very invested in what happened to them.
• The way the book is laid out is welcoming and easy to navigate. I cold always tell who was speaking, Nathaniel or Magda.
• Nathaniel doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for him, he wants people to be more empathetic toward people with differences. Like the book Wonder, Normal can significantly help move people toward that goal.
  

What I didn't like about the book:

• Even though it says it is marketed toward "young readers", I kept wondering about who the target population was. I am not sure that middle grade students would be attracted to this book. But, as you know, I am not a middle-grade person. I could be completely wrong. Certainly every teacher who assigns Wonder as a class read should read this book and make it available for those students to check out.
  

Source: Print edition checked out from the public library.

 

-Anne

Sunday Salon...Birthday Edition

Grandson Jamie. We hadn't seen him for about three weeks and we couldn't believe how much he changed in that amount of time.

Weather: Overcast, threatening rain, rather gloomy.

Birthday: I turned 64 on Friday. My husband woke me by singing the Paul McCartney song, "When I'm 64". Have a listen from the Beatles remastered Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band record. Fun, huh? When I was a preteen listening to this song for the first time age 64 seemed like so-o-o-o-o old. Now here I am. All day there were little happy birthday moments. My hubby purchased a lovely cake from a local bakery, my daughter made risotto for the first time while Don barbecued steaks. No one complained when I requested the game I wanted to play--- Quiddler. My eldest daughter wasn't able to make it over with her family but they did visit the next day. Both of my sisters called. My mom and brother remembered me in other ways. So now I am officially old. 

"The King's Favorite": Banana cake with peanut butter and chocolate frosting. (The king is Elvis Presley, in case you are wondering.)

 

Family: We had a fun visit with our oldest daughter and her sons yesterday. Jamie is five months old and so curious. Here he is interacting with a little stuffed elephant who plays peek-a-boo with his ears. He is holding his teething giraffe in his hands. The boy always wants to have something in his mouth. His brother Ian is three. Ian was playing a dice game with Auntie but wanted to keep score. When she told him her score he would scribble something down on the pad. One time he looked up from his scribbling and announced that he just drew a boat.

Lent: With Ash Wednesday Lent began. It is 40+ days of reflection before Easter. This year we attended the Ash Wednesday service on Zoom and pretended to put ashes on each other's foreheads. Now we are participating in Again and Again practices daily to see if we can get some spiritual practices to stick. Today's practice: Read one chapter in your Bible today. Good plan!

George, aka The Puzzle Cat, is enjoying another puzzle moment on our latest completion this week.

Books:

• Completed:
• Apple: Skin to the Core by Eric Gansworth. A YA Printz honor book. It is a memoir written in verse by a Native American author and artist. Very moving and heartbreaking.  Print.
• Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. Set in New York and in the Dominican Republic. Two sisters find each other after the tragic death of the father they share. YA. Audiobook.
  
• Currently reading:
• Fury and Grace: 40 days of Paintings and Poetry from Prison edited by Rev. Riley Pickett, Revs. Layne and Crawford Brubaker. These three pastors work with incarcerated women in the Washington Correction Center in Purdy in my county. The women prisoners contribute poems and art to this Lenten guide. Print. 11%.
• A Promised Land by Barack Obama. Inching along on this one. Audiobook. 57%.
• Molokai'i by Alan Brennert. A book club selection for this coming Wednesday. Set on the Hawaiian island which was a leprosy colony until just recently. Audiobook. 56%
• Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie. Another book club selection for a future month. Set in post WWII Japan. E-book. 17%.
  
• Book Club: My SOTH book club met on Zoom Tuesday evening for a very unsatisfactory book discussion on Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys. All anyone wanted to talk about, concerning the book directly, was how much they don't like Whitehead's writing style. Oh I miss face-to-face discussions. I'm sure we would have delved deeper into the story beyond the story of this horrific school for delinquent boys where boys were actually killed for minor infractions.
• Nonfiction book reviews of Cybils finalists. (So far I've posted eleven reviews of the 21 written. Click on the hyperlinks to read these reviews. Next week I'll have another batch for you to preview.) I hope all my librarian friends check them out since so many of them will make great additions to libraries.

•  High School Nonfiction finalists:
  

  -All Boys Aren't Blue: a Memoir-Manifesto // Johnson
  
  
  -Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You // Reynolds WINNER
  
  
  
  -The Radium Girls: Young Reader's Edition: The Scary But True Story of the Poison that Made People GLOW in the Dark   // Moore
   
  Middle-Grade Nonfiction finalists:

  -All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team // Soontornvat WINNER
  

  -How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity's Greatest Adventure //Rocco

  -Plasticus Maritimus: An Invasive Species // Pego

  -STEM in the Final Four // Marquardt

  -This is Your Brain on Stereotypes: How Science is Tackling Unconscious Bias // Kyi

  Elementary  Nonfiction finalists:

  -The Story of a Civil War Hero: Robert Smalls // Halfmann
  

  -The Next President: The Unexpected Beginnings and Unwritten Future of America's Presidents // Messner WINNER
  

  -Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist // Skeers

Prayers for Texas: The news out of Texas this week were so dire. My prayers today and all week were lifted up for those who were suffering in the cold without heat or water. In America? Tragic. And I can't help but jump on Ted Cruz, the Texas Senator who left the state to vacation in Mexico while his whole state was in a deep freeze. Tone deaf, for sure. He is not a leader. Everyone remember this in the future.

Just a few funny items that came my way this week:

1. Um, let's see. What is the name of this yellow fruit?

2.This one took me a moment:

3.I'm pretty sure we've all met a teenager like this one...This one makes me giggle, afterall, I was a high school teacher for thirty+ years. I've seen this stance many times.

4.

5. And the one that made me laugh the hardest this week:

 Have a good week!

-Anne

Nonfiction Review: DINOSAUR LADY

The children's nonfiction book The Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist by Linda Skeers makes a correction in the historical record giving credit to a woman for her discoveries which led to the identification of the first dinosaur. Until recently little was known about this woman, who while living in Lyme Regis on the English coast in the early 1800s, discovered, while she was searching for fossils, a full skeleton of a creature eventually named Ichthyosaurus, "fish lizard." It was ultimately determined to be an extinct creature and became the first know dinosaur. She continued discovering aspect of fossils which led to paleontology as a scientific specialty.

Last year in my role as a Cybils Award judge one of my favorite books, The First Dinosaur: How Science Solved the Greatest Mystery, also dealt with the Mary Anning and other early paleontologists and their discoveries. During her time on earth Mary Anning got very little credit for what she discovered and for her contributions to science. She was not allowed to join the Geological Society of London. Everyone was talking about her discoveries but they weren't talking about her.

Thank goodness for children's books like The Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist so that young girls know that they, too, can make great discoveries and contributions to science today.

What I liked about the book:

• The illustrations, done by Marta Alvarez Miguens, are engaging and fun. Children reading this book will know where Mary was when she made her discovery of the first known dinosaur and where she sat to work as she investigated the mysteries of paleontology.
• There is an illustrated and helpful timeline for her life. It includes authors notes and a short bibliography.

 What I didn't like about the book:

• Unfortunately it didn't pass the Ian test. My dear three-year-old grandson lost interest mid-book and actually got up and walked away while I was reading it to him. The publisher says it is for children aged 4-8 years, so perhaps he is just too young for this topic. That said, I liked the book a lot and if I were a children's librarian I would certainly put this book into my read aloud circulation.
  

-Anne

Nonfiction review: ALL BOYS AREN'T BLUE

All Boys Aren't Blue is a YA memoir written by George M. Johnson, a LGBTQUIA+ activist. The story is about his young life as he grappled with an awareness of what made him different from his peers, siblings, and  cousins. Many of his memories are warm and wonderful while many are gut-wrenching and heart-breaking about growing up black and queer.

Unlike so many people, George Johnson grew up in a warm and supportive family dominated by his mother's mother, Nanny. She knew instinctively that George was different and took him under her wing. Her love and acceptance of George went a long was to launch him into the person he has become today. She said, "I love all of my grandkids, but I love each of you differently. Because you each need different things." George said that phrase "different things" part spoke to his soul.

The family may have been warm and accepting but the world often wasn't and George shares many stories, starting with getting his teeth knocked out in kindergarten at age six, when kids bullied or teased him in school. Kids can be so mean for the littlest infractions like pimples or frizzy hair, imagine how awful they can be to an effeminate boy. Throughout the book George explores the "intersectional identities in his own life by weaving questions of gender, masculinity, brotherhood, family, and Black joy throughout all this stories" (Book Jacket).

George decided he wanted to write this young adult memoir as a reassuring testimony for queer men of color, so that they can find a way to integrate themselves into a whole, perfectly designed person.

What I liked about the book:

• My favorite parts of each chapter were the summaries of that chapter's theme. For example, at the end of the chapter about his own name, George Johnson says, "Suffice it to say, respect people for their names, and how they choose to identify. This also goes for respecting people for their choice of pronouns--him/her, she/he, they/them, god, goddess, or whatever."
• This book is really important as is its placement on the shelves of libraries that teens frequent. Black queer teens need to be able to find themselves on the pages of the books they read.

What I didn't like about the book:

• Every chapter wasn't directed to the generic reader which made it awkward and confusing at times. Sometimes George seemed to be writing a chapter to a particular person, referring to that person as 'you' while most of the chapters referred to others by their names. Occasionally he would insert a letter written specifically to one person. These at least used a different font so it wasn't as confusing.
• Several times in the book George Johnson refers to people who have died untimely deaths and how the deaths impacted him. By only giving the barest of details, readers are left out of the full emotional impact of the event. I didn't want to be a voyeur, it just felt like a few more details would have been helpful and warranted.
  
• This isn't really a criticism but a warning. This book is not designed for younger teens or pre-teens. There is some descriptions of explicit sex
  

Source: print edition checked out from public library.

-Anne

Nonfiction review: The Story of CIVIL WAR HERO Robert Smalls

As you may have figured out by now, all of these nonfiction book reviews are over the books I read as a Cybils judge for the nonfiction category. By the time these reviews are published, three winners for this category will already be announced on February 14th. I hope to review all 21 of the finalists. Keep your eyes out for more reviews, since I think this is only my eighth, there are a lot more to come. This year in addition to books for secondary-aged students the team of judges are also evaluating nonfiction books aimed at elementary students. The Story of Civil War Hero Robert Smalls by Janet Halfman was written with that younger audience in mind, probably for 3rd-5th graders.

Robert Smalls was born a slave in 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina. As a child he was expected to help with the household chores, but as a teen he was hired out to wait tables and make deliveries to rooms in a hotel and later had a hired job to work on the waterfront loading and unloading cargo. He had to send most of his wages home to his "master" but was able to keep a bit of what he made for himself. After growing bored with that job, he moved on to making and rigging sails and started learning the skills required to be a wheelman, or a boat pilot. When the Civil War started, Smalls would have preferred to volunteer on the Union side but was forced to work on confederate causes. One day, after loading several cannons on board a steamship, Smalls instituted a plan he has been scheming on for a while---to steal the ship, with the cannons on board, and sail it to a spot where he could surrender it to the Union Navy. His plan worked as planned and all the black men that worked on the boat along with all their family members made it to safety on the northern side. After the war, now a free man, Smalls returned to Beaufort where he was one of sixteen black men elected to Congress during reconstruction.

The short book, just over 80 pages, is designed around short chapters when contain a few pages each of Smalls story and then some relevant background information about the topics in that chapter. 'Slavery'; 'sailing ships in the 1800s'; 'what caused the Civil War?'; all helped give Smalls' story context and a fuller meaning.

As I was glancing though reviews of this book on Goodreads, I came upon a review written by a mother who had read the book to her son. She said, "Whenever I read an amazing historical book like this with my child, I am angry that my own education was deprived of these amazing stories from American history and how miseducated I was about the history of the Reconstruction era. The story of Robert Smalls is inspiring and enraging and important." I concur. Imagine for a moment that the person who had stolen the ship with several cannons on board was a white person. Don't you think that the history books would have sung his praise? It angers me that so much of what we were taught in schools only glorified white history and downplayed, ignored, or vilified history made by people of color. I am so glad that there are publishing companies like Lee and Low Books, willing to set the record straight finally!

What I liked about the book:

• Robert Smalls was an American hero. This book tells his story, one we all need to hear.
• The back story information was delivered in small bites and didn't try to over-educate the reader all at once.
• There are nearly twenty pages of reference materials, glossary, index, timeline, bibliography, and suggested further reading materials listed.
  

What I didn't like about the book:

• I know it is necessary, but I don't like to read information broken up by other tidbits of information in boxes. This book does a good job putting extra material at the end of each chapter but it still breaks up Smalls' story.
• I don't think that the illustrations, done in black, white, and greys, added much to the story. Other historical charts and photos did add points of interest, however.
  

-Anne

Nonfiction review and quotes: THE RADIUM GIRLS (Young Readers' Edition)

Title: The Radium Girls (Young Readers' Edition): The Scary But True Story of the Poison that Made People GLOW in the Dark by Kate Moore

Book Beginnings quote: [First Day. Newark, New Jersey. 1917.] 

Katherine Schaub had a jaunty spring in her step as she walked the brief four blocks to work...Today, she was starting a brand-new job at the watch-dial factory of the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation.

Friday56 quote: 

Blum was a balding man with a neatly trimmed mustache, spectacles, and a high forehead. As he introduced himself to Hazel and began his examination, he quickly realized that he had never seen a condition quite like this before. Her face was swollen with "pus bags" but it was the condition of the jawbone that was most perplexing. It seemed almost moth-eaten. It literally had holes in it.

Summary: Radium was the new cure-all at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was added to the American Medical Association's list of acceptable treatments for just about everything: cancer, nervous conditions, anemia, tuberculosis, toothaches, etc. It could also be added to paint which made it glow in the dark. Watch and clock-makers started using radium paint onto their dials and clock faces. Soon it became so popular to do this that radium companies had to hire hundreds of girls as dial-painters. In their orientation the girls were shown how to make a nice tip of the brush by lipping it. They would lip the brush, dip it into the radium paint, and paint over the number hundreds of times a day. "Lip-Dip-Paint" over and over. Before they started work many girls asked if the procedure was safe and they were assured it was perfectly safe, in fact they were told it would make them healthier, if anything. In addition to ingesting the tiny amounts of radium each time the girls lip the brush, no effort was made to protect the painters from airborne radium. Their skin, clothes, hair, and shoes would be covered by radium at the end of each workday and the girls actually glowed like otherworldly angels.

Not long after the girls started work at the radium company many noticed strange symptoms not common among people so young: horrible toothaches, achy joints to the point they could barely walk. The quick four block walk (Book Beginnings quote) soon became a torturous walk for Katherine. When Hazel another dial-painter went to her dentist, Dr. Blum could believe what he was seeing: holes in the jaw bone (Friday56 quote). Several girls died. Yet when the employees went to their bosses they were assured the paint was safe and there was no connection between their mysterious illnesses and their work. What these two girls, and all the others involved ,would find out is even more alarming---there is no cure for radium poisoning and no treatment for the symptoms.

The Radium Girls tells the unbelievable and true story of these women and their determination to fight back, ultimately winning in court after years and years of trying. Their win ultimately saved the lives of other people working with hazardous chemicals throughout the country. "The studies of the radium-dial workers form the basis of much of the world's present knowledge of the health risks of radioactivity. The suffering and deaths of these workers greatly increased [scientific] knowledge, ultimately saving countless lives of future generations" (341).

Because radium is radioactive for 1600 years, the bones of the radium girls in their graves will still set off a Geiger counter to this day.

Review: It has been a long time since I picked up a book that I didn't want to put down. The Radium Girls was one such book. I was mortified by the details of the medical horrors the radium girls lived through and yet I was encouraged by their resolve to do what was right not only for themselves but for others who weren't affected yet. There were hundreds and hundreds of these girls and the callousness with which the companies dealt with them was criminal. I became more and more grateful for workplace safety rules we have today because I am sure if it weren't for people like the radium girls who had to die due to negligence at work, we would be in the same boat today---the almighty dollar being more sacred than a life.

I've known a long time about the dial-painters and their radium poisoning but I had the facts all mixed up. I heard that they, out of innocence, got contaminated with radium because they painted on themselves thinking it was harmless. I supposed they thought it was fun to show up at a party and glitter and glow wearing the paint on their nails and their eyelids. I'm sure some of the girls did do that. But now I recognize I never heard the part of their story that involved ingesting radium paint through the lip-dip-paint method. I am so grateful for the impeccable research Kate Moore did to bring us the facts and then to write about them in a very readable narrative nonfiction format.

After I completed the book, my husband noticed that a movie called 'Radium Girls' was playing on Netflix. We watched it a few nights ago. It took a small portion of the book. It changed names, and consolidated information which make it not historically accurate, but it still told a part of the story of the radium girls and what they had to go through for some justice. The movie included information about the times like speakeasies, civil rights struggles for blacks, freedom to assemble, etc not mentioned in this version of the book. Since I did not read the adult book, Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women, which was published in 2017, I don't know if some of that story was included in the book or if it was just added for interest by Hollywood.

What I liked about the book:

• It is very readable, almost unputdownable.
• It is a treasure trove for future researchers with a timeline, glossary, bibliography, notes, photo credits, and an index. There is also a list of key characters, which is vital since so many girls, doctors, lawyers, and corporate employees named it would impossible to keep track of everyone with it.
  

What I didn't like about the book:

• Nothing. I liked the book very much and I think that teens will be willing to give the book a try if they have a little bit of boost to get them started. Since it is over 400 pages long, they might need help deciding to give it a try. Librarians time to think up a clever book talk for this one.
• Since there is a movie about the radium girls teachers need to beware so that students assigned to read the book don't just watch the movie instead.
  

Publishing Information: Sourcebooks, 2020. 404 pages. Suggested target audience: Young Adults.

Source: Print version checked out from the public library.

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the opening quote from current book.
The Friday56 is hosted at Freda's Voice.  Find a quote from page 56 to share. 
Visit these two websites to participate. Click on links to read quotes from books other people are reading. It is a great way to make blog friends and to get suggestions for new reading material.      

-Anne

Nonfiction review: THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON STEREOTYPES

This is Your Brain on Stereotypes: How Science is Tackling Unconscious Bias by Tanya Lloyd Kyi and illustrated by Drew Shannon is one of those great books that every library should have at least one copy of so kids and teenagers can get their hands on it and every parent should read it, too. Heck, everyone should read it.

The back cover says that this book explores---

• how to recognize stereotypes, why they can be harmful and how to combat them;
• the secret biases in our brains;
• how science can help us rewire our minds--and our societies.
  

It also says that our brains sort things, including people. "And that's where life gets really complicated." This leads to the questions---how and why do our brains create categories and how can we avoid falling into the stereotype trap?

Honestly, I think the blurbs on the back sound a bit boring and don't let the reader know all the variety of topics it explores. So let me expand of each point.

First, what is the big deal about sorting people into categories? We all do it.  Well, it isn't a problem if you categorize people into groups like thinking of video gamers as boys, because, um, it is true with around 60% of gamers being male. But when we categorize people into races/gender, sexual oritentaitons and then treating them different because of that categorization. That causes problems like--black men being nine times more likely to be killed by police, First Nations youth not receiving the same level of healthcare as other Canadians or American LGBTQ+ youth being bullied in American schools. 

One researcher, Joshua Correll, believes that stereotypes actually change the way our brains interpret visual information. He invited hundreds of people to play his video game designed to collect bias. Players are shown a series of photos. When a photo of a man appears he is either holding a gun or a cell phone. The player's job is to shoot the gun-toting bad guys but not shoot the cellphone holders. I doubt you will be surprised to learn that players were quicker to shoot gun-holding black men than gun-toting white men. And they were slower to press the 'don't shoot' button if the black man was holding a cell phone. As soon as the game shows a photo of a white man the brain is already a tad bit on the 'cellphone' side, or conversely if they see a black man their brain is a leaning a bit on the 'gun' side, Joshua's research shows. 

It is likely I found this book so compelling because of the times we are living through right now. Biased news organizations and politicians are saying things which are firing up their base. These people are then reacting to the news based on the stereotypes perpetuated by the officials. I had an interesting (red, bad) Facebook conversation recently with someone who compared the Black Lives Matter protests to the siege on the Capitol in Washington, D.C. The siege was okay because the BLM protests were worst was his logic. It turns out that there is a stereotype against activists, even if the activists are marching for something good like the environment or equal rights! "A 2013 study showed that people think of feminists and environmentalist as eccentric, angry, and dirty. These stereotypes actually reduce people's willingness to change."

Fortunately Chapter 5, the last chapter, talks about ways to rewire the brain to reduce or eliminate stereotypes. Obviously training and repetition help. Sometimes systems need to be altered to help eliminate bias based decisions. There are some quick fixes that help, too, like recognizing how hunger or tiredness impact our moods. There are no easy answers. I like the example of the man who figured out a way to tame racist slurs. He would send a message bot to the person, "Hey man, just remember that there are real people who are hurt when you harass them with that kind of message." If the bot was a white person (persona) with a lot of followers, the racist took notice. "When a racist tweeter received a rebuke from one of Kevin's white-guy, high-follower bots, the users racist tweets dropped by 27% the following week." I think the message here is that we can influence change toward positive change.

I wish I had had this book when I was teaching high school sociology classes. I can really picture the experiments we could do as a class.

What I liked about this book:

• It is very readable with sub-headings and lots of great examples. It is illustrated and reader friendly.
• The topic is an important one right now.
• It is short, 88 pages, but has a lot of useful notes and references.

What I didn't like about it:

• It looks like one of those school-y books, so librarians may have to talk readers into checking it out.
  

-Anne