Guest blogger : An Inspiring Story

Paula Hollohan is my guest blogger today raving about a recent addition to the Doucette Library's collection  that has great classroom potential, connecting to STEM, science and language arts. Thanks, Paula.

Hedy Lamarr’s Double life: HollywoodLegend and Brilliant Inventor written by Laurie Wallmark and illustrated by Katy Wu

Now here is the kind of book I would love to see in K-5 classrooms.  While reading through a number of new picture books that came into the Doucette Library over the last little while, this one caught my eye.

This story has EVERYTHING! An accomplished woman, also pictured as a young girl, who loved learning and wondering, a great invention that helped modern day electronics, like cell phones, keep texts and calls private, a Hollywood movie star with a contract with Louis B. Mayer. Hedy’s curiosity led to many personal inventions including a cube that changed plain water into flavoured soda, a ladder to help get in and out of a bathtub.

It is really not about the glamorous life she led or the amazing inventions.  This story captures the curious mind of a girl and a woman about things that were happening around her - in her real life.

After meeting George Antheil, Hedy and George came up with the idea of “frequency hopping” to help torpedoes send fragmented messages not easily intercepted by the enemy.  They co-patented the invention together.  Although this invention would have proven useful, the American Navy put it aside to fight World War II.  Hedy used her Hollywood star power to volunteer to sell war bonds and to meet soldiers at the Hollywood Canteen.

A book like this one in every classroom would be a great addition for children who are tinkerers.  They would recognize themselves in the realistic story of Hedy who, as a child, was interested in life and curious about everything including going to the movies.

"Inventions are easy for me to do.  I suppose I just came from a different place." Hedy Lamarr

Nonfiction 10 for 10

#nf10for10 is an online celebration of nonfiction picture books. Whether you'd like to contribute or just pop into see what others are featuring, I strongly recommend doing so.

Click on this link to follow along at Enjoy and Embrace Learning blog or twitter with the #nf10for10 hashtag.

Every year I find out about new and sometimes older picture book titles that teachers, librarians, booksellers and parents are giving and reading to children.

My picks are pretty eclectic this year.  It's a list of picture books I enjoyed, found beautiful or made me chuckle.

So in no particular order...


#1. The Butterfly Garden by Laura Weston
      A lift-the-flap book that portrays the life cycle of the monarch butterfly in a beautiful and unique way. This is a black-and-white board book with flaps that open into brightly coloured butterflies, caterpillars, leaves and flowers. Recommended for Kindergarten to grade 2.

#2. Picture the Sky by Barbara Reid
     Barbara Reid's illustrations always amaze me. Composed from clay, she creatively conveys every mood she describes. In this book, the reader is shown variations in the light from skies in different landscapes at different times of the day and night and everything in between. Would be a great mentor text for art and language arts classrooms. Recommended for Kindergarten to grade 2.

#3. The True Adventures of Esther the Wonder Pig by Steve Jenkins, Derek Walter, and Caprice Crane.
      A few years ago Esther the Pig had an adult book written about her. This picture book tells young readers how she came to live in the family that took her in and what life is like living with a  650 pound pig. Emphasis is on lots of love. Lots of love!  Recommended for Kindergarten to grade 3.

#4. Hawk Mother: the Story of a Red-Tailed Hawk Who Hatched Chickens by Kara Hagedorn
     This book is filled with fantastic photographs detailing the journey an injured red-tail hawk lived through, from a wildlife rehabilitate centre to living with a human who tries to give her a life that is as authentic as possible. To that end, Shineshine (the hawk) was given a couple of chicken eggs to hatch after several years of trying to hatch her own infertile eggs. The question would she see these chicks as her's or potentially, as a meal? Excellent nonfiction writing with additional information and glossary.  Recommended for grades 2 to 6.

#5. Welcome to Country: a Traditional Aboriginal Ceremony by Aunty Joy Murphy 
       Written by a Wurundjeri woman from Australia, we learn about the importance of the welcoming ceremony as cultural greeting offered by Elders to visitors to enter onto their traditional lands.The illustrations are reminiscent of bark paintings. Emphasizes the importance to connecting to the land and respecting the people and ancestors of that land.
Recommended for grades 1-6.

#6. The Secret Kingdom: Nek Chand, a Changing India, and a Hidden World of Art by Barb Rosenstock.
      A creative, little boy loves the stories he learns from his family that reflect the rich Indian culture of his village. This is India in 1947 at the time of partition when Hindus and Muslims were separated into two countries. Nek and his family are forced to leave their homes. Moving to a new city that seemed devoid of the culture he loved, Nek collects and re-purposes trash and constructs his own village from it over a period of year.This renown folk artist has up to 4000 people a day visit his Rock Garden of Chandigarh. You need to check out the Foundations website to see some of his sculptures and how he changed the landscape. Amazing! Recommended for grades 3-7. Great book to tie in to units about recycling trash into art, science units about waste in our world and social studies units about India and partition. 

#7. Inky's Amazing Escape: How a Very Smart Octopus Found His Way Home by Sy Montgomery
     I've a soft spot for stories about octopues since reading Sy Montgomery's book, The Soul of an Octopus. This book conveys the intelligence of this marvelous animal while he learn about how they live. This one has the added bonus of an adventure story as a rescued octopus finds his own way back to the ocean from an aquarium that had been his home. Recommended for grades 3-6.

#8. The Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World's Coral Reefs by Kate Messner and Matthew Forsythe
      Recounts how Ken Nedimyer was fascinated with oceans as a boy. He noticed that corals in the Florida Keys were in distressed and dying. Through his interest and endeavors he discovered a way to cultivate introduced corals into areas that were in dire need of help. Beautifully illustrated. Recommended for grades 3-6.

#9.  Around the World in Numbers by Clive Gifford and Josh Hurley.
      Divided by continent, the reader who loves trivia will enjoy this book. Lots of statistics are given for a range of eclectic things related to specific countries or specific areas in countries. Examples: 1,500 paintbrushes and 66 tons  of paint are used repaint the Eiffel Tower; 38,000,000 motorbikes are the most popular form of transport in Vietnam; 2.25 gallons of water can be held in an African elephant's trunk; 100,000,000 leather slippers are made in Morocco every year; 5.9 million pounds of maple syrup were stolen by thieves in Canada in 2012, etc. Because such large areas are covered there are not a lot of details for any one country. Good for browsing. Recommended for grades 4-7.

And....

#10.  Mama Africa!: How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song by Kathryn Erskine.
       Born in South Africa apartheid was enforced, Miriam uses her amazing voice to sing songs of protest to raise awareness and protest the oppression that black South Africans live  under. This picture book tells of the trials and tribulations that she endured. Extensive author's notes, timeline, glossary, bibliography and additional reading list are included. Recommended for grades 4-7.

A Moral Dilemma

The Plot to Kill Hitler: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pastor, spy, unlikely hero by Patricia McCormick tells an important and lesser known story about one of a group of men who risked their lives to assassinate one of the most diabolical dictators. A better known co-conspirator is Claus Schenk Graf Von Stauffenberg.

But this book focuses on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We learn about his life, of his privileged childhood from a large, loving German family, of being quiet and introspective from an early age and that eventually he was drawn to theology and ordained as a minister. His academic work about the role of the church in the lives of ordinary people as a force of good was well respected.  Experiences working with the poor and underprivileged children in Barcelona, Harlem, New York and Berlin became defining periods in his life.

While Dietrich Bonhoeffer was in New York he meet Martin Luther King Jr. and others who later became leaders in the American civil rights movement and became aware of segregation. He saw firsthand how “separate but equal” played out in the lives of African Americans.

When he returned to Berlin in 1931, support for the Nazi party was growing and Bonhoeffer could see parallels between the anti-Jewish sentiments of Nazi supporters and the Jim Crow laws in America. He was concerned enough to speak out against the Nazis. In 1933, after Hitler became chancellor, Bonhoeffer is told by his brother-in-law, Hans von Dohnanyi, the Nazis were about to increase and implement a more active exclusion of Jews from German society.

Bonhoeffer felt that the clergy had an obligation to help those in need including those being persecuted by the Nazis. He did not have the support of most of his fellow clergymen as the Nazis had already approached them with offers of political influence and standing in return for their allegiance to Hitler. To speak out against the Nazis and Hitler was treason.

During the mid-1930s he travelled to other European countries attempting to convince church leaders to try and protest against the Nazis with no takers. By the early 1940s, while working as a double agent, Bonhoeffer tries to get information out to Great Britain and other European countries about the atrocities perpetuated by the Nazis hoping to gain support for the conspiracy to kill Hitler.

In the author’s note, Patricia McCormick tells us of her interest in this story because of the paradox of a pacifist clergyman who would become involved in a conspiracy to kill.  She asks, “How could a man of faith justify murder?” This is an interesting element to the story. For Bonhoeffer and a few others involved in the conspiracy, it presented a moral dilemma. Is treason a sin? How does a person appease their conscience when they are about to commit a mortal sin?

This well researched biography helps us understand the path that led Dietrich Bonhoeffer to his decision to act against the state, Hitler, church and his own peace-loving beliefs. It includes a timeline, references, bibliography, index, photos and sidebars with supplemental materials. I recommend this for grades 6 and up.

This book would pair well with other books about others who resisted the Nazis and sought to aid those who were persecuted, such as

His Name was Raoul Wallenberg by Louise Borden – recommended for middle grades

The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose – recommended for grades 9 and up.

The Grand Mosque of Paris by Karen Gray Ruelle and Deborah Durland DeSaix] – for middle grades

In My Hands by Irene Gut Opdyke – recommended for grades 8-12

Nonfiction Roundup

As life in the Doucette Library is becoming quieter with teacher-education students out on practicum, I’m getting caught up on some reading.

Today I’m highlighting some interesting nonfiction books for all levels.

Elementary

A Place for Turtles by Melissa Stewart

Despite the commercialism of the jingle, “I love turtles”, I do, in fact love real turtles. They are fascinating creatures and this book lays out many interesting facts about various species of turtles predominately found in the United States. Along with these facts are the conditions and challenges that turtles face today. The illustrations are well done and provide abundant details about what the turtles look like and their habitats. It emphasizes the interconnectedness within ecological systems and the importance of protecting turtles.

Emmanuel’s Dream: the true story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thompson

What an interesting story! This is about a young man from Ghana who overcomes a physical challenge and societal prejudices proving that “disability does not mean inability”.  Born with only one strong leg Emmanuel had to learn to do things for himself fairly quickly. He learned to carry water and climb coconut trees.  He hopped two miles each way to get to school. He learned to make friends when the other kids didn’t want to play with him.  He was resourceful and resilient. As a young man he decides to honour a promise he made to his dying mother by cycling close to 400 miles across Ghana to spread his message that “disable does not mean being unable.” Loved it.

Colors of the Wind: the story of blind artist and champion runnerGeorge Mendoza by J.L. Powers

This book also explores the life of an artist who lives with what could have been a debilitating condition, going blind at a young age, but ends up becoming a world class runner and renowned artist. It’s an interesting story with good classroom potential to teach about resiliency, inclusion, and art.  I did find the writing somewhat abrupt, a little choppy with no sense of what the time line was for George’s life.

Middle School

The Snow Baby: the Arctic Childhood of Admiral Robert E. Peary’sdaring daughter by Katherine Kirkpatrick

Another fascinating look at an atypical childhood. We are introduced to Marie Ahnighito Peary, born in a shed in Greenland in 1893, the daughter of a naval office obsessed to become the first person to reach the North Pole. Marie and her mother were often willing participants of Peary’s expeditions (and there were many) that placed them far from Washington D.C. society and living in the high Arctic with sailors, explorers and local Inuit people. Marie was adventuresome and saw her father as a hero for trying to attain his goal. There are lots of photos of Marie, her family, the ships she sailed on and various locales that are mentioned in the text. The book has a lot of text which may put off younger or struggling readers but the story here is so interesting that it’s worth having in the classroom.

Flying Cars: the true story by Andrew Glass

“Is this for real?” asked my partner when he saw this book sitting on the coffee table at home. That’s exactly what I thought when I came across this one, too. I had no idea that so many attempts had been made by so many innovators to construct a vehicle that would allow a car to fly or a small aircraft to drive like a car.  Many configurations of areocars have been designed between the early 1900s and today. It’s a fascinating idea that sparks the imagination but within a heartbeat raises a myriad of questions about the challenges of just anyone flying/driving a vehicle. Nevertheless, a really cool idea.

Secondary

Garbology: our dirty love affair with trash by Edward Humes

Okay, I’m going to fess up that I haven’t read all of this one – yet. This is an interesting, well-written account of the practical and societal issues about garbage.  What drew my attention to this book was an article that came my way about Boise High School using this book to engage its student body with reading and sustainability issues. Check out the article to read more about this initiative or read about the school's objectives for this project here. I love the idea that this sort of enterprise can have such a big payout for both literacy and social change in a school setting. This is an interesting and informative read that really does impact all of us.

Social studies resource and critical thinking

I know that Hiawatha and the Peacemaker by Robbie Robertson will be a very useful resources for the grade 6 social studies topic, Historical Modes of Democracy taught in Alberta schools.

This is a retelling based mostly on Robertson’s recollection of being told this story as a child on the Six Nations of the Grand River reservation in Ontario by a revered elder. The elder was “a wisdom-keeper who knows the stories and the old ways.”[from the author’s note]  The elder impressed young Robbie greatly and inspired him to want to become a storyteller, too.

The story is about Hiawatha, a Mohawk, who loses everything he loves to the evil chief, Tadodaho from the Onondaga nation. He is grieving the loss of his family and village and plotting revenge when a stranger arrives and convinces him to travel with him, the Peacemaker, to the other tribes of the region to convince them to desist from fighting each other. The Peacemaker wants people (tribes) to “come together as one body, one mind, and one heart. Peace, power, and righteousness shall be the new way.” The Peacemaker needs Hiawatha’s powerful, articulate speaking voice to help spread the word.

Their message is appreciated by the other tribes but their fear of Tadodaho makes them question the wisdom of not fighting such a powerful enemy. The message of love and forgiveness over violence is one that is supported by the women of each tribe. Eventually, consensus is reached and the four nations (Mohawk, Cayuga, Seneca and Oneida) paddle together to confront Chief Tadodaho. Eventually, Tadodaho is overcome through strong medicine and forgiveness and the Five Nations are united.

“The Peacemaker placed his fist over his heart, and again I spoke. ‘As Five Nations, we will bring forth peace, power, and righteousness.  The women of our tribes shall appoint the Chiefs, and as one people we shall live under the protection of the Great Law. All voices will be heard as we now vote before action is taken.”

Here is the general outcome as laid out in the Alberta Education program of studies:

Students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of the democratic principles exemplified by ancient Athens and the Iroquois Confederacy.

Here are more specific outcomes focused on the Iroquois Confederacy:

6.2.4 analyze the structure and functions of the Iroquois Confederacy by exploring and reflecting upon the following questions and issues:

• How was the Iroquois Confederacy structured?• What was the role and status of women within the Iroquois Confederacy?• What are the advantages and disadvantages of consensus as a decision-making model for government?• How did the Six Nations use the consensus-building process?• How did the Wampum Belt address collective identity?• How did the social structure of the Iroquois Confederacy impact its political structure?• To what extent did the decision-making process within the Iroquois Confederacy reflect democratic ideals of equity and fairness? 

So, you see, it’s a good fit.

Illustrated by David Shannon, the art work is lush and bold drawing our attention on every page. In spite of liking the book, this is where I become a little wary.

As far as I can determine, David Shannon is not of native descent. His familiarity with the indigenous peoples making up the Iroquois Confederacy will be limited. No illustrator’s notes were included to explain his decisions and I’m left to imagine his work is likely based on research and other observations he’s possibly made on his own. This leaves his depictions open to inaccuracies.  I’m not familiar enough with any aboriginal group to feel comfortable discerning how accurately they have been portrayed. I did an internet search and found images similar to those of David Shannon’s but again I have to question whether these images are accurate and where they’ve come from. I’m not saying there are inaccuracies in the illustrations in this picture book just that I, as a non-native, don’t know enough to figure this out.  I do know, however that it is crucial for the representations to accurately portray the culture of indigenous peoples. 

It’s a tricky business using children’s literature like this picture book.

The author's notes, acknowledgements and references are illuminating about Robertson's experiences as a boy and understanding of the story. (There is a CD also with a recording of Robbie Robertson about Hiawatha.)

All I can say is try to do your best in finding those books that speak authentically to aboriginal experiences and these are best told with their own voices. Do your own research; try and ask those who would know better about discrepancies in the values expressed or culture illustrated; and finally, try to use many sources and representations to allow students to do some of their own questioning and investigating, too.  Being a critical reader is important and this book will, besides supplementing content allow for readers to exercise our analytic abilities. 

Red Hand Day - February 12th

This Friday is the 14th year that the Red Hand campaign has sought to raise awareness for the plight of child soldiers worldwide.  It is estimated that there are over 250,000 children under the age of 18 who are forced to fight, kill, be sex slaves and otherwise support military initiatives around the globe. 

A very recent children's book, Child Solider: when boys and girls are used in war by Jessica Dee Humphreys & Michel Chikwanine was published as part of the CitizenKid series by Kids Can Press. 

It relates Michel Chikwanine's experiences as a five-year old abducted by rebel soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1993. In a rite of initiation he was drugged and forced to kill his best friend. His time with rebels was unrelenting terror and brutality. He came to Canada when he was 16 and now as an adult promotes awareness of the suffering of child soldiers.

This book is well done for such a difficult topic. It's done in graphic-nonfiction style that handles the violence with care (not much blood and gore depicted). The illustrations are on the cartoon-y side which suggests a younger audience than the 10 to 14 year-old target he had in mind when writing this book. Information at the back of the book fills in information about children involved in military conflicts and how readers can help.

The book Out In Front: Grace Akallo and the pursuit of justice for child soldiers by Kem Knapp Sawyer has a different format but relates very similar circumstances. Grace is taken from her school in Uganda and forced into the Lord's Resistance Army when she was 15 years-old.  She, too, is subjected to the horrors of being a child soldier and 'wife' to a lieutenant in the army. She escaped after seven months. Now she also looks to promote understanding and rehabilitation for former child soldiers and to raise awareness for the children caught up in such dire circumstances.

This book is also filled with much information about the broader context of children used as soldiers interspersed with Graces' story. End notes include sources, a bibliography, index and websites to go to for additional information. This book is for grades 7 and up.

I'm recommending both books for their content. This is a cause that is important and worth children knowing more about.

UPDATE: CBC news article highlighted the VTECS : Veteran Trainers to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers as an initiative that will enlist veteran Canadian soldiers to aid in the prevention of recruitment of children as soldiers.

All in the name of public health

But tell that to Mary Mallon aka Typhoid Mary.

I’ve had two recently published books about Mary on my to-read pile for a while and finally got to them over the holidays.  (Not the most chipper reading, for sure, but entirely fascinating, nonetheless.)

 The two books are:

Fatal fever: tracking down Typhoid Mary by Gail Jarrow

Terrible Typhoid Mary: a true story of the deadliest cook inAmerica by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.

Both books cover pretty much the same content: an outbreak of typhoid that is tracked down by a vigilant and somewhat obsessive sanitary engineer, Dr. George Soper to a household cook, Mary Mallon.

Mary is identified as a healthy carrier of the typhoid bacteria. She is able to contaminate raw food when she prepares it for the families she works for, making them sick and killing a couple of them over a period of years. She is eventually apprehended, tested and quarantined at a hospital on an island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx. She lives there for three years until the health department releases her when she promises not to cook for other people. She struggles for a few years doing other types of work but eventually returns to cooking at a hospital only to infect newborn babies and mothers. She is returned to North Brother Island where she lives until 1938.

The tension in the story is the balance between personal rights and liberty and public health.

The most interesting part of this for me was reading the two books back-to-back. Starting with Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s book, Terrible Typhoid Mary, (I have found her books about the KKK and Hitler Youth fascinating), I anticipated a strongly told narrative about Mary Mallon’s trials and tribulations. The book attempts to make Mary a real person and tries to get us to empathize with her. And I did get there in part. Bartoletti doesn’t down play that Mary created some of her own problems. Mary knowingly went back to cooking for others knowing the consequences.  Nevertheless, a good part of her life was lived fairly isolated.

It wasn’t until I read the second book, Fatal Fever, that I realized that Bartoletti’s book, Terrible Typhoid Mary, had gone further in suggesting that Mary Mallon, despite her noncompliance and resistance to testing, had not been treated fairly.  Other healthy carriers had been identified but not incarcerated and isolated like Mary.

In Terrible Typhoid Mary, it is also suggested that she was given experimental medical treatments to see if she could be cured, whereas other carriers were not experimented on. In Bartoletti’s book, Soper comes across as especially diligent and perhaps biased against Mary describing her more like a man than a woman because of her fiery temper (she threatened him with a sharp carving fork when he asked to test her blood, urine and feces), her strength, and use of rough language saying “her mind had a distinctly masculine character” (p.45). Because Mary didn’t fit society’s or Soper’s ideal of a woman, this may have biased him against her.

Bartoletti also emphasizes that by identifying the first healthy carrier of the typhoid bacteria he had an opportunity to make a name for himself.  After Mary was quarantined and living on North Brother Island, he spoke at public engagements and published works about Mary’s case.

In Fatal Fever, aspects of Soper’s work are framed differently by not including the information about his perceptions about Mary and down playing his seeming desire for public fame. His passion for finding people like Mary was for the benefit of public health.

Both books are referenced in-depth, with footnotes, bibliographies and indexes. Bartoletti’s book also includes a timeline.  I liked the layout of Jarrow’s Fatal Fever and think students will find it a little more appealing because of interspersed illustrations and photographs and white space framing the text. Bartoletti’s book has the pictures mostly grouped into a section at the back of the book.

Still the question remains: how far in the interests of public health should an individual’s right be protected when others can be placed in jeopardy?

I recommend both books be used together to compare the way the same information is used but framed differently.  Both books would be suitable for grades 7 and up.

Teddy’s adventures – The sequel

A Bear on the Homefront by Stephanie Innes and Harry Endrulat continues the story of the teddy bear we first met in A Bear in War. I blogged about it in 2010, recommending the book as a resource for Remembrance Day. 

In the first book, Teddy is returned to his human family in Canada after the soldier he accompanies to Europe dies at Passchendaele, Belgium.

Teddy resumes his story as British children arrive in Canada at the start of World War II - a safety precaution against bombing raids.  This time Teddy accompanies a young nurse, Aileen, as she meets the newly arrived children, traveling with them until they arrive at their destinations to settle with Canadian families.

Among the many children are Grace and William who Teddy picks out as looking particularly lost and afraid.  Aileen takes them under her wing offering Teddy to William to hold. Teddy is able to comfort the two homesick children on the train ride west to Winnipeg. Arriving late at night, Grace and William are very nervous about meeting the Dents, the people they will stay with. William wishes he can stay with Aileen and Teddy.

Aileen and Teddy decide that Teddy should go with William to help him adjust and settle in.  After Aileen leaves, William notices that Teddy looks sad and Teddy acknowledges that he wonders if he’ll ever see Aileen again.  William understands Teddy’s feelings as they reflect this own about leaving home and coming to Canada.

Living on the Dent’s farm turns out to be a different way of living for the children but the couple is kind and work to make the two feel welcomed. They soon settle into a new routine.  Nevertheless, William still misses home and wishes that the war would end soon.  So, does Teddy. After five long years, the war finally ends and the children return to England.

And Teddy? Well, he’s packed up and mailed to a Montreal hospital to be reunited with Aileen.  Teddy exclaims, “Finally, we were all back home, where we belonged.”

Bear On the Homefront will tie in nicely with units about Remembrance Day (November 11th) for elementary students. Besides connecting to Canadian history and war it speaks to the bigger ideas of home and family.

The authors include a page of information about Teddy, Aileen and her father, the soldier who died in 1917.

The following link will take you to the Canadian War Museum’s website and you can see a picture of Teddy which is where he now displayed.

Medical mystery

I love a good mystery.

And I was a little surprised reading Red Madness: how a medical mystery changed what we eat by Gail Jarrow that it proved to be such a good one.

It’s about a disease I had never heard of, pellagra, that plagued various people around the world but seemed to be worse in the southern states of the United States in the early 20^th century.

It’s a horrendous disease that caused extreme suffering; weakness, skin rashes and blisters, gastrointestinal issues, insanity, and eventually death. The pictures included in the book are fairly arresting but not sensational and provide a very good idea about how debilitating and painful pellagra could be for those afflicted.  Personal stories of ‘pellagrins’ are interspersed throughout the book that convey their suffering and helpless.

The author spins this as a medical mystery that concerned doctors for years and eventually turned into a public health issue that involved government agencies trying to figure out the cause of and cure for the disease. Along the way we learn about food production, poverty, quality of life and other social issues that related to the US transitioning into a more industrial nation. 

Until an epidemiologist, Joseph Goldberger, began making scientifically controlled tests, there were several pet theories as to how pellagra proliferated and was to be cured. Goldberger’s experiments on dogs, himself, other scientists and even prisoners (informed about the tests) eventually proved that the disease was related to a deficiency found in inadequate diets.  (Now I know why niacin is so important!) It was especially fascinating to read about the doctors involved and how egos contributed to slow advancements in eradicating pellagra.

Overall, a very well researched historical book that looks at the social context, health issues and implications for economically poor people of the early 1900s.  An interesting book for cross-disciplinary classroom use for science and social studies for grades 6/7 and up that have implications for even today. The importance of sound science in our everyday lives is brought home with a book like this, showing how advancements in many areas not just public health, have improved our quality of life.

An Urban Jungle: through the eyes of an artist

The London Jungle Book by Bhajju Shyam is an amazing and beautiful piece of art published by my favorite publisher – Tara Books.

When Gond tribal artist Bhajju Shyam is offered a job to paint murals on the walls of a tony London restaurant, it’s an opportunity that raises questions, anxieties, and excitement.

As we learn from a lengthy editors’ note (Gita Wolf and Sirish Rao), people of the Gond tribe are often marginalized in India, thought of as ‘primitives without culture’. They often live in poverty with few opportunities to improve their lot in life.

Also, as artists, their style is based on community beliefs and has a very structured aesthetic.  Images, icons, and symbols represent their everyday lives or their beliefs and are conveyed more as perceptions from the mind’s eye. Realism, perspective, light, or three-dimensionality are not significant factors.  Images are filled with detailed, intricate, geometric patterns. Traditionally limited to four earth tones, Gond artists now living and selling their work in urban centres are using colourful, commercial paints and inks to expand their art form.

So, with this introduction, how does an artist who has never travelled or flown in an airplane to a foreign world perceive what he sees and experiences?

The London Jungle Book allows us a chance to see ourselves in new way (“reverse the anthropological gaze”) playing on Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. A travelogue filled with creatures (animal and human) based on Gond traditions to represent a modern city and how an artist from a very different culture would experience life here.

Each image is accompanied by a ‘story’ that relates to an observation or experience.  His flight from India to London is depicted as a winged elephant leaping into the air, the elephant being the biggest and heaviest thing he can relate to that corresponds to an airplane.

Or, that Londoners remind him of bats who come out at night, dressed in black, going out to eat and socialize.  Bhajju has observed that, though, some streets can seem deserted during the day, evening is a different matter when they are filled with people on their way to restaurants and pubs.  The pub is represented as a Mahua tree, a sacred tree symbol for the Gond, its flowers used to make alcohol  and its trunk inhabited by many black bats readying for their nightly social rounds.

“I show English people as bats not to make fun of them, but because I like to think of them as creatures that come to life in the evening.”

The illustrations always feel balanced with beautiful colours and detailing.  The patterns fill every animal, bird, human, and object with small repetitive lines, circles, or dots.

Each image also includes a small artist’s note explaining the Gond aesthetics that is attributed to each modern London scene. The cover image is a good example of this traditional and modern aesthetic that combines Big Ben, London’s iconic clock tower with a rooster.  The clock face and rooster’s eye are the one and the same. The rooster is a symbol of time in Gond art.  He says,

 “Symbols are the most important thing in Gond art, and every symbol is a story standing in for something else. So this painting was the easiest for me to do, because it had two perfect symbols coming together.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this blending of traditional folk art with trappings from modern life, like the bus with the head of a dog representing how Londoners travel through the city. These paired images offer a sense of something very familiar, comforting, and loyal much the way a dog can imbue these qualities.   Or, how apt is it that the ‘tube’ system is represented as an earthworm which in Gond tradition rules the earth below?

I felt quite humbled reading through these stories and working through the illustrations.  I was given an inside look at how this man experienced London and worked to convey something meaningful for us and himself. All travelers compare their home countries with the new ones being explored.  Sometimes we marvel and sometimes differences just make us grumpy. Bhajju is kind in his observations about life in London.  I didn’t feel he was being judgmental but rather was acknowledging differences and similarities and creating an understanding of his experiences.  This is an artist filled with wonder and generous in his assessment of life in London. This new venue offers him the opportunity to become a storyteller as well as an artist.

Adventures with colour in Canada : Ted Harrison

 

Cover image: Magnificent Yukon

Besides being an immensely useful book in classrooms, A Brush Full of Colour: the world of Ted Harrison by Margriet Ruurs and Katherine Gibson, is filled with beautiful images and information about the life of Ted Harrison. Just what you’d hope for in a biography.

Set out chronologically, Ted’s childhood in a coal-mining town in England, his travels with the British army, and then as a teacher, are documented in his art, reflecting his growth as an artist as well as the myriad of artistic influences from various cultures. 

Eventually, settling in Canada (Alberta, Yukon and British Columbia), his distinctive style of bright colours, defining black lines, faceless people, juxtaposing contrasting and complimentary colours, and wide open landscapes, was developed and honed here

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His work is easily identifiable and is often used in classrooms for students to model their own work on. The cheery colours and depictions of everyday life make this a style that can be emulated in elementary classrooms

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Recommended for elementary grades but reading level would be best for the upper grades.

Residential schools, resiliency and reconciliation

Currently on display at the Calgary Public Library, is a unique art installation known as The Witness Blanket.   

  

“The Witness Blanket stands as a national monument to recognise the atrocities of the Indian Residential School era, honour the children, and symbolise ongoing reconciliation.”

 You will see a diverse range of artifacts arranged to represent a quilted blanket.  Items included are door knobs and handles, bricks, old painted wood, children’s skates, bowls, school badges, children’s beaded moccasins, letters, photos, a door from an infirmary, religious statues, part of a piano keyboard and even a couple of braids of hair.  These are only some of the items that have been collected from various residential schools, churches and other government buildings from across Canada.  The whole installation stands above several volumes of Canadian statues that include the Indian Act from 1857 to 1938.

The Witness Blanket is on display until May 9^th.  There is a free app that can be downloaded from the Apple store that is well worth getting.  Each artifacts is described and located on a map of Canada and will add even more to viewing.

What a powerful piece of art to tie into literature relating the experiences of some of these survivors.

Very recently, I read The Education of Augie Merasty: a residential school memoir by Joseph Auguste Merasty with David Carpenter.  This short but essential volume is a collection of Augie’s memories of living at St Therese Residential School, in Sturgeon Landing, Manitoba. Many of the nuns and priests treated the children brutally, regularly subjecting Augie and the other children to cold, hunger, verbal and physical abuse, and sexual assault.

I found the introduction and other content supplied by David Carpenter interesting, too.  Where Augie tells of his childhood memories, David gives us insight into the man that he becomes.  In the decade that it took for David to collect these stories we learn of the many ups and downs that befall Augie.  His voice is always strong sometimes with tinged with humor and even regard for some of his kinder teachers.

I’m recommending this title for high school students and older

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This book was recently featured on the CBC’s radio program, The Current.  Click here to listen to the interview with David Carpenter.