Music Was It

Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein
by Susan Goldman Rubin
178 pages
Charlesbridge

Publisher's description:

“Life without music is unthinkable.”—Leonard Bernstein, Findings

When Lenny was two years old, his mother found that the only way to soothe her crying son was to turn on the Victrola. When his aunt passed on her piano to Lenny’s parents, the boy demanded lessons. When Lenny went to school, he had the most fun during “singing hours.”
But Lenny’s love of music was met with opposition from the start. Lenny’s father, a successful businessman, wanted Lenny to follow in his footsteps. Additionally, the classical music world of the 1930s and 1940s was dominated by Europeans—no American Jewish kid had a serious chance to make a name for himself in this field.
Beginning with Lenny’s childhood in Boston and ending with his triumphant conducting debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic when he was just twenty-five, Music Was IT draws readers into the energetic, passionate, challenging, music-filled life of young Leonard Bernstein.
Archival photographs, mostly from the Leonard Bernstein Collection at the Library of Congress, illustrate this fascinating biography, which also includes a foreword by Bernstein’s daughter Jamie. Extensive back matter includes biographies of important people in Bernstein’s life, as well as a discography of his music.

My comments:

This is a quick and easy read. There are many nice pictures, but my favorites are the pages of doodles (p. 65 and 66) from Bernstein's college notebooks. Handwritten tests and compositions, and autographed photos from musicians he admired are also illuminating.

The design is clean and simple. The cover and end papers are dark blue, and everything inside is black and white. Images are nice and large, and white space is used sparingly but effectively. The only flourish is a musical staff marking the beginning of each chapter, and chapter titles done in a faux-handwriting font.

In addition to conducting research through books, and exhibits at Harvard and the Library of Congress; the author interviewed two of Bernstein's children in person, and his brother and a lifelong friend via telephone. Bernstein's daughter, Jamie, wrote the foreward.

I would have liked it if Rubin had delved into Bernstein's impact, discussing some of his major contributions like West Side Story, On the Town and Candide, in an introduction or the first chapter instead of leaving them to the epilogue. Some interesting aspects of his personal life, like his bisexuality and the fact that he smoked (despite having asthma) are also crammed into the epilogue, as afterthoughts.

End materials include a discography, timeline, biographies of friends and mentors, a bibliography, quotation sources and an index. These are all substantive. The discography includes a couple of DVDs in addition to audio recordings; actually watching Bernstein conduct would be a treat as he used his hands rather than a baton and was noted for his energetic style. I imagine is style may have influenced young conductors like Gustavo Dudamel, however this also isn't discussed in the book.

YALSA 2012 Nonfiction Award Shortlist

YALSA announced the five finalists for the 2012 Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults today:

Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition by Karen Blumenthal

Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) by Sue Macy

Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein by Susan Goldman Rubin

The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin

I've been derelict in my reading and commenting (too much time spent on NaNoWriMo) but promise to try to try to get to Music Was It and Wheels of Change this month.

Of the three on the list that I have read, Bootleg and The Notorious Benedict Arnold were two of my favorites for the whole year.

Flesh & Blood So Cheap

Flesh & Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy
by Albert Marrin
182 pages
published by Alfred A. Knopf

Publisher's description:

On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City burst into flames. The factory was crowded. The doors were locked to ensure workers stay inside. One hundred forty-six people—mostly women—perished; it was one of the most lethal workplace fires in American history until September 11, 2001.

But the story of the fire is not the story of one accidental moment in time. It is a story of immigration and hard work to make it in a new country, as Italians and Jews and others traveled to America to find a better life. It is the story of poor working conditions and greedy bosses, as garment workers discovered the endless sacrifices required to make ends meet. It is the story of unimaginable, but avoidable, disaster. And it the story of the unquenchable pride and activism of fearless immigrants and women who stood up to business, got America on their side, and finally changed working conditions for our entire nation, initiating radical new laws we take for granted today.


My comments:

While this book does cover the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, that many pages are actually devoted to the fire itself. Instead, much of the focus rests on immigration and workers rights; two larger issues that have a great deal to do with the fire. Most of the workers who died in the fire were immigrant women, and unsafe working conditions are responsible for their deaths.

The legacy of the fire was a greater awareness of worker safety. Frances Perkins, a champion for workers' rights, was spurred into action by the fire. h eventually served as Secretary of the Department of Labor for FDR.

I have mixed feelings about the design. The size, shape, and heft of the book is somewhere between picture and coffee table book. The bright gold cover is attention grabbing, but the safety-orange end papers inside hurt my eyes. The text is large and is arranged in two columns per page with a lot of white space on the side. There are many great images included in the book, including several from Jacob Riis' groundbreaking 1890 work How the Other Half Lives.

Prominent figures like Perkins and Riis get extra coverage.

Back end materials include a bibliography, source notes, picture credits, and index. The notes are numbered in the text and organized by chapter at end. The clear organization, generous text size and spacing make them easy to use. The picture credits, on the other hand, are cramped into a small block. There's also no information about photographers.

The Many Faces of George Washington

The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon
by Carla Killough McClafferty
120 pages
Carolrhoda Books

Publisher's description:

"No picture accurately resembled him in the minute traits of his person . . . there was an expression of his face that no painter had succeeded in taking." --London's New Monthly Magazine (1790). George Washington's face has been painted, printed, and engraved more than a billion times since his birth in 1732. And yet even in his lifetime, no picture seemed to capture the likeness of the man who is now the most iconic of all our presidents. Worse still, people today often see this founding father as the "old and grumpy" Washington on the dollar bill. In 2005 a team of historians, scientists, and artisans at Mount Vernon set out to change the image of our first president. They studied paintings and sculptures, pored over Washington's letters to his tailors and noted other people's comments about his appearance, even closely examined the many sets of dentures that had been created for Washington. Researchers tapped into skills as diverse as 18th-century leatherworking and cutting-edge computer programming to assemble truer likenesses. Their painstaking research and exacting processes helped create three full-body representations of Washington as he was at key moments in his life. And all along the way, the team gained new insight into a man who was anything but "old and grumpy." Join award-winning author Carla Killough McClafferty as she unveils the statues of the three Georges and rediscovers the man who became the face of a new nation.

My Comments:

McClafferty tells duel stories with her book: the fascinating modern process of creating lifelike figures of Washington, and Washington's own life story. The art and science of the modern "Bones-ish" storyline are what initially attracted me to the book.

The three new likenesses of Washington are all based off of the work done by Jean-Antoine Houdon. The French sculptor visited Washington in his home to create a plaster life mask. Washington posed for Houdon at age 53, so it took scientists and artists a lot of work to accurately depict him at ages 19, 45 and 57. Many color photographs of the creation process are included, along with captions that provide additional information about how it’s done. A great deal of care went into details like his hair, eyes and clothing. Washington was known for being an excellent horseman, so it's fitting that his horse, Blueskin, was also recreated to go along with his 45-year old figure.

McClafferty's rendition of Washington's life focuses on exciting incidents, such as young Washington's role in the French and Indian War and middle-aged Washington's role in the American revolution. Photographs of Mount Vernon and other important historical sites such as Fort Necessity are plentiful, and well-captioned. The history sections are well-written overall, but I found one erroneous date (on page 35) that muddles the story. In the middle of a section on Washington's time spent with General Braddock in 1755, the text suddenly claims that he fell ill on June 14, 1754.

The design of the book is very attractive. The trim size is very similar to Houghton Mifflin's "Scientists in the Field" series, and the look and feel of the pages is typical of National Geographic's work. Dark red text boxes and bars contrast nicely with off-white backgrounds. The text is divided into two columns, and the font that's used is not quite so big as to seem childish.

Back end materials include a note from the author, a very useful George Washington timeline, source notes, a bibliography, further reading and an index. The note thanks many of the people involved in the creation of the statues who shared their insights with McClafferty. To research the book, she spent time at Mount Vernon and the studio where Washington's likenesses are "freshened" each year. The source notes are not very useful because they are not individually numbered. Only page numbers are included, so that you have to guess at what portion of the text the note is referring to. The bibliography is extensive, and includes books, articles, primary sources, interviews, a couple of DVDs and even a master's thesis on Washington's dental history. The further reading section includes several websites.

A little text box on page 117 promotes complementary educational resources available through the publisher's website: www.lerneresource.com. What the text box doesn't tell you is that you must register with Lerner in order to access the downloadable materials. Fortunately, registration is free. The downloadables turned out to be nothing too exciting: a list of some additional websites, a journal assignment for anyone wishing to burden young readers with homework and a photo slideshow. Okay, the slideshow is pretty cool.

Bootleg

Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine and the Lawless Years of Prohibition by Karen Blumenthal
160 pages
Flash Point


Publisher's Description:

It began with the best of intentions. Worried about the effects of alcohol on American families, mothers and civic leaders started a movement to outlaw drinking in public places. Over time, their protests, petitions, and activism paid off—when a Constitional Amendment banning the sale and consumption of alcohol was ratified, it was hailed as the end of public drunkenness, alcoholism, and a host of other social ills related to booze. Instead, it began a decade of lawlessness, when children smuggled (and drank) illegal alcohol, the most upright citizens casually broke the law, and a host of notorious gangsters entered the public eye. Filled with period art and photographs, anecdotes, and portraits of unique characters from the era, this fascinating book looks at the rise and fall of the disastrous social experiment known as Prohibition.


My Comments:

First of all, this book is very well-written. Blumenthal draws readers in immediately with an account of the St. Valentine's Day murders and then shoots back in time to describe the people, ideas and events that led up to it. In addition to introducing readers to the major players like Morris Sheppard, the "father" of Prohibition, she traces the roots of Prohibition all the way back to the pilgrims without letting the story get bogged down in the minutia of the past. If you'll pardon the expression, I never found the writing to be "dry." It helps that the book covers such a fascinating segment of American history, full of larger than life characters like Carrie Nation and Al Capone.

The overall design of the book is nothing special, but the wealth of images are a great strength. From a beer advertisement featuring a toddler (p. 28) to a full-page photograph of labor union members marching with "We Want Beer" signs and miniature flags (p. 107), the pictures alone tell a compelling story. A pair of photographs on page 68 comparing prohibition agents Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith in and out of costume had me giggling for several minutes.

Blumenthal makes a point of mentioning in her bibliography and source notes that there is great wealth of primary sources on prohibition available to anyone willing to dive in. She describes her trips to university libraries with entire sections on temperance and prohibition. In addition to library research, she also contacted famous people born just before 1920 to request interviews. Jean Craighead George (p. 75) and John Paul Stevens (p. 126) were two of the people who responded. The bibliography is nicely organized into subject categories (i.e. cars, Al Capone). Source Notes are organized by chapter, and while a little guesswork is needed to pair sources with quotes, I still found them to be helpful. Also included in the back is a useful Prohibition and Temperance Glossary. It's worth browsing for the definition of "ombibulous'" alone. Picture credits and an index round out the end materials.

The lessons learned during Prohibition (the problems with single-issue politics, the need for compromise, the consequences of changing the Constitution) are pertinent in today's political climate and ripe for discussion. Ken Burns' 3-part Prohibition documentary just debuted this week. In his Sept. 28 interview with Stephen Colbert, the reasons for Prohibition, the problems with the Volstead Act, and the era he describes snugly with what Blumenthal described in her book. Historian David Okrent, author of recent adult title Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, figures prominently in Burns' series. These two books may pair well for a teen-adult book discussion.

It Gets Better

It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living
Edited by Dan Savage and Terry Miller
328 pages
Published by Dutton/Penguin

Publisher's description:
Growing up isn't easy. Many young people face daily tormenting and bullying, making them feel like they have nowhere to turn. This is especially true for LGBT kids and teens who often hide their sexuality for fear of bullying. Without other openly gay adults and mentors in their lives, they can't imagine what their future may hold. In many instances, gay and lesbian adolescents are taunted - even tortured - simply for being themselves.
After a number of tragic suicides by LGBT students who were bullied in school, syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage uploaded a video to YouTube with his partner Terry Miller to inspire hope for LGBT youth facing harassment. Speaking openly about the bullying they suffered as teenagers, and how they both went on to lead rewarding adult lives, their video launched the It Gets Better Project YouTube channel and initiated a worldwide phenomenon. With over 6,000 videos posted and over 20 million views in the first three months alone, the world has embraced the opportunity to provide personal, honest and heartfelt support for LGBT youth everywhere.
It Gets Better is a collection of expanded essays and new material from celebrities, everyday people and teens who have posted videos of encouragement, as well as new contributors who have yet to post videos to the site. While many of these teens couldn't see a positive future for themselves, we can. We can show LGBT youth the levels of happiness, potential and positivity their lives will reach if they can just get through their teen years. By sharing these stories, It Gets Better reminds teenagers in the LGBT community that they are not alone - and it WILL get better.

My comments:

Here's the video that started it all: http://youtu.be/7IcVyvg2Qlo. What started as one youtube video has steamrolled into a movement with it's own website where the continually growing collection of inspirational videos will be maintained for years to come. In addition to watching videos, visitors can sign a pledge, read the blog, and follow it on twitter and facebook. As Savage stated in his keynote address at the ALA conference in June, the purpose of the book is to reach kids in school libraries and other places where the Internet may be filtered and blocked.

The collection of 100+ contained in the book is truly diverse, including contributions from gay, straight, bisexual and transgender people; from residents of rural areas, suburbs and large cities; from atheists and members of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths; and from teenagers through senior citizens. Their experiences and perspectives are all unique, yet share many commonalities. For instance, even those who say that they weren't badly bullied still recall instances when they were called names or ostracized for being different. Many emphatically state that life gets better after high school, while a few bluntly state that life is still tough, but they have grown stronger.

While the common theme and basic message of the essays is repetitive, the differences in viewpoints and writing styles help to distinguish one essay from another. Most are written in a very straightforward manner, a few read like lyrical narrative fiction ("In The Early Morning Rain," p. 18), and a couple appear as comics (see "I Was a Teenage Lesbian," p. 79 and "Survival Tools, " p. 177). A few contributed by groups are presented as scripts (see "Coming Out of the Shtetl: Gay Orthodox Jews," p. 48). All are brief, the longest being about five pages.

I like the brief biographies at the conclusion of each essay that tell a little more about the author and what else they're up to. Resources at the end provide curriculum guidelines for teachers and point readers to helpful organizations including The Trevor Project, GLSEN and the ACLU.

I read the book a few entries at a time, marking the ones that I especially liked with scraps of paper. At first I thought I would limit myself to a top ten, but by the time I finished I had marked 25 favorites. While it's nice to see essays from celebrities and public figures like Suze Orman and Al Franken, the most moving contributions came from "regular" people. Food blogger Adam Roberts' contribution,"The Dinner Party," (p. 82) made me long for the warm family dinners that he now shares with his and his boyfriends' parents. Some, like "Hope Out of Tragedy" (p. 282) by Columbine High School (yes, that Columbine High School) graduate Matthew Anthony Houck, had me reaching for the kleenex. Whether teens read the essays in order, or skip around, there is little doubt that they will find messages that resonate with them.

ALA Nonfiction Book Blast

I've been reading at a snail's pace lately, so to liven up the blog until I have more books to comment on, here are my thoughts on the excellent Nonfiction Book Blast held at ALA Annual in New Orleans. Ten authors of nonfiction books for young people shared their inspiration, writing and research process, and programming ideas to accompany their books. Visit http://nonfictionbookblast.wordpress.com for the full color handout that accompanied this program.

Anastasia Suen moderated the panel. She mentioned her blog http://nonfictionmonday.wordpress.com, a weekly round-up of nonfiction for young readers. She also writes Booklist Quick Tips, a monthly e-newsletter for youth librarians and teachers. Her readers' theater program on sports can be found on page 36 of the handout.

April Pulley Sayre encourages use of her books for read-alouds, describing them as poetic narrative nonfiction. She's inspired by nature (vultures, sea turtles) and gardening. Her new book Rah Rah Radishes was inspired by a depressing interview between Jamie Oliver and kids who didn't know any vegetable names. She also shared interesting facts about bumblebees: unlike honeybees, bumblebees are native to North America. They pollinate plants that honeybees can't by shaking and creating static shock.

Carla McClafferty's latest book is The Many Faces of George Washington. She describes it as “CSI meets the Biography Channel.” She talked about how the image of Washington used on the $1 dollar bill is based on an unfinished portrait by Gilbert Stuart. New statues that depict Washington at various stages of his life were created using life masks and state of the art computer imaging. She traveled to Mount Vernon to learn more about, and connect with, the book's subject. Watch the book trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd5iBwfPP68.

Shirley Duke has a biology degree, has taught science, writes a science blog, and has also written fiction. Her book You Can't Wear These Genes is about genetics. She has also written about infections, infestations, and diseases. She has 3 books coming out in the fall: Enterprise Stem, Forces & Motions at Work Here, and Environmental Disasters.

Loree Griffin Burns doesn't shy away from tackling troubling stories. Her 2007 book Tracking Trash tells the dark and troubling story of a gigantic garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean. She says that the key to telling troubling stories is to provide something for kids to do about it. She had the “citizen science” concept in mind when writing last year's Hive Detectives, about the mysterious deaths of honeybees. She also shared information about the Great Sunflower Project – www.greatsunflower.org You can participate by planting lemon queen sunflower seeds, caring for the plants until the flowers bloom, and then staring at them for 15 minutes each week to count the bees that visit them. Submit data through the website. Her upcoming book is Citizen Scientists.

Darcy Pattison's new book, Prairie Storms, comes out in August. The narrative combines information about weather, habitat and animals. Her next book, Desert Baths, is coming next year. Her publisher, Sylvan Dell, has provided downloadable lesson plans at http://prairiestorms.com. Her book trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaUirE0ed6Y incorporates the animal sounds.

Deborah Heiligman, who has written more than 20 books, joked about changing her name to Charles & Emma because that's the one that everyone remembers. She used only primary sources in writing Charles & Emma, finding scanned images of family letters and journals online. The paperback edition comes out in the fall, and the readers theater she wrote for it should be included in back. She asks that you email her if you use it in a program. She wants readers to get immersed in books and not think about her as the author. For the “Holidays Around the World” series she uses the pronoun “we.” Each of the books in that series includes a recipe that she's made herself (usually desserts) that can also be made by her readers.

Christine Taylor-Butler has a website: www.christinetaylorbutler.com. She's an MIT engineer and lives in Kansas City, where the average ACT score is 14. She has several science books coming out this year & next year. She presented several cool science experiments that can be replicated for under $5 including "Is there metal in your money?" in which she used a rare earth magnet to push and pull a $1 dollar bill. This magnetic push and pull is the same force used to power maglev trains. Another one measured the iron content in Total cereal. The cereal is crushed and mixed with hot water in a plastic bag, then rubbed with a magnet to draw the iron out. She likes to call them “magic tricks” to hook kids, then explains the science as she conducts them. Check out http://nonfictionbookblast.wordpress.com for more information and links to videos and PDFs.

Carla Mooney is the author of Explorers of the New World: Discover the Golden Age of Exploration from Nomad Press, published this month. 22 projects are included in the book. She's written many series nonfiction books for ReferencePoint Press, including entries in the "Compact Research" series and Dragons for the "Monsters and Mythical Creatures" series.

Kelly Milner Halls is the author of many books including Saving the Baghdad Zoo. Only 40 animals were found alive (mostly large carnivores) after the U.S. invaded. All the others had been eaten. She likes to get readers asking questions like, “What would you do in this situation?” Her latest book is In Search of Sasquatch, coming out in October. She encouraged everyone to watch the Patterson-Gimlin footage of “Patty” on youtube, here’s just one version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5LUt-9AvNs. She brought in plaster casts of bigfoot tracks, and showed how people can make their own. Her previous book Tale of the Cryptids got her fascinated with Bigfoot. She began researching Sasquatch convinced that it would turn out to be fake, but after interviewing several scientists she found herself open to the possibility of its existence.

Tune in next week for my thoughts on It Gets Better, edited by Dan Savage and Terry Miller.