Non-fiction book review - Get Coding

Get Coding by Young Rewired State

This is an excellent selection for kids interested in getting started with developing web projects. The directions are clear and concepts are reinforced without flatout repetition. It doesn't insult the reader's intelligence. The book is framed as a specific set of projects but encourages experimentation, so the lessons are easily extendable. And while the scope of the lessons is narrow there are plenty of resources included so an ambitions reader could easily use these resources to implement a more complex project. It was also nice to see a book that explained how three coding languages work together to create these projects rather than focusing on just one.

More information: Get Coding! releases August 1.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Book review - Last in a Long Line of Rebels

Title: Last in a Long Line of Rebels
Author: Lisa Lewis Tyre
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: How to Stage a Catastrophe by Rebecca Donnelly
                      Finding Fortune by Delia Ray
Rating:

What a delight!

Summary (provided by publisher): Lou might be only twelve, but she’s never been one to take things sitting down. So when her Civil War-era house is about to be condemned, she’s determined to save it—either by getting it deemed a historic landmark or by finding the stash of gold rumored to be hidden nearby during the war. As Lou digs into the past, her eyes are opened when she finds that her ancestors ran the gamut of slave owners, renegades, thieves and abolitionists. Meanwhile, some incidents in her town show her that many Civil War era prejudices still survive and that the past can keep repeating itself if we let it. Digging into her past shows Lou that it’s never too late to fight injustice, and she starts to see the real value of understanding and exploring her roots.

My opinion: This novel has the perfect level of complexity for young readers. Tyre yses an exciting plot (the hunt for treasure) to address more serious topics (such as past and present prejudice). While the plot was a bit obvious at times and made a few logical leaps, it was ultimately compelling reading. There is a scene in which Lou discovers her ancestors were slave owners. The shame of our family history can be very real and shake our image of ourselves. This book is worth reading for that scene alone, and the rest of it is just as good.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Sock puppet surfer dude

A local thrift store got the inventory from a yarn shop that shut down. With serious bargains on yarn I couldn't help myself. I bought several hanks of tapestry yarn with no clear idea of what I would do with them. Turns out, tapestry yarn makes pretty good puppet hair. Another trip to the thrift store may be in order...

 

Book review - Fires of Invention

Title: Fires of Invention
Author: J. Scott Savage
Genre: fantasy/sci-fi
Similar books: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
                      The Voyage to Magical North by Claire Fayres
Rating:

had my doubts for a while there

Summary (provided by publisher): Trenton Colman is a creative thirteen-year-old boy with a knack for all things mechanical. But his talents are viewed with suspicion in Cove, a steam-powered city built inside a mountain. In Cove, creativity is a crime and “invention” is a curse word.
Kallista Babbage is a repair technician and daughter of the notorious Leo Babbage, whose father died in an explosion—an event the leaders of Cove point to as an example of the danger of creativity.
Working together, Trenton and Kallista learn that Leo Babbage was developing a secret project before he perished. Following clues he left behind, they begin to assemble a strange machine that is unlikely anything they’ve ever seen before. They soon discover that what they are building may threaten every truth their city is founded on—and quite possibly their very lives.

My opinion: Steampunk and closed societies are unusual subjects for middle grade readers but it works pretty well in this instance. I had lots of ideas about the secrets behind the city of Cove early on, their reasoning behind seclusion and the technology ban. The reality was far from my suppositions. That revelation put this book on shaky ground for me. I couldn't see the connection behind their history and the rejection of technology, not for an entire culture. Once I was able to accept this tenuous plot point, the rest was pretty compelling reading. I loved the exploration of creativity, innovation, and character all mixed together.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Books on screen

The Incredible Journey/Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound was a notable movie in my childhood, one I can recall watching on multiple occasions and I was surprised to find I still enjoy now. It wasn't until I became a librarian that I realized that it was based on a book. There are a number of similarities between the two and a few notable differences. Many of the major plot points from Burnford's novel are played out on screen (or if not the exact plot elements, something similar enough to recognized it's origin). One could say that the heart of these two stories remains the same. The book, though, is largely a drama, a survival tale. It chronicles the drive of a group of animals to find home, the ways that they take care of each other and the lengths that they will go to in order to survive. The movie, on the other hand, is a family comedy. The adventure/survival elements are still present, they're just tempered by humor. The movie gives the animals voices and alters their personalities, creating interpersonal conflict to amp up the drama. To my mind, though, both of these stories are worth experiencing.
In my research, I discovered that this is the second version of The Incredible Journey that Disney has made. I wasn't able to get a copy of the 1967 version. If anyone has seen it, I'd love to hear what you thought of it and how it compares to the original book.

Non-fiction book review - Energy Lab for Kids

Energy Lab for Kids by Emily Howbaker

I've evaluated a lot of kids' science experiment books and this is one of the better ones. It succeeds on a number of fronts.
1) It has a clear theme. From the title onward, you know exxactly what sort of experiments you are getting.
2) The steps for each experiment are clearly explained and supported by photos.
3) Each experiment is accompanied by the scientific explanation for what participants will observe. 
I could see using this book to supplement homeschooling curriculum or as a part of a summer education program, not to mention just being fun for science minded kids.

X-peg

In my continuing effort to celebrate female superheroes in peg doll form, I had to celebrate my favorite X-man. It bothers me sometimes that most female heroes are given passive powers, abilities that are most useful when used away from the major action. Not so with Storm. Aurora Munro is a force to be reckoned with. And she makes a pretty cool peg, too.