Pick 6: multiple perspectives

One of the best things about fiction is the way that it opens up your world to perspectives you wouldn't otherwise understand. It's even better when a single book gives you multiple perspectives at once. Here are six book published in the past six months that are presented from more than one perspective.

6 new multiple perspective narratives

1. Paper Girl by Cindy R. Wilson
2. Any Second by Kevin Emerson
3. The Color of Lies by C.J. Lyons
4. In Your Shoes by Donna Gephart
5. Phantom Wheel by Tracy Deebs
6. The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M.T. Anderson

Non-fiction book review - Draw Alphabeasts

Draw Alphabeasts by Steve Harpster

The central concept of this book is pretty simple: starting with a letter or number draw a monster, alien, or robot. Each drawing takes just a few steps with varying degrees of detail. For the most part, this means that once you have the basic designs down it wouldn't be difficult to alter the drawing to truly make it your own. Even more importantly, this book can train a young artist to look for simple shapes in things that they want to draw, thew ways to use simple lines as a starting point for a more complex image.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Mostly, I couldn't think how to illustrate quarks

In the wake of putting away the Christmas decorations, the house can seem kind of empty and cold. The only solution, to my mind, is to make new decorations to brighten things up for the rest of the winter. To start that process, I made a little embroidered image for my bedroom door. I've been fascinated by science images lately, so decided to make an atom with a scrap of knit fabric and multi-colored thread.

Book review - Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful

Title: Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful
Author: Arwen Elys Dayton
Genre: Sci-fi
Similar books: The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgewick
                      Beta by Rachel Cohn
Rating:

the thinking person's sci-fi

Summary (provided by publisher): The future is curious.
STRONGER
Today our bodies define us. We color our hair; tattoo our skin; pierce our ears, brows, noses. We lift weights, run miles, break records. We are flesh and blood and bone.
FASTER
Tomorrow has different rules. The future is no longer about who we are--it's about who we want to be. If you can dream it, you can be it. Science will make us smarter, healthier, flawless in every way. Our future is boundless.
MORE BEAUTIFUL
This is a story that begins tomorrow. It's a story about us. It's a story about who comes after us. And it's a story about perfection. Because perfection has a way of getting ugly.

My opinion: This book is best described as thematically linked short stories. There are some ties in location and character. Personally, I wish the links had been stronger. For instance, a few of the stories directly referenced the character of Tad Tadd. I loved the idea of seeing his perspective and perception of him changing as time passed. We get a few snap shots but it might have been cool to see that constant change, paralleling the societal perception of genetic modification. 
The book takes the form of relatively short stories, all with open endings. We never hear how life turns out for individuals but are allowed to imagine their end for ourselves. The implication is that the individual actually doesn't matter but that their experiences are representative of the human species on the whole. The last few stories take us pretty far afield and thus begin to suffer some believability issues. But the writing is tight and clean. By starting in what is essentially our reality and extrapolating from there, Dylan has provided a collection that most every reader will appreciate at some stage.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Picture books for everyone

Chilly da Vinci by J. Rutland

At face value, readers will get exactly what you might expect from this book. A penguin inventor who is dismissed by his peers. Very young readers will join Chilly in his dismay at his failures and anticipate his success. But this is more to this story than the hunt for a successful invention. We see Chilly's supreme confidence in his ideas and the way he is plagued by doubts after failure. We follow his whole thought process, the scientific principles behind each invention. We see how, in time, he learns from his failures. In a broad way it can serve as a simple introduction to the scientific method. Older readers may enjoy brainstorming their own inventions or improvements on Chilly's failures.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Non fiction book review - Journey of York

The Journey of York by Hasan Davis

Every American school child learns about the Lewis and Clark expedition. By which I mean, we all learn that Lewis and Clark traveled to the west coast. That's it. Maybe we learn that they took "men" and Sacajawea. We certainly don't learn about York. Our history books hardly mention slaves except in context of the Civil War. So this book gives us essentially an outsider perspective. We see how York was used by Lewis and Clark in negotiations, how he was mistreated by other members of the expedition. It's a slightly darker, far more accurate, version of exploration than we are usually given. Definitely a good choice to supplement what kids are learning in school.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Happy New Year!

Here's to a new year of achievement, joy, and good books!