Category Archives: Nonfiction

Review: I Like Space… What Jobs Are There? by Steve Martin and Tom Woolley

Book Review and Content, Middle Grade 8-12, Nonfiction, , , , , ,
I Like Space... What Jobs Are There by Steve Martin

I Like Space… What Jobs Are There? (That’s a Job? Series)
Steve Martin
Illustrated by Tom Woolley
Kane Miller Publishing
Published January 1, 2020

Kane Miller Website | Bookshop | Goodreads

About I Like Space… What Jobs Are There?

Explore a day in the life of 25 people whose jobs involve working with space. While it takes all kinds of jobs to put an astronaut in space, there are also space lawyers and space weather forecasters! Learn how to turn your fascination with space into a career.

For children who have a passion for something but don’t know how they can turn it into a job, this new series helps them along the way.

My Review

As the granddaughter of an engineer who worked for NASA, I grew up watching rocket launches and hearing about some of the projects at Cape Canaveral. It was really fun to read this book and think about the people working there now in some of the careers mentioned in this book.

The book focuses on 25 different career options for someone who likes space. Options include astronaut, space lawyer, computer engineer, technical writer, space weather forecaster, and nutritionist. Some careers work more closely with the public, such as a public affairs officer, planetarium educator, or space center manager. Others, like astrobiologists, astrophysicists, astronautical engineers, neuroscientists, and scientific researchers, depend on higher math and science education and skills.

Each page spotlights a career, giving a sample overview of the person’s day and highlighting the best and worst parts of the job. It also tells what kind of degree or background someone with this job might have.

One feature readers are sure to appreciate is the “Your perfect job match” spread, which shows a visual flow chart with circles asking questions about the reader and offering different career suggestions for different answers. For example, one question asks, “What are your interests and goals?” One possible answer is “helping people.” The chart points these readers to careers like nutritionist, flight surgeon, and neuroscientist. It connects preferences and personality to jobs that utilize those skills, which I love.

Conclusion

I have completely fallen in love with this series. I love that it exposes kids to so many different career options and gives clues about their educational background. This is a great place to start for a kid who is just starting to wonder what jobs are out there and has a larger interest (space or machines or art, etc) and isn’t sure what career options exist in those fields.

Age Recommendation

For readers eight to twelve.

The cartoony style probably makes this better suited to fourth or fifth-grade level, but the pages have so much information that I think older kids would benefit, too.

Content Summary

The pages show inclusive cartoon images of the workers. The astronaut lists the worst part of the job being that they have to wear a special diaper, which takes getting used to.

Additional Titles in the That’s a Job Series

I Like Machines… What Jobs Are There? (Review to Come)

I Like Helping People… What Jobs Are There? (Review to Come)

I Like The Performing Arts… What Jobs Are There? (Review to Come)

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Through the Wormhole by Chris Solaas

Book Review and Content, Nonfiction, Parenting, Spirituality, , , , , ,

Through the Wormhole (Life in Hyperspace #2)
Chris Solaas
Published August 28, 2023

Amazon | Goodreads

About Through the Wormhole: Humor, Hope, and Help from One Family with Autism to Another

The call for help seemed to come from the wall, and I knew there wasn’t a secret room there. That’s when I spied two bare feet sticking out of a hole in the wall. Holes in the wall. Setting fires in the house. Secret rooms and monsters in the closets. My wife and I never thought we’d have adventures like these raising our kids. After dealing with ADHD and its issues, we didn’t think autism would be anything we couldn’t handle. Boy were we wrong.

From our family to yours, here are humorous stories from our crazy past, mixed with ideas for handling some of the issues facing a family raising kids with autism. Inside you will find ideas for stimming aids, dietary help, and even links to companies who hire adults with autism. Humor, Hope, and Help for families like yours traveling Through the Wormhole.

My Review

This is the second nonfiction parenting support book that I’ve read by this author. One of the things I really appreciate about his books is his frank humility. It would be so easy to only report the parenting successes and goofball behavior that the kids get into, and instead, he often apologetically shares experiences where he wishes he’d responded differently. There’s something genuinely comforting about someone keeping it real like that– because we’ve all been the parent who lost their temper or said something sarcastic or overlooked something that turned out to be a safety issue.

The book alternates between sharing adventures in parenting a kid on the Autism spectrum and sharing tips and helpful resources, often with hyperlinks. He also shares things about his experience in the Christian church and community that may help parents navigate what isn’t always a neurodiverse kid-friendly atmosphere. Which, again, is the kind of gentle frankness that I really appreciate.

His parenting adventures are also really well-told. I got teary as he talked about saying goodbye to the family dog and laughed aloud at some of the unexpected conclusions his son drew about different situations.

The author’s hard-won parenting wisdom and encouragement to readers to pursue faith, self-education, and compassion for themselves and their kids make this a nice resource for Christian parents with a child on the Autism spectrum or anyone who wants to be better informed about supporting a family with neurodiverse kids.

I hope that parents who read this find it to be a welcoming, compassionate, and encouraging resource. I’ve also reviewed his other parenting book, which discusses his experiences discovering that he has ADHD and how he navigated parenting a child with the diagnosis.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
The author describes himself as having ADHD with a touch of OCD. At least one of his children has Autism Spectrum Disorder. The author uses the term Aspergers or “Aspy” several times in the text, which may bother some readers. I’m not experienced enough to evaluate the representation in the book.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
References to prayer, attending church, and other Christian spiritual practices and beliefs.

Violent Content
Some descriptions of mildly dangerous things, such as getting stuck on a roof or cleaning out the garage to get rid of spiders.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Review: Three Summers by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess with Laura L. Sullivan

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Memoir, Middle Grade 8-12, Nonfiction, , , , , , , ,

Three Summers: A Memoir of Sisterhood, Summer Crushes, and Growing Up on the Eve of War
Amra Sabic-El-Rayess with Laura L. Sullivan
Farrar, Straus, & Giroux
Published April 9, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Three Summers

An epic middle-grade memoir about sisterhood and coming-of-age in the three years leading up to the Bosnian Genocide.

Three Summers is the story of five young cousins who grow closer than sisters as ethnic tensions escalate over three summers in 1980s Bosnia. They navigate the joys and pitfalls of adolescence on their family’s little island in the middle of the Una River. When finally confronted with the harsh truths of the adult world around them, their bond gives them the resilience to discover and hold fast to their true selves.

Written with incredible warmth and tenderness, Amra Sabic-El-Rayess takes readers on a journey that will break their hearts and put them back together again.

My Review

This memoir is broken into three sections, one for each of the summers Amra spends with her cousins. Before that first summer, her family experiences a terrible loss, and Amra sinks into a dark depression. As she gets to know her cousins, she begins to have hope again, confidence in herself, and the courage to form friendships with others.

Her love for her family is so clear in the pages of the book. It celebrates familial bonds, especially those between a child and their parents, and the bonds between siblings and cousins.

This is the first book I’ve ever read about the Bosnian Genocide, though it isn’t the author’s first memoir about that time. After reading this book, I ordered a copy of her YA memoir, THE CAT I NEVER NAMED, so hopefully I’ll be ready to share my review of that book soon, too.

Technically, this book focuses on the years leading up to the genocide, in which the government becomes more and more hostile, one slow step at a time. I’m not gonna lie; it is harrowing to read a story like this and see parallels in some of the dehumanizing rhetoric certain political leaders are using right now.

Those comments make stories like this critically important because we need to remember that genocide doesn’t begin with the targeted deaths of a group of people. It begins with the systematic dehumanization of them.

I’m so glad Sabic-El-Rayess continues to write about her experiences in a way that kids can read about. The scenes in this book stay focused on Amra’s experience as a child, looking through her eyes. This is an important book, especially now. I hope that many people will discover and read it.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Amra and her family are Muslim. Amra’s older brother has Marfan syndrome.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
References to different faith practices of different groups around Amra.

Violent Content
Death of a sibling on scene. References to Islamaphobia. References to torture and execution.

Drug Content
One teen character smokes cigarettes.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Disfigured: On Fairytales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Nonfiction, , , , , , , , , , ,

Disfigured: On Fairytales, Disability, and Making Space
Amanda Leduc
Coach House Books
Published March 3, 2020

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Disfigured

In fairy tales, happy endings are the norm—as long as you’re beautiful and walk on two legs. After all, the ogre never gets the princess. And since fairy tales are the foundational myths of our culture, how can a girl with a disability ever think she’ll have a happy ending?

By examining the ways that fairy tales have shaped our expectations of disability, DISFIGURED will point the way toward a new world where disability is no longer a punishment or impediment but operates, instead, as a way of centering a protagonist and helping them to cement their own place in a story, and from there, the world. Through the book, Leduc ruminates on the connections we make between fairy tale archetypes—the beautiful princess, the glass slipper, the maiden with long hair lost in the tower—and tries to make sense of them through a twenty-first-century disablist lens.

From examinations of disability in tales from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen through to modern interpretations ranging from Disney to Angela Carter, and the fight for disabled representation in today’s media, Leduc connects the fight for disability justice to the growth of modern, magical stories, and argues for increased awareness and acceptance of that which is other—helping us to see and celebrate the magic inherent in different bodies.

My Review

I heard about this book years ago from booktuber Jesse on YouTube, who read and recommended it. Sadly, it took me a long time to actually read the book myself, but I finally have! And I’m so glad I did.

This book explores fairytales through the lens of what it’s like to read them as a person with disabilities. The author not only shares her own experience as a girl with cerebral palsy, but she also quotes and shares stories of other writers and activists with disabilities as they share their own experiences as well.

One of the things I found the most impactful about DISFIGURED was seeing different fairytale characters and stories from this perspective. There were many things I hadn’t considered or was unaware of. It helped to break things down into tropes and themes and look at what those ideas say about the value or morality of those characters and through the characters the people represented.

For example, the author talks about how often in fairytales, characters with disabilities fall into two categories. Either they are noble characters whose disabilities become reversed because they were pure of heart or brave or noble. Or the disability is supposed to be evidence of an internal evil that remains a static part of the character’s nature.

There’s also some commentary about the differences in the roles of women versus men in fairytales, too. I enjoyed that a lot.

All in all, DISFIGURED is a really thoughtful book that explores familiar fairytales, where they came from, and what they teach us about who we are and what society should be. And asks whether we agree with those lessons and, if not, what we will do about it.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
The author has Cerebral Palsy. She quotes other disabled writers and activists.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Very infrequent extreme profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to fairytale romance/weddings. Leduc recounts an early version of what became the Sleeping Beauty fairytale in which a maiden pricks her finger on a flax seed and falls into a magical sleep. A traveling king sees her and is so overcome with lust that he rapes her (not described in any detail). The author points out that the story never addresses the king’s behavior as problematic, wrong, or illegal.

The author references an essay written by a man with disabilities who openly talks about hiring sex workers to meet his personal needs. (No details beyond this.)

Spiritual Content
Discusses the origins of the fairy godmother/fairies in fairytales. Examines the Christian (Calvinist, in the case of the Grimm Brothers) roots or edits to many fairytales in subsequent editions. Mentions of magic in stories.

In one tale, the devil tricks a man into promising his daughter to him. The girl thwarts the bargain several times.

Violent Content
References to some gory elements of especially early fairytales. Cinderella’s stepsisters mutilate their feet to fit into her shoe. The evil queen in Snow White is forced to dance in red-hot metal shoes until she dies at the tale’s end. See romantic content.

The author also discusses the changeling myths and how people would leave their babies or young children in the snow to die of exposure if they believed the baby was a changeling. She briefly tells a story about a man who burned his wife to death. He claimed she’d been replaced by a changeling after an illness.

Drug Content
Mentions of magical potions or poisoned fruit.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything but help support this blog.

Review: Marked Man by John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro

Biography, Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Nonfiction, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

Marked Man
John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro
Roaring Brook Press
Published March 19, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Marked Man

1971. Brooklyn, New York. Undercover cop Frank Serpico is knocking on a drug dealer’s door. His partners are there to back him up, but when the door opens, he’s staring down the barrel of a gun―and his partners are nowhere to be found.

For more than a century, the New York Police Department had been plagued by corruption, with cops openly taking bribes from gamblers and drug dealers. Not Serpico. He refused to take dirty money and fought to shed light on the dark underbelly of the NYPD. But instead of being hailed as a hero, he became a target for every crooked cop on the force.

In Marked Man, John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro bring this true story of police corruption to life. Join Frank Serpico on his one-man crusade to clean up the largest police force in the United States. And discover the price he had to pay for being an honest cop.

My Review

Wow. This is not the kind of book I would normally pick up off the shelf at a bookstore or library, but I am really glad I read it. The structure of the book is a little unusual in that it’s eight chapters written like a biography—third-person point of view, recounting events chronologically. The chapters are broken down into shorter sections with breaks between them. Between the chapters, Serpico speaks to us directly in short notes in which he discusses how he felt at a particular moment or what he expected would happen next. I loved the way this pulled me into his life story and made me feel connected to him.

The short sections within each chapter make this a pretty quick read, too. I think I read it in a little over two hours or so. I also read it all in one day because I couldn’t stop thinking about it every time I closed the book.

I’m so glad we have brave officers like Frank Serpico who have had the courage to stand up for what’s right, even when it would have been so much easier to look the other way. Reading this book makes me only more convinced that we need outside accountability for police departments everywhere so that if there are issues, they can be fairly addressed.

I think readers who enjoy fast-paced nonfiction, biographies, or true crime stories will enjoy this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Frank Serpico is an Italian American who was a police officer.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to prostitution.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Frank overhears or directly hears racist comments against Italians and Black people. Someone shoots a man in the face.

Drug Content
References to drug trafficking.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Review: Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Nonfiction, Parenting, , , , , , , ,

Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Humans
Michaeleen Doucleff, PhD
Avid Reader Press
Published March 2, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Hunt, Gather, Parent

When Dr. Michaeleen Doucleff becomes a mother, she examines the studies behind modern parenting guidance and finds the evidence frustratingly limited and the conclusions often ineffective. Curious to learn about more effective parenting approaches, she visits a Maya village in the Yucatán Peninsula. There she encounters moms and dads who parent in a totally different way than we do—and raise extraordinarily kind, generous, and helpful children without yelling, nagging, or issuing timeouts. What else, Doucleff wonders, are Western parents missing out on?

In HUNT, GATHER, PARENT, Doucleff sets out with her three-year-old daughter in tow to learn and practice parenting strategies from families in three of the world’s most venerable communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania. She sees that these cultures don’t have the same problems with children that Western parents do. Most strikingly, parents build a relationship with young children that is vastly different from the one many Western parents develop—it’s built on cooperation instead of control, trust instead of fear, and personalized needs instead of standardized development milestones.

Maya parents are masters at raising cooperative children. Without resorting to bribes, threats, or chore charts, Maya parents rear loyal helpers by including kids in household tasks from the time they can walk. Inuit parents have developed a remarkably effective approach for teaching children emotional intelligence. When kids cry, hit, or act out, Inuit parents respond with a calm, gentle demeanor that teaches children how to settle themselves down and think before acting. Hadzabe parents are world experts on raising confident, self-driven kids with a simple tool that protects children from stress and anxiety, so common now among American kids.

Not only does Doucleff live with families and observe their techniques firsthand, she also applies them with her own daughter, with striking results. She learns to discipline without yelling. She talks to psychologists, neuroscientists, anthropologists, and sociologists and explains how these strategies can impact children’s mental health and development. Filled with practical takeaways that parents can implement immediately, HUNT, GATHER, PARENT helps us rethink the ways we relate to our children, and reveals a universal parenting paradigm adapted for American families.

My Review

I can already tell I need a hard copy of this book for notes and highlights. Also, I need to listen to the audiobook version again.

The author narrates the audiobook, and I found it easy to listen to her. Her conversational style makes it feel like having a conversation with another mom about common parenting challenges. She also tells stories from the parenting trenches. Plus, a bonus: science!

First off, I really liked the way this book was broken down into parts. First, a research section discusses our (specifically, the WEIRD, Western, United States-based) approach to psychology. It looks at the study of what’s good for children and how much it assumes or misses by ignoring the input of other cultures. Three big parts focus on Doucleff’s time with parents from each of three different cultures: Maya, Inuit, and Hadzabe parents.

There are also TONS of helpful tips and ways to put the different concepts Doucleff explores into practice. Looking for ways to get your kids to help with chores? There’s a section for that. Want your littles to be more autonomous? The author’s got you covered. There are so many ideas I want to try in this book. I feel like I’m going to reference it for a while since I can only manage to introduce one or two at a time.

On the whole, this is a super practical, well-researched book that parents of younger children will find especially helpful. Though you can apply the concepts to all ages, I think it’ll be easiest to introduce them to younger kids.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages whatever age you become a parent. Ha.

Representation
The book contains wisdom and teaching from Maya, Inuit, and Hadzabe parents and leaders.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog.

tons of helpful parenting strategies and solutions based on Maya, Inuit, and Hadzabe traditions.