Tag Archives: history

Review: Cousins in the Time of Magic by Emma Otheguy

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Historical, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , ,
Cousins in the Time of Magic by Emma Otheguy

Cousins in the Time of Magic
Emma Otheguy
Aladdin
Published February 25, 2025

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About Cousins in the Time of Magic

Three cousins get transported back to 1862 to play an important role in the Battle of Puebla, the reason we celebrate Cinco de Mayo today, in this enchanting middle grade fantasy adventure.

History is alive with magic. That’s what zany Tía Xia is always telling cousins Jorge, Camila, and Siggy. Daredevil Jorge couldn’t be more different than his cousins: Camila is a dreamer who adores animals and Siggy is an aspiring influencer who has an exclusive party to attend. And their aunt has many secrets, including a mysterious diamond-encrusted sword that Jorge definitely wasn’t supposed to see.

But when the three stumble upon a time portal in their aunt’s yard, they are transported back to 1862, a past filled with wonders—and dangers. To return to the present, they must race to deliver the sword to General Ignacio Zaragoza in time for the historic Battle of Puebla in Mexico: the foundation of the holiday Cinco de Mayo.

As their journey to Mexico takes them through the Civil War–era United States, the cousins see just how much US history has been shaped by Latine communities. They must find the power within themselves to make sure things happen as they’re supposed to, without altering the past.

My Review

This is a fun, engaging way to introduce facts from Mexican history to young readers via cousins on a time-travel adventure. (Actually, I think two characters are brother and sister and cousin to the third character.)

I liked that the time-travel element was pretty simple, even if it was never really explained. It could have slowed the story down, but keeping it minimized worked here, I think. The characters were fun, and their differences made it easy to tell whose point of view we were following. The viewpoint shifts mid-scene, so sometimes one chapter has multiple points of view, but I thought it was still easy to follow.

One thing that I appreciated is the backmatter. First, a note from the author explains her intent. Next, a list of notes about characters and places shows readers the line between history and fiction. A glossary explains some other terms used in the book. Even with those resources, the book is about 200 pages long, so it’s a pretty quick read.

The ending leaves room for a sequel or series. I would love to see more books exploring Mexican or Latin American history through time travel.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Characters encounter magic and travel through time. One character believes Mexico should be governed by a monarch who will impose Catholicism on everyone.

Violent Content
A bully dares a boy to do a handstand on a rooftop.

Drug Content
References to an adult drinking alcohol and beginning to slur his words.

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.

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs with posts about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle with Greg Pattridge.

Review: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Book Review and Content, Memoir, Nonfiction, Parenting, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,

Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Spiegel & Grau
Published July 14, 2015

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About Between the World and Me

“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.”

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
 
Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

My Review

I listened to an audiobook version of this book that was read by the author. It’s a pretty short book, only about 150 pages divided into three chapters. The first two are much longer than the third chapter.

This is Coates’ letter to his son, and it’s about his experience as a young Black man and his thoughts and experiences about becoming a father to a Black son. While this was published in 2015, it could have been written today. Everything in these pages feels just as relevant today as it did almost ten years ago.

One of the things that the author talks about is his relationship to history and education. Some of the ways he describes his interest in or quest to learn more about history really resonated. He talks about wanting history to have one cohesive narrative in which historians agree, and that instead, he found the opposite: lots of voices with different takes on historical events and their significance.

He also talks about realizing that we simplify historical figures into something that we want them to be. This doesn’t allow room for who they truly were because it removes part of their stories. I want to reread that passage in particular because it’s so true, and he says it so well.

Coates also talks about someone he knew in college whose life was cut short when he was killed by a police officer. He returns to this story several times through the book. Again and again he talks about the idea that in this world, safety means having control of your body. And there are situations in which he does not have a guarantee of that control, including in encounters with police.

He refers to “people who think they are white” many times, which I think comes from a quote attributed to James Baldwin. That gave me some food for thought as well, as it really highlights the made-up-ness of race and the self-assigned value of whiteness. Again, a really concise way to say a big idea, something the author does really well.

Overall, this book delivered a lot of ideas that I want to let percolate. I loved reading this vulnerable, wise letter from a father to his son. It makes sense that this one got the awards and acclaim that it has. It’s definitely worth reading.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Includes use of the N-word very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Reference to falling in love, getting married, and having a child.

Spiritual Content
Coates himself does not believe in God, but he references others that do and the power of that belief in others’ lives.

Violent Content
References to racist comments. Vague references to street fights. References to police violence and death at the hands of a police officer.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin

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The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
Steve Sheinkin
Roaring Brook Press
Published January 21, 2014

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About The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights

An astonishing World War II military story of civil rights from New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Honor recipient Steve Sheinkin.

A National Book Award Finalist
A YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

On July 17, 1944, a massive explosion rocked the segregated Navy base at Port Chicago, California, killing more than 300 sailors who were at the docks, critically injuring off-duty men in their bunks, and shattering windows up to a mile away. On August 9th, 244 men refused to go back to work until unsafe and unfair conditions at the docks were addressed. When the dust settled, fifty were charged with mutiny, facing decades in jail and even execution.

The Port Chicago 50 is a fascinating story of the prejudice and injustice that faced black men and women in America’s armed forces during World War II, and a nuanced look at those who gave their lives in service of a country where they lacked the most basic rights.

This thoroughly-researched and documented book can be worked into multiple aspects of the common core curriculum, including history and social studies.

“Sheinkin delivers another meticulously researched WWII story, one he discovered while working on his Newbery Honor book, Bomb…Archival photos appear throughout, and an extensive bibliography, source notes, and index conclude this gripping, even horrific account of a battle for civil rights predating Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

My Review

This is a moment in history that I didn’t have knowledge of. If we learned about it in school, it must have been a very brief mention. So the information about the explosion at Port Chicago was new to me. It’s well-explained, with some set-up information and context. Sheinkin’s goal was to tell the story from the perspective of the men involved, and he succeeds.

What’s also excellent about The Port Chicago 50 is how Sheinkin orients readers using other familiar historical events. This disaster happened two and a half years after the attack on Pearl Harbor and just over ten years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. It happened almost three years before Jackie Robinson became the first Black major league baseball player. So, readers who are not familiar with this incident but know about other landmark moments in history can insert this information into the timeline of other familiar events pretty quickly.

I thought that was a really smart approach, and it made reading the book feel like it helped me piece together American history in a fresh way.

The author also highlights the fact that in the 1940s, people lived in two different, segregated Americas. Black Americans had trusted news sources that reported events that white newspapers were not covering. I’ve spent a lot of time in the last few years thinking about the divide between where different Americans get their news. It was eye-opening to realize that this has been true for much longer than I was aware. (Nothing like reading a book to help you confront privilege.)

Conclusion

It’s easy to see why this book was a National Book Award finalist the year it was published. It brings light to a too often overlooked moment in history. The Port Chicago disaster sparked big changes in civil rights. It also left 50 men who served their country wrongly branded as mutineers.

This excellent book about historical events worth remembering is perfectly tailored to its intended audience.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some mild profanity in significant quotes from witnesses and key historical figures. References to the F-word, but it’s bleeped out. The author clarifies that the whole word was used in the trial.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
References to racism and racist slurs. Sheinkin notes stories of Black servicemen who were attacked and then blamed for their attack.

Some brief descriptions of the explosion at Port Chicago and the resulting injuries. Some men had PTSD symptoms afterward and were victimized by a fellow serviceman who would play startling pranks on them. For example, he would tangle his bedsheet in a box fan to create a loud rattling noise.

When some men refused an order by their commanding officer, some were told they would be shot.

Drug Content
Reference to adults visiting a bar to ask for a beer.

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

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs with posts about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle with Greg Pattridge.

Review: The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts, Young Readers Edition by Loren Grush with Rebecca Stefoff

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The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts, Young Readers Edition
Loren Grush with Rebecca Stefoff
Simon & Schuster
Published February 11, 2025

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About The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts, Young Readers Edition

The extraordinary true story of America’s first female astronauts hailed as “suspenseful, meticulously observed, enlightening” by Margot Lee Shetterly, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Figures, now adapted for young readers.

Sally Ride may have been the first US woman in space, but did you know there were five other incredible American women who helped blaze the trail for female astronauts by her side?

When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, the agency excluded women from the corps, arguing that only military test pilots—a group women were also aggressively barred from—had the right stuff. But as the 1980s dawned so did new thinking, and six elite women scientists—Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Anna Lee Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon—set out to prove they had exactly the right stuff to become the first US women astronauts.

In The Six Young Readers Edition, acclaimed journalist Loren Grush shows how these brilliant and courageous women fought to enter STEM fields they were discouraged from pursuing, endured claustrophobic—and often deeply sexist—media attention, underwent rigorous survival training, and prepared for years to take multi-million-dollar equipment into orbit.

Told with contributions from nearly all the living participants and now adapted for young readers, this book is an inspiring testament to their struggles, accomplishments, and sacrifices and how they built the tools that made the space program run. It’s a legacy that lives on to inspire young people today.

My Review

I started reading The Six the same day the US government directed NASA to remove any mentions of “women in leadership” from their websites. As the biographies of women who’ve pioneered advancements in science disappeared from view, I learned about the first six women astronauts in the US space program and the challenges they overcame.

The book made me feel like I understood each woman’s personality. They each had different ways of dealing with obstacles. Some were more outgoing, and others highly valued their privacy. Grush calls attention to the differences in how the media responded to these six women versus the other men on their teams and even other men doing things for the first time. We’ve seen this in other fields, too, so it wasn’t particularly surprising. I loved how Sally Ride and the others handled themselves in those conversations.

Later in the book, Grush tells the story of the Challenger, which exploded shortly after launch in 1986. That part of the book was the hardest for me to read. Grush’s descriptions of the launch process made me feel like I was there. So when she described the Challenger disaster, that hit hard.

I am so glad I read this book. These are by no means the only stories of incredible things that women have brought to the space program. All of them deserve celebration and remembrance.

I highly recommend The Six for readers interested in the space program, US history, and women in STEM.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to relationships.

Spiritual Content
Judith Resnik gets married in a synagogue where she was confirmed earlier. Her funeral is also held in a synagogue.

Violent Content
References to misogyny and discrimination. For example, an employer pays one woman significantly less than a man with less experience and education for a similar job. At the time, no laws prevented this kind of discrimination.

Drug Content
None.

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: True or False by Cindy L. Otis

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True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News
Cindy L. Otis
Feiwel & Friends
Published July 28, 2020

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About True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News

“If I could pick one book to hand to every teen—and adult—on earth, this is the one. True or False is accessible, thorough, and searingly honest, and we desperately needed it.” —Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

“Though billed for young adults, this is a book that every adult should read.” –The Washington Post

A former CIA analyst unveils the true history of fake news and gives readers tips on how to avoid falling victim to it in this highly designed informative YA nonfiction title.

“Fake news” is a term you’ve probably heard a lot in the last few years, but it’s not a new phenomenon. From the ancient Egyptians to the French Revolution to Jack the Ripper and the founding fathers, fake news has been around as long as human civilization. But that doesn’t mean that we should just give up on the idea of finding the truth.

In True or False, former CIA analyst Cindy Otis will take readers through the history and impact of misinformation over the centuries, sharing stories from the past and insights that readers today can gain from them. Then, she shares lessons learned in over a decade working for the CIA, including actionable tips on how to spot fake news, how to make sense of the information we receive each day, and, perhaps most importantly, how to understand and see past our own information biases, so that we can think critically about important issues and put events happening around us into context.

True or False includes a wealth of photo illustrations, informative inserts, and sidebars containing interesting facts and trivia sure to engage readers in critical thinking and analysis.

My Review

Oof. This book was such a wild ride for me. It was great. Seriously, it’s got a ton of great information and has a great way of zooming out on history and looking at trends in news content in terms of sensational, emotional news versus spare, facts-only information.

One of the things that I took away from the book is that we’ve been around this mountain before. We’ve seen news outlets push deeper and deeper into rumor-based, fear-focused journalism. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care or be concerned. But having the perspective of history did help me feel less overwhelmed and offer some hope.

Additionally, Otis offers a lot of clear, specific tips on how to check to see if content is fake or fact. She talks about how to respond when you spot a hoax being shared online.

Though a lot of that information was at least a little familiar to me, I liked having all those tips available in one place so that I can flip back through them periodically.

I will note that the book was published in 2020, and one section talks about using the blue verification check on Twitter to tell if an account is actually the person it claims to be. Now that Twitter’s rules have changed and that verification mark can be purchased, I don’t know that it’s a way to prove the identity of an account anymore. The verification requirements say that an account can’t be misleading, but it doesn’t make it clear that identity is confirmed as a part of the process.

Other than that section, I thought the information was still super useful. This is a great book to give a teen who is looking for resources on this topic. I think adults could benefit from the information as well.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
The author is a wheelchair user and CIA analyst. She makes reference to events around the world in which the spread or control of information or disinformation have had an impact on society and culture.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to romantic partnerships.

Spiritual Content
References to spiritual beliefs.

Violent Content
References to murder, people being endangered by publicly stating their identity, political protest, lies about medical information. References to rumors about governments creating biological weapons.

Drug Content
Reference to smoking and studies about smoking.

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

Review: Killers of the Flower Moon: Adapted for Young Readers by David Grann

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Killers of the Flower Moon: Adapted for Young Readers: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
David Grann
Crown Books for Young Readers
Published November 16, 2021

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About Killers of the Flower Moon

A young reader edition of the New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist about one of history’s most ruthless and shocking crimes, the Reign of Terror against the Osage people.

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, in what became one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations. An undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the bureau, infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection to bring an end to the deadly crime spree. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

In this youngification of the adult bestseller, critically acclaimed author David Grann revisits the gripping investigation into the shocking crimes against the Osage people. It is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward Native Americans that allowed the murderers to continue for so long and provides essential information for young readers about a shameful period in U.S. history.

My Review

This book promises to shock readers, and it absolutely delivered on that promise to me. Wow. My jaw dropped several times as I read about the calculated, brazen murders of Osage Tribe members in the 1920s. I don’t remember learning anything about this in my history classes, though the Teapot Dome scandal and Edgar Hoover’s rise to the top of the FBI were events I had a little familiarity with.

One of the things the book does really well is to present the facts about how laws requiring indigenous people to have a court-appointed guardian (white person) managing their wealth directly led to the swindling and murder of the Osage. Shocking and terrible.

This chapter in US history deserves to be much more widely known. I listened to the book as an audiobook and read the whole thing in less than a week. It was so compelling. The whole thing is divided into three parts. The first part centers around Mollie Burkhart. The second follows federal law enforcement officer Tom White, and the third part follows a journalist who begins looking back at the murder cases in the early 2000s.

I’m really glad I read this book. It makes me realize that there are so many parts of American history that I don’t know nearly enough about. This book is a great resource for young readers who, like me, want to learn more about parts of history that we don’t acknowledge nearly enough.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
The narrative focuses on Mollie Burkhart, her family, and Osage tribe members. Several prominent people in the book are white, including law enforcement and high-profile people in the town.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Mentions of marriage and divorce.

Spiritual Content
Brief references to Osage spiritual traditions and celebrations. Mollie Burkhart celebrated holidays and feasts with her tribe and also attended the Catholic church and valued her Catholic faith.

Violent Content
Systemic racism. For example, the book chronicles how the Osage people were required to have a “guardian” (read: white person) who was in charge of their bank accounts. This led to rampant financial abuse. The book quotes newspaper articles and historical figures, noting when they’ve used racist terms.

Brief mentions of Mollie’s generation being forced to attend a boarding school where they were required to stop speaking their native language. The book doesn’t use the term residential schools, but I think that’s what it’s talking about.

Several scenes briefly describe a murder scene. They’re never overly gory. Just the facts, stated as briefly as possible.

Drug Content
This happened during prohibition, but several characters drank alcohol anyway. In one chapter, the author describes a woman who arrives drunk at a family dinner and makes a scene.

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.