Calling All Minds by Temple Grandin

This is an interesting nonfiction written by the famous animal scientist, Temple Grandin.  It is part craft book, part memoir and part motivational handbook.  In it Grandin talks about projects that she did as a young person, and how they helped prepared her to be an inventor and scientist as an adult.  She also discusses challenges she faced as a person with autism and how doing science and crafts helped her gain self confidence. As she discusses the projects she did, she gives instructions how the reader can make the same or similar project.

The writing in this book is disarmingly candid.  Grandin talks about her struggles and her victories with equal honesty and sprinkled with rather dry and delightful humor.  The craft projects are grouped roughly by theme: paper crafts, projects about flight, projects about simple machines, etc.  Some of the projects are as simple as drawing a basic optical illusion.  Others are very complex and require specialized materials to complete.  The difference in difficulty level makes it so that there is likely to be something for everyone. I really enjoyed reading this book and I truly admire Ms Grandin.  If I still had kids at home I would have spent the afternoon today trying out some of her craft ideas with them.  No wonder this title has received a number of starred reviews. (2018, 228 p.)

Digging for Trouble by Linda Fairstein

In this second in the Devlin Quick mystery series we find Devlin and her friend Katie working as volunteers at a dinosaur dig in Montana.  Katie finds some fossils that are quickly snatched away from her by one of the dig team members.  Later when they are returned to Katie, they have been altered.  Devlin suspects that something is going on and starts to investigate.  Her suspicions follow her as she returns to New York, and lead her to the Museum of Natural History.  

In my post about the first one in this series, I said I probably wouldn't bother to read the second, but I found myself between books so I checked out this one.  It was pretty much like the first one.  Devlin is still a risk-taker, who is really good at rationalizing rule breaking.  This one had the added problem of having questionable science in it.  The author clearly didn't do very extensive research in how paleontologists handle dinosaur bones.  Some of her facts were correct, while others made my eyebrows raise. Still, it is an entertaining book that I think kids who like mysteries would enjoy.   (2017, 331 p.)

Otis and Will Discover the Deep by Barb Rosenstock and Katherine Roy

Otis Barton and Will Beebe were the brave scientist explorers who did the first deep sea dive in 1930 in a submersible called the Bathysphere.  This nonfiction picture book tells how the two men got started and tries to communicate what it might have been like descending into the deep ocean.  The text is sparse, but nicely crafted.  Roy's illustrations are what makes this a stand-out STEM offering. Done in careful watercolors, they are at the same time realistic and artistic.  A fold out page with a host of unusual deep sea fish marks the climax of the story at the nadir of the voyage. Rosenstock adds an interesting historical note at the end, and Roy discusses the challenges in illustrating the story. This would make a great teacher read-aloud for a 2-4 grade class who were studying oceanography. (2018, 40p. )

The Reckless Rescue by Adrienne Kress

In this second in the Explorer's Club series Sam has been kidnapped, and Evie and Kate are determined to find him and another member of the Filipendulous Five, Benedict.  The book alternates chapters from Sam's point of view and Evie's.  Both kids have outrageous adventures including a shark and a K-Pop boy's band, but somehow (spoiler alert) manage to find each other and the next clue in the mystery of Evie's lost grandfather.

The plot line of this book is pretty darn random, but I enjoyed reading just the same.  There is a lot of humor, a lot of action, but the thing I like best is watching the kids face their fears. The scene with the K-Pop boy's band was especially well crafted. It had me grinning from ear to ear. It made me wonder if the author had experience standing in front of an audience of thousands of screaming fans. The series is far from over and this one was fun enough I will probably keep reading.  Give this to kids who liked the Mysterious Benedict Society. (2018, 371 p.)

Fake Blood by Whitney Gardner

In this new graphic novel AJ has a crush on a girl who is obsessed with vampires.  When they get put together on a history project about Transylvania, he decides to pretend to be a vampire to impress her.  Little does he know that she is not a Bella, but a Buffy.  AJ fnds himself desperately trying to convince her that he isn't really a vampire, while discovering that another he knows may not be faking it.

I thought this was a pretty funny book.  Gardner has fun with a lot of vampire tropes, especially those found in the Twilight series.  She adds in a cute relationship between AJ and his older sister, and between his two best friends who are always competing against each other.  I wouldn't call the illustrations awesome, but they convey the awkward junior high social drama believably enough.  This is a good choice for boys or girls who like Telgemeier's graphic novels. (336 p. 2018)

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

I was going on vacation to visit my son and his new baby, so I checked out the latest children's novel on overdrive so I would have something to read on the airplane on my Kindle.  So I get on the plane, and pull out my kindle, and low and behold, I hadn't downloaded it completely.  I am thinking, Oh No! 1 1/2 hours in the plane and nothing to read.  So I am looking through what is already on my Kindle, and I see "The Complete Works of Elizabeth Gaskell."  Hooray!  I knew that I would not have any trouble passing the time on the plane pleasantly.

If you don't know Elizabeth Gaskell, she is a wonderful writer roughly contemporary, but a little later than Jane Austin.  She writes similar kinds of historical romances, but hers feature characters from one step lower on the social rung than Jane Austin's characters.  Molly is the daughter of a country doctor.  Her mother dies when Molly is quite young, but she has a happy life with her attentive father.  When Molly is 16, her father decides to remarry, and his new wife has a daughter just Molly's age.  The two girls become quick friends, but whereas Molly is shy and modest, Cynthia is worldly and gregarious.  As the two make their way through their later teens, we get to see their romances, and their folly, as well as their innate goodness and loyalty.  If you have seen the BBC miniseries of Wives and Daughters you have pretty much read the book.  Almost every important scene from the book is in the movie, and the actors have captured Gaskell's characters pretty well.  That said, I enjoyed reading the book immensely.  Gaskell wrote these books near the end of her life, and her knowledge of human nature, and her ability to suggest fully rounded and human characters is masterful. I didn't realize when I started to read the book on the plane how long it was, (607 pg in paperback) but I really did not get tired of it.  My only disappointment was to find out at the end that this is one of Gaskell's unfinished works.  So even thought the author left notes about how the story ends, we don't get to see Molly and her true love's final tender proposal scene.  I am equally unsatisfied with how the movie portray's the ending, though the last meeting in the rain, though not is the book, is pretty good.  (672 p. 1865)

Grump by Liesl Shurtliff

Here is another in the series that started with Rump.  In this one Borlen is dwarf who has an unnatural interest with the world above ground.  As hard as he tries to fit in with the tunnel loving dwarfs, he constantly feels the pull of the surface.  Once he does go above ground he quickly meets the Queen, and is delighted when she is much kinder to him than stories from his childhood would have lead him to believe.  Only later does he begin to suspect that her goodness is an act meant to cover much darker intentions.

Shurtiff once again shows herself as the current master of the fractured fairy-tale.  She deftly creates a back story that explains some of the unanswered questions of the Snow White story.  Why was the queen obsessed with her beauty?  Where did the magic mirror come from? How did the dwarfs get their goofy names, and why was Grumpy so, well, grumpy.  Fans of Rump, Jack, and Red will enjoy this one as well, but those who have not read the others will have no trouble following and enjoying this one (but I recommend you eventually read the others, they are a delight.) (2018, 295 p.)

Bob by Wendy Mass

Livy does not remember when she visited at age five her grandmother in Australia.  When she returns at age ten she finds that a little green man has been living in the closet waiting for her to return for five long years.  When they are reunited, Livy sets out to discover what Bob is and how he can return to his own people.

This is a charming little fantasy story that would be appropriate for a variety of ages.  There are no huge social issues, or big battle scenes, just a little girl and her unsusual friend trying to figure things out. This is a great choice for kids who like a good story, but are sensitive about violence or scary things.  (2018, 201p.)

The Boo-Boos that Changed the World by Barry Wittenstein

Here is a cute picture book nonfiction to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the invention of Band-aids. Earle Dickerson's wife, Josephine, was a little accident prone.  She kept cutting herself while fixing dinner.  She would wrap her injury in gauze, but that was awkward was she tried to continue her work.  Earle came up with a solution where he stuck a small piece of gauze on an adhesive strip and wrapped it around the wound.  Ta da! The Band-aid was born.  Earle worked for the Johnson & Johnson company who took his invention and made it into the multi-million dollar industry we all know and love.  The story is told in simple but charming language with colorful child-friendly illustrations. (2018. 40p)

Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli by Kylo Maclear

I must admit I had never heard of Elsa Schiaparelli before reading this cute picture book biography.  I guess she was quite a character.  As a child she made herself sick by "planting" seeds in her hair, nose and mouth, hoping they would grow flowers.  Later as a young adult she went to a dance in a dress that was pinned together with pins, instead of sewn.  The dress was a hit until the pins started falling out.  She went on to be a famous fashion designer, know for her unconventional use of materials.  Morstad's colorful illustrations match the whimsical text.  This is a good book to give to the girls that spend their recess drawing fancy dresses. (2018, 40 p.)