Travel with Ms. Parks: Rosa

This is a simply told, factual book about Rosa Parks for young listeners.  Children will learn a bit about Rosa’s growing up, what she stood for, what she did and how she brought about change.  Her story makes for an inspiring read. The illustrations beautifully enhance the story.

All in all, another excellent addition to an excellent series. Note:  this is a My First series board book, part of the Little People, Big Dreams series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quarto publishing for this e-galley in return for an unbiased review.  All opinions are mine.

#LittlePeopleBigDreams #NetGalley

For STEM fans: Super Scientists

For young students with inquiring minds…learn about some of the world’s most famous scientists in this easy to read (or browse through) resource. It deserves a spot on school library shelves and the home shelves of students who will be fascinated by these interesting thinkers.

The book is arranged in two page spreads and is organized historically. We start with Thales while the final entry is on Neil Degrasse Tyson. There are men, women and those from many different countries represented and acknowledged.

For each scientist there are short entries including topics such as biography, amazing, famous for, etc. Accomplishments of each are acknowledged.

One of the things that I enjoy about reviewing children’s books is that my horizons are broadened as well. There were many scientists that I knew in this book but also some with whom I just had a first encounter, like Thales. The time that I spent with this excellent resource was well spent.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for helping me to learn more. You will too!

Some examples:

Hypatia of Alexandria

Hypatia of Alexandria: The First Woman of Science

Born 370 A.D., Died 415 A.D., in Alexandria (Egypt)

The first woman mathematician and academic in history, Hypatia was also known as a famous martyr who died for her beliefs. Before her death, she wrote commentaries and posed famously

difficult mathematical problems. Following her assassination, many great thinkers left Alexandria, effectively marking the end of a long century of Greek progress and scholarship. From here, it would be Indian and Arab scholars who would take up the mantle and lead the world’s scientific race.

Records

Although Hypatia’s writings disappeared, we know a lot about her. As well as her mathematical texts, she edited Euclid and reviewed Ptolemy. Over the centuries, historians, poets and feminists have made her their icon.

A Tortured Genius

It is thought that the bishop of Alexandria ordered the death of Hypatia. He was worried that she had too much influence over the city’s governor. A gang of monks murdered her by cutting her with oyster shells.

 

  • Hypatia travelled the city explaining the ideas of Plato, Aristotle and the great philosophers.
  • According to her contemporary, Paladas, Hypatia was renowned for being a brilliant speaker.
  • famous for teaching at the prestigious university of Alexandria
  • Hypatia’s murder is a famous example of the distrust of clever women in ancient times.
  • HGP and the Human Genome

    HGP and the Human Genome: The International Effort

    14 April 2003 99.9% of the human genome has been coded

    For 15 years, an international research group worked on the Human Genome Project, or HGP. The group succeeded in ‘sequencing’ the DNA, or decoding all the chemical instructions that are contained within our genes, that tell our bodies how to work. A rival sequencing project set up by Celera Genomics was established as a private competitor to the publicly funded HGP, intending to sell the sequence first. Luckily for humanity, the human genome could not be legally patented and the HGP won the race!

  • HGP and the Human Genome

    HGP and the Human Genome: The International Effort

    14 April 2003 99.9% of the human genome has been coded

    For 15 years, an international research group worked on the Human Genome Project, or HGP. The group succeeded in ‘sequencing’ the DNA, or decoding all the chemical instructions that are contained within our genes, that tell our bodies how to work. A rival sequencing project set up by Celera Genomics was established as a private competitor to the publicly funded HGP, intending to sell the sequence first. Luckily for humanity, the human genome could not be legally patented and the HGP won the race!

    Genome: A Definition

    A genome is all the genetic information – known as ‘genes’ – contained within every cell of an organism. DNA is the support material of the genome.

    Data Sharing

    In 1995, the directors of the HGP decided that the data produced on the human genome could not be sold. However, it is still possible to sell its applications.

     

  • Famous for decoding the human genome

  •  

  • It’s thanks to the genome that the human body works.

  •  

  • The Human Genome Project was born in the USA, but united 350 laboratories from 18 countries.

  •  

  • In 1998, it is decided that the components of the genome belong to humanity.

  •  

  • We can now treat certain illnesses and reduce the risk of them developing…

 

#SuperScientists #NetGalley

One more e-book bargain for today

Queen Sugar: A NovelA re-post:

I have watched the first two seasons of Queen Sugar and am in the middle of the third.  The show tells the story of three African-American siblings and those around them.  The story takes place in Louisiana where Queen Sugar is sugar cane.  The show has taken on some tough issues, including police treatment of Black men and the difficulties of being a woman running a cane business, and has done so well.  I was curious to read the book after seeing the series although usually I have read first and watched second.  The book is different from the TV series in some ways.  For example, Charley is a widow, not married/divorced from a professional basketball player and Micah is a girl, not a boy, and not a teen, while Ralph-Angel’s wife died unlike in the TV series where Blue’s mother faces substance abuse issues.  Still, there is a story to tell and Natalie Bazile does it well.

From Booklist

Already a widow raising an 11-year-old daughter, Charley Bordelon is further disoriented by the death of her adoring father. He has left her an 800-acre sugarcane field in their native Louisiana, attaching clear restrictions that she must revive the farm or give it to charity, with no option to sell the farm or share it with her estranged half brother, Ralph Angel. So Charley and her reluctant daughter, Micah, relocate from L.A. to rural Louisiana, welcomed into the bosom of the family by her grandmother, Miss Honey. But they walk into old family tensions when Ralph Angel and his 6-year-old son, Blue, come for an extended stay. Charley arrives just in time for the growing season, facing dilapidated fields desperately in need of care. As a citified black woman with no experience in farming, can she make a go of it as a sugarcane farmer in an area that clings to privileges afforded to whites, males, and the wealthy? In alternating chapters, Baszile shows the separate paths that lead Charley and Ralph Angel back home in this exploration of family ties and disconnections. –Vanessa Bush
You decide TV?  Book?  Both?  Let me know what you think!

Explore: Literary Places

This is a wonderful book for armchair readers and explorers.  25 fictional places are featured and paired with the novels that made them well known.  Some of my favorites were New York City/Catcher in the Rye; Yorkshire Moors/Wuthering Heights, Bath/Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, Naples/My Brilliant Friend, Alabama/To Kill a Mockingbird and really just about every place and book mentioned.  The author and illustrator are well matched; the text is informative and helps the reader to imagine the place described at the time that the book was written as well as now, while the drawings are just slightly whimsical and very appealing.

This book will inspire you to look at old favorites, find new ones and think about either real or virtual travel.  I recommend it highly.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-galley.  I enjoyed my journey!

YORKSHIRE MOORS

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)

Wuthering Heights is believed to be based on Top Withens, a long-abandoned 16th-century farmhouse a few miles southwest of Haworth. Its structure doesn’t match Emily’s creation, but its remote, windswept position fits the bill. Walk across the moor from Haworth parsonage – now the Brontë Museum – to reach the exposed stone ruin and it’s easy to think yourself into the pages of a Gothic romance.

DUBLIN

Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)

Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom, a Jewish ad canvasser for The Freeman’s Journal, as he wanders around Dublin on 16 June 1904. He attends a funeral, goes to the pub, ducks into a museum (to avoid the man sleeping with his wife), pleasures himself by Sandymount Strand, enters the red-light district. The novel is a chaotic stream of consciousness, performing stylistic acrobatics to try to render the human experience.

#LiteraryPlaces #NetGalley

Some fiction e-book bargains for March

A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the VanderbiltsThe Rosie Project: A Novel (Don Tillman Book 1)The Thing About Clare by [Clark, Imogen]Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and PoemsThe Library at the Edge of the World: A Novel (Finfarran Peninsula Book 1)Reservoir 13: A NovelDear Mr. Knightley: A NovelFriendship Cake: A Novel (A Hope Springs Book)The Age of Innocence (Knickerbocker Classics)Persuasion (Knickerbocker Classics)

There is quite a mix here.  There is historical fiction (A Well Behaved Woman), wome’s fiction (The Rosie Project, Friendship Cake, The Library at the Edge of the World,Dear Mr. Knightley), poestry and prose (Mary Oliver), classics (Wharton and Austen) and two other books that looked interesting (The Thing About Clare) and Reservoir 13).

Happy reading!

March Mystery e-book deals: Part 2

Death in Brittany: A Mystery (Brittany Mystery Series Book 1) by [Bannalec, Jean-Luc]Evil Under the Sun: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot series Book 23) by [Christie, Agatha]Irish Eyes: A Callahan Garrity Mystery (Callahan Garrity Mysteries Book 8) by [Andrews, Mary Kay]Rose Cottage by [Stewart, Mary]The Potted Gardener: An Agatha Raisin Mystery (Agatha Raisin Mysteries Book 3) by [Beaton, M. C.]

One Was a Soldier: A Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mystery (Fergusson/Van Alstyne Mysteries Book 7)Murder on the Iditarod Trail: An Alaskan Mystery (An Alaska Mystery Book 1) by [Henry, Sue]Invisible City: A Novel (Rebekah Roberts Novels Book 1) by [Dahl, Julia]So here is something for everyone…travel to Provence, England, Georgia, Alaska, upstate New York or Brooklyn.

I give a special shout out to the book by Julia Spencer Fleming.  Please think about reading the whole series in order; it is one of my most favorite.  I got very attached to Clare and Russell and wish that the author would write a new book.

Enjoy!