Nonfiction Book Reviews

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This is part of my Fun Fridays series. If you’re interested, be sure to check out my other children’s book reviews.

My brother-in-law and his partner live in Norway, so when I saw How to Draw Norway’s Sights and Symbols by Melody S. Mis, I immediately decided to check it out. I wanted to learn more about this beautiful country.

How to Draw Norway’s Sights and Symbols, despite the title of the book, did focus on quite a bit more than just how to draw a particular item. It started out by outlining the history of Norway from 10,000 BC to present day. The first “how to draw” section did not appear until page 15. Far from being disappointed by this, I thought this added a lot to the book. What is the point of learning how to draw something that you don’t know anything about?

As for the drawing portion of the book, I have to say that I am conflicted about it. When I think of a kid’s book on drawing, I think in terms of more simplistic items being drawn. Some of the items to be drawn were simple (like the national flag of Norway) but some of the items to be drawn would have absolutely killed me off, and I’m an adult. Granted, not an especially talented adult when it comes to artistic abilities, but I have considerably more hand-eye coordination than your typical 7 year old. At least I hope so.

On the other hand, I’m not entirely sure I can fault the author, Melody Mis, for this, considering the fact that she was not in charge of creating the coastline for Norway (click on the thumbnail to your left for a larger version so you can see exactly how difficult the Norway coastline is.)  Some of the other challenging items that you are shown how to draw: The purple heather flower, the Borgund Stavkirke, and more.

I enjoyed the book and certainly learned a lot from it.  The ages it is appropriate for is 9 - 12 years old, and I would suggest sticking with that unless your children are especially talented readers and artists.

This is part of a large series that includes other countries like Italy, Thailand, Japan, Pakistan, and more.  More than countries, however, the series has also branched off to include a book on each state in the United States, so you can find a book on Ohio, New York, Michigan, Idaho, and of course the rest of the states.  Pretty cool, eh?

When looking through those books, it looks as if part of the series is geared at 4 - 8 year olds, and part of the series is geared at 9 - 12 year olds.  That seemed rather strange to me, but I wasn’t able to personally look at those books to verify this.

Overall, I give How to Draw Norway’s Sights and Symbols 4.5 stars.  The illustrations to show the kids how to draw various items are a little small, and again some of the items are overly complicated, but other than that, I thought the book was well-done, full of interesting information, and a nice take on the “normal” series that you see about different countries around the world.

Hava

PS If you’re into children’s books, there is another terrific site here at Today you should check out.  Laura writes children’s book reviews exclusively, and has a fun site going.  Happy readings!

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Note: The following is part of my intermittent Fun Friday series where I write reviews of children’s books.

I love children’s books because they take incredibly complicated subjects and distill them down into bite size pieces that you can understand and learn from without having to have a Masters degree in the subject.

Ox, House, Stick: The History of our Alphabet by Don Robb is just such a children’s book. It is about how our alphabet came into being, something I was discussing with someone just the other day. Why, I wondered, is our alphabet in the order it is in?  Why doesn’t our alphabet read as A, C, Y, W, F, Z…

You get the picture.

According to Ox, House, Stick page 19:

No one knows why the letters of the alphabet appear in the order they do.  They’ve kept pretty much the same order since Phoenician times.

Well, at least I’m not the only one who doesn’t know the answer to that question.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it took a fairly complicated subject (the history of written language) and broke it down into understandable and interesting chunks.  I enjoyed looking at all of the colorful and well-drawn illustrations scattered throughout the book too.

The picture below is actually the back cover for the book, and shows the first two letters of the alphabet (A and B) in a variety of languages: Hebrew, Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian.  It’s interesting to see the similarities and differences between the alphabets.

Does it make me a real geek that I think lists like that are interesting?

Don’t answer that.

This would be a great book for a teacher in a classroom (geared for ages 8 - 12), a homeschooling mom, or just someone like me who loves to learn about a variety of subjects without having to invest months or years of my time to learning every nook and cranny.

I give Ox, House, Stick: The History of Our Alphabet 4.75 out of 5 stars.

Havs

Well, as my readers probably remember (and for any first timers, check out my About Me page for more info) I’m going back to school next month to get my Associates in Library Science.  In the long run, this will allow me to advance to a higher-paying job at my local library, so I don’t stay a part-time circulation clerk indefinitely.  (As much as I love my current job, the lack of benefits and the low pay rate doesn’t exactly contribute to long-term wealth).

In the end, going back to school will be worth it.  In the meanwhile though, I’m going to have to cut back on my work schedule.  I can’t continue to work four jobs while going to school full-time.  I happen to like to my sleep a little too much for that.

I’ve debated my options for a while.  My problem is, I like my jobs - that’s why I have them!  I find personal fulfillment from every one of my jobs - I feel as if I am really contributing something to the world by doing them, in my own very small way of course.

My options when it came to my Nonfiction Lover blog were these:

1) Quit completely.  I absolutely do not want to do this, but unfortunately, it is an option.

2) Continue to post as often as I am now, but cut the quality of the posts in half; make the posts shorter and take less time to proofread.  This may be an option to someone else, but in my world, this won’t fly.  I’d rather not post at all than post something that has mistakes in it, and that isn’t actually contributing to the world in the some way.  A quick summary of a book is not why my readers read this blog, and it isn’t what I want to do.

3) Cut the rate of my postings back from almost every day to once or twice a week.  Although this means a lot less books reviewed, at least the quality of the posts being put up would stay the same.  Out of all my non-choices, this was the lesser of the evils, and in the end, was the option I chose.

So starting this week, I will be posting a heck of a lot less than I did before.  I am not quite sure what I’m going to do about Fun Fridays, other than change it to every other Friday or something along those lines.  The kids’ books were supposed to be a small part of this blog, not an every-other-posting on this blog, so I’m definitely going to have to change the frequency of those reviews.  I will continue them in some fashion or another, however - I like reading kids’ books, so I won’t get rid of them entirely.

I’m sad - this blog has been one of the coolest jobs I’ve ever had.  I’m going to miss posting every day, and telling you guys about my great finds (and the horrid misses!)  But at least I’m not going to be forced to give it up altogether, which would break my heart.  I have never enjoyed blogging like I have on here (and I have done plenty of blogging in the past!)

Thanks for sticking with me so far, and I hope you continue to visit, even when my post count drops.  It’s been a lot of fun.

PS I do offer the option to receive an email every time I post a blog, so you don’t have to try to remember to stop by - you will be automatically told every time I post. If you’re interested, make sure to input your email address in the column on the left, and click Subscribe. I abhor spam, so you can be sure that your email address will never be bought or sold. Or if you’d rather, you can also sign up to receive my RSS feed.

Fun Friday - The Weekly Review of Children’s Books

I originally picked up A Smart Girl’s Guide to Money: How to Make It, Save It, and Spend It by Nancy Holyoke and Ali Douglass because my niece (hi Hailey!) had checked it out, and I saw it when she returned it. I figured I had read plenty of guides on how to manage money as an adult - it was time to check out what the kids were being taught.

Again, I was surprised at how knowledge-packed the book turned out to be.  Perhaps I’m just not expecting enough out of children’s books, I don’t know, but so far I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the depth of the information given.

In A Smart Girl’s Guide to Money, American Girl teaches the whole cycle of money - it gives a list of 101 ways to make money (selling items or providing a variety of services) and also how to figure out if the business venture is profitable or not by doing a cost analysis.  It even talks about keeping a ledger and staying on a budget.  If there was a girl out there who read this book and took it to heart, she’d be a miniature Donald Trump (but hopefully with better hair!) by age 25.

The book also tackles sticky subjects from how to ask for an allowance raise, to recognizing and reigning in the impulse buying while at the mall.  It even touches ever so briefly on putting money into the stock market and paying taxes on what you earn.  (I told you I was shocked at how much was in here).

Yet it still managed to stay very readable and interesting to the average tweener (10 - 14 year old range).  It had lots of great drawings and quite a few multiple choice quizzes.

So comes the question: Would a boy read it?  No, I would say probably not - too many references to buying nail polish and new clothes at the mall, not to mention the fact that all of the drawings are of girls.  I haven’t looked to see, but I would hope something similar but aimed for the boy population has been produced, because it really did break down money management into children-sized pieces.

If your daughter wants to make money this summer, or if you’ve noticed that she tends to spend her money too freely and you’re hoping to give her a little direction, this would be an awesome book to get for her.  I honestly can’t think of anything critical or negative to say about it.

Warning: Childless adult is about to give out parenting advice - ignore at will!!

If I had a daughter, I would give her this book when starting her allowance, so she could be pointed in the right direction on how to handle her money, instead of just being handed money each week.  I was a pretty open spender as a child - I once spent $50 on candy and had a stomachache for a week.  I really could’ve used this book as a kid.

Overall, I give A Smart Girl’s Guide to Money 4.75 out of 5.

Hava

I’m excited to kick off Fun Fridays with Titanic: Discover the Luxury of This Famous Ship by Simon Adams (it’s a part of the Eyewitness Books series).

I’ll admit it: I watched the 1997 movie, Titanic, in the theaters, and cried the whole second half of the movie.  I loved the story line, but it was just too depressing to ever watch again.  11 years later, I own the movie (won it in a contest) but have never watched it.  I just can’t stand the thought of bawling like that for another 3 hours.

But since an Eyewitness Book is not likely to reduce me to tears, I decided to take the chance and check out Titanic.  I haven’t read an Eyewitness Book since I was a kid, so it was fun to browse through the book like I used to as a child.

I was surprised at how in-depth the information was that was included - it had a lot of text amongst all the pictures, and it wasn’t easy text that a young child would easily be able to read by himself or herself either.  The targeted age group for the Eyewitness Books is 9 - 12 years of age, and they mean it.

But for whatever reason, I was expecting huge pictures and very little text, so I was pleasantly surprised by all that the book had to offer.

My only critique was the fact that the pictures had a lot of boats in them, which have a lot of rigging and other thin, long lines crisscrossing everywhere.  Eyewitness Books use long, thin lines to point to various parts of a picture, which meant it got interesting trying to figure out which line went where.  One set of lines was a little darker than the other, but that was the only difference.

They really should have picked a whole different color, like dark red for one and black for the other, or something to help differentiate between the two sets.

But honestly, that’s a small critique of an otherwise well-done book.  Of course, I have to include an interesting tidbit that I hadn’t heard before, so here’s a quotation from the book:

On the night of April 24, 1912, a young Scottish girl, Jessie, was being comforted as she lay dying.  In her delirious state, Jessie had a vision of a ship sinking in the Atlantic.  She saw many people drowning and “someone called Wally playing a fiddle.”  Within hours of her death, the Titanic slowly sank as Wally Hartley and the rest of the band continued to play. ~Page 23 of Titanic

That sent shivers up my spine when I read it.  Uncanny…

Overall, I give Titanic 4.5 out of 5 stars.  Well done, and a great way to kick off Fun Fridays!  Make sure to check out next week’s post on A Smart Girl’s Guide to Money.

Hava

As you all well know, I work at the local library, and believe me when I say that check-in is for me what “Happy Hour” is for the town drunk.  I’m surrounded by a sea of temptation, and sometimes I manage to escape unscathed, but most of the time, I end up carrying home yet more books that are simply too irresistible to pass up.

During check-in hour last week, I was admiring an Eyewitness Book on Titanic, and thinking how interesting it would be to read and review it.  Sure, it was aimed for 9 - 12 year olds, but I’ve often found that unless you’re looking for dry, scholarly facts that only a professor would appreciate, most adult books tend to be too overwhelming.

I’ve said it myself and I’ve heard plenty of other people say it: Nonfiction books are boring!  And yeah, that’s true - some nonfiction books are boring.  (I do my best not to review any on here mainly because I don’t want to read them, but yes, they definitely do exist).  But children’s publishers aren’t stupid - they know that if they print pages with nothing but charts and/or using 16 letter words every other sentence, the kids aren’t going to make it past page two.

They have to make it interesting.  They have to use large colorful pictures.  They have to include factoids that make you go, “Really?  I never knew that.”  They have to engage the reader and make them enjoy learning.

In other words, they have to write the kinds of books us adults would read, if we weren’t so embarrassed to be found hitting the children’s section for reading material.

I also started to think about the fact that the majority of the people who visit this site are parents, so they would enjoy finding books that perhaps they hadn’t heard of before, to check out for their kids to read.  And hey, I’m sure I have a couple of underage readers too, who would enjoy reading the reviews for themselves.

So without further ado, let me introduce a new weekly feature: Fun Fridays, where we review fun kids’ books, instead of the boring adult ones. This will start this Friday (the 18th) and run into the foreseeable future.  So parents, make sure to stop by then, or if your kids are old enough, send them my way.

I’m excited to bring in a new group of readers who may not want to read Total Money Makeover or Sprinkler and Drip Systems but would like to read an interesting book on, say, astronomy.

The only downfall that I can see is that this is going to mean that a huge group of books will now become tempting to me, basically upping the amount of books that I’ll want to take home.

Willpower?  What’s that?

Hava
Who probably ought to join a 12-step program for book addiction…