Posts on nonfiction

History in the Making: Ain’t Nothing but a Man

Lisa — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:28:15 -0700

After gushing about it to my husband this weekend, I was all set to write this nice, long review of Ain’t Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry, by Scott Reynolds Nelson with Marc Aronson (National Geographic, 2008). Then I realized the New York Times beat me to it, and did a fine job. A good thing, really; I don’t want to think about how many orders of magnitude separate the Times’ readership and mine! But here’s a few thoughts of my own to add to the mix.

In our library catalog, Ain’t Nothing but a Man gets the subject headings you’d expect: John Henry, African Americans, railroad construction workers, etc. And while readers of this book will indeed learn about the “steel-drivin’ man” behind the myth, the real narrative here is that of the primary author’s historical research process.

Those familiar with Marc Aronson’s columns in School Library Journal or other work (including his blog on SLJ) will not be surprised that he is a secondary author of this book. Aronson is committed to promoting good nonfiction for children, especially history. One of his consistent arguments is that history should not be presented to children as this dry, static body of facts. History, like science, is full of mysteries, and we are always learning new things about the past and finding new ways to interpret what we’ve found.

And that’s definitely the driving message of Ain’t Nothing but a Man. Nelson presents his findings not as a cut-and-dried summary but rather as a discovery process. He describes scouring written and oral histories for different versions of the John Henry ballad, and visiting railroad tunnels, libraries, and prisons. He discusses the hard, dusty work of poring through ancient records, the frustration of dead ends, the magic of serendipity, the need for patience and perseverance and even guesswork, and the miraculous pay-off when you find the facts to create a convincing story.

Ain’t Nothing but a Man is a perfect candidate for working into a junior high or even high school history curriculum, focusing on the railroad worker aspect or the dynamic history aspect or both. Though the reading level is grades 4ish and up, I honestly don’t think, with its sepia photographs, old-time song lyrics, and sophisticated approach to history, the appeal is going to be there for most kids—not without pushing. So, I hope that teachers do take advantage of the lessons this book offers; there’s so much fodder for discussion here, the lesson plans would practically write themselves.

Meanwhile, Colleen at Chasing Ray has written some very thoughtful reflections on how Nelson’s findings force us to reexamine our understanding of John Henry as an American legend:
“…do not give me John Henry as an American folk hero anymore. He is a truth that we all need to recognize—he is the America we all keep trying to deny.”
She has some great points; take a look.

Books Boys Like: There's Something About Everest

Lisa — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 16:26:15 -0800

The past ten years have seen a veritable avalanche of books about the world’s tallest mountain. Why the sudden interest? Is it because of National Geographic’s movie Everest, or the deadly climbing disaster of 1996 chronicled in Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air? Or because 2003 was the fiftieth anniversary of Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary’s historic summit? Or because in that same year a 15-year-old girl named Ming Kipa set the new record for youngest person to summit? Whatever the reason, there is no shortage of books, for all age levels, about the dangerously fascinating mountain that is Everest.

One of my favorite books of 2007 is Peak, by Roland Smith (Harcourt, 2007). This well-written page-turner for junior high readers follows the adventures of Peak Marcello, the 14-year-old son of climbers. After getting caught free-climbing – and then tagging – skyscrapers in Manhattan, Peak is whisked off to Asia, where his father leads climbing expeditions on Everest. At first, Peak is thrilled at the chance to be the youngest person ever to summit, but he soon learns the task ahead is more difficult than he imagined.

I’m not talking about physical dangers; in fact, readers may be surprised that a relatively inexperienced climber such as Peak could make it as far as he does without much in the way of illness or injury. (Some other climbers in the expedition are forced to stop due to HAPE and other climbing-related afflictions.) But Smith compensates with a solid exploration of the political issues surrounding Mount Everest. The commercialization of Everest (Can anyone who can pay play?), Chinese control of Tibet, and the incredibly dangerous – and under-appreciated – work of Sherpa guides all get ample discussion.

In a similar vein is Gordon Korman’s fictional Everest series (The Contest, The Climb, The Summit – Scholastic, 2002), for readers grades 5 and up who enjoy a fast read.

True Books About Everest

Climbing Everest: Tales of Triumph and Tragedy on the World’s Highest Mountain, by Audrey Salkeld (National Geographic, 2003) –Children’s Literature calls these profiles of Everest’s most famous climbers “thrilling reading” for grades 4 and up.
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster, by Jon Krakauer (Villard, 1997) – This thick nonfiction page-turner has a lot of teen appeal.
To the Top of Everest, by Laurie Skreslet with Elizabeth MacLeod (Kids Can, 2001) – One of the first Canadians to summit offers his cheerful and photo-filled account for grades 3 and up.
To the Top: The Story of Everest, by Stephen Venables (Candlewick, 2003) – Photo-filled history of human interest in Everest, including the author’s personal summit story, for grades 4 and up.
Within Reach: My Everest Story, by Mark Pfetzer and Jack Galvin (Dutton, 1998) – A teen’s mountain-climbing diary, with special focus on the Everest disaster, for junior high on up.

Race: A History Beyond Black and White

Lisa — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:23:18 -0800

I fully intend to return to posting about fun adventure books, but the last couple weeks I’ve been sidetracked by serious, nonfiction books. One of these is Race: A History Beyond Black and White, by Marc Aronson (Atheneum, 2007), which I finished last night.

I have misgivings about the term “required reading”*, so let’s just say I think every American could benefit highly from reading this book. There’s no one alive whose life isn’t touched by issues of race, and too often negatively. Race illuminates the evolution of “race” as a concept humans invented to define and justify their ill treatment of others. While it doesn’t dwell on or offer clear-cut solutions to today’s problems, it gives readers a much deeper understanding of how things came to be.

Aronson traces the path of us v. them mentality in the Western World from primitive tribes through the present, with major stops for the Greek and Roman empires, the rise of Christianity, trans-Atlantic slave trade and immigration, and what he terms the “Age of Racism” (which includes, but is not limited to, American lynch mobs and the Holocaust). You see, “race” as we know it is a human invention of the past three hundred or so years, though it was millennia in the making. Race plainly explains how each new moment of enlightenment, that eliminated one kind of prejudice, gave birth to a newer, harsher form of prejudice.

Aronson writes in a formal but highly readable style. Many chapters open with a teen-friendly comparison of ancient political situations to contemporary teen issues. Snippets of his own family’s history and his admissions of racial prejudice lend a personal quality as well. I’m no race scholar, but it seemed to me that Aronson took a very even-handed approach to the sensitive subject matter. He includes extensive end notes and makes transparent those occasions when his personal opinion veers from those of “the experts.”

Though many parts of this book will make you angry, and many more will make you weep, Aronson ends Race on a hopeful note. “Our history of race leaves us uncertain,” he writes. “We should be proud of that. Our ancestors were less confused and left us the story of prejudice, slavery, and death I have described here.” In other words, as much as humans may be, by nature, prejudiced, if we push through our gut assumptions to question the way things are, we can improve our situation – the situation of all mankind.

Dovetailing neatly with Race is the other book I’m reading: Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, by Harriet A. Washington (Doubleday, 2006). Washington uses history to explain why, today, many African Americans justifiably mistrust the medical system.

Reading Race has improved my understanding of the racial climate in America in the era Washington discusses (I’m only halfway through her book). Though it still seems unbelievable that humans could visit unspeakable horrors on other humans in the name of science, I now better understand that the white doctors doing these abhorrent things truly saw their black patients/subjects as less than human. This will never excuse what has happened, but viewing the events through a more contemporary lens helps explain how it did happen.

You can read the introduction to Race here. Marc Aronson also blogs for School Library Journal. His blog is Nonfiction Matters.

*The other day a middle school boy and his mom were in the library, and I overheard the boy say, “I hate reading books we’re forced to read.” Which, let’s face it, is the foundation of most schoolwork. Mom’s response is what really made me cringe, though. “Oh, you just hate reading, period.” Chicken and egg, anyone? And yes, I’m a Stephen Krashen fan. Free voluntary reading, baby!