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We are story animals, suggests Kendall Haven (
Story Proof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story, 2007). We have told our stories for over 100,000 years. Not every culture has developed codified laws or written language, but every culture in the history of the world has created myths, legends, fables, and folk tales.
Stories are so old, so intimately connected with language, some researchers suggest that language was created to express stories. In fact, evolutionary biologists now believe we are hardwired to think in story forms. Cognitive scientists know that stories help us understand and remember information for longer periods. Researchers have found that telling stories at an early age helps develop math abilities and language literacy. And teachers know that understanding the story process helps young readers understand the organization of language.
Isn’t it a wonder that using fictional techniques to relay the telling of facts and biography seems a natural fit? After all, life is messy and fragmented. But stories provide a form for that experience. Stories shape random events into a coherent sequence. Stories help readers focus on the essentials, sifting through the distractions. As writer May Sarton once said, “
Art is order, but it is made out of the chaos of life.”
One criticism of narrative nonfiction is the use of psychological action and dialogue. Stories freely engage in psychological action to help readers empathize with the protagonist. But, in narrative nonfiction, how would the author know just how George Washington – or any historical character – really feels and thinks about an event?
Easy. Writers report on their protagonist’s thoughts and feelings by using inferences, in which a character’s state of mind is revealed by reportable observations. As Jon Franklin, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, stated, “
People don’t think in words. They think in the experience of the moment.”
One of my favorite authors, and one of my favorite books, that achieve this psychological action so magnificently is Russell Freedman’s
Washington at Valley Forge (Holiday House, 2008). With his first sentence, Freedman establishes the desperate conditions faced by Washington and his men: “Private Joseph Plumb Martin leaned into the icy wind, pushed one sore and aching foot ahead of the other, and kept on marching.”
Washington’s troops were beaten down and bedraggled. Martin was not only hungry; he was “perishing with thirst.” Freedman weaves primary sources into the narrative to demonstrate the psychological action.
Another favorite is Phillip Hoose, in his wondrous epic tale of
The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2004). The book begins with Alexander Wilson and his quest for the ivory-billed woodpecker: “Alexander Wilson clucked his horse slowly along the margin of a swamp in North Carolina. Bending forward in the saddle…Wilson’s heart must have been racing as he dismounted and crept toward the bird…”
Likewise, readers hold their breath as the scene unfolds. The story sweeps across two centuries, never loosing hold of the reader’s attention as it explores the tragedy of extinction, and the triumph of the human spirit.
As the great Virginia Hamilton once offered, every fiction has its own basic reality…
“…through which the life of the characters and their illusions are revealed, and from which past meaning often creeps into the setting. The task for any writer is to discover the ‘reality tone’ of each work – the basis of truth upon which all variations on the whole language system is set. For reality may be the greatest of all illusions.” (Virginia Hamilton, Illusions and Reality, 1980).Bobbi Miller
I am a Cybils second round judge. I am currently reading the all the nominated books in a fun "armchair readalong" way with the first round judges. My reviews and opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the work of the committee.
Because They Marched: The People's Campaign for Voting Rights That Changed America Russell Freedman
This title looks at the Selma voting rights Marches, culminating in the Selma to Montgomery march. It talks about Jim Crow, and the importance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I greatly appreciated the epilogue that looks at how key provisions have recently been struck down, and what the means.
I am a huge Freedman fan and he consistently creates books that are beautiful and informative.
This one, however, falls short of expectations. For one, I’m not sure what Holiday House was thinking, but I’m used to Freedman’s books being printed on a heavy gloss paper and this one’s not. I’m surprised by how big of a difference this makes, but it does.
It does retain that classic Freedman style of lots of large photographs, but all the text is black-on-white and some of the more beautiful design that we’ve come to expect is missing.
Now that would be ok if the text was amazing, but it’s not. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s perfectly serviceable, but I’m used to finding his writing engrossing even when he’s covering topics I know well.
There is nothing wrong with this book per se, but there’s also not a lot right with it when you compare it to his other works, or even better treatments on the same subject (it’s going to be really hard to find a book on Selma that’s better than Marching for Freedom)
Overall, a resounding “meh” which is disappointing for someone like Freedman.
Book Provided by... my local library
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I'm putting together a presentation featuring my research on turn-of-the-century life for THE AVIARY. The little girl pictured here lived in Eastport, Maine (a fishing village and port of entry) around the time my fictional Clara Dooley lived in Lockhaven. Until I started poking around in search of images for my book, I hadn't heard of Hine. His photographs of working children are stunning, heartbreaking and shocking to our modern sensibilities. Russell Freedman has a beautiful book for kids on Hine titled: KIDS AT WORK: LEWIS HINE AND THE CRUSADE AGAINST CHILD LABOR. Highly recommended!
Combining an informative, eloquently written text with a wealth of relevant photographs, Russell Freedman’s The War to End All Wars is a magnificent overview of World War I.
The scope of The War to End All Wars is wide, but there’s a logical progression to the way Freedman lays out information. Beginning with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the alliances and rivalries among various European countries in 1914, Freedman discusses the chain of events that led to the war in an engaging style that is both elegant and authoritative. It is not stuffy or bland, and the narrative is written with enough clarity that there is no need for sidebars or extraneous text boxes to explain or emphasize details.
And so Europe was caught up in a war that few had expected and almost no one wanted. Even today, historians continue to debate the tangled and confusing causes of the conflict, the series of accidents, blunders, and misunderstandings that swept the nations of Europe toward war in the summer of 1914, whether war might have been avoided, and which persons or nations were most responsible. Wars in the past had often been caused by countries seeking more land or natural resources, or acting out of suspicion and fear of their rivals. And once a country is fully armed and poised to attack, war, it seems, is hard to avoid.
The events that unfolded as Europe careened toward catastrophe appeared to defy logic and common sense. Austria had wanted to punish Serbia, and then, one by one, other nations were drawn into the quarrel. To support Austria in its conflict with Russia over Serbia, Germany had attacked France by invading Belgium. And Britain had declared a state of war throughout the vast British Empire. In the rush of events, the Kingdom of Serbia, supposedly the cause of the war, had almost been forgotten.
Each nation believed that it was fighting a defensive war forced upon it by someone else. And each army was convinced that it could defeat its enemies within a few months and that the troops would be home by Christmas. (p. 18-19 of ARC; text may change upon publication)
In addition to examining the important battles of the war, Freedman discusses some of the technological advances—both leading up to and during the war—that distinguished World War I from previous wars, as well as their impact on the grimness of trench warfare. This helps add context to the coverage of the fighting, particularly important because of how Freedman beautifully integrates first person accounts from rulers and diplomats and, most of all, soldiers into his narrative. These quotes, affecting and mournful and tragic (just one brief example, from a longer journal entry by Henri Desagneaux, a French lieutenant: “Our heads are buzzing, we have had enough…. Numb and dazed, without saying a word, and with our hearts pounding, we await the shell that will destroy us.” p. 89 of ARC), give The War to End All Wars additional depth and readers an intimate glimpse at what the war was like for those involved in it. Freedman concludes his narrative with a look at the end of the war and how it set the stage for World War II, among other things.
Although Freedman packs a considerable amount of information into the text, there are some omissions that were obvious even to me, someone who has probably picked up more information about World War I from historical mysteries than can I recall from AP European History. More attention is paid to the Western Front than the Eastern Front, and because Freedman spent some time covering the mood on the homefront at the start of the war, I was surprised that he did not revisit this topic as the war went on. Nevertheless, these are minor criticisms overall. As this is
Theresa Sidel, a colleague in the American Indian Library Association, wrote to me, noting passages in Freedman's Washington at Valley Forge. In children's literature, Russell Freedman's books stand out for his style and research. When viewed for Native content, however, they fall short, as Theresa points out below.
______________________________________
We just got copies of "Washington at Valley Forge" by Russell Freedman, c. 2008, published by Holiday House ISBN: 978-0-8234-2069-8 (Hardcover)
The book only mentions American Indians on pages 33, 42, 47-48, 66, and 68.
No mention is made of Skenandoah, Chief of the Oneida Nation, who sent baskets of corn to the starving soldiers. One has to wonder why Freedman would fail to include that in a history book for children. I know it isn't the most well-known fact, but it is easily found on the internet.
The Oneida are mentioned as follows:
pg. 66:
"Lafayette's force included forty-seven Oneida Indian scouts, "Stout-looking fellows and remarkably neat," according to Private Joseph Plumb Martin, who was assigned to the expedition. The Oneidas had adopted Lafayette into their tribe and named him Kayweda, after one of their greatest warriors."
pg. 68:
"The Oneida scouts, bringing up the rear of the retreating American column, made their own contribution to Lafayette's escape. As British cavalrymen brandishing sabers galloped toward the retreating Americans, the Oneidas let loose with a hair-raising war whoop, startling the horsemen and frightening their steeds. The horses bolted and turned heel, giving the Americans time to reach the river safely. Later, when the British began their own retreat, the Oneidas rushed back across the river and harassed the enemy's flanks as the redcoats hurried toward Philadelphia."
Here is the one that bothers me the most though, pg. 47-48:
"A French interpreter at the camp was similarly moved while walking in the woods before breakfast one morning. From a distance he heard " a most powerful voice...yet melodious," singing a song from a popular French opera. He was astonished "when suddenly I saw...before me a tall Indian...in American regimental and two large epaulets on his shoulders." The singer was a Canadian Abenaki who spoke French and English. Raised by Jesuit priests under French rule in Canada, he had joined the Americans at the beginning of the war; rising to the rank of colonel in the Continental army."
With everything he knew about this man why did he not include his name? Well, perhaps by some fluke it was never recorded...so I went to the internet and found the piece with almost exact wording in less than five minutes: "Colonel Louis at Oriskany and Valley Forge" by Darren Bonaparte (Originally published in The People's Voice, September 30, 2005) the account of Peter Stephen Du Ponceau, a young French officer assigned to Baron von Steuben. If Freedman had gone to the next paragraph he would have known that the man was " Nia-man-rigounant,....Colonel Louis, it is the name which I received with the baptism."
Hey, dudes, you guys voted on the What Do GUYS Love? poll and the results were overwhelming--guys love video games! No surprise, huh? It did my librarian heart good to see that "books with lots of adventure and action" came in second.
S
peaking of books with lots of adventure, I just
finished a book that has a true-life adventure that beats most fiction.
Washington at Valley Forge by Russell Freedman is the name and it's one that you won't easily forget!
What a story!! Imagine camping in the snow with no shoes on your feet. In a thin, useless tent. With nothing to eat. That's how George Washington and his army found themselves in December 1777. Things had been going badly for the Patriots, losing battle after battle against the
disciplined fighting machine that was the British army. Some people didn't think General Washington was competent and spread rumors about him. Congress didn't trust him and wouldn't give him money to feed or equip his troops. Imagine how you'd feel if you were Washington! Would you feel like giving up? I know I would! But George Washington decided to stick it out. Not only that, he said he "would share in the hardship and partake of every inconvenience" of his men. Now that's a
TRUE MAN for you! No wonder we celebrate his birthday 239 years later! This is an incredible book and Russell Freedman is a fantastic writer, making you feel the tension and suspense that
Washington felt. You really wonder if
Washington and his army are going to make it!! Get it, guys! You'll love it!
Carl
By: Jennie,
on 2/29/2008
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So, while I was buried under that mountain called "real life," I missed a totally important announcement:
The Cybil winners were announced. I had the most awesomest extreme pleasure to serve as one of the judges for Middle Grade/Young Adult nonfiction.
So, in today's super-long post, I'm giving the run-down of all of our nominees-- they were all fantastic!!!
But, it's Friday, so first, a poem:
A Song for Alef
Alef the letter
Is a refugee.
From paper
To paper
He knows
No home...
To read the rest, you'll have to read this year's winner,
Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood Ibtisam Barakat
Ibtisam was 3 1/2 when the Six Day war forced her family to fell from their home in the West Bank. After the harrowing experience of being seperated from her family in the confused mob, she finds them and they manage to escape to Jordan.
The Barakat family live as refugees in shelters, in a classroom, and on a new friend's kitchen floor for nearly 5 months before being allowed back home. But, once home, there is still shooting, still fighting. It's not safe, so it's to an orphanage. There, here brothers are sent away for brawling.
Eventually, they move. Through it all, Barakat's solace is language and her love of the letter alef--the first letter of the alphabet in Arabic and Hebrew.
But, underneath it all,
Tasting the Sky is a story of growing up, of losing a pet and sibling rivalry, of making friends and worrying about school, of moving and saying goodbye. While there is sadness in Barakat's tale, there is no anger or hatred, just a hope for peace. And that's a hope we call all share.
Who Was First?: Discovering the Americas Russell Freedman
Dude, it's Russel Freedman, you know it rocks.
This time, the master of children's non-fic takes on the discovery of America. He starts with Christopher Columbus and then works backwards through time, discussing who discovered America before Columbus, who discovered him before that and on and on. He also devotes a fair chunk to current theory and theories we've discarded over the years.
It had a great design--good use of white space and lots of pictures and maps. However, some of the illustration captions were a bit confusing.
He spends a whopping 10 pages discussing Gavin Menzies's theory that the Chinese discovered the US in
1421. Although Freedman gives both sides of the debate, it seems like a lot of page space to devote to a theory that not a lot of historians credit.
I was most impressed by Freedman's sources and his amazing ability to take very complex, academic arguments and make them accessible to a children's audience without dumbing them down.
The Periodic Table: Elements with Style Adrian Dingle
This is a fun look at the elements. Going through the periodic table, it presents basic information about selected elements including atomic weight, color, date of discovery as well as what it is used for and random fun facts. All of this information is accompanied by a fun drawing of the element, looking awesome and anthropomorphized. Where it might not be the best reference book, it's a really fun book for browsing through and learning about the elements. It also has an awesome pull out poster of the periodic table with all the cool cartoon guys in their little squares. 2 complaints-- not all of the elements are covered in the book. Also, when discussing radium, there was no mention of radiation (which seems like a pretty big oversight!) and when discussing bismuth, there was no mention of Pepto (a lesser oversight, but one that would have been fun to include!)
Ok, so that's 3 of the 6 nominees. Stay tuned for more!
Oh! and Poetry Friday round-up is hosted by the ever-lovely Kelly over at
Writing and Ruminating!
Ever wonder how the mysterious world of "acquisitions" works? (Full disclosure: I can barely spell it.) I've sold seven books (or is it eight?), but I still didn't know. I have had reports back from acquisitions. For example, with my first book in what became a four book series, Circles of Confusion, the editor said they had had a big debate on whether the title was right. I countered with a list of potential titles (Square in the Face, Heart-Shaped Box, etc), and they were satisified. (Full disclosure: if the series had continued on and on, I would have known it was time to end if it I started writing The Terrifying Tetrahedron.)
When she first told me they weren't sure they liked the title, at first I was in a bit of a panic, but then I realized how cool it was that a room full of strangers was discussing my book! With the idea that there would be bookS!
Read more about the acquisitions process here.
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Chilling. I sure the folks crusading against child labor were labeled as troublemakers.
Lupe F.