Drowned City by Don Brown

Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans by Don Brown is a graphic novel depicting Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in New Orleans. This is a gripping and sobering read, well-researched and well-drawn. For those of us who remember watching this disaster unfold on the evening news, it's hard to believe it was ten years ago (and no doubt, for the residents of New Orleans and the gulf shore, it's even more omnipresent). However, this book does an excellent job of making the tragedy real and immediate to young readers who don't have any clear memories of those events.

(Reviewed from a copy borrowed through my library system.)

The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming

The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming is a look at the tumultuous years leading up to the Russian Revolution.

During the reign of Tsar Nicholas II, the rich grew richer, the poor grew poorer, and the government grew out of control as the leaders lost touch with the realities of life for the average Russian peasant or worker. Unprepared to lead a country, Nicholas listened to bad advice, took drastic action that exacerbated the problems the country faced, and failed to act when action was needed. As the government was overthrown, and then overthrown again, Nicholas and his family suffered the fatal effects of these decisions.

I've read a fair bit about the Russian revolution, so most of the major details of this story were familiar to me. Fleming has done a great job of researching and organizing her facts, including primary source accounts from common people as well as the nobility. However, I felt that she was not sympathetic to the subjects of this book, the Romanov family themselves. (In a speech accepting the nomination of this book as a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction finalist, she admitted that she initially intended to write just about Anastasia, but found her "boring" the more she researched her.) I feel that a biographer, even of such flawed subjects as the Romanovs, should find something to like in her subject matter. On the other hand, this book is almost compulsively readable, hard to put down even if you know what is coming. (I did, and I still kept reading right up until bedtime, with the result that I had nightmares about the House of Special Purpose, as I knew I would.) And despite the dark portrait she paints of the Romanovs, she does not give the impression that what followed for Russia was an improvement. I think this is a good introduction to the Romanov family and the Russian revolution for readers unfamiliar with the topic, but would recommend looking at other sources as well if you find this period interesting.

(Reviewed from a copy borrowed through my library system.)

Bomb by Steven Sheinkin

Bomb: The Race to Build -- and Steal -- the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin is juvenile nonfiction at its absolute best.

During World War II, one of the most decisive battles was fought, not on a battlefield, but in a laboratory. The race to build the atomic bomb was on, and pretty much all of the world's top physicists were working on the problem in one way or another, for one major power or another. In Los Alamos, New Mexico, scientists from the Manhattan Project, headed up by Robert Oppenheimer, worked tirelessly to build and test the American bomb -- but a few of them were also leaking secrets to the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, American spies worked hard to sabotage Germany's nuclear efforts, despite not knowing exactly what German scientists knew, or even where they were.

This is an amazingly gripping and readable work of nonfiction. The pacing is excellent as the author switches from one story to another, and he does a great job of making the historical figures come alive without sacrificing historical accuracy. And his brief summation of the Cold War and the development of more powerful weapons at the end of the book is quite chilling. I listened to the audiobook and found myself completely captivated by it. I'd recommend this title for its intended audience (ages 9-14), but also for adults like myself, with an interest but not a lot of knowledge on the topic of the Manhattan Project and the creation of the first nuclear weapons.

(Reviewed from an audiobook borrowed through my library system.)

The Dolphins of Shark Bay by Pamela Turner

The Dolphins of Shark Bay by Pamela S. Turner is another entry in the excellent Scientists in the Field series.

In a remote part of the Australian coast, scientists observe a tribe of local dolphins who have developed some unusual, and impressive, skills. Some use sponges as tools, holding them in their mouths and using them to startle bottom-dwelling fish off the bay's rocky floor. Others chase fish onto the beaches and catch them, managing to leave and return to the water. One brave female goes after much larger prey than the others, preferring to eat one large meal instead of several small ones. These skills seem to be passed down from mother to child. Why have the dolphins learned these skills? What else might they be capable of?

This book was a lot of fun to read, with a relatively informal narrative style and a bit of humor thrown in occasionally. The author tells the story of Janet Mann, a scientist who has devoted her career to studying the Shark Bay dolphins. She also tells the stories of the dolphins themselves, explaining their complex social structures and their various hunting styles. There's a little bit of anthropomorphizing, through the author tries to avoid it, but who among us could resist the temptation to describe dolphin interactions in human terms? (Considering the amount of times I have put words in my dog's mouth, not me!) This book is sure to charm all dolphin-loving readers.

(Reviewed from a copy borrowed through my library system.)

Eruption! by Elizabeth Rusch

Eruption! by Elizabeth Rusch is a high-quality juvenile nonfiction book about volcanoes and the scientists who monitor them.

This book tells the story of the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program, an agency formed by the United States Geological Survey and the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. In 1985, the Nevado del Ruiz eruption in Columbia devastated a large area and killed thousands in the nearby town of Armero. While nobody can prevent a volcano from erupting, scientists devoted their efforts to monitoring volcanoes and predicting eruptions, in the hope of minimizing loss of life in the future. This book looks at two eruptions to which the VDAP responded: the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, and the 2006 eruption of Mt. Merapi in Indonesia. The book focuses on the collaborative work of the scientists as they coordinate with local scientists and government officials in each region. The VDAP also offers training and support for volcanologists around the globe.

Whenever I read a book from the Scientists in the Field series, I am always favorably impressed at the writing and research in each book. Rusch does a great job of creating tension and narrative flow in an informational text, without compromising the facts contained therein. I learned a lot about volcanoes from this book, and I am sure that readers fascinated by this topic will be completely enthralled.

(Reviewed from a copy borrowed through my library system.)

The Fairy Ring by Mary Losure

The Fairy Ring: or Elsie and Frances Fool the World by Mary Losure is narrative nonfiction -- and for this story, that works pretty well. In England, during and just after the first World War, cousins Elsie and Frances performed a little bit of harmless trickery with Elsie's dad's camera. Using hatpins and some cleverly crafted paper figures painted by Elsie, the girls falsified pictures of fairies that they said lived at the spring near their house. This could have been a simple family joke -- the girls did it because the father was teasing them about fairies -- except that, through a series of coincidences, the fairy photos fell into the hands of a group of theosophists. These men were inclined to believe in things like nature spirits, ghosts, and yes, fairies. One of the most notable members of the group was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. Could such a brilliant man be taken in by the girls' little prank?

The author of this book gives a good sense of the girls' characters as she sees them: funny, artistic Elsie, who likes a good laugh, and who dislikes those who would write her off as "just" the daughter of a working man; and Frances, the more serious of the two, the one who does actually believe that she's seen fairies at the spring, and who resents the intrusion of the media and the men who want to measure, categorize, and quantify the fairies. The author is also very lenient toward the girls, pointing out that they would have gotten in a lot of trouble if they had confessed that the pictures were fakes after people outside of the family got involved -- and pointing out that the girls were continually underestimated by said outsiders, because they were young, because they were girls, or because they were poor.

I had heard mention of this story before, but I didn't know much about it. This brief book presents a good deal of information in a very readable fashion.

(Reviewed from a copy borrowed through my library system.)

Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London by Andrea Warren

Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London by Andrea Warren is certainly a focused, message-driven work of nonfiction -- which is not necessarily a bad thing. I doubt I'd recommend this to someone looking for a straight Dickens biography, but for the reader who enjoys nonfiction and Victorian England, this is a good choice. While the book does talk about the life of Dickens, all of the anecdotes relate back to how they affected his attitude toward Britain's poor. Moreover, there are several sections where other reformers, both before and slightly after the time of Dickens, are highlighted; while interesting, these can also be a bit distracting. The back matter includes sections about child labor and orphans in today's world, as well as recommended websites and books for readers who want to know more about the topics covered in the book. All in all, a solid piece of nonfiction writing.

(Review copy borrowed through my library system.)