Nonfiction Monday: Civil War Titles

Recently I’ve been reading a lot of nonfiction in preparation for some research my students will be doing. I’m looking for good narrative nonfiction that will work well with the new common core standards that my state has adopted. Starting tomorrow, I have a group of students who are researching the Civil War, so I thought I’d prepare some booktalks for them.

Fields of Fury by James M. McPherson is a good, brief overview of the Civil War. It covers the major battles, as well as, chapters about such topics as the brothers who fought on opposite sides of the war and role of women and of African-Americans during the war. I think it works well as an introduction to the war, though it doesn’t have much depth.

United No More: Stories of the Civil War by Doreen Rappaport and Joan Veniero tells the stories of several individuals, both military and civilian. While some of the people are quite famous (Julia Ward Howe, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, and Ulysses S. Grant), others were new to me. I especially enjoyed the story of Eugenia Phillips, who was imprisoned for laughing during the funeral procession of a Union lieutenant. The story of William H. Carney, and African-American soldier who fought in the famous Massachusetts 54^th Regiment was particularly interesting. The only quibble I have is that the authors chose to fictionalize parts of the book. While I think this will make the book more accessible to reluctant readers, part of me still wishes the authors had not chosen to do this.

Under Siege: Three Children at the Civil War Battle for Vicksburg by Andrea Warren was my favorite of the Civil War books I read for my booktalks. One of the primary goals of the Union at the beginning of the war was to divide the Confederacy in two by controlling the Mississippi River. Union forces were able to capture Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana, but as of 1863, they had not been successful in their attempt to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi. Eventually they decided to surround the city and literally starve the soldiers and civilians until they surrendered. The civilians dug caves in the hillside to escape the constant shelling, and they waited for help that never came. As food ran out, they ate the horses, mules, cats and dogs and then resorted to eating any rodents they could capture. This was hard on the adults, but it was also brutal on the children. Under Siege tells the story of two children who were in Vicksburg during the time of the siege. It also tells the story of Ulysses S. Grant’s oldest son, Frederick Grant who was 12 years old at the time and was with his father during the siege. Frederick was wounded during the Battle of Vicksburg and at one time it was feared that he would lose his leg. This is a great story of survival that could generate much discussion about what it’s like to be a child and live in a warzone.

For those who like to read a more in-depth account of a specific battle, A Savage Thunder: Antietam and the Bloody Road to Freedom by Jim Murphy is an excellent account of that battle. It would be great for students who love battle detail and strategy. Murphy (whose nonfiction books constantly amaze me) explains the motivations of both General Lee and General McClellan and is pretty condemning of McClellan’s inaction that could have led to a swifter end to the war.

No Moon by Irene Watts

No Moon

Irene N. Watts

When she was just five years old, Louisa Gardener and her sister Kathleen were told to watch over their baby brother while they were on a visit by the sea. But they were both little girls and they let him get out of their sight. His body was found later, drowned in the ocean. Louisa has been deathly afraid of the ocean ever since.

Now Louisa is a nursemaid for a wealthy London family. She loves her new job. It’s hard work and the Nanny Mackintosh is difficult to work for but she knows she is fortunate to have such a good position when she’s only fourteen. Now, because Nanny Mackintosh has broken her ankle and her wrist, Louisa has been told that she will be in charge of Lord and Lady Milton’s two daughters as they sail across the Atlantic on the Titanic. She doesn’t want to go but she doesn’t want to lose her job either so one fateful day she and the Milton family set sail on the most famous and tragic ship of all times.

I’m doing a series of booktalks on the Titanic on Monday, so my weekend will be spent read a number of books, both fiction and nonfiction, about the ship. I really enjoyed this one. Irene Watts must be a fan of Upstairs, Downstairs because she does an excellent job of portraying the lives of both the servants and those they serve and there were several parts of the novel that reminded me of that series.

The Watch that Ends the Night

The Watch that Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic

Allan Wolf

Like many people, there was a time in which I was fascinated by the Titanic. Between the movie, the books, and all of television documentaries, there was a lot to feed my obsession. I did eventually become over-saturated with Titanic facts and was ready to move on to other things. 2012, however, marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the sinking and I’m sure there will be a lot of books and new tv specials about it. The Watch that Ends the Night is the first book I’ve read about Titanic in a long time, and it was a treat.

Told in verse form, this book tells the story of the sinking from many different viewpoints, including a ship’s rat and the iceberg. I love the inevitability of the disaster as spoken by the iceberg (“I’ll have my heart. I have my part to play/The ice will have his pick of human hearts/as soon as fair Titanic plays her part.”). Each voice in the book is different and each adds richness to the total tale. Wolf’s research is evident throughout the story – I learned much from reading it. I highly recommend The Watch that Ends the Night.

Shine

Shine

Lauren Myracle

Cat has had a miserable three years. Because of a traumatizing event when she was 13, she has basically shut herself off from all her friends, even her best friend Patrick. Now it may be too late to make things right. Patrick has been found at the convenience shore where he works, horribly beaten and in a coma. Worse yet, it looks like the attack is because Patrick is gay, and in the small, backwoods town they live in, being gay is simply unacceptable. Cat knows is attacker is most likely one of the local boys she grew up with, and she is determined to find out who it is and if the attack was truly a matter of homophobia. As she delves into the mystery, she discovers how many of the town are addicted to meth, and that their addiction will drive them to any lengths to get what they need.

I was fortunate to attend on of Lauren Myracle’s sessions at the North Carolina School Library Media Association Conference in November where I got an ARC to Shine. My daughter has read the book twice but I haven’t had a chance to read it until last night. I absolutely fell in love with it.

First, the language and the setting. It’s spot-on. I knew Myracle had the language correct with this sentence: “What with the new Wal-Mart in Asheville, almost all the stores in town went on and closed.” Not an important sentence in the story by any means, but the “went on and closed” is rural NC and it enabled me to settle down and engross myself in the language of my cousins. The setting is a small mountain town and I could see it, feel it, as I read the book. Myracle spent time in the mountains when she was younger and it shows.

I also loved the characters. While it might be argued that the adults are somewhat one-dimensional, they are truly part of the background so that Cat and her contemporaries are allowed to be the story, warts and all. Cat is damaged – that is evident from the beginning – but she is able to overcome her past to find the answers she craves. I do anticipate some criticisms to the character of Robert, an eleven-year-old fetal alcohol victim whose impulsive hyperactivity tends to get him in trouble. To those who don’t think his character is realistic, I would say that I’ve taught several Roberts in my 22 years as a middle school teacher.

There are serious problems in Black Creek – homophobia, meth addiction, alcoholism – and they are not at all trivialized. In fact, one of the many reasons Shine should be a mandatory read is to deter people from trying meth. This is not an easy, pleasant read, but I found myself hiding in my office to finish it this morning.

School Library Journal's Battle of the Books

Last March I followed SLJ’s Battle of the Books with interest, even though I hadn’t read any of the books. This year I decided to read all 16 books before the battle began and I’m so glad I did. Although a few of the books were on my radar before SLJ chose them, most were not. Out of the 16 there were only two that I didn’t really care for, and there were several that I loved but would have never read had it not been for the list.

Which were my favorites? I loved The Ring of Solomon and would have never thought to have read it. I also loved Sugar Changed the World, They Called Themselves the KKK, The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie, A Tale Dark and Grimm and Dreamer. I really think One Crazy Summer will win and it is a superb book, but The Ring of Solomon has my heart and I would love to be surprised.

It will be interesting to see how the judges vote. The actual competition begins on March 14 – and I can’t wait to see who will win each round.

Dirty Little Secrets

Dirty Little Secrets

C.J. Omololu

Lucy guesses she loved her mom, at least mom she used not have – not the mom who has verbally abused her over the years and whose hoarding has made Lucy’s home a place of shame and embarrassment where at her old school the kids call Lucy Garbage Girl. But Lucy has been able to start over at the public high school where she has a best friend and nobody knows her secret. Now Lucy has found her mom dead in the midst of all the junk she has hoarded over the years. She doesn’t call for help. Afterall, “the paramedics couldn’t help someone who’d had their head cut off or had been shot straight through the heart – or had died under a six-foot-tall stack of National Geographics.” (p. 32) And that’s exactly what has happened. Nadine has had an asthma attack and literally died under the piles. The natural thing is to call 911, but if Lucy does that there’s no way her secret won’t get in the news for all to see. So Lucy decides the only way to fix everything is to solve the problem herself – and her solution is drastic, to say the least.

For the most part I enjoyed this one. I must admit there were times that I had to just put the book down because Lucy's pain as she is dealing with a situation that seems insurmountable was just too much. I think this will be a hit with my older girls.

They Call Themselves the KKK

They Call Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group

Susan Campbell Bartoletti

I read this because it was part of School Library Journal's Battle of the Books. It covers the K.K.K. from its birth around the end of the Civil War until the end of Reconstruction, when (at least outwardly) Klan activities diminished, only to return in the early 20th century.

Bartoletti does an excellent job of showing the horrors of the early Klan and explaining how both the whites and the blacks felt intimidated by each other. Complete social change is difficult, and Reconstruction's effort to create equality for all ultimately fails.

I found this book to be fascinating. It is difficult to read in some spots, because Bartoletti doesn't pull any punches when it comes to relating the horrors of the acts committed by the Klan. I really appreciated her use of primary source accounts of both African-Americans and Klansmen.

Is this a book for everyone? Probably not. It is definitely of interest to those of us who live in the South, but I"m not sure how much relevance it would have to people from other regions of the United States (I'd love to know other's opinions about that)