Book Review: Walking with the Great Apes (Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas)(OT)

Walking with the Great Apes, by Sy Montgomery* (Houghton Mifflin, 1991, 280 pp, $9.95) Review by Skye Anderson (an updated version of this book appeared in 2009 with a forward by Elizabeth Thomas**) Review by Skye Anderson.

We spied Walking with the Great Apes at our favorite used bookstore and simply had to have it. Right now! Written by the gifted author Sy Montgomery about the three famous women who lived with chimps, gorillas and orangutans: we love to read about them every so often. We first reviewed Primates, a fun book about the three, in 2015, and My Life with Chimpanzees in 2019 so it's about time we brought attention to these great women scientists once again.

Stuffies for Real

Walking with the Great Apes is a warm reading experience, one that we couldn't wait to get back to when interrupted. It was a familiar read, comforting yet exciting at the same time. We could so easily picture ourselves in the jungles with animals we had in stuffed form as children. 

British Jane Goodall was a real rebel, convinced to get a PhD without a BS and the first ethologist to consider her subjects as individuals rather than just numbers and, yes, she named her chimpanzees.

Next in time, American primatologist Dian Fossey is almost as famous, perhaps as a result of the movie, "Gorillas in the Mist," (1988) starring Sigourney Weaver, and of her book by the same name and of her unfortunate demise.

Later and lesser known, for many reasons, was Canadian anthropologist Birute Galdikas who studied orangutans - and the people of Borneo.

All three received their initial funding from Louis Leakey who needs no introduction. All three lived for years in the wilds of their adoptive countries (Birute even married an Indonesian). Imagine being a 20-something graduate student or even someone who had never attended college, heading off to "darkest Africa," essentially alone - little food, rain so frequent that it rots your clothing, not knowing the language or customs or even how to go about finding the animals you are there to study, falling down, slipping in the mud, contracting malaria - and leeches! 

The Guts

So, in time order are Jane, Dian, and Birute. You already know their animal of study and their location (from above). They all became environmentalists and created organizations: one named for herself (Jane Goodall), one named for an individual primate (Dian Fossey), and one named for the primate species she studied (Birute Galdikas) - this illustrates their differences. Birute also studied the people and culture of her study country while Dian fought hoof and nails with the poachers and government of her country (Rwanda) and was murdered perhaps due to the rift between two cultures. Jane became a citizen of the world. But we know the least about Birute, perhaps because she went to Borneo (where the heck is that?) rather than Africa.

Writing Style: Compare and Contrast

Author Montgomery uses simple English to relate profound stories and the reasons behind what these three women did and the results they achieved, their similarities and vast differences.

Montgomery has penned the penultimate story, almost a dissertation, of three women scientists, comparing and contrasting them but in a book that reads like fiction, yet, coming away, you will know their science and their methods amid their fund-raising trials and tribulations.

I usually like to keep, forever, my favorite books, which are only a handful each year. Walking with the Great Apes, however, is a book I want to loan out to many people, to spread the word. And, the next time I teach Biology 101, it will be on my reading list which only contains Double Helix so far.

*author of The Good Good Pig

and The Soul of the Octopus and others

** author of The Hidden Life of Dogs, The Social Life of Dogs, and The Hidden Life of Deer

Book Review: Dogs 24/7 (gorgeous, standout photos)

Dogs 24/7, by Rick Smolan and David Elliot Cohen (Chronicle Books, 2005, $24.95HB, 192 pp)

Remember America 24/7

(2003, by the same creators) and what an inspiring book that was? It featured photos from both amateur and professional photographers taken during one week in 2003, photos that spanned the hours of the day and the states of the union - big towns, little towns.

Dogs 24/7 is as lovely a tribute to our best friend. With more than 500 stunning photos plus three embedded essays (one by Michael J. Rosen and one by our favorite dog trainer and behaviorist, Dr. Patricia McDonnell - "Love is never Having to Say Anything at All"), the book has a nice balance between words and pictures.

Though Dogs does not cover one week or even the 24 hours of one day, it does feature best friends (dogs and us), dogs in the house, dog jobs, wind, veterinarian visits, and funny photo mug shots. Many pages have thumbnail shots at the top - for an amazing nearly-a-thousand additional dogs! There is even a Cats 24/7 out that, though not being a cat person, I would love to look at.

A Loss for Words

Words simply cannot do this book justice. You will want nearly all the photo pages blown up into posters. Dogs is so much more than just a coffee table book. Captivating photos, inspiring descriptions, . . . .

Book Review: Space Dog and Roy (delightfully funny and creative children's book)

Space Dog and Roy, by Natalie Standiford (Avon Books, 1990, 74pp, ages 7-9, grades 2-3)

Boy Wants Dog. Dad is Allergic. Boy Gets Dog.

Isn't that always the way it works when one has children? 

But this dog is no ordinary dog, but something else in disguise with a name that describes it all. Space Dog was sent from outer space (Tzaxette on Queekrg to be exact) to learn about humans and has a hard time learning from his human, Roy, how to be a dog. But first, Space Dog must repair the engine in his spacecraft.

Space Dog, whose real name is Qrxztlq, would rather read the newspaper that he brings in ("Good Dog!") and would rather eat pizza than dog food from the floor. As for wearing a collar and walking on a leash, forget it! He wants to wear clothes and sleep in the top bunk and thinks it's silly to walk on all fours. And, he most certainly does not want to pick up a tennis ball in his mouth that another dog had slobbered on!

But I digress. Roy is being bullied at school by Stanley. And so the plot thickens. 

What does a boy's best friend have to do with a bully? Read the book to find out! But first, be ready to laugh!

Book Review: Dog Diaries - Mission ImPAWsible (the dog wrote it!)

Dog Diaries: Mission ImPAWsible, byJames Patterson (Jimmy Patterson Books - Little, Brown and Company, 2020, $9.99, 192pp, hardcover, book 3 in a series of 7)

The Dog Does it Again!

Writes the book, I mean. And cleverly, to boot! Junior, dog, lives with his furless pet human friend, his sister Jawjaw (Georgia) and Mom-Lady and goes on and on about his antics. One day he translates that the family is going on vacation to Hollywood which causes Junior no end of excitement when he hears he is going too. And later, the rest of the dog neighborhood. 

What transpires is dreams of making it big in Hollywood and the excitement is palpable.

Until the big day comes and results in vegetables galore until finally the dogs come home and make Junior's kennel (house) their own, redecorating it at will.

Creative Vocabulary

Jawjaw had me perplexed until I read the glossary in the back. Other words-at-play or misconstrued include picture box, comfy squishy thing, food room, sleep room, and chatty-ear-stick (we missed this one) and more. Fortunately the reader will find a guide to Doglish in the back of the book, along with a word search and a maze.

However, the creativity became a little contrived about a third of the way in and resorted to slap-stick humor. Your middle-school reader will love it and may just read the book as fast as he can turn the pages. Fortunately, there are six more in this series of dog books.

Book Review: Dog Tags, Prisoners of War (WW2 medic, Nazi dog, YA novel)

Dog Tags: Prisoners of War, by Alexander London (Scholastic, $5.99, 2012, 182 pp, book 3 of 4*) Review by Skye Anderson

Man's Best Friend Goes to War 

But the dog in this case is a Nazi. Can our young American serviceman turn the dog around, befriend him and use him to locate wounded American POWs during a forced relocation in Belgium during World War II**? Can a dog really change sides? Can he be trusted?

Here we have two enemy soldiers (one, a canine), and one uneasy alliance.

Our hero is a young US Army soldier from New Mexico who enlisted at age 17 and became a medic. On his first day in battle, he is separated from his unit during the Battle of the Bulge in Ardennes and sees plenty of action - and blood - and death - and fear. He believes he is a coward without a rifle (medics didn't carry weapons). He teams up with the dog but neither one truly trusts the other.

Luckily, our team also teams up with some Resistance fighters and plots to free the Americans but can our soldier find his courage at last?

Writing Style

Author Alexander London has penned an exciting (not too scary but a bit sad) fast-reading book with several gems like "It was like that whine said everything anyone needed to know about war." (p 33, when the Nazi dog realizes his SS handler is dead.)

Remember cliffhangers? Those single sentences at the end of a chapter that make you turn the page to the next chapter? Cliffhangers abound.

Next: Dog Tags - Strays

*Semper Fido and Divided We Fall

*This is WW2 which ended in 1945 regardless of the author extolling the virtues of the US Air Force and its role in this story, even though the Air Force was not created until 1947. Someone please tell London.

Book Review: AfterMath (middle school. dealing with grief) (OT)

AfterMath, by Emily Barth Isler (Carolrhoda Books, 2021, $17.99, 272 pp, grades 5-8, ages 11 and up)

A mass shooting incident in their classroom four years earlier. . . . 

The Perfect Title

AfterMath: What happens after Math class for Lucy? What does aftermath mean in this story - does it always mean that which happens after an unpleasant event? 

The Cover

Lucy is in a classroom with empty chairs in a hodge-podge circle, moving toward the reader. Above her we see a sphere, angles and triangles probably ascending, and the infinity symbol (a theme which plays a major role in the story). Bright sunlight is streaming into the classroom, creating shadows, and the colored triangles, although triangles, remind one of balloons or kites (round or angular or both at the same time).

The Flow

Author Emily Isler has that rare gift for a first-time author, for putting the reader smack dab into the midst of her story. She doesn't tell us what happens - she shows us what happens. We are there. We are the girl, and the mother, and the father. Being a story teller with a background in acting, Isler encompasses in AfterMath three to four months in the life of a seventh-grade girl, new to the town and her school, where, four years previously a shooting incident occurred and is still constantly on everyone's mind. Lucy herself experienced the death of her younger brother just a few months ago but there are more differences than similarities there. Or are there?

Isler's style is melodic, flowing, rhythmic yet reminiscent of under-the-surface tragedy and dealing with the grief that remains. How it can appeal to both the middle school set and to adults is something she must have worked hard and long to create.

We  would have read it in one sitting if night had not come too early, so we finished it the next day. Along the way, we found it a bit too drawn out and we wondered how it would end - would it tie all the loose threads together and would everyone live happily ever after? We simply could not imagine how. . . . 

It's Cool to Be Mathy!

Each chapter starts with a math problem (and solution) but some seem a bit difficult for a seventh-grader and we were amazed at the fact she loved all the subsets of math, even geometry where you  must prove things that seem obvious!

Not only is our Lucy 'mathy' but she is also a good, true friend and a normal middle-school girl with her first crush on a boy. She befriends a girl that others shun and also has a wise side - perhaps too wise to be believable for her age but we also see her foibles. Nevertheless, we all learn from Lucy as she learns from her math teacher, from her after-school mime class, and from her classmates.

It's hard to believe that 'mathy' people can be fun or even funny but Lucy receives math jokes from someone unknown. She writes math jokes in return and we are surprised to find out who it is and why he/she started the tradition. You may find it hard to believe there actually are math jokes but you will have fun with them! (What kind of meals do math teachers eat? Square ones!)

Comparing Math With Life?

Author Isler has penned a unique award-winning novel for middle-schoolers, telling them that "Math Can Be Cool" and that friends and family can help us get over a traumatic event, even a shared trauma if we give it enough time and space. Our Lucy is both a 'mathy' person and a liberal arts person who finds she is also good at mime but especially good at being kind and honest and a friend. She is not only one of us but she is all of us. I can't wait for Isler's next book.

And, did you know Emily Barth Isler was a speaker at Columbia, Maryland's 2023 Books in Bloom? She was born and raised here in the Village of Hickory Ridge - perhaps you even know her from school!

Book Review: I Survived the Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 1980 (girl, twin boys, volcano)(OT)

I Survived the Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 1980, by Lauren Tarshis (Scholastic Books, 2016, 112 pages, $4.99, ages 7-11, grades 2-5), book 14 of 23 historical disaster books for kids. Fiction books in non-fiction settings. Reviewed by Skye Anderson.

Make History Come Alive!

Author Lauren Tarshis literally does make history come alive for kids by placing a child (or two, or three) smack dab into the middle of a historical event where they just might become heroes.

Perhaps you do remember the eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington? Ash slowly moved across the country and 350 miles away in Spokane, my mother thought it was snowing in May! (I, however, was in South East Asia in 1980 and was weeks late to hear the news.)

The Plot

Jessie and the Rowan twin boys were best friends. Two years earlier when Jessie's dad died, the boys were there for her and they became like the Three Musketeers.

Here we have 11-year olds being caught in a volcanic eruption but Jessie saves the day and even gets to ride in a helicopter.

The kids go hiking and fishing on Mount St. Helens when the twins' dad can take them in his truck and drop them off. Jessie grabs her (deceased) dad's camera to take pictures of Skeleton Woman but leaves the camera behind in an old cabin they discover and is afraid to tell her mother. 

For about two months, the mountain spews forth steam along with numerous small earthquakes, then seems to settle down until one day it doesn't. What that day brings will make a memorable story - but true, at least the factual part of the book. Jessie and friends are fabricated, however, and their adventures are, as well.

Science Sneaks into the Story

Author Lauren Tarshis manages to sneak in a lot of facts about volcanoes that are part of the story so the young reader is not aware she (or he) is actually learning some science. And, as in all the Survived books, the author speaks in a few pages at the end of the book and also answers questions about volcanoes and gives some suggested resources.

The First Survived Book Starring a Girl!

Although girls are often in books 1-13, Mount St. Helens is the first book to feature a girl star and on the cover and it's about time. Author Tarshis explains that she has written the series for her own children, all boys, but finally succumbed to the pressure of her girl readers. And we are so glad she did!

Other Great Books in the Series

I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941

I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944