Book Review: The Wire-Walker (OT) (love, care, dreaming)

The Wire-Walker, by James Janko (Regal House Publishing, 2025, #20.95, 310pp PB)

The cover design with illustration, colors, and title is only slightly magnetic and I probably would not have purchased the book, The Wire-Walker. I might have thought it was about a circus, which, in a way, it is. But it is so much more than just a book about a circus. Although the title is 'appropo' I would suggest something more engaging to grab the reader's attention. However, the praise from other authors that is included made my decision for me, even though I knew next to nothing about this part of the world.  

Wire-Walker reads like a work of fiction, which is actually is, with lovely creative prose.

Our 16 year-old Palestinian protagonist lives in a refugee camp* and has learned to walk tightropes so she goes to the 'other' side (Israel) to improve her skills in the circus for kids, The Flying Kids, in which she is an 'aerialist' not a 'tightrope walker.'

One of the subplots will have you reading fast and faster to see what her twin brother finds and finds out. ----------------------------

*Balata has dwellings so crowded they remind me of one of the slums in the Far East with alleys so narrow that one can touch buildings on both sides at the same time and, when looking up,  can see only a sliver of sky and only at noon.

Book Review: Politics, Gangs and Vodou (OT)(Haiti's Struggle for Democracy and Human Rights)

Politics, Gangs and Vodou (Haiti's Struggle for Democracy and Human Rights) by Yvon Milien (Yvon Milien, 2025, $18.99, 268pp) 

Halfway through the introduction and after perusing the 'parts' like the Table of Contents, I realized the reader should read Politics, Gangs, and Vodou in chapter order, for it explains the history and culture, and delves into the future. Then, lo and behold, the next page in the introduction said the same thing but was more forgiving in that the second most valuable way to read the book is to just open it and start where your interests lie.

On second thought, there are 12 sections, each with chapters for a total of 30 chapters. The most memorable divisions in any object are a total of 3 but often goes up to 7 (unsuccessfully). Politics, with12 divisions, is unwieldly with sections that are hard to keep in mind and remember. Many times a book like this would include history, the current day, plans for the future, and maybe culture. However, with short chapters, Politics does a good job.

How can one describe how a nation came to be "born in chains, baptized in fire, and cast into the world alone, . . ."? Once the wealthiest (French) colony in the world due to its climate, soil and indigenous slaves, once Haiti won its freedom, the struggle began.

In order to understand Haiti, author Yvon Milien compares it to the US and compares authoritarianism to democracy, more than just elections, with civilian power and military rule.

Book Review: The Last Bake Sale (OT), The Fight for Fair School Funding

The Last Bake Sale, The Fight for Fair School Funding, by Andru Volinshky (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2025, $24.95, 224pp )

 

The Last Bake Sale will open your eyes to the issue of underfunded, unequal education for public school students all across the country - and their origins from t he 1600s to the present day. We all live in a bubble and either resides in a school district that funds their schools well or doesn't, but those in the latter districts may not be aware that this has been a problem for eons and is also a problem throughout the nation.

Well-organized, Bake Sale begins with the situation today on the national scene, then focuses several chapters on the situation in New Hampshire and finally proposes some solutions based on New Hampshire where the author resides and has worked on more equitable school funding for many years.

Well-written by an attorney who later ran for (New Hampshire) governor, Bake Sale alternates from being told in the third person to the first person and is very effective in doing so. The reader will almost turn into an expert on New Hampshire school funding over the years nearly to the point of being a word-for-word transcription of some court cases. The reader will become more familiar with Plessy v Ferguson ('separate but equal') and Brown v Board of Education ('separate is not equal').

Readers especially interested in Bake Sale would be those who have lived in New Hampshire or have had children in the school system there (or anywhere) as well as educators and politicians across the country. I would suggest readers take notes because the play-by-play accounts could get detailed and one needs to read this book in chronological order (page by  page).

Book Review: Employment Ethics (OT), Redefining the Employer-Employee Relationship

Employment Ethics, Redefining the Employer-Employee Relationship, by Travis Schachtner (FTS Leaders, 2025, $19.99, 184pp) 

A Gem! 

We have all had a job (or two. . . ) that we just didn't like, but was it the people or the work itself? And how much of a role does salary play, or the manager? Let's redefine the 'employer-employee relationship' in the words of author Travis Schachtner.

Where's the Beef?

It is here. Being a rather small, affordable book enables the reader to carry it with him or her in a purse of pocket, to return to in  spare time. The concerpts are grad school concepts written in everyday language with examples being primarily of blue-collar employment.

Bringing in Maslow's hierarchy of needs and relating it to the real world of work can be challenging but the author does a good job of this (was it his PhD thesis?)

Much (too much?) of the book explains the premise which is: "Employers emphasize financial efficiency seeking to maximize productivity while minimizing labor costs. Employees, however, value their personal time, viewing work as an exchange of giving effort for a certain amount of time for ethical compensation." (p. 44) And much of the time, the author poses questions that outline a poor employer-employee relationship.

 A second theme compares a strong marriage to the employer-employee relationship while a one-night stand (contractors, PT or gig work) or an abusive relationship could be likened to other types of marriages.

And what book would be replete without mention of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the Monogah mining or Hawk's Nest Tunnel Disaster or Willow Island but do you know what improvements in employment law resulted?

Several chapters end with reflections that are questions to summarize the chapter and cause the reader to evaluate his situation. Anyone picking up this book is probably in a difficult work situation and Employment Ethics, besides acting as a therapist, gives a structure to correct the situation.

Suggestions

I'd like to see Employment Ethics in greater use, perhaps by being shorter or condensing the first third or even by adding illustrations. Although I understand the items on the cover, I'd prefer a cover that is more magnetic and grabs the potential  reader to explore inside. 

Book Review: Befriending China, People-to-People Peacemaking (OT)

Befriending China, People-to-People Peacemaking, by Dee Knight (Solidarity Publications, 2025, $14.95, 187pp)

With a nice cover photo (look closely and you will see the flag of China - the stars - a lovely surprise for those who discover it), and descriptive title and subtitle, Befriending China: People-to-People Peacemaking might be thought of as controversial but there is enough travel story embedded to be enticing reading nonetheless.

The book appears to be written in two parts and perhaps by two people: a travelogue followed by serious comparisons of China and the US and their current relationship, with the world, and future goals. Author Dee Knight has also included how to best travel to China (visa information, etc.)

The author made several recent trips to China, covering much of the country, which is what the reader will take away: the large cities (besides Beijing), the vastness of the western part of the country and their numerous ethnic groups, the 'green-ness' of China (concern for the environment), concern by the government for poverty and what they are doing to help people. And, yes, COVID has a section.

A couple of possible typos caught my eye, which is acceptable in a book (though no more than that) and led me to wonder if the author, editor, or publisher might be British. One of these is the spelling of 'pop sickles' on page xx. That is a difficult word to spell and many have to look it up each time, but it just seemed not quite right.

The map on page 5 might be viewed more frequently if it were in the front of the book and given a caption like other's of the book's illustrations. Several illustrations are accompanied by their sources and a few appeared to be photocopied. The graph on page 80 is interesting in that each bar grows almost at the same rate with no dips in the data while the graph on page 97 (and others) seems 'taken' from a source. All quotes also should be referenced (Pompeo's on page 84) and all graphs need both the x- and y-axes labelled (page 97).

Generally editors settle on a method and stick to it, whatever it might be, since there may be no one correct way of writing a specific thing. For example, US or U. S. - either is correct as long as its use is consistent throughout the document.

Book Review: You're Telling my Kids They Can't Read This Book? (OT)

You're Telling my Kids They Can't Read This Book? by Andrew Laties (Rebel Bookseller, 2025, 106pp, $14) 

Our Hundred-Year Children's-Literature Revolution and How We'll Keep Fighting to Support Our Families' Right to Read

Love the front cover - just the title in white on a black background with the font gradually increasing in size.

With a target audience of  parents, teachers and librarians, You're Telling My Kids They Can't Read This Book is challenging, contemporary and captivating. Librarians and booksellers have done an outstanding job in recent years spreading the word about banned books, censorship and their negative consequences. Telling also tells the viewpoint of publishers, educators, authors, and even students resulting in a short book, well-organized.

Did you know Goodnight, Moon never found its way into the New York City Public Library's children's reading room, because it 'had no plot. . . '? Learn why librarians across the country disliked* Maurice Sendak's 1964 Caldecott-medal-winning Where the Wild Things Are.

This book is not for the faint-hearted especially due to the number of four-letter words in the chapter about students' viewpoints.

Describing the history of children's sections in public libraries was fascinating: every reader will find something to marvel at and remember in Telliing. A possible weak point is the emphasis on the story of Little Black Sambo. I think the subject could have been covered more clearly: the elders among us remember little black Sambo fondly while those of us who are younger may not have heard of him.

It's good to remember in this day and age that in the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes "We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions of those we loathe."

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*Because Max is disobedient to his mother but ultimately receives no punishment

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"Children's librarians today are on the front lines, working against book bans.  Modern librarianship has a punk aesthetic: pink hair, tattoos and a nose ring.

"This wasn't always so.

"For much of the twentieth century, librarians were stereotyped as straight-laced, glasses-wearing, buttoned-up, asexual women, their hair in a tight bun, whose notorious habit was aggressively shushing. . . ." (p. 47)

Book Review: Snake in the Grass, a Fina Mendoza Mystery

Snake in the Grass: A Fina Mendoza Mystery, by Kitty Felde (Chesapeake Press, 2025, 287pp, $11.90)

Ten-year-old Fina now lives with her dad (and 16-year-old sister and grandmother) in Washington, DC, since her mother passed away. Her father is a member of Congress from California which gives author Kitty Felde plenty of information for another book in the Fina Mendoza mystery series (numbeer 3).

I had to read this book twice, I learned so much more the second time around about the House, about the best places to snack (according to a 10 yo), about which Senators and Representatives had dogs!

Snake in the Grass, Or Wolf in Sheep's Closing?

Readers not familiar with the phrase, snake in the grass, will learn it (the same as 'sheep in wolf's clothing') and debate among themselves if the snake phrase should have been the title of the book. On one hand, the wolf phrase is better known but less prone to being portrayed in a book about 'real life.'

Set in contemporary times (maybe this year), author Kitty Felde simply doesn't mention the political party of our starring family or any of the other characters, making it fun to guess their real names and parties. And not too hard, either.

Basically every page (every paragraph?) has the opportunity for elementary school age children to learn about how our government operates. But still, the emphasis is on the plot - Fina solves another capital mystery aided and abetted by Senator Something (probably a golden retriever and the cover dog), this one about a snake in a gym bag that bites a Congressman, an Independent (while our starring family is Democratic, no doubt).

Who placed the snake in the bag and why? Is this the beginning of another political war between the two parties with a girl and a dog in the middle? Read it to find out!

A fast-paced story, Snake in the Grass can easily be read in almost one sitting. The characters are a real family and (drum roll, please!) did you know that Congress is populated with dogs, like Senator Something, my favorite? Fina walks him after school for 5$ so the people who make DC work know her. Well.

Look carefully at the cover and you will see, besides Senator Something, a snake!