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! 

Book Review: Scabmuggers (OT)(A Novel)

Scabmuggers: A Novel, by Yvonne Martinez (She Writes Press, $17.99, 110pp, 2025)

Based on a true story, Scabmuggers is like no other book you have read. It's fast reading, composed primarily of dialogue and covers many subjects from Harvard to Geisha Girls to unions.

The protagonist and narrator, Simone from Seattle, is selected to attend a four-month course at Harvard on unions. Students come from all over the world (Japan, Australia, etc.) and the curriculum is fascinating - a course I would love to take myself.

Attendees take up sides when one woman (a plant?) is the recipient of unwanted attention from a male student. The 'sides' continue until graduation when class speakers are chosen, then unchosen, then chosen once more.

Scabmuggers is easy reading if you can remember all the students' names (at lease 16 are mentioned) and which side they are on. Both the subject matter and the writing style are contemporary, leading this reader to get lost at times since she has not kept up with the latest lingo.

Scabmuggers is well-organized and follows attendees throughout the course from day one to graduation, including weekends, and rises to a climax when the graduation speaker is announced. At times, the reader will have to read slowly, or get lost, but that is fine: it is a good test and if you fail, you realize it and simply back up and reread a few sentences.

Although this reader has never been to Harvard, the description of the campus in winter and the interiors of centuries-old buildings seems historical, traditional and even inspirational.

Book Review: The Black Sea Whale: A Beacon in the Sea of Troubles (OT)

The Black Sea Whale: A Beacon in the Sea of Troubles, by The Froms (The Magazine Cafe, 2026, 121pp, $25)

A lovely, heavy, literary magazine, a fictional collection of true stories based on current life in Ukraine, this is the third issue and contains four selections. More like a small book with simply gorgeous illustrations, Issue Number 3 contains examples of brilliant writing.

From villages and cities, academics and peasants, young and old, the reader gets a flavor of what living abroad is like for both the resident and the foreigner. And The Black Sea Whale will bring back memories of when the reader was not a tourist but someone living abroad.

Mistaken for a book about sea life at first, Whale is more than just symbolic as "a beacon in a sea of troubles." The characters are real, and though some (all right, many) leave town one after another, due to the gravity of the situation, others stay and survive because they understand the rules of the game.

The prose is lilting, the stories move along, with pictures in the reader's mind or depicted by the illustrators. One can read a story in one sitting or pause and come back without missing a beat. And the reader just may pay more attention to new about Ukraine or even search for articles on the war in the media.

Marichka Melnyk writes about accepting graft in the police world while Mace describes city life and Paddington even appears on page 11!

Book Review: Beyond the Politics of Contempt (OT) (Practical Steps to Buiild Positive Relationships in Divided Times)

Beyond the Politics of Contempt (Practical Steps to Buiild Positive Relationships in Divided Times), by Doug Teschner, Beth Malow and Becky Robinson (Together Across Differences, 302pp,, 2025, $19.95)

What a timely book to help heal America as she continues on the road to becoming more and more divided into silos. The cover illustrates that point with two groups of people - one blue and one red, separated by nothing but empty space. The title appears in red though I would put some words in blue, too.

Like the Dummies books or Idiot's guides that are elementary but excellent, the three authors of Beyond the Politics of Contempt have produced a bookful of ideas, explanations, and helpful hints, via boxed text and cute little figures. I believe Doug Teschner, Beth Malow and Becky Robinson have co-written a section then added their own anecdotes to make the 'lessons' on leadership more memorable - and it works. In addition, each chapter ends with additional questions, For Further Thought. The writing is easy to follow (perhaps due to simple illustrations) and short ideas flow into others. One appendix even has a checklist, a pathway to follow to help our nation heal.

The authors met in Braver Angels, "a citizens' organization uniting red and blue Americans in a working alliance to depolarize America."

The authors discuss a graphic that is rather like a Johari Window (with Urgent and Important axes) but do not show the graphic itself so if the reader is not familiar with it, it slides by him. The reader is helped to remember COVID, and learns concepts like healthy and unhealthy conflict, how major decisions, if gone the other way, would result in different paths, and how we tend to gather round us, those who are like us.

This is a book that could very well help to change the world by starting with the individual.

Book Review: Stand Up, Speak Up (OT) (How survivors created a movement to end sexual violence)

Stand Up, Speak Up (How survivors created a movement to end sexual violence), by Tim Lennon (self-published by Tim Lennon, 2025, $24, 320pp)

My first question was why was a man writing a book about sexual abuse/violence but it didn't take long (though I was embarrassed) to remember that men can be sexually abused too. It happened to author Tim Lennon - by a Catholic priest - when he was just a child. Can you imagine holding that inside you for many years?

Stand Up, Speak Out is not too long a book but it seems long because it is more of a text book, a complete history, replete with all the information you might need to become involved - from subject matter details to how one person got a start in a movement, and grew in his recovery as a result. Highly referenced, it contains 33 pages of organizations that might help, as well as 20 pages, an entire chapter, on politics (related laws, e.g.)

Helpful also are the headings, especially when reviewing topics later rather than reviewing page after page straight through (though that, too). The Preface is the most prose-like part in that it shows Lennon's ability to use triplets as a good writing tool:"step forward, stand up, speak up"; "empower the victim, challenge the powerful, and raise social awareness"; "break free of past domination, take action, and create a world free of sexual abuse."

Stand Up, Fight Back

I look at all parts of a book and ask friends and colleagues and ask what they think (mostly titles and covers), from the index to the front cover. We noticed the cover font for Stand Up is masculine while the font for Speak Up is feminine. Hmmmmmm. Wonder what that means. If anything.

One way to recover from a tragedy or crime, even if or especially if unreported, is to become an activist, telling your story, helping others, with an organization behind you. This is what the author did, and began his book with his story, to grab your attention and try to have you follow his road to recovery by sharing it.

It's All Here

From historical days to how the author helped himself recover by volunteering in recovery organizations. From unknowns centuries ago to people we know, like Larry Nassar, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, members of the Supreme Court, Anita Hill. Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstien, Jerry Sandusky, and Joe Paterno, and "Me, too!" - even Trump - and organizations like the Catholic church, colleges and universities, and the military. And focusing on the experiences of author Tim Lennon especially. A very necessary book for a certain group of people.