The Man From Clear Lake by Bill Christofferson

The man is Gaylord Nelson, the greatest environmental politician we have ever had, the founder of Earth Day, the author of numerous environmental bills, the Governor of WI who saved more land for the future than any other Governor, and the Chairman of the Wilderness Society.

This is a look at the mans entire life with great insights into the value of growing up in a small rural WI community with parents who were educated, involved, and ethical.  The author does a good job of portraying the man who was nicknamed Happy as a youth and continued to earn that moniker throughout life even as he worked against the challenges that were destroying our environment and resources.

Earth Day was an expression of his love of the Earth and its natural beauty, but more important it was an outlet for millions of people who shared his love and concern.  Describing the Earth day rally in the Chicago Tribune – side by side photos during and after the demonstration, the paper wrote with astonishment, “When the demonstrators left there was no post-rally litter remaining to be cleaned up.”

He recognized the conscience of the American mind, the fact that we had grown as a nation in natural beauty and natural abundance.  His call for a day to raise the political will to protect the environment included every age.  “The National Education Association estimated that ten million public school children took part in Earth Day Programs.”

The day had its detractors, just as we see Koch and others of the Tea Party ilk attacking parks and greenways - the true peoples places - Time magazine wrote that the day “had aspects of a secular, almost pagan holiday.”  Unwittingly this would plague the environmental cause with a “pagan” stigma that would be latched onto by some critics.  But it was not religion and religious leaders with a true sense of creation joined in the day and celebrations.

Gaylord Nelson delivered a speech on a four day tour that included this statement: “This is not just an issue of survival.   Mere survival is not enough.  How we survive is the critical issue…Our goal is not just an environment of clean air, and water, and scenic beauty – while forgetting about the Appalachias and the ghettoes where citizens live in America’s worst environment…Our goal is an environment of decency, quality, and mutual respect for all other human creatures, and all other living creatures – an environment in the deepest and broadest sense.”

His ideas were not new - John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, Emerson, Thoreau, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold and many others had been expressing similar sentiments, but Gaylord had put himself in the political position to do something about these concerns and to answer the question raised in 1873 by Wisconsin Chief Justice Edward G Ryan at a University of Wisconsin commencement said, “Which shall rule – wealth of man; which shall lead – money or intellect; who shall fill public stations – educated and patriotic free men, of the feudal serfs of corporate capital?”

The author spends the majority of life in the political decades that defined Nelson, but he also gave us an intimate look at Gaylord and his buddies in Clear Lake: “Gaylord and Sherman were up in Clyde Jones’s apple tree one night, stealing apples, when Jones came out and turned on the light “so you can see better,” then went back inside while the embarrassed would-be thieves ran off.”

We can also see the man who was eloquent in the Senate and the Governors office as a less polished speaker in his young adulthood.  “…on a walk along Willow Drive on the U.W. campus.  Gaylord shifted from one foot to the other, finally pulled out a ring with a small diamond in an exquisite rosette setting, and said, ‘Here, my mother wanted me to give this to you.’

“’He didn’t say I love you and want to marry you, nor did he drop to his knees, but it was assumed that somewhere along the way that ring would join a band of a different sort,’ Carrie Lee recalled.  She called it the classic Scandinavian approach: ‘If you think it, then the other person is supposed to know and already imagine that you said it.’  At a party for their fiftieth wedding anniversary, Nelson joked about the Norwegian who told his cousin, ‘You know, I love Amanda so much that sometimes it is all I can do to keep from telling her.’”

It is difficult to summarize his life.   Like Theodore Roosevelt, he was a politician for the environment and he knew how to get things done.  But unlike Roosevelt, he was not captivated by the manly art of war and the Vietnam crisis was another time that tested his strength of character and his need to say what was right even it if was not popular.

Edmund Muskie was a leading environmental politician and friend and he shared friendships with other senators - Russell Long, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale.  In fact, despite disagreements, he might have been the most popular Senator on the hill - at least with other Senators who enjoyed the conviviality of his home, the welcome of his wife Carrie Lee, and the stimulation of good debate out of the public eye.

If Earth Day is the thing that will forever be his signature, perhaps if is fitting to end this summary with this is the ad that was run in the New York Times in 1970 for the first Earth Day.

"A disease has infected our country.  It has brought smog to Yosemite, dumped garbage in the Hudson, sprayed DDT in our food, and left cities in decay.  Its carrier is men.

"Earth Day is a commitment to make life better, not just bigger and faster; to provide real rather than rhetorical solutions.  It is a day to re-examine the ethic of individual progress at mankind's expense.  It is a day to challenge the corporate and governmental leaders who promise change, but who shortchange the necessary programs.  It is a day for looking beyond tomorrow.  April 22 seeks a future worth living.  April 22 seeks a future."

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation  by Dan Fagin  Review posted in Goodreads 

Mike Link's review 

Nov 12, 13  ·  edit

5 of 5 stars

Read in November, 2013

Toms River is essential reading for those who care about health, the environment, and the frustration and rights of those injured by industrial hubris. As a professor of Environmental History I would consider this a book that is essential reading.

Like Love Canal and other incidents around the world - Bhopal for instance which was caused by the same industry and same business, we find the rights of the individual trampled in the rush for jobs and economic salvation.

Of course short term gains in economic growth and jobs is often offset by long term loss - in this case destruction of ground water, cancer in the citizens who are caught unawares because state agencies that are supposed to monitor health and environmental issues are appointed by politicians who are beholding to the donations and lobbyists of industry.

Like Erin Brockovich and Lois Gibbs, we can now add the persistent Linda Gillick the pantheon of environmental heroes who stood up to ridicule, the callous who think that cancer is their problem, chambers of commerce, and corporation lawyers to fight for a cause that is more important than all the "good" the company does.

In the end, politics and agencies fail us and we continue with issues like global warming and severe storms, big issues that we as individuals cannot control, but have to endure, not getting the will of the public and the investment needed.

Companies like Ciba-Geigy who created the chemical plant and problems in Toms River change their names to Novartis and move to other places like India and China where regulations are lax and the story does not go away, it just shifts location.

Employees fear for jobs and income - a serious concern - and fight for the company only to find that the company will not fight for them when their own health concerns arise.

The author did amazing research and documentation. He keeps himself and his opinions out of the text and lets the story and complexities play out in a fascinating account that is spell binding and as intriguing as any fictional thriller.

But of course, unlike the fictional thriller, there is not final resolution that will be satisfying, no kick butt public humiliation of the executives - just the reality that we each have a responsibility to act, to support those who are working for the right causes, and to be aware that there are complex issues which take time and some good researchers and lawyers to help us solve.

A highly readable and excellent book.

Trickster's Point - Krueger

This was one of my favorites in the series. I am getting a ready for the plot to stop being directly about threats to Cork and his family, but that is my only objection.

What makes this story so interesting is the constant development of a back story that gives insights into Cork and his past, as well as, the strong Ojibwe connection.

The best of this series, for me, are the books that build on the traditional aspects of Anishanabe culture. Krueger is quickly becoming the Tony Hillerman of the northern tribes and it is a role that has grown with the development of the series.

The characters are realistic and the tension of the mystery blend well with the lives of the characters. Krueger has created people we care about.

In this case we are introduced to an old friend of Cork from his school days. This is the super person - the one who seems to do everything better than everyone else. Every school has a character like this, but seldom does that person continue to grow with his status - often high school becomes the peak of the life.

In this case the man is a success in every way, except in the personal ways that lead to a successful personal life to match his political and sports success.

We meet classmates of Cork and we are involved with complex life dramas that swirl around a murder and an attempted murder.

Best of all we are brought along to care about the individuals and we can groan and anguish over the fact that Cork is both the suspect and the target in the murder plot that comes together in the politics of the reservation, lake country and Minnesota.

Mycophilia - Eugenia Bone

I am delighted with this book.  I have to admit I got it, started to read and thought - this is more than I want to know about fungus.  But luckily I picked it up again and I found it really was not more than I wanted to know.

It is a book of stories and the stories are told well and are both interesting and factual.  It is like an oral tradition of fungus - a look at lessons and ideas through well told stories.

I loved the telling.  Sometimes I found sections that were of less interest and skimmed them a little quicker, but still found great gems within them.

It made me wonder about wonder how her husband really responded to this obsession with fungus, but otherwise it was a romp.

We traveled places that were fun, met people who were interested and participated in a world I am not interested in being part of, but a world I am interested in.

The kooks were mixed with the scientists, the places and the mushrooms were fascinating and it was a book that I found pleasing in all ways.

Bibliophilia meets mycophilia.

Sample Quotes that I enjoyed:
"There are two types of cheeses that benefit from saprophytic mold. Blue cheeses like Gorgonzola and Roquefort utilize Penicillium roqueforti. The curd is inoculated with the mold, which then grows throughout the cheese, adding flavor and fragrance. Camembert and brie-type cheeses are ripened with P. camemberti. The mold creates teh thick white rind and digests the milk proteins - that's what creates eh silky mouthfeel."

"Sometimes, when two different mycelia [the thread like material that is the real fungus] from the same species encounter each other, they don't fuse but rather become hostile and compete for resources. Individual fungi can communicate with each other via pheromones, the secreted chemicals that trigger social reactions in animals, plants, and fungi. If they recognize a competitor, they can inject toxic chemicals into the substrate in order to repulse competitive species. They can even invade a competing fungus and such dry its hyphae of nutrients."

"A Japanese study looking to reproduce a phenomenon observed in the field, that shiitake mushrooms fruited prolifically after the ground had been hit by lightning, has found that exposing the substrate of various species of fungi to an electrical charge of 50,000 - 100,000 volts for one 0-millionth of a second will double the volume of fruiting. This may be an evolutionary adaptation. Because lightning poses a survival hazard and may deliver a dead tree for dinner, it leads to accelerated fruiting."

"Fungi are organisms that comprise their own kingdom of life, equal in complexity to animals and plants. There are an estimated 1.5 million species, second only to insects in number and diversity, and only 5 percent of them have been identified. Fungi outnumber plants by a ratio of 6 - 1 and make up 25 percent of Earth's biomass. The biggest single living organism on Earth is a fungus. it is 2,200 acres in size weighs 6,286 tons and lives in the Malheur National Forest in the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon. Some fungi are so tiny they live between the cells of other organisms. The first terrestrial creatures may have been fungi, and they are more closely related to us, evolutionarily speaking, than they are to plants."

Paris to the Pyrenees by David Downie

Maybe it is the bias of having done a major walk that makes this book so appealing, but I think it is more the refreshing take of a writer who wanders the the pilgrimage route of St James without a religious belief that most appeals to me.

Walking with his wife, Downie is skeptical and like my adventures - Full Circle Superior and Full Length Mississippi he is dealing with back pains and knees.

What I like is the freshness of his reflections like these:

"Before reaching the chateau we stopped for a snack on a panoramic bench near an alley of mossy, carefully clipped linden trees. I paused before sinking my teeth into a pear, removing the sticker that said "Chile." The baker had told us that the crust of the quiche we'd brought was made with Canadian flour, and that the bacon inside was from Hungary. The mineral water was Italian, the chocolate Swiss. I thought of the vaguely Japanese-Australian meal we'd enjoyed at the neo-Druidic-Buddhist Relais du Maconnais, and wondered just how notional was the Frenchness of French food and "French identity."

"I forced myself to admire the chateau and pronounce it exceptionally attractive. It was not "run down,' but atmospherically down at the heel."

"the monk had also said something that had made great sense to me, and lodged in myu brain's leathery convolutions. 'The only thing all pilgrims have in common is an interior necessity - I must go, I don't know why..."

It is the journey that counts and his insights are certainly different than many I might make, but that is what is intriguing, insightful, and often humorous like: 
“…and his description of how some clever local winemakers keep a special “Parker Barrel” of fruit forward wine to hoodwink the supposedly omniscient American critic Robert Parker, came as an entertaining surprise. As big as a barrel, and overflowing with self-confidence, Parker roamed the vineyards of the world, judging wines and making or breaking wineries.
“According to Romain, “Parker Barrel” wines are made for export to countries where they will please the infallible Parker and the palates that share his florid tastes. Essentially, they go to America, England, and Germany. The same chateau’s same vintages sold in France might be different, more nuanced and less oaky. ‘People drink Givry wines here and love them,’ Romain said good-naturedly. ‘They go home, they buy what they think are the same wines, and they say ‘Hmmm, why are they always better when you drink them on the spot?’ “

He wanders into churches and observes the obligatory historic buildings which serve as the signposts of the trek, but still maintains enough distance to write descriptions like this: "If a jury had to nominate castles for the Atmospheric Crumbled Ruin Award, Chateau de Montaigu would certainly be short-listed. A tower with gaping eyes for windows, arm-thick creepers dangling from it, shrubs sprouting at unlikely angles from moat and dungeon, hewn stone walls rising high above scented robinia trees, and fallen arches more dramatic than my own - such was the scene awaiting at Montaigu."

I found myself walking with them, enjoying the brief glimpses into the different personalities of husband and wife, and feeling the trail beneath my feet.  What more could you ask for?

A Curious Man - Neal Thompson

Here is an excellent story - not quite Believe it of Not, but still a magnificent tale of a man who discovered a niche for himself that every cartoonist has to envy.

A sports cartoonist who enjoyed the fascinating oddities, his curiosity grew to travel and outlandish individuals and stories. Starting in Chicago with an "Odditorium" exhibition at the World's Fair Ripley touched the pulse of the American common man - so successfully that he continued to prosper right through the Great Depression.

The result of his combined efforts and skills became an amazing story itself and the man failed at marriages, but lived a life with constant female companions and an entourage that would be the envy of any star.

I found it fascinating that a man who had the talent of cartooning, was a good baseball player and a handball ability ended up becoming a rich icon because he tapped in to the curiosity and craving for weird and unusual.  He was Horatio Alger - the self made man, but his success came from the great energy he invested in all that he did and his love of world travel.

In the end story is itself a Believe it or Not tale and very enjoyable.

The Town That Food Saved by Ben Hewitt

This delightful book looks at Hardwick Vermont and the efforts f a group of agripreneurs who wanted to bring together local producers to create the "Silicon Valley of local food."   Since Hewitt lives near Hardwick on his own rural property is was not a stretch for him to interview and interact with a variety of back to the earth residents and the long time rural residents.

The goals that were set were not just for the businesses to grow and prosper, but for them to be integral to the community itself: To change the diet and the economics.  We meet cheese producers, local off the grid citizens who resent the new idea entrepreneurs, and the voice and energy of the new concept - Tom Stearns.

Here is an excerpt:

"On a sun-washed Vermont hillside on a late July afternoon, my face tilted into the day’s fading heat, I stood and listened to Tom Stearns as he expounded on the woes of modern agriculture. “Who’s the biggest user of energy? Agriculture! Who’s the biggest user of land? Agriculture! Who’s the biggest user of water? Agriculture! Who’s the biggest polluter? Agriculture!” He stabbed a finger in the air for emphasis. “All we have are models of broken plans to look at. Totally, completely broken.” He sipped from his beer, and turned to face me squarely. “In five years, we will have people from all over the planet visiting Hardwick to see what a healthy food system looks like.”Tom and I were standing on the sprawling hillside lawn of Heartbeet Life Sharing, a residential farming community for special needs adults, who participate in all aspects of farm operations on the sloping 160-acres of field and forest. There was drumming and a bonfire and small children running across the sunlit lawn clutching rabbits to their chests. A small herd of cows grazed on pasture below the house, casting long shadows in the late afternoon light. Earlier in the day, there’d been a collective effort to construct a wood-fired stone-and-clay oven and now it sat drying, at once lumpen and graceful. If one were looking for an inspiring setting in which to discuss localized agriculture, with all its ancillary benefits of social good and pastoral beauty, one couldn’t have imagined a better stage.

Over the past months and years, there’s been a lot of these sort of discussions in Hardwick. And lately, Tom Stearns, the owner of an organic seed company called High Mowing Seeds, had found himself thrust (or was he thrusting himself?) into the spotlight with increasing frequency before audiences that seemed to only grow in size. He talked about America’s industrial food system, how it had become frayed and vulnerable, how it sucked the sweet life out of our nation’s towns and cities and out of the bodies and minds of the people who lived in these communities. He talked about the dangers of our dependence on this system, on the urgent need to wean ourselves from its power, to develop an antidote to its multitudinous ills. He spoke of the social good that would arise from this seismic shift in how we feed ourselves. But mostly, he talked about this little town that was embarking on an ambitious quest to define itself as the community that would show the rest of America what a healthy, functioning and, ok, maybe even sustainable food system might look like and how other communities, towns, and even cities, will learn from Hardwick.

And on that halcyon summer afternoon at Heartbeet Lifesharing, standing in what felt like the soft center of a lush, fertile greenness that permeated everything, I listened as he unfolded his vision and I believed it because I could see it all laid out before me: The cows nuzzling for tufts of ripe grass, the wholesome-looking neighbors gathered to share wholesome-looking dishes (I regretted my decision to eat earlier with my family, who’d stayed home) that were surely comprised of local ingredients, the emotionally and behaviorally-challenged men and women who were finding meaning and purpose in this agrarian landscape and the day-in, day-out demands of running a farm. There was nothing to argue, here. There was only health and bounty and promise. This was what a food system should look like. Of course the world would take notice; of course people would come from all its corners to see this wonderful thing being created in this wonderful little town. Who could resist?

I snapped myself out of my reverie. Stearns had dropped into a rare moment of silence, fiddling with the frilly elastic hair band around his neck (he has two young daughters, who were frolicking on the lawn below us). How? I asked. How do you create this thing? How do you break it down into little pieces, how do you address the hard questions of money and regulation and simple habits? How do you take this – I swept my arm across our view – and export it, scale it? How do you make it something that’s not just for foodies, for the affluent and aware?

Stearns, in what I would come to recognize as his preferred oratory style, spoke in the flourished language of a politician running for office. “We can export a lot of things, but I think our main gift will be inspiration.” He flared his nostrils and adjusted the hair band. “We’re going to be exporting a lot of inspiration.” It sounded nice, though it wasn’t a terribly satisfying answer. But by then, I’d finished my second beer, and someone had dropped a pie onto the picnic table. The drums were beating a nice groove and I felt my hips moving. I wasn’t in the mood to press the issue. Tom Stearns and I strolled across the grass toward the pie."

The book tries to balance the competing views.  It works to balance the claims versus the results and in doing so provides a reflective narrative while inviting the reader to become part of the community. Because of his own position in the area this is accomplished quite well.  As residents of a small rural area, Kate and I recognized the people and voices that are heard hear.  Ben's bio - from his website starts:

"I was born and raised in northern Vermont, in a two-room cabin situated on the 160-acre homestead my father purchased in the late 60′s. At 16, the legal age of “school leaving” in my home state, I dropped out of high school to pursue a self-designed study program in excessively loud heavy metal music and extreme partying. I began writing for magazines in my early 20′s; within two years, freelance magazine writing became my sole means of supporting myself and later, my family.

"In 1997, my then-girlfriend (now wife) Penny and I purchased 40 acres in the town of Cabot, Vermont, where we now run a small-scale, diversified hill farm with our two sons, Finlay and Rye."

We loved the use of words, the images and the writing as well as the story.  To learn about the Vermont Center for an Agricultural Economy that is featured in the book check out http://www.hardwickagriculture.org/vermont-food-venture-center

To learn about Hardwick check out http://hardwickvt.org/

Children's books

This is a posting from one of my graduate students - do you have any suggestions?

Books play an enormous role in influencing the ecological identity of people, starting with young children.  That is why it is imperative to choose books carefully.  There are fewer quality children’s books out there that depict nature than ever before.  I believe I live in a bit of a bubble as a Montessori teacher, so when I walk through the children’s section of a bookstore or when I read the findings of a study done on children’s books from 1938 to 2008, I am shocked at the results:  a staggering decrease in the representation of the natural world.

A study done by University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist J. Allen Williams, Jr., yielded some astonishing results.  He surveyed over 8,000 images in 296 volumes of the children’s books that are the winners of the prestigious Caldecott award by the American Library Association.  The books were published between 1938 and 2008.  They were divided into three categories: 

They noted whether each image depicted a natural environment (such as a forest), a built environment (such as a house), or a modified environment (such as a cornfield or manicured lawn). In addition, they observed whether the illustrations contained any animals, and if so, rated them as either domestic, wild or anthropomorphized (that is, taking on human qualities).

            The study showed that the depiction of natural environments steadily decreased around the 1970’s, each decade depicting less than the last. Even domesticated animals like cats and dogs were less prominent.  They also noted that not all of the books that children read are award winning, but among others the rate of natural content is staggeringly less.  They considered the fact that less children live in rural areas than when the medal was first given, but that even well into the 2000’s, when the migration to urban areas leveled off suggests there is a trend away from nature that is permeating our society in a frightening way.

            They posed the question:  is this decline a cause or a symptom of children’s decreasing involvement with nature?  This is the more sensitive and important question.  For those of us who purposely search out nature related books, there is no shortage, but the concern lies with the general public, who, for better or worse, may be prone to gravitate towards “whatever’s out there” at the time…and, right now, there are more books without nature than with nature.

Jacobs, T. (January 30, 2012). Children’s books increasingly ignore natural world.  

          Pacific Standard.

I have compiled a short list of children’s books that I keep on hand regularly in my classroom and also have on the shelf at home for my own son.  These are books that we have read dozens of times, and he never seems to lose interest.  And now that he is six and a half, he is able to read some of them, which brings a whole new challenge and interest for him.  I could have tripled or quadrupled this list, but I just chose my top 20 or so…must haves for any child!

Classics

1. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss (1971)
   • This book is the granddaddy of them all.  I do believe it is the book that has had the most influence in my life when I look at children’s literature. It is a heart-wrenching story told in a way that children can understand.  Greed, industry, consumerism, and the idea that nature is there for us to exploit for our own purposes are central themes.  The environment is ravaged in the name of progress, and in the end, when all is devastated, there is a seed of hope, passed on to a child, and the message that nothing will get better unless someone who cares a whole awful lot does something to help.  Makes me tear up every time.  It comes with the unique style of Dr. Seuss illustrations for which he is famous.
2. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (1964)
   • The connection between the boy and the tree is unshakable…until the boy grows older and starts to have dreams and aspirations of his own. The selfless tree gives of himself, a little at first, and then more and more throughout the boy’s life until the boy is an old man and the tree is reduced to a stump.  It is then that they are together at last.  A true testament to the power of nature, and the comfort it brings.  Silverstein has a very distinct style of illustration.  I actually own this book in Hebrew.
3. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (1962)
   • I love this book for many reasons, and one is that it depicts a lower income family, but doesn’t make that the main focus; also the family is African-American, which is pretty amazing for the time period in which this was written.  It is the simple story of a child who goes outside and explores his snowy neighborhood.  He examines his tracks, decides he’s not quite old enough to join the big boys in their snowball fight, smacks a snow-covered tree and all of the snow falls on him.  This book depicts joy.  Joy from the simple act of interacting with nature.  The illustrations are collage, a fairly new medium to use at the time.
4. A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry (1956)
   • Such a simple concept: why we love trees.  This book discusses all of the reasons why trees are nice, of which there are plenty of reasons.  It shows the different ways to enjoy trees, their leaves, climbing, resting in their shade, using them to cool your home, drawing in the sand with sticks, and so on and so forth.  I can only imagine how much fun she must have had researching and testing out ideas for the pages of this book.  The illustrations are simple yet full of detail, and the pages alternate color with black and white, which gives the book such depth.
5. The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss (1945)
   • A little boy plants a carrot seed and everyone in his life is skeptical that it will grow.  But he had faith that the seed would sprout, so everyday, he pulled weeds and sprinkled water on it, and believed in the life that is contained in a seed.  Finally, the carrot came up, “just as he knew it would.”  This book teaches about patience, nurturing, and the importance of believing in nature.  Crockett Johnson illustrates with her signature style and use of only a few colors in the entire book.
6. Eric Carle’s many books (1967-present), the majority of his books are focused on animals.  He is famous for his distinct style of painting papers and then cutting them out for collage that use rough cuts that somehow very intricately depict specific species.  His collection includes:
   • The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969) This is the quintessential book for children on the life cycle of a butterfly. 
   • A series of split-page board books, such as My First Book of Motion, My First Book of Food, My First Book of Animal Homes, which are interactive in that the child looks at the animal on one half of the page, and flips through the other half to match that animal to how it moves, what it eats, or where it lives.
   • Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (1967) and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You See?  (1991) are page after page of animals and their characteristics told in a charming, creative, rhyming pattern.
7. Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (1955) 
   • Another book illustrated by Crockett Johnson, but also written as well.  Harold goes out for a walk with his purple crayon, and draws his environment, starting with moonlight, but then going through a small forest, an ocean, mountains and back to the city.  He meets a porcupine and a moose along the way.  His dreams took him to different biomes, invoking a sense of wonder as to what these places might be like to the young reader.
8. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1965)
   • A young boy imagines vines and trees growing in his room and lets himself travel to a far away land where there are wild monsters who dance around and have a wild rumpus with him in their wild forest.  The idea is that a faraway place in nature can be a sanctuary for a child having a bad day.  Maurice Sendak illustrates in his signature style.

Chapter Books for Children Learning to Read

1. Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel (1970-1979)
   • These two amphibians are friends and have many adventures together.  These are easy reader books that allow children who are still working on reading to be independent in reading and connect them with stories that take place in nature.
2. Dick and Jane books (stories first copyrighted in the 1930’s, but books popularized starting in 1965)
   • My son has spent hours and hours practicing how to read with these books.  The idea is to give the children repetition of words in two or three page “stories” of something that happens to two different families…one is the typical Caucasian family, one African-American of the 1960’s, complete with gender stereotyping.  However, it is a conversation starter on history and what’s more, almost everything happens outside.  They have beautiful, realistic illustrations of families playing outside, gardening, washing the car, climbing trees, exploring in ponds, visiting farms and playing with their dog and cat.  Wholesome family fun.

Chapter Books to Read to Children

1. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (1952)

•      E.B. White studied spiders and make the character of Charlotte true to the actual life cycle of a spider.  It brings a compassion for spiders that most people lack, and is one of the most touching stories of friendship ever written.  It also documents the young girl, Fern, and her relationship to animals, and allows children to enter a world where they might imagine the lives of these animals.

1. Trumpet of the Swan by E.B.White (1970)

•      Another classic from E.B. White, this is a story about an eleven year old boy, Sam Beaver, and describes in incredible detail, the time that he spent with his father in a secluded cabin in Canada, and his discovery of a pair of Trumpeter Swans.  White’s depiction of Sam’s connection with nature is deeply touching and makes the reader want to have those experiences themselves.

1. Winnie-The-Pooh by A.A. Milne (1926)

•      Wonderful, silly stories of Pooh and his friends, set in the hundred-acre wood.  Even the inside cover shows a drawing of a map of the setting, with areas like, “big stones and rox,” “floody place,” “six pine trees,” “bee tree,” and “nice place for piknicks.” 

Some of my Personal Favorites

1. Night Driving by John Coy (1996)

•      John Coy is a Minnesota author, and I first saw this book on a shelf in a classroom I where I worked about five years ago.  I started reading the book to the children without having read it previously, so I didn’t really know what I was getting into.  I was in tears by the end.  It is a story of a father and son who are driving to the mountains to camp.  They drive all night, and have the very special experiences that come with night time driving.  For example, they listen to a ball game on the radio, see animals at the side of the road, turn off their headlights and drive by the light of the moon, have meaningful talks about when the father was a boy and his relationship with his own father,  see constellations, eat in a diner truck stop, and arriving in the mountains just as the sun is rising.  The illustrations are in a very magical, misty black and white.

1. South by Patrick McDonnell (2008)

•      A little cat and bird have an autumn adventure.  There are almost no words in this story, the beautiful marker, print and watercolor illustrations.  A simple story about friendship and experiences in nature.

1. My Friends by Taro Gomi (1989)

•      Japanese author and illustrator, Taro Gomi, wrote this simple and creative book about a young girl who discovers how to jump, kick, climb, walk, march, explore the earth, watch the night sky, sing, and love from her friends the ants, the owls, the gorilla, the rooster and many more.  Beautiful watercolor illustrations that are surprisingly intricate at the same time as simple.

1. Red Fox by Hannah Giffard  (1991)

•      A female red fox sleeps all day and is still tired, so her mate goes out to find food for her.  He goes to all of the usual places, such as the pond, the farm, the grasses, then finally the city, and brings back a special meal.  When he returns, he understands why his partner was so tired!  She was about to deliver a litter of baby foxes!  Another book of beautiful watercolor illustrations.

1. The Apple Pie that Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson  (2007)

•      In the tradition of children’s books that provide repetition and rhythm, this book builds on itself with beautiful imagery. The rain is cool and fresh, the roots are deep and fine, the sun is fiery and bright, the clouds are heaped and round.  It describes all of the elements that went into growing the apples that went into the pie that papa baked.  Each page is filled with exceptional illustrations made up of only four colors that the illustrator drew separately on sheets of vellum laying on top of each other.

1. The Hedgehog Leaves Home by Ulf Stark and Ann-Catherine Sigrid Stahlberg (2011)

•      I bought this book at Ikea in the children’s section.  There aren’t many books there, it is mostly a furniture shop, but in classic European style, there it was, a children’s book about a hedgehog’s adventure finding himself in the woods.  It’s beautiful because in Sweden, there is also the Boreal forest that we have here in northern Minnesota, so even though it is contemporary Swedish in style, the setting is what a child would see here.  Gorgeous illustrations tell the story of these woodland animals in the forests of Scandinavia.

1. Follow the Line around the World by Laura Ljungkvist (2008)

•      Another Swedish author, Laura creates this trip around the world with a single line that loops and creates the shapes of deserts, oceans, Boreal forest, the Australian outback, New York City, and even into space.  She gives amazing little facts and figures about places, plants and animals along the way.  Typical Swedish style with clean lines and blocks of color.

Highway - C J Box

I have become addicted to the C J Box mysteries, but this was not his usual story.  It was not his renegade Conservation Officer, but rather his renegade cop, but then it was also one of his most unusual stories, one that touched on a ghoulish concept of a serial rapist and killer who drove the highways in his semi and preyed on vulnerable women.

It was he and his "partners" who ran a house of horror where these women of the road were tortured and killed.  But the trucker - the Lounge Lizard - met his match when the two women who were abducted were the girl friends of Cody Hoyt's son.  Cody, the unorthodox cop knew how to go where other lawmen were afraid to tread.  Getting the bad guy for Hoyt had no limitations.

But at the beginning his slightly overweight partner, Cassie, a hire by the department to satisfy the diversity requirement, nabbed him - busted him - got him thrown off the force.  So Hoyt was no longer a renegade cop when he set out for the margins of Yellowstone National Park.

However, despite Hoyt's history of success, it is Cassie who is the heroine.  She is the one who busts the bad guys - all except one.  This is not a book where the good guys always come out on top.  However, she nails one of the bad, rescues the women, and everything would be great if the Lounge Lizard would only be caught.

Thanks to CJ Box we finally find that a woman can be exceptional without also being classified as a super model.  The last thriller I read had every woman hot beyond description and it makes you wonder where the people I see every day are.  In this one Cassie is complex, slightly overweight and not exceptional in any way which makes her a wonderful hero.

It is a book that demands that you turn the page, but not one you want to read just before bedtime.

Andrew's Brain - E. L. Doctorow

I have tried to think of a word - a single word that is suggested by reading this book.  Fascinating is too remote, to inexact.  Surprising has no real connotation.  Unsettling is good because it reflects the fact that the narration is of a type I am not used to reading and it takes time to be brought in to Andrew's brain,  Not the book title, but the neurological narrator.  Insightful? Yes, but while the brain takes us on a path that is convoluted, like the brain itself, and it provides social and political commentary, it is also muddled and at times confusing. It is not always pleasant, it is often unpredictable, the antagonists are neither likable or horrible.  The events are both world shaking and mundane.  Maybe the word I want is provoking.

Doctorow has found a new voice - the brain - but of course the brain, while it controls speech, controls or manipulates thought cannot express itself without the resource of the person and in this case the presence of the psychiatrist who is us because it is the interjection in a stream of consciousness.

Life and death, perspectives on others and insights to the self, presidents and 9/11 athletics and intellectualism are all here in the players and in the perspective of who we are.  Andrew is not just the owner of the brain, he is in fact a brain scientist and the psychiatrist is trained to probe and challenge the brain.

We see the brain in this as outside the individual.  The brain can generate thought, expand beyond the immediate reality.  It can conjecture, it can analysis and it can create decision or indecision.  It is conscious and unconscious and which is us?  It is a computer and it is an emotional sponge.  It misfires and it makes insightful conclusions.  It is a mind and a soul if we let it be.  It is the function that truly stops life, more than the heart and lungs and tissues.  So this ride through a life is incomplete because it is streaming images and ideas and events in a way that only a brain could perceive them or at least the way that the author sees a brain sorting out the world.

And therefore it is not always sequential and images flash by that we want to hold on and examine, but they move past quickly because the destination is somewhere else.  The psychiatrist occasionally inserts a statement that the reader might want to make - why did it take so long to say that?  But of course that is because the brain of the psychiatrist is like the reader - outside the brain that is spilling a sequence that can only come from one source - the self in the center of the tale.  Or perhaps it is a collective mind with patches of previous existence - all existence.

The reader will find a mind in despair, we are not privileged to know where the story will take us, how it will end, even if it will end and as a reviewer I cannot tell you the ending - I can only share the journey.

When the Mississippi Ran Backwards by Jay Feldman

 1811 and 1812 saw the New Madrid earthquakes shake the center of the continent unlike any other earthquake in our human history.  It was a movement that affected the flow of the Mississippi, changed its course, created a new lake - Reelfoot - and may have altered our history.

It happened during the cusp of the war of 1812 and the efforts of Tecumseh to unite the Indian nations.  It happened during the maiden cruise of the New Orleans down the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers - the first steamboat to do it and the beginning of an new age. It happened where a formerly important Spanish settlement - New Madrid - had been established, a location now part of the new territory of the Louisiana purchase.

It happened where to countries - US and Spain formerly bordered one another with Kentucky, across the river, filled with miscreants and outcasts (including relatives of Meriwhether Lewis) and the earthquake seemed like a symbol of more than the stresses of a continent and the movements of great faults, it was also a pivotal moment in Indian, Spanish, Louisiana, commerce, and British relationships.

The author uses the earthquake to tell much broader historical tales and allows the actual shaking of the earth to be an anchor point in his narrative.  That might be a little shaky too, but he still finds ways to connect the areas of the two major rivers together and the story telling is vivid and enjoyable.