Happy 4th to everyone.

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First of all, I’m sorry for the quick review this week.  We are leaving on vacation, and I had to write this two days early not knowing what kind of internet access we’d have.  All the other posts from Wednesday to Friday were pre-written as well, so hopefully they aren’t full of mistakes.

Howard Zinn is the author of the excellent People’s History of the United States, and this is a graphical adaptation of much of the material in the book.  It’s similar to the book Lies My Teacher Told Me, going through different events and talking about what most of us have been taught about history is usually full of factual errors.

He discusses the many events that have led the United States to go to war, how  big business reacted when workers decided to form unions, and different cultural battles throughout time.  Like many problems, almost everything seems to come down to money.  While giving a mostly upbeat look at the United States, he doesn’t shy away from showing how we used things like the belief that God gave us this land as an excuse to kill native Americans, enslave blacks and put Japanese people into prison camps.

It’s simple to follow unlike some of his previous books that spend chapters on each area, the art is mediocre, but not a distraction.  I was

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Tanner after swimming.

Sidney after swimming, trying to get a sugar

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I kept the aperture between 8 and 13, then set the camera to bulb mode. Then I just kept the shutter open until I thought I’d captured enough to fill the frame. It’s really hard

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A day of junk food for Wyatt.  He usually had some cake, a cookie or a piece of candy in his mouth.  When we left he waved bye-bye to everyone, then after a quick look left and right, took off to the M&M bag and grabbed a handful before Britnie could grab him.

Mmmmhhh, root beer floats.  Better than pretty much any

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Most of these were taken at the bird show, which is pretty fun.  They have trained animals swooping over the crowds, one actually hit

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Another book set in a post-apocalyptic future, I can’t get enough of them.  Jeanne DuPrau sets the scene in a brief prologue.  Something major is about to happen on Earth, thought we aren’t told what that is.  A city is created deep underground, along with enough supplies for people to live safely for two hundred years.  After the two hundred years is up, the current mayor of the city will recieve instructions on how to return to the surface, and hopefully begin civilization again.

I saw the trailer for an upcoming movie based on this book, that’s what got me interested.  It’s a short novel, easily read in a day or two.  I didn’t realize it’s part of an ongoing series, which really bothers me.  I should have checked it out a bit more before I started reading.  The book stands well on it’s own, though it does leave the reader hanging a bit at the end.  Everthing is resolved, but it happens so quickly it’s almost as if the author was anxious to move on to the next group fo characters and stories she had created.

In the early parts of the book, something goes wrong.  The instructions on how the city is to begin their exodus are lost, and the city is falling apart.  It was only meant to stay underground for a set amount of time, and they are running out of food, their electrical equipment is failing, and because there isn’t a path out the people have no where to go.

The two main characters Lina and Doon, are curious enough to try and unravel the mystery and figure out a way to save their city.  One is assigned to work near an underground river, the other is to become a messenger.  Through their jobs, and by putting clues together, they start to figure out how Ember was created and how they can save it.

The book is interesting, if not a little bit simple.  The author makes some decisions that are almost unbelievable.  In two hundred years people hadn’t figured out some of these things that the children figure out in a few weeks?  Of course they have a major clue nobody else had, but it stil seemed strange that nobody succeded in going further with it.  It’s not a huge issue though, and the plot and setting are interesting enough that I’ll read the next book.

Grade B

Other people doing 52 books in 52 weeks

• Jamie reviews Einstein by Walter Isaacson
• Heliologue reviews Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
• Kevin reviews The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Other reviews of City of Ember

Marianne thought it was a bit implausible

Rebecca thought it was a fun adventure

My other 52 books in 52 weeks book reviews are here

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Wyatt getting a

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Cory Doctorow is one of the excellent editors at Boing Boing.   He’s written a couple of novels for adults, but this is his first foray into junior fiction.

The story begins in San Francisco as Marcus and his friends skip school to go to an organized treasure hunt type game.  On their way there is an explosion nearby, and people are take off running.  They help one of the friends who is hurt, and suddenly they’re all picked up with armed men, hoods are put over there head, and they’re taken to prison cells.

There has been a terrorist attack and the Department of Homeland Security has taken over San Fransisco.  Marcus and his friends are interrogated for days.  Because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time they are suspects.  After a while he is let go with the promise that he will be watched.

As San Fransisco slowly changed to be under constant surveillance, and individual privacy and rights are taken away, Marcus starts to organize an underground.  He feels people’s rights are being bent and there isn’t much protection coming out of it.  It’s almost an updated version of Orwell’s 1984 with near-future technology.  Suddenly everyone is being treated like a potential terrorist.

The story is well-written, even if on a junior level.  The characters are very real, and the dialogue for the teens was all very well done.  Much of the organization is done online, with cell phones and using hacked Xboxes.   This is not a kiddie revolution that comes together cleanly.  There are many adult themes and a lot of pain that comes with what Marcus is trying to accomplish.  It’s very well done.

Grade B

My other reviews in 52 weeks are here.

Other people doing 52 books in 52 weeks

• Jamie reviews Mort by Terry Pratchet
• Heliologue reviews Knight of hte Avenging Blowfish by John Welter and Napoleon’s Buttons by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson

Other reviews of Little Brother

Dave thought it was a little too l33t

Neil Gaiman thought it was mostly brilliant

Sarah thought it had an important message

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The people who were responsible for murdering 3,000 Americans on 9/11 have not been brought to justice.”

They are Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and their sponsors – the Taliban. They were in Afghanistan. And yet George Bush and John McCain decided in 2002 that we should take our eye off of Afghanistan so that we could invade and occupy a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. The case for war in Iraq was so thin that George Bush and John McCain had to hype the threat of Saddam Hussein, and make false promises that we’d be greeted as liberators. They misled the American people, and took us into a misguided war.

Here are the results of their policy. Osama bin Laden and his top leadership – the people who murdered 3000 Americans – have a safe-haven in northwest Pakistan, where they operate with such freedom of action that they can still put out hate-filled audiotapes to the outside world. That’s the result of the Bush-McCain approach to the war on terrorism,”

We need more resources in Afghanistan. I have been arguing for this since 2002, when I said that we should finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban instead of going into Iraq. I have called for at least two additional combat brigades to support our efforts there. I have also called for at least $1 billion in non-military assistance each year. And I have repeatedly challenged George Bush and John McCain’s refusal to hold the Pakistani government accountable for their inability to crack down on al Qaeda and the Taliban operating within their borders. Because we are not going to get Afghanistan right until we get our Pakistan policy right.

Barack Obama

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