The Racist Wizard of Oz

Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Wizard of Oz is so well known among Americans that most can either quote from the book for the movie or both. The movie was shown every year, back before VCRs, and I knew it so well, and sang all the songs. It is such an American story.

But, as this book points out. L. Frank Baum, the author, was a racist. Not only a racist, but someone who believed in genocide of all native people. Although I thought I knew everything there was to know about him, having read him from childhood, the editorials, pointed out in this book, show how much hatred he had for the Indiginous people.

And why is this important? Because, along with Louise’s off-again-on-again love story, there is the story of her brother, Hughie, who is the Tin Woodsmen in the school play, where like the casting of Hamilton, there is no “right” ethnicity for any of the actors. Dorothy is a Black actress. Lousie and Hughie are citizens of the Muskogee (Creek) Nation, just as the author is.

And underlying this, is the racism that boils up in the Kansas town, that a play would have people of color who were usually white.

Louise and her brother have to put up with this hatred, while navigating take usual high school issues.

Louise is working on the school paper, and reporting on these things, but keeping her native heritage a secret from her new boyfriend, because she isn’t sure how he feels about Indiginous people, despite being of Lebanese heriatage.

It is a well written story, with Louise, the narrator, giving a good, natural voice to what is going on around her. And while some parts are serious, there are some funny bits, as Louise tries to explain to her brother how long ago Baum wrote the hateful words about native people.

“About fifty years after the Trail of Tears?”
That didn’t seem to help either.
“Twenty to thirty years before the setting of the first Gal Gabor Wonder Woman movie. Great Granpa Lucas wasn’t born yet, but his parents were alive.”

Good thinking book, where you come away wondering about assumptions.

There is a great line, at the end of the book, which doens’t spoil anything, and I’ll quote here.

”Do Native people believe in Thanksgiving?”
[…] “We believe in gratitude.”

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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Chickens everywhere

Hentopia: Create a Hassle-Free Habitat for Happy Chickens; 21 Innovative Projects

We, who keep backyard chickens, for a few years, feel as though we know it all, and are more than willing to share that knowledge with anyone who wants to know it, or doesn’t want to know it, as the case may be.

It is sometimes hard to think back to a time that I didn’t have chickens, and had no idea where to begin. Hard to remember that when I first got my baby chicks, I kept them in my office with me, and when they were “coop ready” I moved them into the garage because I had not really thought through this whole “what-to-do-with-the-chickens” thing. I mean, yeah, I knew I had to get them a coop, and a yard, and all that, but hey.

My whole point is that everyone who is curious about chicken keeping needs to have a good resource, and while the local feed store is more than willing to sell you all bits you need for a chicken, they are not there every day to help you with the chickens. So a book like this one is such a good thing™.

The author is very straightforward, has a good wit on him, and explains all the ins and out of making a safe place for your chickens to live and lay. From building a run, to setting up a good laying box, to what to do with all the chicken droppings. (Hint: compost).

He even mentions why you would need a coop to begin with, as though we had gotten this far into the book and though, oh the heck with it, they can live in the trees.

The pictures a very clear, the projects are discussed and each step is shown, along the way. There is even a section on what tools you would need to build each of the projects in the book, which rang from things as simple as an automatic feeder, to a nesting box add on to the coop.

Highly, highly recommend this book to those who are just starting out, and perhaps to those who have had a coop and chickens for a while, for the next steps they want to make in the process.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Dead parent problems

The last book I read about a death of a parent was one where the children were being taught to grieve. It was sad, but was not sad the way this one is. This one has the oldest daughter not even getting the chance to grieve because she has become the head of the household, as her father falls into grief that he can’t come out of.

This book reminds me a little of bit of I Kill Giants, in that there there is something the reader doesn’t quite see, in the beginning, that would explain what is going on, and why Marjorie is trying to go to school and run the family laundry.

And then, into her life, comes a ghost. He is the ghost of a young boy, looking for a purpose, or looking for a friend. He wants to help, but he doens’t know how.

And a good story need a villion, and although there is a mean girl, Tessi, that is not the bad guy, not really.

Poor Marjorie. My heart ached for her. I had to know what happened, and stayed up late to finish graphic novel.

Would recommend it to anyone who wants a good read. You don’t have to have lost a parent or loved one to sympathize with Marjorie.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Supergirl: Being Super

The original Supergirl was invented in the early 60s. It was still the time of silly, light stories, and her stories, set in an orphanage were light humor, and odd adventures, such as her dressing up like a fairy godmother to entertain kids, or her boring a hole through the earth so people could look through it and see the leaning tower of Pisa.

I grew up on this Supergirl, and though that it was odd that she would have to be reinvented. But in looking at the old stories, though I loved them as a kid, they seemed odd, a time of orphanages, and having to be perform to be adopted seemed much older than the 60s, more like something out of an Little Orphan Annie musical.

So, I shouldn’t have been too surprised that someone has decided that she needs to be updated. Because, she does. And though I love the CW TV version of her, I find this retelling to be well written, interesting, and well rounded.

The basic facts are still the same. She is still Kara from Kyrpton, and her parents put her on a ship to escape when she was a young child. Only in this version, she isn’t discovered by Superman, but by a rural couple, and raised by them, rather the way Superman was, if his parents had not trusted the government.

Like the Superboy of old, this Supergirl has to hide her powers from everyone but her family. She has to hold back in sports. And this works, as she grows up to have good friends, and a good life.

Of course, something has to happen to make her become a hero, and something does happen, but that is the story you have to read.

The pacing was good. The friends of Supergirl seemed fully formed. She has a lesbian best friend, and it is just part of the story.

This first collection of the first four books of the series held my attention, was fun to read, and makes me wonder if they will continue the series from here, now that they have established her as a character.

I would recommend this to people who remember the original Supergirl and what to see a well done retelling, as well as people who have never heard of Superman’s cousin, and wonder what all the fuss is about.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest reivew.

First Nation Anthology

Kisisk�ciwan: Indigenous Voices from Where the River Flows Swiftly by Jesse Rae Archibald-Barber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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How much, do you, as an average person, from the United States, From Canada, from Australia, from South America, from the Caribbean , how much do you know about the Indiginous population? How much do you know of the people that originally lived on your land?

In California, in fourth grade, we are taught about the mission system, of the Spanish coming and making the Indiginous peoples into slaves, bringing them into the missions, because they have no other choice. But the stories all make it sound as though there are no more Native Americans left, as though the people that still live around you, are just history, and nothing more. We are not taught of the dependents of the Olhone, that still are here, and still have much to say. We do not recognize them.

And so, when I went to a conferences, as a young stupid 20 something, I met my first Native American, that I knew of, and asked her what blood she was, as though that was the way to ask her what her peoples were. She replied O positive to be snarky, and let me know that the way I was asking was wrong.

In the United States we have not acknowledge, as a country, all the wrong we have done to the Native population. We have not apologized. We have not brought things forward. The Native population is on the outskirts of our mind, only seen if we got to casinos on Trible land, or if we pass through a reservation.

But in Canada, they are trying, slowly, to try to acknowledge the wrongs done.

When I went to my daughter’s graduation, the procession was lead by a First Nations representative of the peoples that the land of the school had lived on. They had First Nations people speak at the commencement. It was an amazing thing to see and hear.

And that is why it is not that amazing that this book, kisiskâciwan, has come out, to chronically the writings of the First Nations people of the Saskatchewan area. The Cree, Saulteaux, Nakoda, Dakota, Dene, and Metis cultures.

This is quite an ambitious tome, with so many voices, streatching form the 1800, and the time of the treaties, to present day. There are so many things said, so many quotes, that I want to include them all, but I also want you, to know why you should read this as well.

Let us start start with Atakawinin (The Gambler), with a speech he made to the Hudson Bay Company about the wrongs that had been done to him.

When one Indian takes anything from another, we call it staling, and when we wee the present we say pay us. It is the Company, I mean.

Lieut-Gov. Morris asks “What did the COmpany steal from you?

The earth, trees, grass, stones, all which I see with my eyes.

Atahkakohp (Star Blanket) has this to say about Tready Six, in a speech he gave:

Can we stop the power of the white man from spreading over the land like the grasshoppers that a loud the sky and then fall to consume very blade of grass and every leaf on the trees in their path? I think not.

Or this quote from Payipwat, when asked by Father Hugonard to be baptized:

Oh, no. I am only going to accept half of your religion. I will belong half to the Christian religion and half to the Indian, because you may turn out to be wrong after all, and the Indian Regligion might happen to be right, and then I would have nothing to fall back upon.

And I can’t leave out this quote from Tatiana Iyotake (Sitting Bull)

I will remain what I am until I die, a hunter. And when there is no buffalo or other game, I will send my children to hunt prairie mice, for when an Indian is shut up in one place, his body becomes weak.

But this book is not just early quotes of First Nations peoples. There are quotes from the 20th and 21st century in as well. There are folk tales, and legends retold. And there are excerpts from the likes of Maria Campbell, whose book Halfbreed, which was published in 1973, is considered the begging of modern Indigenous literature.

There is sadness, with stories of the Residency Schools, as well as children of First Nations peoples given to white parents, when the “60’s scoop happened”.

There is so much here, so much to read, and ponder, and then move on to the next selection. And since I have given early quotes, let me include some of the later quotes

Priscilla Sette has a wonderful piece called The Strength of women: Ahkameyimowak.

Ahkameyimowak is a Cree word and embodies the strength the drives women’s o survive, flourish and work for change within their communities.

And then there is the journalist Merelda Fiddler, who writes in an essay called “Powerful Women, Powerful Stories: How I became Métis and a Journalist.

In this section of the essay she is trying to find out about a missing Indiginous woman, and her family.

“Why?” She asked. “Why would you want to tell that story? What do you hope to complain?” My answer not only convinced her, but also Boanniej’s most her and myself, that telling this story not only made sense, but was also desperately needed. The sad truth is Indigenous women’s re expect to go missing. They are expected to be victims of violence.

There are so many stories in this book. Each one a unique voice for their time. What the Universtiy of Regina has put together is simply amazing, and should be read by all, if for no other reason to see what colonization has done the Indiginous peoples.

Black artists of interest

Black Comix Returns by John Jennings
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I was growing up, when I first started reading comics, I fell in love with Supergirl, because she was like me. We all look for ourselves in what we read, even if we are trying to escape. We like to think that if we find someone like us, that looks like us, or is from our part of the country, or talks like us, or is any way like us, that we can project ourselves into this world of make believe.

Later, of course, as I grew up, I looked at what was then called the Underground comics, to find people more like me, that thought the way I did. It was the time when women were drawing their own comics, and I was, again drawn to that.

Representation, anywhere is important. We need to see ourselves in books and stories, so that we feel part of it. When we see women in power, we know we too can grow up to have power. When people of color see themselves in books and stories, they feel more engaged.

So that is why this book is so important, although it is more of a taste than anything else. There are so many great artists, so many different styles out there, it makes you want to go and seek all of them out. Amazing stuff.

The only problem with this collection, as some of the reviewers pointed out, is that there is not enough of each artist. That it is only a taste, and we need more than that. What we probably need now, is an anthology, more like what some of the reviewers though this book was.

Here are just some of the examples of the huge number of artists mentioned far too briefly in this collection:

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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Fighting for LGBTQ rights

Lgbtq Social Movements by Lisa M. Stulberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lisa Stulberg told me, when I interviewed her on KKUP radio, the other day, that the reason that she wrote this text book was that she found it hard to teach LGBTQ social studies, and history without it. Most of her students knew about the fight for gay marriage, or may have heard of Stonewall, because she was teaching not far from that famous bar, but they couldn’t tell her much more than that, so she wrot this book.

She has divided it into the five major movements in LGBTQ rights in the United States. These movements were: Before and after Stonewall, the AIDS activism, Marriage polticits, LGBTQ Youth, and the “b” and “t” as she calls bringing in Bisexuals and Transgenders. As she explained, although we currently call it LGBTQ, in the early days it was just G, as in Gay. Then, later, Lesbians were added, then Bisexuals then Transgenders, and Queer.

What she found most interesting, when she was doing research to write the book, was that it was World War II that brought about the biggest change to the LGBTQ community. It brought large numbers of men and women together, where they might not have ever met, and a lot of them found each other, and when the war was over, didn’t want to go “back to the farm” so to speak.

She also brought up, how, there were always those that thought if they just looked and talked, and acted as straight as possible, so that they wouldn’t be that different, that they would be accepted for who they were, versus the parts of the movement who felt that was not the right way to go. She called that the difference between Assilimlationists and liberationists, and how that is common in all social movements such as the civil rights movement and the women’s rights movements.

Well written, comprehensive, non-dry book. I can only hope that it finds its way into many classrooms.

Thanks to Gail Leandare Public Relations for providing this book for an honest review.

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AFAR, projecting out there

Afar by Leila del Duca
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lovely colorful book, set in the distant future, in a desert community where Boetema and her brother Inotu must make their way int he world while their parents have gone off to earn some money. The only problem is, Inotu has gotten in trouble, and Boetema keeps going on spirit trips every time she falls asleep.

The places are real, and she wants to go back to the same places again, but can’t figure out why. Meanwhile, the two have to keep alive.

Good story telling. Lovely pictures, as you can see below. The brown scenes are the here and now part of the story, and the colorful ones are for when she is spirit traveling.

Good, quick read. Makes me wonder if there will be a volume 2, as this ending leaves a bit of things open. Oh, and Agama Wanwatu is caracturer from her myths, who is now a constellation which includes the North Star. (For us it would be Ursa Minor ).

Agama Wanwatu

Market scene

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Riding the Rails

Go West!: The Great North American Railroad Adventure by Pascal Blanchet
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a delightful picture book about the history of the railway in North America, as well as a train ride from Montreal to Los Angeles. There are stops along the way in Buffalo, Chicago, Omaha, Denver, Cheyenne, Coutis, Calgary, Banff, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The pictures are done in art nouveau, with delightfully done drawings of either the train stations, or features of the city visited. New York gets both Grand Central, as well as a skyline.

When my daughter was young, I though it would be a treat to travel the slow way, on the train. We would take the Coast Starlight from San Jose to Los Angeles and from San Jose to Portland, and marvel at the country side. It is pretty much as depicted in this picture book. Union Station in Los Angeles really has that gorgeous look to it (see images below)

In between the stations, and facts abouat the cites, are facts about the early railroads, such as how the Pullman porters started, or what the first engines looked like.

The only issue I have with this well researched book is that there is no train that comes from Seattle to San Francisco. There never has been. The train to San Francisco stops in Oakland, across the bay.

Here are some examples of the pages:

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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Let me sell you a bridge

The Bridge: How the Roeblings Connected Brooklyn to New York by Peter J. Tomasi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I grew up on the West Coast of the United States. The big important bridge here is the Golden Gate Bridge. Many people think that the bridge itself is the Golden Gate, but the bay that it crosses is what bares that name. It was built during the depression, and despite it being there, along with the Bay Bridge, the Richmond Bridge, the San Mateo Bridge, and the San Rafael Bridge, ferry service still happens across the bay.

When the start of this story happens, there are ferries that go across the East River, but because of the ice, they have trouble getting across, or the pilots can not stere, or they are drunk. For whatever reason, the father of Washington Roebling was not happy with the state of the ferry services, and so proposed that a bridge be built and he would design it, along with his son. This all was taking place a few years after the American Civil War, in 1869, and it was not completed until 1883. This was one of the first of its kind, and it killed many people, including, almost killing Washington Roebling himself.

It is all an amazing story, filled with great detail, and tragedy, and joy, and all those things you want in a good story.

That a great thing to have it in such an accessible book. It is a little wordy, for those who want to look at pictures only, you can get the heart of the story, just thumbing through it, but to find out the suffering, and courage it took to keep going, and completing the bridge, it helps if you read all the words.

It was hard to choose which illustrations best represented what you would find in this book, but these are the ones I chose.

A great way to learn about New York history.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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