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Non Fiction Review: Gazing at the Night Sky

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Gazing at the Night Sky by Bruce Wilson Jr.

Gazing at the Night Sky: 5,000 Year of Humanity’s Quest to Find Our Place in the Universe
by Bruce Wilson Jr.

4 out of 5 stars

People have been staring at the stars for millennia, marveling at the beauties of the night sky. This book explores how ancient peoples attached meaning to the stars, developed superstitions around horoscopes to gain a sense of control in their world, and studied science and mathematics to understand how the solar system works. The stars have influenced artists and photographers. Today we have a vast amount of information from space probes that tell us about our solar system. From Aristotle to Armstrong, the stars inspire us to keep looking up.

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Non Fiction Review: The Ocean Blue

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The Ocean Blue by Bruce Wilson Jr.

The Ocean Blue: A History of Maritime Trade, Naval Warfare, and Exploration
by Bruce Wilson Jr.

4 out of 5 stars

The oceans of the globe both connect and separate the world. Seafaring cultures have shaped the landscape of history. Battles at sea have defined warfare for millennia. The ocean influences art, music, literature, and architecture. This book explores all the ways that the ocean has shaped our history from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians to the modern day.

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Book Review: One Day at a Time

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One Day at a Time by Bruce Wilson Jr.

One Day at a Time: 365 Innovations, Discoveries, and Triumphs in World History
by Bruce Wilson Jr.

4 out of 5 stars

History is a deep well of wild facts and weird stories. This book presents 365 amazing events in history that still shape our world today. We begin with the first known writing from 3100 BC and travel through history all the way to 2019 when scientists were able to take the first photograph of a black hole. This book includes artists, scientists, royals, politicians, engineers, musicians, doctors, and ordinary people who did extraordinary things.

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Non Fiction Review: Master American History in 1 Minute a Day

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Master American History in 1 Minute A Day by Dan Roberts

Master American History in 1 Minute A Day
by Dan Roberts

3 out of 5 stars

In one page snippets, you can learn about American history from Christopher Columbus to President Biden. The book is divided into sections about exploration, colonization, the American Revolution, nationalization, the American Civil War, and the Industrial Revolution, economic struggle and the World Wars, and the “era of social and economic advance”, finishing up by calling recent history “the era of reaction, social struggle, and political contention.”

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Non Fiction Review: Astonishing and Extinct Professions

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Astonishing and Extinct Professions by Markus Rottmann

Astonishing and Extinct Professions: 89 Jobs You Will Never Do
by  Markus Rottmann, Michael Meister (Illustrator), Ashley Curtis (Translator)

2.5 out of 5 stars

Some jobs have gone extinct over the years. Princes don’t need a whipping boy to take their punishments. Modern sewers have done away with massive rat populations and rat catchers. Grand estates don’t find it fashionable anymore to hire an ornamental hermit to live in a cave grotto. Since the invention of the refrigerator, we don’t need ice harvesters to bring ice into the city. Most people do their own crying at funerals, instead of hiring wailing women to cry. Thanks to modern plumbing, we don’t need to hire anyone to shovel waste out of our toilets. Now that most people can read newspapers, we don’t need balladeers or town criers to shout out the daily news.

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Picture Book Review: The Scarlet Stockings Spy

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The Scarlet Stockings Spy by Trinka Hakes Noble

The Scarlet Stockings Spy (Tales of Young Americans)
by Trinka Hakes Noble, Robert Papp (Illustrator)

5 out of 5 stars

This is a bittersweet story of a young girl who passes along information to Washington’s army during the American Revolutionary War. Her brother is a soldier, and they have a secret plan to watch the movements of ships in the harbor. Maddy Rose hangs out her washing once a week. Her unmentionables, petticoats, and stockings, hung out in a certain order, will tell her brother which ships in the harbor are friendly, and which are British ships likely carrying weapons.

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Book Review: How the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Were Built

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How the Wonders of the World Were Built by Ludmila Hénková

How the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Were Built
by Ludmila Hénková, Tomas Svoboda (Illustrator)

5 out of 5 stars

This book tells how and why the seven wonders of the world were built and by whom. Temples, pyramids, tombs, gardens, and a lighthouse; these incredible constructions stood for hundreds of years to astonish and amaze. But today we know very little about them. Archeologists and historians try to piece together the facts from ancient history to understand how such massive statues and temples were built.

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Book Review: Royal Magic

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Royal Magic by Ruth Chew

Royal Magic
by Ruth Chew
4 out of 5 stars

Cindy and Jack are visiting a museum when they are magically transported through one of the displays into ancient Africa. In the middle of the jungle, the children meet a man with a beautiful flute who escorts them to the royal palace to meet the king of the Edo empire. There they find court intrigue and a royal secret.

I loved this fun story! The history is really interesting and we get to learn about the culture of the Edo empire (also called the Benin Kingdom) in ancient Nigeria. It was an amazing kingdom with roads and infrastructure and walled cities and trade. The king was called the Oba, and Cindy and Jack get to meet the Queen as well. I loved reading about the unique customs and manners of the people, their greetings and social hierarchy. Everything from the way they built their homes to the way they ate their food had a special organization to it.

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Book Review: The Frenzied Prince

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The Frenzied Prince by Padraic Colum

The Frenzied Prince: Heroic Stories of Ancient Ireland
by Padraic Colum
4 out of 5 stars

Prince Suivne has gone mad after the battle of Moy Rah, and he wanders the wilderness running from all men. King Donald sends his best scholars to find Suivne and restore him to sanity through their art of storytelling. The storytellers find Suivne and use the stories and legends of Ireland to remind him of his lineage and obligations in the royal court.

I loved the way that each of these legends were bookended with the continuing story of Prince Suivne, and how each story had an effect on him to remind him of his heritage and to inspire him to courage and kindness. It’s a clever and effective story structure and lends an extra meaning to each of the tales.

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Book Review: The Boatman’s Daughter

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The Illustrated Boatman's Daughter by Tom Durwood

The Illustrated Boatman’s Daughter
by Tom Durwood (Goodreads Author)
2 out of 5 stars
In 1860s Egypt, Salima helps her father with his ferryboat business, but she longs for more education and wants to travel and see the world. Hoping to make some money to pay for school, she applies for a clerk position with a company overseeing the construction of the Suez Canal. She becomes entangled with the corruption and danger surrounding the various European and Egyptian powers struggling for control of the new canal.

The writing style is really excellent, and made me care deeply about the characters. However, it could use a copy editor for little things like punctuation.

The plot was exciting, and the adventure was interesting. However, there were times when I couldn’t understand why the plot took the direction it did in some scenes. It wasn’t clear why the characters chose to do what they did, or how they got to a certain point, or how they gained particular knowledge. It was just some little things that didn’t quite add up, but it didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the overall story.

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