America ... inventors and explorers

I just ordered a copy of America the Ingenious by Kevin Baker, an established novelist and historian, for a class which looks at American inventors and their contributions, especially during the Industrial Revolution.  In this new work, Baker profiles “76 World-Changing Inventions and the Visionaries Who Made Them Happen.” He organizes these few page descriptions within categories like communicating, apparel, or powering. There is even a section under building about inventing a city (Chicago). Choosing not to follow a chronological format adds uniqueness to Baker’s work as do many of the side bars and drawings which he includes. Throughout, Baker notes numerous facts and statistics – total investment of capital needed to build a railroad; cost of the original sewing machine in today’s dollars; number of people worldwide who already have brain implants. This is very interesting, but also disconcerting because at least in the pre-publication copy he does not provide footnotes and sources. Students will find much to explore and to verify. America the Ingenious investigates the very nature of America and a lengthy review (“The Character of Our Country”) appeared recently in The Wall Street Journal.

American mythology is also delved into by To the Bright Edge of the World, a historical fiction novel set in the Alaskan Territory during the winter of 1885.  Eowyn Ivey (The Snow Child) has crafted an amazing adventure featuring Colonel Allen Forrester of the U.S. Army who along with fellow officers faced starvation and danger as they attempted to map the Wolverine River Valley. His journal entries and letters to wife, Sophie, chronicle the many hardships.  Pregnant and left behind in Vancouver, Sophie, too, pushes boundaries – teaching herself photography and dealing with social restrictions of the time.

If you enjoy historical fiction and tales of survival, look for this book; Ivey’s To the Bright Edge of the World received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal AND Publisher’s Weekly.

The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock is firmly set in a time (1970's) and place (Alaska), but it deals with universal experiences and emotions.  Debut author Hitchcock has crafted multiple teenage narrators, most of whom are appealingly innocent and naïve in regards to adult concerns and the hardships of poverty.

Ruth, Dora, Alyce and Hank each tell a portion of the story – of lost parents, abuse, thwarted dreams, and a desperate run for freedom. They are seeking love, a family, to follow a passion, and to find an identity, albeit in different ways. Their stories ebb and flow like the rivers in the fishing areas where much of the action takes place. As they grow and mature and begin to explore outside of themselves and their community, they have those eye-opening experiences whereby they learn that not everyone’s house/family is the same. Other people’s houses do, in fact, have different smells, different rituals, different values. I think the stories of these characters and their families and friends will intrigue teens, although the multiple narrators do add to the complexity of the story, making it somewhat difficult to follow at times.  Hitchcock pulls readers into these teens’ lives, draws out the potential consequences, and then (too?) neatly wraps up the suddenly intertwined events.

The Smell of Other People's Houses received starred reviews from Booklist and Voya and was called “an excellent debut” by School Library Journal.  I expect that it will be nominated for a number of state award lists and we will see much more from Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock.