A Black Hole is Not a Hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano

One time, in my AP Chemistry class, I needed some extra credit. And by “some” extra credit, I mean a lot of extra credit. The most fun way I earned extra credit? Sewing a little white felt mole from this exact pattern and turning it in for Mole Day. The least fun way I earned extra credit? Making a Powerpoint that explained String Theory.

Although A Black Hole is Not a Hole is a compact, pleasing little science book with illustrations both charming and beautiful, and the scientific explanations are slow and clear without being oversimplified… reading this book felt a little like making that String Theory Powerpoint. This is high science that my brain is just not equipped for. How I ended up in AP Chemistry and not AP English is a great mystery.

Young scientists, allow your brains to grow bigger than mine and enjoy this book. Maybe by the time you are in high school, you won’t need any extra credit.

The Fairy Ring or Elsie and Frances Fool the World by Mary Losure

I like a good nonfiction book that exists solely to call attention to an interesting, obscure bit of history that you never would have heard about otherwise. I read a biography of a lady who stole a lot of babies once that I found questionably authoritative and downright horrifying exactly for that reason: reading about these small moments in time, these strangely influential people who have fallen from history’s radar, makes me feel like the universe is vast and interesting.

You’d think I would say that about a book about Black Holes and not about two child trick photographers…. but that’s neither here nor there.

The Fairy Ring is a pleasantly slender history of two young girls who may or may not have actually seen fairies in their backyard, but who did indeed make some trick photos with paper fairies, and those photos indeed did get national press, and the forgery was not revealed until they were both old ladies. It’s an interesting little story and Losure does a good job of calling attention to the strangeness of being a small girl in England, where you have limited agency in your daily life, but maybe have the singular power to materialize fairie-kind.

That Mad Game: Growing Up in a Warzone ed. by J.L. Powers

In case black holes and fairies are a little too upbeat for you, might I present to you a collection of narrative essay about children growing up in war zones? This is a weighty read, but worth it – each chapter is a narrative written by someone who has seen war or the effects of war firsthand, and the book as a whole becomes this testament to our world’s violent, violent history. The fact that there are so many wars past and ongoing conflicts is just baffling, especially considering the personal impact. The essay’s authors explore their own childhoods as unwilling players in war – as a Cambodian refugee, the child of a PTSD-addled Vietnam vet, as a civilian in an occupied state, as a potential Taliban recruit, as an orphan.

This book is fascinating, chilling, humbling, and it feels important. This is a small-press book – I hope that it finds as many readers as it can get.

I made it my first 27 years of life without ever hearing about famous living artist, Chuck Close. Heck, I think I may have actually seen some Chuck Close portraits before; still nothing.

And then, last week, I read two books about Mr. Close, and am now an expert, I think.

First, I read Boston-Globe Horn Book Award Winning Chuck Close: Face Book. This book is structured around a school “fieldtrip” – a group of children visiting Mr. Close in his studio and, after studying his life and his work, asking him some rather astute questions. The children had questions about his childhood, his career, his art, etc. It’s a pretty little book, and has an awesome flip book in the middle with portraits you can mix and match.

And then I decided to read Chuck Close Up close by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, because I didn’t JUST read a biography of the same man the day before. Oh yes I did, that’s what this entire post is about! This book is like a slim picturebook, but there is a surprising amount of text. Where Chuck Close: Face Book is more casual, written in Mr. Close’s own voice, and loosely structured, Greenberg and Jordan present a more traditional biography – a format that allows a bit more depth of content.

What I’m trying to say is that

A) Chuck Close is pretty fascinating and talented, especially his thoughts on his own creative process – he is super down to earth, treats his art like craft, and is constantly adjusting his techniques and mediums to adjust for various mental and physical limitations.

B) Both books are informative, interesting reads, and you can read both back to back and not be bored.

C) It is possible that I saw a wall-sized painting of Bill Clinton and forgot about it. I think I am becoming senile.

Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure by Jim Murphy and Alison Blank

One of my favorite qualities of nonfiction for kids and teens is that the authors are never allowed to be too narrow. Some readers may come to a book with background knowledge on the topic, but most don’t – they need a little more context. Good nonfiction authors, I’ve found, do more than do a little info-dump at the beginning of the book; they simply broaden the discussion to give a cultural and historical background, weaving in specific information as they go.

Murphy and Blank are such authors. I have never been more interested in pathology than when reading Invincible Microbe. The best part, I thought, was the sometimes painful, always weird details of what passed for TB treatments over the years: starving, bleeding, rolling everyone’s beds out on the porch to sleep – all fair game! You will never be more thankful for modern medicine, and, at the same time, more horrified that tuberculosis is still a rising problem around the world.

Abraham Lincoln & Frederick Douglass: The Story Behind an American Friendship

by Russell Freedman

I have a well-known histori-crush on Abraham Lincoln, but Frederick Douglass ain’t no slouch. Ever read his autobiography? That’s some tough stuff. Anyway, these two men are quite well-known and much biographed, but Freedman manages to provide a compelling little dual-biography by focusing on the qualities and interests that the two figures shared. However, I did not know that these two men had a few encounters, and while “friendship” might be a stretch – they only met a handful of times – they obviously had a great respect for each other, a respect that was racially crazy for the time. I really enjoyed this book

Discovering Wes Moore by Wes Moore

Aaaaand speaking of unlikely friendships, this guy Wes Moore  met a guy with the same name who grew up in the same neighborhood as he did. While Wes Moore #1 became an “author, businessman, and US Army veteran,” Wes Moore #2 received a life sentence for murdering a policeman. At some point, the cops came to Wes Moore #1’s parents house looking for dirt on Wes Moore #2; later, Wes Moore #1 decided to mail Wes Moore #2 a letter, and they developed a friendship. How interesting.

Maybe Wes Moore’s book for adults, The Other Wes Moore is more of a reflection on this interesting friendship… but the juvenilized version, Discovering Wes Moore, is all childhood memoir, all Wes Moore #1 looking back at how his Mom raised him right, family made sacrifices, how he acted like a dumb little kid most of the time but learned from mistakes and became a man, etc etc etc. The Wes Moore #1 meets Wes Moore #2 bit is kept to the final chapter, reserving the rest for good old fashioned Lesson Teaching.

Ahem.