Go.
Just go and read this book now. It’s amazing, awesome, inspiring, and I can go on with the adjectives if you want me to, but I’ll stop for now.
Then give it to socially conscious teens. Give it to teens who like to build things or take them apart. Give it to any teen you can. And give it to adults too, because we can be cynical and pessimistic and weary.
For those of you who need to know more about the book first, it’s about a young man in Africa who
- survives a famine;
- is forced to drop out of school because his family can’t afford the fees;
- finds some science textbooks in a library;
- decides to build a windmill to provide electricity for his family, with a dream of a putting together a water pump for their well, to irrigate their garden and maize crop;
- succeeds, using, among other things, bicycle parts and a drill made from a nail and a maize cob; and
- receives worldwide attention as word about his windmills spreads.
This is the kind of story that, in a novel, would seem implausible. Too good to be true. Except William Kamkwamba actually did all of this.
Part of what makes The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity & Hope so good (other than the basics outlined above, which would be incredible enough on its own) is that, other than the two page long prologue, more than half the book goes by before we get to the windmills. So don’t expect to be thrust into the windmill quest right away. Instead, William, with co-writer Bryan Mealer, utilizes a conversational, personable style to tell us about his life, with the windmills treated as just one part of it. William says that his father is “a born storyteller, largely because his own life had been like one fantastic tale” (p. 23). He must have inherited his father’s talent (well, this and Mealer did a really good job), because the book hums with the rhythms of oral storytelling and reads as if William were sitting with you, telling you about himself.
And so we learn about his family, his childhood, and the horrific famine that struck Malawi in 2000. How, despite having to drop out of school, William began borrowing books from the library to try to keep up with with what his former classmates were learning and then found the book that would change his life. But as in any quest worth reading about, there were challenges to overcome, and knowing that William ultimately succeeded does not make reading about them any less satisfying.
Book source: public library.
Cross-posted at Guys Lit Wire.
Full disclosure: Of this year’s Printz winner and honors, I’ve only finished Charles & Emma and read half of Going Bovine and The Monstrumologist. (Also, I apologize to any Spin Doctors fans who may be out there.)
It struck me, as I was commenting at Maureen’s a little while ago, that this year’s Printz winner and honors are very similar to the 2008 list.
The White Darkness = Going Bovine (winners, about crazy people road/ice trips, if that’s not a spoiler)
Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath = Charles & Emma
Repossessed = The Monstrumologist
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian = Marcelo in the Real World (lots of buzz, ultimately shut out)
And, okay, the comparison falls apart with 2008 honorees Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet and One Whole and Perfect Day and this year’s Punkzilla and Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance 1973.
Other Youth Media Awards thoughts:
- I need to read Morris winner Flash Burnout and Newbery winner When You Reach Me. But in a nice display of prescience (all the more shocking since I was so wrong with my Printz predictions), I actually have both books checked out from the library right now.
- Abby called it.
- I agree with pretty much everything Sheryl said at A True Reality.
- Yay, Tanita! Congratulations for the King Author Honor.
- And one year after editing books that won the Morris (A Curse Dark as Gold) and Batchelder (Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit; I’m not sure if I ever linked to this before, but here’s a great behind-the-scenes look at its gorgeous design), Cheryl Klein’s authors won a Schneider Family Award (Marcelo in the Real World) and a Batchelder honor (Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness). I’m a bit surprised she didn’t pick up an additional Batchelder honor for Heartsinger.
Your thoughts?
ETA: Totally forgot about Jim Murphy winning the Margaret A. Edwards. I mentioned on Twitter that I found this an interesting pick, because they’ve never picked an author of primarily non-fiction before. I’ve read, and enjoyed, An American Plague, so now I need to get my hands on the other books the committee cited. Except for non-fiction getting dropped from BBYA in the move to Best Fiction for YA (see also Marc Aronson’s take on this), this was a good award year for non-fiction.
If you’re interested in cover design, a fascinating post at the new Macmillan Children’s Group blog about Caragh O’Brien’s upcoming novel, Birthmarked. I like the final cover better than the earlier incarnations, but what is it about dystopian novels and girls with hair flying around on the covers? And, wow, the Birthmarked cover reminds me of The Other Side of the Island.
This link is a bit old, but designer Henry Sene Yee on the cover of The Other Side of the Island.
Maybe I should just be glad there are actual faces on the above covers?
I was very proud of myself for kinda sorta making a prediction about Jellicoe Road and the Printz last year. This year? Well, I haven’t read enough of the books, but of those I did read, my money is on Philip Hoose’s Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, though it seems to be receiving more support in various mock awards for the Newbery than the Printz. Youth Services Corner has a roundup of some Mock Printzes, and there’s a lot of love for Marcelo in the Real World, which I also love, but I don’t know… I think it’ll get an honor, but am unsure, for some reason, about a win. I’ll be happy if either of these wins, though. The most surprising mock Printz pick I’ve seen is Rick Yancey’s The Monstrumologist. (Also, the overall book design of The Monstrumologist is, as noted at Jacket Whys, among the best of the year, if not the best.)
No clue on the Morris Award. I haven’t read any of the nominees yet, but I’ve got Ash checked out right now and hope to get to it before Monday. Malinda Lo on her first sale.
More awards predictions at Abby (the) Librarian, The Book Case, and A Fuse #8 Production. Caldecott predictions at 100 Scope Notes, and a great Behind the Caldecott Scenes interview with Ed Spicer there, too.
You can count me among the folks unhappy with the proposed changes to BBYA.
This caveman diet article reminds me of Robin Brande’s Fat Cat. (via)
I’m still working on my 10 favorite YA books list. One guess at what I’m putting at #1.
Finally, I posted my 2010 books I can’t wait to read list too soon because I just spotted Jennifer Donnelly’s Revolution at amazon.com.
God, I suck at coming up with titles.
Anyway, in an attempt to blog more often about books, I’ve decided to start posting some shorter reviews/reactions to books I’ve enjoyed. Well, they’ll probably be more on the side of reactions than reviews, but I’m going to stick them in the Reviews category just for the convenience of having them all together. I won’t be surprised if the short reviews still end up being kind of long, because I know I tend to ramble in my reviews, but I’m hoping this will get me blogging more often, and the longer reviews I’ve typically done in the past will be saved for the stuff I fall in LOVE with (yes, caps required!). I’m planning to put two or three shorter reviews together in one post, not organized by theme or anything, just as I read them, which is why this first attempt combines three completely different kinds of books.
I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb
I’ll say this about Josh Lieb’s I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President: it kept me entertained for 300 pages. It’s no literary masterpiece, but then I’m not sure how many people would pick up a book called I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President expecting a literary masterpiece. With a book like this, what matters is whether or not it delivers on the potential of the title, and Lieb certainly does.
Oliver Watson is the most cynical, misanthropic adolescent genius I’ve read about. He pretends to be the dumbest kid in school when he’s actually schemed his way into becoming the third-richest person in the world. Whereas Artemis Fowl delights in his intelligence (perhaps because he was born into a wealthy family that made its money on the wrong side of the law, and many of Artemis’ schemes were merely an extension of this?) and Cadel from Evil Genius (at least as far as I can recall) seemed like a pawn, Oliver is ruthless. He has more than a streak of cruelty in him, enjoys ordering his subordinates around, and the class president thing is a result of his daddy issues. Actually, now that I think about it, all three of them have daddy issues of one sort or another. I’m getting a bit off track with my fictional adolescent evil genius analysis here, so I do want to emphasize that although I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President is perhaps a darker book than it might seem based on the title and cover, it is funny. And I enjoyed it enough that I am looking forward to the sequel, whenever it comes out, but that’s probably also because this one had a very abrupt ending. (See Betsy’s review at A Fuse #8 Production for more on the ending.)
Previously: Waiting on Wednesday #1
Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern
Lately, Jessie’s two best friends seem less interested in her and more interested in the guys in her older brother’s band. They give themselves a makeover, turning into punk wannabes, and Bizza actually has the gall to make a move on the guy Jessie’s been crushing on for years. Needless to say, the friendship is over, but when you’re starting your sophomore year at the same high school you attended last year, how do you find new friends you’ll fit in with?
I really like the way Halpern, in both Get Well Soon and Into the Wild Nerd Yonder, takes situations that could be written in a maudlin or pretentious way, or be painful to read about, and turns them into books that are a pleasure to read. While Jessie’s voice is perhaps not as arresting as Anna’s in Get Well Soon, she is quite a lovely narrator. I liked her quirks and her determination, and she was very easy to relate to.
Before I forget, Barrett is at the top of the awesomest brother of the year list right now. (Everybody else had all these fun categories for their favorite books of 2009 and mine was so bare bones. *pities self* But maybe if I write it down now, I’ll remember at the end of the year… Though if I read Scarlett Fever, Spencer will probably provide some competition, because he was awesome in Suite Scarlett, but I’m thinking I’ll wait for book three to come out before reading this one.) Oh, one more thing: if I wrote fanfiction, I’d totally be writing stuff from Barrett and/or Chloe’s POV.
Previously: Jolene’s interview with Julie Halpern, in which Julie says, “YA books can be very depressing, and I love the ones that can cover serious topics and infuse them with a little humor.”
We Were Here by Matt de la Peña
We Were Here was the most difficult of these books. It hurt to read sometimes, because of what these guys went through, but this is what made it the most satisfying read of the bunch.
Miguel has been sentenced to live in a group home for a year and to keep a journal during that time. He doesn’t want to fit in with the other guys there, believing he deserves to be punished for what he did. But he somehow lets Mong, the silent and maybe psychotic Asian kid, persuade him, and therefore also Miguel’s roommate Rondell, into running away away from the home and heading to Mexico.
I’m not sure what I can say in praise of We Were Here that Liz hasn’t already said, except that I guessed very early on what Miguel was trying to suppress, and although he doesn’t admit it until the very end, I didn’t think the long wait detracted from the story. Also, Doret’s disappointment with Rondell’s character development (though she does like the book) is worth a read.
Previously: speaking of overly long reviews, my review of Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Peña.
I do not earn any money from the links in the post and I borrowed all three books from the public library.
Namely, the Asian-American protagonists in YA fiction list and the YA books in translation list.
Anything to add or suggestions to improve them?
I was a very Bad Blogger the latter part of 2009, what with the lack of posts (not to mention tweets). I also got lazy over the summer, and so much for keeping track of everything I read last year. There are also a bunch of 2009 books I haven’t yet read. But here’s what I do remember about what I read last year.
Favorite YA Fiction
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine
Other Notable YA Fiction
Liar by Justine Larbalestier
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Favorite Non-YA Fiction
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indriðason
Blood Safari by Deon Meyer
Nemesis by Jo Nesbø
(Yes, I realize these are all translated mysteries, and four of them are Scandinavian. Oh, and speaking of, that sticker on the cover of Box 21. I so disagree with it. I know The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a bestseller and people have heard of it and all, but I think the better comparison would be Håkan Nesser with maybe a bit of Karin Alvtegen, if you want to speak in terms of Swedes.)
Memorable Non-Fiction
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose (YA)
The Economy of Cities by Jane Jacobs
Belated Reading Kick
Meaning, thanks to these two books, I borrowed a whole bunch of books set in the same area, but am only about to get started on them now.
Southern African fiction, thanks to Deon Meyer and Irene Sabatini. (Not, strictly speaking, South African since The Boy Next Door is set in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.)
First Book Read in 2010
Fire by Kristin Cashore
The last couple of times I’ve done this, my list has been long and I don’t think I’ve actually read everything I listed. So I decided that this time, I’m going to limit myself only to those books I want to read most. (Which, I realized while typing the following list up, still falls into predictable categories. Hence, the categories.)
The Fantasies
- Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer because Colfer is funny and clever and for some reason, I can’t resist humorous books about adolescent evil geniuses, whether they’ve reformed or not.
- Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey because it’s set in New Zealand and features Maori mythology.
- Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta. Jellicoe Road. I loved it. That’s reason enough for me.
- A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner. Every time I reread The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia, I find something new to appreciate.
The Historical Novels
I’ve said before that I love historical novels about young women who want more than what society expects or condones of them. Thus,
- Faithful by Janet Fox
- Everlasting by Angie Frazier
- A Golden Web by Barbara Quick
The Mysteries
- The River by Mary Jane Beaufrand. To quote myself, “Because Beaufrand’s previous novel, Primavera, was one of my favorite books of 2008. Because the Little, Brown catalog says, ‘Will appeal to fans of Gail Giles and Veronica Mars,’ and even though I know it’s a sales pitch, as sales pitches go, it hits the right notes with me.”
- The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting because the mention of psychic powers, serial killers, and romance reminds me of the YA books I loved way back when I was a pre-teen.
- All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab. I don’t know this is a result of wishful thinking or if I’m reading too much into the description, but I get a Veronica Mars vibe from it. And if what I said about The River doesn’t make it clear, if there’s something Veronica Mars-ish about a YA book, I’m going to want to read it.
The Historical Novel + Mystery =win!
- A Spy in the House (The Agency, Book 1) by Y.S. Lee. Well, maybe it’s not a historical mystery, but talk about hitting all the right notes with me!
It is May 1858, the beginning of London’s “Great Stink” — a blend of river pollution and heat wave that paralyzes the city. Tucked in the attic of a nondescript girls’ boarding school is the Agency, an intelligence service with a difference: it’s an elite, all-female group of private investigators with a reputation for getting things done. And it’s just hired a hotheaded, 17-year-old ex-thief whose on-the-job training goes completely wrong…
New agent Mary Quinn’s task is to pose as a lady’s companion and observe a merchant suspected of smuggling. But this straightforward assignment goes awry when Mary gets impatient and exceeds her mandate. Almost immediately, she finds competition in the shape of James Easton, an arrogant young man who’s doing some snooping of his own. They first tangle — literally — in a closet.
When pressed, Mary reluctantly joins forces with James. But as useful as the partnership may be, it’s also dangerous: their mutual attraction threatens to distract them from the real secrets of the merchant’s household. Eventually, they reveal a plot that threatens James’s life, as well as Mary’s own dark secrets…
Let’s see… The word Spy in the title. Historical setting. An “elite, all-female group of private investigators” disguised as a boarding school. Hint of romance. Mention of a life threatening plot. Yeah, the only thing wrong with this description is that it’s making me so excited that I’m afraid of getting my hopes too high.
The Only 2010 YA Book with an Asian-American Protagonist I’m Aware Of Right Now
- Paper Daughter by Jeanette Ingold. Even better, I’d totally want to read it even if the main character wasn’t Chinese-American. After Maggie’s journalist father dies, she interns at the local newspaper. From the description on Ingold’s site: “The first story that Maggie works on, though, causes suspicion of illegal activity to fall on her father, and she knows she must clear his name. Thrust into Seattle’s Chinatown, what she finds is far from what she expected: secrets, lies, and a connection to the Chinese Exclusion Era, and an immigration underground of paper sons and paper daughters. Using all of her journalist instincts and resources means Maggie must confront her ethnicity–and a family she never knew.”
Finally, The I-Didn’t-Think-the-First-Book-Was-Well-Written-But-I-♥ed-It-Anyway-and-So-I-NEED-to-Read-This-One-Too category
- Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles, the sequel to Perfect Chemistry
Wait, nevermind that “finally.” I forgot about The Non-Fiction, which in this case, basically consists of history and science.
- They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
- FDR’s Alphabet Soup: New Deal America 1932-1939 by Tonya Bolden
- Spies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the Civil Rights Movement by Rick Bowers
- Honey Bees: Letters from the Hive by Stephen Buchmann
- The War to End All Wars: World War I by Russell Freedman
—those books that best combine quality with teen appeal, selected from a longlist nominated by the public—were announced yesterday. Here they are:
YA Fiction
Blue Plate Special by Michelle D. Kwasney (Chronicle Books)
Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford (Disney Press)
Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers (Macmillan)
How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford (Scholastic)
Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern (Feiwel & Friends)
North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley (Little, Brown)
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (Viking)
YA Fantasy and Science Fiction
Candor by Pam Bachorz (Egmont USA)
The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan (Margaret K. McElderry)
The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King (Flux)
Fire by Kristin Cashore (Dial)
Lips Touch by Laini Taylor (Arthur A Levine)
Sacred Scars (A Resurrection of Magic, Book 2) by Kathleen Duey (Atheneum)
Tiger Moon by Antonia Michaelis (Amulet)
YA Graphic Novels
The Dreamer: The Consequence of Nathan Hale, Part 1 by Lora Innes (IDW Publishing)
Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation by Tom Siddell (Archaia Press)
Crogan’s Vengeance by Chris Schweizer (Oni Press)
Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Death and Dementia by Edgar Allan Poe (Atheneum)
Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood by Tony Lee (Candlewick Press)
Middle Grade and YA Non-Fiction
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
The Frog Scientist by Pamela S. Turner, photographs by Andy Comins (Houghton Mifflin)
I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure by Larry Smith (HarperTeen)
Marching For Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don’t You Grow Weary by Elizabeth Partridge (Viking)
Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker (Carolrhoda Books)
For more about the finalists, or to view the Easy Readers & Short Chapter Books, Middle Grade Fantasy, Fiction Picture Books, Middle Grade Fiction, Middle Grade Graphic Novels, Non-Fiction Picture/Information Books, and Poetry shortlists, visit the Cybils website.
Congratulations to all the finalists! And thank you to all the panelists for these awesome shortlists.
On another note, at Black-Eyed Susan’s, there is a discussion about the lack of books featuring people of color, particularly in terms of books about African-Americans that aren’t about slavery or civil rights, in the shortlists. Doret and Charlotte have also chimed in with their thoughts and/or numbers concerning the longlists. My opinion, as someone who wasn’t on a panel this past year, but was on the previous two YA fiction panels? I wanted the best shortlist possible, so although there were some really good nominees featuring people of color, they just weren’t as outstanding as the books that ultimately made the shortlist. Likewise, there were some really good nominated titles that had white protagonists, but they just weren’t quite good enough to make the shortlist. And since there were more books with white protagonists nominated, the higher the likelihood of a shortlisted book featuring a white protagonist. I agree with Susan and Doret and the commenters who point out that while part of the problem is that some eligible books featuring people of color aren’t nominated for the Cybils, the bigger problem is that more of them aren’t being published in the first place.
15 days through the rest of this fiscal year, and another 15 days next fiscal year.
On the other hand, no libraries are closing, no full-time employees were let go, and in terms of this blog, I’m hoping this will mean that with the extra time off (albeit unpaid), I’ll have more energy to post.
Anyway, I’ve had a post comparing the writing styles in Charles and Emma: The Darwin’s Leap of Faith and Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice sitting as a draft for a couple of weeks because I’m having trouble articulating exactly what I want to say.
As far as YA fiction goes, there hasn’t been anything so spectacular that I’ve just *had* to blog about it. The best was probably Shooting Star by Fredrick McKissack Jr., only it was so well-written that I couldn’t actually bring myself to finish reading it. (Also, the half that I did read was more really good than spectacular.) Jomo Rodgers is a high school football player who is starting to attract some attention from recruiters, but he is not quite big enough to be a real blue chip recruit. The only way he can bulk up, Jomo starts to think, is by using steroids. McKissack had me rooting for Jomo and made me so attached to him that I couldn’t bear to read the entire book and see his life unravel.
In brief, here are some books that I did finish reading and which I meant to blog about but never got around to reviewing, starting from back in August.
All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg
The cover, I have to say, is perfect for the book. I can’t see many teens picking it up without a lot of pushing, but it is beautifully written and very much deserving of all the praise it’s received.
Gray Baby by Scott Loring Sanders
Started off strong, then became muddled, overly ambitious, relied on too much coincidence, and concluded with a resolution that wrapped everything up too neatly and prettily.
Exclusively Chloe by J. A. Yang
A good pick for Robin Palmer fans.
Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
Long. Way too long.
Dragonfly by Julia Golding
I just read this last night, then saw Tasha’s rave review of it at Kids Lit this morning. I am on the fence about this book right now, because there were parts that I liked (royals with a sense of responsibility and duty!), parts that I didn’t (the evil king being just Eeeevil, and his sister, who is cruel, ferocious, can handle a sword, and did I mention ugly?), and a rather slow start (for reasons I can understand) before lots of action and adventure. In some ways, I found it more reminiscent of fairy tale retellings than anything else.
And, um, I know I also read other YA books, but I can’t remember what they are right now.
Finally, two links:
“There is a very big difference between writing for children and writing for young adults. The first thing I would say is that “Young Adult” does not mean “Older Children”, it really does mean young but adult, and the category should be seen as a subset of adult literature, not of children’s books.” – Garth Nix, in an interview at Tor.com
So here’s the deal with me and weather.
I grew up in Hawaii distrusting the weatherpeople on the news because it seemed like they were wrong more often than they were right. All their talk about low pressure systems and fronts and other things I knew nothing about didn’t seem to improve the accuracy of their predictions. I went to college in Ohio, where I was initially impressed by the weather forecasts (it rained when it was supposed to! And stopped when they said it would!), before deciding the weatherpeople on television news, at least, really were idiots, it didn’t matter where you were, because they’d say things along the lines of “Stay indoors if you can because of the windchill” while reporting from…outdoors. Watching other weatherpeople broadcasting live on location from the outdoors in the midst of some hurricanes a few years later did not improve my opinion of them. (Meteorologists who didn’t forecast weather on the news, though, they were okay.)
In other words, my meteorological literacy was next to nil and I was therefore the perfect audience for Dennis DiClaudio’s Man vs. Weather: How to Be Your Own Weatherman.
DiClaudio is a comedian, not a meteorologist. He’s the kind of guy who writes things like “Do you know how many different gases make up our atmosphere? Do you have any idea? I personally do not. But I have a feeling it’s a whole, whole lot. Anyway, we’re going to focus mainly on the important ones that people care about. The other ones can suck it.” (p. 14-15) Acting as a sort of tour guide, and anthropomorphizing things like water molecules, he begins by leading readers through the water cycle and atmosphere, knowledge you need to understand, well, weather. Or, Weather, as DiClaudio writes it. Because you need to know about the water cycle and how wind impacts it, and how the atmosphere affects the wind, and therefore the water cycle, before you can move on to things like fronts and tornadoes and so on. And although DiClaudio’s chart of the Fujita Scale for measuring tornadoes claims that, in addition to “devastating damage,” during an F4 tornado, you can expect “cows turned into deadly projectiles; portal to Oz beginning to open,” there is a lot of actual scientific knowledge to be found in the pages of Man vs. Weather.
Weather turns out to be just as complicated as it seemed before I read Man vs. Weather, and, yes, it only makes sense that weather forecasts sometimes are not accurate. It operates on different scales (in an air circulation kind of way, though I suppose the phrase does apply to things like the metric system), does weird things, and there are still weather events scientists don’t fully understand. The humor occasionally wore thin, especially in the latter chapters, but DiClaudio does a good job explaining things, and doing so in a logical order. He acknowledges that Weather is complicated and confusing, so certain sections may require multiple readings before things really start to make sense.
The one disappointing thing about the book is that it lacks both a glossary and an index. Seriously, for a book that comes across as a slightly demented version of the Magic School Bus for older readers, with a sarcastic Mr. Frizzle teaching the class without a bus—and I mean this as a compliment because the Magic School Bus rocks—a glossary and index would come in handy.
Book source: public library.
Cross-posted at Guys Lit Wire.
