This sturdy but beautiful board book features a circle of die-cut circles containing transparencies in rainbow colors. As you turn the pages, other colored film is added to combine with the previous shade to create a new color, and some colors are removed to better illustrate the concepts. Hold the book up to the light, and the colors glow. In the center of each large circle is a single symbol-like illustration made of two shades of a single color, picturing the concept on the text on the opposite page. The simple rhyming text teaches concepts of light and nature as well as colors to young children (ages 4-8). The cover is also die-cut to reveal the sunburst on the first spread. I felt at times that I was looking into a kaleidoscope, something I still love to do as an adult. I like this book SO much I may keep it for myself.
She Would Be King by Wayetu Moore - A blend of historical fiction and magical realism purporting to tell of the founding of the African country of Liberia. Gbessa is a native woman with red hair who is considered a witch, June Dey is an escaped American slave with a body inpenatrable by bullets, and Norman Aragon is the son of a white scientist and a Jamaican maroon (an African who has escaped slavery there) who has the ability to disappear. Just too weird a book for me, although I did finish it.
Work Like Any Other - by Virginia Reeves, read by Dan John Miller - audiobook, historical fiction - very good, set in 1920s Oklahoma (?)
Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave, read by (British) Luke Thompson - audiobook, historical fiction set in WWII - depressing!
The Scribe by Matthew Guinn, read by Lloyd James - historical thriller set in 1881 Atlanta, audiobook
Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini - ARC, early reviewers, historical fiction:
This historical fiction, set mostly in Germany from 1929 to 1946, focuses on four women. Three are real: Mildred Fish Harnack (an United States citizen married to a German), Greta Lorke Kuckhoff (who studied in Wisconsin with Mildred's husband Arvid), and Martha Dodd (daughter of the United States ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937). One is fictional, a Jewish woman named Sara Weitz created to portray the experiences of Jewish women involved in the resistance within Germany, specifically the Rote Kapelle anti-Nazi group in whcih Mildred and Greta were involved.
I particularly enjoyed learning more about Mildred, remembering her mentioned in Erik Larson's nonfiction In the Garden of Beasts, which focused on the experiences of Martha (a relatively minor character in this book) and her father.
Unlike another reviewer here, I very much appreciated the not-so-subtle parallels between Hitler and Trump. Jennifer Chiaverini never mentions Trump by name, so I am encouraged by the fact that some readers notice the comparison nevertheless. We need more of that in the United States at this time.
The Song of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning - ARC, early reviewers, historical fiction, hybrid, realistic fiction -
The Song of the Jade Lily is a hybrid: historical fiction set in the 1939-1947 period in Shanghai, China (with scenes in 1938 in Austria and 1954 in Melbourne, Austria), and realistic fiction set in 2016 in Melbourne and Shanghai. Romy Bernfeld Cohen is in both storylines, her granddaughter Alexandra in 2016. Alexandra's job has taken her to Shanghai, and while there she is trying to learn more about her mother, whom Romy adopted.
Romy is 11 in 1938, and she and her parents escape Nazi Vienna and move to Shanghai. I was surprised to learn that over 20,000 Jewish refugees were accepted by this city, as this is a topic not often covered in fiction. Australian author Kirsty Manning's descriptions of Shanghai and life there in the World War II era reflect her extensive research.
Alexandra's story was less interesting to me, as she seems to spend much of her time eating and exploring in Shanghai. I felt it was included partly so the author could share her research and personal experiences with modern-day Shanghai's cuisine!
In her author's note, Manning wrote of the many experts who read and checked her manuscript. Too bad none of them realize that "no one" is two words, and not the invented single word noone. I found and marked 20 instances of this glaring, distracting error in the advance reader's edition - I can only hope it was caught and fixed before actual publication.
© Amanda Pape - 2019
