Women in Biology by
Mary Wissinger is the first book in the
Science Wide Open series about female scientists, aimed at ages 7-10 (although the author's stated range of 4-8 on her
website is more appropriate). This book is about five women biologists:
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717),
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179),
Jane Cooke Wright (1919-2013),
Linda Buck (b. 1947), and
Barbara McClintock (1902-1992). I'd heard of the first two, but the last three were new to me. Each is introduced with a typical question related to biology that a child might ask, such as "What makes a butterfly?" "What is biology?" and "What are cells?" The question is answered by highlighting the work of each woman. At the end, the reader is encouraged to answer a final question by making a guess (hypothesis) and then observations (in other words, using the scientific method). There's a pronunciation guide for the scientists' names, as well as a glossary and short bibliography. The vibrant illustrations by
Danielle Pioli are engaging. Now published by
Science, Naturally, the series was developed by
Genius Games, a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) publishing company, and were originally funded with a highly successful
Kickstarter campaign. These books are also available in Spanish, and would be a great addition to a classroom or school library. - early reviewer
The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim - mno book club, realistic fiction. We read this book because it was authored by the daughter-in-law of a member of my book club. It was a debut novel, not particularly well-written, that was supposed to be a mix of an immigrant's story and a mystery.
Margot Lee is 26 and lives in Seattle. In late 2014, she is helping a friend move to Los Angeles, Margot's hometown, and when they stop by the apartment of Margot's mother, Mina Lee, a Korean immigrant, they find her dead. It's ruled an accident, but Margot is convinced someone murdered her mother. Margot's attempts to solve this mystery are the weakest part of the book. I also found it hard to believe that Margot never learned to speak much Korean.
Much better is Mina's immigrant story, told in flashbacks to 1987, when she first arrived in the United States as an undocumented immigrant. Mina herself is an orphan, having been separated from her parents during the Korean War, and has left Korea after the death of her husband and young daughter in an accident. She starts out living in a house with other recent immigrants, working in a Korean grocery store also frequented by Hispanics, first as a stocker and then as a checker.
As most everyone who lives and works in Los Angeles' Koreatown speaks either Korean or Spanish, Mina never learns much English. Thus communication between the single mother and daughter is limited. Margot doesn't know (and doesn't ask) about her mother's backstory and her father (although the reader learns both through the flashbacks). By the time Margot is old enough to have memories, her mother is operating a "store" at a swap meet (after her clothing store burns down in the 1992 Los Angeles riots), and Margot resents having to help after school and on weekends.
The book is very personal for debut author
Nancy Jooyoun Kim (who is the daughter-in-law of a member of my book club). Her parents were both born in North Korea. and her father left before his parents could escape, and he never knew what happened to them. Nancy's parents never talked much about their immigrant experiences, which was an inspiration for the book. There's also lots of mentions of Korean food in the book, which I've never had before - now I am curious to try some. There are some recipes in the
book club guide on the author's website.
Good review of the book and an author Q&A here: http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2020/09/the-last-story-of-mina-lee.html
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn - early reviewer, ARC, historical fiction - Fascinating historical fiction about
Bletchley Park in Great Britain, where enemy military codes were broken during World War II. The book focuses on three fictional
women. Wealthy Osla Kendall (based on the real
Osla Benning) worked as a German translator of decrypted messages. Mab Churt, a poor London girl, operated one of the "
bombe"
codebreaking machines (one forms the background image in the cover art). Local girl Beth Finch, a master with puzzles, was one of the few female cryptanalysts, working with
cardboard rods to
figure out settings on the enemy's
Enigma encryption machines.
The girls all have intriguing backstories and side-stories (Osla's also based on reality - dating Prince Philip before he married the future Queen Elizabeth), but the insights into the operations of Bletchley Park, as usual, want me to read more about the history.
The book moves back and forth from the 1939-1944 time period, to the early days of November 1947 (right around the time of Philip's and Elizabeth's wedding). In the latter, the three girls and their friends (including
Alan Turing and
Valerie Glassborow Middleton, grandmother of Kate Middleton) work together to trap the traitor who broke up their friendship on D-Day. The traitor laid the blame for treason on Beth, leading to her incarceration in a mental institution for three years.
It's a long book at 626 pages, but I had a hard time putting it down. My advance reader edition also included a 22-page section at the end with more information about author
Kate Quinn, her helpful author's note, and suggestions for further reading, with a book club guide to come.
The book's title may come from this analogy (on page 106 of the advance reader edition) of Beth breaking a code. "Her nose was almost touching the paper in front of her, the letters marching along in a straight line over her rods, but somewhere behind her eyes she could see them spiraling like rose petals, unspooling, floating from nonsense into order." Beth later (page 442) works on a cipher her mentor was trying to crack when he died. "Beth couldn't crack this cipher...She was starting to have dreams where a rose bloomed into lines of Enigma that then folded up on themselves like a bud flowering in reverse." She later names it the Rose Code (page 554, and earlier on page 481), "the tight-furled cipher she'd come to think of as Rose. Ciphers and keys had been named after colors, animals - why not flowers? Shark and Dolphin were naval ciphers..." It's the source of the Soviet messages that lead her to the realization that there is a traitor in their midst.
Lucy by Ellen Feldman - I enjoyed this historical fiction about
Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, the supposed mistress of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his early years. In 1914, with her aristocratic family fallen on hard times, 23-year-old Lucy Mercer became the social secretary to the wife of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then 32, when Eleanor was pregnant with their fifth (next-to-last) child. Lucy and Franklin fall in love and have an affair (at least of the heart), discovered by Eleanor when unpacking his bags when he returns from Europe in 1918, ill with pneumonia. Franklin wants to marry Lucy, and Eleanor is willing to give him a divorce, but Franklin's domineering mother
Sara Delano Roosevelt threatens to cut the purse strings, and his political advisor
Lewis Howe reminds him that a divorce would scuttle his chances at the White House. (My how times have changed!)
Lucy becomes the governess to the six children of wealthy widower
Winthrop Rutherfurd, nearly 30 years her senior. They married in 1920 and had a daughter of their own. Despite Eleanor's conditions that Franklin never contact Lucy again, he does, particularly after Winthrop died in March 1944. Author
Ellen Feldman works in
research by historians on those contacts as scenes in her novel. After this book was published in 2003, Lucy's granddaughters gave letters from FDR to Lucy (as well as a book he'd dedicated to her) to
another author (2008) and to the
FDR Library (2011).
Walking Toward Peace - picture book, biography, early reviewer, ARC - I enjoyed this picture book biography about someone I'd never heard of, Mildred Lissette Norman Ryder, also known as
Peace Pilgrim. Born in 1908, she gave up all her possessions, started using the name Peace Pilgrim, and began walking cross-country in 1953 to promote peace. In the next eleven years, she walked 25,000 miles, and then stopped counting. At the time of her death in an auto accident in 1981, she was on her seventh cross-country journey, and had also visited Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico and Canada.
Kathleen Krull is a master of children's narrative nonfiction, and
Annie Bowler's colorful digital illustrations "use a variety of different brushes and layers to get the
watercolor effect" (according to her response to my e-mail query). She incorporates diverse peoples, and has Peace slowly aging through the 40-page book. Children will be intrigued by little tidbits (as I was) about how Peace ate and slept on her trips, and how many pairs of shoes she went through. There is an author's note at the end with more detail on Peace's life, and sources for more information. Although marketed for ages 3-7 or grades 1-2, given the amount of text and its message, I think the book is probably better for somewhat older children, perhaps through about age 10 or fifth grade.
© Amanda Pape - 2020
