Showing posts sorted by relevance for query young adult. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query young adult. Sort by date Show all posts
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
October Featured Book
Happy Halloween! Admittedly, KBR doesn’t feature much horror. We still have some suspenseful
books that may give you a thrill. This
month, we are featuring A
Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.
It’s a space
fantasy
story appropriate for young adult
readers (possibly younger,
I’m no expert on such things) with a frightening villain and a strong moral
(and implicitly Christian)
theme.
Monday, June 4, 2012
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
L’Engle, Madeleine. A
Wrinkle in Time. 1962. New
York
Though I review all the
nonfiction books I read, I write about only a little about fiction. Sometimes a fiction book hits so many areas
of interest to me that I want to write about it. A
Wrinkle in Time is one. It’s a
classic, award-winning novel. It’s a
children’s or young adult book, and one is never too old for a good kid’s
book. It’s science fiction. It’s informed by author Madeleine L’Engle’s
Christian faith.
Margaret (Meg) Murphy is an
awkward girl who doesn’t fit in. Her
family is unusual, too. Her father is
missing, though Meg stubbornly clings to hope that he will come home. Her mother is a scientists, caring but
somewhat unconventional. Two of her
brothers, twins, are pretty normal, if a little rough, and the third, the
youngest, is a genius and most people find him unpleasantly odd.
Meg, her genius baby brother
Charles Wallace and Calvin O’Keefe (an older, popular boy who keeps his oddness
better wrapped) are pulled into an adventure in space by three creatures,
seeming witches, aliens and more. On
another planet, they rescue Meg’s father and almost succumb to the powerful
mind that rules the planet. It is the
things Meg dislikes most about herself that allows her to prevail.
A Wrinkle in Time is an adventure. It is also a
parable. Part of the message is
Christian. The universe is God’s
creation for His glory, and good creatures acknowledge and worship Him. Yet there is evil, and Earth is infected with
it. Love overcomes evil.
It is tempting to see a
political message. On the world Meg
visits, Camazotz, a single being rules all, taking responsibility for every
decision, instilling uniformity so that everybody has the same things. It is not hard to see this as a parallel to a
communist state, where the government controls and distributes all
resources. It sounds like the nanny
state as well, where people are relieved of the responsibilities of caring for
themselves and making their own decisions.
It is this last point that I
think is important to L’Engle whether or not is has political
implications. We are made to be
individuals, unique and special, and we cannot be separated from responsibility
for ourselves and our decisions and still have real joy, even if we have
everything we seem to need. When the
“aunts” give gifts to the adventurers to prepare them for their trial, they
give Meg her faults. As Christians, we
believe that everyone is uniquely made by God.
Our faults, shortcomings, imperfections make us needy of God’s grace, and
His grace abounds in us to His glory.
In addition, IT, the
mind-lord of Camazotz, is a finite being with finite imagination, thus the
uniformity of the planet IT rules. God
is infinite, and His creation has enormous variety, abundance, scope and beauty
beyond your imagination. We can love,
serve, and worship one God, we can all be imitators of Christ, and still each
be a unique individual.
Before closing, I’d like to
mention another Christian sci-fi classic, The Space Trilogy by C. S.
Lewis. There are some parallels between
the works. For instance, both L’Engle and
Lewis, in Out of the Silent Planet,
depict Earth as darkened and separated from communion with the larger universe
because of the influence of human sin and the dominion of Satan. IT, a big brain, reminds me of the Head from
Lewis’ That Hideous Strength.
If you’re interested in this
book, you may also be interested in
Google
Friday, December 21, 2012
Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan by Rick Bowers
On February 5, 1946, The Adventures of Superman radio
program opened with a new introduction:
Google
Yes, it’s
Superman. Strange visitor from another
planet, who came to earth with powers and abilities farbeyond those of mortal
men. Superman, defender of law and
order, champion of equal rights, valiant, courageous fighter against the forces
of hate and prejudice!
This announced the beginning of the radio Superman’s
struggle with post-war social issues, especially a campaign against racial and
religious intolerance. In this adventure,
Jimmy Olsen
infiltrated the Guardians of America, a fictional
stand-in for pro-Nazi
groups that were operating in the United States
at the time. This was only the
beginning. Later that year, Adventures would feature a 16-episode
story in which Superman took on the Clan of the Fiery Cross, a stand-in for the
Ku Klux Klan
(KKK).
Behind these fictional stories of Superman were real-life
adventures. The KKK was attempting to
launch a new national membership drive, playing on the insecurities people felt
after World
War II. There were real infiltrators
of the KKK and other organized hatemongers who exposed the workings of these
organizations in the media. Rick Bowers
tells the story of these men and the producers of the comic
book and radio Superman in Superman
versus the Ku Klux Klan.
Superman had been dealing with cultural concerns from his
beginning. When Jerry Siegel
and Joe
Shuster, Jewish
high-school students in Cleveland,
created Superman in the 1930s, they pitted
him against criminal
gangs and crooked politicians. As Nazi Germany began to
rise as an aggressive European power,
the hero opposed Nazis at home and abroad.
During the war,
he protected the home front. Though it
is not the focus, Bowers describes how Superman has changes with the concerns
of the times.
The Klan has roots going back to the Reconstruction
era after the Civil
War. It started as a jokey order of
former Confederate
Army officers in Tennessee who
imitated the mystery religion-inspired
fraternal orders that were popular at colleges, with mysterious rituals and
strange names. It spawned imitators that
secretly gathered in Nashville to
organize themselves in 1867. Former Confederate
General Nathan
Bedford Forrest was the first Grand Wizard, who lead the Klan in opposition
to Reconstruction, including domestic terrorism
against blacks and white proponents of racial equality and Reconstruction
policies. The violence of the Klan
members, called Ghouls, eroded the organization’s popularity.
William
J. Simmons launched a campaign to revive the Klan, taking it national in 1920. For Simmons it was largely a moneymaking
scheme, though he seemed happy to promote intolerance of blacks, Jews, Catholics, immigrants and
anyone else who wasn’t a white, male Protestant. (I’m a white, male Protestant and I find
nothing in Protestantism, or Christianity
in general, that justifies the intolerance promoted by the Klan.) Successors led the Klan to political activism
in the 1920s, and it became very powerful, but front-line violence and
leadership hypocrisy undermined their position.
The post-war membership campaign, led by Samuel Green
who was Grand Dragon of the Georgia Realm,
was thwarted by law enforcement and equal rights advocates with help of medial
like Adventures.
The library helpfully labeled Bowers’ book with a sticker that reads, “TEEN.” I suppose it is a young adult
book, though I think it is within the grasp of many middle school
students. It is an unusual introduction
to the history of bigotry in American and the movements that promoted equality,
but the tie to a popular superhero might make the subject more appealing to
kids in school. It made me pick up the
book, and I’m far passed my school days.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Mr. America by Mark Adams
Benarr
Macfadden was named Bernard McFadden by his parents; he chose the modified
name to suit himself. He was born into severe poverty in the Missouri Ozarks shortly after the Civil War. He would become a self-made millionaire famous for his physique, his stunts
and his opinions. Mark Adams recounts his story in Mr. America.
Macfadden became
fascinated with health and bodybuilding as a youth in St. Louis, where is visited a gym with his uncle. He had been sick much of his childhood, which is not surprising given the poverty,
malnutrition and undeveloped medicine of the time. With hard work and a
knack for self-promotion, he was eventually able to afford to join the gym (it
cost $15 for an initial membership, close to $400 today).
Macfadden pursued a lot
of jobs as a kid and young adult, spending very little time in school. In bodybuilding and training he
found his way into a career. Particularly, he started to follow a
career path that had been blazed by another strongman, Eugen Sandow. Mcfadden saw Sandow’s performances,
organized by Franz Ziegfeld, Jr., at the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. He began doing a version of Sandow’s
act and even took it to his distant mentor’s adopted homeland, England.
When he returned from
his year in England, he brought back another idea borrowed from Sandow. He
began publishing a magazine titled Physical
Culture. The
magazine was an outlet for him to sell exercise equipment and promote his ideas about
fitness, diet, sex, nudity, marriage and other topics related to health
and happiness. It was the foundation of what grew
into a publishing empire in which Macfadden helped to pioneer true confession (long before Jerry Spring and Oprah Winfrey), celebrity culture and tabloid journalism. He is promotion of health
information set the path for American health experts that followed with a
mix of quackery and sound notions that turned out to be ahead of their time.
I’d be glad to go on
about Macfadden, his accomplishment and his sometimes strange life. Instead, I
should just suggest you read Mr. America.
Actually, I had been
looking forward to reading Mr. America.
I’ve seen Adam’s book referenced by other who have discussed Macfadden in the
context of fitness, health culture and popular publishing. Macfadden led and
interesting life suitable for a novel. Adam’s biography doesn’t quite read
like a novel, but it is entertaining and approachable, and I recommend it to
those interested in Macfadden or in the popular culture of the early 20th Century.
If you’re interested in
this book, you may also be interested in
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Planck by Brandon R. Brown
German physicist Max Planck was one of the most famous and
well-respected scientists of his day. His work formed the
foundation of quantum mechanics and is still relevant to physics
today. He lived through both world wars, and these resulted in tragedy for his family.
Planck is a brief biography of the man by another physicist, Brandon R. Brown. Brown focuses his book on the last
years of World War II, but from there reaches far back to
his subject’s birth in 1858 and forward a little to his death in 1947. It is interesting that Brown did not
choose to take a chronological approach given that entropy and the irreversibility of time were subjects of great interest to Planck. Perhaps he wants to
readers to be somewhat unsettled, no doubt the way Planck must have been
unsettled by events of his lifetime and the conclusions younger scientists drew
from his own theories.
Brown presents Planck and as a
flexible thinker who contributed to physics and accepted new theories at an age
when most of his contemporaries were ready to shut the books on what could be
learned. Apparently what most of us like to think of as middle-aged (at worst)
is ancient for a physicist. His own work on thermal radiation established
fundamental concepts of quantum theory, though he didn’t use the term “quanta.”
When a young Albert Einstein proposed his special theory of
relativity, Planck quick promote and build on it. He was slower to come around
to general relativity (as wild as it is to us, it was insane to many in that
time), and both men suffered philosophical heartburn from the quantum mechanics
served up by the generation that came up under them.
Planck was very loyal to his country.
His brother Hermann died in the Franco-Prussian War, and the family became intensely
patriotic. At the start of World War I, he was hopeful that the war might
strengthen and unify Germany. His oldest son, Karl, died at Verdun, and Germany fell on
hard times.
Things were more complex when the Nazis took power. At times, his reputation as the nation’s most
prominent scientist gave him leeway to resist anti-Semitic policies. At other
times he acquiesced, hoping that the excesses of Nazi policies would be
smoothed out or even reversed by the necessities of governing and the needs of
the nation. He was so hopeful he even encouraged Jewish colleagues to stay. The Nazis saw no
need for moderation, so Planck’s influence quickly waned. His son, Erwin, became involved in a resistance
movement that hoped to topple the Nazis. He was implicated in a plot to
assassinate Adolf Hitler. Though the Planck family appealed to
every ear in and around the Nazi regime that might have sympathy, Erwin was
convicted and eventually hanged. (Planck survived his first wife and four of
his five children).
Brown doesn’t judge Planck too
harshly, though some might. He had no love for the Nazis, but perhaps too much
love for Germany, its scientific achievement, and its international standing,
may have made him reluctant to boldly oppose them. This led to a break in his
relationship with Einstein, though the younger eminence spoke very kindly of
Planck even many years later. Because of he refused to embrace the Nazis, and
he was well-liked by many foreign scientists, the Allies gave him a place in
rebuilding the German scientific establishment after the war. The British, French, and Americans reorganized scientific institutes
into the Max Planck Society, which is still active in supporting all manner of
scientific endeavor.
I think the book is approachable for
most adult readers who may have an interest in Planck or his times. Brown does
not get so deep so deep into the science that he loses readers; he tries to
explain it in a way that will make sense to a general audience. The structure
of the book may make it difficult for a young reader to follow.
If you’re interested in this book, you
may also be interested in
Thursday, January 24, 2013
The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine N. Aron
At the end of sixth grade, my English teacher,
Mrs. Lumsden, gave out “unusual awards.”
I was awarded “Best Observer.” It is one of the signs that I am a highly
sensitive person, and it is one of the happier memories related to my trait.
Research
psychologist
Elaine N.
Aron describes highly sensitive people, or HSPs, in her book The Highly Sensitive Person. HSPs, which make up about 15 to 20 percent of
the population, are people with more responsive nervous system, who notice
smaller stimuli and react more strongly to stimuli.
Aron is careful to distinguish the physiological trait of high
sensitivity from inhibition, introversion,
and shyness. Okay, HSPs are often, or appear to be,
introverted and shy. Aron reframes HSP
behavior as a response to overstimulation.
Everyone has an optimal level of arousal, and because HSPs are aroused
more by smaller stimuli, which are abundant and can even include our own
emotional responses to experiences, they are more easily aroused more than is
optimum for them. Everyone withdraws (is
shy) when faced with too much arousal, and everyone needs time to quietly
process (introversion).
Let me give you an example from my own life. When I was a young child, I was very
emotional. I was easily overwhelmed, to
the point of losing self-control,
by my own emotions and the experiences that triggered them. When I was in fifth grade, I found a model
for managing it: Mr.
Spock of Star Trek. He was person (or Vulcan or
half-Vulcan) with intense emotions that used various practices of logical thinking, meditation, art
and study to discipline
himself and control his own behavior.
Yes, at that age it meant repressing my emotions and withdrawing from
others to some degree. I gained a sense
of self-control and space to think. It
was a little patch of high ground above the flood. As a kid on the verge of puberty, it was
precious to me.
That challenge hasn’t diminished as an adult. How can I enjoy the sensory and emotional
richness I can experience without being carried away by it? How can I take notice of the little things
that make me pause without getting jumpy?
How can I pursue the challenging and meaningful work that attracts me
without being exhausted by distractions and the social demands
organizations? These are questions all
HSPs must answer.
Aron doesn’t always give a simple answer, but she does show readers how
to find the answers for themselves. Relationships
and work
present all manner of highly arousing situations that can drain an HSP. Aron provides information on how to approach
these challenges in ways that acknowledge your trait of high sensitivity, with
its weakness and the many strengths that can be brought to bear on the problem.
These problems can be exacerbated for HSPs who had rough childhoods,
which is all too common. (I’m fortunate
that I had accepting and tolerant parents.
I suspect there are several HSPs scattered in my extended family,
which fits with high sensitivity generally being inherited.) Therapy can be very helpful for HSPs who need
to deal with these issues. Aron provides
recommendations on what kind of therapies may be most useful to HSPs.
I suspect most of the readers of this book will be HSPs. If you’re not an HSP, you probably know
one. If you think your spouse,
close friend,
or employee
is an HSP, it may be worthwhile to read this book. HSPs have a lot of strengths they would
happily bring to your relationship or business
if they are given the opportunity and a little quiet space in which to thrive.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
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