Me Too Iguana

Me Too Iguana (Sweet Pickles Series Book 9) by Jacquelyn Reinach (Author), Richard Hefter (Illustrator), Ruth Lerner Perle (Editor)

Iguana wants to do whatever other animals are doing. This gets a bit annoying and other animals plot a way for it to stop. It is a "me too" book.

The Rescuers

The Rescuers by Walt Disney Company (based on Rescuers and Miss Bianca by Margery Sharp)

The rescuers are mice that go on a mission to save a human girl. The girl has been kidnapped by a some diamond thieves who use her because her small size enables her to go into the mine. The thieves find the big diamond and try to sneak it out in the girl's teddy bear. However, she trips, and the mice and girl end up with it and they get away. There are some fun parts like a "bird" airline. The story works as a whole, but there seem to be some jumps of logic in the details. (Why does the thief hide it in a stuffed animal? And why did it rely on a single trip for the case to be solved?)

The Grouchy Ladybug

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

A ladybug in a bad mood gets in a fight with another ladybug. However, the grouchy ladybug says the other is not big enough to fight. The grouchy ladybug then picks a fight with bigger and bigger animals, culminating in an attempt to pick a fight with a whale. The whale flicks the bug back home. There the ladybug decides it is better to be at peace.

For the animals, the pages and the font size get bigger and bigger as the animals get bigger. The book is creatively designed, even if the story is a little bit drawn out.

Taxi Dog

Taxi Dog by Svend Otto S.

This was originally published as Taxa-hunden Jesper in Denmark. A tag shows up at a taxi stand. It is befriended by the taxi drivers. The dog loves to ride along on the taxis' running boards and participate in urban activities. One day, the dog caused a ruckus and a farmer decided to adopt the dog as a guard dog. The dog doesn't want to be in the country, so he chewed through his rope and hitched a taxi ride back home. He stayed in the city with the taxis until he met a female dog.

The book tells a story back in a classic time with a classic style.

The Ramona Quimby Audio Collection

The Ramona Quimby Audio Collection by Beverly Cleary (illustrations by Tracy Dockray )

This is an audiobook collection of the Ramona books. She starts out as a preschooler and ends up in fourth grade. She is rambunctious and cares a lot about how people feel about her. However, she often reads people incorrectly. The books were written over a period of 44 years, with each book seemingly set in an idyllic version of those days - generally in anonymous Portland area.

Beezus and Ramona (1955)

This is the most distinct book in the Ramona series. It is more from the view of the other characters than Ramona herself. Ramona is always getting into trouble. She wants big construction equipment. She invites all of her preschool friends over for a party - without telling anyone else. She is just a big pain. However, mother and her sister had similar issues when they were young.

Ramona the Pest (1968)

Now the series is more from Ramona's point of view. She is in kindergarten. It is interesting that back then it was perfectly normal for kindergarteners to walk to school themselves.

Ramona the Brave (1975)

Now she is approaching first grade. Some kids call his sister a name and Ramona defends her - offending her sister. Ramona does other "brave" things.

Ramona and Her Father (1977)

Her father loses his job. Money is tight. He also smokes at home. Ramona and his sister work to get him to stop smoking. In the end, he gets a job at a supermarket. I was wondering what the smoking thread would be like. Looks like it was new enough to identify smoking as "bad". (Newbery honor book)

Ramona and Her Mother (1979)

Dad has a job he doesn't like. Mom still works her job. There is a fight with mom and dad over pancakes. Mom helps with some sewing. Beeezus wants a haircut from a beauty salon, but it ends up bad. There are other random episodes.

Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (1981)

Romona has a degree of unintentional mischief. She cracks an egg on her head - only to find it is a raw egg. She throws up all over the school. She feels her teacher does not like her. However, it is all a misunderstanding. She is gradually growing up. 

Ramona Forever (1984)

Things start to change. Howie's uncle visits. He later becomes engaged to Ramona's aunt. Ramona's mom is pregnant. Ramona will now have to deal with being a big sister. Ramona and her sister also take care of burying the cat. Dad has teaching jobs far away. However, he decides to take a grocery store manager job instead so they can stay close.

Ramona's World (1999)

Ramona is now in fourth grade. She has a baby sister. She gets a new friend. While playing, she falls through the floor into the downstairs ceiling (and gets stuck there, only to be rescued.) She is old enough to cat sit - and even watch her baby sister for a bit. The world has moved on to be more modern. The author has done a nice trick of moving the life of the characters forward a year at a time, while keeping the setting "modern" as it moves a decade ahead.

The American touch in Micronesia

The American touch in Micronesia by David Nevin

Micronesia is a vast oceanic area with only a few dots of islands hosting a small population. The location was valuable in World War II. After the War, America managed the territories. The management brought in vast amounts of money and many people with high ideals. Alas, this has done little to actually help the residents. US aid has become the primary economic driver. Education has advanced, but with the primary goal of getting high paying government jobs. The high wage rates end up chasing out potential domestic industry.

After World War II, Micronesia plodded along with benign neglect. Schools were set up on most of the islands. The communities provided their own school buildings. Micronesians teachers taught in the school. They had very little training, and didn't teach much of value. However, this served the subsistence society well. There was a singular "high school" for the whole area. This was taught in English because of the diversity of peoples. 

Then Micronesia has been hurt by US government intervention. The US wanted Micronesia to vote to become a US territory. It was thought that providing more money for education would help with this. Alas, the opposite took place. A bunch of foreign laborers came to build school buildings. Now the locals lost their "ownership" of the schools and demanded payment for taking care of it. American teachers were brought in to teach. They were also provided housing. This housing was better than the local housing, but not as good as military/diplomatic housing. The education was using curriculum from the US that had minimal applicability for the local population. There were almost no jobs outside the government for high school graduates. Even those studying vocational subjects were primarily seeking to teach the topics in the future, rather than practice what was learned. Later Peace Corps workers came in and made things even worse. They had radios that they would use to call for help when there were medical issues or other problems. This further caused issues with community and self reliance. The Peace Corps volunteers also identified issues and encouraged locals to file grievances with the government. These were often issus relative US standards and the response resulted in greater government dependency and further alienation of the populace.

Today, Micronesia has little native industry. It has been split up into multiple different entities, including a few independent countries and one US territory. There is free travel between the countries and the US. There is very little economic activity on the islands, with the government representing the bulk of the economy. Aid from the US still represents the primary income source. The US "guilt" for World War II has transformed a subsistance community to an impoverished government dependent one.

Midnight at the Well of Souls

Midnight at the Well of Souls is set primarily on a bizarre planet. A spaceship crew have discovered it. It seems to have had an advanced civilization, but left very few artifacts. There are some space ships explorations and some fighting and deaths. That is almost a sideshow to planet itself. There are a lot of ideas to explore. Sentient creatures can occupy many forms, from plant to animal. They may change and experience many different life forms. Some may look similar to what we know, but may be hermaphrodites or have other differences. The beings may not even be real, but just a projection from a central computer. There may be means for people to go out and have their own worlds. Things are never quite as they seem. Life can be different experienced in different times or in different bodies. The humble innocents may be more "blessed" than those fighting for power. There are a jumble of interesting ideas that sometimes seem to congeal into a story. 

A Scanner Darkly

A Scanner Darkly is a book about drugged out junkies. Because it was written by Philip K. Dick, he threw in a few science fiction elements (such as a "scramble suit", however, it wouldn't take much work to take those out and make it a "straight" piece on the drug users. He, alas, seems to know the community well from experience. These are people that made a choice and are now paying the consequences. The plot centers around an undercover narcotics agent who also happens to be a drug addict and dealer. One of his main female contacts is, unbeknownst to him, also undercover. She is using him to infiltrate a drug rehab center, which we find is the supplier for the highly-addictive "substance D". In between, we have many drug-induced hallucinations and details of the behavior of these junkies. It is typical Dick trippy darkness, but without the imagination and story-telling of his other works.