Close Your Eyes

Close Your Eyes by Jean Marzollo, illustrated by Susan Jeffers

When you close your eyes you can imagine anything you want. This book presents a few scenarios for a kid to imagine as their parents are trying to get them to sleep.

Busy Trains

Busy Trains by Peter Lippman

The cover for this book wandered away right before we read it. The inside is not quite as nice. The book is an overview of trains. The pictures are intricately drawn. There was a discussion of repair trains after a section of track collapsed. The kids wanted to know if this was a true story. The book is a step above the "train" books of today.

I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! by Dr. Seuss

This is a Seuss book about reading. There are various places you can read as well as different things you can read about. There is plenty of humor in the drawings as well as nice rhythmic rhymes. It is the "series of short scenes" Seuss book rather than a "story" book. It is not the best Seuss book, but not the worst either.

Sideways Stories from Wayside School

Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

Wayside school was accidentally built "sideways", with 30 classrooms on 30 different floors. The stories in this book center on the classroom on the 30th floor. It is in the "just a little bit beyond normal" vein. In one story teacher turns kids she doesn't like into apples. However, they manage to get her to turn them back to kids and when she tries to turn them into apples again, they hold up a mirror. She becomes an apple. Later another school worker comes in and eats the apple. In another story, a kid races up and down from the 30th story to serve as the go-between for a simple conversation. There is a kid that comes in with a smelly rain coat. They make him take it off to see another, and keep doing that until they find it is just a dead rat - and dead rats are always sneaking into the classroom. In one, kids stereotype other kids by their names, even if the behaviour. There is plenty of "fun" in this book, but it does get a bit over the top.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Arthur Dent is not having a good day. He is hungover and sees his house about to be destroyed to make way for a highway bypass. He meets his friend, Ford Prefect who takes him to a pub and tells him the earth is about to be destroyed to make way for an interplanetary bypass. (Shortly after it is destroyed, these become no longer needed.)

Things get crazier. They hitchhike a ride on a Vogon construction ship that is building the bypass. They don't like hitchhikers, but their help does. They are using the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to make their way around. Earth's entry is just "Harmless" (though will be updated to "mostly harmless".) They are tortured with poetry and try to talk their way out of punishment, but end up being shot out of the ship into space.

They get picked up by zaphod beeblebrox on the Heart of Gold ship. This ship is powered by the improbability drive. It was almost impossible for them to be picked up, and thus the ship's improbability picked them up. Many other "improbable" things happen. (For example, Dent knew Beeblebrox from his time picking up a girl he liked at a pub - and the girl is here.) They end up in a place that makes custom planets. They are about to get nuked before the missiles turn into a sperm whale. They have a babelfish that translates any language to be understood (and just happens to have evolved that way.) They also learn that answer to life the universe and everything was 42 and earth was created to find the question - but it was destroyed just a bit too soon. Mice were the most intelligent creatures. Dolphins were trying to tell people that the earth would be destroyed, but people just saw it as tricks.

The book is filled with memes and humor. It goes quickly, but is zanily entertaining, while also providing witty societal commentary.

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.

Killing Mr. Griffin

Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan

I listened to the audiobook and heard them mention google and spellcheck. Wasn't this book published in 1978? Ah it was, but it was "modernized" in 2010.

Mr. Griffin is a tough English teacher. He went to Stanford and was teaching at a college. He decided to go to a high school in order to improve the education of students before they reach college. He is not easy on students and even the best students get worst grades than they expect.

One student gets the idea of "roughing him up." They plan to kidnap him so that he will beg them for mercy. Then they expect him to be a kinder student. The ringleader sings to always have the right answers. A few others join in, including some of the best students at the school. After school, they abduct him and drive him up to a secret place they know of. He refuses to do what they want, so they leave him there until after the game.

When they do go to see him, they find he is dead. They rely on the ringleader, Mark, to come up with a plan. He says they will bury him, then leave the car at the airport. They take his wallet and Stanford ring. They will spread stories to imply an affair. Mark seems to always have the right ideas. The others feel they are now committed and need to go along. Alas, the lies keep catching up with them. Somebody discovers the body and the missing ring. Mr Griffin's wife identifies holes in the story. Mark tries to fix some the problems by killing a grandma, and then trying to burn a house with one of the co-conspirators in it. The group finally discover they have been following a psychopath murderer. Their attempts to hide their actions only made matters worse. The message is that you should do what is right and watch for psychopaths. In reading it, I just wondered why it was taking some of the kids so long to fess up. They felt guilty and did not want to keep going, yet they felt a need to get the advice of the psychopath. 

Happy Birthday Unicorn

Happy Birthday Unicorn by Jacquelyn Reinach, illustrated by Richard Hefter

It's Unicorn's birthday. Everyone thinks they should throw her a banquet with soft food and speeches because that's what they always do. However, nobody likes going to that type of celebration. Unicorn also dreads that type of birthday party and further is afraid that people will give her yarn. Zebra goes by and tells both Unicorn and the others that she should talk to each other. They nervously meet to talk and end up with a party that all enjoy. It is a message about not assuming others will do best.

Who Can Trust You, Kangaroo?

Who Can Trust You, Kangaroo? by Richard Hefter

Kangaroo likes to pull pranks that involve water. He sprays rabbit with a hose. He gets fish to land her motorcycle in a pond. He drops a bucket of water on hippo. The others are annoyed at him. Then they discover him trying to plot a prank with the car wash. They lock him in and he is really scared. They finally let him out and hope they have taught him a lesson. He says he has learned, but he was also given an idea for a great prank.

The frontpiece includes a list of all the characters in the series, while the back includes the back. The kids really love te book, even if it is a little simplistic.

Impro

Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre by Keith Johnstone

This book is about education as much as it is improvisation. In improvising, you must be willing to think on your feet and take risks. Getting somebody in the condition to do that requires work. At times, you need to be able to "roll with it" to keep some situation going, rather then shift elsewhere. It is also valuable to "think different". You may have difficulty coming up with a situation on the fly. However, thinking of it a different way makes it easy to come up with something.

The Starship and the Canoe

The Starship and the Canoe by Kenneth Brower

A father is an astrophysicist who has great ideas for how to create a nuclear powered spaceship to rocket across the universe. The son lives in a treehouse in British Columbia. This book ties their two lives together. Which one is the more practical?

What Is the Name of This Book?: The Riddle of Dracula and Other Logical Puzzles

What Is the Name of This Book?: The Riddle of Dracula and Other Logical Puzzles by Raymond M. Smullyan

This book has a number of logic "riddles". Some are just simple jokes, but most deal with logic. The middle section of the books gets very tedious. There are hundreds of true/false logic puzzles, most variations on "A always tells the truth, B always lies. If someone says something, then way is the answer." The end section gets more interesting as he explores "false proofs" with logic puzzles that seem proper, but end up being ridiculous. There are also paradoxes of different types - the seem to be logically sound, but aren't (or vice versa). This would make a good "problem set" book. It presents a number of logic problems in a more entertaining format.

Arkansas: A Bicentennial History (States and the Nation Series)

If you search for an Arkansas book, you are most likely to find an analysis of the Little Rock Central High integration. The federal troops game in after a defiant governor sought to prevent integration. Ironically, the governor had not shown much interest in integration issues and was able to parlay this into a successful reelection campaign.

Slavery and plantations have had a disproportionate role in the history of Arkansas, despite the lack of general importance to the population. Most residents did not have slaves. Only a small proportion of slaveholders worked on plantations. However, people were willing to fight for their rights. Arkansas was reluctant to succeed from the union. After the US government asked the state to send troops to help defend against the confederacy, the residents were reluctant to fight against their neighbors. Only one delegate voted against secession. (And this person would later become governor.) Later the government continued to support the idealistic needs of plantations, often at the expense of industrial development. (Even though the high plantation society was never really as predominant as other states.)

During the civil war, most residents fought on the confederate side. However, there was a significant amount (especially from the northern Ozarks) that fought for the Union. Alas, most of the hostilities in the state also took place in the north.

After reconstruction, Arkansas devolved to a one-party state. The state decided to follow the lead of Mississippi and adopt voting restrictions and Jim Crow regulations. Following Mississippi is never a recipe for progress and helped continue Arkansas's reputation as a backwater. The northern mountain part of the state was filled with rugged hillbillies, while there were other plantations along river valleys. Urban development took a while to take place, with the state retaining a primarily rural character longer than other states.

Arkansas had served as somewhat as a way station. It was the frontier beyond the edge of the Mississippi. It was also a gateway to Texas, Indian Territory  and further west. River transport was important, yet it never developed a St. Louis or New Orleans. At times the primary export was people.

The book is a brief history of the state written over 40 years ago. It does provide good coverage of the early history of the state into the mid twentieth century. The author came from a journalism background, thus the journalists are given significant say in the story. It is also interesting that though WalMart had existed for some time when the book was written, it didn't merit a mention in key Arkansas businesses.

The Faded Sun Trilogy

The Faded Sun trilogy includes the novels Kesrith, Shon'jir and Kutath. The books deal with some conflicts in the future space exploration. Humans are one of multiple species involved in diplomatic maneuvers. Others have very different characters. Some can seem to remember anything and find it strange that human have the ability to lie. The books are dominated by political meanderings and seem to move at a very slow pace. Every now and then parts are interesting, but that is the exception rather than the rule.

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century

The 14th century is probably best known for the plague of the "black death" that swept over Europe. Huge numbers of people died. The middle ages were winding down and the Renaissance was still a little way off. Written records from the time period were fairly sparse. This makes the task of creating a comprehensive history challenging. A Distant Mirror was not quite up to the task. It feels like a long amalgamation of facts without a very concrete story. There was a lot of stuff that happened. There were leaders that did things. Death, debauchery and other things happened. Every now and then there would be an interesting section. Even the narration of the audiobook was hard to understand. For a history of the 14th century, we are best waiting until somebody creates a more concise work.