Survivors club: the true story of a very young prisoner of Auschwitz

Bornstein, Michael and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat. Survivors club: the true story of a very young prisoner of Auschwitz. 2017. 352p. 452 mins. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.

Born in Zarki, Poland after the German invasion of September 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War, Michael Bornstein has known nothing but war, and the Jewish oppression and extermination is nothing out of the ordinary for him. His father, an accountant before the war, was appointed as president of the Jewish Council by the occupiers. Through skills and luck, he managed to make life bearable for most of the Zarki Jews, and kept his family together. Michael’s father, mother, grandmother, and brother continued to live in their house until the Germans decreed that Zarki was to become Jew-free. Even then, they were able to stay behind with the clean-up crew for a few more months, as rumors of resettlements in the East turned to confirmation of death camps where Jews were being massacred and incinerated.

Eventually, the Bornstein family’s luck ran out. First transferred to a munitions factory, they were soon put on a train to Auschwitz where both Michael, his mother and his grandmother were separated from his father and brother, who perished in the Nazi gas chambers. Though only four years old, Michael’s mother managed to keep Michael hidden and safe for months. Her deportation to Austria to work in another munitions factory left Michael and his grandmother alone in the most notorious death camp. Michael was once again saved from death when he became sick enough that his grandmother, in despair of losing her last family member, smuggled him in the infirmary where he experienced a bed all to himself for the first time in his life. The next morning, the Germans were gone and the Soviets arrived. Wanting to achieve a propaganda victory over the Germans, the Soviets filmed Auschwitz’s surviving children showing their tattoos and gauntness, and Michael’s image was immortalized.

Michael and his grandmother returned to Zarki after the war, and reconnected with their family. His mother survived as well, and eventually they made it to the United States in the early 1950s where Michael became a successful academic and researcher. It wasn’t until decades later that Michael, watching a movie, realized that he was one of the children in actual footage of the war.

Working with his daughter, Michael retells his story from the fragments he remembers. Supported by archival research, Michael’s experience shows that wit, love and looking forward can keep hope alive even when it seems hopeless. Listen to a segment discussing this book and Michael’s experience here, and check out the book on Overdrive.

The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism and Treachery

Sheinkin, Steve. The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism and Treachery. 2010. 337p. ISBN 978-1-59643-486-8. Available at B ARN and as an audiobook on Overdrive.

No figure in the history of the American Revolution is more reviled than Benedict Arnold, the man who agrees to betray his country and plotted the end of the Revolution for a large sum of money. Born in January 1741, Benedict Arnold was frail. Even as a small child, Arnold wanted to impress those around him, and felt that he needed to eclipse his father’s many failures. Through dedication and hard work, Arnold managed to redress the family finances and became prosperous. Married with three children, Arnold ran a successful Connecticut shipping company, but still wanted more.

An opportunity presented itself when the British made a series of political blunders while trying to collect taxes from its American colonies. Angry colonists gathered to protect themselves and their properties, until the flames of revolution was ignited with a British march to Concord and Lexington. Hearing of this momentous event, Arnold assumed command of the New Haven militia, and he marched out with his troops to support the nascent Continental Army. Despite never having fought, Arnold was shrewd and came up with a plan to seize the guns of Fort Ticonderoga and use them to dislodge the British from Boston.

Through subsequent action, Arnold made a name for himself for bravery and boldness, yet also attracted an increasingly higher number of detractors who could reproach him his lack of patience, his short fuse, and his capacity to enrich himself at the expense of the institutions he represented. Bold assaults on Quebec, the delay of the British reconquest of Lake Champlain and his bravery on the field spread his name far and wide, but he eventually garnered the ire important Pennsylvanians. With past decisions catching up with him, and with his financial situation in disarray, Arnold reached out to the British, who dispatched Major John André to negotiate a treacherous act: Arnold agreed to turn over Fort West Point to the British. With the Fort, which controlled the upper Hudson River in their hands, the British would have effectively cut off the colonies in two, and might have ended the Revolutionary War in their favor.

Unfortunately the plot failed, André was caught and executed as a spy, and Arnold escaped, joining the British as a general but then forced in exile in England, where he died in 1801. A man who could have been known as one of the greatest military heroes of the United States instead became synonymous with treason and bad judgment.

Engaging and packed with action and adventure, Arnold’s story continues to fascinate and intrigue readers. Fans of historical events and of military prowess will appreciate Arnold’s strength but will ultimately feel sorry for a man who made the wrong decisions.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Hillenbrand, Laura. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. 2010. 473p. 836 mins. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.

A child of Italian immigrants, Louis Zamperini was a troubled youth. Always breaking the law and causing trouble, he would steal pies, hop trains, and try to avoid the law. His older brother Pete tried to keep him on the straight and narrow, but even he could be taken in by Louis’ antics. As they grew up in the 1920s, Pete spent time on the school’s track and field team, while Louis pursued girls. Pete suddenly realized that Louis could run faster than most people on the team. He helped his brother redirect his energies into running, and soon Louis began eclipsing marks. First it was the high school’s fastest run. Then the county. Then the state. Sent to New York to participate in the U.S. Olympics tryout, he finished third, earning a spot to the Berlin games in 1936, where he met Hitler. There were high hopes that he would be the first person to break the 4 minute mile mark.

With the Second World War looming, Louis joined the air force but immediately realized he didn’t enjoy flying. Called back to service, Louis trained to be a bombardier, the man who aims the bombs dropped by a bomber, and ended up posted in the Pacific. During a mission, his plane ran out of fuel and crash landed in the water, killing all but three of the crewmembers. Louis survived in a raft with the other two, surrounded by sharks. Although many planes flew above, none of them spotted them. Louis and Russell survived their ordeal while their third companion perished on the raft, and the men drifted for 42 days before being captured by the Japanese.

Transferred to prison camps, Louis was brutally abused by the Bird, a sadistic Japanese guard. Surviving in camps for two years, the war ended with Japan’s surrender and Louis was freed. Reunited with his family that had thought him dead, Louis attempted to resume running, but was unable to do so due to his injuries. Confronted by old demons from his years in captivity in Japan, it wasn’t until he heard Billy Graham speak at one of his crusades, and he became deeply religious.

Louis’ perseverance and determination helped him surmount obstacles and triumph over his abusers. He became a motivational speaker and even ran the Olympic Torch during the 1998 Nagano, passing by the location of his old camp. An inspiration to all, Louis’ story of survival and dedication is well worth listening to.

In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

Opdyke, Irene Gut and Jennifer Armstrong. In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer. 2008. 304p. ISBN 9780553494112. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

Growing up in Poland, Irene never thought her country would be attacked. But when German tanks roll across the border on September 1, 1939, she decides to fight for her country. A nurse in training, Irene joins the tatters of the Polish Army and hides in the forest until she is captured by the Soviets, who have invaded the eastern side of Poland. Raped by the soldiers, she is sent to a Russian hospital as a prisoner. When her body heals enough, Irene resumes her work as a nurse and helps the wounded. When sexually assaulted by the hospital director, Irene manages to run away with the help of a kind doctor, and finds refuge with one of his colleagues deep in Russia.

When Irene gets wind that Polish prisoners are allowed by German authorities to return to Poland, she makes the dangerous trek back to the border and after another arrest by the Soviets manages to board a train taking her back home. She is soon reunited with her family, and everyone has survived the conflict. Because she looks and speaks German, she gets a job working in a hotel for German officers. She begins to witness atrocities against the Jews, with the local ghetto abutting the hotel. Irene decides she must help the Jews as much as she can, and she provides them with food.

Her life changes again when Germany invades Russia in 1941. At first the front moves forward quickly, and Irene finds herself returning to the site of her first imprisonment. Working for the major in charge of the ammunition plant, Irene manages to move several Jews in comfortable working positions so that they can escape the harshest work. She soon discovers that Hitler’s Final Solution is about to strike, and she saves many of her friends by having them live in the basement of the major’s house. She continues to help local Jews and partisans, but as the Russians begin pushing back and the front moves closer, Irene is forced to withdraw.

When the war ends, she manages to return home, only to be arrested by the Soviets again as being an enemy of the state for her partisan activities. Escaping one more time, she first arrives in Germany, then eventually emigrates to the United States.

Not Jewish herself, and considered not dangerous because she was a simple girl, Irene manages to not only save herself, but also many others. Her legacy of courage and dedication in the face of evil continues to inspire to this day.

Cicero

Lowery, Zoe and Fiona Forsyth. Cicero. Part of the Leaders of the Ancient World series. 2017. 112p. ISBN 978-1-50817258-1. Available at B CIC on the library shelves.

The most prolific writer of the ancient Roman world, Marcus Tullius Cicero played a major part in the transformation of Rome from a Republic to an Empire, and lost his life in the process for choosing the losing side. A contemporary of Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony, Cicero lived from 106 BCE to 43 BCE, when he was assassinated under the direct order of Octavian. Known for extensive letters and books which covered daily Roman life, Cicero was also a Senator, a scholar, a poet and a lawyer. Recognized as the best orator of his era, Cicero’s ability to motivate crowds is one of the reason he lost his life. Cicero’s personal life thus follows the ups and downs of the collapse of the Republic and the bid of several strong men to take control of Rome, until Octavian successfully crowned himself Augustus.

Fans of Rome and of its dysfunctional political system will appreciate how Cicero was able to exploit, and ultimately fell victim to, a system designed to administer a city, and not an empire.

The Color of Water

McBride, James. The Color of Water. 2006. 291p. 411 mins. ISBN 1-59448-192-X. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.

James McBride is one of twelve siblings. His mother, Ruth McBride Jordan, is a hard working Polish Jew who left her family in Virginia to live in New York City where she married James’ father, an African-American man. Battling institutional racism as the white mother of twelve black children, Ruth nonetheless fought on and instilled in all of her progeny the desire to succeed and triumph over adversity.

James intermingles her story along with his own to describe how Ruth never strayed from the path she had set for herself and her family despite extreme poverty and loneliness. Living a harsh life with a racist and abusive father, Ruth ran away at the age of 17, pregnant with her first child by Peter, her black boyfriend. She met Dennis, the love of her life and James’ father in Harlem, but he died shortly before James’ birth. Alone with eight children, she persisted and once again fell in love, this time with Hunter Jordan. They had four children together.

James grew up in a chaotic environment where questions of faith and race were secondary to survival. Guided by a strict moral code, Ruth managed to send all twelve children to college. A heartfelt memoir, The Color of Water offers an unvarnished look at how Ruth’s strength of character and her devotion to her family allowed her to defeat adversity, and taught James the value of perseverance and hard work.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Chevalier, Tracy. Girl with a Pearl Earring. 1999. 233p. ISBN 0-525-94527-X. Available both as FIC CHE on the library shelves and as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Griet’s father is an artist in the Dutch city of Delft in 1664, but an industrial accident costs him his vision. With no breadwinner working, Griet’s family, including her mother and younger sister are in danger of starving. Her father, using his contacts at the artists’ guild, finds Griet employment as a maid in the household of Johannes Vermeer, a locally known painter of portraits and other scenes. Interviewed by the painter, Griet realizes that he is intrigued in the way she arranges the colors of vegetables before putting them in the soup. At sixteen, Griet is not ready to leave her parents’ house, but her income will be the difference between an economically tenuous life and one of hardships and hunger.

Vermeer works slowly, and only produces a few paintings a year. His wife is pregnant with another child, and the household needs help with cooking, cleaning, and the laundry. Yet to Griet, the most important part of the day is when she gets to clean the master’s studio. None of the other family members are allowed there, and as Griet develops strategies for cleaning and replacing items in exactly the same spot, she begins to gain an appreciation for Vermeer’s work. Soon, Vermeer himself discovers that Griet has a good eye for art, and begins having her assist him in his paintings by preparing various colors, and providing small details that enhance the paintings.

But Griet’s presence is not appreciated by Cornelia, the third daughter, who does everything to make Griet’s life miserable. Catharina Vermeer, the lady of the house, is also resentful of this attractive maid. When Van Ruijven, Vermeer’s wealthy patron, notices her, he gets Vermeer to paint a portrait of Griet by herself, so he can possess her. Sitting for a painting, however, is about to create resentment and conflict in the household, as Griet will be overstepping her bounds as a maid to that of a model and confidente of Vermeer. If her role is discovered, it will surely mean the end of her employment in the Vermeer household. Yet, so drawn to art, can Griet resist Vermeer’s lure?

Vermeer only painted 35 canvases during his lifetime, and little is known of his life. But his style of painting and the choice of his subjects now define Dutch art of the time period. Based on the Girl with a Pearl Earing, a real painting by Vermeer, this story imagines who the person in the painting was and what type of life she led in the mid 1600s in Holland.

Nelson Mandela

Holland, Gini. Nelson Mandela. 2002. 48p. ISBN 0-8368-5078-5. Available at B MAN on the library shelves.

One of the best known figure of the 20th century, Nelson Mandela took a stance against a racist and segregated South Africa and became its first black president. Born in 1918, Mandela was a member of the hereditary ruling family, but a falling out between his father and the local chief led to a return to his mother’s village. Upon his father’s death he returned to the court where he was educated both in leadership and social skills as well as in contemporary subjects taught in Methodist schools.

He was exposed to his second-class citizen status in his twenties, when he worked in Johannesburg as a night watchman in a mine. He realized that the majority of the population, which was black, was oppressed by a small minority of white people, descendents of the original Dutch, French and English settlers. The whites had devised a system of political and physical oppression known as the Apartheid, meaning apart. Mandela knew he had to fight against this system of exploitation.

He started the first black law firm in Johannesburg, and joined the African National Congress. At the same time the state was increasing police powers and jailing opponents, and soon Mandela found himself in jail, accused of treason. Condemned to life in prison, he spent more than two decades performing hard labor. On the outside, however, South Africans were organizing to fight the government. Riots, demonstrations, and boycott from other countries further isolated South Africa until its white minority had no choice but to grant political right to its majority.

In 1990, Mandela was freed from prison and pushed for further reforms. In 1994, he was elected to serve as the country’s first black president. During his administration he pushed for the Truth and Reconciliation commission, which studied the crimes perpetrated against the South African people.

Mandela retired from political life in 1998 but continued to be involved in making South Africa a better country for all of its people until his death in 2013.

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

Hoose, Phillip. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. 2009. 133p. ISBN 978-0-374-31322-7. Available at B COL on the library shelves.

Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin had no idea she would become the trigger that led to the desegregation of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama when, on March 2, 1955, she decided to remain in her seat instead of giving it up to a white woman. Arrested, handcuffed and jailed, Claudette fought the Jim Crow laws of the South and worked with the NAACP to take her case to court to challenge the constitutionality of “separate but equal.” Unfortunately, the city withdrew the violating segregating law charge and instead Claudette was convicted of assaulting a police officer. The case the South had been waiting for disappeared.

Instead of being praised, Claudette became a pariah at her school and in her community. It didn’t help matters that she became pregnant out of wedlock. Meanwhile, the NAACP’s local secretary, Rosa Parks, followed in Claudette’s steps and was arrested on the bus for not giving up her seat. Unlike Claudette, she was the perfect poster child: She was 42, a devout church goer, well appreciated in the community, and a hard worker.

With nothing changing, Dr. Martin Luther King and his colleagues called for a boycott of the Montgomery bus system, and filed a lawsuit against the city. Claudette was once again approached to testify, and she readily agreed. This time, the lawsuit was successful, and the bus company was ordered desegregated. Claudette’s refusal to give her seat nine months before Rosa Park had been the catalyst for change sought by the African-American community, and her actions directly contributed to the birth of the Civil Rights movement.

The Story of Writing

Donoughue, Carol. The Story of Writing. 2007. 48p. ISBN 978-1-55407-306-1. Available at 411 DOU on the library shelves.

How did we first begin writing? At some point in the distant past, our ancestors noticed that keeping track of information through the process of creating symbols and signs was easier than having to memorize it. As hunter-gatherer tribes grew into city-states, it became important to keep records of ownership, taxes, and obligations. Thus, writing evolved from scratch marks into sophisticated writing systems.

The first form of writing to truly take off was the cuneiform, used by the ancient Babylonians and other groups in what was Mesopotamia. Reeds cut in a specific way were pressed in wet clay which was then dried, thus allowing for the transmission of information. At about the same time, hieroglyphs appeared in Egypt. Unlike cuneiform, which had an alphabet of sorts, hieroglyphs were visual representations of ideas or sounds as well as objects. Similarly, Chinese script also represents ideas and sounds.

Phoenicians adapted cuneiform into the first true alphabet, which was spread around the Mediterranean. The Greeks made their own changes, and the Romans provided clearer lines to end up with our alphabet.

Middle age illustrations and calligraphy created beautiful works, but it wasn’t until the invention of the printing press that writing finally took off and began appealing to the masses. With instant communications, writing is changing and evolving again (witness the rise of emojis). The story of writing is fascinating and illustrates how great ideas spread around the world.

Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

Anderson, M.T. Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad. 2015. 456p. ISBN 9780763668181. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

The most successful Russian composer of the 20th century, Dmitri Shostakovich found himself at the center of three momentous events in Russian history. He was a young child in St. Petersburg when the October Revolution dethroned the Tsar and eventually enshrined Lenin and the Communist Party. He continued living in renamed Leningrad through the Soviet purges of the late 1920s and the Great Terror of Stalin in the 1930s. He wrote his first symphony at the age of 18, and kept on writing music for the rest of his life. Living in a totalitarian state, Shostakovich had to be very guarded and careful in what he wrote, and several times his music was judged as reactionary, an accusation passable with death. He came close numerous times to being arrested or executed by the regime, but managed to escape through luck or the intervention of others.

Following the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany in 1941, Shostakovich and 2.5 million other people were surrounded in Leningrad. The longest siege in history, the city of Leningrad was cut off on all sides by attacking German and Finnish armies, and, especially through the first winter, hundred of thousands died of hunger or fell under the relentless rain of bombs and artillery shells. Considered one of the prominent composers, Shostakovich was eventually evacuated with his immediate family and the rest of the Leningrad Conservatory towards safety east of the Urals. There, he completed his 7th Symphony, which he had begun writing in Leningrad.

What became known as the Leningrad Symphony was eventually played around the world, and premiered in Leningrad itself on August 9, 1943, still under siege. One of the most inspirational piece of music ever written, it gave the population hope that they would triumph over the German invaders.

This book is thus the story of Shostakovich and of his Seventh Symphony. But it is so much more than that. It is the story of an enduring people under incredible hardship and violence. It is the story of hope in the face of overwhelming odds. And it is the story of music’s power to motivate and celebrate life.

Interviews with M. T. Anderson

 

Walter Dean Myers

Hoover, Elizabeth. Walter Dean Myers. 2014. 96p. ISBN 978-1-4205-0859-8. Available at B MYE on the library shelves.

One of the most prolific young adult writers, Walter Dean Myers didn’t start out with the idea of writing. As a young boy, Myer’s father could not take care of him so he sent him to live with his first wife and her new husband. She was barely literate, but read to him every night from magazines, a habit he later picked up and continued. As an African-American youth, Myers was, as he said, “a demographic disaster waiting to happen,” and he was expected to find a menial low-paying job like the rest of the men of the neighborhood.

But Myers wanted more. He read voraciously, but hid this fact from his friends and family so he would not get picked on. A speech impediment was serious enough to prevent him from expressing himself, so he began to write. Not fitting in school, he eventually stopped going at all, and instead roamed the streets of Harlem.

Stuck in a dead-end job, Myers began to write, and a story was accepted for publication. Over the next decade, he established himself as a prolific and well-researched writer, who talks about his experiences growing up and what life was like in the neighborhoods where he grew up. Always pushing the envelope, Myers touched on controversial subjects, and published over 70 books.

An inspiration to many, Myer’s life is worth examining for the lessons in perseverance and on the craft of writing.

Wiesel, Wisenthal, Klardsfeld: The Holocaust Survivors

Yeatts, Tabatha. Wiesel, Wisenthal, Klardsfeld: The Holocaust Survivors. 2015. 96p. ISBN 978-0-7660-6202-3. Available at 940.53 YEA on the library shelves.

There are no words that can accurately describe the Holocaust, yet for thousands of European Jews who survived the Holocaust they had to explain to themselves and to others the horrors they had encountered during the Second World War.

This book describes the aftermath of the War, from the liberation of the concentration camps to the reactions of soldiers and survivors. Victory in Europe and the resettlement of concentration camp victims is presented, and the trials of major Nazi figures conducted by the International War Crimes Tribunal are explained.

Liberation brought along new pains and suffering. Many victims were not able to adapt and committed suicide. Others moved to Israel and to the United States. Some shared their stories, while others were unable to relive the horrors they had gone through. Some, like Wiesenthal, dedicated themselves to hunting Nazi war criminals, while others, like Wiesel, wrote their stories to try to convey their experience.

Throughout it all, though, there remains the central idea that this shall be no more. We remember the Holocaust so that it never happens again. Other books in the series include Schindler, Wallenberg, Miep Gies: The Holocaust Heroes, Anti-Semitism and the “Final Solution”: The Holocaust Overview, and Warsaw, Lodz, Vilna: The Holocaust Ghettos. You can also consult Elie Wiesel's story of survival in a Nazi concentration camp in Night.

Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps

Warren, Andrea. Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps. 2002. 146p. ISBN 9780060007676. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

Jack Mandelbaum is Polish and lives with his well-to-do family on the shores of the Baltic Sea, but the rumbles of war with Germany are getting louder. Hitler gained power six years ago, and has been clamoring for both more land and for the destruction of Jews. Jack’s family is not very religious, but all the same, Jews are becoming stigmatized.

As Poland mobilizes for war, Jack and his family are sent to the country to live with relatives. His father will catch up with them the following week. Unfortunately, Germany invades, and the family is permanently split.

Life becomes increasingly difficult for the Jews, and even those who are not living in urban ghettos are beat and starving. Jack works as hard as he can, making sure to always keep busy. But eventually, even Jews in the country are rounded up. Jack and his family are violently separated, and he ends up in the Blechhammer concentration camp. Thus begins a horrific life, living one moment to the next with the goal of staying alive one more day.

Over the next three years, Jack moves from camp to camp, and experiences the despair of human violence on other humans. As the Holocaust moves along, unlikely friendships with other camp dwellers and the thought of being reunited with his family is what keeps Jack alive through it all.

This biography of Jack’s life provides a provoking look at life under the most horrible conditions of starvation, violence, and hopelessness and shows that, beyond all of this, there can be redemption and not only surviving but triumphing over oppression.

Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods

Riordan, Rick. Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods. 2014. 336p. ISBN 978-1423183648. Available at FIC RIO on the library shelves.

When first asked by his editor to write a compendium on the Greek Gods, Percy Jackson is hesitant. After all, as a demi-god himself, he could catch a lot of flak from the Titans and the Olympians. But after thinking it over, he decides that such a book would be very helpful for mere mortals to understand the relationships between the rulers of Olympia.

Told from Percy’s perspective, this book presents a concise history of the twelve Olympians, as well as that Gaea and her children, the Titans. Each God and Goddess gets his or her own profile, including how they came about to be and what they have been up to since, all in the unmistakable voice of a teenager.

Beautifully illustrated, this volume is a must for the lovers of the Percy Jackson series and for those who want a hilarious look at the lives of the Greek Gods.

How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous

Bragg, Georgia. How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous. 2011. 184p. ISBN 978-0-8027-9817-6. Available at 920 BRA on the library shelves.

You know that George Washington had wooden teeth. You also know that Napoleon was known for holding his stomach in paintings and on the battlefield. But did you know that both George Washington’s mouth and Napoleon’s stomach were the direct cause of their deaths?

Everybody dies at some point in their life. Most die at home or anonymously, but we don’t find these deaths as interested as those of the awfully famous. Before modern medicine, death was painful and disgusting, and the death of famous people is well documented and provides a gross outlook on not only the process of death but the last minutes of those about to die. 

Witty and filled with interesting facts about deaths, Croaked explores the life and, more importantly, the death of 19 individuals: King Tut, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Christopher Columbus, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Pocahontas, Galileo Galilei, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Marie Antoinette, George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, James Garfield, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, and Albert Einstein.

The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie

Stone, Tanya Lee. The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll’s History and Her Impact on Us. 2010. 130p. ISBN 978-0-670-01187-2. Available at 688.7 STO on the library shelves.

Love her or hate her, everyone has an opinion about Barbie and her role in our society. From glamorizing sex to offering unachievable figures, this modern icon has greatly influenced boys and girls over the last fifty years.

This book, then, is the story of Barbie. She came from Ruth Handler’s imagination at a time when the only dolls on the market were baby dolls. And from her creation she became a multi-billion dollar business, the flagship for Mattel, a company started by Ruth and her husband. From clothes to mansions and cars, from changing fashion to changing roles, Barbie remains a subject to discuss, to explore, and to play with.