Deborah Hopkinson

Children's & YAPicture Book

An architect’s vision

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

“In Iraq, rivers flow through green marshes. Wind swoops across sand dunes and through ancient cities. Zaha Hadid sees the rivers and marshes and dunes and ruins with her father and imagines what cities looked like thousands of years ago.”

So begins Jeanette Winter’s picture book biography of the renowned architect Zaha Hadid, who died in 2016 at the age of 65. Winter, herself the architect of many acclaimed books, notes that she was inspired by seeing photos of Hadid’s architectural designs, in which the “buildings seemed to fly. My spirit also took flight—to a place in my imagination that only landscape had taken me before.”

Winter’s book makes effective use of white space as she chronicles Hadid’s career as a young architectural student in London and her early challenges. Hadid entered many architectural competitions before finally winning one; and then her entry was so daring the city committee refused to build it. But Hadid didn’t, of course, give up.

Winter’s art helps young readers imagine Hadid’s creative process, as we see her design buildings that are not rectangles, but instead resemble shells, tall dancing grass and the swirling shapes of constellations. The book includes extensive source notes as well as a double-page spread depicting the locations of some of Hadid’s most famous buildings.

“The world is not a rectangle,” said the pioneering architect, who was the first woman to receive the most prestigious awards in her field. And speaking of awards, Winter’s elegant, luminous tribute is sure to garner a few.

 

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is Independence Cake.

“In Iraq, rivers flow through green marshes. Wind swoops across sand dunes and through ancient cities. Zaha Hadid sees the rivers and marshes and dunes and ruins with her father and imagines what cities looked like thousands of years ago.”

NonfictionBusiness & Finance

Object history

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

You might expect a book about inventions that shaped the modern economy to begin with the invention of computers, the internet, or perhaps some important but obscure financial software you can’t begin to understand. Instead, bestselling author Tim Harford, a senior columnist at the Financial Times whose previous works include The Undercover Economist, begins with the plow.

Yes, the plow. And for good reason. According to Harford, not only did the plow create the underpinnings of civilization, different types of plows led to different types of civilizations which reshaped social structures, family life and economic and political systems.

From this beginning, Harford effortlessly leaps across time and continents to show readers various inventions in a new light, revealing unexpected insights into 21st-century society. Harford notes, “Inventions shape our lives in unpredictable ways—and while they’re solving a problem for someone, they’re often creating a problem for someone else.”

Some of the inventions Harford highlights are what you might expect to find: the bank, double-entry bookkeeping and the iPhone being among them. And then, of course, for anyone old enough to remember The Graduate, there’s plastic.

But other inventions may be less known, including the Billy Bookcase (a cheaper bookcase), M-Pesa (more than 20 million Kenyans use it to move money by mobile phones) and the Haber-Bosch process (which uses nitrogen from the air to make ammonia, which can then be used to make fertilizer).

Tim Harford ends his fantastically enlightening book by talking about an invention that has improved our lives “almost beyond our ability to measure.” I’ll give you a hint: if you’re reading this review after dark, you’re probably using one somewhere in your house.

You might expect a book about inventions that shaped the modern economy to begin with the invention of computers, the internet, or perhaps some important but obscure financial software you can’t begin to understand. Instead, bestselling author Tim Harford, a senior columnist at the Financial Times whose previous works include The Undercover Economist, begins with the plow.

NonfictionHistoryAmerican History

Six who went back

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Sons and Soldiers, the new offering from bestselling author Bruce Henderson, is a compelling account of Jewish refugees who came to the U.S., then returned to Germany to fight against Hitler. Nearly 2,000 German-born soldiers of the U.S. Army were sent to the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie in Maryland. Known as the “Ritchie Boys,” the soldiers were trained to use their language skills as interrogators in the field.

Although nonfiction, the book reads like a novel, as Henderson focuses on six young men, each with a harrowing personal story of escape from Germany. Martin Selling was especially lucky. In November 1938, as part of the violent campaign known as Kristallnacht, he was sent to Dachau for several months. Thanks to the efforts of an aunt, Selling was freed, and eventually made his way to America. Although he had experienced the horrors of Nazi interrogation firsthand, he developed a non-confrontational debriefing technique that uncovered information that saved American lives time and time again.

Getting to know the men as unique individuals adds depth to their later wartime experiences serving in campaigns such as D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge. Perhaps the most heartbreaking aspect is the young soldiers’ attempts to find friends and family members after the end of hostilities as they—and the world—came to realize the full horror of the Holocaust.

Based on interviews with the veterans and archival materials, Henderson has crafted a fascinating narrative that also serves as a somber reminder, once again, of the devastating personal toll that World War II exacted from innocent, loving families.

Sons and Soldiers, the new offering from bestselling author Bruce Henderson, is a compelling account of Jewish refugees who came to the U.S., then returned to Germany to fight against Hitler.

Children's & YAPicture Book

Love and loss

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

“There was a cat who lived alone.” So begins award-winning author/illustrator Elisha Cooper’s simple and profound story of the cycle of love and loss told through the saga of a family’s cats. Cooper uses bold, black lines, white space and affectionate, loving depictions of the animal characters to create a book that can be read again and again.

At the outset, readers see a white cat that goes about daily activities children will easily recognize: looking out the window at the bird feeder, grooming itself, waiting by the fridge for dinner and perching on the top of the furniture.

And then, one day, a new cat arrives: a little black kitten. And the first cat becomes its friend, showing it how to be and what to do. We see both pets growing, playing and settling into their routines (there are now two frustrated felines with their noses pressed against the window to watch birds!).

But time passes, and subtly we see the first cat grow older. It naps on a blanket now, instead of joining the other cat. The inevitable happens. In a powerful silhouette image—our first glimpse of the humans of this family—we learn that the big cat doesn’t come back. This is hard. “For everyone.” But then a new cat comes, and the cycle begins again.

With all the makings of an instant classic, Big Cat, Little Cat captures the love we feel for the animals in our lives and the affection they have for one another. And as an added bonus, pet lovers won’t want to miss the dedication to a long list of furry friends.

 

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is Independence Cake.

With all the makings of an instant classic, Big Cat, Little Cat captures the love we feel for the animals in our lives and the affection they have for one another. And as an added bonus, pet lovers won’t want to miss the dedication to a long list of furry friends.

Science Fiction & FantasyYA FictionYAFantasy

Literary dystopia (literally)

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Readers who devoured Ink and Bone and Paper and Fire, the first two titles in bestselling author Rachel Caine’s Great Library series, have a summer reading treat in store. Ash and Quill continues this ingenious saga of an alternate world in which the Great Library of Alexandria has not only survived but also become immensely powerful, controlling all knowledge and even the ownership of books.

Jess Brightwell is a likable, compelling hero. He has been raised to love books, despite the fact that his family has “smuggled them, sold them, and profited from them.” As the story opens, Jess and his friends have been transported from London by the Translation Chamber, which can destroy a person and then recreate him or her far away. Jess has landed in the rebellious colonies of America (Philadelphia, to be exact) where “Burners” refuse to submit to the Library’s rule.

There, in a half-ruined sports stadium, Jess is forced to witness books being burned before he is jailed. But, as he reflects, “Prisons—like locks—were made to be broken.”

Ash and Quill is a page-turning adventure, full of danger and intrigue. There’s romance, too, as Jess and the courageous Morgan take on the challenge of trying to save the true core of the Library from evil plotters within.

While Ash and Quill is perfect for teen readers, parents intrigued by the alternate future depicted in Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle might want to borrow this one to stick in a beach bag.

 

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is Independence Cake.

This article was originally published in the July 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Readers who devoured Ink and Bone and Paper and Fire, the first two titles in bestselling author Rachel Caine’s Great Library series, have a summer reading treat in store. Ash and Quill continues this ingenious saga of an alternate world in which the Great Library of Alexandria has not only survived but also become immensely powerful, controlling all knowledge and even the ownership of books.

NonfictionMemoir

A mother always knows

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

In 2000, Pia de Jong and her husband, Robbert Dijkgraaf, eagerly welcomed their third child, a daughter named Charlotte. Five years earlier, the couple had moved into a 17th-century brick canal house in Amsterdam. A sign above the door gave the construction date: 1632.

De Jong felt welcomed by the house—and the colorful cast of characters in the neighborhood: There’s a young, blonde prostitute doing business in the alley who can guess that de Jong is pregnant just by looking at her; Mackie, an angry man who watches over not only his aging mother, but the entire neighborhood; and across the canal is Rutger, an old, sick man who tells de Jong, “That house belongs to you. It was waiting all these years for you to move in. I should know. I’ve lived across from it all my life.”

When newborn Charlotte arrives, she is embraced by her parents and two older brothers, as well as by this odd, eccentric community. But it is clear from the first that something is wrong. The midwife finds an unusual bump on the baby’s skin that when touched turns blue. Charlotte has congenital myeloid leukemia. Informed that the prognosis is poor, de Jong and her husband, with the support of their compassionate oncologist, choose to actively watch and wait rather than subject Charlotte to potentially deadly chemotherapy.

With a novelist’s sense of story and characters, de Jong paints a vivid picture of Charlotte’s first year. Even when we don’t see the neighbors, we feel their concern cradling the family, and especially this small, brave baby, who keeps fighting—and eventually goes into remission.

Several cases of spontaneous remission have occurred, and “watchful waiting” is now a standard protocol for this type of leukemia. The subject of this inspiring, heartfelt memoir is now a healthy teenager living with her family in Princeton, New Jersey.

 

This article was originally published in the July 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In 2000, Pia de Jong and her husband, Robbert Dijkgraaf, eagerly welcomed their third child, a daughter named Charlotte. Five years earlier, the couple had moved into a 17th-century brick canal house in Amsterdam. A sign above the door gave the construction date: 1632.

Children's & YAPicture Book

Big brother to the rescue

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Jimmy is minding his own business when a loud howl reaches his ears. He springs into action, racing through a secret door in the closet to his secret base, where he is transformed into Kid Amazing. The Commissioner (busy washing dishes) gives him his assignment. “Could you please see what is going on?” In a flash, Kid Amazing is on it. He knows there is only one creature who could “howl such an annoying howl”: his arch nemesis, the Blob!

It’s not easy to make his way through the Blob’s terrible stink perimeter, but nothing stops Kid Amazing, not even the slime-covered floor or the frightening skull on the food-spattered bib. The Blob’s howls (delivered from her high chair) fill the entire room. But Kid Amazing somehow manages to locate the Blob’s howl neutralizer. (Three guesses as to what that is!)

Mission accomplished, Kid Amazing reports his success—and that the Blob (aka little sister) is in desperate need of a “new stink-containment unit.” But can Kid Amazing rest on his laurels? Is there more trouble in store? Kids and parents will have to turn the last page of Josh Schneider’s hilarious, inventive portrait (complete with detailed pictures of Kid Amazing’s arsenal of gadgets) of a superhero big brother to find out.

Schneider is the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award-winning creator of Tales for Very Picky Eaters. His first picture book, You’ll Be Sorry, was named “Book that Provides Best Ammunition to Parents Weary of Warning Their Kids About Socking their Siblings” by Publishers Weekly. They might have to come up with a new category for Kid Amazing vs. the Blob.

 

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is Independence Cake.

Jimmy is minding his own business when a loud howl reaches his ears. He springs into action, racing through a secret door in the closet to his secret base, where he is transformed into Kid Amazing. The Commissioner (busy washing dishes) gives him his assignment. “Could you please see what is going on?” In a flash, Kid Amazing is on it. He knows there is only one creature who could “howl such an annoying howl”: his arch nemesis, the Blob!

NonfictionAnimals

What your best friend is really trying to say

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Twenty years ago, bestselling author, journalist and photographer Jon Katz left a busy Manhattan life to buy his first farm in upstate New York. In his new work of nonfiction, Talking to Animals, Katz reflects on two decades of living close to animals. But this new book encompasses much more than Katz recounting how he’s learned to communicate with the animals in his life: unforgettable dogs, as well as a blind pony, a donkey, an old rooster named Winston and a 3,000-pound Swiss steer called Elvis. Talking to Animals is also an autobiography of sorts, a meditation that illuminates the author’s journey from childhood trauma, through divorce, to healing, fulfillment and love.

One of the pleasures of Katz’s writing is getting to know the individual animals that have played such an important part in his life—especially the dogs. From his first puppy, Lucky, who provided solace to a bullied child, to the wonderful Border Collie Rose, who helped Katz learn to live on a farm and take care of lambs, each animal comes alive as fully as a character in fiction. Rose was also part of the dramatic encounter that revealed to Katz the possibilities of communicating with animals in a different way. One evening in the woods, he and Rose found their path blocked by three coyotes. Fearing that the untrained young dog would charge ahead, Katz closed his eyes and painted a picture of what he wanted to happen: “I imagined Rose still, ears up, tail up, back straight.” To his astonishment, Rose followed his visualized command, intimidating the intruders.

Looking back, Katz notes that each animal in his life “has taught me something. Sometimes it is about listening, sometimes about talking. Often it is about me.” Readers who live with and love animals might well say the same—and may find themselves looking at their four-legged companions in new ways.     

Twenty years ago, bestselling author, journalist and photographer Jon Katz left a busy Manhattan life to buy his first farm in upstate New York. In his new work of nonfiction, Talking to Animals, Katz reflects on two decades of living close to animals.
Children's & YAMiddle Grade

A summer on the wing

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

BookPage Children’s Top Pick, June 2017

Eleven-year-old Lauren Hall is short. And a geek. And also a boy stuck with a girl’s name. That might not be so bad if, like the grandfather for whom he was named, Ren was athletic. And so, even though he’d rather be reading comic books, Ren wakes up early every day to train for the upcoming cross-country team tryouts. If only he liked to run.

To make matters worse, Ren and his parents have moved into his late grandparents’ house, eight miles away from town and his best friend, Aiden. Aiden isn’t just growing taller; he seems ready to outgrow their friendship, too.

All in all, summer’s a disappointment—until the morning Ren sees pigeons tumbling through the sky above the neighboring farmhouse. The birds belong to his new neighbor, Sutton Davies. Sutton has bright, dyed-red hair and a fierce determination to make her Birmingham Roller pigeons into champions. It won’t be easy to train the kit of pigeons to execute in unison the distinctive backward somersault, especially now that her dad is in the hospital after a car accident. But maybe Ren can help.

Darcy Miller’s middle grade debut features a rural setting in southern Minnesota and engaging characters; especially welcome is a boy narrator navigating shifting social dynamics. Don’t be surprised if readers want to return to the library, eager to find out more about those fascinating birds known as Birmingham Rollers. Roll is a great summer book for pigeon fanciers—or any young reader who fancies a good story.

 

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is Independence Cake.

This article was originally published in the June 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Eleven-year-old Lauren Hall is short. And a geek. And also a boy stuck with a girl’s name. That might not be so bad if, like the grandfather for whom he was named, Ren was athletic. And so, even though he’d rather be reading comic books, Ren wakes up early every day to train for the upcoming cross-country team tryouts. If only he liked to run.

Children's & YAPicture Book

Making friends and carrying on a legacy

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

In this lovely tale of gardens and friendship, a young narrator named Laurel observes Honey, her neighbor with a green thumb. Laurel enjoys handouts of tiny carrots and juicy, yellow tomatoes, watches through her window when Honey digs in the rain and sometimes joins Honey for a nighttime picnic.

But when Honey must sell her house, Laurel experiences the sadness of losing a friend. Not only that, she realizes Honey won’t be around to enjoy the fruits of all her hard work. Honey assures her that’s just fine. And if the new owners add something, “the garden will keep going . . . maybe forever.”

When the new neighbors, who know nothing about gardens, move in, Laurel is ready. She transitions from observing to acting, using all she learned from Honey to keep the garden growing.

Author Laurel Snyder’s gentle, lyrical text is brought to vivid life by Samantha Cotterill’s exuberant illustrations, which capture the joy of gardening and the growing friendship between a child and her neighbor. In a helpful author’s note, Snyder explains that The Forever Garden is based loosely on a Talmudic story. “I love the idea that people are gardens too,” she writes, “and that they bear the fruit tended by many generations of gardeners.” This is the perfect book to welcome spring, reminding us to tend not only gardens but also the friendships we treasure.

 

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is A Letter to My Teacher.

This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In this lovely tale of gardens and friendship, a young narrator named Laurel observes Honey, her neighbor with a green thumb. Laurel enjoys handouts of tiny carrots and juicy, yellow tomatoes, watches through her window when Honey digs in the rain and sometimes joins Honey for a nighttime picnic.

NonfictionHistory

Facing a common enemy

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

BookPage Top Pick in Nonfiction, May 2017

In the early hours of April 9, 1940, King Haakon VII of Norway was awakened by an aide shouting, “Majesty, we are at war!” The frantic and desperate flight of the Norwegian king and his government into snow-clad mountains and eventually to London is just one of the spellbinding stories in Lynne Olson’s masterful account of England in World War II, Last Hope Island.

Olson, a former White House correspondent for the Baltimore Sun, has written three previous books about World War II, and she brings both a journalist’s eye and a novelist’s command of character and setting to this subject. Here, in addition to King Haakon, she brings to life the indomitable Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, who kept her people’s spirits up through her energetic BBC broadcasts. Olson details the contributions of Polish pilots to the RAF and shows how courageous, ordinary Europeans participated in resistance efforts and in secret escape networks to guide downed pilots back to England. Olson does not shy away from a sharp critique of England’s SOE, the Special Operations Executive, a rival organization to MI6. Inept SOE officials failed to follow their own security protocols, even after radio operators tried desperately to communicate that their networks had been compromised. In a particular case in the Netherlands, this resulted in the tragic death of agents who were nabbed by the Germans immediately upon parachuting into a dark field.

For American readers inclined to begin their World War II reading after U.S. entry into the conflict, Last Hope Island opens a fascinating trove of stories, characters and facts. The final chapters deal with postwar Europe. In this way, Olson’s book, 10 years in the making, not only helps illuminate the past but also serves as an insightful backdrop for today’s discussion of the future of 21st-century European alliances.

 

This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In the early hours of April 9, 1940, King Haakon VII of Norway was awakened by an aide shouting, “Majesty, we are at war!” The frantic and desperate flight of the Norwegian king and his government into snow-clad mountains and eventually to London is just one of the spellbinding stories in Lynne Olson’s masterful account of England in World War II, Last Hope Island.

Children's & YAPicture Book

Learning about healthy eating with an adorable new friend

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Everyone loves books about bears, mice, kittens and puppies. Other animals barely stand a chance at being popular with young readers. Even hippos, lemurs and wildebeests beat out snails in the favorite animal department.

Up until now, that is. Escargot is a quirky story of a jaunty French snail eager to make the case that snails deserve a shot at being your favorite animal. If you think snails are too slimy, Escargot explains that it’s “not slime . . . more like shimmery trails of . . . shimmery stuff.” If you think snails are too slow, well, that’s only because a French snail likes to relax before enjoying his salad. And if you think snails are too shy, Escargot is eager to demonstrate that he is quite fierce. In fact, his fierce face can scare away a lion, a wild boar—and even a carrot that might sneak into the beautiful salad waiting at the end of the story.

By the time young readers get to that salad, they still might not be ready to rush out to get a pet snail, but they might be persuaded to enjoy some greens—and even carrots. Dashka Slater and Sydney Hanson have conjured a sweet little snail sure to appeal to the preschool set. And adults will certainly savor a story that supports healthy eating—and giggles.

 

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is A Letter to My Teacher.

This article was originally published in the April 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Everyone loves books about bears, mice, kittens and puppies. Other animals barely stand a chance at being popular with young readers. Even hippos, lemurs and wildebeests beat out snails in the favorite animal department. Up until now, that is.

Nonfiction

A lighthearted exploration of time itself

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

There’s probably no better time to read Alan Burdick’s entertaining and thought-provoking exploration of time in all its facets than early in a new year. Yes, we're already in the second month of 2017. So just why does time seem to fly, faster and faster with each year?

As the subtitle, “A Mostly Scientific Investigation,” suggests, Burdick, a staff writer at The New Yorker and a National Book award finalist for his first book, Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion, addresses the fascinating subject of our concept of time from primarily (but not entirely) a scientific perspective.

Certainly some of the most intriguing aspects of the work are its exploration of accurate time (it’s more complicated than you might think) as well as interviews with scientists, including developmental psychologist David Lewkowicz, who has studied how infants begin to recognize when things happen together in time. Another section introduces readers to John Wearden, a British psychologist who has spent three decades trying to unravel how humans perceive time. In between Burdick explores the work of St. Augustine, Stephen Hawking, H.G. Wells and lesser known figures, including a French geologist named Michel Siffre who subjected himself to underground experiments to see how he would fare without knowing the time (not so well).

Burdick begins his far-ranging account at a moment we can all recognize: waking in the night to the ticking of a clock and an “understanding that time moves in one direction only.” For, inevitably, it is hard to think about time without reflecting on our own lives. And Burdick does not shy away from that. One of the marvels of Why Time Flies is the grace with which the author weaves into the narrative his own experience as a writer and father of twin sons.

Burdick has created something unique and quite wonderful here, a book sure to be savored by armchair philosophers, avid readers of science, and just about anyone who’s wondered, “Where did the time go?”

There’s probably no better time to read Alan Burdick’s entertaining and thought-provoking exploration of time in all its facets than early in a new year. Yes, we're already in the second month of 2017. So just why does time seem to fly, faster and faster with each year?

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