Deborah Hopkinson

NonfictionNature

The Language of Butterflies

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Science journalist Wendy Williams, perhaps best known for her New York Times bestseller The Horse, turns her attention to humanity’s long-standing love of butterflies, those “flying flowers” that inhabit the natural world and have long inspired poets, artists and avid, obsessive collectors. The idea for this informative, thought-provoking account was sparked after Williams viewed thousands of astonishing butterfly specimens collected over a century and now housed at Yale University. Curious, she embarked on a two-year quest to investigate not only the insects but also our fascination with all things Lepidoptera. 

Williams is a consummate storyteller, and her narrative seamlessly integrates scientific facts with vivid portraits of characters as colorful as the butterflies that intrigue and inspire them. While some, like Charles Darwin, are household names, readers will also meet lesser known historical figures including Maria Sibylla Merian, whose artwork and observations provided scientific evidence of how a caterpillar emerges from its chrysalis to become a specific butterfly, and 19th-century Colorado homesteader Charlotte Coplen Hill, a mother of seven who discovered an incredibly detailed butterfly fossil.

Williams also teams up with researchers and citizen scientists to explore threats to butterfly populations, including monarchs, whose life cycles are dependent upon milkweed. She retraces the work that led to the discovery of monarch overwintering sites in Mexico and delves further into the decline caused by habitat loss, climate change and other factors.

While the news for butterfly populations is sobering, Williams urges us to never give up the work of conservation. She advocates for “the joining together of countless people of many different nations, across generations, in a united effort to protect at least one small joyful piece of the natural world to which we belong.” The Language of Butterflies is more than a small contribution to this crucial effort.

Science journalist Wendy Williams turns her attention to the “flying flowers” of the natural world, which have long inspired poets, artists and avid, obsessive collectors.
Children's & YAMiddle Grade

On the Horizon

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

In 1940, when two-time Newbery Medalist Lois Lowry was 3 years old, her father made a home movie of her as she played on a beach in Hawaii, where Lowry’s family lived. Years later, while watching the film, Lowry realized the USS Arizona, the battleship that sank during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was visible on the horizon. The poignancy of the image stayed with the author and served as one of the inspirations for her book On the Horizon.

Each of On the Horizon’s three sections intertwine Lowry’s personal history with vignettes of sailors stationed at Pearl Harbor the day of the attack and of civilians in Japan, where Lowry moved with her family after the end of the war. Lowry’s desire to connect with and understand other people and their experiences unites the poems. In “Girl on a Bike,” for example, Lowry recalls the day she stopped outside a schoolyard to watch children playing. In an extraordinary coincidence, one of those children, a boy named Koichi Seii, grew up to become the Caldecott Medalist Allen Say. Say and Lowry never met in Japan, but years later, Say recalled seeing Lowry and her green bicycle outside his school that day.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Lois Lowry takes us behind the scenes of On the Horizon.

Lowry’s experiences—as a young child in Honolulu and a girl who grew up in Japan—provide her with a unique perspective on the major events that bookend World War II. But one of On the Horizon’s greatest strengths is that Lowry expands her gaze and incorporates the experiences of others. Although the USS Arizona was, that day on the beach, so far away as to appear “on the horizon,” Lowry employs a literary zoom lens to capture poignant portraits of the ship’s crew, including the members of the Navy band and commanding officer Captain Isaac Campbell Kidd. In “Captain Kidd,” Lowry links Kidd’s name to memories of her grandmother’s stories of pirates before revealing that, during the attack, Kidd ran to the bridge of the ship: “His Naval Academy ring / was found melted and fused to the mast. / It is not an imaginary thing, / a symbol of devotion so vast.”

Through deceptively plainspoken prose layered with imagery and linguistic artistry, On the Horizon’s remarkable poems are a powerful reminder of our shared humanity in times of conflict and war. Simply put, they are an extraordinary gift from one of America’s most distinguished writers.

Through deceptively plainspoken prose layered with imagery and linguistic artistry, On the Horizon’s remarkable poems are a powerful reminder of our shared humanity in times of conflict and war. Simply put, they are an extraordinary gift from one of America’s most distinguished writers.

NonfictionLatin American HistoryHistory

Coffeeland

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

The term “coffeeland” could easily describe the United States today. Long part of daily life and culture, coffee has evolved from an inexpensive, plain cup of joe to a dizzying array of menu choices. But in this fascinating history, Coffeeland: One Man’s Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug, Augustine Sedgewick digs deeper to explore the little-known saga of James Hill, an Englishman who founded a coffee dynasty in El Salvador, where he arrived in 1889 at age 19. Not only did Hill change his own family’s fortunes, he transformed his adopted country into a coffee monoculture. By the second half of the 20th century, coffee made up more than 90% of El Salvador’s exports, bringing wealth to some and poverty to others.

Sedgewick sets Hill’s story against the backdrop of the history of the coffee business, which has its roots in the mid-1500s in Constantinople. By the mid-1650s, the coffee craze had taken England by storm. The coffeehouse, and the replacement of ale by coffee as people’s daily drink, has been linked to societal transformation and innovation. But it was textiles, not coffee, that originally brought Hill to Central America. Once there, he met and married Lola Bernal, whose dowry included coffee plantations. (Today, the company he founded continues as J. Hill and Company.)

Some of the most interesting sections of Sedgewick’s narrative trace Hill’s efforts to make his coffee the best, becoming an eager student of all aspects of coffee, from production to marketing. Sedgewick also is adept at incorporating Hill’s enterprise into the fabric of major historical events that impacted the world coffee market, such as the Great Depression. Sedgewick brings his narrative to a close with a discussion of the role of coffee today, arguing that coffee has replaced sugar as the commodity that most often drives discussion about the world economy and issues of economic justice.

Impeccably researched, with an extensive bibliography, source notes and an index, Coffeeland is a rich and immensely readable journey into an aspect of 21st-century life worth learning more about.

The term “coffeeland” could easily describe the United States today. Long part of daily life and culture, coffee has evolved from an inexpensive, plain cup of joe to a dizzying array of menu choices. But in this fascinating history, Coffeeland: One Man’s Dark Empire and…

NonfictionMemoirFilm

Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

In 1970, a few weeks before he turned 17, Barry Sonnenfeld was at the Winter Festival for Peace concert at Madison Square Garden. It was after 2 a.m., the latest the teen had ever been out. Jimi Hendrix was warming up, and the audience buzzed in anticipation. “We were about to witness history,” recalls Sonnenfeld. Suddenly he heard his own name over the loudspeaker. “Barry Sonnenfeld. Call your mother.” The crowd took up his first name as a chant. Barry rushed to a phone, convinced his father had died. No, his mother said, weeping. She was calling because Barry had said he’d be home at 2. Barry’s father lived into his 90s.

Sonnenfeld, legendary cinematographer on the first three Coen brothers’ films and director of The Addams Family, Get Shorty and Men in Black, among others, does more than name-drop or recall Hollywood vignettes in this funny, wry and thoroughly entertaining memoir. Sonnenfeld is, above all, a storyteller, and while his own journey from a skinny, French horn-playing kid to a successful director drives the breezy narrative, he takes time to bring supporting characters irreverently to life—his overprotective mother, Kelly, who spent years threatening suicide, and his father, Sonny, who tormented her with his many affairs. Against this backdrop, Sonnenfeld’s loving and happy family life with his wife, Sweetie, shines through.

Movie buffs, of course, will be most pleased with anecdotes from Sonnenfeld’s time at NYU film school, his work with the Coen brothers and actor Penny Marshall, as well as the growth and development of his own directing style.

At the outset, Sonnenfeld shares what might be his life philosophy: Regret the past, fear the present, dread the future. Yet, somehow, he reflects, “I’ve managed to live an unusual and amazing life.”

 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our Q&A with Barry Sonnenfeld and seven other new and emerging memoirists.

Barry Sonnenfeld, legendary cinematographer on the first three Coen brothers’ films and director of The Addams Family, Get Shorty and Men in Black, among others, does more than name-drop or recall Hollywood vignettes in this funny, wry and thoroughly entertaining memoir.
NonfictionMemoir

Half Broke

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

In the author’s note of this fascinating memoir, Ginger Gaffney lets readers know exactly what’s to come. The dialogue is drawn from memory, and yes, she’s made some character composites of the more than 50 residents at the alternative prison ranch where she volunteered during the year and a half the book covers. But some of the most compelling characters here don’t speak in words: They are horses. And in Gaffney’s book, they come alive.

Gaffney has been a horse trainer for more than 20 years. In 2013, she was called to help with a small herd of aggressive horses at an alternative prison ranch near where she lives in New Mexico. In Half Broke, Gaffney alternates reports of her visits to the ranch with flashbacks about her own circuitous path to fulfillment and success.

The ranch’s residents are former addicts and felons; few have any knowledge of livestock. Gaffney focuses on healing—for both humans and horses—and recounts in vivid prose many of their successes. A wary mare named Luna with a dangerous injury finally lets the team close enough to treat her. The inmates slowly gain confidence, and we cheer when troubled Eliza blossoms, or when Randy is motivated to lose enough weight to be able to ride.

Things don’t always go smoothly, and Gaffney doesn’t shy away from setbacks when trouble strikes. But the horses never disappoint—whether it’s loyal Moo, spirited Rootbeer or damaged Luna, willing to trust and give humans another chance. Let’s hope there are more horse stories to come from Gaffney’s talented pen.

In the author’s note of this fascinating memoir, Ginger Gaffney lets readers know exactly what’s to come. The dialogue is drawn from memory, and yes, she’s made some character composites of the more than 50 residents at the alternative prison ranch where she volunteered during the…

Children's & YAPicture Book

Story Boat

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Story Boat begins very simply, with the words, “Here we are.” An unnamed young girl and her little brother have been forced to leave their home in search of safety. They travel with a group of refugees through rain and cold, in a landscape that is sometimes somber, other times hopeful. As the group journeys from place to place, “here” constantly changes. The young girl attempts to explain and comfort her little brother by pointing out what doesn’t change: the cups they hold, the blanket that keeps them cozy, a bright lamp, a flower and, of course, the stories they tell and the pictures they draw. Both solid and magical, these elements help sustain the children until their arrival in a new, promising here—a new home.

Acclaimed illustrator Rashin Kheiriyeh employs grays, blues and varyingly soft and fiery shades of coral to create their world as well as their flights of fancy. Her images have a timeless, folktale quality that illuminates Maclear’s prose, which meditates poetically on the meanings of here and home and explores the power of imagination and empathy. Luminous and thought-provoking, Story Boat contains deep layers of meaning that are sure to spark conversations from young readers.

Story Boat begins very simply, with the words, “Here we are.” An unnamed young girl and her little brother have been forced to leave their home in search of safety. They travel with a group of refugees through rain and cold, in a landscape that…

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

I, Cosmo

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

“I have always wanted to write a book from a dog’s perspective, because dogs have always been my closest friends,” writes author Carlie Sorosiak about I, Cosmo, her heartfelt new novel about a year in the life of a golden retriever named Cosmo and his family. 

As the story opens, the family prepares for Halloween, Cosmo’s least favorite holiday. Not only does Halloween involve a lot of chocolate, which he’s not allowed to eat, but Cosmo is also at the mercy of little Emmeline, who wants Cosmo to go dressed as a turtle this year. Says Cosmo, “I do not want to be a turtle.”

But 13-year-old Cosmo’s unhappiness runs deeper than being forced into an uncomfortable, embarrassing costume. His boy, Max, is sad. Sometimes Cosmo hears raised voices, family dance nights are no more, and the word “divorce” is in the air. The greatest worry of all is that Max and Cosmo might be separated.

Can dance bring the family together again? When Uncle Reggio, a canine specialist, returns from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, he takes Cosmo and Max to a special dance club for dogs. There, Cosmo discovers a love for his new movements as he and Max train for a competition. Although it becomes clear that dancing will not fix Max’s parents’ marriage, by the time Halloween rolls around again, both boy and dog have come to accept that even when families change, love remains.

The inclusion of Max’s Uncle Reggio, an African American veteran, brings depth to Sorosiak’s story. Uncle Reggio clearly senses Max’s anxieties and intercedes in a positive fashion, becoming a guide and role model. When Max and Cosmo falter on the dance floor, he’s there with sage advice: “Don’t focus on anyone else but you, though. The best that you can do is more than enough.” As for the dog-dancing competition: Yes, dog freestyle dancing is apparently really a thing!

With Cosmo serving as a humorous and lovable narrator, I, Cosmo’s sensitive handling of divorce in a biracial family will appeal to readers who enjoy realistic fiction and, of course, anyone who loves stories about very good dogs. 

“I have always wanted to write a book from a dog’s perspective, because dogs have always been my closest friends,” writes author Carlie Sorosiak about I, Cosmo, her heartfelt new novel about a year in the life of a golden retriever named Cosmo and his family. 

…
NonfictionChildren's & YA

Infinite Hope

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

At 96 years old, Ashley Bryan has published numerous books for young readers, including the Newbery Honor book Freedom Over Me. Infinite Hope is the extraordinary memoir of this hugely beloved figure in children’s literature. Like many veterans, Bryan has never talked about his military service, so his story may take people by surprise.

When his draft notice arrived in 1943, Bryan was a 19-year-old art student who was already familiar with prejudice. One art school interviewer told him his portfolio was the best the school had seen, but “it would be a waste to give a scholarship to a colored person.” With his teachers’ encouragement, Bryan was accepted to Cooper Union, which judged applicants blind. Even this did not prepare Bryan for what he would experience when he joined the Army. “As a Black soldier, I found myself facing unequal treatment in a war that Blacks hoped would lead our nation closer to its professed goal of equal treatment for all.”

Infinite Hope tells the story of Bryan’s journey as a stevedore in the 502nd Port Battalion through mixed media, with large photographs interspersed with sketches, paintings and excerpts from his diary and letters. The result is both an intimate portrait of Bryan himself and a rare insight into the African American experience of World War II and the invasion of Normandy, where Bryan worked nonstop on Omaha Beach unloading cargo in the months after D-Day. Later, while guarding German prisoners of war in France after the war’s end, Bryan realized the Germans were given more respect than black American soldiers. After arriving home in early 1946, Bryan locked his WWII drawings away and rarely spoke of his experiences.

Infinite Hope makes Bryan’s incredible artwork, created in the midst of war, available for the first time. It is a must-read for young people, parents, educators and anyone interested in World War II. Most of all, it is the work of an inspiring American who truly embodies infinite grace.

At 96 years old, Ashley Bryan has published numerous books for young readers, including the Newbery Honor book Freedom Over Me. Infinite Hope is the extraordinary memoir of this hugely beloved figure in children’s literature. Like many veterans, Bryan has never talked about his…

YA FictionYA

Where the World Ends

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

A harrowing story of survival based on an actual 18th-century event is brought to life by British author Geraldine McCaughrean, winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for The White Darkness. As in that book, which was set in Antarctica, Where the World Ends takes place in a harsh, unfamiliar landscape: the St. Kilda archipelago, a cluster of islands northwest of Scotland.

The novel follows nine boys and three men who are taken, by boat, from their village and dropped off on Warrior Stac, “a rock whale pitching its whole bulk into the sky, covered in barnacles, aiming to swallow the moon,” where they will hunt birds for several weeks before being picked up and returned to the village.

Quill has been fowling on the stac before. Although he usually enjoys the challenge of hunting, this year, as the boat leaves, he strains to catch a glimpse of Murdina, the girl with whom he has fallen in love.

Hunting birds on the cliffs is treacherous. Quill and his friends are tested from the very beginning, but then the unthinkable happens: The boat does not return for them. Weeks go by, then months. One boy has a vision that their loved ones have all gone up to heaven, while they have been overlooked, left behind on the rock.

The seasons change, the birds leave their cliff nests, and each day is fraught with peril as the members of the party struggle to stay alive and sane. There are surprises and tragedies, and while all the characters are tested (the adults fail miserably), it is Quill’s trials that will keep readers riveted. Although no one in this book escapes sorrow and heartbreak, the story ends with a glimmer of hope.

McCaughrean’s storytelling is as dramatic and harsh as the island landscape. She includes a helpful glossary, a historical note and sketches of the marvelous seabirds that appear in the book. Already a classic in the U.K., where it won the prestigious Carnegie Medal, Where the World Ends is a stunning literary achievement.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Go behind the book with Where the World Ends author Geraldine McCaughrean.

A harrowing story of survival based on an actual 18th-century event is brought to life by British author Geraldine McCaughrean, winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for The White Darkness. As in that book, which was set in Antarctica, Where the World Ends takes place…

NonfictionWomen's HistoryHistory

The Season

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

When she was 17, Kristen Richardson was invited to become a debutante. The prospect of being on display held no interest for her, but as Richardson attended the ritualized “coming-out” parties of friends, she became fascinated by the enduring upper-class ritual, which has been largely overlooked by historians. In The Season: A Social History of the Debutante, Richardson argues that if we dismiss such traditions, “we miss a key part of women’s history, and of the history of marriage as well.”

Readers of Jane Austen and Regency romances are, of course, familiar with the role that “the season” played in early 19th-century England. For middle-class families with marriageable daughters, a season involved considerable preparation, expense and sacrifice: renting a house in London, scrambling for acceptance at Almack’s assembly rooms, getting a suitable wardrobe. And there was always the pressure on debutantes to make a “successful” marriage. 

What makes Richardson’s account of debutante rituals so fascinating is her exploration of how the practice was exported to the United States, with dancing masters in demand in cities like Charleston and Philadelphia in the 1740s. Blending research and vignettes, she expertly traces the practice through old New York, the antebellum South and into the Gilded Age, when girls outside the tightknit structure of New York society went abroad to seek a husband or a title. (Think Cora, the Countess of Grantham, in “Downton Abbey.”) 

Richardson brings her chronology up to modern times, revealing how presentations, sometimes organized by closed secret societies, continue in cities like Charleston, New Orleans, St. Louis and San Antonio. There’s even an explosion of debutantes in China and Russia. One chapter explores African American debutantes and social clubs, where events have often included a charitable aspect with a focus on community service and education. 

The debutante ball, it turns out, isn’t a thing of the past at all. Sometimes young women use it to create a persona or promote a personal brand. But as Richardson reminds us in this engaging and thought-provoking history, the use of daughters to cement power and wealth is very hard to give up. 

When she was 17, Kristen Richardson was invited to become a debutante. The prospect of being on display held no interest for her, but as Richardson attended the ritualized “coming-out” parties of friends, she became fascinated by the enduring upper-class ritual, which has been largely…

NonfictionMemoir

Running With Sherman

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

“Look, the most humane thing might be to put him down now.” That was the hoof expert’s verdict after one look at the traumatized, mistreated donkey Christopher McDougall and his family had just taken in. The donkey, which they named Sherman, had been rescued from a hoarder’s farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. 

Since relocating from the city, McDougall and his wife, Mika, had tried their hands at keeping chickens, a stray cat and a phone-book-munching goat named Lawrence. But an ailing donkey was a whole different story. And what a story Sherman turned out to be. 

McDougall, author of Born to Run, believes that “movement is big medicine.” And if movement-as-medicine works for people, why wouldn’t it work for a donkey? So McDougall concocts the idea of training Sherman to run in a world championship burro race in Colorado. With help from family and neighbors, including a young man named Zeke who’s been struggling with depression, “Team Sherman” sets out to fulfill a quest of healing.

Running With Sherman includes some wonderful photos of the endearing Sherman and his clan. And while you may not decide to take up burro racing yourself, McDougall’s inspiring story is not to be missed.

“Look, the most humane thing might be to put him down now.” That was the hoof expert’s verdict after one look at the traumatized, mistreated donkey Christopher McDougall and his family had just taken in. The donkey, which they named Sherman, had been rescued from…

YA FictionYAHistorical Fiction

The Fountains of Silence

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

In her stunning new novel, New York Times bestselling author Ruta Sepetys, author of Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Gray, turns her attention to a period rarely (if ever) covered in American young adult literature: 1950s Spain under the rule of Francisco Franco.

The first part of The Fountains of Silence takes place in Madrid in 1957, as Sepetys follows four young people who are all trying to set the course for their futures through alternating chapters narrated in third person. Rafa must deal with blood every day in his job at a slaughterhouse, but blood is a part of his past as well. He is tormented by the memory of his father’s murder—which he and his sisters, Julia and Ana, witnessed firsthand—at the hands of “the Crows,” Franco’s guards.

Ana, Rafa’s sister, is now a maid in a hotel and dreams of leaving Spain. She is drawn to a guest at the hotel named Daniel, a young white man from Texas. Daniel wants to be a photojournalist, a dream his father, a Texas oilman, is sure Daniel will outgrow. The fourth and final character, Puri, works with babies at a Madrid orphanage—some of whom may have been stolen from their parents.

The novel depicts these characters’ lives, loves and often-difficult decisions as their paths intertwine. The second part of the book revisits all four characters nearly two decades later, when Daniel returns to Madrid after Franco’s death on November 20, 1975, and discovers a shocking secret.

In an author’s note, Sepetys traces her interest in Spain to a trip she took while on a book tour, where she met readers fascinated by the past—a past that was often both hidden and painful. “I discovered that Spain is a classroom for the human spirit,” she writes. A 2011 article about the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath drew her further into the country’s history. (For readers interested in learning more, the novel includes a substantial bibliography as well as a glossary.)

With The Fountains of Silence, Sepetys has once again written gripping historical fiction with great crossover appeal to adult readers, combining impeccable research with sweeping storytelling.

 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read Ruta Sepetys’ Behind the Book essay about The Fountains of Silence.

In her stunning new novel, New York Times bestselling author Ruta Sepetys, author of Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Gray, turns her attention to a period rarely (if ever) covered in American young adult literature: 1950s Spain under the rule…

NonfictionPolitics

Antisocial

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

“To change how we talk is to change who we are,” notes Andrew Marantz toward the end of Antisocial, his breathtaking, page-turning foray into the clash between Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and online extremists. He continues, “More and more every day, how we talk is a function of how we talk on the internet.”

A staff writer for The New Yorker and contributor to “Radiolab” and “The New Yorker Radio Hour,” Marantz spent three years immersed in two different worlds. Rather like a war correspondent, he focused on both the new social media tycoons and a variety of online extremists.

And while the title might lead you to expect a dense, academic treatment, Marantz’s narrative is like going along for the ride in a foreign landscape, bouncing into the unknown on a bumpy road. The book begins, for instance, with a lively, rather humorous foray into the 2017 DeploraBall, a party in Washington, D.C., for, as one participant told Marantz, “all the big names from MAGA Twitter.”

Marantz has a keen eye for character, and Antisocial sometimes reads like a novel about people with oversize personalities. But his intentions are serious, and ultimately Antisocial is an insightful look at two powerful forces shaping American society. There are the social media entrepreneurs motivated by a vision of the internet bringing people closer together and toppling traditional media gatekeepers and outlets. And, often in direct opposition to that vision, there are extremists, conspiracy theorists, white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

Traveling with Marantz is indeed a dizzying and often disturbing ride. Depending on what readers know about social media, the characters Marantz encounters may or may not be familiar names. But some of the ideas and positions they espouse are increasingly impossible to ignore.

Whether you use social media or not, Antisocial is an important look at groups that are molding the nation. “We like to assume that the arc of history will bend inexorably toward justice,” Marantz notes in his prologue, “but this is wishful thinking.”

“To change how we talk is to change who we are,” notes Andrew Marantz toward the end of Antisocial, his breathtaking, page-turning foray into the clash between Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and online extremists. He continues, “More and more every day, how we talk is a…

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