Reviews and Comments

nerd teacher [books]

whatanerd@bookwyrm.social

Joined 3 years, 11 months ago

Exhausted anarchist and school abolitionist who can be found at nerdteacher.com where I muse about school and education-related things, and all my links are here. My non-book posts are mostly at @whatanerd@treehouse.systems, occasionally I hide on @whatanerd@eldritch.cafe, or you can email me at n@nerdteacher.com. [they/them]

I was a secondary literature and humanities teacher who has swapped to being a tutor, so it's best to expect a ridiculously huge range of books.

And yes, I do spend a lot of time making sure book entries are as complete as I can make them. Please send help.

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Tom Mills: The BBC (Hardcover, 2016, Verso) No rating

Unsurprisingly, one of the most common ways of the right (and, honestly, anyone with a neoliberal agenda) pushing through their beliefs is by creating reports that are factually incorrect but enable intimidation and harassment unless their beliefs are adhered to.

You'd think people would recognise this pattern, but I guess it's difficult when you wan to pretend a lot of these think-tank groups are there purely as independent outsiders and don't want to investigate their motives further.

Kerry Greenwood: Murder on the Ballarat Train (2013, C & R Press)

When the roaring 1920s' most glamorous lady detective, the Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher, arranges to …

Hard Not to Compare

Content warning Some spoilers for the story, mentions of childhood death and adoption.

Kerry Greenwood: Murder on the Ballarat Train (2013, C & R Press)

When the roaring 1920s' most glamorous lady detective, the Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher, arranges to …

One of the things I'm noticing as differences between the books and the TV series is the number of women. WPC Jones features in at least two books, and she's removed entirely from the show; Mrs Butler comes with Mr Butler as a set in the books, but she's written out of the show. Sasha's sister (in the first book) is written out and collapsed into being their dead mother (so the mother's story is kept but it's his sister instead).

That latter one, with the sister, is peculiar because it actually includes a queer-ish storyline that is more interesting! Even if Phryne is still very straight in preference of Sasha, there is no admonishment of his sister being interested in Phryne (and even Phryne admitting that she's quite an attractive woman)... Which is still awkwardly refreshing because most books do this weird heavy-handed thing around someone being interested rather …

reviewed Flying Too High by Kerry Greenwood (Phryne Fisher, #2)

Kerry Greenwood: Flying Too High (2013, Constable & Robinson)

Walking the wings of a Tiger Moth plane in full flight would be more than …

Enjoyable Story but Not Without Some Issues

Content warning Mentions of a child abuse and CSA; discussion of racism present. Also spoilers for the story.

Lauren Child: I Absolutely Must Do Coloring Now or Painting or Drawing (2006, Grosset & Dunlap)

Everyone who loves to scribble and scrabble (and what kid doesn't?) will love this fantastic …

Interactive Book Done Decently

This book is largely meant to be interactive, so it probably would work well to make copies of the pages if it's something that a person would want to use repeatedly. As it's interactive, it definitely is low on story but does have a common thread keeping everything together.

There's a lot of encouragement to use different sources, rather than just focusing on drawing. It plays into the collage-aesthetic that the series illustrations are well-known for, as they frequently use different bits of wallpaper or fabric or whatever else along with their drawings. This is pretty cute and also makes it a bit more interesting as an interactive book than just pushing kids to always draw everything, especially as there might be kids who aren't as interested in drawing but do like playing with collages.

Jason Lefebvre, Zac Retz: Too Much Glue (Hardcover, Flashlight Press)

Extremely Awkward

This is probably not a good book for anyone who struggles with any form of second-hand embarrassment, regardless of age. It's also the kind of book that I think simultaneously has a lesson I enjoy (encouraging children to engage in creativity) but also a lesson that I find frustrating (using all of something that others might want to use in their own creativity and also causing a range of inconveniences for others). The latter lesson is, admittedly, not the focus, but it is something that I know reading it with kids would often prompt them to respond to it over the encouragement for being creative.

I think it's also worth recognising that these kinds of stories usually feature boys taking the protagonist role and behaving in what appears to be reckless manners (and being praised for it), while girls and women typically are shown to be looking on in degrees …

Kevin Henkes: Waiting

Five friends sit happily on a windowsill, waiting for something amazing to happen. The owl …

Cute and Slow

Something that I think is underappreciated in children's books is slowness. Not a sort of slowness to cause boredom but a kind of slowness that allows for pause and to engage in what's on the page. This book provides that, especially as the story is really just about some toys who are always 'waiting' for something and enjoying the company of those around them.

Kerry Greenwood: Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates (2013, Constable and Robinson)

First in a series of delightful and adventurous cosy crime tales featuring the glamorous and …

Even Knowing the Story, It's Still a Good Time

I already quite enjoyed the show Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, so when I started seeing some of the books that it was based on being sold in the secondhand shop, I had to get them and see how different they are.

In terms of differences, while I understand why certain changes were made within the TV adaptation, I absolutely loved how certain characters were presented within the book over their show counterparts. I really like both presentations, but the book actually lets us get to know Mac a lot more (and she was always one of my favourite side characters in the show). I also feel like, while the show isn't totally disrespectful to them (other than the understandable antagonism between the police and the communists), Bert and Cec's role in the book is more clear and they don't get sidelined nearly as much.

Something I really like in …

Lauren Child: A Dog with Nice Ears (2018, Hachette Children's Group)

At the moment, all Lola can talk about is dogs. She says she would like …

A Good Concept

I like the idea of a child who, though their parents won't let them have a dog, is able to be a bit resilient about not getting the kind of pet they wanted but is able to still get a pet. In this case, Lola wants a dog but ends up with a rabbit. Though she knows it's a rabbit, she does imaginatively console herself by saying that it is a 'kind' of dog. She's not really upset about it, and she does like the rabbit; this makes sense because she's effectively been describing a rabbit throughout the whole book despite "wanting a dog."

It's a bit silly, but it's still sweet in its own way.

Mac Barnett, Jon Scieszka, Matthew Myers: Battle Bunny (2013, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

Alex, whose birthday it is, hijacks a story about Birthday Bunny on his special day …

Not Something I'd Recommend

The concept of this book is at least interesting (a boy whose birthday it is 'hijacks' a story about a birthday bunny, changing it to a story of a battle bunny), but that's about it.

In terms of legibility, this book is way too hard to follow. Because it's written with scratching out lines (and still seeing them), it makes it very distracting and hard to know where you're supposed to look. The whole book is written in the style of a kid writing on top of an already published children's story. That's kind of cool, but the messiness makes it confusing; as an adult with dyslexia, I occasionally got lost figuring out which line to focus on. I can only imagine how a child with a reading disorder (or even a new reader) might get confused. (I do like the style, but I think it needs to be revamped …

David McKee: Elmer and Butterfly (2014, Lerner Publishing Group)

One day, as Elmer is strolling through the jungle, he hears a cry for help. …

It's Fine

One of the things I've never liked about David McKee's books is that they feel routine and a bit dull? Not just because I'm reading them as an adult, but it's in comparison to other children's books. They're bright and colourful, but the story is always a bit lackluster and trite, with there being both tedious additions that go nowhere (in this book's case, another elephant who can throw his voice and play pranks) and also tedious structures for otherwise useful moral lessons.

This is usually the complaint I've had from students who've had to read it in elementary school because it was in their "reading level" or because it was assigned to them in class, and it's hard to not see why.

Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler: The Smartest Giant in Town (2016, Pan Macmillan)

George the giant, known for wearing his old patched clothes, finally buys new ones, but …

Conflicting in Its Lesson

I'm not overly fond of this one, but perhaps it's also because I'm not completely sold on the presentation of the lesson.

This is particularly because George was "the scruffiest giant in town," and he "always wore the same pair of old brown sandals and the same old patched-up gown." When one day, he notices a new shop, he buys a whole new outfit, but he slowly gives them away to animals in need. In the end, he returns to wearing his "scruffy" clothes that have gone unchanged (unrepaired and uncleaned).

While I can appreciate this lesson (giving to others in need), and the animals do come together to thank him with a card and crown, I find it perplexing that no one worked together to help mend and clean his original clothes or help him fix his shoes; he just returns to wearing them because he cannot purchase a …