Hanukkah Book Review: The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) by Barbara Kerley

Now, for a change of pace, I thought I would write not about a humorous book, but about a book on a humorist.  The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) is an unusual twist on a biography; it is a description of the great 19th century American writer, Mark Twain, as told by his 13 year old daughter, Susy.  The author, Barbara Kerley, is a renowned writer of biographies and other nonfiction books for children.  She had considered writing about Mark Twain for years, then stumbled upon a reference to a biography that Twain's adolescent daughter had written about him.   So Kerley tells the story of Mark Twain, but intersperses the pages with little cut-out pages from Susy's biography, where she reflects on this famous man from a personal perspective.

At first glance, this is a pretty simple book; the reading level is more for the elementary school level than for middle schoolers.  But like another of the picture books I reviewed earlier, my beloved Blockhead:  The Life of Fibonacci by Joseph D'Agnese (another point of light in 2010), I think it can also be appropriate for early adolescents.  For one thing, Susy is herself 13, so middle schoolers can relate to that.  I personally think a first reading of Tom Sawyer, or particularly of Huckleberry Finn, is more appropriate during middle school, so this could go nicely with reading some of Twain's most important books.  It contains a page with tips for writing biographies, and demonstrates more middle school-level biography techniques, like using a particular anecdote to illustrate a larger truth about the subject, rather than a mere recitation of facts that is more common to elementary school.  But more importantly, read carefully, this book explores some of the issues that tweens wrestle with in middle school, like the difference between how others see us and how our family sees us, our public and our personal personas, and accepting our weaknesses along with our strengths.

The illustrations by Edwin Fotheringham are also quite lovely, and are not too juvenile for middle schoolers.

My son picked it up and read it on his own, and he enjoyed it.  But I plan to read some Twain later in the year, and expect to return to this book again then.

And while we are on the subject of biographies about humorists...
Last week, my son read the book Sir Charlie:  Chaplin, the Funniest Man on Earth by Sid Fleischman, and declared that it was one of the best books he had ever read.  I haven't read it myself, so I can't vouch for it personally.  But Fleischman won the 1987 Newbery award for his book, The Whipping Boy, so chances are that this book is pretty well written.  And Sir Charlie is definitely for a middle school level or higher.  Or if you want to continue the Mark Twain theme, Fleischman also wrote a biography on Twain entitled The Trouble Begins at 8:  A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West.  It's definitely on my list to read when we roll around to that point in our history and literature studies.

Book Review: Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci by Joseph D'Agnese

While I was searching the picture books section of my local library for a pornographic Eric Carle book (see this blog entry for more info), I found this wonderful book:  Blockhead:  The Life of Fibonacci by Joseph D'Agnese.  Earlier this year, I met Joe and his partner (in writing, sometimes, but in life, always), Denise Kiernan, when they came to talk to our homeschool group about their fabulous book, Signing Their Lives Away:  The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence.  (Not to get off topic, but this is a great resource for middle schoolers who are studying the American Revolution, because it has interesting child-oriented stories about all 56 signers of the Declaration--the famous and the forgotten. )

Anyway, I knew this book was coming out from talking to Joe, and knowing the quality of his work, I expected it to be good.  And now that I've seen it, I'm happy to report that I was not disappointed.  It does a great job of presenting the Fibonacci sequence of numbers in a way that can be easily understood by elementary students.  But I think it is so well written, and the illustrations are so glorious, that I believe it is still appropriate to middle schoolers, especially those who are visual learners who have not yet learned to love the the numeric precision of mathematics.

The illustrator is John O'Brien, whom I don't know, but now would love to, because I think he did a great job.  He managed to create beautiful and modern pictures that evoke the feeling of medieval wood carvings (at least to me).  But most of all, he fills his pictures with all sorts of subtle depictions of Fibonacci numbers--Fibonacci curves and swirls, Fibonacci numbers captured in leaves, fruits, animals, and even landforms.  This is part of the reason I think the book also works for older audiences; if they are already familiar with the Fibonacci sequence, they can be engaged in searching out the patterns drawn on each page.

However, there is another message in the book.  In D'Agnese story (admittedly, a fiction based on scanty information about the real man), Fibonacci is called a "blockhead" by his contemporaries because he is so fixated by numbers--and so, doesn't see things like everyone else.  The book also provides a supportive commentary to other children who are different, telling them to follow their passions, even if their peers don't understand them.   As Fibonacci's mentor counsels him, after the child mathematician tells him that numbers are what make him happiest, "Then you should learn all you can about them.  That way you will always be happy."  What great advice that is for all of us!

My middle school son and I read it today, and at first he thought it was simple.  But when he looked at it again, he found more and more layers to the pages.  Then, when we went to spend time with my dear friend, math educator extraordinaire Miss Maria, we found ourselves searching out Fibonacci numbers in the rows of the pine cones we were throwing.

However, don't take my word for it.  See the video that Denise created for the book at the book's website.  Also, if you happen to use the book in a class or group setting, I can attest that Joe is a great speaker to students--engaging them at their level while still providing valuable content.   Even if you don't have a budget to have him come speak in person, he does Skype visits for even nominal tax-deductible contributions to Heifer Internation (a charity that I have given to personally) as part of the Fibonacci Giving Project.