Review: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book was interesting and brought up a number of observations about introverts that made sense to me. It has colored my reading of several educational psychology studies that I have read concurrently. There were times when I wished the author had edited it down a bit, but I must admit that those extra anecdotes did keep me reading, whereas straight exposition might not have.

I have known for a long time that I am an introvert, but it always puzzled me how an introvert like me could also be a teacher, since teachers have to interact with SO MANY people in the day. Moreover, I am a substitute teacher and I have to interact with many NEW people every day I work. The explanation helps me understand why I am SO TIRED when I get finished with a day of subbing and also why, though I know I SHOULD "network" with other teachers at lunch time, instead, I retreat to the classroom and eat alone and in peace.



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Review: The Man Who Invented Basketball: James Naismith and His Amazing Game

The Man Who Invented Basketball: James Naismith and His Amazing Game by Edwin Brit Wyckoff

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This book has more content than the book about basketball I reviewed a few days ago: [b:Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball|14843178|Hoop Genius How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball|John Coy|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1356086110s/14843178.jpg|20496859], which is nice. It is definitely an older style of book, though: more text, lots of old time photos. Hoop Genius would make a better read-aloud; this book would make a better "read to self" book. It isn't as exciting as Hoop Genius, but there is more to think about.



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Review: Life of Fred: Ice Cream

Life of Fred: Ice Cream by Stanley F. Schmidt

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I must say, I am a bit disappointed in this book. I am frequently on the watch for books that people use for teaching math and a home-schooling group that I often see sang the praises of this series, so I decided to look into it. I am NOT a home-schooler; I am a substitute teacher. I have not used this book with young children, either, so I cannot discuss their reactions to it. What I can say is that I wasn't all that impressed with the pedagogy. The book has a good story line - or at least I think it probably does. This is not the first book in the series, so it is a bit like jumping in mid-way in a novel and trying to figure out what is going on. The people I have heard talk (write) about these books frequently mention how the kids get involved in the story of them.

Mathematically, though, at first, I thought the book was jumping around between topics WAY too much. I have looked at it again, though, and I think now that it is just some repetition of topics covered in other books and brought up in this one for review. That isn't bad in itself, but it does make the first impression of the book look quite disjointed.

But the biggest disappointment for me is that I found the math to be thin as far as explanatory depth. If the child(ren) this book is used for are able to understand connections, then this is probably OK, but I know a lot of children who would need more. And some of the math notations is puzzling. The use of the sigma notation with children of this age is one example. I subbed recently for 3rd and 4th graders for whom this notation would be completely confusing.

Personally, if I were home-schooling students in math, I would choose Singapore Math over this, but there may be other alternatives that are good, too.



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Review: Full Moon Rising

Full Moon Rising by Joanne Taylor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I wanted to like this book better than I did. The illustrations are appealing (though quite busy); the text is lyrical and life-affirming. But, for a book written in 2002, it seems remarkably historical. Women do the cooking and preserving; men do the planting and hay baling. The clothes look historical. But the time setting is vague - almost as though we are to get the impression that this is a timeless way of living on farms. It just seems a tad surreal to me.



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Review: Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball

Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball by John Coy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book is a very short story about why basketball was invented. It would make a good book to carry with me for those times when I am subbing and have some extra time for a read-aloud. There are two things about the book, though, that leave me a bit unsatisfied.

First of all, the rules that Naismith came up with are included on the fly leafs (leaves?), but they are not part of the text of the story. It would have been interesting to me to have them included in the story - and the reason those specific rules were added. Did Naismith come up with the whole game at once? Did he find that parts of the game worked well, but some things had to be tweaked a bit, in order to work better? It seems a bit unrealistic to think that the whole game was worked out overnight and they just started playing it the next day - in mostly final form.

Secondly, it would be interesting to add a few words about how the game had changed: major modifications (e.g., for women to play), rules changes, how the game has evolved. I suppose that would have made the book too long for a short read aloud, though. Maybe I will look up some of the books mentioned in the bibliography.

I am not a huge fan of the illustrations, but they do show movement well. Was this really a college class? Many of the players seem to be sporting mustaches.



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Review: Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin

Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is another book that I liked, but didn't REALLY LIKE. It is a bit like a song I recently wrote. It was a one joke song and it is funny, but it could have been more.

In this case, there is a central problem and the entire story seems to be a giant build-up to an almost pun-like answer. And some of the convolutions along the way just didn't quite have the air of adding quite enough to the story. In a way, some of the side stories were actually more interesting than the main story. The aunts were interesting; Red and her family were interesting.

Another problem was that the solution to the problem was so convoluted that I am not sure I get it. The definitions of the various parts of the name didn't quite come clear enough to me to make me think, "Ah ha!, so that is what it is all about!"

In the end, I would have liked to learn more about the various people and less about the spinning. And the donkey was a complete wash for me.



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Review: Twerp

Twerp by Mark Goldblatt

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I liked this book, don't get me wrong, but there is something about it that makes me not quite REALLY like it. Part of the reason is that, like life, a lot of the things in the book are not quite resolved. That should be good, but it leaves me feeling like it ended, but it wasn't really finished. There were quite a few interesting characters in the book, but we never got to know enough about them. What happened to Danley after he got his brace off? How did Beverly feel after the field trip? Why did Jillian go off with Devlin? How did Amelia react to Julian's first date? What is Eduardo all about?

The big climax also was a bit weird to me. It seemed a bit out of character - too much so. The other vignettes were believable - the last one seemed not quite consistent with the MC's character.

I like the book, I just don't quite REALLY LIKE it.



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