(#45) / The Great Fire / by Jim Murphy / (Book)

Opening

Bibliographic Information:

The Great Fire / by Jim Murphy

ISBN-10: 0590472674 / Scholastic, Inc.

p. 144/ $9.35 (Amazon)

1995

Body of Content

Summary: Murphy recounts the Great Fire of 1871 – infamously burned into the memories of Chicagoans.  The book provides photos to provide a historical context to the narrative events of the great disaster.  The book recounts the circumstances that led to the Fire – the problems occurring which prevented the Fire from easily being quenched – and the aftermath (both personally for families and societally for structures) of the awful event.  The book contains a nice bibliography at the end – which provides a nice source of information for further research – if the reader contains interest.  Further, a chapter deals with popular misconceptions – in a chapter titled “Myth and Reality”.  

Critique: As is so often the case, history gets muddied by the time people receive it.   In the last chapter of the book, Murphy sets out to right the inaccuracies and folklore that surround the Fire – and provide the correct historical information.  The Fire – long accused as the result of a milking “cow kicking over a lamp” – according to Murphy – is “nothing more than gossip”.  The Fire did originate from a barn – in the North Division – but Murphy points out that bad journalism contributed to the cow rumor becoming part of the early folklore – and staying in the public imagination even to this day (p. 124-125).  

With the lack of clear reasons to explain the fast spread of the Fire, Murphy also takes note that in early traditions, the firefighters were often scapegoated for the Fire’s destructive power – that the firefighters were inept, drunk, or lazy when called into action.  Murphy offers more realistic information about the firefighters – including the overwork and exhaustion faced by the firefighters in dire circumstances (p. 130-131).

As any good historian, Murphy sets out – as a theme – to separate common, perceived knowledge from actual, verifiable history.

Teaser: A small fire quickly endangers the residents of one of America’s largest Midwestern cities.

Information about the Author: Jim Murphy is an award-winning writer – having won the Newbery Book Award twice – along with a long list of other accolades.  He has written some 30-odd titles – mostly regarding issues related to American history.  His education includes enrollment at Rutgers University – and further work at Radcliffe College for graduate work.  Murphy grew up in New Jersey and is an avid fan of baseball.  Now in Maplewood, Murphy is married to Alison Blank, who is a TV producer and children’s author and editor herself.  The couple also has two sons (Murphy, 2011).

Supplemental Material

Genre: Historical Nonfiction

Curriculum Ties:  History – maps, geography, local history, Chicago

Booktalking Ideas: 1) “If a fire endangered your household, and you had 5 minutes before it reached your house, what would you try and save?”

Reading Level: This book fits well across teen age demographics – (15-18).  

Challenge Issues and Defense: The book seems pretty safe and standard – from a historical perspective – and nothing garnishes a challenge.

Personal Reasons for Inclusion: I have flown through the Chicago O’Hara airport on many occasions – and I enjoyed reading about their local history.  

Last Thoughts

References:

Murphy, J. (2011). About the author [Webpage]. Retrieved from

http://www.jimmurphybooks.com/about.htm

Listening to (Music):

Artist – The Afters / Album – “Never Going Back to OK”  

(#37) / The United States Constitution – A Graphic Adaptation / (written) by Jonathan Hennessey and (art design) by Aaron McConnell / (Book)

Opening

Bibliographic Information:

The United States Constitution – A Graphic Adaptation /

(written) by Jonathan Hennessey and (art design) by Aaron McConnell

ISBN-13: 978-0809094707/ Hill and Wang

p. 106/ $11.53 (Amazon)

2008

Body of Content

Summary: This book is a graphic novel – representing the American Constitution in a largely visual form.  The book structures itself around the very organizational scheme of the famous document – starting with the Preamble – before moving on to Article I through VII – briefly detailing the events surrounding ratification – then moves to the Bill of Rights before finishing with the other amendments (11 through 27).  The narrative is a mix of quoted material from the Constitution and author-supplied historical information.  The former is noticeable by quotation marks – off setting it – while the latter acts as narrative glue to provide a framework and context to the modern reader.  The graphic layout looks unique throughout the novel – as some pages reply on multiple frames in a row, while other pages are one sole picture.  The book is in color and provides a nice balance between text and visual aids.    

Critique: The Preamble might represent the greatest strength of the graphic novel.  While the other sections relate information well, the opening pages help provide a historical context for the reader.  Many Americans have a general sense of the amendments: they may not know the corresponding numbers, but they know one refers to voting – others to the Prohibition era – others to the issue of slavery, etc. 

In this way, the Preamble helps set the stage for the whole document.  And the writers of this book perform a great job by the use of allusions and comparisons – of the early American government to other world governments and thinkers back during the Enlightenment.  This novel points out the relationship between the founders’ desires for a written document compared to the largely informal British constitution (p. 23).  It also points out key people – like Baron Montesquieu (i.e. “checks and balances” fame) – who helped frame key percepts, wording, and concepts within the framers’ discussions (cf. p. 20).  In other words, the authors of this graphic novel present a history lesson before presents their history lesson.

Teaser: The prose of America’s most important document comes to life in a visually-oriented graphic novel.

Information about the Author: Jonathan Hennessy lives in Los Angeles employed as a writer.  Overall, he is a seasoned writer within the television and film business.  Currently, Phoenix Pictures employs Hennessey as a story analyst (MacMillan, 2011).  His film experience demonstrates a wide divergence of titles – mostly as a production assistant or assistant director (IMDB, 2011).  Just this last fall, Hennessey again teamed with artist Aaron McConnell to produce another graphic novel – a similarly-themed, historical work – The Gettysburg Address (Amazon, 2011).

Supplemental Material

Genre: Graphic Novel / Historical Nonfiction

Curriculum Ties: History – government, founding fathers, early republic, legal code

Booktalking Ideas: 1) Have you ever wondered what shaped certain amendments within our Constitution? 2) Have you ever wanted a more narrative approach to understanding American history – this graphic novel may have some advantages over a classic textbook. 

Reading Level: The Constitution itself is more of an adult title – but the graphic novel version beings it to a younger audience – easily readable by teens 13-19.

Challenge Issues and Defense:  It is difficult to see challenges – perhaps a historian may differ on the presentation of a political party or historical person – but such a case is not likely.  

Personal Reasons for Inclusion: This represents a second title – which contains a straight curriculum inclusion (cf. Billions & Billions) – and in this book’s case, it could serve as a supplemental textbook for any American history class.

Last Thoughts

References:

Amazon. (2011). The Gettysburg Address [Webpage]. Retrieved from

http://www.amazon.com/Gettysburg-Address-Jonathan-Hennessey/dp/ 0061969761/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323748582&sr=1-2

Internet Movie Database (IMDB). (2011). Jonathan Hennessey [Webpage]. Retrieved from

            http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0377257/

MacMillan. (2011). Jonathan Hennessey [Webpage]. Retrieved from

http://us.macmillan.com/author/jonathanhennessey

Listening to (Music):

Artist – Michelle Branch / Album – “The Spirit Room”  

(#17) / A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider / by Ishmael Beah / (Book)

Opening

Bibliographic Information:

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider / by Ishmael Beah

ISBN-13: 978-0374531263 / Farrar, Straus and Giroux

p. 229 / Price $9.60 (Amazon)

2007

Body of Content

Summary: The book “A Long Way Gone” tells the autobiographical tale of a young, 13-year-old boy whose life and country become saturated with turmoil and violence with the outbreak of civil war in the country of Sierra Leone.  After the destruction of his village, and the unknown fates of his family, Ishmael travels with a group of friends – trying to escape the violence that befalls his country.  But ultimately, Beah is captured by the governmental forces that are fighting the rebels – and they enlist him as a child soldier in the conflict.  Under the sway of political propaganda and the cloudy effect of powerful drugs (mostly cocaine and methamphetamines), Beah struggles through the story – committing violence and killings as a soldier.  The story is both commentary on violence and human rights – and ultimately, a struggle of a boy trying to reclaim his humanity.  

Critique: The story is gripping, heart-wrenching, and unapologetic in its description of wartime violence. [Spoiler Alert]  But, the story does not stop there.  Although the story provides undisturbed candor into the thoughts and actions of a boy soldier, Beah’s rescue from a horrific situation leaves the reader with a paradox – the insane evil resting within humanity – and the opposite – the innocent-laden goodness within humanity.  Beah literally commits dozens of murders within the wartime novel.  But, he finally flees to America – adopted by a journalist whom he had previous met at a UN conference – and now speaks on human right issues.

Beah’s portrayal (of an innocent child – turned into a killer – and finally able to recover his humanity) is a redemption story as much as it is a survival tale.  But the duality – the paradox of humanity – is a theme throughout the book.  And that paradox – of goodness and evilness – is a theme of a French theologian by the name of Blaise Pascal.  Beah’s story is one that explores the actions possible by human beings as a race – and as an individual person.  Like Pascal, there is both great concern and great hope for the human race within A Long Way Gone.  Beah’s story touches on many subjects throughout the book’s journey, but the philosophical issue of human ontology rests as a major theme – that turns a theoretical exercise into a first-hand account of war and redemption.              

Teaser: Ishmael’s homeland is devastated by a civil war.  Suddenly, he flees his home – only to find myself conscripted into an army – as a child soldier.  Can Ishmael hope to regain what he lost?  

Information about the Author: The author, now 31 years old, was born in Sierra Leone.  During a civil war in his home country, Beah fought as a child soldier.  After the war, an American journalist adopted him – and he now lives in New York City.  Currently, Beah works for the Human Rights Watch – within a committee specializing in issues related to children.  In his past work with the United Nations, he has met with notable leaders such as Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela (Wikipedia, 2011).

Upon the release of the book, Beah spoke with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.  The host reflects, “I’ve rarely read a book that’s made my heart hurt” (Daily Show, 2007).  The author responds to the fragileness of life and the ease of becoming a killer and the difficulty of returning to society (Daily Show, 2007).   

Supplemental Material

Genre: Autobiography / Historical Nonfiction / Adventure

Curriculum Ties: History – child soldiers, imperialism, African history, United Nations / Theology – ontology, paradox of humanity, Pascal, “Problem of Evil”   

Booktalking Ideas: 1) How could a child become a soldier in a national conflict? 2) Does Ishmael ever find other members of his family?  

Reading Level: This book is certainly towards the upper bracket of high school – but I contend that it is thoroughly a teenage-intended book – with a teenage protagonist, short length (229 pages), and simple writing style.  Thus, the book is best for ages 16-19.

Challenge Issues and Defense: The subject matter is raw and the premise is dark.  The best defense strategy looks at the intentions of the work – as it does not seek to glorify violence, but instead, expose it for the inhumanness that it represents.  The book also received numerous awards, including a number three mention in an article by Times for Top Ten nonfiction books of 2007 (Grossman, 2007).

Personal Reasons for Inclusion: “A Long Way Gone” is a powerful book in own right – a book that I had my high school juniors read for their European history class. 

Last Thoughts

References:

Grossman, L. (2007). Top ten nonfiction books [Webpage]. Retrieved from http://www.time.com

/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1686204_1686244_1691772,00.html

The Daily Show. (14 February, 2007). Ishmael Beah [Video]. Retrieved from

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-february-14-2007/ishmael-beah

Wikipedia. (2011). Ishmael Beah [Webpage]. Retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_Beah

Listening to (Music):

Artist – Sixpence None the Richer / Album – “Divine Discontent”   

(#6) / Civilization IV/ (Lead designer) by Sid Meier / (Video Game)

Opening

Bibliographic Information:

Civilization IV/ (Concept) by Sid Meier

ASIN: B000BC38K6 / OCLC Number: 123236435 
Format: PC (Windows XP)

Design Companies – 2K Games and Firaxis Games  

Release date: 2005 / $12.59 (Amazon)

Body of Content 

Summary: Civilization offers an immersive gaming experience – where players start as the controlling figure of a nation-state – at the dawn of civilization (4000 BCE) – attempting to win the game – by the time of the last turn and history’s conclusion (2050 CE).  Players can win the game through a variety of means – militarily through the defeat or domination of all other nation-states – scientifically through the creation of an advanced spaceship destined for Alpha Centauri – diplomatically through a United Nations general election – culturally through sustained societal presence – and temporally through the highest score at the year 2050 CE.  The player has a wide variety of different-sized maps, climates, and nation-states to select in their campaigns.  Players may choose a historical map or may select a computer-generated one.  Along the way, players build their nations – founding cities, investing in technological research, conscripting armies, waging wars, forging alliances, exploring landscapes, trading commodities, and balancing governmental politics. 

     

Critique: Civilization IV offers a nice addition to the series.  There are numerous benefits to this version of the game over its predecessors – but there are a few flaws as well.  One benefit is that players now have a better control over how long each game lasts – by selecting one of four time settings – as short as “Quick” to as long as “Epic” – translating into about four hours for the former and twenty-plus hours for the latter settings.  The graphics are very nice and stand as a high-grade improvement over the earlier versions.  Battle scenes are engaging and interesting – as the player receives the opportunity to see different armies attack each other.  Personally, the mismatched battles – between knights and catapults – or between stealth fighters and musketeers – are some of the most entertaining aspects of the game.     

Still, the game does carry some setbacks.  Military victory is long, enduring, and difficult to achieve.  In Civilization IV, a player must completely destroy another society to defeat that nation-state.  The time requirements – and diversion of resources – needed to do so is complicated in games where there are more than four players.  Taking that into consideration, the makers of Civilization V allow gamers to win a military victory by simply destroying another nation-state capital city.  Although the visuals are impressive in Civilization IV, a gamer will need a massive computer – with more than a standard video card – and loads of memory – to play the game to its fullest capacities.  I have played large maps against 23 other computer players, where my graphic card crashed mid-game – even with the battle simulation at lower visual settings.  Overall, the game is thoroughly satisfying.    

Teaser: Civilization places the player at the core of a nation’s development. But can you defend your nation-state against attacks? Can you win before another nation wins a Space Victory? Only time and history will tell!  

Information about the Author: Sid Meier developed the first game title in the series and later founded his own production company (Firaxis), which lead to the creation of the other titles in the series – five (main) titles in the official canon.  Meier took his inspiration from other strategy games like SimCity, Empire!, and Railroad Tycoon (Wikipedia, 2011b).

Currently, Meier is 57 years old.  He is married – and the couple has one son.  Meier hails originally from Ontario, Canada.  For the last three decades, Meier has worked on video game and computer programming ventures – with the Civilization franchise as his main source of recognition (Wikipedia, 2011b).  The game is well-received critically – with over nine million units sold across all formats and versions of the series (Amazon, 2011).  Civilization IV accounts for three million of those items (Wikipedia, 2011a).   

Supplemental Material

Genre: Turn-Based Strategy / Historical Simulation

Curriculum Ties: History – government types, progression of technologies, geopolitics

Booktalking Ideas: 1) Have you ever wondered what would happen if you used a thermal nuclear weapon? 2) It’s almost the Renaissance era and a neighboring nation-state just developed the machine gun well before you have … What actions should you take next? 3) From civilization’s cradle to the climax of culture and technology, what nation-state will you steer throughout history?    

Reading Level: Although the game is suitable for ages 10 and up, the game is a complicated simulation game replying on a fair amount of knowledge to beat the harder difficulty settings.  Like most gamers, males in their high school and college years (14-25) probably comprise the majority of Civilization IV’s enthusiasts.   

Challenge Issues and Defense: The game does not contain some violence – as it can depict military battles between rival nation-states.  The level of graphic violence is low.  Realistically, if a parent complains about the violence in this game, they would probably complain about every game containing slight mentions of violence.  Nevertheless, the game does have an option to turn off the visual reenactments of battles – if parents find it necessary.    

Personal Reasons for Inclusion: Civilization IV is one of my favorite games.  It is quite an addictive game that, on more than one occasion, I have sworn off because of the need to concentrate on more important things. 

Last Thoughts

References:

Amazon. (2011). Civilization IV [Webpage]. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Sid-Meiers-

Civilization-IV-Pc/dp/B000BC38K6/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid= 1322030768&sr=1-2

Wikipedia. (2011a). Civilization IV [Webpage]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civ_4

Wikipedia. (2011b). Sid Meier [Webpage]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier

Listening to (Music):  

Artist – Third Eye Blind / Album – “Third Eye Blind”