Pincus and the Pig: A Klezmer Tale

Pincus and the Pig: A Klezmer Tale performed by the Shirim Klezmer Orchestra / written by Maurice Sendak is a frolicking musical journey that follows the young boy Pincus in his farmyard confrontation with the devil pig, Chozzer.  Each of the story’s characters are represented by a musical instrument or a combination of a few, the effect creates a musical theme which accentuates the interactions between the characters.  Maurice Sendak introduces all the characters and serves as the story’s verbal narrator, weaving this Yiddish version of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter And The Wolf and bringing it to life with an assortment of Yiddish terms (a glossary is included).

Though you’ll find this incredible compilation in the kids music section, adults will love the moody, mesmorizing tone of the clarinet and the other-wordliness of the accordian ring true in this Klezmer celebration.  

reviewed by Jonas

Completing the Union…

Completing the Union: Alaska, Hawai’i and the battle for Statehood by John Whitehead draws together oral histories, extensive interviews and work with archival sources to tell a compelling tale of how Alaska and Hawai’i became America’s 49th and 50th states.This compelling story is made all the more interesting by Mr. Whitehead’s first chapter where he explains how he could not interest any fellow historians in this history. Mr. Whitehead claims that every historian he approached dismissed the story of Alaska/Hawai’l statehood as an extremely dull legislative history.

Mr. Whitehead brings that history alive by setting the statehood battle against the backdrop of World War II and the the early years of the Cold War. America’s need to fight transformed the two territories and made their admission possible. 

One fact that came out in this book I did not know before was that Japanese-Americans avoided internment in Hawai’i through the efforts of a single general – Gen. Delos Emmons. He was repeatedly ordered to round up the Japanese in Hawai’l and kept finding reasons NOT to carry out that order. Talk about about a solider fighting for people’s freedom.

It also teaches that there are sometimes differences between what is ordered and what is right.Thank you Gen. Emmons, for making a bright spot in an otherwise dark time for civil rights!If you have any interest in American history at all, you will enjoy this book. Give it a try!

Reviewed by Daniel Cornwall

                                                                                 

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O’Brien

This Book was about a mouse who had a problem and needed help from her neighbors the rats.  The rats in this book are very smart because they had these shots from a neurologist (a brain scientist) who was doing an experiment on them.  The shots made the rats smart and extended their life more than 50 times.  These highly intelligent rats helped to solve the mouse’s problem becasue the mouse’s husband was their good friend and part of the neurologist’s experiment.

The rats were trying to make a community where they grew their own food because they didn’t want to steal food like rats had always done in the past.  I think they did that so that people would change their opinions about rats.  In the end the rats are brave and selfless and the story ends happily and sadly.

I liked this book because it was exciting and at the end of chapters the author left you hanging and you didn’t know what was going to happen next. 

This book is a winner of the Newbery Medal. This book made me like rats more than I already liked them.  If you read this you will probably like rats too because these rats were real nice.

Reviewed by Elias Antaya, 3rd grade 

The Only Kayak

Recently I read the book The Only Kayak, by Kim Heacox, a long time resident of Gustavus, Alaska and a one-time ranger in Glacier Bay National Park.I recommend this book with reservations. On the positive side, Me Heacox does an excellent job of evoking the imagery of Alaska in general and of Glacier Bay in particular. His descriptions of scenery, wildlife, and the sheer joy of individual exploration are breathtaking. The friends that he writes about come alive and make you regret they’re not your friends. He also does an excellent job of documenting the history of park management in Alaska.On the other hand, Mr. Heacox can be extremely preachy and in many places makes it clear he believes that Alaska would be much better off if all the people simply packed up and moved away, taking their buildings and clutter with them. Given this attitude, I’m not sure how he justifies living in Gustavus. Admittedly, Heacox himself sees this as a paradox and appears to struggle with that on a daily basis.Although most of the anti-industry talk riled me by its intensity, I and I suspect half my fellow residents are charmed by these two descriptions of the final evolution in cruise ships:

“Someday they’ll make the Sphere Princess,” Richard predicted. “It’ll be a mile across and a mile high, the largest man-made thing on Earth. It’ll hold a million passengers and roll through the sea like a giant ball, with the inner decks on gimbals so there’ll be no motion from the waves.” – p. 56

One day the Sphere Princess will arrive, so large it will block the sun. Every human being inside will be insulated from all that he or she dislikes, satisfaction guaranteed. Bird songs will be piped into staterooms with volumes adjusted for perfect pleasure….Those humans outside will be rolled over and crushed.

Not that I don’t want Walt to cruise the inside passage. But it might be nice to have 600,000 passengers a year instead of a million or more.

Overall, I think the story of Alaska overrides the author’s discomfort of industry. If you want to understand what keeps many of us here, this book is a nice start.

Reviewed by: Daniel Cornwall