So Many Books; So little Time

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears

by Verna Aardema

c. 1975

I like this book. It’s a West African tale retold. It’s also a Caldecott Medal winner. But the reason I like it is that it shows cause and effect. The mosquito tells a tall tale (read “lie”) and so upsets the iguana that he puts sticks in his ears so he can’t hear any more lies. By doing that he offends the snake by not saying good-morning. The snake goes down the rabbit hole because he assumes the iguana means to harm him and scares the rabbit who makes the crow assume there is trouble afoot and she alerts the monkey who accidentally kills a baby owlet. The mother owl is so upset that she won’t wake the sun so it becomes a perpetual night.

The message to children here is, of course, that lies don’t just affect us and that once we tell them, we can’t control what will happen to them nor what kind of damage they will do. Of course King Lion gets to the bottom of what happened but that didn’t bring back the baby owlet nor did it take away the retribution the mosquito has felt ever since.

It’s a piece of fiction to be sure but it does have a decent message to tell to children. It also introduces African literature. Interesting illustrations that can be looked at over and over again and also sound effects built into the story. This one is a keeper.

Swimming to Antarctica

Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer

by Lynne Cox

c. 2004

This is more a tale of endurance and reaching goals than a story of one swim to Antarctica. Lynne begins this book by telling of not wanting to get out of the water with the rest of her team in Massachusetts and goes on to tell of how she came to switch from pool swimming to open-water swimming. From there she began to set goals. She swam the Catalina Channel with her team but knew she could swim it faster–even set the record for the swim.

From the Catalina Channel, she became a channel swimmer and at 14 and 15 she broke the record for fastest swim across the English Channel (someone broke her record so she broke his) and then went on to coach another woman to break her record. She speaks of swimming the Nile right after the Yom Kippur War and falling in love. She speaks of coaches who pushed her to be better and work harder.

And then she discovers within herself the desire to swim to make a difference in the world. And so she goes on an eleven year quest to swim the Bering Strait from the United States to the Soviet Union. She wrote letters, went to the Soviet Embassy in San Francisco, had her phone tapped, was followed by the FBI and finally as she was just days from swimming to the US-USSR border, was granted permission to swim the Strait in 38* water. While doing the border-breaking swim, she was also doing cold water survival research with doctors who were accompanying her.

She talks about other swims she made, some in depth and some in passing and finally finishes with swimming the “First Antarctic Mile” or one mile to the Antarctic coast. She speaks at that point of the physical toll the cold water has taken on her body and what she feels she has accomplished by her swims.

This is an encouraging book. It shows what it means to set and reach a goal. Lynne and her brother and sisters were given a talent and she used it to make a difference. In making a difference, she felt that she brought people together to a common cause even if that cause was just to cheer her across a body of water. A great adventure story for someone who wants to know how to use an adventurous spirit to change the way people think.

Island of Saints

Island of Saints: A Story of the One Principle That Frees the Human Spirit

by Andy Andrews

c. 2005

I’m going to leave this one book as uncategorized because even my husband and I can’t agree what label to give it. The Dewey Decimal number is 813 which is non-fiction but is literature and not history. My opinion is that this work is probably a good deal true but my husband says the entire thing is a fabrication.

So, you need to read this book and decide for yourself whether this book is true or false.

A bit of background–Andy Andrews is an author who was orphaned at 18 and ended up not only on the streets but sleeping under piers on the beach. He had nothing and then he found his talent in writing stories for God. This is one of four books he has written.

The setting of the book is Andy’s backyard. He is digging a tree out and has his next three books planned out when he hits a rusted metal container buried in his backyard. He opens it and finds several objects: a picture of a man, woman and child, a picture of four men on board ship–one of them Adolf Hitler, a picture of a man, eight buttons, a medal, a ring, and a silver anchor badge.

When he investigated the buttons, badge, medal and ring, he discovered they were Nazi artifacts. But what were they doing in his backyard in a large metal can and who were the other people in the pictures?

And so, Andy goes investigating. Following his wife’s advice, he talks to the older folks on the island on which they live. He also takes a fresh look at history.

Andy discovers what most of us don’t know because the fact that Nazi submarines actually landed on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts during World War II is not in the history books. But it actually did happen that men in civilian suits speaking nearly perfect English came ashore for certain types of supplies and even consorted with folks who were in the war effort only for gain and not for the loyalty to the country of their birth and citizenship.

Laced between the investigative chapters of Andy’s book we find a fictional narrative of the way the story went down, at least according to Andy Andrews:

A German man with a conscience ends up on a submarine with a power hungry Nazi looking to make his way up the ladder. Both of them attended University in London before the war and our German upstaged the Nazi. Still seeking revenge, the Nazi arranges for our young man to be framed, put ashore and shot in Florida.

With nothing but his uniform and the few items including a picture of himself which Nazi law required him to carry, a family photo taken on his last leave, and a picture his tormentor gave him. Injured and washed up on shore, he runs into his worst enemy–a war widow.

Young and beautiful, this young woman works as a waitress at the only restaurant in the small town. She was widowed when her young husband was killed in London by Nazi bombers. She is bitter against God and the Nazi’s and the war effort in general. She hates all things connected to the war and wishes the worst for any German she comes across.

And so begins the story of a young woman harboring the enemy for instead of turning this young, wounded Nazi in to the local authorities, she cares for his wounds and gives him food, shelter and her husband’s clothing, all the while saying nothing to anyone including the employer she sees as her only friend.

This book includes a love triangle for those who like those things. It includes history for those who need to feel they are learning as they read. And this book includes a message of forgiveness that is absolutely timeless.

Fiction?? Non-fiction?? Creative license??

Andy, frustratingly, didn’t tell.

But, like Andy’s other stories, this one is uplifting and will make you think.