The Girl From The Tar Paper School

Barbara Rose Johns was a Black high school student compelled to attend classes in a truly inadequate physical building: the roof leaked and the rooms were cold in the winter and hot in the summer, and the reason for this is because the walls were, for pity's sake, made of tar paper. (You know, tar paper? The stuff you use on a roof underneath the shingles, or perhaps for a temporary shelter?)

The local school board kept promising that they would build a facility for the Black children that even remotely came close to the brick building which had been serving White children for several years, but nothing ever came of that.

Barbara was a serious student, and this situation bothered her. She was also religious, and so she prayed about what she should do. And that is why, without notifying or in any way involving any adult whatsoever, she organized a walkout of all of the students in her high school. "They can't throw us all in jail," she reasoned.

She wasn't a rabble rouser. She went on, in fact, to become a public librarian. But she had to do something, and she did what it took.

The case that was started on her behalf became part of the class-action lawsuit I grew up knowing as Brown v. Board of Education. She is one of my heroes.

(Also, this book does a fantastic job of telling the story through words and pictures. Highly recommended.)

Netflix's Lost in Space

So, I baaaarely remember a tiny part of exactly one episode of a rerun of the original series. And I didn't see the movie remake from a few years ago, so when I was excitedly telling N about this series, and she said, "You don't watch Lost in Space for the plot," I said, "Ummmm...."

That said-- and with the caveat that the only thing I know about the other two iterations is what I learned from reading about them on Wikipedia-- this one is worth the watch. Tension-filled, heartwarming-- but also incredibly family-centric, with stupid (or foolhardy) decisions actually playing out the way stupid decisions are likely to. And all this is done without the whole thing feeling like a morality play, which is why people sometimes shy away from that kind of realism.

I'm the sort of bear who will fast-forward when there's too much suspense, so I probably missed about half of the first episode. Afterwards, I was talking to a friend who suggested I just mute the sound next time, so, while I didn't go back, I have seen much more of the rest of Season 1 and the first part of Season 2. Since Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger and they have no incentive not to do that for Season 2, I've been waiting to finish Season 2 until 3 was out.

Hmm. I only remembered one curse word in the whole series, then looked it up on Common Sense Media and found out that there is at least one per episode! Maybe I'm not the most reliable source for this. If you're a parent, watch it before you let the kids watch-- but if you like exciting stories, but feel frustrated by the moral vacuum that most exciting-story-characters seem to live in, this will probably suit you fine.

Klaus

If you're the kind of person who is likely to like this sort of thing, you have probably already seen it-- but Netflix's Klaus was quite lovely indeed. You do need the context at the beginning that it's a Santa Claus origin story, because it takes a minute to get off the ground, but it all pays off in the end. It gets all the points for silly, most of the points for heartwarming, and many of the points for funny. I thought it should have won the Oscar (though I haven't seen the one that won, so...)

Solubility table

This is a table my husband constructed out of some solubility rules I had to memorize. The format makes it much easier to remember than other formats, so I'm posting it here in case it would be useful to anyone else. As usual on this blog, a creative commons, copy-left license applies. Blogger only allows me to upload the file as an image; if you want/need a spreadsheet or PDF, please let me know in the comments. Because of formatting trouble, the copyright notice is below; it refers to the table. The attribution for the table is A.T. Wilson. Cheers!

Miss Mary Reporting: The True Story of Sportswriter Mary Garber

This is the story of a woman who loved sports, and loved writing about them - and did a very good job at it, at a time when a woman in reporting was expected to be only interested in the society pages. Extraordinarily well written and beautifully illustrated, I recommend this book to anyone.

Saints, by Gene Leung Yang

BTW: at the National book Festival a couple of weeks ago, I found out that Gene Leung Lang a) is a Middle School teacher, and b) just got a MacArthur Prize! Cool!

All of Gene Leung Yang's books that I have read so far are complicated, a little confusing, and in the end-- for me-- utterly uplifting. His American Born Chinese got a Printz award, and is also pretty amazing, so go check that out, too. Saints focuses on a fictional heroine living in China at the time of the Boxer Rebellion, who begins seeing visions of Joan of Arc, eventually converts to Christianity, and in the end gets caught between the warring factions in her region. There are no easy heroes in this story, but there are utterly real characters who make me want to be a better Christian myself-- without (I think) being didactic or preachy or manipulative. Read it yourself, and tell me what you think.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, by J.K. Rowling

This book was lovely. All the stuff I had felt frustrated about with Harry Potter, especially in the later books-- all addressed.

Not everyone will love it. That's OK. I will say that it's the kind of book I would like to write. As in, not necessarily spectacular, but truly lovely in its own way, well worth owning (in my opinion). Or, at the very least, putting yourself in the hold queue for.

Also, I have a new all-time favorite J.K. Rowling character, but I will wait to tell you until we see each other in person; you can ask then. (If you've read this story, you can probably figure it out.)