Russell Freedman (1929–2018)

Accompanied by the powerful photographs of Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and others, Russell Freedman takes the young reader on a journey through a poverty-stricken 1930s America. He includes countless quotes and other first-hand information (like grocery lists, journal entries and hit tunes of the era) to season his hearty account of this tough time in our country. He covers all areas of the country, coast to coast, and all walks of life. The blacks, whites, farmers, city-dwellers, show more "Okie's", boxcar kids, Hooverville residents and more. Freedman offers so much information, yet blends it with incredibly touching personal stories that will pull on your heart strings. One boy tells about his father crying in the empty coal bin. Many kids wonder how they will get back to school and lament their inability to help their parents. Hundreds of thousands of kids write letters to Eleanor Roosevelt, asking for help. Kids share their embarrassment at their ill-fitting clothes. One girl says, "I look at the older people and wonder if they, too, feel the resentment every morning that I do, or if as the years go by their spirits are deadened". A boxcar youth recalls an experience he had when they stopped in the darkness of night, and another boxcar passenger climbed aboard. The two talked late into the night, and he says, "It was only at dawn that I discovered my traveling companion was black. It was surprising and enlightening for a boy who had been brought up in a white community".
This is a fantastic, informative, touching, thoughtfully executed book. show less

Honestly, as I read this I was thinking how it stacked up against last year's [b:The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club|25445456|The Boys Who Challenged Hitler Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club|Phillip M. Hoose|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1430245146s/25445456.jpg|42246997]. And I was thinking about how those saboteur Churchill Club boys were more exciting than the pamphleteer Scholl siblings. But then I got to the end of this book and BAM. Whoa. I teared show more up. I felt awful for thinking for even a minute that the White Rose story was tame by comparison. If I had known from the beginning how it ended for Sophie and Hans I think I would've read the story in a different light.

Beyond my personal reaction, I think this story is told with admirable precision (I read it in about an hour) which makes it appealing for younger readers. But there are some very rattling, morbid parts of the story that make me think it's generally best for 6th grade and up.

You could definitely have quite a discussion around the themes, particularly how the Scholl siblings both professed to know right from wrong by looking inside themselves. Do human beings have an innate sense of good and evil? Or can we only know what we're taught? Hans Scholl: "I'm searching for myself, just myself, because this much I do know; I'll only find the truth inside me." Sophie Scholl: "We carry all our standards within ourselves, only we don't look for them closely enough. Perhaps because they are the severest standards." show less

I was excited to see that Russell Freedman’s 1988 Newbery winner, Lincoln: A Photobiography was now available as an audiobook (no doubt due to the 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial). The second disc includes an interview with the author and is enhanced with a Flash slideshow of a few (but nowhere near all) of the archival photographs from the book. Broadway and movie actor Robert Petkoff narrates the book, providing variation in voices for the numerous quotations (by and about Lincoln) used show more throughout it.

This audiobook was fascinating. Freedman chose details (and quotes) that would be of interest to both children and adults, and wove them into a cohesive narrative. I thought I knew a lot about Lincoln, but I learned a lot from this book.

Despite my fondness for audiobooks, this is one that definitely should be paired with the print book. The Flash slide show only includes a few photos from the book, probably because permission could not be obtained from the various sources (listed on page 145 of the book) to use all of them in the Flash format. There are a couple of great series of photos of Lincoln, one set (pages 64-65) showing the progression of his beard growth in 1860-61, and another set (pages 116-117) showing how the strain of the Civil War aged him. The print book also includes appendices on Lincoln memorials/monuments/museums and books about Lincoln, and an index. I could definitely see a struggling reader using the audiobook along with the print version.

On the other hand, the interview with Freedman on the audiobook is valuable, with some great quotes of its own: “Biography lends itself to the art of narrative…to the fascinating spectacle of character meeting circumstance and either changing events or being changed by them—or both, as happened to Lincoln.”

Referring to the research he did for this book, which included travel to many sites relevant to Lincoln, Freedman also said, “Everything you see with your own eyes adds to your understanding of the life and times you are writing about.” Probably the best thing about Lincoln: A Photobiography is that it took me days to write this review, because I kept exploring little tidbits in it , like the photograph of 1858 Springfield on page 29 (which is part of a postcard series). A book that can inspire that kind of curiosity is rare. show less

A story that has been told, and must continue to be told, over and over in our American history. 'Angel Island', the "Ellis Island of the West", tells of another dark mark on the story of American immigration. During the mid-nineteenth century, lawmakers began passing discriminatory laws designed to target Chinese immigrants originating with the Foreign Miners' Tax and later the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. In this country, we have a history of showing aggression and lashing out at things show more we don't understand or perceived threats. We know now that economic depressions tend to be cyclical but in the depression of the nineteenth century, it was easiest for the European Americans to blame the newcomers which happened to be the Chinese. This story of discrimination against Chinese immigrants is just as relevant today in our current administration and its policy to try and 'build a wall' to keep perceived threats (real or imagined) out of this country.
The importance of saving the remnants of the Angel Island detention center was paramount and I am thrilled that Mr. Weiss was able to be the catalyst to save such an important part of our history. The authenticity of the poems, the sights and smells of the detention center, and the physical voyage to and from Angel Island all help history come alive. As the Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana once said: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." show less