SMITHSONIAN HISTORICAL FICTION Part 1

The Smithsonian has released a new children's historical fiction series. These are done by the same publisher as the Girls Survive series, so they're using some of the same authors and following the same pattern of releasing four books at a time. 

The Smithsonian series is shorter at around 63 pages each and has more illustrations. Each book has a different illustrator. 

As I tend to do, I read them in chronological order. Archie's book is set in 1898. He and his guardian, his uncle Harold, are travelling musicians who got bit by the gold bug. But they see the problems and dangers of mining and end up leaving to return to their old life. 

This one is the weakest of the four. The story goes by extremely quickly and you never get to know Val, the blonde girl on the cover, very well and I found her the most interesting character. 

 

Li's book was my second favorite of the set. She, her older brother and their mother are immigrating to the US in 1921, during a time when immigration for the Chinese was extremely strict. People could be held for months on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, enduring endless questioning about their lives to prove they were actually who they said they were. 

This is a topic I never knew anything about. I knew Chinese immigrants didn't have the best time of it, but I had no idea there was such a thing as the Chinese Exclusion Act, which I believe was also mentioned in one of the Girls Survive books. And that act wasn't repealed until 1943! Even then, only 105 Chinese immigrants were allowed per year from 1943 until 1965. I really wish Dear America had covered this one. I think it's quite important. 

This one takes place during the 1936 Olympics, which were held in Berlin. The main character is a young black boy with asthma, going along with his father, who's a newspaper founder and reporter. 

This is another story I wish had the Dear America (or rather, My Name Is America) treatment, because it deserves to be longer. The idea of a black reporter covering the Olympics attended by Hitler is fascinating. Add in the Jesse Owens factor and you've got great historical storytelling here. I really like Matthew as a character and how he dreams he can be like Jesse, despite his asthma. 

I actually think this one is a better story than Li's book, but I gave Li's second place in my little mini ranking here, because her book taught me something I hadn't known, which is always a thing I love. Despite knowing more of the history behind this book, I still want more of it! 

Ah, girls in science. One of my weaknesses. This was my favorite of the four, because Audrey wants to work for NASA, where her father works, and she struggles against sexist attitudes throughout the entire book, yet comes out on top in the end. I liked all the characters in it, even her dad, who initially tries to discourage her ambitions, because he knows how hard it will be for a female in this specific scientific world. A little conflicting, because Audrey's mother is a former science teacher. I was surprised there was never a scene where she stood up for Audrey more. 

The ending is a little bit farfetched, but I still enjoyed this book a lot. 

I'm looking forward to more from this series!

BSC Covers: Spanish Edition

I was just checking Amazon to see if there were any new BSC listings and I stumbled across the amazing Spanish covers.

Seriously, look at Stacey. She looks 25.

Even Kristy, who looks the youngest, still looks like 15 or 16.

This is cute, but she still doesn't look 13.

And here's bombshell Stacey again.

Gah, Charlotte is adorable.

Ah, yes, Mary Anne taking the temperature of the happiest child with a super high fever.

Also, that's way too casual for Jenny Prezzioso.

And here's Dawn giving Stacey a run for her money. I think she actually looks sexier than Stacey. Maybe it's the off the shoulder top. Not sure why that's paired with almost Mom jeans, but she somehow makes it work.

Here's a bookmark with some great name changes. I don't think these stuck, because I did the "look inside" thing on Amazon and they seemed to have the correct names.

Lucy McDouglas, y'all.

Mallory apparently had the only completely acceptable name.

Kristy

She's really, really cute. Just looks a couple years too old.

Mary Anne


She looks younger here than on the covers, but still too old.

Claudia


CUTE.

Stacey


Definitely in her 20s.

Dawn

Also too old, but not quite as bad as Stacey. Dawn could be like 18, 19.

Mallory

IS ADORABLE.

OMG, so cute. Not eleven, by any means, but this is definitely believable as like 15-year-old Mal.

Jessi

And her fabulous hair. She's older-looking than Mallory. More on par with Dawn. 17, 18. somewhere in there.

Man, these are great. Kinda makes me wish these were for graphic novels, but they're just Spanish-language versions of the books.

Derby Girl/Whip it

I absolutely love the movie Whip It and when I learned it came from a book, I devoured the book. Both are good, but the book is slightly better.

Sadly, author Shauna Cross has apparently never written anything else. Shame because I really like her writing style.

If you like the movie, definitely check out the book, but don't be surprised that there are several differences.

Bliss and her family are mostly the same, except Bliss has her blue hair for most of the book. Her little sister Shania (AKA: Sweet Pea) is younger in the book at only 4. I'm not sure how old she's supposed to be in the movie, but definitely older than 4. Bliss herself is 16 in the book and 17 in the movie.

Pash is quite a bit different. This is the one thing I really regret that they changed for the movie. Don't get me wrong. I like Alia Shawkat and she did an amazing job, but Pash Amini is supposed to be Middle Eastern. Alia is half-Iraqi, but Pash isn't supposed to be white-passing. I think that was a big missed opportunity that could have gone to a young Middle Eastern actress.

Oliver in the movie looks nothing like Oliver in the book. I'm sorry, but Movie Oliver is not hot one iota. Not even a little.

And if you're looking for Iron Maven, Maggie Mayhem, Bloody Holly and Smashley Simpson in the book, they're not there. Very few of the derby names used in the book made it to the movie.

Maggie Mayhem in the book is Malice in Wonderland, a blonde with blue streaks in her hair. She's a college student, not a single mom.

Iron Maven is Dinah Might. They're equally bitchy, but Dinah in the book actually does rat out Bliss. Maven in the movie does not. They also changed the minimum age to be a derby girl from 18 to 21 for the movie.

The Hurl Scouts did better in the book, too. They win the championship. I'm wondering if this was altered due to Iron Maven's character. She's an antagonist, but she turns out to be more of a sympathetic one, so her winning in the movie is more palatable.

Oliver is more of a dick in the book. There's more than one photo of him with the blonde girl and in one, they're making out. So Bliss was cheated on and there's no "but you didn't call" like there was in the movie. He's also written as having more personality, so the betrayal is harsher, because you actually got to like him more as a character than you do in the movie. He's okay in the movie, but he's just so goofy-looking that I was never persuaded to like him.

So yeah, if you like Whip It the movie, definitely read the book. It was originally called Derby Girl, as seen in this photo here, so you can find it under either name. I've actually reread it several times, but just realized today that I never gave it the review it needed!

CAVE CLUB 1

The first volume of the Cave Club graphic novel series released and my copy came today.

This volume contains two stories. The first, "Meet the Cave Club," is the founding of the first club and the invention of friendship, and the second shows what happens on the first birthday.

The stories are cute and pretty well-written. The art is done by several people, some slightly better than others.

You've actually seen the art if you've watched the videos. They tend to take the art from the comics and turn it into slightly moving images to fit the stories in the videos.

We meet Emberly first. She's the main character of both stories, though others play very prominent roles.

We learn that she invented fire, amongst other things. She's a risk-taker and therefore, a bit bold and reckless.

The second character introduced is actually one that doesn't have a doll yet. This is Ruly. She's described as "more polished" and she likes the "finer things in life." She's also credited with inventing the world's first fashion statement.

Ruly is only in the first story and doesn't really display much by way of personality, but my guess is that they're setting her up to be a Rarity type.

Her hair is a blend of pale yellow and that melon color you see in the art there.

Then we get to the other characters.

Tella is an oracle, who's very easily distracted.

Roaralai was raised by sabretooth tigers, so she's the wild, uncultured one.

Fernessa is the plant and animal lover, who invented agriculture. "Eventually, Fernessa will try and make her family the world's first vegans...it will not go well." Heh.

Then there's Slate, Tella's twin. He also has visions, but he turns his into paintings.

The second story is called "An EGG-cellent Adventure" and it's about Emberly insisting upon celebrating Fernessa's birthday. Emberly brings Fernessa a series of failed gifts, a sequence which hey used in the fourth webisode.

The actual adventure starts when Tella has a vision of a cake, so she, Emberly and Roaralai go in search of the giant egg from the vision, leaving Slate to distract Fernessa.

There are subtle hints at something between Slate and Fernessa. Perhaps more on his part than hers. She seems annoyed they left him with her.

So Tella, Emberly and Roaralai cross a river, which they used in the third webisode. Then they get caught by a giant man-eating plant, which Emberly's dad has warned her about since she was little. So who has to save them?

Yep, the birthday girl herself.

Fernessa is really awesome in this story. She's smart and brave, which actually made me like her a lot. She might be my second fave after Roaralai. I hardly ever like the nature character, so it's a little surprise, but perhaps not, because when I left off watching Winx, it was Flora who had become my favorite fairy.

The four girls continue on their adventure, end up in the cave with the giant egg, but hey, it's actually a dinosaur egg and the dino family isn't happy. But then the cave starts to collapse, so Emberly takes the egg and runs with it to make the dinos follow her and the other girls outside to safety. The egg hatches, the baby dino is safe and the dinos go off on their own. Emberly is disappointed there will be no cake, but Fernessa says this was the best birthday ever.

At the end of the story, it flashes to present day, where a tour guide is telling the tale. These are the kids in the crowd, so it's a cute vision of a modern day Cave Club.

I really enjoyed these stories. They're way better than the webisodes, I think. I just hope we see more of Ruly, so we can get to know her, as well as focus on characters other than Emberly as the catalyst.