March 2021 - Dogear Diary

Dragon of the Lost Sea

by Laurence Yep

Another re-read from my gradeschool years- I distinctly remember discovering this book at my public library, and its sequels. It really fired my imagination at the time. Images instantly sprang up in my head as I came across familiar scenes again- human features from ancient statues sticking out through trees grown over an abandoned city, the hero and heroine trudging across a vast salt flat bickering and reconciling at turns, the final tense scene when it seems all hope is lost but the younger, smaller of the two pulls a marvelously clever trick to attain their goal. The unlikely pair are Shimmer- a haughty dragon princess who’s been living in exile- and Thorn, an orphan boy who wants to join her quest. She reluctantly accepts his help, thinking that his smaller size, physical weakness and total lack of magical ability (the dragon can shapeshift, among other things) make him more of a liability than an asset, but the boy soon proves he can be useful and loyal. Shimmer may be a royal dragon, but she’s actually quite young as far as dragons go in this story world (where they live for centuries) and her personality is grating- she’s smug and conceited for starters. She has a lot to learn from Thorn about just being a good friend.

Well- the main storyline is an adventure as they journey to find a witch named Civet that basically stole the inland sea where Shimmer’s people used to live, and locked all the water up in a magic pebble. Along the way they meet other allies and enemies- quite a few of them also magical- there’s a wizard and a trickster Monkey. I felt like I ought to recognize the Monkey character from somewhere- but I couldn’t quite place him. Lots of the story has roots in Chinese mythology which I know very little of. I really liked- both as a child and now- that the dragons in this world are aquatic creatures- they don’t breathe fire and their home is in the sea. It’s a very different take on dragons and the description of how Shimmer can move effortlessly through water, how she misses certain aspects of the sea that is no longer there- were really vivid to me. My public library has lots of other books by Laurence Yep but not this particular series- I’d like to read the rest of them over again but will have to find some used copies to acquire.

Rating: 3/5

211 pages, 1982

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Juvenile Fic, Re-reads

Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter

by Astrid Lindgren

Needed a good but easy read last night, and this was perfect. Spirited young heroine, and a story full of heart. Ronia is born into a band of robbers- her father is the chief. They’re constantly at odds with a rival band in the forest- Ronia constantly hears the others insulted and scorned, but doesn’t think much of it as she spends all day exploring the forest. She doesn’t even realize what her father actually does for a living- stealing goods and money from travellers- and when it finally comes to light, she’s appalled that the father she so admires and loves does something so wrong to support his family. But there’s more to turn her world around- Ronia befriends a young boy who lives nearby- turns out he’s the son of the other robber band, which moved practically next door, so the friction between the two groups becomes even more heated. Ronia and Birk enjoy roaming the forest together, though not without having hot-headed disagreements now and then. I had mis-remembered some of the events in the story- I thought there was one battle with a particular large beast or monster, but really there’s several confrontations with various magical creatures in the forest- things that live underground, harpies that chase them. Once Ronia has a mishap while skiing in the winter and Birk rescues her, another time they both almost get swept over a waterfall. They half-tame some wild horses in the forest and go riding together. Their adventures cement their friendship, so when the respective families finally find out- and there’s a huge uproar- the two run off to live in a cave together. Will Ronia ever go back to her robber family? can her father change his ways? I was actually glad I’d forgotten so much, as it made reading this a delight all over again. Glanced back at my previous review, and wouldn’t change a word of it.

Rating: 4/5

176 pages, 1981

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Juvenile Fic, Re-reads

The Mind of An Ape

by David and Ann James Premack

Language studies done with chimpanzees in the sixties. It’s very specific and detailed about how the studies were performed, what they aimed to find out, and how they drew their conclusions- namely that while apes can learn to communicate to a limited degree, they will never actually use language as we know it- they can’t make proper sentences or use abstractions. By the end I found this book really interesting, but I admit it was hard to get into and I almost ditched it fifty pages in after mostly skimming. The writing can be very dry. What’s intriguing is that the scientists did not teach these chimpanzees sign language, or to recognize written words, but instead totally arbitrary symbols for words and objects. The chimps learned to use the symbols to label familiar things like apple, pencil, cup- and individuals- themselves and people who tested them. They learned symbols for colors and certain actions and prepositions- give, cut, on, etc. They were tested to see if they could follow directions, identify objects, make comparisons between objects, draw conclusions about actions performed on objects, solve problems, and transfer learned information to new situations. Children at different ages were also presented with the same kind of tests to see how they did compared to the chimps. What’s really fascinating is to see where the chimps showed their abilities and understanding outside of the testing parameters, and how they preformed on double-blind tests. They also gave chimps that had not had any language training with symbols some of the same tests, and it was obvious the untrained chimps didn’t have the same kind of understanding about cause-and-effect or comparisons. What I found really amusing was when they gave a human one of the tests- he had been part of the double-blind study- giving the chimp questions without himself knowing what the symbols represented (so he couldn’t inadvertently cue the chimp with his body language). Later they tested the man, to see if he’d picked up what any of the symbols meant by watching how the chimp used them. (He figured out many of them, but not all). There’s also comparison of the chimp studies with those done using rats and pigeons. Also comparing what they learned about ape intelligence to how bees convey information with their waggle dance.

The cover image is from part of the study where they tried to teach the chimps abstraction using maps- if they showed the chimp a picture or video of a room it was familiar with, and hidden food, would the chimp find the food when taken to the real room? nope. So then they made a tiny model of the room, showed the chimp hidden food in the model, and took it to the real room. It still failed to find the food. Only when the model was actual size compared to the real room, did the chimp immediately move to the hidden food. Then they worked backwards, using smaller and smaller models and then finally flat representations on paper, and now the chimp was able to transfer the information and find the hidden reward- but not, interestingly, if they rotated the map.

I feel like I should read this again someday to understand it all better, particularly as I didn’t really grasp some of the conclusions but not sure if I can see where there might be a flaw in deducing what the tests showed. For sure later language and intelligence studies with chimps and gorillas has already done this.

Rating: 3/5

165 pages, 1983

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Nonfiction, Current Reads

Half Brother

by Kenneth Oppel

This novel is of an early language experiment done with chimpanzees, in the seventies. It’s told from the viewpoint of a teenager whose parents work at a university. They bring home an infant chimp to raise in their home- to see if it can learn to communicate with sign language. Ben is annoyed at first, jealous of how much attention the chimpanzee demands. He’s also not happy having to attend a new school, dealing with pressure from his parents to get better grades, navigating an intense new interest in girls and trying to figure all that out while making new friends. Gradually he becomes more involved with Zan, the chimp, and starts to relate things he’s learned from his mother’s books (Jane Goodall!) with Zan’s behavior, also comparing to humans. He decides to be methodical in his efforts to win a girl’s attention- keeping notes on things she likes in a logbook similar to how his parents keep notes on Zan, and starts interpreting how kids behave at school- constantly shifting social status and all- with “alpha” chimp behavior. That was both funny and interesting. The family is eager to see how Zan starts picking up sign language and using it, but they come under scrutiny from the university department who brings in an expert challenging their ideas- is Zan really learning language? or is he just cleverly imitating signs to get rewards? There’s issues renewing their grant, and it becomes harder to manage keeping Zan- while he can be cute and endearing, at barely two years old he’s already stronger than any one human, can become aggressive without much notice and makes horrendous messes. This all leads to Ben’s parents deciding the chimpanzee must go- probably to a research facility where he can live with other chimps. Ben protests- he’s become fond of Zan and feels like the chimp is his little brother now- and he feels it’s unfair to treat the chimp as part of a human family and then ditch him in a new environment- will he be able to adjust? Ben’s outrage spurs him to some hasty, questionable actions- and while the ending was satisfying I felt it concluded a bit too quickly.

Overall I liked this book- I’ve read quite a few in the past about language experiments like this that were actually done with chimpanzees and gorillas, and I think this was a very well-rounded look at that for teens. It touches on all the issues without really diving deeply into any one thing- is the chimpanzee a family member or just an experimental subject? what is he really learning from them? what’s the best way to treat him fairly? At the end there are glimpses of different ways chimps are treated in other facilities- some quite grim and others more benign. Reading this made me look to see if I have other nonfiction books on similar topics on my shelf.

Rating: 3/5

375 pages, 2010

more opinions:
Farm Lane Books Blog
Leeswammes Blog
Back to Books
Reading Junkie

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Young Adult

The Fire Pony

by Rodman Philbrick

I liked this book, and I didn’t. Probably if I was a kid reading it for the first time, it would be one unable to shake from memory. I saw it compared to Of Mice and Men, and I was reminded of The Red Pony also. It’s about a kid named Roy who’s been in foster care until his older brother takes him out (without going through the proper channels) and they head out on the road. The older brother Joe has a history of getting into trouble- especially when he’s been drinking- and there’s hints that he plays dangerously with fire. That’s literal. So they approach a ranch where Joe gets work- he’s got a natural way with horses and is excellent at shoeing them. In fact, for me this was the most interesting part of the story, ha- reading how Joe taught his kid brother the importance of keeping a horse’s feet sound and how much their gait could indicate problems, etc. Roy is given an unbroken pony to train and ride (amazing how fast he does so, having nil experience!) All is well for a time and the boys are feeling settled and comfortable at the ranch, but then a local truant officer comes asking questions- why isn’t Roy in school? Then a mountain lion attacks Roy’s pony and it almost dies from the resulting infection. Later there’s a horse race at a rodeo show, and in the end a spectacular tragedy involving a barn fire. Which felt over the top to me, a really horrific scene how could kids read this and not be permanently affected? Well, I was fairly riveted to the page that’s for sure but the ending upset me.

Rating: 3/5

175 pages, 1996

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Juvenile Fic

Out of My Mind

by Sharon Draper

This middle-grade fiction is about a ten-year-old who has cerebral palsy. Melody is plenty smart and has a photographic memory, but she can’t walk, feed herself or speak- until she gets a new computer that gives her a voice. At school she’s been in a special education room for years, but is now excited to be “integrated” into music and a few other classes per day with the regular kids. Especially with a fancy new wheelchair she can drive by herself and then her talking computer. She just wants to fit in but it’s hard. More kids notice her now that she has a voice, but she still gets stared at or outright teased and insulted. Nobody seems to believe that she’s anything other than mentally deficient, even the teachers have this demeaning attitude. Several kids seem to think the computer is allowing her to cheat- and two girls in particular single her out to be mocked. Melody is determined to prove herself and joins the quiz team, but things turn disastrous right before a big competition. Some kids on the team seem determined to sabotage Melody’s ability to participate- but in the end, they’re only ruining their own chances.

I found this book at a library sale. Surprised to realize I must have read it before- but I only recalled things from the beginning and end. The whole thing about the fake snowman they decorated was really familiar, and so was the intensely dramatic scene at the end involving Melody’s little sister. I’m baffled why I had forgotten nearly all of the middle events- including everything about the quiz team- and why this book wasn’t already noted on my blog, when it was published after I started keeping a record. I must have read it with my oldest at a younger age, and maybe we only read parts together.

Regardless, certain aspects of the book didn’t work for me personally- some of the adult’s actions felt unrealistic, the way Melody was treated in school seemed rather atrocious (not the teasing, but the total lack of educational structure and advocacy) and often I felt like Melody’s mother was saying things a kid would want to hear their mother say, not very realistic either. But for what it is, a book written for middle-grade kids about a peer with a physical disability, I think it gives a pretty clear picture what that’s like. How so many ordinary things like putting on clothes or participating in conversations or navigating stairs to get into a building, become obstacles and struggles. And that kids with disabilities have thoughts and feelings and want to be included like everyone else.

The goldfish incident bothered me, though. Probably because I’m a fishkeeper. And why didn’t she explain it to anyone afterwards, when she finally had her talking computer? Sigh.

Similar read, a true story from adult perspective: I Raise My Eyes to Say Yes.

Rating: 3/5

295 pages, 2010

more opinions:
Great Kid Books
Jen Robinson’s Book Page
A Backwards Story

Tags: Current Reads, Juvenile Fic, Medical/Health, Re-reads

A Beast the Color of Winter

the Mountain Goat Observed

by Douglas H. Chadwick

This is one book I will always recall vividly- still remember how I came across it at the public library as a high school student (several decades ago) when I had just discovered that narrative accounts about wildlife field studies was a thing. I think the first one I actually read was Jane Goodall’s In the Shadow of Man, which I’d found at a thrift shop. The section of the library (adult books!) that had nonfiction about wildlife became my favorite spot to browse. This book remained top in my mind, and now finally reading it again so many years later, I still find it excellent. I mentioned it once here before, but can now give a clearer picture.

The author spent seven years studying mountain goats, mainly in Glacier National Park. He camped on the slopes and followed them closely, collaring and tagging some but also learning to identify others by slight individual differences, and to tell males/females apart at different ages, which sounds particularly difficult. He describes the animal in all regards- its physical shape which is so perfectly adapted to living on steep slopes, its eating habits, survival strategies and social structure. The terrain it favors and why, the other animals that share its habitat, how it has avoided competition from most other species and also most predators, but is particularly vulnerable to hunting and distubances caused by man. There is a chapter about how mountain goats evolved (they are more closely related to chamois and serow than to bighorn sheep or any kind of actual goat), and another about why their behavior is so different from sheep. The book explains why they are so belligerent to their own kind and how this actually facilitates their survival. There are diagrams and explanations of their distribution across mountain ranges and what happened when they were introduced to new areas. On a more personal bent, there are passages where the author describes his experiences climbing the mountains to follow the goats, his first sighting of a newly-born mountain goat kid, the harshness of winter storms, many examples of how the goats lead their day-to-day lives and how he was finally able to approach a few mountain goat herds closely enough to sit among them and be part of their social interactions (literally- he knew enough of the goats’ body language to maintain dominance among them until one larger male threatened him a few times when he was too close, and then his social standing among the others gradually slipped!) It’s very apparent that the author greatly admired these animals and enjoyed spending time with them in spite of the hardships during his study. His writing about the wildlife and the surrounding landscape is beautifully done. Constant references to the mountain goats as “the white beasts” or “the bearded ones” did get a bit repetitive! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book again.

Rating: 5/5

208 pages, 1983

Tags: 5/5- Loved It, Animals Nonfiction, Current Reads, Nature, Re-reads

Stonyground

the Making of a Canadian Garden

by Douglas Chambers

Here again, is a book about gardening with a different bent. I could never dream of having a garden such as this- 150 acres of avenues, hedges, flower beds, impressive views and gravel walks connecting what is really a series gardens in what sounds like lovely and surprising ways. I had never heard of this author when I happened upon his book by chance. He was a university professor and sounds like he very much loved literature, poetry and the arts. His gardens were built on a grand scale with amusing quirks- personal humorous asides and favorite quotations from writers and poets placed in very apt locations. Inscribed on stone usually, and relating to each portion of the garden by its design. He says the gardens were each to represent a particular aspect of garden design history, and those who knew the references would get it the moment they stepped into the garden. I admit that rather went over my head- I did not get far with the one serious book on garden design I tried to read. While the scale of everything he did felt so far beyond my own scope- planting dozens of trees to line a path, and then replacing half of them the following year (because they died), no problem. Having artisans design and built gates out of old farming equipment, which sounds very picturesque and practical, stonework laid everywhere, bulldozers flattening or changing slopes here there and everywhere- visitors later remarking how wonderful that he’d inherited such gardens (on the old family farm) but no he built them all from practically nothing- it looked well-established though because he did it properly right from the beginning, with effort and expense but I am sure the results were beautiful. The book does have photos but most are black-and-white, not very large so I did a lot of imagining. While I could never dream of having such a spread of well-designed and flawlessly laid-out gardens (he had formal gardens of many designs, an herb garden, a large vegetable garden, a cottage garden full of flowers, made a lake, etc etc) I really admire the way he thought it all through- “zany” as it sometimes sounded (his own term)- also so perfectly delightful and for once, I was familiar with most of the plants (same continent, though further north). I could well relate to many of the struggles and joys he had with plants- tending the young seedlings, digging and moving things that didn’t do well to a new spot next year, hoping to finally roust the pests (groundhogs in his case), and so on.

I was a bit surprised on finishing this book to look around online and discover that while it’s considered “a Canadian classic” there are very few online reviews- or at least I could not find any. Please see the one I linked to below. I was deeply saddened to learn at the same time that the author passed away recently in May 2020, of Covid-19. I did not know the man, nor do I ever expect to visit his gardens (if they are still kept up), but this does make me feel dismal.

Rating: 4/5

230 pages, 1996

more opinions:
barczablog anyone else?

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Gardening / Food

Seven Fat Kine

by Winefride Nolan

This was much more to my taste! Straightforward and down-to-earth, very much so in fact. The author lived on a farm in Ireland and wrote what it was like farming in the forties and fifties, how their farm gradually changed from using old methods of harvesting by hand, with horses and simple implements, to modern equipment and technology- and why they made that shift. She said she wrote the book so her grandchildren would know what farming used to be like- and the book is mostly just about the farm, how it was run and maintained, very little about the family interactions or characters of neighbors, etc- although a few little sketches and incidents are mentioned. Interestingly enough, it’s also about why this family farm shifted from being one that raised a variety of livestock and crops, to becoming very specialized- mainly for the profit margin. They simply could not make a success of it, otherwise. They quit raising pigs, chickens and sheep for various practical reasons, eventually gravitating to dairy cattle. (A very amusing but exasperating- sounding incident with one of their last pigs was related: the pig had rooted into a very large stack of stored straw and wound up against a wall, they heard it grunting when they called it to come feed, but the pig wouldn’t back out, so they had to climb the straw pile and dig down to get it free). It was a different kind of focus for a book about farm life- compared to others I’ve read- and I found I liked it very much. I think if I knew these people I would like them very much, too.

Added two more books to my list: the precursor to this one, called The New Invasion, and a book the author twice mentioned reading herself, Malabar Farm by Louis Blomfield.

Rating: 4/5

178 pages, 1966

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Bios / Memoirs, Current Reads, Gardening / Food

and I Shall Have Some Peace There

trading in the fast lane for my own dirt road

by Margaret Roach

I tried harder than I should have, with this book. It is what it purports to be- a memoir by a woman who worked as an executive for Martha Stewart, then ditched the city life and her job to go live in a house in the country on her own, with a garden and a cat that slowly eased his way into living indoors (she claimed she was not a cat person). However the focus was all on things I cared little about or could not connect to- her efforts to find romance via a paid matchmaking service, her tears over getting a sub-par local haircut, her extravagant shopping sprees, the dinners she had with friends, the efforts she made to sort her plastic storage containers and move a heavy chair. It went on and on. I just did not care. It’s written in a stream-of-consciousness style peppered constantly with quotes not only from writers and poets, but also song lyrics, which got rather old. Aside from that, most of the time I simply could not focus or understand her line of thinking. It’s so rambling and incoherent and I can only assume that I do not operate on the same wavelength as this woman at all.

However I did skim most of the book, and paused to read the few parts that were actually about gardening. Apparently her garden was so lovely she gave tours, and stocked her freezer and had tons of fresh home-grown produce to choose from in her fridge, but she barely tells anything about it. So disappointing. There’s briefest mention of composting, of setting out garlic cloves, of bringing tender potted plants indoors for the winter and trying to oust the insects they harbor. I could relate to all that. But it’s so few pages among the many many many chapters of navel-gazing. She does go on about frogs, and likes observing the birds- so I learned a few new things about amphibians and chickadees. And I did like this bit:

“Your garden is amazing,” people say when they come touring by the hundreds on garden open days I’ve held for charity for the last thirteen years. ‘How did it get this way?”

“This is what happens when you stay in one place for twenty years,” I tell them, “and just keep digging more holes.”

That made me smile and chuckle. My yard is not much to admire yet, but every year I add a few new plants, and work a bit harder on the cultivated garden. Maybe someday my garden will be so full of interesting and beautiful plants that I’ll have trouble fitting in anything new (right now there’s tons of empty and wasted space)- but the only way to get there is a few holes each new season.

Anyway, this book is a toss. Not staying on my shelf. The only word of praise on the back cover I can agree with is idiosyncratic. I suppose other readers might understand her rambling, or connect to her new-age style musings but I simply couldn’t. Final thought: probably she didn’t write much about the garden in here because she does have a garden blog, called A Way to Garden- seems this book was more focused on the personal inner journey she took from the fast-paced high pressure executive lifestyle to taking care of her own house and garden with lots of solitude and time to do whatever she wanted. Admirable, yes. Readable, no.

Rating: 1/5

264 pages, 2011

Tags: 1/5- Blah, Bios / Memoirs, Current Reads

Month: March 2021

the Mountain Goat Observed

the Making of a Canadian Garden

trading in the fast lane for my own dirt road

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