This series by Steve Sheinkin has its moments. They might not be for the adult reader, but the child reader (about ages 7 to 9) will get a kick out of our heroes Abby and Doc time-traveling through history. In history class, Abby and Doc are reading about Abraham Lincoln. But something is not right. All he is doing is sitting, reading the newspaper, playing handball in the alley near his home and where is that famous beard? How did this happen? Historical figures have […]
Outdated gender dynamics, But Topically Dated Politcal Stuff
Bingo Square Round 2: Home, Something, Home (John Jakes was born in Illinois) When I was in elementary school in Germany, one of the local channels aired Fackeln im Sturm, the TV mini series about two families and best friends on opposing sides of the Civil War. Between this show and Dirty Dancing, Patrick Swayze quickly became an important cornerstone in my early tween crushes. My parents had seen the mini series when we were still in the States, and I am pretty sure we […]
Journalist, born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, moved to Canada, now lives in Oregon, writes book about the Second US Civil War. Is Awesome.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. — George Santayana If you were to guess what might cause a second US civil war, what would it be? Given the current political debate over the Trump administration, one might think it wouldn’t be so much a physical divide as an ideological one. Yet, in American War, by Omar El Akkad, the second civil war is imagined as erupting in 2074 over fossil fuels, because some southern states refuse to give them up, for […]
“I Won’t Think About It Today, I’ll Think About It Tomorrow”
I watched “Gone With the Wind” when I was thirteen and came out distinctly disappointed at the end of the interminable film. At thirteen, I couldn’t put into words what was so disappointing about it, the costumes had been beautiful, the sets glorious. There was a love story, and the plot was easy to follow. But it left me wanting. As an adult, I know that it was Scarlett who disappointed me. I had never yet in my young life come across a main character […]
Back to the future
In what must be the most frightening birthday surprise ever, on Dana’s 26th birthday, as she is moving into a new house with her husband Kevin, she suddenly feels dizzy and gets transported away from her safe and familiar surroundings in 1976. She comes to in the woods by a river, where a boy is in the process of drowning. Dana reacts instinctively and wades into the water, rescuing the boy. Faced with the boy’s hysterical mother, and more terrifyingly, the boy’s angry father, who […]
Love during the American Civil War
Until she was thirteen, Marlie Lynch grew up with her mother, a freed slave and wise woman. After her white father’s death, she was taken in by her half-sister and has been able to combine her knowledge of herbs and root magic with scientific principles. Three years into the American Civil War, Marlie and her half-sister are working surreptitiously to aid the cause of the Union, giving aid to runaway slaves and Freedmen, taking medicine and food to imprisoned Union soldiers, and with Marlie sending […]
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