You are Home by Evan Turk

I have always loved the National Parks. As a kid I poured over Ansel Adams pictures and made roadtrip plans for my future, driver-licensed self. Ironically, I never was able to visit a national park until I was in my twenties. I mean we lived in New York. There is no national park anywhere near New York. Being an east coaster is tough. 

When I saw that this book was an ode to the national parks, I was immediately biased in its favor. 

Sorry, subjectivity is not my strong suit. 

In gorgeous illustrations, Turk goes through all the people and animals the parks belong to. 

Bison!

Fireflies!

City kids, country kids!

The style sort of reminds of some of Georgia O'Keefe's pictures. And I love it. 

Native Americans

Isn't this gorgeous?!

So dramatic!

And then, there is a big fold out.

And a listing of all the national parks in the system and the ones pictured in the book. 

See New York/New England/Mid Atlantic? A desert of national parks. 

The Courage Test by James Preller

Father's Day approacheth! So here is a great father/son book. 

A father forces his somewhat estranged son to follow the Lewis and Clark trail as a jump start for his (the father's) book on Lewis and Clark. As a history, western landscape, and family relationships sucker, it had me at hello.

Overall, I liked it! There is a ton about Lewis and Clark which I really enjoyed. There were also place descriptions and how could they be anything but fabulous in the varied setting along the trail? 

Will and his father are not as one. After a recent divorce, Will doesn't see his father that often and highly resents this intrusion into his summer baseball plans. For what ever reason, his mother insists he go with his father. Although the adults in charge can force him to do things, they can't make him like it and Will is all set to hate the entire trip. He has been hearing about Lewis and Clark since he was named Merriweather William at birth--who really cares? Not Will. 

Somehow on this trip, he starts to care. He begins to see his father as a real human. A human he even enjoys being around at times. There are canoe trips, hiking trails, and a lot of driving. Along the way they pick up Maria Rosa, a illegal teenage girl. From the reviews I have read, this is where a lot of people have complaints about the book. Maria Rosa (spoiler!) is pregnant. This isn't overly discussed, but it is alluded to and referenced. In an otherwise unobjectionable book for the middle school crowd, teen pregnancy, no matter how slight, is a little surprising. However, this didn't bother me too much.  

In the middle of their canoe trip in Montana, Will and his dad run into one of his dad's friends, a Native American from Brooklyn, NY. He looks all back country and natural, but after meeting Will, he poses for a selfie real quick so he can "get something up on instagram before the light fades." I love the juxtaposition of the wilds of Montana and a hipster Native American from Brooklyn. Overall, I feel that this book does a pretty good job addressing the maltreatment of the Native people by the subsequent settlers, and even touches on the problems with how Lewis and Clark dealt with a slave they brought on the expedition with them. I like that they address these problems and give a few different perspectives on the Lewis and Clark trip. 

By the end of the book, Will learns the reason why he was forced to go on this trip, develops a close relationship with his father and has a new appreciation for "weird, old America." 

This was a quick, fun read. It wasn't too deep, but there was enough useful/quality content here for me to recommend it for the 9-12 crowd. I plan on getting the audio version for our western road trip this summer and inflicting it upon my kiddos. 

And while I am listening to it again, I might just concoct a unit research plan around this book to inflict upon my school kiddos.... 

Buffalo Music by Tracey E Fern & illus by Lauren Castillo

This awesome book is a fictionalized account of Mary Ann Goodnight's conservation efforts on behalf of the American Bison. At a time when Buffalo herds were seen as so many hides for the hunters, Mary Ann realized their intrinsic worth and started her own herd to ensure their continued existence.  

I love this book. And buffalo.

The main character Molly and her husband Charlie move to the Palo Duro Canyon area of Texas, when large herds of Bison roamed free. The rhythm of their lives, the "Buffalo music" was the backdrop against which Molly went about her life. 

"I stirred the fire to the huff-huff of buffalo breath clouding the chill dawn.

I hoed the garden to the scritch -scritch of buffalo scratching themselves against the cottonwoods.

I scrubbed the bedclothes to the slosh and splash of buffalo bulls wallowing in the mud hole. 

I swept the dugout to the thunder of buffalo as they drifted like a dark cloud across the prairie."

Then came the buffalo hunters.

Soon Charlie and Molly were driving past huge piles of buffalo bones. Within six years, the buffalo were mostly wiped out.

Molly's buffalo music had come to a discordant and abrupt end. 

One day, a young cowboy discovered two small buffalo calves sleeping under a juniper. Knowing Molly was tenderhearted to animals, he brought them straight to her.

Molly decided to do her best with the calves. Her husband was skeptical. 

"But Charlie knew better than to waste his breath arguing with me. When I got a notion, a wise man knew to let me have my way."

She brought them into the cabin and wrapped them up.

Soon the calves were running around with the milk cows, growing healthier and stronger by the day. 

Molly's success with the two orphan spread throughout Texas. Soon any orphan calves found were brought to Molly. 

She cared for them and protected them--giving them space to grow. 

Within time, she had one hundred head of buffalo.

When she heard Yellowstone Park was trying to rebuild its buffalo herd, Molly sent four Bison north to Yellowstone. 

Because of Mary Ann Goodnight and others like her, the bison roaming the American West were saved. The Goodnight herd formed one of only five herds from which  most of the modern buffalo are descended. It is safe to assume that without the timely intervention of these early conservationist, the American buffalo would have been entirely destroyed. 

Hats off to Mary Ann Goodnight.