OK, so probably most of my readers don’t have a need for dyslexia books. I’m posting these notes here to jog my memory in the future, and just in case anyone who needs such information drops by.
Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz, M.D. Shaywitz is a Yale doctor who has been involved in dyslexia research for decades, including writing an article about dyslexia that was published in Smithsonian magazine in the mid-1990s. This is a thick and comprehensive book about the history, nature and treatment of dyslexia. On the one hand, very good information, at least considering that it’s now nearly a decade old. On the other hand, the text was so dense, with tiny type and frequent fillers about the marvels of modern science, that I found myself wanting to hurl the book across the room and tell Shaywitz to get to the point already. The revolutionary teaching method promised in the subtitle was not introduced until page 172, especially amazing given that dyslexia is often inherited, making it very likely that a dyslexic parent would be trying to muddle through this. /end rant
Facts about dyslexia that I did not know: According to Shaywitz, current research indicates that the root of dyslexia is phonological, not visual as is still commonly assumed. The brain just doesn’t want to convert sounds to symbols and back. Brain scans show activity in very different parts for dyslexics and non-dyslexics, so the they are learning to read in very different ways. Dyslexia affects just as many girls as boys, and lower class as middle class, though girls and lower class kids tend to be underidentified – because girls are quiet and lower class are sadly just not expected to succeed academically. Though in general dyslexia is highly underdiagnosed, she cites research showing that about 20% of people have dyslexia. Maybe I shouldn’t be so concerned about no one else needing this information.
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos. It’s 1962 in Norvelt, a Pennsylvania town founded as a self-sufficient homestead community by Eleanor Roosevelt in the Depression. Now, in 1962, the original residents are slowly dying off – all women, as the men died of black lung from working in the mines much earlier.When I first started this book, about a boy named Jack Gantos growing up in the same town as author Jack Gantos, I was prepared for another thoughtful and moving but ultimately somewhat boring book about growing up in a slow, long-ago time. The start felt a tad slow to me, as young Jack gets in trouble for accidentally firing a Japanese WWII rifle that he hadn’t thought was loaded at the local drive-in screen. One of his major entertainments seems to watching war movies from his yard using binoculars. Maybe not boring for boys, but boring for me. The tension ramps up for Jack as his father orders him to mow down his mother’s treasured field of corn for feeding the poor, with the upshot that Jack is grounded for the summer. His big project is digging a bomb shelter and a runway for the old fighter plane his father is trying to fix up. This plane and destruction building the runway causes are symptomatic of the tension between Jack’s mother, who was born in Norvelt and loves it, and his father, who wasn’t and who considers it a dead-end town to be escaped. The only time Jack is allowed to leave the house is to help one of the original residents, the former town nurse, Miss Volker, type obituaries of the others as they pass, as Miss Volker is too arthritic to do so. Long ago, she promised to marry Mr. Spizz, the tricycle-riding town sheriff, when all of these ladies were dead, and he never lets her forget it. Additional color comes from the nosebleeds Jack gets whenever he is frightened, from his best friend Bunny, a fierce Small Person who is the daughter of the local mortician, and the unexpected death by truck of a strange Hells Angel. All of these elements weave together into a story that has lots of over-the-top gross humor combined with nostalgia and sorrow at the ending of a utopia as well as good old-fashioned kid fun. Spoiler – the old ladies turn out to be dying of unnatural causes, and somehow, this is mostly treated as something to laugh at. This treatment makes the book lighter for the grade-school readers it’s aimed at, but I still found the casualness the murders were treated with a little horrifying. For those who can get past this, this book has enough excitement to pull a reader in as well as enough meat to leave the reader with something to think about. 
Uniquely Gifted by Keisa Kay and Beverly A. Trail “Twice exceptional” is a term I’ve newly become acquainted with. It refers to people (often specifically children) who are both gifted and have some sort of disability like a learning disability, ADD or ADHD, or sensory integration issues… among many other possibilities. My friend Dr. M. actually told me to look for the term. You can Google lots, of course, but sometimes a book is nice, and this is the book that I found that I could interloan easily. It’s divided into three sections, with lots of essays from parents and kids, teachers, and administrators each talking about their experience with (or as) twice exceptional students. This book came out a dozen years ago, and that 2000 copyright makes a big difference when it comes to things like finding resources on the Internet. However, educational systems change at a glacial pace, so the stories of struggles by families for support still sadly ring true, and effective methods for support will still be the same. I came to the happy conclusion that my boy is much closer to the normal range than most of the children described in this book, so that the extreme adaptations sometimes described won’t be necessary for him. Also unlike some of the horror stories here, the teachers and administrators at his school are all very supportive so far and commited to helping him reach his full potential. However, I have quite a few friends whose kids do fall into the twice exceptional spectrum, for whom this book might be useful. 
The Steampunk Bible by Jeff Vandermeer. I was at work looking through a list of upcoming nonfiction Steampunk titles, without any thought of being able to buy them for any of my library collections. Then I wondered where The Steampunk Bible would actually fall. And – score! 809.387, in the Dewey 800s (literature), one of the areas for which I do the purchasing. Even more exciting, it appeared on our weekly front-page of the Web site carousel of new purchases. That generated enough demand that I had to buy a second copy, a moment of geeky librarian happiness. 
12 Things to Do Before You Crash and Burn by James Proimos Herc was nicknamed Hercules by his father when he was six. But his father has just died in a plane crash. He was a popular self-help expert, loved by his audience, but a terrible father. Herc, definitely up there on the difficult teen scale, gives this eulogy at the funeral: “He was an ass. My father was a complete and total ass.” Following this, and no doubt further trying incidents at home, his mother ships Herc off to his uncle in Baltimore for two weeks. In the train on the way there, he sits by a Beautiful, Unattainable Woman who is reading Winnie the Pooh. When she leaves the book behind, he determines to track her down to return it. Meanwhile, his uncle, busy working long hours, gives him, like the Hercules of legend, twelve tasks to accomplish: Choose a mission. Find the best pizza joint in town. Clean out the garage. Muck the stalls at Riverbend farm. Read a complete book under a tree. Go to a place of worship and pray. Go on seven job interviews. Spend the day thinking big thoughts. Write them down. Eat a meal with a stranger. Make your uncle something. Recite a poem at Blake’s Coffee shop Midnight Poetry Reading. Complete your mission. Somehow, the force of his uncle’s personality is enough that Herc goes with it, forming most of the book. 
The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man by Michael Chabon. Illustrated by Jake Parker. Awesome Man himself takes through a day in the life of… Awesome Man. He describes his costumes, his powers (the “Awesome Power Grip,” aka hugging), and his sidekick dog, Moscowitz. We see Awesome Man beating villains like Radioactive Jell-o from Outer Space and Dr. Von Evil. And then, alas, Awesome Man is beaten by his arch nemesis. He must flee to his secret fortress, a small patch of suburbia in an undersea bubble. After some deep reflection huddled on his bed, Awesome Man realizes that the problem is that he’s out of positrons. He needs to eat to regain his strength! But once on the job again, will he ever stop long enough to reveal his secret identity to the reader? The ending is undeniably sweet. The bright, smooth pictures have occasional retro-feeling dot fills, giving a hint of old-school comics. There are just enough details to let you discover new details in subsequent readings. This is ideal for superhero-obsessed preschoolers and early elementary kids, with just the right blend of action and innocence.
Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins. Here is an ideal sewing book for busy people. This book features stylish and fairly simple sewing projects with just one yard of fabric (plus notions & sometimes a contrast fabric). It starts with great detailed general sewing instructions, including what type of foot, needle & stitch length to use for different fabric types. Full-sized patterns are included for most projects; some simpler designs just have measuring instructions. From there, it’s divided up by fabric type, each fabric including a short introduction with more on how best to sew and later care for it. Fabrics include lightweight cottons, quilting-weight cottons, home dec, flannel, woven pile, coated fabrics, fleece, knits, and wool & felt. In general, the projects included lots of bags, little kid clothes, shorter women’s tops, some home décor items, and several toys. The projects I thought were the coolest included a hot pad apron; the flirty skirty; a quilted 8-bottle tote; a swaddle blanket with ties; the multi-use bucket; the kid’s comfy chair; a real kid-sized arm chair; the monster-wear hat & mittens; a superhero cape & shorts; a stuffed pig which gives birth to piglets who then attach to velcro teats to nurse; the speedy ruffle scarf; and the last-minute tunic. The ones I’d be most likely to make – mostly simpler and things I can’t buy – include the seafarer’s tricorn hat; a flat-screen TV cover. The book had lovely layout and design, with large photos and diagrams included for all the projects, in addition to the patterns. Smaller illustrations demonstrate techniques needed for particular projects. Coming from the knitting world, I wished that each project had included a source for the fabric, since for many of the simpler designs, the print will make or break the project. There was a list of websites for fabric sources at the end, though the URLs were missing from several of these, and there was no way to tell even which designer the featured fabrics came from. The projects came from many different designers, whose bios and blog addresses were also featured at the end. I’m not running out to buy it, but I am keeping it in mind for when I finish those sewing projects I bought fabric for in September.
Leave It to Chance. Volume 1: Shaman’s Rain. by James Robinson and Paul Smith with Jeromy Cox. “Why aren’t there more Nancy Drew-style books anymore?” the creators of this book asked themselves, and set out to create one. Well, kind of. These people are comics types, so this is a graphic novel. And they seem to like fantasy, too (fine by me.) Chance is the 14-year-old daughter of a famous modern-day magician whose job is protecting the town of Devil’s Echo. She thinks she should be learning to take over the family business, but her father, shattered by the loss of his wife several years back, has decided that only boys should do magic. Refreshingly, Chance’s preferred clothes are pretty gender-neutral, so that even though her gender is central to her motivation, there isn’t a lot of girliness that would turn boys off of reading it. That’s great, because Chance’s adventures are top-notch. She frees a small dragon from being sent to a possibly hostile dimension. Naturally, he escapes, and chasing him down leads her straight into trouble, as well as a cute and powerful sidekick. Chance finds a dead body, perhaps related to the vicious mayoral campaign underway; overhears a gathering of very disgruntled sewer goblins; and decides to try to locate the kidnapped daughter of a local shaman. She teams up with a Hispanic female police officer and a reporter, and ends up solving bunches of interrelated mysteries while always managing to stay just out of danger herself. The art style is clear and vigorous and shows plainly that Devil’s Echo is diverse in the normal human sense in addition to its magical denizens. This is just right for elementary-aged kids looking for straight-up excitement. While there are definitely shady characters, there isn’t any graphic violence and our heroine always manages to squeak out of even the tightest situation without harm. My love brought this home from the library for us, and as it’s out of print, that may be the easiest way to get it in general. There are two more volumes that I haven’t seen, but may yet track down.
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare I pulled this off the returns cart, labeled new… and discovered only later that it’s a 2010 book that just gone out so much that no one here had a chance to take the New sticker off. 
alibrarymama 