Remote Corners of the Globe

How much smaller is our world than it used to be? Back in the early 90s, I read Tuva or Bust! by Ralph Leighton. Fascinated by the triangular stamps of Tuva and the funny spelling of its capital city, Kyzyl, Leighton and family friend Richard Feynman decide to visit the country. Not only is Feynman one of the most famous and important physicists ever, he was a larger-than-life character, known for late-night bongo sessions and an expansive curiosity.

In the book, tracking down the most basic information about or photographs of Tuva takes a huge amount of work. Leighton and his friends are searching for books at the Library of Congress and in university libraries around the world. It takes months to exchange letters with colleagues in Tuva -- and almost as long just to find their names and addresses. It takes years for them to get permission to visit Tuva and to make the travel arrangements, in large part because the Cold War was still in full swing in the late 70s and early 80s, with the Soviet Union keeping firm control of which foreigners entered their country and where they went. This story wouldn't be a story now. Finding information about a small remote city and locating people there would take minutes and not months. While traveling to and within the Soviet Union and China was extremely difficult 30 years ago, it's not only easier but common and unremarkable now.

There are still a handful of places in the world that would present similar challenges to the traveler. North Korea comes to mind, as does Burma, which is where Mitali Perkins' Bamboo People is set.

The book tells the separate stories of two boys. The first is an educated 15-year-old who is forced to join the Burmese army. Conditions are poor for these young men, but generally not shocking or horrific. Chicko is bright and manages to team up with another soldier who is less educated but more "street-smart," and together the two are able to endure and even find a few ways to improve their situations. Halfway through the book, Chicko runs into trouble on the Burmese-Thai border, and the narration shifts. The second half of the story is told by a Karenni boy, Tu Reh. His family are members of a Burmese ethnic minority, forced from their home by Burmese soldiers and now living in a refugee camp on the Thai side of the border.  Tu Reh's difficult choices force him to link his destiny to that of Chicko, who represents the very people who destroyed his village. The story is skillful and engaging on many levels. While the setting of Burma, a country that has been largely closed off to westerners for many years, is one that is almost certainly not familiar to most American students, the problems of child soldiers and ethnic warfare are more well-known. More importantly for a work of fiction, the universal themes are the strongest. These boys, on the verge of adulthood, struggle with decisions that affect themselves as well as their families and broader community.

Modeling Good Research With Trapped

The book Trapped by Marc Aronson tell the story of the 33 Chilean miners who were rescued from a mine in 2010 after more than 2 months underground. The story is well told and includes lots of great background about the science of mining and how various technologies were developed or put to use in rescuing the men. I enjoyed the story, although it was a little short. The main text of the book ends on page 94 and is followed by a lot of supplemental materials.

These appendices would be great to explore in a classroom setting with students, to ask them what they add to the book and why they are important. The appendices are:

• A list of the 33 miners and their ages
• A timeline of the accident and rescue operation
• A glossary
• An article by a former miner, "The World of the Miner"
• "How I Wrote This Book" by the author, with the subtitle/explanation "and what I learned that could be useful for students writing research reports (and a couple of last thoughts from men I interviewed)"
• Notes and Sources
• Bibliography
• Interviews
• Useful Websites
• Acknowledgements
• Index

Wow! Just about every sort of supplementary piece of information you could think of. Put this together with the photos in the center and the detailed table of contents, and there are some fantastic points of discussion.

The "How I Wrote This Book" piece could stand on its own and might even be something to start with before reading the book. Aronson talks about how different it was writing this book compared with his others, because it was a current event. He could not rely on any books, but had to do online and by interviewing people. He points out the differences between using books and news accounts with specific examples. Here are a few quotes from the essay:

"The real gems of the Net do not show up in convenient order on a search page. You only find them when you know what questions to ask."

 "The great advantage of books is that the knowledge in them has been cooked. Someone had time to think about what he or she wanted to say and how best to say it."

 "Dr. Holland has some advice to any young person who wants to be an astronaut ... : You must read, a lot. Read about people who were in extreme circumstances ... Study what skills allowed men and women to do the impossible, to rise to a challenge, and what held them back."

Trapped has a lot of possibilities for classroom use. It ties into science and geography curriculum, it tells a compelling and heroic story that will appeal to both girls and boys, and the text of the book is actually quite short. It includes a number of diagrams, and I would supplement it with some maps (which are sadly and surprisingly not included.) It is not yet available in paperback, but the hardcover came out in August 2011, so perhaps it will be out soon.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

I started reading The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope yesterday and had to finish it up late last night. It was a little slow starting, but picks up the pace partway through and it's a truly amazing AND true story.

The author, William Kamkwamba (co-authored the book with Bryan Mealer), is a young man from a village in Malawi. When he's about 14 years old he is forced to drop out of school. His family has barely survived a period of drought and famine and has no money left for his school fees. William discovers a small library (!) nearby, and intrigued by a science book detailing how windmills can be used to make electricity, decides to build one for his own family. Not only does he succeed, he captures the attention of the local media, then some bloggers, who in turn get the attention of the organizers of TED -- and they invite him to speak at conference. His story is being made into a documentary, Moving Windmills.

The book is a wonderful blend of memoir, survival story, insight into the scientific mind, the effects of economic policies on environment, and it's a great feel-good read as well. It comes out in paperback this summer and by all rights, ought to be snapped up and make the bestseller list.