Big City, Small Chickens – BOOK REVIEW: City Chickens by Christine Heppermann

Please note: This book review is cross posted at Mom2MomEd.

Title: City Chickens

Author: Christine Heppermann

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Year published: 2012

ISBN: 978-0-547-51830-5

Genre: non-fiction; children’s literature; agriculture; lifestyle

Pairs well with a vegan meal on the back porch, overlooking a garden and free roaming chickens.

Cluck, cluck, cluck!!!! That’s the sound of the lady chickens in that urban backyard you just walked past.

Wait, what? Chickens in the city?

YES! Urban chickens and urban homesteading are becoming more and more common, but that doesn’t mean life is always clucks and feathers for chickens. City Chickens by Christine Heppermann is all about the plight of many chickens in urban areas, but more specifically in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She traces the story of a husband and wife in the city who have devoted their lives to rescuing chickens (among other animals) and finding them new homes.

The book is part biography, part fun and informative story, and part social awareness.

This is a great, but very honest and real, look at what happens to many chickens and how their lives are improved by kind rescuers. I highly encourage you to read this book with your kids or in your classroom, but be forewarned that there are a couple of disturbing photos of chickens who have been used in cockfighting and who are kept in chicken cages. These disturbing situations are described as well, but not in too much detail, in order to bring awareness to how chickens are abused and how they should be treated instead. The book is mostly about how great chickens are and how fun they can be to keep and care for when rescued and taken care of properly.

In addition to profiling the owners of Chicken Run Rescue in Minneapolis, the author also profiles a adolescent Abigail and her rescued chicken, Billiam, as well as other chickens and their rescuers. I think young readers in particular will like that there is a profile of a young person and that other children are also featured in the book. The very back of the book also offers a list of resources for learning more about chickens, including how to include lessons about chickens and life cycles without hatching chicks in the classroom – a large reason why many chicks are abandoned.

City Chickens also talks about keeping chickens healthy and some of the health problems that abandoned chicks often suffer. The author notes that if you keep urban chickens, it is important to find a veterinarian that is able to provide proper chicken care which may not always be easy to find in an urban area.

I loved this little book, and I think you should pick it up to read with your kids or in your classroom. My son and I are planning our own little homestead and urban oasis (we’re moving from the country back to the city!) and want to raise chickens for their eggs, as pets, and also as insect control in our garden (all of which are noted as options in City Chickens), so I headed to the library to find books about chickens. Most of what I was found was far beyond what I was looking for which brought me to the children’s section and City Chickens!

As with many of the books I review, I found City Chickens Christine Heppermann at my local library. However, you can also find it on Amazon HERE.

Do you raise chickens? Have your kids participated in chicken hatching projects at school? Drop a comment and let me know!

Please note: links may be affiliate links and I may receive a small commission from purchases made via links at no extra cost to you.

Grammar Nerd BOOK REVIEW: Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog – The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey

Title: Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog – The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences

Author: Kitty Burns Florey

Publisher: Melville House Publishing

Year published: 2006

ISBN: 978-1-933633-10-7

Genre: non-fiction; grammar; English language

Pairs well with your favorite pen or pencil,

a notebook, and a teacher’s red correction pen!

Grammar nerds, UNITE!

If you are a true grammar nerd, I believe you will find Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog to be a joy of a read! The book, written by Kitty Burns Florey, is all about diagramming sentences.

Wait, wait, wait! Don’t click away yet!

This is NOT a book about diagramming sentences, but rather a book about diagramming sentences. The book traces the history of the practice of sentence of diagramming from it’s early beginnings in the 1870s through its heyday in the mid-1900s through to today when it is a bit more of a quirky classroom treat that may or may not have actual value in terms of learning the ins and outs of the English language.

As is often my habit, I judged this book by its cover, and I was not disappointed. The book is actually quite funny and includes quite a lot of history regarding the evolution of how the English is taught in the United States. Throughout the book, the author also includes a number of stories from her own childhood and education. And, she includes numerous diagrams to show both simple and complex sentence diagramming.

Kitty Burns Florey took what could have been a dull slog through grammar and turned it into a fun, non-fiction romp. I loved it!

To be fair, I did not grow up diagramming sentences, nor did my son. And, after reading Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog, I’m glad! Although simple sentences could be satisfying to diagram, more complex sentences look like a headache! 

That said, when I started homeschooling my son, halfway through his 4^th grade year, I realized how little grammar instruction he had received in school. We ended up using a great grammar curriculum that brushes up against diagramming, but utilizes many more useful methods of teaching usage with the English language. We loved the Easy Grammar series – if you are homeschooling and need a grammar curriculum, this is a must! It’s also great if you’ve been out of school for a while and need to brush up on your own writing and grammar skills. Check it out on Amazon HERE.

If you want to read Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog by Kitty Burns Florey, you might find it at your local library, as I did, or you can pick it up at Amazon HERE.

Did you grow up learning to diagram sentences? If so, do you have fond memories of it or was it a task you dreaded?

A dog person reviews a book about cats ~*~ BOOK REVIEW: Distillery Cats by Brad Thomas Parsons

Title: Distillery Cats – Profiles in Courage of the World’s Most Spirited Mousers

Author: Brad Thomas Parsons

Illustrator: Julia Kuo

Publisher: Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC

Year published: 2017

ISBN: 978-1-60774-897-7

Genre: non-fiction; cats; alcohol

Pairs well with: 

your favorite adult beverage

and a cat in your lap.

When stressed, find an easy book with lots of pictures. Distillery Cats: Profiles in Courage of the World's Most Spirited Mousers, written by Brad Thomas Parsons and illustrated by Julia Kuo, fits the bill almost perfectly.

Why almost?

Because it’s about cats and I’m a dog person. But, that little issue aside, this is a terrific little easy, fast read that’s highly entertaining.

Read about different distillery cats and their unique personalities (and owners) in one sitting, over several days, or just dip in for one cat’s story at a time here and there. Doesn’t really matter – the book is terrific no matter how you read it!

I love the idea of distillery cats – kitties chasing mice, rats, and other pests by nightfall and socializing with patrons by day. The cats described all seem to have their own unique personalities and habits as any cat owner will tell you is pretty common among our feline friends.

Each cat biography is accompanied by lovely artwork with illustrations by Julia Kuo that further capture the spirit of each cat. And, each also is accompanied by a little break out set of facts, including the cat’s breed, age, gender, and special qualities. 

Several biographies are also accompanied by recipes for drinks from some of the bars, breweries, and distilleries where the cats make their homes. I’m looking forward to trying the Watermelon Punch recipe from Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn, New York – I think it will be a perfect afternoon refresher for a pot luck I’ll be hosting outdoors this summer on my farm in the Pacific Northwest. Watermelon, basil, lemon, simple syrup and “moonshine”. YUM! The recipe is in the book if you want to check it out!

The book also features several famous quotes and song lyrics about cats, my favorite of which is:

Now, I just need someone to publish a similar book about dogs – but would it be set in breweries and the like? Maybe it should be something like Firehouse Dogs or Mountain Lodge Dogs?

I found Distillery Cats at my local library, but you can find it on Amazon HERE.

Quick poll – comment if you are a cat person or a dog person!

BOOK REVIEW: The Year She Left Us by Kathryn Ma

Title: The Year She Left Us

Author: Kathryn Ma

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers

Year published: 2014

ISBN: 978-0-06-227334-5

Genre: contemporary fiction

My Rating: 5/5 -- must read!

Pairs well with a comfortable couch,

long and rainy afternoon, 

and your favorite tea and blanket.

Once again, I fully judged a book by its cover and was not disappointed.

Kathryn Ma’s novel, The Year She Left Us, is a stunning, multi-generational, multi-cultural masterpiece, following a Ari – Ariadne Bettina Yun-li Rose Kong; her mother, Charlie; aunt, Les; and her grandmother. It is a story of a family of women, lost amongst themselves and to themselves, finding each other, finding themselves, and finding what really matters.

Each family member has experience loss in their own ways – some more deeply than others, but all losses. Ari, however, is at the center of the story, pulling the others both apart and together, as she navigates childhood and adolescence until a breakdown drives her away from everything and everyone that matter most in her life. I think she would agree that she disappears, even from herself.

Early in the novel, Ari takes an action that is unbelievably shocking and graphic – you are warned – but that also sets up the entire rest of the novel. The action is so disturbing that I became nauseous reading it. You’ll have to read the book for yourself to find out what she did and about the resulting fallout.

If you’ve read The Joy Luck Club or any other work by Amy Tan, I think you will appreciate The Year She Left Us. Ma masterfully weaves the divide between being both Chinese and American and the pull to both cling to and abandon traditions of both sides. She also carefully treads the pains and joys that come with adoption – the joy that a parent feels at becoming a mother and how it spreads to others in the family, but also the pull of feeling abandoned or thrown away that some adopted children may feel. Through it all, it is clear that the three generations of women need each other and love each other, even if they aren’t always aware of it – sometimes they flat out reject one another.

The terrain of the book physically traverses San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area in Northern California, including Clement Street (where one of my best friends comes from), up to Alaska and across to Pennsylvania. And, it spreads to the other side of the world to metropolises in China and the countryside. In Ma’s description of Lushan Mountain, I could practically smell the air, feel the breeze, feel the paths around the lake and into the mountains. It felt so close. I wanted to go there.

The Year She Left Us is also unique in that chapters alternate between all four women, but the story is told in the first person by only two – Ari and her grandmother. It did take me a few chapters to get into the rhythm, but by the midpoint of the novel, the structure made perfect sense and even felt necessary. By the last chapter, it was obvious that this was the only format for the story of these four women ranging from 18 years old to 80. At some point, the novel references an assisted living facility called Four Winds. The characters themselves are like the four winds all blowing against and away from each other, only to finally come together in a cohesive manner.

I loved this novel and know I will read it again. I hope you’ll give it a try and won’t be turned off by the grotesque scene I mentioned – that’s really the best word for it, but it is only truly described in detail once.

I’ll leave you to make up your own mind about which of the women the “she” in the title refers to.

I found The Year She Left Us by Kathryn Ma at the library, but you can find it on Amazon HERE.

***Links may be affiliate in nature. Purchases made through these links may result in a small commission to me at no extra cost to you. Thank you in advance!

BOOK REVIEW: The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder

Book: The People We Hate at the Wedding
Author: Grant Ginder
Publisher: Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan
Year First Published: 2017

ISBN: 9781250095206
Genre: contemporary fiction, dysfunctional family

Pairs well with a flute of champagne,

chocolate covered strawberries,

and a fainting couch.

I had really high hopes for The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder, and although I did enjoy reading it, it wasn’t as stellar as I wanted it to be – maybe because I saw some of myself in each of the main characters? Maybe I didn’t like what I saw?

Whatever the reason, I do think this is a worthy read, regardless. The book centers around a brother and sister, their mom, and their half-sister. None of them are particularly nice, but they are all written in a manner that makes them painfully human and real.

First, there’s Alice. She used to be carefree and up-and-coming until a personal loss – a tragedy, really – sent her fleeing from real life into a pseudo-existence in Los Angeles where she (and if she were a real person, I think she’d agree) became a cliché. And, she’s doing her best to avoid dealing with her loss, even if it means pushing others away.

Second, we have Paul. Paul and Alice are brother and sister. Paul has all kinds of relationship issues ranging from a manipulative boyfriend to an overly protective mother to a father that wasn’t at all the person Paul thought his dad to be.

Next, we come to Eloise. Eloise is posh and poised. She’s Paul and Alice’s older sister – nay, half-sister – and they never really let her forget the “half” part of that equation. Eloise is the one getting married and Paul and Alice revel in picking apart every aspect of the wedding plans. For Eloise, outward appearances are almost everything, and she spends extensive amounts of time second guessing herself in order to put on an outer shell, masking what might be a rich inner life. She just wants everyone to be happy.

Then, we come to the matriarch – Donna. On the one hand, Donna is a great mom. She loves all of her children deeply and thoroughly and would do just about anything to protect them. On the other hand, I think she’s tired and just wants her kids to grow up already and to find happiness. She tries very hard to help them, but at the same time she has her own issues to deal with related to a failed marriage to Eloise’s dad (he’s charming, but a cad) and with the death of Alice and Paul’s father who turns out not to be quite what Paul thought he was.

Grant Ginder managed to write characters that are so real that I think most of us will see ourselves or those we know in these people.

And, while I mentioned that The People We Hate at the Wedding wasn’t all I had hoped it would be, the very last several pages redeem any shortcomings. Ginder ties up all the loose ends and pulls it all together in a satisfying manner that had me smiling and thinking, “Yes. These people are real and I so want them to carry on with one another and to keep trying to be the people they want each other to be.” Ginder doesn’t give us a “happily ever after” ending, but one that is real and satisfying. I definitely recommend The People We Hate at the Wedding for this alone (although the rest of it is worth reading too!).

What was the last book you read that left you satisfied and glad you’d read it, even if it wasn’t what you’d hoped it would be? Drop a comment and let me know! 

While I found The People We Hate at the Wedding at my local library, you can also find it on Amazon HERE.

BOOK REVIEW: The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today’s America by Mark Sundeen

Book: The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today's America
Author: Mark Sundeen
Publisher: Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
Year First Published: 2016

ISBN: 9781594631580
Genre: non-fiction, homesteading, modern farming

• Pairs well with homemade lemonade in a mason jar, a front porch rocking chair, and a farmer’s bandanna (I always thought "bandanna" was spelled "bandana" but spell check says it is not. Hm....)

I have to admit that I did not read The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today's America by Mark Sundeen in a timely manner – I was interrupted by moving house just as I was coming up on the last few chapters. 

But, funnily enough, that move was from a suburban three bedroom two-and-a-half bath suburban split-level house to 30 acres with a metal barn, a bunch of cows, and a fifth wheel in the country.

My move and the timing with my reading of The Unsettlers was pretty perfect, though not quite what I had planned.

I first came across The Unsettlers at my local library as I was wandering aimlessly, trying to kill time before an appointment. As often happens, I spotted the cover on a shelf, face out as a “highlighted” book and was intrigued by the cover. I am not ashamed to admit that I do judge books by their covers and often the cover is the deciding factor in whether or not a book gets to come home with me. I loved the whimsical hand doodled look and couldn’t resist the tagline of “In search of the good life in today’s America.” 

I mean, aren’t we all looking for the “good life” in some way or another?

The book captivated me right away and I quickly sped through chapters about grassroots farming movements in both rural and urban settings, backyard homesteading, and all manner of levels of commitment to living on and from the land. Although The Unsettlers is a work of non-fiction, exploring homesteading and “the good life” across the United States, it reads like a novel and I came to think of many of the people that Sundeen writes about as characters. I adored Olivia, an urban homesteader and pragmatist in Detroit and rural Luci, a no-nonsense woman of the land. I wanted to know these people. I wanted to meet them and learn from them.

Sundeen’s writing is so engaging that, by the time I did finish the book, I felt like I did actually know everyone he wrote about and as if I had learned from them. I learned perseverance in the face of adversity from Olivia and her experiences homesteading in crime addled areas of Detroit and I learned humbleness from Luci in rural Montana.

And, of course, I came away wanting to get my hands in the dirt and to start growing things! Right now, my tomato plants are putting out blossoms and I can’t wait to taste the first harvest!

The Unsettlers also brought back many memories of good times with my grandparents in their huge suburban backyard garden and time spent at my uncle’s farm (now my homestead!) with his cows and horses. I miss my grandparents and uncle very much, and I wish I could go back and relive those glorious days of snapping peas and beans in bowls, plucking carrots from the dirt, and scooping newly fallen apples off the ground. The satisfaction of growing your own food, cleaning it up and processing it, and making a meal out of it is nothing short of wonderful. It is indeed a good life!

If you have any interest in homesteading or farming in the United States or are just looking for a good non-fiction book that reads like a novel, I wholeheartedly encourage you to pick up The Unsettlers. I found it at my local library, but you can purchase it from Amazon HERE.