Tag Archive | Minnesota

She was SWINGING INTO HISTORY! Toni Stone: Big-League Baseball’s First Woman Player, by Karen L. Swanson & Laura Freeman (nonfiction picturebook)

May28
Book cover of Swinging Into History: Toni Stone: Big-League Baseball's First Woman Player, by Karen L. Swanson; illustrated by Laura Freeman. Against backdrop of a large baseball among scattered stars, a Black woman wearing a Clowns team baseball uniform reaches up to catch a baseball in mitt on her left hand.

Oh, how she loves baseball!
But her parents keep saying no…
how will she make it to the Major Leagues?

Tomboy longed to play baseball, but her parents tried to keep the tween busy at their Black hair salon instead. Thankfully, their parish priest convinced them to let her play on the church team in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Persistence got her into a summer baseball camp into where good coaching polished her skills. An excellent fielder, accurate thrower, and astounding batter, Tomboy began trying out for semi-pro teams at 15!

Moving to California, changing her name to Toni, and playing several years in front of scouts for pro teams, she was finally signed to the New Orleans Creoles of the Negro minor leagues.

But playing in the 1950s Jim Crow southern states was doubly hard for Toni, always forced to enter stadiums through the “colored” door and often harassed for being a woman in a man’s game.

Finally, she got called-up to the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League – the first woman to play for any Major League Baseball team!

“Worked hard for my dream, gave up a lot, but my dream came true: playing baseball with the big boys,” Toni said – big boys like Satchel Paige and Willie Mays.

Toni lived to see the her name listed among the 75 Negro Leagues players honored at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, where a baseball field is dedicated to her memory.

Includes a timeline of the Negro Leagues, civil rights history, and Toni’s career, a bibliography, and extensive author’s notes about the racism and gender discrimination that Toni endured while playing ball.

Which women athletes are you watching today?
**kmm

Book info: Swinging Into History: Toni Stone: Big-League Baseball’s First Woman Player / Karen L. Swanson; illustrated by Laura Freeman. Calkins Creek, 2024. [author site https://www.karenlswanson.com/] [illustrator site https://www.lfreemanart.com/] [publisher site https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/742890/swinging-into-history-by-karen-l-swanson-illustrated-by-laura-freeman/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Get to know CHARLES M. SCHULZ, creator of Snoopy and Peanuts, in a manga biography! by Yuzuri Kukui (Graphic novel nonfiction)

May5
Book cover of Charles M. Schulz: The Creator of Snoopy and Peanuts, by Yuzuri Kukui. Manga Biographies series. Centered above title is a manga image of young Charles Schulz sketching a cartoon as his characters Lucy, Linus, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Woodstock dance on pages flying off his desk.

Snoopy!
Charlie Brown!
Linus! Lucy! Woodstock!

We all recognize the characters of Peanuts, drawn by Charles Schulz, but how much do you know about the cartoonist’s life story?

A doodler from childhood, “Sparky” improved his techniques with a drawing course by mail during high school, delighting family and friends with his cartoons.

Returning to St. Paul after army service during World War II, Schulz worked at multiple jobs trying to get into the cartooning business.

Finally, a New York newspaper syndicate accepts his comic strip about little kids and a dog! Its original name was like another published comic, so the editors change it to “Peanuts.” Sparky hates the name, but is ecstatic that his work whose characters are named after his coworkers will be seen in newspapers across the US!

He rushes home to propose to lovely red-headed Donna – who says she’s decided to marry someone else… so Sparky threw himself into producing a daily comic strip.

Peanuts’ popularity grew as it appeared in more and more newspapers, then the Sunday color comic pages, then books. At age 32, Schulz won top cartoonist of the year!

His family grew, too, so he and Joyce and their five children moved to the warmer climate of southern California.

In 1960, Linus began the Legend of the Great Pumpkin, followed by Charlie Brown’s unrequited love for “the little red-headed girl” whom we never see, then “A Charlie Brown Christmas” animated television special.

Go with Snoopy to the moon, learn about Sparky’s family, and enjoy his enduring comic characters in this loving tribute, originally published in Japan with editorial supervision by Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates.

Who is your favorite Peanuts character?
**kmm

Book info: Charles M. Schulz: the creator of Snoopy and Peanuts (Manga Biographies series) / by Yuzuri Kukui; translated by Mari Marimoto. Udon Entertainment, 2024. [publisher site https://store.udonentertainment.com/collections/manga/products/manga-biographies-charles-m-schulz-the-creator-of-snoopy-and-peanuts] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

W is WHERE WOLVES DON’T DIE, where a Native young man seeks safety and himself, by Anton Treuer (YA fiction) #AtoZ

Apr26
Book cover of Where Wolves Don't Die, by Anton Treuer. Shows red and black bear drawn in Ojibwe iconic style, title and author written on its body, mouth open in a snarl, claws swiping at the pair of wolves attacking its belly and back.

Noise, dirty snow, crowds,
prejudice, bully at school –
he longs to escape the city!

After Ezra defends his friend Nora against white bully Matt at their Minneapolis school, and then Matt’s house is set ablaze, the Native teen and his dad head quickly to his grandparents for winter break, on the First Nations rez in the Canadian forest where Ezra truly feels at home.

When Nora visits her grandma there, the Ojibwe teens decide to solve the mystery so Matt will leave them alone forever. Nora heads back to school, Dad goes back to teach at college, and the fifteen year old goes far into the woods with Grandpa Liam to run the winter trapline for the first time.

Lots of snow, lots of very hard work setting traps for lynx, marten, fox, and beaver. Checking and resetting the traps each day, offering tobacco in honor of each animal’s life taken. Staying alert for scavengers and predators that would steal their harvest. Doing homework every night, listening to Grandpa read aloud.

Why did Grandpa raise Dad up here on the trapline for so many years?
Will Rose discover who set the fire and trapped Matt’s uncle and dad inside?
Can Ezra forgive his dad for not keeping his mom away from the workplace that caused her cancer?

And in these remote woods is Chi, the biggest black bear, so large that a wolf pack won’t attack him as they would a normal black bear… may he stay sleeping as they finish trapline season!

A strong story of heritage, self-knowledge, friendship, love, and family history.

The first fiction book by Dr. Anton Treuer, professor of Ojibwe, whose Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians, But Were Afraid to Ask (Young People’s Edition) I recently recommended: https://booksyalove.com/?p=14672.

Today is Independent Bookstore Day, so visit https://www.indiebound.org/indie-store-finder to locate the one nearest you! Or use https://bookshop.org/ to have books shipped directly to you, with your favorite independent bookstore as the seller.

How far away would you go to escape an enemy?
**kmm

Book info: Where Wolves Don’t Die / Anton Treuer. Levine Querido, 2024. [author site https://antontreuer.com/] [publisher site https://www.levinequerido.com/where-wolves-dont-die] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

PAUL BUNYAN! Invention of an American Legend?! by Noah Van Sciver (Graphic Novel review)

Sep12
book cover of Paul Bunyan: the Invention of an American Legend / by Noah Van Sciver, with Marlena Myles, Lee Francis IV, Deondre Smiles. Toon Graphics

Babe the Blue Ox!
Paul Bunyan, the mighty lumberjack!
Made up by an advertising guy??

We’ve all heard the legend of enormously tall Paul Bunyan who conquered the northern woods and his gigantic companion Babe the Blue Ox, but… they were just part of an advertising campaign, not true folk-heroes!

America’s huge appetite for timber removed complete forests as settlers moved westward, overrunning the traditional lands of Native Americans while destroying cultures and ecosystems.

In 1914, the advertising department of Red River Lumber Company began promoting the “legend of Paul Bunyan” to gloss over their clear-cutting of old-growth woodlands, as they abandoned Minnesota and headed for the untouched forests of the West Coast.

Lumberjacks had always exaggerated stories of strong men at work like Saginaw Joe and Paul Bon Jean, but this newly-invented Paul Bunyan fellow beat them all!

From how his floating cradle created the huge tides in the Bay of Fundy to making the Finger Lakes when his hand hit the ground in New York to felling a tree with one axe stroke, Paul’s story was bigger and better than any other.

And heroic Paul worked for…Red River Lumber Company, at least in their pamphlets. He and Babe could clear and haul away 100 acres of big trees in one day and created the Mississippi River when their water wagon sprang a leak! No one in Minnesota believed those tall tales because they knew what the greedy lumber companies had actually done.

But the stories were in newspapers, then kids’ books and finally animation, obscuring the truth about why the mighty forests were reduced to small patches of woodland and how indigenous peoples were taken away from those valuable forestlands to reservations.

This fascinating graphic novel includes introduction and postscript by Native American scholars, as well as the Tree-Dwelling Little People story and a richly illustrated map of the Dakota homelands where Bunyan’s adventures were set.

Which American legend would you like to know more about?
**kmm

Book info: Paul Bunyan: the Invention of an American Legend / by Noah Van Sciver, with Marlena Myles, Lee Francis IV, Deondre Smiles. Toon Graphics, 2023. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Hard-hitting football CRACKING THE BELL, by Geoff Herbach (YA book review)

Sep10
book cover of Cracking the Bell, by Geoff Herbach. Published by Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Running plays, making big hits,
workouts, routines, football team captain…
now with agonizing brain distress.

Football saved Isaiah when the alternative was reform school. But it can’t bring back his dead sister or his easy relationship with Grace or his swagger on the field, knowing that any tackle could bring another concussion that puts him lights-out for good.

But if Isaiah stops playing football, what’s left for him?
If he doesn’t, will he have any future to work for?

His divorced parents are sure he’ll go to college in their small Minnesota town…but other college scouts have seen his hard-hitting defensive play and want to talk.

Odd-jobs guy Joey says journaling will help the high school senior process his past problems and present dilemmas…can it make the headaches and screeching sounds in his head go away?

Grandma Gin tells him to stay away from Grace who’s finally getting her act together…but how can he?

Happy book birthday to Cracking the Bell , as Isaiah tries to hide his symptoms from Coach even while he knows that the decision to keep playing is all on him.

One hit can knock out a player forever – youth football, yes or no?
**kmm

Book info: Cracking the Bell / Geoff Herbach. Katherine Tegen Books (Harper Collins), 2019. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Real or not? Search for the Homestead Treasure, by Ann Treacy (book review)

Oct29

book cover of Search for the Homestead Treasure, by Ann Treacy. Published by University of Minnesota Press | recommended on BooksYALove.comA family treasure,
a family tragedy –
which will drive his family’s future?

Not easy for Martin, moving from his town school, learning how to farm, being the man of the house at 14.

If he can just figure out the clues in his great-aunt’s diary and find the “dowry” brought by his grandmother from Sweden, then he can save his father’s last family connection and the farm from foreclosure.

Find this 2016 historical mystery at your local library or independent bookstore.

What’s your family’s treasure?
**kmm

Book info: The Search for the Homestead Treasure / Ann Treacy. University of Minnesota Press, 2016.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: A year – that’s how long Martin will help Pa on the long-abandoned family farm in 1903 before he goes back to town, unless they locate its rumored treasure first.

An eternity – every heartbeat since their brother Dan died, when Ma lost her spark and Aunt Ida came to make sure Martin and little Lilly were cared for.

The summer months – how long the 14-year-old can sleep in the hayloft and read great-aunt Cora’s diary, hoping to find clues about what her mother brought to the frontier from Sweden before the war and hid in the doll house.

A fleeting moment – when Martin truly believes he can prepare the land for crops without Pa’s help, when he and Gypsy boy Samson can laugh about baseball, when he imagines finding the treasure to save the farm.

Samson becomes a good friend, the Barker boys are bullies, and Mr. Meehan wants to foreclose on the farm to snuff out Pa’s dream in the Minnesota prairie land where Martin searches for his family’s treasure.

X marks the spots?! Clue in the Trees, by Margie Preus (book review)

Apr27

book cover of Clue in the Trees, by Margie Preus, published by University of Minnesota Press | recommended on BooksYALove.comTry out for school play – okay.
Make new friends – okay.
Hope your brother isn’t a murderer – yikes!

Francie decides to stay in the Minnesota northwoods for senior year, despite the adventure at Enchantment Lake (my recommendation here) over the summer, but is the New York private eye (on TV) ready for the reappearance of her brother Theo, disappearance of newly found dinosaur bones, and winter on the lake (really thin ice)?

Second in the series, a twisty-turny mystery.
**kmm

Book info: The Clue in the Trees: An Enchantment Lake Mystery / Margie Preus. University of Minnesota Press, 2017. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

B for Both of Me, by Friesen (book review) – they meet, yet only 1/2 of him remembers her

Apr2

book cover of Both of Me by Jonathan Friesen published by Blink |booksYALove.comCounting stars,
traveling light and often,
avoiding entanglements, until…

Scam artist teen always on the move meets an artistic young man with two personalities and a near-psychic knowledge of what she’s running from – how can Clara resist trying to tap into what Elias “sees”?

But Clara never planned on falling for Elias or struggling to understand his dissociative identity disorder or making a road trip toward answers that could imperil them both.

Completely different worlds from the dystopia that Friesen brought us previously in Aquifer  (my notes here), the Salem that calm Elias wanders through in his mind, the minutely ordered existence that angry Elias tries to catalog, and the everyday world that Clara longs to leave behind.

Is there ever just one personality inside you?
**kmm

Book info: Both of Me / Jonathan Friesen. Blink, 2014.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Dual-personality Elias somehow knows more about her past than Clara wishes to recall, but their journey to verify the answers stretches both young people’s affection and endurance – and Elias’ hold on reality.

(One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

M is mystery at Enchantment Lake, by Margi Preus (book review) – unspoiled forest is motive for murders?

Apr15

book cover of Enchantment Lake by Margi Preus published by University of Minnesota PressA treasure under enchantment,
unspoiled northwoods beauty,
a killer determined to own it all?

Francie is not a NYPD detective, but she played one on television, and that’s more mystery-solving experience than the local sheriff seems to have!

As deaths keep piling up (each by a different cause), even her eccentric great-aunts’ unique food combos (curry with a side of pickled beets, anyone?) can’t distract the teen from worrying that they will be the next victims.

A departure from the author’s acclaimed historical fiction Heart of a Samurai (my recommendation here) and Shadow on the Mountain, this first book in the Northwoods Mystery series is equally well-written, with interesting characters and setting.

Death by hot-dish? What casserole would you choose for your last meal?
**kmm

Book info: Enchantment Lake (Northwoods Mystery, book 1) / Margi Preus.  University of Minnesota Press, 2015. [author site]  [publisher site]   Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: When her great-aunts say that they’re in danger, Francie leaves summer drama camp in New York City to find mysterious deaths and rumors of treasure in the remote Minnesota lake town where it’s assumed that the 17 year old orphan can solve all mysteries because she played a kid detective on TV.

On the far shore of deep Enchantment Lake, eccentric Astrid and Jeannette tell Francie that city folks want a road through the peat bog so more mansions like the Fredericksons’ can be built. Property owners along the right-of-way have been dying oddly, and local real estate man Buck Thorne is pressuring their heirs to sell.

At the latest victim’s funeral, a poisoned casserole kills Buck, and the suspect list grows since everyone in town owns a serving dish made by the local potter.

What was Buck going to tell Francie about her long-lost mother?
Why does Buck’s stepson need so much money suddenly?
Can young law intern Nels help make any sense of these recent deaths?

Uh-oh, Francie’s grandfather demands that she return to drama camp or he’ll stop paying her expenses! But how can she when her aunt is arrested for Buck’s murder, a little boy who gets grimy every night goes missing, and someone tries to sink her kayak – with her in it!  First in the Northwoods Mystery series. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Q for quiet journey of love – The Big Crunch, by Pete Hautman (book review)

Apr19

Quietly, June moves to yet another town, yet another school.
Quietly, Wes escapes his smothering relationship with his girlfriend.

We’ve all heard about the Big Bang theory of the universe’s creation, but maybe you haven’t heard about “the big crunch” as one way that the universe might end, with everything condensing down to one tiny point of matter.

Pete Hautman reminds us that falling in love, whether gradual or sudden, is a lot like that big crunch – a moment when you realize that the only point in the entire universe is the person you love.

June, Wes, and their friends are very real people; their enthusiasms and worries are real, too. Is the love that Wes and Junie share real enough to survive her family moving away?

Find this clever, funny love story today at your local library or independent bookstore today.
Yes, I keep pointing you to your neighborhood businesses and institutions because they are worth supporting now so that they can keep supporting you and your community in the future.

And if the description of how June makes real hot chocolate for Wes after they walk together in the snow doesn’t make you immediately long for a cup, I’ll drink it for you.
**kmm

Book info: The Big Crunch / Pete Hautman. Scholastic Press, 2011. [author’s website] [author interview] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk: Another new high school – June hates how her dad’s job moves them so often. Does she want to fit in or stand out this time? Semi-cool dude Wes notices her in the halls, someone new to wonder about while he tries to figure out exactly why he broke up with his girlfriend. His pal Jerry seeks her out immediately as part of his campaign for class president, even though the election is months away.

So the three sort-of friends wander in and out of each other’s days as Jerry pushes his campaign forward, Wes needs someone to talk to since he doesn’t talk to Izzy anymore, and Junie is forced to get involved here in Minnesota when her mom erases all her Chicago friends’ numbers from her phone – “There is no reverse gear in this time machine,” says her dad.

As the days grow cooler, June finds herself somehow dating Jerry steadily. Wes keeps mentally replaying his conversations with her, trying to figure out what made her choose the persistent campaigner over him. His little sister teases him about leaving his brain out in his garage workshop, and his buddies Alan and Alan take advantage of his distractedness to make steady in-roads on his savings during 24-hour poker marathons.

When Wes and Junie run into each other with a thump during a snowstorm, it’s rather eye-opening… and heart-stopping. Time to let Jerry down easy as they become a couple and learn to negotiate the differences in their lives – only child June who’s moved so many times, big brother Wes who’s never gone anywhere.

And then Junie’s dad announces another move on New Year’s Day. How far is it to Omaha? Too far to keep up any sort of relationship, according to her parents. Are they right? Will the Wes-shaped hole in June’s heart ever heal? Will she finally decide for herself whether it’s time to move on or stay connected? Can Wes get past his family ties into Junie’s larger world?

Hautman shows readers four seasons in the lives of June, Wes, and their friends – a year that changes everything and doesn’t change the important things, when a little push turns into The Big Crunch of decisions that cannot be undone. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)