Candace FlemingRecensioner

Mr. McGreeley is at war with the rabbits who keep eating his vegetables. He creates more and more barriers to keep them out! Will he prevail?

A cute story about a farmer who is outwitted by sneaky bunnies.

Yep, that basically feels like my gardening experience.

Gr 7 Up—This balanced biographical account centers on Charles Lindbergh, the first pilot to complete a solo
transatlantic flight. Fleming examines Lindbergh's complicated life, including his rather unusual childhood, his years
flying in obscurity, the kidnapping of his son, and his pro-Nazi Germany and anti-immigrant rhetoric.

K-Gr 4—This stunning picture book combines poetic nonfiction text with gorgeous paintings to tell the story of a
honeybee. The narrative starts with her birth, then charts her growth and development. An incredible look at the life
cycle of a bee.

Gr 8 Up—True crime set in the 1920s featuring the eerie relationship between two 18-year-olds who committed
murder. Fleming's command of history and suspense combine perfectly to capture this captivating crime and trial.

1.I would recommend this book to middle to lower elementary school.
2.This book goes through a narrative of what it is like to be a worker bee from birth. It also gets rid of a big misconception of a worker bee. I learned that worker bees don't leave the nest until 25 days after birth. This book explains that worker bees start with cleaning and taking care of the queen bee.
3.I wouldgighly recommend this book and it will probobly be using this book in my future classroom.

In the spring of 1941, hundreds of young women from across the British Isles were instructed to report to Bletchley Park. Amidst brilliant cryptographers and absent-minded professors, it was the teenaged girls who ran the unwieldy bombe machines, made sense of wireless sound waves, and sorted the decoded messages, playing a crucial role in the wartime effort. Courageous young women played a vital role in turning the tides of World War II for the Allies at Bletchley Park and these are their stories.

Ciphers and codes have always been fascinating to me, mostly because even when the solution is spelled out I find it difficult to read! The fact that young women were thrown into the task of solving ciphers and codes caught my attention. Given the description of the conditions they worked in and the grueling task in front of them, I was astonished that more of them didn’t have a mental breakdown from the stress!

The author details different young women who performed different tasks at Bletchley Park and what it took to accomplish the task. Interspersed throughout are examples of the kinds of ciphers and codes and some of the methods used to solve them. Also included are a few of the pictures that survived the record purging that happened after the war.

I would recommend this to readers interested in ciphers and the work that went on in Bletchley Park. I received an advance copy through NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own.

Fred and Helen Martini longed for a baby, and they ended up with dozens of lion and tiger cubs! Helen begins her Bronx Zoo career by raising a single lion cub whose mothers is unable to care for it. After raising others in her home, she insists that she accompany them to the zoo. She soon develops nursery, and the zoo hires her to care for baby animals.

Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann describe the life cycle of the hard-working honeybee in this poetically written, thoroughly researched picture book. They follow the life of one bee – birth to death. The illustrations give the reader a closeup, accurate look at the life of this bee and the many jobs she performs for the hive. Suspense builds for the reader as he/she waits for this bee (Apis) to take her first flight. This event is marked by a stunning gatefold illustration.

Back matter includes a detailed diagram of the honeybee and an essay on the plight of honeybees. The goal of this nonfiction book is to inform readers, but also encourage children to understand the importance of the honeybee and to serve as an advocate for this threatened species.

I like our heroine’s quiet strength in this one. She didn’t set out to smash the patriarchy - she just let love and kindness guide her actions, and followed that instinct where it lead, unconventional or not.

It might be a little too long for younger readers, but the illustrations are gorgeous, and the information it shares about bees is fascinating.

I finished reading this book about teens who murder a child just because they think they can get away with it, and then there was another horrific school shooting. So, yeah. Not feeling great.

A bit slow to start, but once we get close to finding King Tut it gets exciting. Fleming intersperses the narrative with creepy stories about the supposed curse of Egyptian artifacts. As an adult, I didn't actually find these scary -- but if a young reader is at all open to occult Ouji Board-type stuff they might be a little freaked out. Of course, by the end of the book, it's clear that all the hype over curses was nonsense.

The thing that was super interesting to me, though not the focus of the book, was the succession of rulers/conquerers/colonizers in Egypt, from the Pharaohs to the Persians to the Greeks to the Romans to the Caliphates to the Ottomans to the French to the British and (finally!) back to the Egyptians. Fleming focuses on the tension between the British and the Egyptians over who the artifacts belong to (obviously they should belong to the Egyptians, but rich British men funded the excavation efforts expecting to make a profit).

Many photographs are included. It's so sad and telling that all of the British and French people are named and almost all of the Egyptian people are listed as "unnamed."

There are difficult questions in this book about what right modern people have to disturb ancient graves. Of course, we are curious about ancient civilizations. And some feel enough time has passed that we can excavate in the name of history and science. But Fleming asks why the Egyptologists seemed to feel no compunction about what they were doing. Maybe the legend of the curse came from the very real feeling that there ought to be consequences for disturbing burial grounds.

Those wascally wabiits are going to get into that poor farmer's garden no matter what he does. Funny and charming.

Based on a true story of the author's mother's work sending humanitarian supplies to post-WWII Holland as a girl, a lovely story of making a difference. I especially liked that the giving was reciprocal, not one-sided.

The murder of the Romanov family is surely a complex and still contentious topic. While I agree that Candace Fleming's The Family Romanov gives teens (the books target audience) a decent understanding of a very complex era and provides a lot of food for thought about the causes and effects of important individuals, societal attitudes, and the Russian revolution, as a student of history and as an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I found this book to be a little troubling. There are flaws to Fleming's scholarship and to her approach to the topic. While I applaud Fleming's idea to weave three stories into one ( 1. A story of the intimate lives of the Romanov family itself 2. A description of the events from the worker strikes of 1905 until Vladimir Lenin took power in 1917 3. An observation of the life of the average man/ a peasant at the turn of the 20th century and how it contrasted with the lives of the very wealthy, particularly the Tsar and his extended family), I was bothered to see how this narrative served to almost validate the cause of the communists. Lenin was not the glorious revolutionary who came back to help his people and end the war abroad and at home out of necessity. He was power hungry. And the Romanovs were not clueless, rich idiots. Now, Fleming weaves the threads together to provoke discussion and thought regarding what is right and wrong. And surely this book could be used to ignite a decent debate about morality in a political science high school class. However....

I personally have a hard time endorsing Fleming's book for a few reasons. One of the major flaws is that she took some creative liberties and seemed to craft a few thoughts, decisions, conversations of the historical characters that could not be verified. When quotations are used we don't know where the source is directly coming from. This really bothers me! It is just poor scholarship and it honestly makes it read like a work of fiction. It really reads as a made-up story that presents the Russian Royal Family as mere idiots, which honestly, is just insulting.

Which brings me to....Robert K. Massie. The annoying popular historian who wrote the ever-popular Nicholas and Alexandra, whose work influenced The Family Romanov immensely. Fleming trusted a poor scholar for her scholarship as well. Massie also took liberties with the personal portrayals of the Romanovs. And brings a very Western mindset to his interpretation of Russian history. Flemings interpretation is very Western as well.

Eastern Orthodoxy, the Christian faith of the Ramanovs and millions around the world, is misinterpreted by Fleming as well as focusing merely on strange and mystical encounters and miraculous healings. The miraculous does indeed happen and yet I can assure you that the Orthodox Church is not as "foreign" as Fleming makes it sound. It is not a superstitious religion (as Fleming made the mindset of the royalty out to be).I wish this book took the faith of the Ramanovs into account and really treated their faith with more respect. Their devotion to God is so inspiring which brings me to....

Their martyrdom. I believe the Ramonovs are saints (note: this does not mean I endorse monarchist regimes). I also believe Lenin is clearly to blame for the death of the family, since he later endorsed the shooting and did not punish the killers. I'm glad Fleming acknowledged their sainthood, even if there was a debate about what level of sanctity they should be granted. And here is the thing about martyred saints: they strived to the very end to love God, even if they were flawed individuals. Czar Nicholas may not have been the most effective ruler but at least he lead his country in fear and trembling. He might have made wrong decisions but he did so prayerfully and with the help of trusted aides. Can you say that about Lenin or Stalin? No. How many died under Stalin again?

It's an okay book. Fleming can craft a readable (yet historically questionable) narrative. Just read it with a grain of salt.

On a class trip to the museum, Penny sees a dinosaur egg hatch. The adorable little green dinosaur follows her; she shares her lunch; and she comes up with a way to bring him home. Intimate and sweet. The illustrations remind me a bit of Paul Schmid (Oliver and His Alligator).

See also: One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo

First sentence: In a tall, tall tree,
at the tip-tippy-top,
hung a single read apple,
just about to drop.

Premise/plot: Various animals--of all shapes and sizes--all wait in anticipation for the apple to drop from the tree. But WHO will get the apple? Each sees the apple as MINE. The story is told in rhyme.

My thoughts: I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the illustrations. The text is good, solid. But for me personally it was the illustrations that took it from "really like" to "love." I thought the story was cute and playful. It has perhaps slightly more suspense than most picture books. It was interesting to see WHO got the apple in the end.

Such a seemingly simple topic...the life of a bee, yet the incredibly realistic pictures are captivating. This book does not even need words, the illustrations provide as much detail, if not more, of the information. I found myself lingering for many minutes just to examine every detail. This book was also written with language appropriate enough for young readers to understand complex and scientific terms and occurrences. Who would have thought an informational book could be so captivating?

After World War II the town of Olst, Holland lives Katje. The people of Olst are struggling to survive with little food or resources left after the war. Then a box from America arives, sent by the Children's Society and slowly the town of Olst comes alive. Katje shares the gifts of chocolate, sugar, socks, clothes, and more with her family, friends, and town. In the end they send the American girl who sent the box their own care package. Holland Tulips.

This is a beautiful informational book about honeybees with a few mentions of other species in regard to the need for conservation and the importance of bee pollination. It follows the life cycle of a worker honeybee the author calls Apis from her emergence from her pupation cell to her death. It explains the lifecycle of bees, their social structure, and mentions their communication- the waggle dance. It also gives advice on how to help bees. The illustrations have delightful soft, warm textures that make honeybees feel friendly. One illustration shows the anatomy of a honeybee with descriptions of their parts and how they are used.

Great pictures, It is a very nice description of the life cycle, unique.

2021 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award
Superb
Order for Gabe in a few years

Stunning realistic illustrations, if not a bit unsettling.