The Elephant Whisperer: A Review and Audio Book Giveaway

Every so often I page through Tantor Audio's catalog and come across a title that sounds intriguing. That's what happened when I read the description of The Elephant Whisperer (April, 2009 PanMacmillan) by conservationist Lawrence Anthony along with journalist Graham Spence. The book comes alive through the British narration of BBC broadcaster Simon Vance. 

REVIEW

One of the opening lines that captured my attention was when Anthony wrote, "Elephants taught me how to listen." As the narrative unfolds, the reader discovers that his herd of rogue elephants also taught him about trust, loyalty, respect, and freedom.

South African Lawrence Anthony's game reserve, Thula Thula, is in the heart of Zululand. He started it in 1998 with 1500 hectare, and was committed to returning the area to its original state. When he was asked if he would receive seven elephants hostile in their interactions with humans, he couldn't refuse. This was the first of many difficult choices he faced: if he didn't take them, they would be killed. 

The first herd arrived in 1999.

Contrary to popular opinion which dictated that wild elephants should have no contact with humans when brought into a new home, Anthony decided he needed to let these traumatized "magnificent" animals (his favorite descriptor) get to know him. While they were in quarantine he spend night and day outside the fence talking to them and letting them get used to him. He named them and used their names in conversation. The day that the matriarch, Nana, reached her trunk towards him, he stood still while she sniffed him. The next day he released them into the preserve. 

The book is full of Anthony's challenges. The herd figured out how to break through the electric fences and head back home. Anthony spent time and money to bring them back--knowing that the alternative was for them to be killed. Poachers (who turned out to be his own guards) killed over one hundred animals and obtained thousands of pounds of meat worth thousands of dollars. Three white rhinos were introduced into the preserve; keeping the elephants away from them was a huge task. 

One time he was pedaling a bike with his fiancé, Francois, alongside of him. They accidentally ended up in the middle of the herd. Being up against seven huge animals who were unfamiliar with the bicycle and Francois put the pair in serious danger. 

Meanwhile, Anthony spent hundreds of hours with the herd gaining their trust. One night he opened the door of the lodge to see Nana practically inside. She snaked her trunk through his bedroom window and although she could easily have picked him up and done whatever she wanted with him, Anthony stood firm and let her sniff him. Later Francois recommended a bath-- Anthony was covered in half a pint of elephant slime. 

The main house which Nana decided to visit.

Anthony developed an uncanny ability to sense when the herd was near. He felt as if the elephants could project their presence into the area. If they didn't want to be found, they wouldn't be. He could sense their deep rumblings in the bush even if he couldn't hear them. "The elephants determined the emotional feelings of the encounter, not me." Similarly, the elephants set the boundaries, not Anthony. Mostly he sat and waited for them to feel comfortable before moving closer to them.

When Anthony was gone for a week, there would be a welcoming committee of seven elephants waiting when he returned. When a fire broke out on the reserve, the elephants led humans and other animals to the Crock Pool to wait until the fire burned itself out.

In 2004 Anthony and his team of rangers rescued a baby elephant who was born with deformed feet. He and Francois cared for him in their guest bedroom.

Despite bottle feeding and intensive medical care, baby Thula died and the entire staff was heart-broken.

Anthony noted that Nana communicated with her eyes, trunk rumblings, and subtle body movements. One day he walked out to her and she walked towards him and he had no escape route. Her legs--as big as tree trunks--could crush him. But the moment he spoke to her she relaxed and so did he. "Communication is a two-way street--whether it's a person or an animal. You have to acknowledge that the communication has reached you. Or, it's all over."

By the time Anthony died in 2012, the herd numbered thirty elephants. For three consecutive years the herd returned to the house on the day of his death to mourn him.

In 2008 and then again in 2010, Thula Thula partnered with adjoining lands and increased in size by another 2300 hectare. 

The Elephant Whisperer, which will be enjoyed by children and adults, ends with a plea for conservation. For more information about the reserve--including staying there and participating in bush excursions, please see Thula Thula's website. (All pictures are from the website.) Here's an audio clip so you can hear Simon Vance's terrific narration. 

GIVEAWAY

To enter this giveaway, please leave me a comment by 9 PM on December 12. Remember--leave me your email address if you are new to my blog. This is a great present for the animal lover on your gift list!

Red Madness: How a Medical Mystery Changed What We Eat

Congratulations to Kathleen Burkinshaw who won Miriam Franklin's ARC, Extraordinary. Random.org didn't know they are both Sky Pony debut authors--but I did! Look for a review and giveaway of Kathleen's book, The Last Cherry Blossom  next fall.

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How many of you have heard of pellagra? Before reading Red Madness, I was unfamiliar with the disease. But reading it resolved a personal mystery for my husband's 85-year-old uncle. He finished the book and said, "Now I know what I had as a child."

This disease which produces a horrible skin rash, leads to severe intestinal problems, causes neurological problems, and often leads to death, no longer afflicts wide portions of our population--the way it did during the first half of the twentieth century. Pellagra has been eradicated from most developed countries because of the tireless work of one physician: Joseph Goldberger. Red Madness by award winning author Gail Jarrow, describes how this medical mystery was solved.

Written with clear language accessible to readers from age ten through adult, Gail Jarrow chronicles the history, myths, and treatments associated with pellagra. Dr. Goldberger's tireless efforts to determine the primary cause of pellagra included hosting "filth parties." In gruesome detail, Gail describes how Goldberger tried infecting himself with pellagra in order to prove that it was not contagious or a result of infection. 

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ncl2004004556/PP/
"This Oklahoma sharecropper and his family pick cotton in 1916.
The older two children--ages six and five--together picked twenty-five pounds of cotton a day.
Goldberger tried to communicate his message about diet to farmers and mill workers,
 two groups that suffered from pellagra." (p.100)

Since the disease appeared most often in poor households where diets were limited to 3-M's: meal (cornmeal baked into bread), meat (fatback, form the fatty layer on a pigs back) and molasses (syrup), Goldberger was convinced that pellagra was probably caused by a diet deficiency. But how could he prove that? Goldberger spent eleven years, traveling frequently in the South where the disease was most common, and performed experiment after experiment. 

In 1923 his efforts finally paid off. Experimenting with dogs who were experiencing pellagra symptoms, Goldberger fed them brewer's yeast (something missing from most pellagrins' diets). Quickly, the dogs recovered. In 1926 the Mississippi River flooded. 700,000 people lost their homes and 45-50,000 developed pellagra. The Red Cross took Goldberger's recommendation to add yeast to the impoverished people's diet. Within two months people were cured. 

After Goldberger died in 1928, other scientists continued searching for the vitamin that would prevent pellagra. Eventually, Conrad Elvehjem discovered that nicotinic acid (now known as niacin) was indeed, the pellagra-preventing vitamin. Ten years later bakers began adding niacin, along with other Vitamin B complex vitamins to bread. That was the beginning of the enriched bread we enjoy today. 

According to a recent Writer's Digest article, "Straight Up Nonfiction with a Twist," one way authors enhance text is by using sidebars for supplemental material. Gail and her team at Calkins Creek did an excellent job of interweaving newspaper headlines, facts, and photos such as this one into the body of the text.

"Some doctors referred to the butterfly-shaped rash on the
girls neck as the Collar of Casal, named after
the first doctor to write about pellagra." (p. 83)

In addition, dozens of case histories of individuals whose lives were torn apart by the disease, are sprinkled throughout the book. 

In a recent SCBWI, Bulletin article, "What Teachers Want from Nonfiction Authors," Alexis O'Neill said that teachers wanted authors to share about their research and writing process. Accordingly, I asked Gail a few questions about her process.

Carol: What was it like for you to see the images of people afflicted with pellagra and pulling them together for this book?

Gail: Part of me approached this topic in a clinical manner. I have a background in biology, and I was fascinated to learn how a vitamin deficiency could lead to such dramatic physical symptoms. But when I read the accounts of patients’ suffering written by their doctors, I felt upset knowing this disease was so easy to prevent. Even after  pellagra’s cause and cure were discovered—and publicized—people continued to fall ill and die. Many victims lacked the resources to eat properly or didn’t realize how diet affected their bodies. Tragically, other deaths occurred because some physicians refused to accept that pellagra was a diet deficiency disease.

Carol: Was any part of this writing/publishing journey more difficult than another? 

Gail: The hardest part—and this is always the case when I write a non-fiction book—is locating and obtaining the primary documents.  Those were key because  secondary sources were contradictory about the early-20th-century understanding of pellagra, Joseph Goldberger and his research, and other details included in my book. Whenever possible, I go back to the original sources and do not necessarily trust what I read elsewhere. Too many times, I’ve found errors in the secondary sources.

For more information on the nitty gritty behind writing this book, see the informative Author's Note at the end of the book and Gail's interview in the School Library Journal. Teachers, make sure you utilize the educational activities which Gail has assembled. With such a detailed analysis of the disease, what caused it, and the stigmas associated with the disease, Red Madness will be an excellent supplement to history, sociology, and science lesson plans. 

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I usually give away the books which I receive to review. This time I donated Red Madness to The Christian Academy, where my daughter teaches. In an upcoming blog I plan to review another new book by Gail, Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary.  You'll have a chance to win that one; both books are outstanding additions to any home or school library. 

Read this book and maybe you'll discover answers to the mystery disease which left its mark on someone you know. 

Extraordinary: A Review and an ARC Giveaway!

In some ways books are like babies: conceiving them and bringing them into the world requires a lot of effort. The mother (writer) does most of the work, but there’s usually a team that assists with the delivery.

As the critique coordinator for the SCBWI Carolinas Charlotte group for over twenty years, I had the privilege of helping several fellow writers "deliver" their books. Whenever they did, I’ve been as proud as an aunt and enjoy celebrating the arrival of their “babies.”

You heard about Linda Phillips’ book Crazy last fall and now it’s Miriam Franklin’s turn. Both authors brought their books through one laborious draft after another until their stories emerged- beautifully formed and ready for a world of readers.

Over ten years I read several drafts of Miriam’s debut novel Extraordinary (Sky Pony Press, May 2015). In each one the kernel was the same: Ten-year-old Pansy's best friend, Anna, develops meningitis after a spring break camp. Pansy decides that if she becomes extraordinary, Anna will forgive her for all the promises she didn't keep. “Extraordinary” Pansy also wants to be the first person Anna sees after her brain surgery that hopefully will reduce her seizures.

Pansy’s wishful thinking—that she and Anna will return to the days of swimming at the beach, playing LEGOs with Anna’s twin brother Andy, and being Girl Scouts together—is not uncommon for children and adults when facing tragedy.  

Pansy hasn’t forgiven herself since she backed out of her promise to Anna to attend camp over spring break. Pansy got scared, the two girls fought, and Anna slammed the door behind Pansy. The next time she saw Anna, her friend was in a hospital bed. "Anna couldn't talk, she couldn't understand what people were saying, and she didn't act like she knew me at all." (p.3) 

While going for a hike with Andy, she thinks about how his family had to stay home with Anna. "You couldn't push a wheelchair on a trail in the mountains." (p. 86)

Pansy doesn't want to admit her fears:

In the spring they'll come with us. I wanted to say. And Anna will win Poohsticks, like always, and she'll be the first one down the steps to the falls. But I kept my words inside. Maybe I was afraid to say them out loud, afraid they would just disappear as soon as they were out of my mouth--as if by telling someone else how I get, I might keep my hopes from coming true. (p. 86)

The book is full of Pansy's efforts to become extraordinary in order to be the type of friend Anna deserves. Some of her actions have funny, unexpected consequences. For example, she attempts to improve her Rollerblading skills but ends up being pulled by two huge dogs around a park. But her drive to redeem herself for her failures and be an extraordinary friend propels her forward.

Before Anna's brain surgery Pansy reflects,

No matter how worried or nervous I was, Anna always believed in me. And I knew she still did. I would never have put on skates, gone to the top of the list for Independent Reader, or joined Girl Scouts if it weren't for Anna. But now, it was my turn to be there for her. To believe that she as going to pull through this surgery, that she was going to come out of it stronger than ever before. That she was going to be Anna again and that she would be so proud of me for all I'd done. So I blocked out all those questions and concentrated on one thing: in less than two weeks, I'd be sure to have my best friend back. (p. 151)

Pansy can't wait to see Anna after her surgery. She's heard that it was successful and she goes to the hospital armed with high hopes, a balloon, and a box of Oreos--Anna's favorite. Pansy is stunned at her friend's appearance and behavior:

She just lay there, her head drooping down, her eyes poking lifeless. She didn't seem to care if I was there or not. (p.196)

When Anna drops her hand on the package of cookies, her family is ecstatic because she's finally using her right hand. But for Pansy, all is lost.

I'd imagined it all--Anna understanding my words when I told her about my goals, Anna looking at my badge and getting that I'd earned it for her. Now I knew that Anna hadn't understood that I was doing any of those things for her.

All my dreams about Anna's recovery instantly evaporated into the air. They were just dreams. That's all they were. (p.198)

Pansy wrestles with the hard facts of Anna's illness and discovers that by following Anna's brave example she can conquer some of her own fears. In that way, Pansy finds her own path to extraordinary. 

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Miriam Franklin has captured a difficult topic for young readers to understand: how do you respond when your best friend suffers a serious illness. I hope you will consider pre-ordering this well-written book for yourself, or for a young reader in your life. This will be a perfect book for families who have experienced similar tragedies and will speak to adults as well as children. As Angela Ackerman said in a recent blog, this book is very relatable. 

Leave me a comment by 7 PM on April 8 if you would like to receive my gently used copy of this ARC. If I don't have your email address, please make sure you leave that also. If you become a new follower of my blog or post this to your social media of choice, I'll enter your name twice--just make sure you let me know what you do. 

Rosa Parks: My Story

Unaccustomed to attention, Rosa Parks (1913-2005) was an unlikely heroine of the Civil Rights movement. Yet on December 1, 1955 when she refused to relinquish her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, she set in motion events that she would not have dreamed possible. 


In her own words, this autobiography is a window into history and into Mrs. Parks' life. I read it to better understand the Jim Crow South as the backdrop of my work-in-progress, Half-Truths. Since I think she can tell her own story better than I can, here are some quotes that grabbed me.


About her maternal grandfather:
"My grandfather was very light complected (note: his father was a plantation owner), with straight hair, and sometimes people took him for white. He took every advantage of being white-looking.... He'd be introduced to someone white man he didn't know, and he'd say, "Edwards is my name," and shake hands with them. Then people who knew him would get embarrassed and have to whisper to the others that he was not white. At that time no white man would shake hands with a black man. And black men weren't supposed to introduce themselves by their last names, but only by their first names." p. 16

After being scolded by her grandmother for daring Franklin, a white 10-year-old boy, to hit her:
"...I came to understand that my grandmother was scolding me because she was afraid for me. She knew it was dangerous for me to act as if I was just the same as Franklin or anybody else who was white. In the South in those days [1923] black people could get beaten or killed for having that attitude." p. 23.

In 1941 Mrs. Parks got a job at the local Army Air Force Base. President Roosevelt had integrated the base but,
"I could ride on an integrated trolley on the base, but when I left the base, I had to ride home on a segregated bus. [A white woman worked in the same building as she did.] "We would get on the base bus and sit right across from each other....She had a little boy about nine years old...We'd sit across form each other and talk. .......when we'd get the city bus, the white woman would stop at the front and we'd go to the back and the little boy would be looking at us so strangely." p. 65.

In 1945, in Montgomery, Alabama:
"Black people had special rules to follow [on buses]. Some drivers made black passengers step in the front door and pay their fare, and then we had to get off and go around to the back door and get in. Often, before the black passengers got around to the back door the bus would take off without them. There were thirty-six seats on a Montgomery bus. The first ten were reserved for whites, even if there were no white passengers on the bus...Blacks were required to sit in the back of the bus, and even if there were empty seats in the front, we couldn't sit in them." p. 77

From her experience working as the secretary for the local NAACP office in the late '40's:
"We didn't have too many successes in getting justice. It was more a matter of trying to challenge the powers that be, and to let it be known that we did not wish to continue being treated as second-class citizens." p. 89

Remembering the conversation with the bus driver in 1955, after he asked her to get up to give her seat to a white man.
"The driver of the bus saw me still sitting there, and he asked was I going to stand up. I said, "No." He said, "Well, I'm going to have you arrested." Then I said, " You may do that." These were the only words I said."
......
"I was not tired physically...I was not old...I was forty-two. The only tired I was, was tired of giving in." p. 116

Remembering what Mr. Nixon, former head of the NACCP in Montgomery, said about her arrest:
"I was a perfect plaintiff....I had no police record. I'd worked all my life, I wasn't pregnant with an illegitimate child. The white people couldn't point to me and say that there was anything I had done to serve such treatment except to be born black." p. 125

During the year-long protest that the blacks staged against bus segregation; this was one group that became vocal:
"Some of the white women couldn't get along without their maids....The mayor appealed to them...He said the boycott was successful because the white women were taking all the maids back and forth. They said, 'Well, if the mayor wants to come and do my washing and ironing and look after my children and clean my house and cook my meals, he an do it. But I'm not getting rid of my maid." p. 145

Reflecting on how she was rattled when a reporter tried to intimidate her and find out "what made her tick."
"I was not accustomed to so much attention. There was a time when it bothered me that I was always identified with that one incident. Then I realized that this incident was what brought the masses of people together to stay off the buses in Montgomery. p.154.

Thinking about the problems blacks encountered (snipers firing, curfews) after the buses were integrated:
"Black people were not going to be scared off the buses any more than they are going to be scared unto them when they refused to ride." p. 159

About the Civil Rights Act of 1964:
"...[it] did not solve all of our problems. But it gave black people some protection, and some way to get redress for unfair treatment." 
p. 167

In 1992 she wrote:
"Organizations still want to give me awards for that one act more than thirty years ago. I am happy to go wherever I am invited and to accept whatever honors are given me. I understand that I am a symbol. But I have never gotten used to being a 'public person.'' p. 185

Her concerns for the future:
"What troubles me is that so many young people, including college students, have come out for white supremacy and that there have been more and more incidents of racism and racial violence on college campuses. It has not been widespread, but still it is troublesome. It seems like we still have a long way to go." p. 187

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Without pride or self-consciousness, Mrs. Parks simply tells her story. Her life spanned almost an entire century; a century in which she was a witness to--as well as an instrument of--change. This autobiography is easy to read and I recommend it for both young and old readers.  We all can learn from her humble example.