We started with our picture book, A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla by Azadeh Westergaard, illustrated by Julia Sarda. We were all very happy to learn more about the early life and later experiences of this brilliant though underrated scientist about whom little is known beyond his name on a 21st century electric automobile. We all liked the the illustrations which were digitally created using mostly muted colors, but which showed many details of Tesla's life, both as a young boy and as a man who never lost his curiosity nor his love for poetry, animals and birds. We especially liked the borders on many pages, which provided designs giving a feeling of electrical movement. We thought the message of the book would be great for young readers: encouraging them to be persistent in their childhood interests and stick with their dreams for the future. One reader felt the book was a bit too wordy for a picture book while others felt it was OK. Another reader liked the beginning and the ending better than the middle. The only real problem we had with this book was its lack of scientific information. Although Tesla's discovery of AC current revolutionized the modern world, there was minimal explanation of how it works -- until we read the Author's Note at the back of the book. Here there were many more details, scientific and otherwise, that made Tesla's life more real -- including his feud with Thomas Edison and his decision to tear up the royalty contract he had made with George Westinghouse when he sold him the AC rights. We thought it would have been a good idea to have included these details in the text of the book, since most young readers would probably not read the Author's Note. We felt it was important to show the sad ending of Tesla's life, as a seemingly lonely man living almost penniless and taking care of pigeons in a hotel room. We were glad that at least his funeral was attended by thousands of mourners (and many pigeons -- according to the illustration!) We thought this book would have many uses in a school situation, including in middle- and high-school, since it was a great introduction to a very important scientist and it could be a kickoff for further research into his life, the life of other scientists, or into the process of how electricity (which we all mostly take for granted) actually works to light up our lives.
We had varying opinions on our 'novel' -- actually a short story collection -- Meet Cute: Some People are Destined to Meet, by Jennifer L. Armentrout, et al. Some folks were big fans of story collections, others not so much. We felt the writing was mostly quite pedestrian -- nothing really stood out for any of us as being particularly stellar, and we agreed that there is a definite art to writing compelling short stories. We also couldn't determine much difference in the 'voice' from each story. It almost felt the same in each story, even though they were about different situations created by different writers. It was interesting to hear how readers approach story collections. One reader went through the Table of Contents, and only read those stories whose titles enticed her. Even so, she felt some of the stories were too long. Others read the whole book; others only a few stories. We had a few favorites, but none of our minds were paricularly blown. We did feel however that teen readers would enjoy this book, since its subject matter is front-of-mind for many of them, and that there was enough variety of places/plots/situations to which they might gladly relate.
