"In 2008, the famous naturalist David Attenborough expressed concern that modern schoolchildren could not identify common plants and insects found in nature, although previous generations identified them without hesitation.
It was ironic that this should be happening at a time when there was in the West an ever greater concern for the environment, and ever more ambitious steps proposed to protect it.
Indoctrinating children in proper environmental thought was a hallmark of the green movement, and so children were being instructed to protect something about which they knew nothing at all."
I agree with Michael Crichton - we should know or strive to know about things we try to protect.
Though we go camping, and my children play outside quite often, we don't know the names of the plants and trees growing in the nearby park. I guess this is something I should work to change.
When I read a book, especially fiction, I want it to do one thing for me. Just one. Take me to a place or time where I would learn something new. Michael Crichton's books have consistently done that for me, and it saddens me to know that he passed away few years back.
This book follows similar Michael Crichton patterns - where main characters' survival is at stake against a form of advanced technology, surprising ways the complex of nature responds to external stimuli, and the fact that technological advances can be seen as a double-edged sword without a hilt to wield it.
~Spoiler Alert~
The president of Nanigen is interested in hiring promising graduate students and invites seven promising Ph.D. students from the east coast to check out his facility in Hawaii. There one of the grad students learns that the president murdered his brother who had been working at Nanigen as a director. To cover up his crime more completely, he shrinks the grad students and abandons them in the middle of the rain forest in Hawaii. Now, the students must fight the elements, natural predators, and the advanced micro technology that is available in the Nanigen president's arsenal to survive.
The thing I enjoyed most about the book was the minute details of nature seen from the micro inhabitants, rather than larger human view. The surface tension on a raindrop or what the forest floor would feel like to microscopic creatures were awesome. You realize that laws of nature act differently at micro levels and that in itself presents a problem to micro-sized humans.
I have always enjoyed reading Michael Crichton's books, and I'm going to miss him in my reading life very much.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes a good read.
Friday, January 9, 2015
The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin
I'm at the Dollar Tree a lot because that's where I get most of my science project materials. When I have to buy project supplies 200+ students for very little money, I go where I can get good deals on straws, toothpicks, plastic cups, etc. So, while I'm there, I look around and quite often, find a gem of a book. This is one of them.
What a surprising read! I'm not sure if I would have picked up this book on my own, but I'm glad I did.
~Spoiler Alert~
Known as Mrs. Tom Thumb, Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Warren Bump was born a normal infant. But she suffered a pituitary disorder, which led to her proportionate dwarfism. Her family wanted to hide her from the eyes of the world, but she longed for another, more public life which afforded wider interaction with others.
At two feet, eight inches tall, she is small, to say the least. This book highlights Vinnie's life as a part of the circus act of P.T. Barnum, but what I find even more remarkable is that she held her own against village children as a school teacher before she embarked on her circus career. The fact that she can keep a classroom of children, some of whom are much, much taller than her, is a testament to her character and her will.
So, it comes as no surprise to me that she jumps at the chance to join the circus that supposed "family cousin" is running. Sure, she still has her school and teaching, but she chafes against the strict confines of the social norms. If she stays, she's relegated to the life of spinsterhood, a woman to be pitied in the neighborhood and included when occasion called for it.
Vinnie finally convinces her family to let her go with Colonel Wood to his "floating palace of entertainment," she's ready for an adventure, but what she finds is much more than what she expects. Even after she escapes that situation where she had been in physical danger of being raped or abused, her heart yearns for an adventure. So, SHE writes P.T. Barnum, offering her services in his circus.
There she meets P.T. Barnum and her future husband, Charles Sherwood, aka General Tom Thumb. As her circus act becomes more and more popular, especially after she marries General Tom Thumb (which preempts the coverage of the Civil War), she's in the company of presidents and royalty. However, life is anything but happy.
Their fame wanes after the dizzying heights and they are relegated to getting back on the trains (not P.T. Barnum's private trains) and going from town to town to perform. And her even smaller sister, Mini, joins her at the circus after being her bridesmaid for the wedding. But Mini is not made of the same stuff as Vinnie, and she doesn't enjoy the public life. All she wants is to return to her normal life, but her desire to stay close to Vinnie keeps Mini at the circus.
Eventually, Mini marries another circus performer, another small-sized man, and while giving birth to a normal sized baby, both the baby and Mini die. This tragic event marks the beginning of the end of a lot of relationships she has people around her - her husband and P.T. Barnum.
This is an epic novel about a woman who refused to be defined by her size and allow others, be it family or strangers, to dictate how she should live her life.
Vinnie's sheer determination to live the life she wants is awe-inspiring, to say the least. How she thought to control a classroom of kids (kids her days may have had more respect for her position as a teacher, but it couldn't have been easy), then go on to the unknown world of performing on "floating palaces" on the Mississippi. She consistently makes bold choices, even though at times, she feels that she has no other choice.
I hope I can live my life the way Vinnie did, with a sense of adventure and determination to follow my dreams, no matter what others say.
Two thumbs up! Way, way up!
What a surprising read! I'm not sure if I would have picked up this book on my own, but I'm glad I did.
~Spoiler Alert~
Known as Mrs. Tom Thumb, Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Warren Bump was born a normal infant. But she suffered a pituitary disorder, which led to her proportionate dwarfism. Her family wanted to hide her from the eyes of the world, but she longed for another, more public life which afforded wider interaction with others.
At two feet, eight inches tall, she is small, to say the least. This book highlights Vinnie's life as a part of the circus act of P.T. Barnum, but what I find even more remarkable is that she held her own against village children as a school teacher before she embarked on her circus career. The fact that she can keep a classroom of children, some of whom are much, much taller than her, is a testament to her character and her will.
So, it comes as no surprise to me that she jumps at the chance to join the circus that supposed "family cousin" is running. Sure, she still has her school and teaching, but she chafes against the strict confines of the social norms. If she stays, she's relegated to the life of spinsterhood, a woman to be pitied in the neighborhood and included when occasion called for it.
Vinnie finally convinces her family to let her go with Colonel Wood to his "floating palace of entertainment," she's ready for an adventure, but what she finds is much more than what she expects. Even after she escapes that situation where she had been in physical danger of being raped or abused, her heart yearns for an adventure. So, SHE writes P.T. Barnum, offering her services in his circus.
There she meets P.T. Barnum and her future husband, Charles Sherwood, aka General Tom Thumb. As her circus act becomes more and more popular, especially after she marries General Tom Thumb (which preempts the coverage of the Civil War), she's in the company of presidents and royalty. However, life is anything but happy.
Their fame wanes after the dizzying heights and they are relegated to getting back on the trains (not P.T. Barnum's private trains) and going from town to town to perform. And her even smaller sister, Mini, joins her at the circus after being her bridesmaid for the wedding. But Mini is not made of the same stuff as Vinnie, and she doesn't enjoy the public life. All she wants is to return to her normal life, but her desire to stay close to Vinnie keeps Mini at the circus.
Eventually, Mini marries another circus performer, another small-sized man, and while giving birth to a normal sized baby, both the baby and Mini die. This tragic event marks the beginning of the end of a lot of relationships she has people around her - her husband and P.T. Barnum.
This is an epic novel about a woman who refused to be defined by her size and allow others, be it family or strangers, to dictate how she should live her life.
Vinnie's sheer determination to live the life she wants is awe-inspiring, to say the least. How she thought to control a classroom of kids (kids her days may have had more respect for her position as a teacher, but it couldn't have been easy), then go on to the unknown world of performing on "floating palaces" on the Mississippi. She consistently makes bold choices, even though at times, she feels that she has no other choice.
I hope I can live my life the way Vinnie did, with a sense of adventure and determination to follow my dreams, no matter what others say.
Two thumbs up! Way, way up!
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