A First Time for Everything

Santat, Dan. A First Time for Everything. 2023. 320p. ISBN 9781626724150. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

As an only child, Dan loved spending time with his parents and with his friends. He loves drawing, but he discovers in Middle School that standing out makes you a target for bullies. So it's better to be invisible, even if this means denying part of who you are and what you want. Halfway through his last year in middle school, Dan discovers that his English teacher is organizing a field trip to Europe during the summer. With his mother being sick, his parents' idea of a vacation is to go some place, then take a picture of Dan there. They're not all that fun. 

Dan is surprised when his mother agrees he can go on the trip, but as the day nears, Dan is regretting his decision. He'd rather stay home. But it's too late, and Dan finds himself on a plane with girls from his school, who have been making fun of him for three years, as well as other American kids from Missouri. Though there are still people who claim to know him, Dan suddenly finds himself in Paris with kids who don't know anything about him. This is an opportunity to rediscover who he truly is underneath that layer of invisibility.

Falling in love with Fanta and the local food, Dan also meets Amy on the tour, and she's as interested in him as he is in her. The trip he dreaded becomes more interesting with every passing day, and slowly but surely Dan's life changes for the better, as he builds confidence and realizes that his past is not important in the grand scheme of things.

Inspired from the author's own trip to Europe when he was 14, A First Time for Everything relates the anxieties of growing up and leaving home, and then discovering that who you are is not tied to where you come from or what people think they know about you. The illustrations are amazing, and the story is engaging. If you've ever thought about traveling but were concerned, this is the book for you!

Viking

Margeson, Susan. Viking. 1994. 72p. ISBN 978-0-75566-1095-1. Available at 948 MAR on the library shelves.

Following the fall of the Roman Empire and the barbarian invasions from the East, Europe fragmented in a multitude of kingdoms and petty chiefdoms. Starting in the late 700s, however, a new wave of invaders swept through the continent, reaching as far south as Jerusalem and what is now Algeria, as far east as the Ural mountains, as far west as Newfoundland, and as far north as Iceland and Greenland. The Vikings, mighty seafarers, boarded their shallow bottom ships from Scandinavia and sailed across seas and up rivers in search of glory, plunder, and slaves. For three hundred years, Vikings ventured where they liked, spreading culture establishing trade routes, founding cities and finding new territories to colonize.

Scandinavia was rich in iron ore and timber, but poor in other resources, and the Vikings traded these for gold, silver, and other riches, but often attacked and looted towns and cities. Their religious views held that it was better to die in the glory of battle than to die an old man, and the Vikings took that to heart. Viking women ran the household and their farms while their husbands were away for war, keeping the local economy going. Eventually, Christianity spread to Scandinavia, and local myths and legends were adapted. Viking kings ruled all of Scandinavia, England, parts of France and Ireland.

Adept jewelers and artisans, the Vikings left a lasting impression on the world and passed into legend as a warlike people who contributed to the development of Europe.

Tear Down This Wall

Ratnesar, Romesh. Tear Down This Wall. 2009. 440 mins. ISBN 9781608146048. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

When the Second World War ended with the defeat of Germany, the country was separated into four zones of control. On the Western side, the zones quickly coalesced together to form the Federal Republic of Germany, whereas the Eastern side, controlled by the Soviet Union, a puppet Communist government was enshrined as the Democratic Republic of Germany (GDR). Dividing the two was an iron curtain stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. The city of Berlin was similarly separated, even though it was deep in the center of the GDR. In 1961, hoping the stem the flow of people from East to West Berlin and thence to Western Europe, the East German security apparatus erected a wall, cutting the city in half. The Berlin Wall became the deadly and ugly symbol of division between East and West.

In 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan visited Berlin for the second time of his Presidency, and he pronounced a speech in front of the Berlin Wall that stood just before the Branderburg Gate in which he bemoaned the separation of people and dared Secretary General of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to tear down the wall and allow people to freely travel. This speech, which was little noted at the time, proved prophetic as the Berlin Wall fell two and a half years later. 

Tear Down This Wall is a historical account of the division of Germany, the life and times of Reagan and Gorbachev, the Cold War confrontation between Americans and Russians, and the origins, pronouncement, and impact that the speech had on world history. The audiobook contains the actual speech given by Reagan, as well as extensive interviews with government officials in the Reagan administration as well as American, Russian, and German eyewitnesses to this event.

Fans of history will appreciate the impact the speech had in retrospect on the events that occurred leading to and during the fall of the Berlin Wall, and will develop a newfound respect for collaboration and trust that the two adversaries developed. It is this, more than anything else, that helped both of them "win" the Cold War and avoid the world's destruction, which had seem so plausible a year or two earlier.