Living and Working in Ancient Rome

Randolph, Joanne, ed. Living and Working in Ancient Rome. 2018. 48p. ISBN 978-0-7660-8975-4. Available at 937 LIV on the library shelves.

For a thousand years, Rome stood at the center of one of the largest empires in the history of the world. It was both the political and spiritual capital of a territory stretching from Britain and Spain the northwest to Egypt and Mesopotamia in the southeast. As the center of imperial life, Rome strove to outshine all other cities. The lives of its famous residents are well documented, but what about the average citizen who did not own slaves and lived on a private estate?

This book presents details about how the more than one million people lived in and around Rome at the height of its imperial glory. Most Romans males worked providing services, selling things, or had jobs in factories or in construction. Women stayed at home, ran the household, educated children, and entertained guests. Roman diets consisted mainly of bread, with cheese and a little meat when affordable, but also often included olives and figs. For entertainment, Romans enjoyed gladiator combat or chariot races. Roman children played in the streets and sometimes attended school, if their parents were wealthy enough to afford it. They had toys such as wooden dolls and horses, toy swords and shields, dice, and carved stones and clay figurines.

Over the years Emperors spent tremendous resources embellishing Rome, and making life easier for its citizens. Buildings like temples and baths, and infrastructures like sewers and aqueducts were designed to improve the quality of life of the residents of Rome. These buildings are also explored in this book.

Fans of history will appreciate the research and details included in this book, and will appreciate that though almost 2,000 years separate us, the ancient Romans led a similar life to ours today.

The Witch Boy

Ostertag, Molly Knox. The Witch Boy. 2017. 210p. ISBN 978-1-33808952-3. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

For generations, witches and shapeshifters have protected the forest and the people beyond. The girls in Aster's family are those witches, raised with spells and the ability to scry, make fruits grow from buds, and sense spirits. The boys are the shapeshifters, trained for battle and willing to sacrifice their lives to protect their female relatives. As one of the youngest boys, Aster is expected to follow in his elders' steps and become a shapeshifter. Unfortunately he has never been able to find his inner animal, despite years of trying. His true interest is in witchery, and he carries a notebook around where he records the magic he sees his female cousins perform.

His father is disappointed, and so his mother, but Aster cannot let go. As boys begin to disappear from the family compound, however, the whole family comes under attack. Aster wants to help, but the only thing he can bring is his growing control of witchery. Grandmother, the matriarch of the clan, had a twin brother once who also dabbled in witchery, but he became corrupted and stole a precious artifact before fleeing. Aster's mother is worried about her son and the path he might be on.

To compound his problem, Aster has stepped outside the protected boundaries of the compound, and made contact with a local girl, Charlie. She's an athlete with a broken leg, and like Aster she pushes the boundaries of traditional gender roles. With the clan under menace, can the two of them work together to resolve the danger and pursue their interests instead of what the other people in their lives think they should be doing?

Gorgeous and colorful illustrations make this author's first graphic novel a pleasure to read. Any reader who has not felt totally comfortable in society's gender norms will appreciate Aster's desire and struggle to be something different.

Orphan, Monster, Spy

Killeen, Matt. Orphan, Monster, Spy. 2018. 423p. ISBN 978-0-451-47874-0. Available as an ebook from Overdrive.

Being Jewish in Germany in 1939 is dangerous. Until 1933, Sarah had a normal life in Vienna, with an adoring mother. She participated in gymnastics, and loved sports. Then the Nazis came to power, and life became a struggle. For six years Sarah and her mother managed to avoid most of the violence, but as Hitler relentlessly drive Germany towards war, it is not possible for them to stay here.

Orphan, Monster, Spy begins when Sarah's mother is shot and crashes their car as they forced a German road block on their way to Switzerland. Barely escaping, Sarah hides in an abandoned warehouse. On the roof, she spots a strange man observing zeppelins landing and departing for a nearby airbase. The stranger corners her but soon departs, leaving Sarah alone.

The following morning, she successfully sneaks aboard a ferry heading across the lake to Switzerland, but when she spots the stranger from the night before being harassed by German soldiers, she realizes that he's the man they wanted to arrest when her mother crashed her car. Without thinking, she saves him from  arrest, and she soon learns he is a British Captain who has been living in Germany since the end of the First World War.

Taking her back to Berlin, she convinces him to train her for spy work, and soon he informs her he has a very sensitive mission. She must infiltrate a Nazi school for elite students, so she can become friends with the daughter of a highly regarded atomic scientist. Ultimately, her target is the blueprints of a devastating bomb Germany is rumored to be building.

The Nazi school turns out to be a microcosm of German society, where the strong prey on the weak, no one can trust anyone, and any mistake or meekness can be deadly. As a Jew who has missed six years of school, Sarah must device ways to survive mortal dangers long enough to accomplish her mission...

YouTube and Videos of Everything

Centore, Michael. YouTube and Videos of Everything. Part of the Tech 2.0: World-Changing Entertainment Companies series. 2019. 64p. ISBN 978-1-42224059-5. Available at 384.33 CEN on the library shelves.

The story of YouTube is the story of most wildly successful tech companies: A group of college friends realized there was a need for a service, created a business plan, started a company in a garage, programmed a website, and wrote history. For YouTube, three friends who worked together at PayPal before it was bought by eBay in 1998 reconnected a few years later and discovered they had difficulty sharing videos they had recorded. At the time, each device used a different format that required a different piece of software to decode and play. Creating a service that could handle different formats and display them seamlessly on the Internet would finally facilitate videos online

Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim invested their own money and time, and built a company called YouTube, designed to let anyone to post videos online. They released their beta site in May 2005, and immediately it was a success. The expansion of YouTube was accompanied with growing pains, as the founders needed to both figure a way to monetize their site as well as enforce copyright laws. Advertising crept in. By the end of 2006, YouTube was popular enough that Google spent 1.5 billion purchasing it and incorporating it in its suite of services. As it continued to expand, YouTube improved technology and created a whole new type of job, the YouTuber. It also has increased its reach, becoming the 2nd most popular website worldwide, right behind Google but ahead of Facebook.

Baba Yaga's Assistant

McCoola, Marika, with illustrations by Emily Carroll. Baba Yaga's Assistant. 2015. 132p. ISBN 978-0-7636-6961-4. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.



Baba Yaga is the stuff of nightmares for Slavic children all over the world. Reputed for eating children and wrecking havoc on those who encounter her, Baba Yaga also has her maternal side and cares deeply about the wildlife that lives in her forest. More than anything, though, Baba Yaga is a trickster who enjoys creating challenges that require clever and entertaining thinking.

Masha's mother died when Masha was very young, and her father became very distant, unable to cope with the loss of his wife. She was raised by her grandmother, who told her fantastical stories of Baba Yaga and her personal interactions with the old crone. Masha fully believes that Baba Yaga lurks around their neighborhood. Her grandmother also passed away, leaving Masha alone with her absent father.

Now her father has plans to remarry, and Masha will get a little sister, Dani, who is a holy terror and who shares Masha's anger at this new relationship. Having read an advertisement in the newspaper seeking a new assistant for Baba Yaga, and convinced she would be better off abandoning this family that doesn't really care for her, Masha takes off and heads into the forest, looking for the crone.

Finding Baba Yaga and her house on chicken feet, Masha must complete a practical exam where she is challenged to complete activities that require quick thinking. Thankfully, Masha remembers all of the stories her grandmother told her, and she's able to use them to assist her in meeting these challenges. But when Dani arrives, having been captured by Baba Yaga and on the menu for the next meal, Masha will need to devise a clever way to thwart the crone's designs.

Beautifully illustrated and quick paced, Baba Yaga's Assistant presents a new take on an old tale and brings Baba Yaga's environment to life. Fans of graphic novels will appreciate both the plot and the quality of the drawings.

Defy the Stars

Gray, Cynthia. Defy the Stars. Book 1 of the Defy the Stars series. 2017. 503p. ISBN 978-0-316-39403-1. Available at FIC GRA on the library shelves.

As humanity continued to ruin Earth, it became imperative to find other suitable planets where its exploding population could escape. Large space gates were built, and ships explored the galaxy. Other worlds were located, and though they could sustain life, none of them were like Earth. Until Genesis was discovered. A planet similar to Earth before it became overcrowded and polluted. Settlers came to Genesis, but as Earth sought to send more people, the various religious factions on Genesis united and declared the colony's independence. A brief but vicious war granted them freedom and thirty years of peace due to a blockade by Earth of the Genesis Gate. In the last two years, however, Earth has become increasingly hostile, sending armies of mechs, mechanized humans, to fight agains the low-tech Genesis forces.

At seventeen, Noemi Vidal has lost her family when their vehicle was destroyed hitting a mine. She spent her youth with her best friend, Ester. When Earth's military returned to the Genesis system, Noemi and Ester joined the defense forces. AS Earth slowly bleeds the Genesis military dry, increasingly desperate measures have been necessary. She has trained with others to perform the Masada run, a hopeless attempt to disable the Genesis Gate and prevent Earth from sending more forces to this system. This will not destroy the Gate, but it will provide valuable time for Genesis to rearm itself.

During a training exercise, Noemi and her fighter troops are ambushed by mechs. During the assault her friend Ester is critically injured, and Noemi is forced to drag her into one of the shipwrecks that litter the area of the Gate, hoping to save her life. On board the Daedalus, however, is a mech. Abel is an A1 mech, a unique model endowed not only with the information that all other 25 mech models possess, but also the unmatched ability to adapt, and his programming has evolved beyond its coding limitations. Abel was abandoned for thirty years when Dr. Mansfield, his creator and the owner of the Daedalus, had to flee his ship during an attack by Genesis soldiers.

Though on two opposite warring sides, both Abel and Noemi's best hopes to escape the loneliness that has plagued most of their lives. As they get to know each other, they realize that they can bring an end to this war between Genesis and Earth. The price may be the sacrifice of their lives, however. With the fate of the galaxy at hand, will they be willing to make the necessary deadly decisions?

A great science-fiction story, Defy the Stars is told in alternating chapters between Noemi and Abel's points of views. Fans of Illuminae will enjoy this thrilling story.

Fake News and the Factories that Make It

Heitkamp, Kristina Lyn. Fake News and the Factories that Make It. Part of the Critical Thinking About Digital Media series. 2019. 80p. ISBN 978-1-978504-72-1. Available at 070.43 HEI on the library shelves.

The election of Donald Trump in 2016 was marred by Russian meddling and the spreading of what became known as "fake news." This phrase has entered the lexicon and has permeated the national discourse, and has been used repeatedly by the President to decry news that are not fake but rather unflattering to himself. This is not the first time that the words "fake news" have been used, however. American history is replete with yellow journalism and sensationalistic headlines, from Benjamin Franklin's completely fabricated reports of British and Indian atrocities against American settlers to today's social media trolls enhancing and promoting disinformation.

What is "fake news"? At their heart, fake news are information that are not accurate. They range from reasonable mistakes in reporting to disingenuous pieces of propaganda designed to sway public opinion one way or another. They can come from citizens who do not take the time to fact check their information, or they can come from aboard where people create articles to drive traffic to their websites and generate advertising revenues.

It is dependent on readers to carefully consume information and seek confirmation from different sources. If a headline appears too sensational or unbelievable, it probably is. An informed citizenry is essential to a thriving democracy, and fake news, if not checked, will undermine the nation's stability.