scholarly journals Potatoes on Rooftops: Farming in the City by H. Dyer

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Text Book ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Urban Gardening ◽  
Growing Conditions ◽  
The City

Dyer, Hadley.  Potatoes on Rooftops: Farming in the City.  Toronto:  Annick Press, 2012. Print. With the increased public interest in urban agriculture, this is a timely book.  While the publishers present it as being for grades 4-7, the content and reading level is much higher,  scoring at the Tenth Grade on the Coleman-Liau Index and 9.2 on the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test. The design looks like a children’s book, with backgrounds composed of bright colour blocks, small monochrome drawings and many irregularly shaped photographs with overlapping captions that look as if they are hand-printed.   The text is often informal, using contractions and questions to engage the reader.  “What’s a city dweller to do if she doesn’t want to pay a king’s ransom for an egg?” (p. 18). However, the content is dense and covers urban agriculture almost like a text book.  It begins with a substantial introductory section on the state of food and the need for urban agriculture then moves through examples of small scale urban agriculture, larger scale urban agriculture and ends up with some of the larger social and political movements and philosophies.  There is also a glossary, resource list and index. While the author is from Toronto and this book received Ontario Arts Council Funding, there is little Canadian content.  While the author does cite a number of international examples including some from Africa, Japan and Scotland, it is clear that the market for this book is the United States.  There are a few Toronto projects mentioned and the Inuvik Community Greenhouse, which is an old arena, but there is little said about the practicalities of urban gardening in Canada.  Climate is a major factor in successful gardening anywhere and the growing conditions of most American locations are quite different from those in most of Canada.  It is a lot easier to be an urban gardener in Florida than it is in Edmonton. This book is a good introduction to the concepts of urban gardening but will be most useful to teen and adult readers.  Recommended for high school and public libraries. Recommendation:  3 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

scholarly journals Artificial Eyes by B. Sheen

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Borle
Keyword(s):  
Junior High School ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Text Book ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Black And White

Sheen, Barbara.  Artificial Eyes. Norwood House Press, 2017.Artificial Eyes is one of a series of non-fiction books called Tech Bytes, that “explores...new technologies and how they are changing the way people perform everyday tasks.” Barbara Sheen, author of almost 100 children’s books, explores the history of artificial eyes, how they are made, their effect on people’s lives, and future developments. This is a detailed work that is designed to be a reference or text book for Grades 4 – 6. It is an odd combination of factual presentation and anecdotal stories about individuals. For example, “When Teddy was two years old, he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in his eye. To rid him of the disease, his eye was surgically removed.”  Squeamish children may find some content disturbing. To balance the dense text, most pages have a photograph, diagram, or side-bar containing interesting information. There are also “Did you know?” boxes, which allow for some level of interaction. For example, “Did you know? Bionic eyes only provide black-and-white vision. Experts are working on software that would let wearers see colors.”  The end of each chapter also has text-based questions and potential research projects. In this way it is more like a text book, but it is unlikely that a classroom would need textbooks on a subject this specific.While the short sentence and paragraph structures are appropriate for the upper elementary reading level, many of the words and word-combinations will be difficult for students in these grades. They may require help in understanding the content. There are few children’s books about artificial eyes, so this would be a good addition to public libraries and both elementary and junior high school libraries. Recommended: 3 stars out of 4Reviewer: Sean C. BorleSean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety.

Brooklyn's agrarian questions

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Weissman
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Food Justice ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Food Network ◽  
Alternative Food Network ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

AbstractThroughout the USA, urban agriculture is expanding as a manifestation of an emerging American food politics. Through a case study of Brooklyn, New York, I used mixed qualitative research methods to investigate the political possibilities of urban agriculture for fostering food justice. My findings build on the existing alternative food network (AFN) literature by indicating that problematic contradictions rooted in the neoliberalization of urban agriculture limit the transformative possibilities of farming the city as currently practiced in Brooklyn. I suggest that longstanding agrarian questions—concerns over the relationship between agriculture and capitalism and the politics of small-scale producers—are informative for critical interrogation of urban agriculture as a politicization of food.

scholarly journals Down by the River: A Family Fly Fishing Story by A. Weiner

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Public Libraries ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Fishing Trip ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Fly Fishing ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
The University ◽  
Riverine Landscapes

Weiner, Andrew.  Down by the River: A Family Fly Fishing Story. Harry N. Abrams, 2018.  This is a beautifully illustrated book that tells a simple story about a boy, Art, who goes on a fly-fishing trip with his mother and grandfather. The story recalls a time when Art’s grandfather taught his mother to fish.  April Chu has used a subdued palette for her two-page riverine landscapes, with lots of green and rich autumn colours in the environment. The book has a calm and peaceful feel about it that mirrors the contemplative nature of fly-fishing.  The text is simple and descriptive of a day spent on the river. The reading level is too difficult for the intended Kindergarten to Grade 2 audience, so an adult will need to read the book aloud, especially those sentences that could confuse young readers with difficult concepts or complicated jargon: “The line arced forward and the fly landed softly a few feet above the rock. It drifted with the current past the rock. There was a splash and the line went tight.”  The last three pages contain information about fly fishing, the clothing worn by fly fishers and where to get more information about the sport. The end pages are decorated with images of intricate flys with such fun and mysterious names as: “Ian’s Crunch Caddis,” “Black Fur Ant,” and “Purple Parachute Adams.” This book is a good introduction to fly fishing for younger children that also tells a charming story. Highly recommended for school and public libraries. Highly Recommended: 4 stars out of 4 Reviewer:  Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

scholarly journals The Sound of All Things by M. Uhlberg

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Borle
Keyword(s):  
Public Libraries ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Amusement Park ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Deaf Person ◽  
Adult Reading ◽  
Intimate Knowledge

Uhlberg, Myron.  The Sound of All Things, illustrated by Ted Papoulas, Peachtree Publishers, 2016.This is an autobiographical story about Myron, who is the child of two deaf parents, attempting to explain sounds to them as they spend a day at the Coney Island amusement park. The illustrations in this book are spectacular. Ted Papoulas captures not only the detail of the amusement park, the library and fireworks, he also captures whole stories in the expressions on people’s faces. All of the illustrations reflect the 1920s, when Myron was a child. Many of the illustrations have a dark tone to them, using browns for building interiors, street scenes and evenings, adding to a vintage look. For a picture book this text is wordy, dense, and written at an adult reading level. Myron’s voice, however, is authentic. Only the child of a deaf person would be able to write, “My mother’s hands sat silent in her lap.” The text displays the intimate knowledge that Myron has of the deaf world and his struggles to translate sound to his parents. '“What does the ocean sound like?”  “It is loud,” I answered again. “Don’t be lazy,” [my father] signed.  I squirmed in my seat. I didn’t have enough words to tell my father what he wanted to know”'. Because the text is sophisticated for a picture book, it would be appropriate for upper elementary and above.I would recommend this book for public libraries and school libraries and to anyone who teaches deaf children or children of deaf people. Recommended: 3 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sean BorleSean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety. 

scholarly journals The People of the Sea by D. Uluadluak

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Public Libraries ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Upper Elementary ◽  
Elementary Children ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The People ◽  
The University

Uluadluak, Donald.  The People of the Sea, illustrated by Mike Motz, Inhabit Media, 2017The People of the Sea is a recollection by the late Inuit elder, Donald Uluadluak, of seeing an arnajuinnaq or a sea person, while he and his friends played on the beach near Arviat. The story is a simple retelling of the adventure which highlights the presence of sea-people in Inuit culture.  Unlike the vicious mermaids or tuutaliit of books such as Kiviuq and the Mermaids, who have frightening appearances and want to destroy kayaks and kill hunters, the sea-people in this story seem benign and simply curious. Mike Motz has drawn them as almost-expressionless creatures who look like fair-skinned women with long dark hair and facial tattoos – just as Uluadluak describes them. The two-page images are multi-coloured and do a good job of reflecting the sea and tundra environments. Text is overprinted on the images. The text is simple and comprehensible to the intended audience of 5 to 7 year-olds, but is above their reading level, so an adult would need to read this book aloud. The People of the Sea would also be appropriate for upper elementary children who are interested in traditional myths and legends.  Highly recommended for school libraries and public libraries. Highly Recommended:  4 stars out of 4Reviewer: Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.  

scholarly journals Akilak’s Adventure by D. Kigjugalik Webster

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Public Libraries ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Upper Elementary ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship

Kigjugalik Webster, Deborah.  Akilak’s Adventure.  Inhabit Media, 2016.This is a first children’s book from Deborah Kigjugalik Webster, who grew up in Baker Lake, Nunavut.  It is a story of a little Inuit girl navigating the tundra by herself to reach her uncle’s camp.  As the child walks, she is joined by a caribou, who mysteriously knows her grandmother’s saying, “Your destination did not run away, you will reach it soon.”  The conversation between the two is about people changing into animals, but Akilak in the end decides to remain a person.   The story is deceptively simple.  On the surface, children will understand it as a little girl’s adventure.  However, it encompasses several important aspects of Inuit culture:  the relationship between grandparent and child, the importance of extended family support, the prominence of animals and the stories of people taking the shape of animals, the distance of travel across the tundra and the related concept of taulittuq or the sense of moving but not getting closer to your destination.Charlene Chua’s artwork is charming. Each two pages are an image with text overprinted on one page, often shaped to fit around parts of the image.  The images are simple and cartoon-like, but good representations of the tundra and its creatures.  While this is mainly a picture book with an intended audience of children ages 5 to 7, the reading level is upper elementary, so younger children will definitely need an adult to read it to them.Akilak’s Adventure would be an excellent addition to public libraries and elementary school libraries.Highly Recommended:  4 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

scholarly journals InvisiBill by M. Fergus

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Aitken
Keyword(s):  
Public Libraries ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Peanut Butter ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
End Of Grade ◽  
The University ◽  
Scientific Name

Fergus, Maureen. InvisiBill. Illus. Dušan Petričić. Tundra Books, 2015.The plot of this amusing picture book is simple: Bill would like someone at the dinner table to pass him the potatoes; he is repeatedly ignored. Bill mutters,                “What am I. Invisible?... PLEASE PASS THE POTATOES!”In response, Mother continues checking messages on her “whatchamacallit,” and Father answers his “thingamajiggy.” (We have to admire the use of the terms “whatchamacallit” and “thingamajiggy;” Fergus deftly avoids the stale dating that comes with naming current technologies!) The story proceeds: Bill’s brother declares the scientific name for potatoes to be “SOLANUM TUBEROSUM.” His little sister begins to juggle the tubers. No one passes the potatoes. Bill’s fate is sealed; he becomes invisible.The romp through Bill’s family’s solutions and sorrows as they try to regain their invisible child and brother is complemented by the witty cartoons of Dušan Petričić.  Only a few of these drawings are large and distinct enough to share in a group storytelling session; none-the-less, they would be much appreciated by the individual reader.That reader might easily be a child of eight years of age—the approximate age of “Bill,” as Petričić depicts him. By the end of grade three, and certainly at the grade four reading level, most children could handle independently such passages as the one below:               Bill was in no mood to eat dinner with his family who had, after all, caused his invisibleness. So he took three peanut-butter-and-pickle sandwiches up to his room and spent the evening with his gerbil, Gerard.The humour in this story, however, is not for the exclusive delight of the primary school-aged; if you are a “middle child” of any age, you might just think that Maureen Fergus wrote the book with you in mind!Home, school, and public libraries should find this a popular addition to their collections. Depending on the ages involved, it might also prove a helpful gift for that once-youngest child whose family position has been “reordered” by a newcomer. Reviewer: Leslie AitkenRecommended: 3 out of 4 starsLeslie Aitken’s long career in librarianship involved selection of children’s literature for school, public, special and academic libraries. She is a former Curriculum Librarian for the University of Alberta.

scholarly journals Hurry Up, Henry by J. Lanthier

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Aitken
Keyword(s):  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Line Drawings ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
Emotional Complexity ◽  
The University ◽  
The City ◽  
Selection Of

Lanthier, Jennifer.  Hurry Up, Henry, illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant, Penguin Canada Books, 2016.Dreamers and introverts need time: time to observe; time to imagine; time alone to recharge their emotional batteries.  The “Henry” of this storybook is, very definitely, a dreamer—and, very possibly, an introvert.  He seems destined to be dragged out of his reveries by a clock-watching family, and worn to a frazzle by his hyperactive friend, Simon.  Happily, Henry is loved; even better, he is understood by both his grandmother and Simon.  Together, these two conspire to give Henry a gift of time.Isabelle Malenfant creates an urban setting for Lanthier’s story.  Her delicately coloured line drawings depict the city sidewalks, city parks, hallways, elevators, and apartment rooms through which Henry is “hurried.”  Her illustrations are perfectly suited to the text--in fact, they are the primary means by which the emotional complexity of the story is conveyed.Lanthier’s text, itself, is very simply worded, even understated.  The vocabulary she uses, her story’s emphasis on clock-watching and time-telling, suggest a book perfectly suited for independent reading in grade two.The book is an obvious “must buy” for school and public libraries.  As well, it would be a helpful addition to the home library for families who find themselves endlessly urging one of their smaller members to “Hurry up!”Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer:  Leslie AitkenLeslie Aitken’s long career in librarianship involved selection of children’s literature for school, public, special and academic libraries.  She is a former Curriculum Librarian for the University of Alberta.

scholarly journals Cub’s Journey Home by G. Graham

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fire ◽  
Red Deer ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Running Water ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The University

Graham, Georgia.  Cub’s Journey Home. Markham, ON:  Red Deer Press, 2015.  Print.Georgia Graham is a fine artist, but as a writer, needs a good editor.  Like her earlier work Where Wild Horses Run, this is a beautifully illustrated book.  Graham’s landscapes, trees, rivers, rocks, bears and flowers are all highly realistic. She tackles a variety of environments including snow, running water, forest fire, a burnt landscape and a garbage dump. Many of the images are frame-worthy.  There are flaws in the flames of her forest fire, some of which look like they belong on racing cars; however, in the next image, she absolutely captures the complexity of the fire reflected on swamp water.  Unfortunately, the text is an amalgamation of strange images and unusual or extravagant word choices. Why, for example, is a baby bear growing inside the mother called a “speck”?  There is so much purple prose that the reader is constantly distracted.  There are “long needles of sunlight” that “stab”.  The snow covering the den is “a curtain of lacy ice”. “A breeze runs its icy fingers through his fur.”  The cub “skedaddles”.  “A dark blanket [of smoke] rises up and steals the stars from the sky.” The whole text would have been much better if Graham had just written in her natural voice, as she occasionally does, to good effect.While the unusual word choices make the reading level of the text much too advanced for a picture book, the images, with their excellent rendering of Alberta landscapes, make it valuable.  This book is recommended with reservations for elementary school libraries and public libraries. Recommended with reservations: 2 out of 4 starsReviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

scholarly journals "Grow what you eat, eat what you grow": urban agriculture as middle class intervention in India

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Frazier
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Fruits And Vegetables ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Food System ◽  
Farming Community ◽  
Urban Gardening ◽  
Food Quality And Safety ◽  
The City

In Bengaluru, India's "IT Capital" and one of its fastest growing cities, an increasing number of middle class residents are growing fruits and vegetables in their private spaces for home consumption. This article examines the motivations and practices of Bengaluru's organic terrace gardeners ("OTGians") in order to understand the possibilities and limitations of urban gardening as a middle class intervention into unsafe food systems and decaying urban ecologies. OTGians are driven primarily by concerns about worsening food quality and safety, and secondarily by the desire to create green spaces that counteract environmental degradation in the city. Like community gardeners in the Global North, they understand urban gardening as a way to mediate problems in the contemporary food system and the urban ecology. However, like other alternative food and environmental movements, OTGians' efforts are anchored in class-specific concerns and experiences. While they have been successful in creating a vibrant community, their efforts remain limited to the middle class. This is in large part due to the site, scale, and production practices that anchor their interventions. I briefly consider a different approach to food production in Bengaluru—that of a caste-specific farming community that has been dispossessed of much of its agricultural land in the name of urban development—to illuminate divergent histories, narratives, and practices of urban agriculture. However, I also emphasize the sites of intersection between these narratives, and suggest that OTGians can find commonalities with other food producers in the city in ways that might revolutionize Bengaluru's food future. I thus look for potential sites of collaboration and intersection in understanding the uneven power relations and politics of urban socio-natures.

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