When I was a child we had a cat which my mom christened Golda My Ear (he was a yellow tabby) which was a clever play on words that went completely over my head. Therefore, when I came across a book while shelving entitled Golda Meir: A Strong, Determined Leader it felt like fate was telling me to take it home and read it. (It's so short that I finished it on my first train home.) David A. Adler decided to write about Golda for the "Women of Our Time" biography series which covers a wide array of spectacularly talented, intelligent, and strong women. Prior to reading this book, I had no knowledge of who Golda Meir was which is pretty shocking seeing as how she was Israel's Prime Minister. She grew up in Russia but her family moved to Milwaukee when she was a young girl in the hopes that they could improve their quality of life with the opportunities that America promised were available to all within its borders. Much like her sister, Golda was homesick and longed to be a part of the larger Jewish nation and to build it in Israel. That determination never left her and she made it a reality after she married and moved to Palestine to be an active participant in the political party that wanted to build the Jewish nation. It covers not only her childhood and her move to Palestine but also her political career as Prime Minister and her meetings with Nixon (as well as her secret missions to the enemy's camps). Lest you picture her as a pacifist, she was not against using weapons to protect her people against the encroaching Arabs, Egyptians, and Syrians which threatened daily to drive them out of the space they had carved for themselves. Overall rating from me is 8/10 because I wanted a little more depth to the narrative.

As this is written with a younger audience in mind the chapters are very short and not exactly chock full of details. If you want the bare facts (or want to teach them to your child) then this is a great resource. I think this book and the rest of the books in the series would be a great resource in a classroom or home library as the women discussed come from different parts of the world and worked in various fields/capacities. It can never hurt to teach children about powerful women who paved the way!

What I'm Currently Reading: The Outsider by Stephen King

This is my first Cam Jansen. The nine-year-old likes her and her photographic memory, so I picked this one up to see what the deal is.

I found the ending slightly disappointing. For a mystery series the solution doesn't take up a lot of space. I did enjoy the deductions in the middle of the mystery though. And I liked the characters. I think I'd need to read a few more before I formed a solid opinion about them.

I was really excited when I saw these Cam Jansen books. Cam was my hero as a child. All of her adventures and most of all her photographic memory! These book would be great for third grade and for the classroom library. It would even be fun to use to talk about prediction. Maybe have student listen as a class to a couple chapters then have them predict what will happen. 

(Adler & Brown, 2000)

Note: George Washington Carver--who was born a slave, educated erratically in his younger years, and rejected at Highland University because he was black--ultimately used his life to improve the lives of other Southerners and blacks through his pioneering experience.

(Adler & Casilla, 1992)

Note: Part of a critically acclaimed series, this book chronicles the life of American sports hero Jesse Owens, a noted figure in the fight for human equality