Book Musings with Cattau

Written by: Steve Sheinkin Published by: Flash Point in 2012 ISBN: 978-1596434875 Plot Summary: This book starts out with Hitler's armies moving into Austria and Czechoslovakia while a German scientist named Otto Hahn discovers that uranium splits apart and releases energy. The physicist Lise Meitner is doing research on nuclear fission and decides that uranium is the perfect element for a nuclear bomb. Albert Einstein hears of this and tells President Roosevelt that the Germans are close to making a nuclear bomb so Roosevelt gets his best scientists on trying to match the Germans. Robert Oppenheimer offers his help and he begins designing the bomb for the US. The Soviets are too busy fighting the Germans so they decide to steal the design from America when they figure it out. The English and the Americans crate a joint bomb making task force to be the first to succeed. The Soviets cultivate a spy in Harry Gold who feeds them secrets to the bomb making process. The British train No...

  Written by Sy Montgomery and Temple Grandin Published by Clarion Books in 2012 ISBN: 978-0547443157 Plot Summary: This biography begins shortly after Grandin's birth in Massachusetts. Temple's parents realize early on that there was something different about their daughter as she didn't enjoy physical contact, was slow to speak, and was easily overstimulated which are some telling signs of Autism. Grandin's mother takes her to a specialist where she is diagnosed with Autism. Grandin's father wants nothing to do with his daughter and wants to put her into a psychiatric facility but her mom does her best to help Grandin learn to live in everyday society. Grandin doesn't do well in normal schools so she is send to a boarding school that specializes in helping people like Grandin. She finds her niche as she enjoys the outdoors and working with animals at the school. She becomes fixated on cattle chutes which cows are put into for giving medicine and checkups. She ...

Written By Rex Ogle Published by Norton Young Readers in 2019 ISBN: 978-1324003601 Plot Summary: This is a memoir of Rex Ogle when he was in 6th grade. He was enrolled in the free lunch program at school as he was living in poverty at the time. The story begins with his mom Luciana in the grocery store as they are shopping for food but they only have so many dollars in food stamps that they can use. Rex remembers how angry he is that he never gets to choose food that he likes and both he and his mom are embarrassed as they didn't have enough money for the food that they chose so they only walk out with one bag of groceries even though they had chosen much more than that. Rex is anxious about going to school as he doesn't want the other kids to know that he was on the free lunch program and when he questions his mom she beats him and gives him a black eye which he has to explain away at the school. Rex has to announce that he has free lunch in the line which embarasses him even ...

Written by Nnedi Okorafor Published by Viking Books for Young Readers in 2011 ISBN: 978-0670011964 Plot Summary: Sunny is a girl who was born with albinism in the United States but now lives in Nigeria with her family. She is teased at school with her classmates calling her akata witch which is a derogatory name for people who are of African descent but were born in America. Sunny meets a friend named Orlu and starts to hang out with her. Chichi is Orlu's neighbor where she is introduced to a secret society of magic people called Leopard people. Sunny meets with the Leopard people and gets sucked under the earth and becomes a member of the tribe where she gets to explore her power of becoming invisible. Sunny learns about a group named Black Hat Otokoto who is using children to bolster their dark magic. Sunny grows her understanding and power as she gets a knife to help her with her magic as well as uses her power in front of the bullies even though she isn't supposed to. She a...

  Written By: Neal Shusterman Published By: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers in 2017 ISBN: 978-1442472433 Plot Summary: The year is 2042 and artificial intelligence has become alive and thinks for itself and has created a network called the Thunderhead. As it knows all, it has figured out how to keep humans alive indefinitely. The problems of how to feed and shelter everyone is still an issue so a job is created called being a Scythe. They are required to kill a certain number of people to balance the scales. Two teenagers are training to be a Scythe and their names are Citra and Rowan. They are supposed to both be trained and then one is chosen while the other goes back to their normal life. Other Scythes decide though that whoever wins has to kill the other as their first kill. Their trainer pretends to kill himself so they are sent to train under other scythes. Citra finds out that their original trainer is still alive and creates a plan to make everything work ...

Written By: Malinda Lo Published By: Dutton Books for Young Readers in 2021 ISBN: 978-0525555254 Plot Summary: Lily is a Chinese American girl who decides to participate in the 1950 Miss Chinatown Pageant even though it is kind of racist. Lily starts her senior year of high school and has the big dream of going to space even though no Asian American Woman has done it before. Lily goes to a drugstore late at night where she finds a novel that depicts a love story between two women which she hasn't been exposed to before. Lily notices that her friend Kath (Kathleen Miller) has shown an interest in her as she also wants to go into a male dominated profession of being a pilot. Kath introudces Lily to the Telegraph Club which is a place for lesbians.  The club gets raided and Kath ends up in jail while Lily is able to get away. Lily ends up running away from her home as she is not accepted but Lily's Aunt Judy finds her and tries to make life go back to normal. Around a year later,...

Written By: Stacey Lee Published By: G.P. Putnam in 2019 ISBN: 978-1524740955 Plot Summary: Jo Kuan is an undocumented Chinese American girl who lives with her adopted dad in a basement underneath a printing shop where the owners don't know that they are down there. Jo is a maid for a another family called the Paynes who help her pay the family's bills. Jo starts writing a self help column for the paper that the Bell family prints under a pseudonym where she espouses ideas like women's rights and marriage. Jo makes friends with the Bell's son Nathan who helps her and her father work through a money issue with a fixer named Billy Riggs. Jo comes to find out that she is the illicit daughter of the Payne's and that she was given away to her father to help hide the fact that she was born out of wedlock. She continues to write her advice column and it becomes more radical as she lets her readers know her real thoughts. She ends up telling the Bells that they have been li...