Good adventure book about the Danes in World War II

I'm sorry that To Fight in Silence by Eva-Lis Wuorio (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, c. 1973) is out of print. I haven't read it in years, but I remember it as a pretty good adventure tale, with some important history and a few good life lessons tossed in.

It revolves around a Norwegian boy and his Danish cousins, who get involved in the Danish underground. It's aimed at older kids or young adults, but I found it intriguing enough to read as an adult. Whether that was from the writing or the subject matter I can't remember (this was years ago that I read this book) -- but I did put it into my personal library to reread instead of putting it out on the store shelves, for whatever that's worth.

And, tah dah, since I just today found my copy in a box (we're still in the middle of a move), I can even share the front-flap jacket copy with you:

In April 1940 Germany attacks Norway and Denmark. The Norwegians fight back fiercely; the Danes submit and their country is immediately occupied by the Nazis. In Norway, Thor Ericksen, though too young to fight in the army, is old enough to drive a truck with wounded soldiers while German bombs fall from the sky. In Denmark, Thor's cousins, Karen Jensen and her younger brother Kristian, at first find life under the Germans much as it was before. But a Danish underground is formed, and Karen and Kristian find ways in which they, too, can serve the Resistance.

Thor joins his relatives in Denmark and, together with Karen and Kristian and many, many other Danes, becomes part of one of the proudest episodes in human history - a daring secret plan to prevent the Germans from deporting Danish Jews to concentration camps.

In this authentic story, Eva-Lis Wuorio conveys the atmosphere of life in Norway and Denmark during World War II. These dangerous years had moments of great poignancy, but they also had moments of joy and lively humor. After reading To Fight in Silence, boys and girls will know that this is a time to remember.

The back flap on the dust jacket touts another book by Eva-Lis Wuorio called Code: Polonaise, set in Poland in World War II. It also centers around children, in this case orphans who join up with the Polish Underground. I haven't read that one, but I'd like to.

Wuorio was born in Finland but grew up in Canada. In the Author's Note in To Fight in Silence, she says:

During World War II, I worked as a reporter on the Toronto Evening Telegram and interviewed literally hundreds of Norwegians who had escaped from their occupied homeland and were training as soldiers, sailors and airmen in Canada. I also talked to dozens of Danish officials who had come to North America to explain their country's predicament to the outside world. My mother kept a scrapbook of everything I wrote and I have found those clippings very useful. While traveling in the Scandinavian countries after the war, I learned to know and love them, and heard many stories of the war years.

When I began to write this book, I asked for help from the Press and Information Section of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from the War Museum in Copenhagen. I am grateful for their co-operation... Then my librarian found a book for me, Rescue in Denmark by Harold Flender, published in 1963 by W.H. Allen & Co., London, and Simon and Schuster, New York, and I was able to check my dates and information against this interesting, documented work about the escape of Denmark's Jews from Nazism...

I just checked, and Rescue in Denmark doesn't seem to be in print, either. Of course, you might be able to find a copy at your local library, and you can always search for used copies. To search at Barnes & Noble, go here: Out of Print, Used & Rare.

I haven't found very much on Eva-Lis Wuorio on the Internet, but while looking for more on her I ran across an extensive list of books about the Holocaust, for children through young adult, both fiction and nonfiction. It is provided by Northbrook Public Library, Northbrook, Illinois.

USGS - Earthquake information on the web

The USGS (United States Geological Survey) has all sorts of interesting stuff at its earthquake information pages.

There are, for instance, animations that move through the last week's earthquake maps, showing, in other words, not only where earthquakes hit, but in what order. You can choose among a variety of settings, from a whole world view to, say, the San Francisco Bay area, or the Los Angeles area, or Yellowstone, among others.

There's a map that registers earthquakes over the last 8 to 30 days, sorted by depth, so you can see where the most activity has been.

There's even a page that attempts to forecast California aftershocks.

And much more.

Just in case you're interested in that sort of stuff.

Joust The Facts: A Really Bad Nike Ad

The orthopedic surgeon who writes the Joust the Facts blog is trying to dissuade Nike from sending kids to his ER.

Update: Giacomo posts the email response he got from Nike, plus his reply, at Nike's Initial Response.

Upcoming book watch - The Case of Terri Schiavo: Ethics at the End of Life

I have beside me the Spring/Summer 2006 Trade Catalog from Prometheus Books, which features a fairly eclectic mix of titles, among them a book scheduled for March release: The Case of Terri Schiavo: Ethics at the End of Life, edited by Arthur L. Caplan, James J. McCartney, and Dominic A. Sisti, with a foreword by Jay Wolfson. The authors are listed as being affiliated with University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics. Caplan is also listed as the chair of the Department of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and "the author or editor of numerous books including The Ethics of Organ Transplants and Who Owns Life?" Dr. Wolfson was the court-appointed guardian ad litem for Terri Schiavo.

The write-up in this catalog causes me a bit of concern.

Well, judge for yourself. I'm not comfortable with the way the Catholic Church position is being represented (or misrepresented, in my view), among other things. You tell me. Reprinted from the Barnes & Noble website, an identical write-up to what is in the trade catalog:

FROM THE PUBLISHER

After the Nancy Cruzan case was decided by the Supreme Court in 1990, and ultimately resolved by the Courts of the State of Missouri, the decision to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging nutrition and hydration appeared to many to be as noncontroversial as decisions to refuse respirators or dialysis. Even the Catholic Church held that, although there should be a presumption in favor of providing nutrition and hydration, the patient or the patient's surrogate could overrule this presumption, if either believed the treatment was disproportionate or burdensome.

The Schiavo case changed all that. Although the decision to remove Terri Schiavo's nutrition and hydration was made by her husband-her legal surrogate-based on his wife's belief that such treatment was disproportionate, Schiavo's immediate family protested so much that the case took years to resolve. It eventually involved all branches of government at both the state and federal levels.

The ethical dilemmas that such cases pose continue to stir great controversy. This in-depth examination of these dilemmas provides information and documentation from many perspectives. The editors have included a foreword by Dr. Jay Wolfson, Terri Schiavo's court-appointed guardian ad litem, as well as Dr. Wolfson's report to Gov. Jeb Bush on the case and Gov. Bush's reply; public statements by President George Bush and Senators David Weldon, Rick Santorum, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, and Barney Frank; statements by the pope and other representatives of the Catholic Church on this issue; plus much medical and legal background material on both precedents to the Schiavo case and its aftermath, including the results of the autopsy report.

For anyone wishing an in-depth understanding of these complex ethical issues, issues many of us will have to confront in our own families, this volume is indispensable.

The publisher has announced, in the catalog I have, that there is a national marketing budget for this book, with national media appearances and a national advertising campaign planned. The book is due to come out in late March, but is already available for pre-order.


Case of Terri Schiavo

And, no, I don't know what to make of the cover. I have my theories, but I think I'll hold off broadcasting them until I find out more about the contents of the book, and see what the media campaign is like.

New book buzz: River Rising

Thanks to Best of the GodBlogs, I know that Lars Walker of Brandywine Books really likes River Rising by Athol Dickson.

Thanks to another post at Brandywine Books, I know that Gina Holmes of Novel Journey did an author interview with Athol Dickson. (Just in case you're a gotta-know-the-author sort of reader.)

Clicking on the book cover will take you to Barnes & Noble for more information and reviews.


River Rising

Sebastian Mallaby: Google and My Red Flag

Washington Post op-ed columnist and author Sebastian Mallaby has had a Chinese publisher express interest in a book he wrote on the World Bank, provided that certain passages are deleted. His first reaction was to say "Forget it." And then he started looking at what Google managed to do when China demanded concessions...

I think he makes some good points:

...Google's answer to the China dilemma is better, and more subtle, than that of other Internet firms. It does not simply assert that engagement with China is always good. It recognizes the arms race between China's repressive state power and China's liberating economic growth, and it accepts the conclusion that follows: Some forms of engagement hasten liberal trends; others empower jailers.

This is not a distinction acknowledged by all investors in China, nor indeed in the China debate more generally. Policy types argue the merits of engagement vs. containment as though there were nothing in between; either you're for tough talk and sanctions, or you embrace the dragon unequivocally. Both Bill Clinton and George Bush have favored engagement, and both have waxed especially lyrical about the opening of cyberspace. Clinton once laughed that China's efforts to control the Internet were "like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall." "Freedom's genie will be out of the bottle," Bush said of the Internet's arrival in the Middle Kingdom.

This, plainly, is exaggerated....

[snip]

But the problem with the Clinton-Bush rhetoric is not just that it's blithe. It helps American companies to pretend that all China engagement is positive. Thus the Internet router firm Cisco had no qualms about building a great cyberwall around China, which blocks Chinese surfers from "subversive" foreign Web sites. Thus Yahoo has obliged the Chinese government by tracing pro-democracy e-mails to one of its users. The e-mailer has been jailed, and Yahoo has effectively become a Chinese police auxiliary.

But Google hasn't done that. It is creating a search service in China, http://www.google.cn/ , but it is not erecting cyberwalls or helping to arrest people. The new Google search service will give Chinese users access to better information than they had before -- a clear gain for freedom. And although the search service will be censored, it's hard to see this as a net loss. The censored material would not have reached China without Google's investment.

And that's not the best bit. Google has negotiated the right to disclose, at the bottom of its Chinese search results, whether information has been withheld -- a disclosure that may prompt users to repeat their search using google.com instead of google.cn. Of course, the second search might be frustrated by Cisco's routers. But disclosing censorship is half the battle. If people know they are being brainwashed, then they are not being brainwashed...

Read the whole post.

In a related vein, Michael has One Boycott I Won't Be Joining over at Slobokan's Site O' Schtuff.

The Paragraph Farmer: Pattern recognition

Patrick O'Hannigan's seven-year-old daughter Jane knows how to write a book report. Go, Jane! :-).

Bookworm Room: History sort of repeats itself

Bookworm looks at the world of a century ago, and finds some interesting parallels and important differences. Her post begins:

Almost forty years ago, Barbara Tuchman wrote The Proud Tower, A Portrait of the World before the War : 1890-1914.... It's a compulsively readable book in a couple of ways. First, of course, it's readable because Tuchman is a wonderful writer. Her bouyant prose and her ability to include details that bring the past alive without drowning one in pointless factoids make her history books consistently fresh and wonderful. Second, it's readable because it's like a bizarre fun-house mirror reflection of our own times.

For example, did you know that suicide bombing is nothing new? At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, Europe and America were besieged by suicide bombs and assassinations originating, not with Muslim fundamentalists, but with anarchists...

So this guy and his son were walking through the woods...

Wayne Rice was just on the Weekend Magazine radio show, talking with Bill Maier, and he said a couple of things that got my attention.

First, Rice said he tells teens that they can be a thermostat, not a thermometer. Thermometers only tell you what the temperature is. Thermostats can help regulate the conditions in the room.

Hmmmm.

He may have been talking about teen-parent relations, but I have to think that this idea has a lot of potential applications, and not just for teens, eh?

Second, he told a story (which he says is a Native American story) about a man and his son walking in the forest. The father says to the son, "If I step in a pile of manure, that's life. If you see me step in manure, and you step in it too, that's stupid."

As I understood it, Rice uses the second story to drive home to teens that they don't have to do any stupid stuff their parents might do (get drunk, use drugs, not hold down a job, etc.), but, again, I think this has lots of potential applications. Yes?

Related previous post: Book note: Read This Book or You're Grounded, by Wayne Rice

"The danger of Anne Frank Syndrome"

What exactly are we teaching our kids when we have them read the book based on the diary of Anne Frank?

Bookworm, over at the Bookworm Room blog, contends that one lesson that many people glean from the book is just plain wrong, not to mention hazardous. Let her explain.

Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Reading"

Jonah Goldberg over at National Review Online has been reading a lot of books on liberalism, and he shares which ones he's found useful or interesting.

Born on this date...

Today marks the 250th anniversary of Amadeus Mozart's birth. Michelle Malkin has it covered.

And on January 27 back in 1832, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born in Cheshire, England. You probably know him better by his pen name, Lewis Carroll. (hat tip: Semicolon.)

Please help recommend good books on infant/toddler care

The blogosphere is a funny business sometimes. I've never met Mark Correa or his wife Amanda -- and they live clear across the country from me (and this is one wide country) -- but, thanks to Mark's blog, I'm awaiting the birth of their first child like it was a nephew or Mark and Amanda were neighbors or something :-).

Anyway, Mark's latest post is called Shawn's lies. It's about a co-worker who is happily feeding Mark bunk about baby care. This raised the question of where a new dad can find decent information about what to expect the first year.

I'm going to open the discussion by tossing out the following book for consideration. It's by the same folks as What to Expect When You're Expecting.


What to Expect the First Year

But this is not my area of expertise by a long shot. Ladies? Gentlemen? What have you found to be good resources for new parents? I'd especially like to hear what books/websites/magazines/whatever you Dads out there found useful. Leave a comment here and/or at Mark's blog, please. Thanks.

That cheering you're hearing is from Cyprus...(and tennis fans in Australia)

From Jesse Hogan, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, under the headline Cyprus flies parents to see magic Marcos:

The Cyprus Government will send the parents of Marcos Baghdatis on a last-minute, all-expenses-paid trip to Australia in an expensive attempt to inspire the 20-year-old in his first Grand Slam final.

Within hours of Baghdatis sealing a place in the final with a five-set victory against David Nalbandian, Cypriot parliament leader Demetris Christofias announced Christos and Andrianni Baghdatis would be flown to Melbourne to join the ever-swelling bandwagon in time for Sunday night's Australian Open final.

President Tassos Papadopoulos said Baghdatis had already earned his place among Cypriot sports legends with his 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory.

"I warmly congratulate our compatriot for his impressive advance to the Australian Open final," he said a statement.

"His fighting spirit, patience, strength of character with which he competed today provides a shining example for all those young men and women of our country."...

The rest of the article

In the same paper, there's an article by Richard Hinds under the headline Marcos the magician into final, which begins:

Just as the game's new magician Marcos Baghdatis seemed set to disappear in a puff of the smoke that rose from the nearby Australia Day fireworks, he found one more trick up his sleeve.

And so, after yet another incredible, fighting five-set victory, this time over David Nalbandian, the Cypriot will become one of the most unlikely Australian Open finalists in the tournament's long history...

CBC - Canada Votes 2006 - Analysis and Commentary - New Canadians

Thank goodness there are some political commentators with a little wit. A little faux Shakespeare, anyone?

hat tip: Dewey's Treehouse (Via The Common Room)

Fun learn-to-count book: Bunny's Numbers, by Dick McCue and Lisa McCue

I ran across a used copy of Bunny's Numbers by Dick McCue, illustrated by Lisa McCue, c. 1984, in a stack of books headed for the store. It's not a title I knew before, but I've just read it and it's a fun little book, and I see it's still in print. If you're looking to buy a book for a youngster just learning to read and/or count, you might want to check it out. My copy is an older one, shaped instead of rectangular, with a different ISBN and copyright date than the one currently for sale new, but I'm assuming (and hoping) it's essentially the same as the following:


Bunny's Numbers

I'd like to hear about other learn-to-count books that are appealing and/or that have proved helpful, if you know of any. Thanks.

More goodish news on the eminent domain front

Rhode Island's state Economic Development Corporation, led by Governor Don Carcieri, has modified its rules, now saying it won't use eminent domain to take owner-occupied private property for economic development. Unoccupied private land seems to be another matter, but at least this ruling might keep people from having to fight for their homes. More from AP, at boston.com.

hat tip: Castle Coalition

USATODAY.com - BB&T ends loans for eminent domain

According to this article by Paul Nowell of the Associated Press, the nation's ninth largest bank has declared that it will not make loans to developers who plan to build commercial projects on land taken by eminent domain.

Thank you, BB&T Bank! Three cheers, even. May other banks follow your lead, and soon.

I have a personal vow to avoid doing business with any outfit that sets up on seized land following Kelo v. City of New London (on the grounds that people have to now know how many citizens think it's wrong, even if it's legal for now).

But of course what I do as an individual can't possibly make much difference. So, what BB&T is doing -- that they are saying that refusing to participate in such projects is the right thing to do -- makes me very happy, indeed.

hat tip: Castle Coalition

Inquiring bloggers want to know...

In "[T]he lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne", the blogger at Either End of the Curve asks why people want to learn stuff in a hurry, if it takes years to hone skills to expert level? An excerpt (ellipsis in original):

One of the less technical things upon which he [the father of one of her friends] liked to expound was ... how long it takes for those starting out in highly technical fields to truly start contributing anything of real significance. I don't remember the exact number of years that he cited, but it was definitely in line with what Norvig [Peter Norvig, director of research at Google] is saying. My rocket scientist friend, with a great deal of affection and tolerance, would recount stories of the way in which "new" employees with advanced degrees and eight years, or whatever, of professional experience under their belts were still "beginners," with a long way to go. Knowledge, to his mind, was something that leaks and creeps and gradually grows, as opposed to being a package that can be ripped open with abandon, as on Christmas morn.

In American exceptionalism, Bookworm of Bookworm Room asks for thoughts on why some groups in America have tended to move up and out of tenements in one generation, while other families in other times and places seem to get stuck in poverty generation after generation:

Have any of you ever been to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York? It is, in my opinion, the best museum New York has to offer. All the other museums -- the Met, the Museum of Natural History, MOMA, etc. -- are sort of generic. That is, they're great museums, but you can find their like in every major world city. The Tenement museum, though, is unique and wonderful. It's a building in the Lower East Side that was built in 1867 and that was continuously inhabited through the early 1930s. It was then sealed up, where it remained as an unlikely time capsule to be explored decades later.

[snip]

One of the things that the tenement museum did, using census information, was to trace what happened to those immigrants and their descendents. As I understand it, almost without exception, the tenement was a one generation thing, with the families moving further and further into success and the suburbs.

So my question or rather, my series of questions: What was it about America that enabled people to pass through this Hell in a single generation? Was it that time in history? Was it America itself? Was it that particular group of immigrants? As you think about it, think about the current problems in Europe, such as the French riots or the German honor killings, which seem to occur in housing complexes where immigrants have lived in isolation for generations. Also, think about the fact that, despite the Great Society, many African-Americans have remained mired in poverty and have also spent generations living in depressing, violent squalor (New Orleans is a good example). Last, if you have information on the subjects, you might bring to the table thoughts about today's immigrants (Hispanic, East Asian, etc.).

I have my own ideas about the answers to my questions, but I'm much more interested in hearing what others have to say...

The ball's in your court...

Quick takes, Canadian elections

Just for fun, in the order encountered, here are the headlines and opening salvos from several news sources, as of about noon Pacific time today.

ABC News/AP: Conservatives Win in Canadian Election. Subhead: Conservatives Win Canadian Election and Vow to Move Quickly on Tax Cuts, Better Ties With U.S.

OTTAWA Jan 24, 2006 — Conservative Stephen Harper pledged to quickly carry out his campaign promises to cut taxes, get tough on crime and repair strained ties with Washington after his party won national elections and ended 13 years of Liberal Party rule in Canada.

That may be easier said than done.

The Conservatives' winning margin was too narrow to rule with a majority, a situation that will make it hard for them to get legislation through the divided House of Commons.

Monday's vote showed that Canadians are weary of the Liberal Party's broken promises and corruption scandals. They were willing to give Harper a chance to govern despite concerns that some of his social views are extreme.

"Tonight friends, our great country has voted for change, and Canadians have asked our party to take the lead in delivering that change," Harper told 2,000 cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters in Calgary....

International Herald Tribune: Conservative Party ousts Liberals in Canada

TORONTO Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party defeated the long-entrenched Liberal Party in Canadian elections, according to results announced Monday. A Conservative victory is a striking turn in the country's politics and is likely to improve Canada's strained relations with the Bush administration.

Prime Minister Paul Martin had hoped to build on a string of four consecutive Liberal national election victories in the past 13 years, but his campaign was damaged by two years of investigations into party scandals that spurred a backlash and a desire for change.

Martin tried to cut into Harper's lead in the final days with a campaign of rancorous advertising as opinion polls indicated that many urban voters were wary of allowing the country to veer into uncharted ideological waters.

But in the end, Harper seemed to reassure the public that he had evolved into a centrist and that his government would emphasize cutting taxes and cleaning up corruption rather than social issues like abortion and gay rights.

In a concession speech, Martin announced that he would leave the party leadership before the next national election. "I telephoned Stephen Harper and congratulated him on being chosen by the people of Canada," he said. "We differ on many things, but we all share the belief of the potential and the promise of Canada and the desire of our country to succeed."...

Bloomberg: Harper Leads Canada's Conservative Party to Election Victory

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Stephen Harper led Canada's Conservatives to their first national election win in 18 years, seizing on voter anger with the ruling Liberal Party. Paul Martin stepped down as Liberal leader after conceding defeat.

The Conservative Party won 125 seats in the House of Commons, compared with 103 seats for the Liberals, according to preliminary results from Elections Canada today.

Harper fell short of the 155 seats needed for a majority government, forcing him to seek support from opposition parties to deliver on plans to cut taxes, slow government spending and scrap a national day-care program.

``The way the seats are lining up this is the nightmare scenario'' for Harper, said Peter McCormick, a political science professor at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. ``I don't know how much they can get done.''

The Canadian dollar, trading close to a 14-year high, may decline on concern the new government may need to boost spending to win opposition support, threatening to narrow the country's budget surplus.

The dollar weakened to 86.78 U.S. cents at 12:57 a.m. trading, from 86.99 cents yesterday. The dollar and Canadian stocks rose yesterday on optimism Harper may win a majority government.

``The honeymoon is over before he really starts,'' said Stephen Clarkson, a professor at the University of Toronto. ``He won't have a great glow of triumph, because people were expecting him to get at least 140 seats.''...

Reuters: Canada's new right-wing leader faces uphill fight

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The winner of Canada's election began tackling the challenge on Tuesday of pushing his Conservative Party agenda of tax cuts and more defence spending through a Parliament he does not control.

Stephen Harper, a 46-year-old economist who will be the country's first right-wing prime minister in 12 years, won 124 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons in Monday's election, relegating the scandal-plagued Liberals to opposition benches.

Harper, who also wants to calm fractious ties with Washington, has nowhere near the 155 seats needed to form a majority in Parliament, where his party has no natural allies.

He will grapple with the same problems as the man he ousted, 67-year-old Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, who also led a minority government and was forced from office with 133 seats after 17 months on the job.

The vote was as much a protest against a tired Liberal government as it was a vote for Harper, whose opponents accuse him of wanting to impose a far-right social agenda on Canada.

"Canadians did not endorse neoconservatism when they elected him," the Globe and Mail said. "They voted against a Liberal Party that had become smug and arrogant."

Harper, the first prime minister from the oil-rich western province of Alberta in 25 years, returned to Ottawa on Tuesday. He will meet Martin soon to decide when power should formally change hands -- a date Conservative officials said was likely to be in two or three weeks' time.

Minority governments in Canada rarely last more than 18 months and the gossamer-thin nature of Harper's administration means there is little chance he will bow to demands from some in his party to clamp down on sensitive social issues such as gay marriage and abortion...