Color Capital Of The World by John Kropf

 

Color Capital Of The World

by

John Kropf

Part memoir and part family history this delightful story of the crayon combines local Sandusky history with Ohio history and broadens to include United States History along with  world history.  Written by John Kropf who is a descendant of the founders of the American Crayon Company. His legacy crayon company competed with other crayon companies in the first half of the 20th century.  It absorbed most of the competition but Crayola out survived them. This short book was right up my alley and if you don't read it you are missing out.  The author is close to my age so grew up in the same era as I.  While I did not grow up in Sandusky I did grow up in the midwest.  Therefore the book had some nostalgia for me. The author recommends the following link for more information on crayon history.  Click HERE.   Also click on the authors name and book title above to follow the links to more information.  And enjoy the video that follows.  

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

 

Barkskins 

by

Annie Proulx

This evening I finished Annie Proulx's novel Barkskins.  I had checked it out from the digital library onto my kindle app.  The story begins in the late 1600s when two French indentured servants arrive in New France and follows their descendants until 2013. They are lumberjacks and it is also the story of the forests of North America and other parts of the world such as the tropical rain forests in South America and the ancient trees of New Zealand.  It graphically describes the destruction of the forests and ends with the impacts of deforestation seen today.  The book is divided into units and each unit switches back and forth between the two families.  I found the characters a little hard to remember as it switched back and forth.  There were two family trees in the back of the book.  One for the downline of each indentured servant.  These diagrams helped me keep the people in the book straight.  This is a historical fiction book that touches on environmental issues.  It would be a great choice in the classroom or in a book group.  It also depicts the mistreatment of the eastern Canadian Native Americans.  It is long but worth sticking with it. The National Geographic channel made a tv series out of the book but has only released one season.   Please click on the book title and author's name above for more information and enjoy the video that follows.