I'm Hungry. Feed Me.--a review of THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA (Young Readers Edition) by Michael Pollan

I watched Super Size Me! back when it came out in 2004. Then, in 2006, I watched Fast Food Nation. I’ve also read an awful lot of whole-food cookbooks, so I guess you could say I’m a middle-of-the-road sort of health foodie. When it comes to eating well, it’s pretty fair to say I don’t practice what is preached. When I ordered The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan for our high school library, I didn’t realize that I had ordered the Young Readers Edition, but I’m sure glad I did. I’ve never read the official adult version of the book, but I don’t think I would have made it all the way through. The Young Readers Edition is meaty enough, and satisfying. As in the original version, Pollan walks us through the contents of four different types of meals—an industrial meal, an industrial organic meal, a local sustainable meal, and a hunted-gathered meal—filling us in on what goes on to get these various kinds of foods to our table. Helpful tables, charts and graphs accompany this edition, and help make the text more understandable to any reader.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: the Secrets Behind What You Eat (Young Readers Edition) by Michael Pollan

What I most appreciate about Pollan, besides his incredible investigative journalistic prowess, is that he never dictates what choice of conscience an eater should make. Rather, he argues that we should be informed eaters with a consciousness of what we are putting into our bodies—whether plant or animal—and how it comes to us in the first place. In a way, it kind of reminded me of the scene in Life of Pi, where young Pi, a vegetarian, is forced to eat an animal to survive, so he offers up thanks every day of his life for the animal whose death gave him life. I’m still not sure what the actual “dilemma” is, but I enjoyed the parts of the book that I did read. Some reviews suggest this book for Age 10 and up. I don’t want to sell any 10-year-olds short, but I think it might be more suitable for readers age 14 and up. It’s a pretty dense text, although younger readers might benefit from parts.

Selected Reviews

“Just as powerful as the adult edition but perfectly tuned to a young audience, this title is essential food for thought.”—Gillian Engberg, Booklist, October 2009

“This youth-friendly version of Pollan’s bestseller, with updated facts, assorted visuals and a new introduction and afterword, is as enlightening as it is accessible.”—Publisher’s Weekly, September 2009

“[Pollan] explains complicated issues clearly, offers compelling evidence of the environmental damage done by what he calls the industrial meal, and urges readers not to look away from animal-welfare issues: ‘We can only decide if we know the truth.’”—Lauralyn Persson, School Library Journal, October 2009

“Adapted by Richie Chevat for the young reader, this edition of the original bestseller is accessible and thought provoking, with black-and-white visuals that reinforce his points. Pollan’s entertaining narration will motivate socially conscious youth to vote with their forks, as he urges. Young readers—and older ones, too—will find their thinking about food forever changed.”—Marla K. Unruh, VOYA, February 2010

Ideas for Teaching

I like food, and most high school students I’ve ever met enjoy eating, too, so there are many great ways to go with this book. Pollan gives 20 pages of sources, so there’s no lack of follow-up material if you wanted to investigate this topic further with students.

It might make an interesting fiction/nonfiction pairing with The Life of Pi (Martel, Y. 2001. Knopf) for the very reason I mentioned above. It would be interesting to investigate how different cultures feel about food. I might also use it for Global Studies or Health paired with Menzel and D’Aluisio’s Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.

It would also go well with Fast Food Nation or Super Size Me, if you wanted to work in a little video or two.

It’s the perfect starting point for a project with students. Students could use the journalistic techniques that Pollan did to examine their own meals.

It might work well with a charity project Heifer International highlighting sustainable farming or with Oxfam’s Hunger Banquet to raise global awareness about hunger.

Vital Stats

Pollan, Michael (2009). The Omnivore’s Dilemma: the Secrets Behind What You Eat. Young Readers Ed. New York: Dial Books. ISBN 9780803734159.

Wade in a Little Deeper--a review of HEALING WATER by Joyce Moyer Hostetter

They tore children away from their families in hopes that they would find a new one when they landed on Moloka’i.  In the late 1800s, leprosy, a communicable disease imported from China, swept through the Hawaiian Islands.  In an attempt to contain the disease, those who suffered from what is now called Hansen’s Disease, were forced to relocate to a leper colony on the barely habitable Kalaupapa peninsula where anarchy and lawlessness reigned.  Children were conscripted to work for older residents who rose to power through thievery and bribery.  Still, there were many who starved.  Find out what happens to Pia, when he is exiled in

Healing Water: a Hawaiian Story by Joyce Moyer Hostetter

Pia adored his mother, sister, and his role model, Kamaka, who was like a brother to him. Then, one day, all of this is ripped away when Pia contracts leprosy. Kamaka abandons Pia before he is shipped to Moloka’i. In order to survive, Pia must harden his heart, using his anger and bitterness against Kamaka to survive. He is taken in as a house boy by the unscrupulous Boki, but enjoys an amount of security others on the island do not have. While he has a soft spot for Keona and Maka Nui, who remind him of his grandmother and sister, he seems destined for a life of ruthlessness until one day, Kamaka and his new wife, also become residents of Kalaupapa. The rift between Pia and Kamaka seems insurmountable until the arrival of Father Damien helps to heal old wounds that run far deeper than those which disfigure Pia's body.

The clear first-person voice of Pia in this book is believable. The opening chapter reads like the beginning of a good movie, as we first meet Pia being ripped away from the desperate last embrace of his mother and forced aboard a ship full of lepers. Hostetter adequately re-creates an old Honolulu, using vivid imagery: “Vendors sold oranges and pineapples, flower garlands and woven hats. Horse traders and businessmen called out for buyers.” She has researched the arrival of European and American missionaries, and Pia’s story is supported by a compelling, and sometimes heartbreaking, historical narrative. While it is clear that the book does not purport itself as an openly Christian narrative, I read the book as a story of redemption. Redemption for Pia, and for Kamaka, which is brought about through mercy, grace and forgiveness.

Selected Awards and Reviews

• IRA Children's Book Award
• Parents' Choice Silver Honor Award

“The struggle to forgive, and the hope that love brings are timeless themes that are presented in a powerful way”—Denise Moore, School Library Journal, July 2008

“Hostetter's meticulous research on the history of the leprosy settlement results in a believable account of what it must have been like to be a leper at the Kalawao settlement around the 1870s and 1880s.”—Hilary Crew, Voice of Youth Advocates, August 2008

Teaching Suggestions
The story of the Kalaupapa Leper Colony is not a well-known chapter in American history. It would make a welcome and diverse addition to any study of American Western Expansion. Hostetter’s Author’s Note and Resources are terrific starting points. The Molokai Visitors Center is a good starting point for learning the geography and general history of the island. More information of Father Damien can be found, along with a nice picture of his statue at the website of the National Statuary Hall collection.
Leprosy was a disease that used to isolate people and brand them as outcasts. In 1873, Dr. Gerhard Hansen identified the bacillus which caused the disease, and since 1941, leprosy has been successfully treated with drug therapy. It has been renamed Hansen’s Disease in honor of Dr. Hansen, although the term leper and leprosy still have negative and painful cultural connotations. This book would be a good tie-in for a beginning-level discussion of epidemiology and public policy. It is also an unusual look at the essential questions of how humanity creates outsiders. More information about Hansen’s Disease is available from the American Leprosy Mission (http://www.leprosy.org/) or from IDEA—the International Organization for Integration, Dignity, and Economic Advancement (http://www.idealeprosydignity.org/).

[Puritan] Girls Just Wanna Have Fun...a review of WICKED GIRLS by Stephanie Hemphill

Some people say it was Chaucer, but I tend to think it might have been a Puritan mother who said, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” Or something like that.  On Mother’s Day, it’s fitting to say that mothers like to keep their girls out of trouble.  Puritan girls were supposed to be industrious, virtuous and meek.   That’s why they embroidered all those samplers.  So, what happened to the girls who bore false witness in the Salem Witch Trials?  Perhaps the obvious fall from grace, the one rare glimpse into the depraved human condition that the story of the trials gives us, is what fascinates us with this bit of early American history.  Mercy Lewis, Margaret Walcott, and Ann Putnam, Jr., started a nearly 2 year persecution of their neighbors which ended only after 19 people were hanged, 1 man pressed to death, 3 women and several infants died in jail, and more than 144 people had legal action brought against them (402).

Wicked Girls: a Novel of the Salem Witch Trials by Stephanie Hemphill

I raved about Hemphill’s verse novel Your Own, Sylvia, in a previous post, so I was excited to read Wicked Girls.  Can I just save you the suspense and tell you straight up that I didn’t like this book.  Sorry, but it bored me.  The story lines were contrived.  The characters too stiff and unappealing.  They weren’t sympathetic.  Sure, there was abuse, jealousy, teenage passion—but none of it was enough to make me want to read this story.  Maybe it’s because I’ve read The Crucible too many times.  Or maybe I’d rather watch Gossip Girl.  I don’t know. 

Hemphill’s poetry is pretty in places.  The first poem, “Salem, January 1692,” is a good example: 

            Silent, not even the twitter/

            of insects.  The wind stills/

            against a distant sky of clouds./

            The cold is gray and fierce,/

            bitter as a widow at the grave.

But even that doesn’t save her this time.   The diction that has to carry the plot is stilted.  Perhaps it’s how Hemphill imagines Puritans talked, but it sounds fake.  “Where be the little ones?”  “I made biscuits this morn.”  I just couldn’t get through it.  It read like an amateur script.

Still, there might be a young adult who has a particular interest in Salem, Pilgrims, or Cotton Mather, who will find this book appealing.  Hemphill has done plenty of research, and the end notes are interesting.  In the Author’s Note, Hemphill explains exactly what she set about to do with her characterizations, “to explain the group dynamics within the larger community…and within the girl clique itself” (403).  I just hope the tragedy of innocent people being put to death isn’t trivialized in Hemphill’s attempt to make the girls’ possible motives more relatable to a modern audience.  For me, it was a nice try, but it wasn’t enough. 

Awards and Reviews (selected)

School Library Journal Best Books, 2010
Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2010 Finalist Young Adult Literature

“Once again, Hemphill’s raw, intimate poetry probes behind the abstract facts and creates characters that pulse with complex emotion. …An excellent supplementary choice for curricular studies of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, this will also find readers outside the classroom, who will savor the accessible, unsettling, piercing lines that connect past and present with timeless conflicts and truths.”—Gillian Engberg, Booklist, June 1, 2010

“This carefully researched and beautifully written poetic novel infuses new life and relevance into a dark episode in our history. Each character is limned in a distinctive voice and personality, and the girls’ thoughts and words reveal the pressures that drive them. Their harsh lives contrast with the still-unspoiled loveliness of the early New England setting. Told with a piercing intensity and exquisite sensory detail, this story will haunt the reader long after the book is laid aside.”—Marla K. Unruh, VOYA, October 2010

Vital Stats

Hemphill, Stephanie (2010). Wicked Girls: a Novel of the Salem Witch Trials.  New York: Balzer + Bray.  ISBN 9780061853296.