I picked up Moonbird (Farrar, Straus, Giroux 2012) by Phillip Hoose for two reasons.  First, I loved his earlier book, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice.  Second, my Nerdy Book club friends  were raving about it.  Then it sat around, sinking lower and lower in my TBR pile.  Did I really want to read about a bird?

It turns out I did want to read about the amazing bird B95 once I cracked open the book and began the first page.  This tiny rufa red knot is called the Moonbird because over the course of 20 years or so he has flown enough miles to reach the moon and halfway back again.  B95 was first caught and banded in Argentina in 1995, when he was fully an adult at least three years old.  Over the years, he has been recaught or spotted in Delaware Bay on the US eastern seashore, Mingan Archipelago in Quebec, Canada, and back in Tierra Del Fuego off the southern tip of Argentina.   This bird flies a round trip of approximately 18,000 miles every year while thousands of his species have died off.

Hoose follows the path that B95 most likely takes every year along one of the greatest migrations of the animal world.  This gripping narrative provides the context for a vast amount of information about rufa red knots who fly the world, the ecosystems that support them, and scientists who study them.  My brain is now packed with information about these amazing birds.  I have learned about everything from how to fire a cannon net to capture birds for banding to how rufa red knots change their body to meet the changing conditions met along their migration.  I especially enjoyed reading the profiles and scientists and students who are working to learn about and save these birds before it is too late.

Strictly speaking, this book would be informational text rather than argumentative writing, but after turning the last page, I am ready to learn and do more.  Indiana is a long way from the migratory routes of shorebirds, but I do live between a state and a national wildlife refuge that is along the migratory route of other bird species such as sandhill cranes.  I’ve even helped band Canada geese in the past.  Hoose reminds me that if we don’t work together to preserve the places that sustain migrating birds and other threatened wildlife, we may loose out on some of the best that our world has to offer.  Even better, Hoose offers an appendix of resources for getting involved.  I’m sold.

PS – B95 was spotted in Delaware Bay on May 16, 2013!  He’s still flying!

I had seen the title of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.  I had heard it was a good book, one I shouldn’t miss, but I had no idea what it was about when I downloaded the audio version from my public library.  If I had known it was a nonfiction science book about the first immortal cells grown in culture, I probably would have skipped right over it.  I am so glad I was clueless enough not to miss this book.  I was fascinated with this story of scientific progress and a devestated family.

There is not a person alive today who has not benefitted from the cells grown from a cancerous tumor taken from the cervix of Henrietta Lacks.  From studying these cells, scientists have developed the vaccine for polio, drugs for cancer treatments, and many more advances.  These cells, known as HeLa, have grown and divided until there are enough to stretch to the moon and back many times over.  They’ve even flown in space.

On the other hand, a family was left behind to deal with Henrietta’s death and the repercussions of science they did not understand.  Doctors did not inform (or ask for consent from) Henrietta or her family of the research done with her cancerous tissue until years later.  Doctors published medical records of Henrietta and her descendants without consent.  While pharmaceutical companies profited from selling HeLa cells to labs around the world, the Lacks family could not afford medical care or insurance.

Rebecca Skloot weaves together the story of Henrietta, her family, and her cells in a gripping narrative that raises questions we still have not answered.  Who owns or controls a person’s tissues once they have been removed from the body?  Who should profit from tissues or body parts that do become worth money (certainly not all do)?  Should patients be informed of research done with their tissues?

Anyone who works in or benefits from healthcare or medical research (I think that would be all of us) should read this book.  Not only is it a fascinating story, it also reminds us that there are real people behind the research.

PS – My daughter, who is taking Principles of Biomedical  Science, had an opportunity to study HeLa cells in class.

I’m off to a good start with my Bookgap challenge.  The first book I read in 2012 is not only nonfiction, it’s a great read!  I’m not the only one who thinks so.  Charles and Emma: The Darwin’s Leap of Faith (Scholastic 2009) by Deborah Heiligman won quite a few awards according to the medal stickers on the front:  National Book Award Finalist, Printz Honor Book, and YALSA-ALA Winner for Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction.

I knew Charles Darwin wrote Origin of Species, in which he presented the theory of evolution.  I knew that scientists and theologians have been arguing over it ever since.  I did not know most of what I read in this lively book.  First and foremost, it is the love story between Charles and his wife, Emma Wedgewood.  These first cousins (that was normal way back in the 1830′s) loved each other deeply and to have ten children.  Together, they faced the death of three of their children, reveled in the antics of their other children, and face the storm of controversy created by Charles’s writings.

While Charles began to question and doubt the existence of God as he developed his theory of evolution and mutation of species, Emma remained deeply faithful and devout.  In spite of their differences, Charles always sought Emma’s opinion on his writing.   He knew his ideas would create controversy and feared it.  In spite of her worries for Charles’s fate after death, she supported him in his scientific endeavors.   She was his first reader and editor.  Through the years of their marriage, they never let their difference of opinion, and it was a great difference, come between their love and respect for each other.  I think we have much to learn from them today as we discuss differences of opinions on many issues.

One of the things I enjoyed most about reading this book is the plethora of quotes from the writings of Charles and Emma and their family.  I did not realize the Charles wrote Origin of Species not just for the scientific community, but for a general audience as well.  Thanks to Emma’s guidance, it is quite readable.  I was inspired to download Origin on my Kindle. I’ll let you know how it goes.