My Special One and Only by Joe Berger
The energetic Bridget Fidget is back, and this time she is waiting patiently for the tooth fairy to arrive! As Bridget places her tooth under her pillow, she asks her favourite toy, Captain Cat, to keep watch for the tooth fairy. Captain Cat is Bridget's special one and only, and the pair are inseparable.
To Bridget's surprise she finds a shiny golden coin under her pillow that the tooth fairy has left her, and she immediately asks her mother to go shopping at the best store in the whole world "Dinglebang's Universe of Toys". Bridget places Captain Cat in her backpack before she heads out on her shopping trip, but when she starts zipping around the store at top speed, her beloved special one and only falls out and lands in another girl's basket. Bridget's shopping trip turns into a high rescue mission as she searches for Captain Cat.
Many readers have already fallen in love with Bridget Fidget's exuberant personality after reading Berger's 2009 title, "Bridget Fidget and the Most Perfect Pet". Children will enjoy Berger's colourful illustrations of Bridget and her nautically dressed cat, and are sure to relate to the story if they have their very own special one and only.
-- Kaitlyn Vardy is the Children's Librarian at the Prince George Public Library.
The Great Sea by David Abulafia
This is a history of civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea over the past several thousand years. In my experience, books with such a vast scope tend to be somewhat superficial and disjointed in their coverage. The Great Sea is an exception.
David Abulafia does a good job in weaving the tapestry of Mediterranean history, combining the archaeological and written histories of this region from man's first arrival on its shores to the present day. Whether you are interested in the Phoenicians, Etruscans, Ancient Greeks, Byzantines, Arabs, or any of the numerous other cultures that rose and fell around the Mediterranean, you will find them in this book. The book could almost be used as a general reference guide, a Mediterranean version of Wikipedia.
Going through the book, it is obvious that nothing is permanent. Our civilizations, while long compared to human life spans, repeatedly rose, spent their time in the sun, and inevitably declined. Besides the collapse of individual civilizations, "dark ages" have happened repeatedly over history. The Bronze Age civilizations (the first Mediterranean) of the Hittites, Egyptians, Minoans, and Mycenaeans collapsed roughly three thousand years ago. Much of the Greco-Roman civilization collapsed fifteen hundred years ago. Nothing is permanent.
In summary, David Abulafia's book, The Great Sea, does a credible job at covering an immense period of time. The book can be found in the Prince George Public Library.
-- John Shepherd is a former library board trustee.
