nonfiction – BookBunnies

Caramel reviews Tetris: The Games People Play by Brian “Box” Brown

Today Caramel reviews Tetris: The Games People Play by Brian “Box” Brown, first published in 2016. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: Today we are talking about a graphic novel about my favorite computer game, the one and only, the classic: Tetris!

Caramel: Yay! This is, as you said, a comic book about Tetris and how it rose to popularity.

S: So it is not quite fiction then, right?

C: No, it’s more so a fictionalization of a real event, like the movie Oppenheimer.

S: That makes sense. I am very excited that you read this book because I really like Tetris. But I also am curious about the whole phenomenon it became. It was everywhere and people were almost addicted to it for a while.

C: Yeah, this comic book explains all of that. It is interesting to me because, you know, there are a lot of games today. It seems like when Tetris came out, it was a huge deal partially because there weren’t as many big games.

S: Now that’s not quite true, there were other video games, but I think it is probably true that Tetris is a class of its own. It was so popular and it just took over.

C: And it is such a simple idea. Blocks falling down and you are trying to place them in empty spaces just the right way so the pile won’t get too big.

S: Isn’t it interesting that my favorite computer game and yours both have blocks?

C: True, but my favorite game may have slightly better resolution.

S: Well, Tetris did not really need much resolution really. But you are right of course, Minecraft is so much more visually detailed, and of course you can build so many different things with blocks in Minecraft. It is a lot more sophisticated. But you know, that was part of the appeal of Tetris. It is so basic, so simple, but it is also very challenging.

C: True. It can get really hard. Especially when it gets faster and faster.

S: Yup. So tell me a bit more about the book.

C: The book starts with a strange scene about humans and play and art and entertainment. And about why people play. There are many pages about early games people played, and art about games and how games might be related to art too. Then there are a few pages about the founding of the Japanese company Nintendo. And we get into computer games eventually. But we do meet the coder who built Tetris very early on. It was a Russian programmer named Alexey Pajitnov. He thought about how when he was a little kid, he used to play with pentominoes, which are shapes made of five squares, and how it was difficult to place them in a box when he was done playing with them. Then eventually we get back to him, and we follow him through his life, as he develops and shares Tetris with the rest of the world. He moves to the United States and the game gets even more popular.

S: That sounds interesting! Quite a crash course in the history of games!

Caramel is reading Tetris: The Games People Play by Brian "Box" Brown. — Caramel is reading *Tetris: The Games People Play* by Brian “Box” Brown.

S: Did you learn anything new from the book then?

C: Well, basically everything! I knew about the game, I have seen you play it even, but I didn’t know much else about it. I also did not know that other people liked the game as much as you do. It apparently became a really big deal. People started seeing Tetris tiles everywhere even when they were not playing and so on.

S: But I bet you can sympathize. Have you ever looked around you after playing Minecraft for a while and seeing cubic blocky things?

C: No! Because I am a normal bunny.

S: Well, hmm, that is interesting. Maybe the blocks in Minecraft are too different, there are too many different distinct shapes to make your brain go wacky like that.

C: Or … maybe I have never played Minecraft for too long. Maybe I should play more to see if I get to see things as Minecraft blocks?

S: Hmm, I don’t like that idea.

C: Oh, too bad. Because I really did like it.

S: Sure you did. Okay, let’s get back to the book. What did you think of the color scheme of the book?

C: It’s all black and white and yellow, yet the art is still detailed. It is really interesting. The game itself has a lot of color, though they are the main primary colors, but the author chose only these colors. I wonder why.

S: Yeah, that is an interesting observation, Caramel. The yellow adds color but also is not distracting. Maybe the Tetris colors would be a bit too distracting.

C: Maybe. The story was interesting though I was not expecting to learn about the games ancient Egyptians played when I began reading. I thought it would be only about Tetris.

S: But the book also has a subtitle.

C: True. The subtitle is “The Games People Play”. So I guess it makes sense that there could be more general stuff about games.

S: That part reminds me a bit of another book I read recently called Around the World in Eighty Games. I even reviewed it for a math journal.

C: That book looks interesting too. I bet it has a lot of games I don’t know about.

S: Well, you can borrow it whenever you like. I still have a copy.

C: Maybe I will.

S: Okay, Caramel, this seems to me like a good place to wrap up this review. It is after all a school night, again.

C: Yep.

S: What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading Tetris: The Games People Play by Brian "Box" Brown and continues to wonder if it can provide him with any justification for more Minecraft time. — Caramel enjoyed reading *Tetris: The Games People Play* by Brian “Box” Brown and continues to wonder if it can provide him with any justification for more Minecraft time.

Caramel reviews Wampum Belts of the Iroquois by Tehanetorens

Today Caramel reviews Wampum Belts of the Iroquois, a book first published in 1999 by Tehanetorens. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: Today you are reviewing a nonfiction book. It has been a while since you last reviewed a nonfiction book, no?

Caramel: Not really. I reviewed America As It Happened: A Moment-by-Moment Journey Through Time, From Prehistory to the Present Day only a couple weeks ago, and that was nonfiction.

S: True. Okay, so this book is also nonfiction. Tell me a bit about what it is about.

C: It’s about the wampum belts, which denote or commemorate laws, treaties and commitments. The Iroquois people make them and wear them, and the book talks about a lot of different examples of these belts.

S: That sounds really interesting. Tell me more.

C: The book is about a school project. The person who wrote the book is the teacher, and his students at the Onkwehonwe Neha School worked with beads and other traditional materials to make replicas of important wampum belts. The book has a lot of different types of these belts. And the student who made each belt poses with the belt so you can see them too. They are really cool. I only wish the pictures were in color.

S: But even though they are in black and white, the pictures already show how many different types of wampum belts there are, right?

C: Yes. And for each belt, besides the photo of the child who made the belt, there is a lot of information about the belt. For example there is a belt called the Hiawatha or the ayonwatha belt, which shows the union between five nations (the five tribes making up the Iroquois), and looks like a wide dark belt with two white squares on either side of either a heart or a tree, which represents one of each nation, and they are connected by a line that symbolizes their union. It is neat how it symbolizes the five nations coming together.

S: I know that in a lot of traditional societies where rugs and carpets are woven, the people who weave them put in a lot of information into their work. These belts remind me of that kind of a tradition, a way to memorialize important events in objects that can also be used.

C: Yes, they are practical and useful but also beautiful. I really liked them.

Caramel is reading Wampum Belts of the Iroquois by Tehanetorens. — Caramel is reading *Wampum Belts of the Iroquois* by Tehanetorens.

S: Also these specific belts were able to connect the students who made them with their traditions and histories. It must have been a very engaging school project.

C: Yes, it is kind of like the ofrenda I made at school for my maternal grandfather. It was a way for me to learn more about him, because you know, I never met him, and when I was making it, you told me a lot more stories about him.

S: Yes, kind of like that. Of course that was more about your personal history, rather than the history of a whole people, but still you are right that it hopefully allowed you to connect a bit more deeply with someone from your past.

C: Yes.

S: So Caramel, what made you want to review this book?

C: You know I love fact-full books and this one is definitely full of facts. And it has lots of interesting pictures. And the kids holding their belts look so serious and proud, it is really neat to look at them. So I wanted to tell other young bunnies about it because the book is really neat.

S: That is fair.

C: There are also a lot of hand-drawn pictures in there, and those are cool too. Almost every page has some picture and so the book is really easy to read.

S: Yes, the pictures make it so engaging, you are right.

C: Of course.

S: Okay, Caramel, so maybe this is a good time to wrap up the review.

C: Again it is a school night, so I agree.

S: So let us do just that. What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading Wampum Belts of the Iroquois by Tehanetorens and learning about this interesting tradition of the Iroquois. — Caramel enjoyed reading *Wampum Belts of the Iroquois* by Tehanetorens and learning about this interesting tradition of the Iroquois.

Caramel reviews America As It Happened: A Moment-by-Moment Journey Through Time, From Prehistory to the Present Day

Today Caramel is reviewing America As It Happened: A Moment-by-Moment Journey Through Time, From Prehistory to the Present Day, a neat book published in 2026. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So today we are talking about another book of facts.

Caramel: Yup. This is a book full of facts!

S: So tell me a bit about it.

C: Well, it is big and yellow and heavy. And smells kind of like newspaper but a bit fancier.

S: Those are all correct descriptors for the book. Even the smell. I agree with you. It does smell like newspaper but as it is on somewhat thicker and higher quality paper, it does also feel a bit fancier.

C: Of course that is intentional. Because the whole book is meant to look like newspaper pages. The idea is that each page shows you the front pages of a newspaper from a specific time in American history.

S: Well, they are kind of fictional, right? I mean, in the sense that probably no newspaper actually printed these things. But the content is supposed to be factual.

C: Yes, true. I don’t think anyone was printing newspapers back in 15,000 BCE. But there is a news piece titled “Land Bridge From Asia Under Threat” for that date. And there was not even an America back then. I mean it was definitely not called America.

S: You are right Caramel. But I like the idea, definitely. The title is “America As It Happened” and newspapers report on events as they are happening, so it makes sense.

C: Yep.

S: So tell me a bit more. You mentioned the land bridge and that was way back in time. Is that the earliest thing that the book mentions?

C: No. The very first thing is “Stalking Giant Sloths” and it is dated 21,000 BCE. It is saying that a community of hunter-gatherers stalked and hunted giant sloths. And then there are a few other articles all before 1600 but with lots of time between each. Of course we did not keep written records of what happened back then, so they only have a few things to tell. But then from 1600 on, things get busier. Each century gets its own section. And each section is about twenty to forty pages or so.

S: So then there is the prehistory and then 1600-1700, 1700-1800, 1800-1900, 1900-2000?

C: Yes. And the last section is what has happened since 2000. Of course that is the most important one because I was born in that century.

S: A lot of other young bunnies would agree, I am sure.

Caramel is reading America As It Happened: A Moment-by-Moment Journey Through Time, From Prehistory to the Present Day. — Caramel is reading *America As It Happened: A Moment-by-Moment Journey Through Time, From Prehistory to the Present Day*.

S: The book was published in 2026. So it gets us to today?

C: Kind of. The last item is “The Land of Liberty Turns 250”, so that is July 4, 2026. So it goes even beyond today!

S: Cool! I saw that there were entries for quite a lot of the important historical events that I can remember, and a lot of earlier events I knew about. But there were quite a lot of things I did not know. Did you learn anything new from this book?

C: Of course. I am a very young bunny. And even though I know a lot of history, there has been a lot of history before me. And a lot of things I know about but maybe not enough. For example I know about the Ford Model T, but the article on it was a lot more detailed than what I knew. For example, I didn’t know that the first factory was able to build only 11 cars a month. So learning that was cool.

S: Great! I found it fun to flip through the pages of the book myself. What else can we tell our readers about the book?

C: Hmm, let me think. Maybe we can tell them that the bottom of each page has a continuing timeline, with smaller items for more specific things that happen that are important but did not get the flashy headlines. And at the end of the book there is a glossary. That is kind of like a dictionary, where some of the important big words get definitions so you don’t have to find a dictionary yourself.

S: Yeah I saw that. And the definitions provided are kind of simplified. I think the book is intended for younger bunnies, so they define words in somewhat simpler terms.

C: I saw that they defined anarchist as “a believer in anarchism. This is the idea that society should be organized without leaders and that people should work together because they want to, not because they are forced to”. That must be simplistic then, because that sounds kind of like when young bunny friends get together and play. And people seem to think anarchists are bad, but the way they define it does not sound too bad.

S: Yeah, it can work for a group of four or five young bunnies, not to have any leaders or organizing systems, but when you have a lot more bunnies involved and a lot more things to coordinate, things can get really unwieldy without at least a somewhat rigid structure. And throughout history, some folks who called themselves anarchists resorted to violence, so there is that, too. Wikipedia has a decent article on the topic. So yes the glossary is intended for younger bunnies so it does simplify a lot of things. Technically they are accurate but because they have to be so simple, they do miss out on some details and nuance.

C: Still, they can be helpful when reading. I guess if one is curious or confused they could look things up on Wikipedia.

S: I agree. Overall the glossary is helpful, I’d say.

C: Me too.

S: So Caramel, maybe this is a good time to wrap this review up.

C: Sure. Wednesdays are always school nights.

S: Yep. So what would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading America As It Happened: A Moment-by-Moment Journey Through Time, From Prehistory to the Present Day and believes he will continue to enjoy looking through its pages every now and then. — Caramel enjoyed reading *America As It Happened: A Moment-by-Moment Journey Through Time, From Prehistory to the Present Day* and believes he will continue to enjoy looking through its pages every now and then.

Caramel reviews Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales #12: Above the Trenches by Nathan Hale

Caramel has read and reviewed several books in Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales, the historical graphic novel series by Nathan Hale. Today he is talking to Sprinkles about the twelfth book in the series, Above the Trenches, published first in 2023.

Sprinkles: Here we are, with another Nathan Hale book. This time we are back to World War I, I am assuming.

Caramel: Yes. The other Nathan Hale book about WWI was Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood. And I reviewed it a while back.

S: So tell us a bit more then. The war lasted for four years. A lot happened. What is this particular book about?

C: The fights in the skies, the flying aces of WWI.

S: So I am guessing then that the title is Above the Trenches because the book is about a different part of the war, different from the trench warfare that is associated so closely with WWI.

C: Yup.

S: And for anyone like me who did not know this before, according to Wikipedia, “a flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down a certain minimum number of enemy aircraft during aerial combat; the exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace varies, but is usually considered to be five or more.” As far as I recall, WWI was the first war where airplanes were used, right?

C: Yes.

S: So then I suppose it makes sense that the whole book would be about that.

C: Yeah, it’s mostly about the Lafayette Escadrille, a French squadron of American pilots, and the German aces, and a man named Strange.

S: Hmm, the Wikipedia article talks about the first Ace, a Frenchman named Adolphe Pégoud. And some famous German ones listed are Max Immelmann, Oswald Boelcke, and Manfred von Richthofen. So do you remember these names? Do they all appear in the book?

C: Yes, almost all of them do, but I don’t remember if Max Immelmann was. But I do remember that Pégoud was killed by a German pilot he had trained. It is sad.

S: Yes, it is, isn’t it? Then again almost everything about war is sad.

C: True.

Caramel is reading Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales #12: Above the Trenches by Nathan Hale. — Caramel is reading *Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales #12: Above the Trenches* by Nathan Hale.

S: But in this book you read about some amazing feats that these pilots were able to accomplish. And they did all that, using aircraft which would be pretty primitive for our times, right?

C: Yes. The most famous one today is probably the German von Richthofen. Even if you don’t know much about warfare in the air, you probably remember Snoopy, Charlie Brown’s dog, sitting on top of his doghouse and flying an airplane?

S: Yes.. ?

C: Yes, and he was always flying against the Red Baron, remember? The Red Baron is von Richhofen.

S: Oh, that makes a lot of sense now!

C: By the way, the Red Baron is not even mentioned as a great ace, at first. The book first introduces him as a not-too-great pilot, then shows his later victories.

S: What do you mean? So he improves through the years?

C: No, it’s more like he was good, but when he finally got into the flow of his plane, he became really good.

S: I guess that makes sense. He needed to learn and get used to the plane he was using. And why is he known as the Red Baron?

C: One of his planes was actually bright red, and that’s why.

S: Cool, that is very interesting! Okay, so did you learn a lot from this book? I know you know a lot about warcraft and tanks and fighter planes. Was there anything new for you in this book?

C: Of course! I didn’t know all the names of the aces, and the existence of the Lafayette Escadrille was new to me. They were the very first American pilots to fight in WWI and they fought for the French. They were called the Lafayette Escadrille after the great Marquis de Lafayette, who was the main topic of Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales #8: Lafayette!

S: That is neat. I did not know any of that, either. So this might be your last Nathan Hale book for a while. I am not sure if there is a thirteenth book.

C: Nooooooo! But you know, I waited and waited for all this time for a sixteenth Wings of Fire book, and it is coming out next week! So maybe if I wait and wait for it, there will be a thirteenth Nathan Hale book, too!

S: Yes, let us hope! In the meantime there are other books you can read.

C:Yes, like the sixteenth Wings of Fire book!

S: Alright, let us not get this excited so late in the evening. It is soon going to be bedtime.

C: Hmm, that is correct.

S: So let us wrap this review up. What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews! Oh, and Nathan Hale, please please please write more Hazardous Tales!

Caramel enjoyed reading Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales #12: Above the Trenches by Nathan Hale and is wondering when he will get to read a new Nathan Hale book (hoping that it will be soon). — Caramel enjoyed reading *Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales #12: Above the Trenches* by Nathan Hale and is wondering when he will get to read a new Nathan Hale book (hoping that it will be soon).