SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: BITE BY BITE
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.marcaronson.com/
CITY: Maplewood
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 383
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1950; son of Boris and Lisa Aronson (set designers); married Marina Budhos (an author), September 14, 1997; children: two sons.
EDUCATION:New York University, B.A., M.A. (American history), Ph.D. (American history).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, editor, educator, and historian. Editor of books for children and young adults; Harper & Row, New York, NY, and later, Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, New York, NY, became senior editor; Carus Publishing, Chicago, IL, editorial director and vice president of nonfiction development, 2000-04; Zooba.com, managing editor, 2001-02; Aronson & Glen (book packager), partner, 2006—; acquisition editor for Candlewick Press and other publishing houses. Instructor in publishing courses at New York University, Simmons College, Vermont College, Oakland University, Davidson Institute, and Radcliffe Publishing program; Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, lecturer, then assistant teaching professor, then associate professor of library and information science, 2010—. Keynote speaker at numerous conferences.
AWARDS:Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and New York Times Notable Book citations, both 1998, both for Art Attack; Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for nonfiction and Blue Ribbon Award, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, both 2000, and Robert F. Sibert Award for Distinguished Informational Book for Children, American Library Association (ALA), 2001, all for Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado; School Library Journal Best Books designation, 2003, for Witch Hunt; School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews Best Books designations, both 2005, both for The Real Revolution; IMP Award for Excellence in Editing for Young Readers; ALAN prize for service to young-adult literature; (with Marina Budhos) Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist and ALA/YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award finalist, both 2010, both for Sugar Changed the World.
WRITINGS
Contributor to The Holocaust in Literature for Youth, edited by Edward T. Sullivan, Scarecrow Press (Lanham, MD), 1999. Contributor to periodicals, including the New York Times Book Review, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Los Angeles Times Book Review. Author of monthly column “Consider the Source” for School Library Journal.
Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies was adapted for audiobook, Brilliance Audio, 2012; The Griffin and the Dinosaur was adapted for audiobook, read by Graham Rowat, Recorded Books, 2015.
SIDELIGHTS
A respected editor and author, as well as a teacher on the college level, Marc Aronson has been inspired in his writing career by his love of history and literature. Aronson’s nonfiction books for young adults—among them Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado, The Real Revolution: The Global Story of American Independence, Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science, and Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and the Invention of Modern Photojournalism —have been consistently praised for their engrossing prose and their author’s unique approach to source materials. In addition to history, Aronson has also written on the subject of educating teens; his essay collections Exploding the Myths: The Truth about Teenagers and Reading and Beyond the Pale: New Essays for a New Era were praised by School Library Journal contributor Ellen A. Greever as “required reading for anyone who cares about young adults and their literature.”
While Aronson’s first histories for young adults focused on the modern era, he turned to the past in Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado, which earned him the inaugural Robert F. Sibert Award for the “most distinguished informational book for children.” Ralegh (as the man himself rendered his name) was representative of his age in that his talents, ambition, and willingness to take risks all pointed toward the exploration and conquest of the New World. His intelligence and drive took him from rural obscurity to a place as an honored member of Queen Elizabeth I’s court to fame and fortune through his journeys to South America, and the particulars of his life make for an exciting tale. “Aronson not only details Ralegh’s career as soldier, sailor, explorer, writer, and schemer but consistently discusses causes, effects, and the broader significance of events large and small,” commented a Kirkus Reviews contributor. While Ilene Cooper noted in Booklist that, at just over 200 pages, there is not space enough in Aronson’s biography to discuss every topic presented by Ralegh’s multifaceted life, his “book is beautifully researched, and it is written with wit and passion.” A reviewer in the Los Angeles Times praised Aronson’s portrait as “both provocative and tantalizing, revealing his subject as a person of canny wit and magnetism with all-too-human shortcomings,” while Cooper dubbed Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado a work of “sweeping, multilayered nonfiction.”
Also focusing on the development of the New World, Aronson’s John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise “charts a parallel history between seventeenth-century Great Britain and colonial New England, as represented by emblematic figures Oliver Cromwell and John Winthrop,” according to Horn Book contributor Peter D. Sieruta. Both Cromwell and Winthrop were influential Puritan leaders: Cromwell deposed King Charles I of England, and Winthrop served as the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In the work “Aronson shows how events of the 1630s and ‘40s have affected political thought ever since,” as a Kirkus Reviews critic explained. According to Booklist contributor GraceAnne A. DeCandido his work illuminates “the reality of religious faith and the cataclysmic clash of beliefs that created fertile ground for ideas about democracy and equality.” Praising Aronson’s approach as “fair and nonjudgmental,” School Library Journal contributor Ginny Gustin added that John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise provides history buffs with a “fascinating and provocative” study that is enriched by “extensive research.”
Aronson’s biographies often use an individual life to put historical events in context. His “Up Close” books Robert F. Kennedy: Crusader and Bill Gates: A Twentieth-Century Life feature “exemplary history writing,” according to a Kirkus Reviews contributor, noting of the first title that its references range “from Aeschylus to Philip Pullman.” Todd Morning commented in Booklist that Aronson approaches Kennedy’s life by theme rather than chronologically, making the book “more effective as a character study than as an introduction to its subject’s life and times.” In School Library Journal, Kristen Oravec praised the author’s honestly “in examining his subject as a complete human being, warts and all.” Reviewing the biography of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Phelan concluded in Booklist that Aronson’s “engaging” and detailed biography “offers insights into Gates’s character” and presents a balanced review of his business practices and philanthropic efforts.
Aronson introduces middle-grade readers to a historical figure with a complex reputation in Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies. A well-illustrated profile of the man who ran the Federal Bureau of Investigation for much of the twentieth century, from World War I through the Vietnam War, the book also delves into Hoover’s hidden life and captures the fear and anxiety that permeated U.S. culture and helped to fuel the man’s excessive zeal in opposing communism during the height of the Cold War. Describing Master of Deceit as, in part, “a meditation on what it means to be American,” Horn Book critic Jonathan Hunt added that “Aronson delivers another provocative book with an ambitious focus.” For Booklist contributor Thom Barthelmess, this “gripping historical investigation” of the single-minded Hoover also presents young adults with “an instructive example of the researched communication of ideals.” A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked that Master of Deceit draws timely “parallels between America’s anticommunist efforts and the current fight against terrorism.”
A “passionate, sprawling, multilayered biography,” according to Horn Book contributor Betty Carter, Eyes of the World was authored by Aronson and his wife, fellow writer Marina Budhos. Here readers are introduced to the life story and work of two noted twentieth-century photographers. Hungarian-born Robert Capa began his career in Paris, where he met Gerda Taro in 1934. The first to style themselves “photojournalist,” the couple were in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and their work clearly showed their anti-Franco sentiment and their support for the leftist Popular Front. Later during World War II, Capa captured the Allied landing at Normandy on D-Day, producing powerful images designed to capture the facts while also stirring emotions over a historic event. Describing this new vehicle for disseminating world news, Eyes of the World features “carefully selected and positioned photographs [that] create parallel narratives to the biography, adding depth to the fervor of Taro and Capa’s intense relationship, political beliefs, and art,” according to Carter. The book’s text “offers clarity while also evoking emotions and the senses,” noted a Kirkus Reviews writer. Aronson and Budhos drew from thousands of recently rediscovered images by Capa and Taro in selecting the illustrations. The authors’ “analyses of the Capa-Taro relationship and the influence of their photographs on journalism are particularly strong,” concluded a Publishers Weekly critic. In Booklist, Julia Smith noted of Eyes of the World that “Aronson and Budhos address the escalating tensions between socialist and fascist regimes, the emergence of photographic news magazines and compact cameras, and the lives of Capa and Taro into one seamless discussion.”
Aronson turns from biography to historical overview in The World Made New: Why the Age of Exploration Happened and How It Changed the World History, which takes a global view of the world during the Age of Exploration. Together with author John W. Glenn, he discusses the consequences of the European incursion into the Americas, his focus ranging from the devastation of the indigenous population to the broadening of European thinking to a more modern, global thought. “Add this to Aronson’s growing body of fine historical works that are changing how young readers think about history,” wrote a contributor to Kirkus Reviews. In her review in Booklist, Carolyn Phelan described The World Made New as “a fine addition to history collections [that] … offers a welcome, global perspective on the Age of Exploration.”
In The Real Revolution, Aronson couches his discussion of North American history within that of the world community. Utilizing what the author calls a “transnational” approach, The Real Revolution explores a Western world in tumult and shows that America’s Boston Tea Party, the development of Britain’s Indian colony, and the corruption exposed within the British Parliamentary system are intertwined. By comparing American and world events over time, he also reveals the kernel at the core of any study of history: that the past can predict the present, and the interrelationships of nations and their people that sparked the “Age of Revolution” of the late 1700s have their parallel in the twenty-first-century. Describing the epoch as characterized by a “complex social, political, and economic dance” of competing interests, John Peters added in Booklist that The Real Revolution frames the American Revolution as part of a world war “which, paradoxically, George Washington ‘inadvertently helped to start.’” In her School Library Journal review Gustin described the same book as “outstanding” and “highly compelling reading,” while a Kirkus Reviews writer noted that The Real Revolution provides young historians with “a new way to look at the subject, supplying the global context often neglected in textbooks and demonstrating how the lessons of the Revolution are relevant today.”
In Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials, Aronson examines the events surrounding the infamous series of trials held in Massachusetts in 1692. Correcting much of the misinformation that has overshadowed the historical record surrounding the trials, he examines the contentious social, economic, and religious issues facing the small Salem community. According to Andrew Medlar in School Library Journal the author “actively encourages the rethinking of past notions of the events leading up to the accusations and hearings.” A Publishers Weekly contributor stated that Aronson “uses primary source documents and trial records to help tease out the facts of the highly charged court atmosphere,” and Booklist critic Stephanie Zvirin remarked that his “dense, wide-angle view of the tragedy … evaluates causative theories ranging from deceit and outright fraud to spoiled food that caused hallucinations.” Aronson also draws parallels to the “counterculture of the 1960s, modern terrorism, and current tensions between western countries and Islamic fundamentalists,” as a Kirkus Reviews critic noted.
The concept of “race” is given historical treatment and context in Race: A History beyond Black and White, a nonfiction work for young adults. Explaining that the idea of “race” as it is now understood is relatively recent, Aronson shows that differences in subjective ideals may form the seeds of prejudice; while prejudice and racism are distinctly different, the former sets the stage for the latter. “The value of this book is in the connections he draws: between Jews and Ethiopians in the mind of medieval Catholics, between the persecution of Catholics in Ireland and of Africans in America,” explained Simon Rodberg in his appraisal in the New York Times Book Review. Race “is an impressive, informative study that demands attention,” concluded Ian Chipman in Booklist. Eric Norton writing in School Library Journal considered the work “an essential resource for anyone studying the idea of race,” and a Kirkus Reviews contributor concluded that the author’s “fascinating, completely absorbing history takes young adults seriously.”
Aronson continues to range widely in his focus, moving from the distant past in If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge to contemporary real-life drama in both Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet below the Chilean Desert and Rising Water: The Story of the Thai Cave Rescue. If Stones Could Speak draws on recent discoveries by archaeologist Mike Parker-Pearson regarding the original purpose of the ancient stone monolith known as Stonehenge, which is located in the United Kingdom. While a Kirkus Reviews writer noted that “Pearson’s hypothesis is only one of many,” Aronson still inspires the reader’s “sense of wonder and excitement” and “characteristically urges readers to … always keep an open mind.”
Described by Booklist critic Lynn Rutan as a “riveting” account that “humanize[s] the headlines,” Trapped follows the chain of events that resulted in thirty-three men becoming buried under 700,000 tons of rock for over eight weeks in August of 2010. Aronson uses the example of Stonehenge to illustrate “that fresh eyes can shed light on the deepest secrets of science,” according to Booklist contributor John Peters. Caroline Tesauro saw another purpose in the author’s choice of topic: to assure future archaeologists “that all the great sites are not yet dug or fully understood.” While the author travels millions of years into the past to set the stage of the geological disaster in Trapped, his “fluid narrative” also enlivens his “riveting, in-depth recounting” of a news story that made headlines throughout the world.
Like Trapped, Rising Water is inspired by current events; in fact, publisher Simon & Schuster contacted him to begin work on the book only weeks after the news story broke, and he produced a completed manuscript in less than three months. In June 2018 twelve members of a soccer team, aged from eleven to sixteen, became stranded in a cave during a severe rain and the events leading to their rescue was covered by newspapers around the globe. The twelve boys and their coach were exploring the Tham Luang cave on June 23, 2018, when it started raining and part of the cave was flooded. Trapped on a rock over two miles from the cave entrance, the boys avoided drowning but grew hungry and hopeless as the days passed. On day seven rescuers made contact, and on July 2, two British divers reached the group. After days spent pumping water from the cave, the boys were instructed in rudimentary diving skills and all thirteen survived. To write Rising Water, Aronson conducted numerous interviews in order to chronicle the boys’ spelunking adventure and the storm as well as the dramatic details surrounding their rescue and recovery. Tragically, one of the rescuers died during an effort to supply the trapped boys with breathable air.
Describing events as they happened in Rising Water, Aronson provides his readers with “deeply detailed research and … pertinent information that news organizations may have ignored,” according to Kristin Dorfman in School Library Journal. Providing readers with “insight into Thai culture” as well as describing “the community built internationally to save those in need,” he also addresses how the modern media can sometimes err in reporting on dramatic events in real time. “Numerous photos from inside the cave enhance the solid writing,” asserted Booklist contributor Angela Leeper, and Aronson’s closing essay ponders “thought-provoking outcomes” of this international event. In Kirkus Reviews a critic highlighted the “solid writing” on display in Rising Water and remarked that the author “is mindful … of differences in cultures.” Aronson’s prose effectively captures “the [event’s] natural rising suspense and astonishing details,” the critic concluded.
Sugar Changed the World was inspired by author Aronson and Budhos’s realization that both their family histories involved sugar. As a commodity much in demand, sugar fueled the need to transport slaves from Africa and India to the sugar plantations of the West Indies. In the book the authors trace sugar’s use throughout human history as it shifted from religious rituals to a sweetener of desserts and popular drinks such as chocolate and tea. Because generating sugar from cane was labor intensive, European plantation owners in the Caribbean turned to slavers for the agricultural workers required. Sugar beets became an alternative under Napoleon Bonaparte’s leadership during the 1800s, but the labor requirements did not abate as world demand for sugar continued to rise as populations in the West gained in affluence. Sugar Changed the World “is an unusual approach to world history,” asserted Debbie Wenk in her Voice of Youth Advocates appraisal, and it shows that “demand for a commodity” can be a “catalyst for such significant events as Gandhi’s movement of passive resistance.” In School Library Journal, Jody Kopple dubbed the collaborative history “meticulously researched, brutally honest, [and] compelling,” while in Horn Book, Hunt described Sugar Changed the World as “an epic story on a broad canvas that never loses sight of individual moments of human drama.”
Written for younger readers and illustrated by Chris Muller, The Griffin and the Dinosaur: How Adrienne Mayor Discovered a Fascinating Link between Myth and Science was authored with Adrienne Mayor, a research scholar at Stanford University whose main area of interest is the fossil record and the stories it has inspired over time. In her travels Mayor has journeyed widely, drawing on her knowledge of ancient languages while seeking out ancient records connecting mythic creatures such as griffins, dragons, and Cyclops with man’s knowledge of dinosaurs, mammoths, and the prehistoric fossil record. Documenting his text with numerous photographs collected by Mayor, “Aronson reveals Mayor’s story as she searches for answers,” asserted a Kirkus Reviews writer, “demonstrating how one woman’s curiosity and determination provided a new view of the origins of some of our oldest stories.” “Hard work, dedication, and perseverance are central themes in this intriguing story,” noted Antonio Trujillo in Horn Book Guide, and Booklist critic John Peters asserted of The Griffin and the Dinosaur that Mayor’s example illustrates “Aronson’s liberating, if arguable, contention that ‘anyone can become an expert, it just takes being patient, observant, and curious.’”
Aronson was among the many who closely followed the public water crisis in Flint, Michigan, in the mid-2010s, when neglect by city officials led to a poisoned water supply, widespread illness, and a prolonged community uproar. When Aronson spoke at the Michigan Association for Media in Education conference in 2016, middle-school librarian and Booklist reviewer Lynn Rutan mentioned to him that a treatment of the crisis for younger readers was badly needed. Aronson thus enlisted Michigan-based journalist Candy J. Cooper and assisted her in the writing of Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation.
Poisoned Water begins with a history of Flint, which rose from its origins as a trading village to be a thriving General Motors factory town in the mid-twentieth century. But de facto segregation, factory closures, and economic woes led to Flint being roiled by crime and sunk in debt by the early 2000s. In their quest to cut costs, state-appointed emergency managers saw fit to temporarily switch Flint’s water supply from Detroit-treated Lake Huron waters to the local Flint River waters in 2014. Residents immediately noticed that the cloudy, foul-smelling liquid now coming from their faucets not only tasted terrible but also caused rashes, hair loss, aches, and other unexplained illnesses. It would take a great deal of community organizing, protesting, and activism to get the water properly tested—revealing abundant toxins, bacteria, and lead—and the situation justly resolved. Asked by Emma Kantor in Publishers Weekly what he hoped readers would take away from his and Cooper’s joint effort, Aronson remarked, “As we think about preserving the Earth and our relationship with it, we shouldn’t separate concerns of environmentalism and ecology from the power structures in our world. Those who are most often victimized are those with the least power.”
In School Library Journal, Steven Thompson called the book a “stomach-churning, blood-boiling, tear-jerking account” that functions as the “ultimate antidote to civic complacence.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer observed, “This hard-hitting journalistic account both explains the water crisis and cautions about how future catastrophes might occur.” Thompson affirmed that the “compulsively readable, must-buy” Poisoned Water “should ignite us all—especially the next generation of citizen activists.”
In Four Streets and a Square: A History of Manhattan and the New York Idea, Aronson offers a history of New York City going all the way back to the year 1600 and Manhattan Island’s occupation by the native Munsee and Lenape peoples. After dispelling the myth that Manhattan was originally purchased by the Dutch for twenty-four dollars, Aronson draws out the settlement’s long history and how it expanded and evolved to become one of the most iconic cities in the world. The four central streets of the title are 125th Street, Forty-Second Street, Wall Street, and West Fourth Street. A Kirkus Reviews writer appreciated how Aronson does not simply glorify the various civic leaders, politicians, activists, artists, educators, and others who people the narrative, but “presents them as the real people they were,” with determination, bravery, and perseverance sometimes overshadowed by sexism, racism, and anti-Semitism. Booklist reviewer Henrietta Verma proclaimed that Aronson “truly imparts a feeling of the city’s vigor and the degree to which immigrants made and make it.” The Kirkus Reviews writer called Four Streets and a Square a “beautifully written … profound declaration of love for the city of New York.”
As a writer Aronson focuses on advancing the quality of young-adult literature by crafting engaging works of nonfiction that both entertain and challenge readers. As a historian he draws on his years of study in American history as well as on the information he uncovers through research. In an essay in School Library Journal in which he discussed writing The Real Revolution, Aronson said, “I pieced together my new sense of why the American Revolution took place, I was describing a world of global contacts very much like the one we live in today.” Reflecting on his time studying history as a college student in the 1960s, Aronson recalled “a similar sense of discovery as [historians] … sought to add the experiences of women and minorities into the narrative of America’s past. Now, I came to realize, it is time to knit American history into world history, where it has always belonged.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, July, 1998, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Art Attack: A Short Cultural History of the Avant-Garde; August, 2000, Ilene Cooper, review of Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado, p. 2130; March 15, 2001, Hazel Rochman, review of Exploding the Myths: The Truth about Teenagers and Reading, p. 1406; November 1, 2003, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials, p. 488; June 1, 2004, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise, p. 1751; September 15, 2005, John Peters, review of The Real Revolution: The Global Story of American Independence, p. 52; March 1, 2007, Todd Morning, review of Robert F. Kennedy: Crusader, p. 72; September 15, 2007, Carolyn Phelan, review of The World Made New: Why the Age of Exploration Happened and How It Changed the World History, p. 65; October 15, 2007, Ian Chipman, review of Race: A History beyond Black and White, p. 41; February 1, 2008, Stephanie Zvirin, review of For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest Book Ever, p. 43, and Carolyn Phelan, review of Ain’t Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry, p. 49; November 1, 2008, John Peters, review of War Is …: Soldiers, Survivors, and Storytellers Talk about War, p. 43; November 15, 2008, Daniel Kraus, review of Unsettled: The Problem of Loving Israel, p. 34; December 1, 2008, Carolyn Phelan, review of Bill Gates: A Twentieth-Century Life, p. 61; February 1, 2010, John Peters, review of If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge, p. 45; October 15, 2010, Hazel Rochman, review of Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science, p. 43; September 1, 2011, Lynn Rutan, review of Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet below the Chilean Desert, p. 103; April 15, 2012, Thom Barthelmess, review of Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies, p. 52; February 1, 2014, John Peters, review of The Griffin and the Dinosaur: How Adrienne Mayor Discovered a Fascinating Link between Myth and Science, p. 52; August 1, 2014, Daniel Kraus, review of One Death, Nine Stories, p. 17; November 1, 2016, Julia Smith, review of Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and the Invention of Modern Photojournalism, p. 49; March 15, 2019, Angela Leeper, review of Rising Water: The Story of the Thai Cave Rescue, p. 60; November 1, 2021, Henrietta Verma, review of Four Streets and a Square: A History of Manhattan and the New York Idea, p. 50.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, November, 2005, Elizabeth Bush, review of The Real Revolution, p. 129; June, 2014, Elizabeth Bush, The Griffin and the Dinosaur, p. 497; October, 2014, review of One Death, Nine Stories, p. 85; February, 2017, Elizabeth Bush, review of Eyes of the World, p. 257.
Horn Book, September-October, 2000, Peter D. Sieruta, review of Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado, p. 593; September-October, 2002, Roger Sutton, review of 911: The Book of Help, pp. 593-594; November-December, 2002, Marc Aronson, “Starting with the Answers,” p. 783; January-February, 2004, Cathryn M. Mercier, review of Beyond the Pale: New Essays for a New Era, pp. 107-108; July-August, 2004, Peter D. Sieruta, review of John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise, p. 465; January-February, 2006, Kathleen Isaacs, review of The Real Revolution, p. 97; March-April, 2007, review of Robert F. Kennedy, p. 211; November-December, 2007, Barbara Bader, review of Race, p. 692; January-February, 2008, Betsy Hearne, review of Ain’t Nothing but a Man, p. 117; January-February, 2009, Barbara Bader, review of Unsettled, p. 108; May-June, 2010, Jonathan Hunt, review of If Stones Could Speak, p. 102; January-February, 2011, Jonathan Hunt, review of Sugar Changed the World, p. 107; September-October, 2011, Tanya D. Auger, review of Trapped, p. 109; May-June, 2012, Jonathan Hunt, review of Master of Deceit, p. 107; May-June, 2017, Betty Carter, review of Eyes of the World, p. 111.
Horn Book Guide, fall, 2014, Antonio Trujillo, review of The Griffin and the Dinosaur, p. 156; spring, 2015, Rebecca Fox, review of One Death, Nine Stories, p. 186.
Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2000, review of Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado, p. 710; July 1, 2002, review of 911, p. 950; October 15, 2003, review of Witch-Hunt, p. 1268; May 1, 2004, review of John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise, p. 437; August 15, 2006, review of The Real Revolution, p. 908; March 1, 2007, review of Robert F. Kennedy, p. 216; July 1, 2007, review of The World Made New; October 15, 2007, review of Race; August 15, 2008, review of War Is …; February 15, 2010, review of If Stones Could Speak; July 15, 2011, review of Trapped; March 15, 2014, review of The Griffin and the Dinosaur; June 15, 2014, review of One Death, Nine Stories, p. 78; December 1, 2016, review of Eyes of the World; February 15, 2019, review of Rising Water; September 15, 2021, review of Four Streets and a Square.
Kliatt, November, 2002, Claire Rosser, review of 911, p. 29.
Los Angeles Times, October 22, 2000, review of Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado, p. 6.
New York Times Book Review, February 14, 1999, review of Art Attack, p. 26; November 11, 2007, Simon Rodberg, “From the Greeks to Eminem,” p. 38.
Publishers Weekly, August 27, 2001, Jason Britton, “Marcato/Cricket Books,” p. 23; July 29, 2002, review of 911, p. 74; December 1, 2003, review of Witch-Hunt, p. 58; May 24, 2004, “Understanding History,” p. 64; September 12, 2005, review of The Real Revolution, p. 70; March 19, 2007, review of Robert F. Kennedy, p. 66; December 17, 2007, review of Race, p. 53; December 24, 2007, review of Ain’t Nothing but a Man, p. 58; January 7, 2008, “Boys Meet World,” p. 57; June 13, 2011, review of Trapped, p. 51; February 20, 2012, review of Master of Deceit, p. 170; December 12, 2016, review of Eyes of the World, p. 151; April 20, 2020, review of Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation, p. 78; December 2, 2020, reviews of 1789: Twelve Authors Explore a Year of Rebellion, Revolution, and Change, p. 91, and Poisoned Water, p. 94.
Reading Teacher, March, 2003, review of 911, p. 589.
School Library Journal, June, 1995, Linda Diane Townsend, review of Day by Day: The Eighties, pp. 144-145; July, 1998, Shirley Wilton, review of Art Attack, p. 102; December, 2000, review of Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado, p. 52; May, 2001, Vicki Reutter, review of Exploding the Myths, p. 179; September, 2002, Wendy Lukehart, “One Year Later,” pp. 44-46, and Joanne K. Cecere, review of 911, pp. 241-242; November, 2003, Ellen A. Greever, review of Beyond the Pale, p. 175; December, 2003, Andrew Medlar, review of Witch-Hunt, p. 163; April, 2004, Wendy Lukehart, review of Art Attack, p. 64; September, 2004, Ginny Gustin, review of John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise, p. 221; June, 2005, Marc Aronson, “Roots of Revolution Revisited,” p. 34; October, 2005, Ginny Gustin, review of The Real Revolution, p. 180; May, 2007, Kristen Oravec, review of Robert F. Kennedy, p. 146; August, 2007, Ann Welton, review of The World Made New, p. 129; December, 2007, Eric Norton, review of Race, p. 148, and Blair Christolon, review of Ain’t Nothing but a Man, p. 156; March, 2008, Walter Minkel, review of For Boys Only, p. 216; December, 2008, Geri Diorio, review of Unsettled, p. 143; March, 2010, Caroline Tesauro, review of If Stones Could Speak, p. 171; October, 2010, Jody Kopple, review of Sugar Changed the World, p. 130; March, 2014, Katy Charles, review of The Griffin and the Dinosaur, p. 178; August 2015, Denise A. Garofalo, review of The Griffin and the Dinosaur, p. 48; January 2017, Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, review of Eyes of the World, p. 116; March, 2019, Kristin Dorfman, review of Rising Water, p. 130; April, 2020, Steven Thompson, review of Poisoned Water, p. 156; July, 2020, Karen Bilton, review of 1789, p. 76.
Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2006, Beth E. Anderson, review of The Real Revolution, p. 69; October, 2010, Debbie Wenk, review of Sugar Changed the World, p. 375; April, 2012, Alicia Abdul, review of Master of Deceit, p. 86; October, 2014, Lona Trulove, review of One Death, Nine Stories, p. 58; October, 2016, Ellen Frank, review of Eyes of the World, p. 81.
ONLINE
AdLit, https://www.adlit.org/ (March 6, 2022), author profile.
Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/ (March 19, 2019), Rachel Kramer Bussel, “How Thai Cave Rescue ‘Instant’ Book Rising Water Was Written in One Month.”
Houghton Mifflin website, http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/ (April 29, 2008), “Marc Aronson.”
Marc Aronson website, https://www.marcaronson.com (March 6, 2022).
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (February 7, 2020), Emma Kantor, “Troubled Water: PW Talks with Candy J. Cooper and Marc Aronson.”
Reading Rockets, https://www.readingrockets.org/ (March 6, 2022), “A Video Interview with Marc Aronson.”
Rutgers University, School of Communications and Information website, https://comminfo.rutgers.edu/ (March 6, 2022), author profile.
School Library Journal, http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/ (November 2, 2010), Jennifer M. Brown, interview with Aronson and Marina Budhos; (June 1, 2012), Marc Aronson, “Nonfiction Matters” blog.*
Marc Aronson is an author, professor, speaker, editor and publisher who believes that young people, especially pre-teens and teenagers, are smart, passionate, and capable of engaging with interesting ideas in interesting ways.
He writes books, visits schools, teaches classes, and publishes books that affirm this belief. His mission is to inspire young people to ask questions, to look around, behind, inside of the stories the world tells us – whether that means being a detective, examining the clues history has left behind, or a reporter, telling the truth about the modern world.
Dr. Aronson’s books are arranged in three age groups: Elementary/Middle; Middle/High School; Adult. He is currently engaged in a long-term project to figure out how to best understand and share a full history of the human world.
Aronson’s love of nonfiction and his conviction that young people can read carefully, examine evidence, and engage with new and challenging ideas is reflected in his teaching at Rutgers University, where he trains future librarians in how to select and share materials with children and teenagers, and his active work as and educational consultant, working with librarians, teachers and administrators. He has addressed national ALA, IRA, NCTE, and NCSS conferences and has been asked to speak to statewide conventions in California, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee as well as numberless schools throughout the country.
Aronson has a doctorate in American History – his focus was on William Crary Brownell, Edith Wharton’s editor, and he published his conclusions as a lengthy essay in the New York Times Book Review. His parents, the scenic designers Boris and Lisa Aronson, as well as his maternal aunt, the weaver Trude Guermonprez, and grandfather, the conductor Heinrich Jalowetz were deeply involved with the arts and modernism. Here is a recent interview with Marc by the Yiddish Book Center, discussing Lisa and Boris Aronson’s work.
Marc is also working with his wife the author Marina Budhos on further research. That family background in 20th century cultural innovation informs all of his work with 21st century readers. He writes a twice-monthly column called “Consider the Source” for School Library Journal in which he shares his ongoing observations about books, education, reading, nonfiction, and more. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and their two sons. The three Aronson males are avid sports players and fans and are always up for a game of pick-up basketball.
ARONSON, Marc, Paul Freedman, Frederick Douglass Opie, Amanda Palacio & others. Bite by Bite: American History Through Feasts, Foods, and Side Dishes. illus. by Toni D. Chambers. 176p. S. & S./Atheneum. May 2024. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781665935500.
Gr 6 Up--The authors take readers on a culinary journey of the cultural, historical, and social influences on American eating habits. Beginning in 10,000 BCE, this title explores the Indigenous foods of the Americas and their contributions to the societies of that time. The analysis continues through colonial times, European immigration, civil rights, and the modern day. The text-heavy pages and an ample index will appeal to students researching history or food. Those reading for pleasure will be immersed in the captivating writing and may find themselves interested in further exploring topics like the influence of World War II on German food, invention of nachos, or impact of Buddhism on the vegan diet. A table of contents, index, and sources will help readers use the text and explore beyond its pages. VERDICT A recommended purchase that will find a satisfied audience among tweens and teens researching food or American history.--Kate Rao
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Rao, Kate. "ARONSON, Marc, Paul Freedman, Frederick Douglass Opie, Amanda Palacio & others. Bite by Bite: American History Through Feasts, Foods, and Side Dishes." School Library Journal, vol. 70, no. 4, Apr. 2024, p. 145. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A790645176/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d68c9fc4. Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.
Aronson, Marc BITE BY BITE Atheneum (Children's None) $17.99 5, 28 ISBN: 9781665935500
A history of American food, from traditional Native American salmon feasts to oat milk.
Rightly calling out the fallacy of regarding apple pie or any other food as quintessentially "American," the authors have enlisted feedback from a squad of food historians to highlight dishes and cuisines that have earned significant places in this country's story. Along the way, they clearly demonstrate how much of what we eat has been influenced by the cultures of immigrants, as well as how national borders have proved little if any barrier to free exchanges of culinary practices and components. Backed up by a hefty load of discursive source notes but generally free of recipes, photos, or even evocative sensory impressions, the discourse has a cerebral cast. Still, it's loaded with fascinating facts about regional types of pizza, the origins of nachos and General Tso's chicken, the histories of the Automat and of the renowned New York eatery Mamma Leone's, how Howard Johnson's pioneered the idea of franchising, and the recent rebirth of urban farmers markets, among other topics. The book includes nods to major foodstuffs such as corn and rice, plus side dishes from camas and jambalaya to maraschino cherries. Better yet, readers will come away with a food-forward overview of the "waves of prejudice and progress" that have characterized our multicultural history, not dating from 1492 or 1619 but from thousands of years ago. Final art not seen.
More appealing to the brain than to the stomach, but nutritious nonetheless. (index) (Nonfiction. 11-15)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Aronson, Marc: BITE BY BITE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A788096963/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3f2872ef. Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.