Trenches, Treaties, Mud, and Blood, a graphic novel by Nathan Hale, is a fast-paced account of World War I.  The main characters are the different nations involved in the war, each represented by an animal.  The Austro-Hungarian Empire is represented by a griffin, Serbia is a wolf, the Ottoman Empire is an otter, Bulgaria is a bull, Russia is a bear, Germany is an eagle, France is a rooster, Belgium is a lion, the United Kingdom is a bulldog, and the United States is a bunny (because Germany is the eagle). This makes it easier to comprehend the sequence of historical events and how the different alliances were formed. The plot explains how the war began in 1914 and ends with the conclusion of the war in 1918.  The main conflict is World War I, and the theme is how the war changed the world. This first global war brought changes to warfare such as tanks, airplanes, trench warfare, and gas masks, and caused the death of nine million soldiers and injuries to fifteen million soldiers.  This book makes a complicated, serious subject fascinating and easy to understand, and keeps the reader’s interest with humor and graphics. My only complaint is that it is such a quick read and I would have enjoyed more detail about some of the events.  Overall, Trenches, Treaties, Mud, and Blood is a captivating way to teach young readers about American history!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The Guinness Book of World Records has a record for just about everything.  My hands-down favorite is the “longest indoor distance flown by a paper airplane”.  The record was set on February 26, 2012, in an airplane hangar at McClellan Air Force Base in North Highlands, California.  The plane was designed by John Collins, a noted expert on paper airplanes, who has been designing them since childhood and who has studied the Japanese art of origami. The record-setting airplane was constructed from a single sheet of uncut A4 paper.  Joe Ayoob, a former arena football quarterback, threw it.  The plane travelled a total distance of 226 feet, 10 inches, beating the previous record of 207 feet, 4 inches set in 2003.

To see the video of the record-setting flight, you should just Google “WR Paper Airplane”. Personally, I have watched the video of that flight over and over—it never gets old. The more I watched it, I began to think about paper airplanes of the past. Where did they originate and when? What type of material were the airplanes made of? So I did a little research. The use of paper airplanes began in China more than 2,000 years ago. The earliest recorded date of the creation of modern paper planes is 1909.  However, it was not until 1930 that Jack Northrup (the co-founder of Lockheed Corporation) invented the most widely recognizable design that we see today.

Paper airplanes don’t actually fly; they glide through the air.  When building a paper airplane, you must consider the four forces that act on the plane as it glides through the air.  These forces are thrust (which pushes the plane forward through the air), drag (the resistance exerted by the air on the forward motion of the plane–the opposite of thrust), gravity (the force that pulls the plane toward the earth), and lift (the upward force that counteracts gravity). Because of these forces, one of the most important aspects of the paper airplane is the shape of the wings. An ideal wing shape will ensure a high lift to drag ratio. The weight of a plane divided by the surface area of the main wing is called the wing loading. Planes with low wing loads are the best gliders.

Anyone can create this world-famous airplane by following a few simple steps.  First, start with a piece of 8.5 x 11 inch printer paper and fold it in half  “hot dog style” or vertically.  Make sure that the edges are even and make a sharp crease in the center. Second, unfold the paper so that it is flat and then fold down the top corner on the left and on the right so that the edges line up with the center crease.  The top of the paper should now be a point and the folded corners should look like triangles. Third, grasp the pointed top of the paper (where you just folded the corners down) and fold the entire triangular top of the paper down.  The top of the paper is now straight and the folded paper looks like the back of an envelope. Make sure the creases are sharp.

You are almost there! Fourth, fold each of the top corners to the center again, except that the tips should meet one inch above the point of the triangle created in the previous step. The shape of the paper is now a pentagon.  Fifth, grab the tiny triangular point below where the top corners meet (it is the one inch part that you left in the step above). Sixth, fold the entire paper in half backwards along the crease you made in the first step. The shape now looks like that of a paper airplane. Finally, fold each side down from top towards the crease at the bottom to create the wings. Even though there are more minor adjustments you can make to customize your plane, you have the basic design and are ready to start flying.  Now you see if you can break the record!

“If we need to make an emergency exit, please wait until the blades stop turning,” the pilot announced. “In just a few minutes, we will be heading out.”

Moments later, the vibrant royal blue helicopter rose up above the Maui airport  and surged forward.  I was seated next to an enormous window on the cool, smooth, black leather bench seat in the back of the helicopter next to my family. My throat tightened and my stomach was in knots with excitement and more than a little fear. I looked down and saw the shadow of our helicopter below us.  It looked like a tiny, black dragonfly zooming across the pineapple fields below.

Suddenly, we were cruising over the glistening, blue ocean towards Molokai, which is a mostly uninhabited island eight miles from Maui.  The pilot announced that a pint-sized island below us off the coast of Molokai was a breeding ground for hammerhead sharks, and I stared in amazement.  The jagged mountains of Molokai were covered in fluffy, green trees, and enormous waterfalls popped out of the cliffs.  I had never been so in awe of the beauty and power of nature.

The pilot turned back towards Maui, and we flew over a reef brimming with coral and fish in all the colors imaginable. It was like an aquatic city. Five giant manta rays swam through the reef, looking like tiny, black plastic toys from that height.  Back over the deep, blue ocean I looked below and saw not one, but three humpback whales swimming together with water spraying from their blowholes.  

“That’s papa, mama, and baby whale, getting ready to head back to Alaska,” the pilot told us.

I could not take my eyes off of the whale family starting their long, grueling journey and I zoomed above them with my family.  I have never felt so big and so small at the same time. I felt like a minuscule ant, but in some ways I felt like a towering skyscraper. I felt a connection to those whales and to all living things, realizing that we all share the same planet.  It made me realize how important it is to protect our oceans and other habitats, because we all depend on each other.  I knew at that moment that I would never forget that bright, blissful Maui morning helicopter ride that changed the way I saw the world.

The Bet

Andrew MacMillan

It started with a bet. As we faced each other on board the deck of the cruise ship, my dad and I wagered on the outcome of a round of mini golf in two days.  I tasted the salty air of the Mediterranean Sea as I smiled at my dad and shook his hand.  

The next afternoon, as I was leaving the ship’s arcade with a friend, we decided to head up to deck thirteen, where the mini golf course was located.  I was hoping to sneak in some practice before the game against my dad the following day. The ship was at sea, and the wind was relentless, whipping my t-shirt around like a flag. I squinted at the reflection of the blistering summer sun reflecting on the waves as I practiced for nearly three hours.

I repeated the same routine the next afternoon, until I was interrupted by a blaring voice on the loudspeaker.  The ship’s activity director was announcing a mini golf tournament that was about to start.  All at once, a hoard of people rushed to sign up.  Their ages ranged from eight to more than sixty years old, from what I could see. I shrugged and thought “Why not?” as I joined the line.

As the tournament got underway, the first four holes were almost second nature for me thanks to all of my practicing. On the first hole, I set my ball far off to the right, and hit it diagonally to the left.  It rolled along the edge of a bank and rebounded straight to the vicinity of the hole, which gave me a birdie. I was most anxious about the second hole. I knew that it would take three strokes to sink the ball if I hit it to the right, so I took a gamble and went for the short cut.  I lined up the ball with precision, gave it a firm tap, and it squeaked through two rocks.  Unfortunately, it sailed past the hole and went out of bounds.  This had happened every time I practiced this hole, so I was prepared. With a light tap, I sank the ball into the hole for another birdie.  The third hole took three strokes for par, but I rallied on the fourth hole for yet another birdie.

As I was preparing for the fifth hole, the activities director approached and asked for my scorecard. I handed it to him but was confused, since there were nine holes.  He explained to me that the tournament only consisted of the first four holes.  While I was still pondering this new development, the activities director gathered the rest of the scorecards from the other players and left to calculate the results. I had butterflies in my stomach.

A few minutes later, the activities director returned to announce the winner. Instead, he said that there was a tie for first place and the fifth hole would be a play off hole to determine the winner.  I was stunned when he announced that I was one of the people in the tiebreaker. A middle-aged gentleman in a crisp, white Callaway golf hat stepped forward and we shook hands and did rock, paper, scissors to see who went first.  I won, so my adversary stepped up to the hole. He took a traditional approach and went three strokes for par.  I knew that I had to be aggressive, so I shot down the middle and was able to sink the ball in two shots for a birdie.  

As the activities director handed me the medal with a royal blue ribbon, I turned around to see my dad smiling at me. I had texted him that I was in the tournament and he had arrived just in time. He knew that I had been practicing because of our bet. I smiled back at him as the orange sunset on the glassy ocean and we both knew that we would always remember this moment.

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