new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Non-Fiction, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 25 of 511
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: Non-Fiction in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
Quindaro Press, 2016
The Civil War is the bloodiest war that happened in our country, killing millions and uprooting our country both economically and personally. We've heard of places like Antietam and Gettysburg. We also know the name of people associated with the Civil War, such as Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln. Why do we know this? Because it is taught in curriculum and found in textbooks. But there is always the hidden documented history of the Civil War most people don't know about. These are true stories about the women of the Civil War.
Long, hot days at work, most of the time twelve hours of labor six days a week. Coming home after walking to and from work stained with twelve hours of labor and dust. Thinking about the danger of the job but knowing it needed to be done to keep a roof over their families heads and food on the table.
Most of the workers were considered women in that era. Today, they would be considered children and teenagers. Girls as young as 10 were chosen because they hands were small and quick, making for a more productive product.
The product? Ammunition for the guns and muskets used by both sides of the Civil War. Imagine sitting at a table filled with small metal balls, paper, string, and gunpowder everywhere. There is no safety equipment nearby and no regulations keeping the workplace safe. It was just the girls working together in cramped quarters, wearing the traditional heavy hoop skirts, working in a potentially life-threatening job. And during the Civil War, three different tragedies occurred...
This book is the stories of not only the tragedies, but also about the girls themselves, and the investigation and outcome of those responsible. Tanya Anderson shares with the reader not only the stories, but also her in-depth research and how she become intrigued with this part of the Civil War. What is most impressive about this is that voice the book is written in. This isn't a dry tome of American history, but voices of the victims, witnesses, and others that were part of these tragedies, including Abraham Lincoln.
What makes this a draw for teens is the size of this narrative non-fiction and the interest the author creates to pique interest in what will happen next. Perfect for junior high and high school libraries, this should be on the shelves showing readers that women were passive bystanders of the Civil War, but involved in many ways in the conflict. Highly recommended.
Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories: A Children's History of Art perfectly pairs writer, art historian and radio broadcaster Michael Bird with the London based Laurence King Publishing, one of the world's leading publishers of books on the creative arts, acclaimed for their inventiveness, beautiful design and authoritative texts. From a cave in Germany 40,000 years ago to 21st century artist Ai Weiwei, Bird divides the history of art into eight periods, traveling the world from Cambodia to Egypt, Europe, China and New York City, featuring the stories of more than 68 artists. The photographed art of featured artists is paired with illustrations by Kate Evans that help tell the stories that Bird uses to tell the stories of the art and the artists.
Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories: A Child's History of Art can be read from cover to cover, the narrative is so entertaining and engaging. I could easily see this book being bedtime reading for many families. After all, art is a form of visual story telling. Bird has a way, sometimes playful, of putting the reader in the room with the artist. Chapter 33, which features Diego Velázquez and his 1656 painting The Maids of Honor, begins, "'Boo!' Diego Velázquez jumps. His brush leaves a black smudge on his forehead - that is, the forehead of his own portrait, which he is painting just here, to the side of his enormous painting of the royal family. He turns to see five faces looking up at him." The little Princess Margarita Teresa and her maids of honor, along with their companions, the dwarfs Maria and Nicolas. In the part Revolution! 1750 - 1860, Bird puts readers on the dangerous streets of Paris when Jacques-Louis David learns of the murder of his friend Marat and how he comes to compose his famous portrait of the radical journalist and Revolutionary politician. From David, we find Goya in Spain and his decision to paint the violence, suffering, and helplessness of his people amidst the chaos of the time.
Occasional maps place the artists and their art as well as give a feel for the time period. His narratives also help make sense of some modern art, the meaning and important of which might escape many of us. Chapter 54 finds Marcel Duchamp, sitting on a park bench in New York City as World War I raged on, reading a letter from his sister, a nurse in Paris. She is cleaning out his studio and he wonders what she has done with his piece, Bicycle Wheel. Interestingly, the original was lost in 1913 and what we see today are replicas. The rest of Duchamp's story about what he thinks defines art and the ways in which his ideas challenge those of most others. Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories: A Children's History of Art ends with Ai Weiwei and his Sunflower Seeds installation. For his final story, Bird imagines a brother and sister visiting the work in 2011. Told not to touch the porcelain seeds by a guard, the older sister decides to research the artist and make her own seed. The story ends with a Google search and a view of Weiwei on CCTV as he opens the front gates of his home in Beijing, where he is still on house arrest. A poignant ending to a marvelous book that should sit on the shelf of every child's room. If you take nothing else away from Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories: A Children's History of Art, even if we don't understand a work of art, ultimately art helps us understand what it means to be human.
Source: Review Copy
It feels right on this day when we could elect our first woman president to post a review of a book about two women who, 100 years ago exactly, spent five months driving around America - 10,000 miles! - crusading for women's voting rights. Using newspaper articles about the women and their journey, Mara Rockliff tells their story (fact checking when necessary) with illustrations by Hadley Hooper that combine pencil drawing and printmaking with a largely yellow palette (the color that stood for Votes for Women) that is dynamic and engaging, making Around America to Win the Vote: Two Suffragists, a Kitten, and 10,000 Miles a highly readable book.
In fact, Around America to Win the Vote is such a fun read that I almost forgot the serious nature of the what Nell Richardson and Alice Burke set out to do when the drove off from New York City in their "little runabout" made by the Saxon Car Company. However, this also reminded me of one of the great things about narrative non-fiction picture books and how they can hook readers and spur them onto further reading and research. By the time Nell and Alice arrived to a grand welcome back in New York City, I was ready to get to the author's notes, which were equally fascinating.
Rockliff's narrative focuses mostly on the journey itself, and the many ruts and rivers the Saxon seemed to get stuck in. The women brought a typewriter and a sewing machine with them, bringing them out at rallies to show that they had the brains to vote (Nell would write a poem, proving they did) and that they could take care of domestic duties AND play a part in running the nation (Nell would sew an apron while Alice gave a speech.) In places where men didn't want to hear about votes for women, Alice and Nell would instead discuss the inner workings of their car. Part of Rockliff's historical notes put into context the significance of driving a car across the country - and back - in 1916, just thirteen years after the first successful cross-country trip (which did not include the return trip.) In her back matter, Winning the Vote, Rockliff starts in 1776 with a letter from Abigail to John Adams asking him to "remember the ladies," to which he laughed, going on to sign the Declaration of Independence, stating that "all men are created equal." Rockliff also shares fascinating facts about protests women staged in 1916, including a "walkless parade" in St. Louis that left men on their way to the Democratic convention forced to pass between the eight thousand, silent suffragists lining the streets for a mile on both sides.
Also by Mara Rockliff:
Also by Hadley Hooper:
Source: Review Copy
Head on over to
The Little Crooked Cottage for some more art and talk about the inspiration and process behind
Charles Darwin's Around-the-World Adventure! (And check out the rest of the blog. Those ladies know how to rock the kids books!)
Under Earth, Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński is their fourth book I have reviewed here and their fourth book with the marvelous Big Picture Press, a publisher of oversized, highly illustrated, gorgeous books who believe that books should be "visually intelligent, surprising, and accessible to readers of all ages, abilities and nationalities." BPP definitely achieves this with every book they publish and, if you are a book lover, you will want to seek out all their titles. Under Earth, Under Water will appeal to anyone who likes to look inside things and understand how things work.
With Under Earth, Under Water, the Mizielińskis, who have an illustration style that is filled with tiny details and a unique palette, take readers on a detailed journey, from the top of the page to the bottom, over and under land and then sea. The endpapers serve as the introduction and table of contents, with images scattered across the spread, page numbers connecting them like a dot-to-dot. The introduction tells readers that "you will meet cavers, spelunkers, miners and passengers on the subway. You will find fossilized dinosaur bones, ancient relics, and gold! Lower yourself deeper and deeper down, from the thinnest layer of soil just beneath your feet all the way to Earth's red-hot core." From bugs and burrowing animals, we head on to edible roots and more. Everything is labeled, and there is a chunky paragraph of information on each page as well as textural details throughout. Leaving the natural world, readers move onto human constructions underground like subways and mines and a very cool spread on mined resources and how we use them. From there, paleontological finds, archaeological finds and caves are explored. This leads perfectly into how volcanoes are made, how geysers are made, the layers of the earth and tectonic plates.
With perfect logic, the center spread of Under Earth, Under Water, is of the Earth's core, with the text orientation flipping to indicate the need to flip the book itself. The endpapers tell readers that they will meet "record-breaking divers, scientists and research vessels" and come across "weird creatures of the deep, vintage submarines, and the wreck of the Titanic" before diving deeper down to explore "coral reefs bathed in sunlight the deepest part of the ocean, plunged in cold and darkness."
From lakes to the ocean and a look at buoyancy, to coral reefs, sinkholes, a look at pressure, diving and record breaking divers, a history of diving suits and submarines, the experience of reading Under Water has a very different feel, despite the continuous illustration style. I felt like I was going deeper and deeper underwater with every page turn and, being a tiny bit claustrophobic, I felt my breath tighten a bit. Giant sea creatures of the deep, underwater chimneys and deep sea dwellers are explored along with oil and gas platforms, the Mariana Trench, scientists underwater and the Deep Sea Challenger. The final pages of Under Water were most fascinating to me, with a look at the Mariana Trench and the Deep Sea Challenger, which is almost 7 miles under water!
Under Earth, Under Water is a magnificent book that any curious reader, young or old, will spend hours poring over. And, it's sure to spark an interest in new and exciting things, below ground and under water!
Source: Review Copy
3 Reasons Why You Need to Buy This Book:
1) DIVERSITY
2) Visual Appeal
3) This list rocks
I almost feel like I don't need to write a review of 101 Books to Read Before You Grow Up by Bianca Schulze, founder of The Children's Book Review, especially since I include the Table of Contents and a sample page here. Look at them, and you see the validity of my three reasons for buying this book. But, I feel like I do need to say one specific thing about 101 Books to Read Before You Grow Up - this book is designed to appeal to kids from ages 4 - 11 (see a guest post from Schulze below on the great reason for this age cap), from the great graphics to the small trim size to the chunks of information on each page. Kids will be drawn to this book, pick it up, flip through it and find more than a few books they want to read - especially thanks to Schulze's excellent "What to Read Next" list that accompanies every title. And, as parents, I think we need to admit that our kids don't always want to read a book we put in their hands. I have MUCH better luck getting one of my students to read a book I like than I do my own 12-year-old-son. For those of us who read, of course we want our children to read books we like, but what we really want if for that passion to be sparked in our children, driving them to seek out books on their own. 101 Books to Read Before You Grow Up will spark this passion!
I do also want to speak briefly to the diversity of characters and settings represented in Schulze's book. While the world of American children's books still has far to go, there have been advances made in bringing diversity to the page and Schulze's list shows that, at ever reading level. From obvious choices like this year's multiple award winner Last Stop On Market Street to titles like Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad, Anna Hibiscus, Mango, Abuela and Me, Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom, The Year of the Dog, George, Rickshaw Girl, The Crossover, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, One Crazy Summer, The Birchbark House, Inside Out and Back Again, A Long Walk to Water, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry and Esperanza Rising. There are also books about kids facing physical challenges like El Deafo, Out of My Mind, and Wonder. There are also plenty of books about the immigrant experience, which you can discover by looking at the Titles By Genre section at the end of the book that is FANTASTIC! I will say, though, that I think the important inclusion of books with diverse characters probably limited the number of books fantasy books that were included - white kids as main characters pretty much dominate the middle grade fantasy genre... And, as a lover of all things kid's books, I was very pleased to find more than one verse novel on the list (and HOW HARD was it to leave Brown Girl Dreaming off the list??) as well as two graphic novels, El Deafo and The Arrival. 
I hope you will read this guest post that Schulze wrote for books4yourkids.com!
101 Books to Read Before You Grow Up … And 101+ More
“As a child, my family’s menu consisted of 2 choices: take it or leave it.”—Buddy Hackett, American comedian and actor
Which books did not make the list of 101 books to read before a child grows up?
One of my biggest fears I had when creating this book was … creating this book. Coming up with the 101 books that I feel that kids should read before they grow up was absolutely no easy feat. With so many tremendous books to choose from, I took this job very seriously. I wanted as many children as possible to be able to use it as a guidebook for finding a story that they could see themselves in. I wanted kids to be able to read stories about characters, places, and situations that would provide them with a greater love and understanding for the world around them and the people in it. Most importantly, I wanted (and want) kids to find stories that they enjoy reading!
Sure, my day job is sorting through the many published children’s books available and then featuring the best of the best on The Children’s Book Review, but it’s a never-ending (hopefully) accumulation of book sharing. If I have missed a great book that published a year ago, I can always add it. If I love a book so much that I can’t stop talking about it, I can share it in as many articles as I wish. Writing 101 Books to Read Before You Grow Up: The must read book list for kids (Walter Foster Jr. 2016) meant that I was providing a definitive list, and a list that touts it is the must-read book list for kids. No pressure, right? I can’t say for sure, but the original list—which was spread across post-it notes, spreadsheets, an iPhone note, Facebook comments from friends, and e-mails from my editor at Quarto Kids—was a couple of hundred books long. With the help of my editor and the Quarto publishing team, I was able to get the list down to 101 books that I would, forever more, recommend as must-read titles to my own kids and yours.
But, what were the books I left out? Too many to list here, but I made the decision, with the support of my editor, to create a list that was capped at books for ages 11 and under. Once we introduce books for 12 and up, we enter the world of young adult novels. As a parent of 3 children (currently ages 1, 4, and 10), while I wanted to include stories that challenge the readers emotions (be it through humor or sadness), I also wanted to make sure our picture book readers weren’t going to stumble upon content that was too far beyond them. Once I made this decision, I had to make some cuts that snowballed (thankfully) into justified cuts of other books.
Then there were my all-time favorite authors like Judy Blume and Roald Dahl. I could have included all of their books, but then the list would not have been diverse enough. However, I did find a sneaky way to add more of my fave books from my fave authors. With each of the 101 books there is also a “You may also like:” section. I was able to sneak in plenty more of my favorite books that may otherwise not have been mentioned within the pages. The title of the book could also be: 101 Books to Read Before You Grow Up … and 101+ More.
Here are a few that would have, should have, could have made the list:
To Kill a Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee
The Boy with the Striped Pajamas, by John Boyne
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D Salinger
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
The Magic Faraway Tree, by Enid Blyton
And everything by Dr. Seuss.
Now let me ask you: What would you have included or excluded in your list of 101 books for kids to read before they grow up?
Source: Review Copy
By:
Jennifer Thermes,
on 10/4/2016
Blog:
Art, Words, Life
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
picture books,
non-fiction,
abrams books for young readers,
STEM,
charles darwin,
book birthday,
charles darwin's around-the-world adventure,
kidlit,
Add a tag
Charles Darwin's Around-the-World Adventure is officially out today!
I'm so thankful for friends, colleagues— and funny Darwin gifts— along this journey!
(I wonder what kind of cake Charles liked?) ♡
By:
Jennifer Thermes,
on 9/29/2016
Blog:
Art, Words, Life
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
abrams books for young readers,
STEM,
charles darwin,
charles darwin's around-the-world adventure,
kidlit,
picture books,
non-fiction,
Add a tag
"Letting her background in map illustration shine, Thermes (
Little Author in the Big Woods) follows the travels of Charles Darwin while concisely explaining the influence they had on his growing understanding of the interconnectedness of nature..."
Read the full review here...
Fiona Robinson brings her talents as a picture book author and illustrator (see below for reviews of two of her books that are favorites of mine) to a picture book biography with Ada's Ideas: The Story of Ada Lovelace, the World's First Computer Programer. Last year was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron. Her mother, Anne Isabella Byron, herself a gifted mathematician who was tutored at home, receiving an education equal to that of a man at Cambridge, ended her marriage after two years and kept Ada from her father, raising and educating her alone. 
Robinson details Ada's childhood, working in the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. It seems that touring factories where the machines that were "thrilling modern wonders," became a popular pastime for the wealthy. Ada's mother took her on these tours where her "imagination whirred along with the powerful engines! And her mind, so well trained by her many lessons, began to invent!" Ada called one of her ideas for a flying mechanical horse "flyology." Ada even signed off a letter to her mother, "Your Affectionate Carrier Pigeon," causing her mother to fear that some of her father's madness evident in his daughter. But, as Robinson writes, Ada's "imagination could not be confined by math, because Ada was starting to find her own sort of poetical expression . . . through math!"
Robinson shares the same details that Laurie Wallmark, herself a teacher of computer science, does in her book Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine, while bringing a more poetic tone to her writing as well as a more imaginatively creative style to her illustrations. In fact, click over and read - or even just look at the pictures of Robinson's artistic process - in her interview at Design of the Picture Book. 
Robinson takes Ada through her adolescence, her meeting with Charles Babbage and his Difference Engine and into her young adulthood and marriage. Robinson spends several pages writing about the Analytical Engine, making links to the Jacquard Loom when describing the the hole-punched cards (that also make up the fantastic endpapers and case of this book, as seen above) that Babbage fed into the machine to calculate sums. I was Ada who figured out the algorithm that would be punched into the cards, which Robinson illustrates with a very clever page of maze-like swirls and a list of instructions on how readers should navigate the swirls to find the treasures in the maze, which is VERY cool and an analogy that I could grasp.
I can't wait to share this book, and Wallmark's, with my second graders who do reports on people and animals who are heroes every year! Robinson's illustrations and text are engaging and even better, comprehensive.
My favorite picture books by Fiona Robinson:
More about Ada Lovelace:
Source: Review Copy
While WW II was waging furiously in Europe, some countries didn't see as much action. But it didn't mean that pivotal moments didn't occur in those countries. Switzerland declared itself neutral, but Norway didn't. And there was one place in Norway that became very VERY interesting to the Nazis. It was a place so obscure and rare, they would do anything to make sure they could control it.
An interesting fact - the science behind the nuclear bomb was being explored before and during World War II. Everyone knew that whomever developed it first would win the war. And the race was on. Different physicists and scientists came up with various ways to create one and there were many elements that had to be used. One of them was called heavy water. Hydrogen has been replaced by deuterium, which made it essential for bomb making. The unfortunate thing was that heavy water was difficult to produce and there wasn't much of it.
But there was one place in Europe where heavy water was produced. The Vemork Hydroelectric Plant in Norway. Difficult to access, it was the perfect Nazi situation, making it hard to infiltrate. It was to be a huge Nazi secret that gave them the extra incentive to win the nuclear race.
One thing they didn't count on was the patriotism of the Norwegians. There were underground resistance groups that sprung up and when the Nazis found them out, they used scare and death tactics to contain them. It only bolstered them to fight back even more. Several Norwegians went to England to train with the secret intelligence service to become infiltrators, spies and saboteurs. They were to go back to Norway and create new resistance groups and sabotage any Nazi effort.
The top priority was to destroy Vemork....but could they without getting caught or putting the small town of Rjukan in jeopardy for their lives? Even worse, their mission was to take place in winter across a vast frozen area where survival would be severely tested.
Young adult non-fiction is fascinating for one very simple reason - these are the events that aren't usually written about in history books. Neal Bascomb hit it out of the park with his newest book. Narrative in nature, Bascomb tells a riveting story as well as providing images and photographs of the main players and sites. In hindsight, readers will see how one mistake could have changed the outcome of the war. This is the invisible part of WWII teens will find fascinating.
I am not a gardener. I put plants in my yard with thought and care, then I had my third child and started working full time. I love plants, I love gardening, I just don't have time for it and thus haven't shared that love with my kids. However, I work at an elementary school with a project based learning curriculum where the second grade crew took on a year long project that involved a garden, milkweed and monarch butterflies. Using a micro-space, four big planter boxes and a compost pile, these kids became experts over the course of the year. And when, near the end of the school year their garden was vandalized, plants and chrysalises crushed, the spirits of our kids were not. There were tears, for sure, but they rallied. You can read about it here. I tell you about this by way of explaining my personal education on the power of the plant and the good of a garden and I am especially happy to be able to share Gardening Lab For Kids: 52 Fun Experiments to Learn, Grow, Harvest, Make, Play and Enjoy Your Garden by Renata Fossen Brown with the students at my school and my readers here.
Brown believes that gardening is the combination of art and science, and her book is a collection of activities that she has used professionally at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, where she has been vice president of education. Her introduction covers plant basics, from plant parts, hardiness and heat zones, annual versus perennial, watering, materials and even gardening with pets. Each lab takes up a two page spread, with the materials and instructions starting on the verso, and a "Dig Deeper!" box on the recto that gives scientist-gardeners the chance to go one step beyond. Units include getting started, theme gardening, green gardening, garden art and enjoying your garden and the variety and breadth that Brown brings to her book surprised and delighted me.
There are labs for soil percolation, making a rain gauge, making a sprinkler, using catalogs to create a garden design, and even making seed tape which I didn't know was a thing but is a brilliant idea. The entire unit on Theme Gardening is inspiring and I even found a project I think I can take on with my own kids - the Herb Spiral, using bricks like building blocks to build a very cool planter.
The labs featuring art projects, gifts and garden goodies are especially fun. From stepping stones, plant labels and wind chimes to fountains, bird baths, luminarias, Gardening Lab For Kids is packed with great ideas. My favorites? The Garden Journal, the colorful, portable cushions for sitting and enjoying the garden and the lab on Garden Poetry are right up there, but the Garden Fort has to be my absolute. How magical to create a garden, decorate it and then enjoy it from the privacy of your own, handmade fort?
Source: Review Copy
As a cook, I read Amazing (Mostly) Edible Science, and thought, this is a cookbook! Yum! However, having studied, researched and taught myself the hows and whys of cooking over the decades, I definitely understand that it IS a science. This is exactly why Amazing (Mostly) Edible Science by Andrew Schloss is such a fantastic book - it can hook people like me, who love food and cooking but not necessarily science, and teach me a thing or two. And have delicious, educational fun at the same time. Andrew Schloss is an industry expert, chef, consultant, author and the co-author of The Science of Good Food, a book that brings restaurant level chemistry and physics home with explanations of the physical and chemical transformations which govern all food preparation and cooking, making him perfectly poised to write this superb book for kids.
As I flipped through Amazing (Mostly) Edible Science, I came across many recipe experiments for things have long wanted to make. As the introduction says, "Each experiment is written directly to kids. Almost all can be completed with simple household ingredients. Most take less than an hour (some can be done in as little as 10 minutes), and each provides a snack or meal after you're finished experimenting." I can't think of a better way to spend time in the kitchen with your kids! Besides being filled with exciting experiments, the layout and presentation in Amazing (Mostly) Edible Science is MAGNIFICENT! Yes, it deserves that superlative in all caps. As you can see on the page below, each experiment has a rainbow-color-ranking on the right hand side of the page. Each color informs you as to the wow factor, the degree of edibleness, difficulty level, materials called for, time, cost and safety, making it SO EASY to flip through this book and choose something to do right then and there, or plan for another time.
The table of contents is divided into six chapters: Wiggly, Jiggly Experiments, Sweet Crystal Experiments, Cookies, Cakes, and Other Baked Experiments, Fruitastic, Vegedacious Experiments, Eggcellent Eggsperiments, Sodalicious Experiments. You can make edible slime and glow-in-the-dark gelatin, cream-less ice cream and candy-cane origami. Or, you can make 40-second sponge cake, English muffins or molten chocolate cupcakes. As seen above, you can make glowy, bouncy eggs or solid soup. Then, top it off with little edible water bottles and milk rocks.
As a cookbook and a science in the home book, Amazing (Mostly) Edible Science hits all the right marks for me. As a book lover, the aesthetics of Schloss's book is deeply pleasing, from the easy to read, colorful experiments to the fantastic photographs to the matte paper. This is a gorgeous, great book!
Source: Review Copy
By:
Jennifer Thermes,
on 8/2/2016
Blog:
Art, Words, Life
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
kidlit,
picture books,
non-fiction,
abrams books for young readers,
STEM,
charles darwin,
charles darwin's around-the-world adventure,
Add a tag
I'm thrilled to share that Kirkus calls my forthcoming book,
CHARLES DARWIN'S AROUND-THE-WORLD ADVENTURE,
"A notable choice for both STEM curricula and family sharing." Thank you, Kirkus! (October will be here in no time!)
Read the full review
here.
By:
Bianca Schulze,
on 7/22/2016
Blog:
The Children's Book Review
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Non-Fiction,
Chapter Books,
Parenting,
Author Interviews,
featured,
Parenting Books,
Social Graces,
Guide Books,
Books About College,
Karen Levin Coburn,
Madge Lawrence Treeger,
Add a tag
The Children’s Book Review: Which five words best describe LETTING GO: A Parent’s Guide to Understanding the College Years?
Karen Levin Coburn: Reassuring, informative, warm, honest, insightful
I often work with clients who are writing a blend of fiction and non-fiction in their picture books. This is a tough proposition to publish. Let me explain what I mean. The book features characters and a plot, and also a sizeable number of facts. For example, a girl finds an unusual frog, learns that it belongs in a rain forest, and journeys there to return it. In the process, we have a character with a strong objective, plot points, as well as a lot of interesting information.
In theory, this is a great idea. We have all the charm and imagination of fiction, as well as that all-important educational value. So what goes wrong with this type of manuscript? It lies in the non-fiction part that the writer is attempting to attach to the fiction. There are two problems that usually arise. Too much information, and too little.
When there is too much information, that means the character and plot elements of the fiction part are too thin. The issue is usually that a person really wants to write non-fiction, but they worry that it won’t have enough pizzazz in the marketplace, so they try to spice it up with a protagonist. There are characters, but they don’t do much of anything, for example. It’s if we had Dora the Explorer but we didn’t know anything about her. She just had a name and a little bit of a personality, but she was only really there to have a learning experience. A glorified tour guide, if you will. In my original frog premise, it would be if the girl just went to the rain forest (without a frog or a mission to return it) and walked around, learning about the various plants and animals. There’s technically a fictional “frame” on this book (the girl whose eyes we are seeing things through) but it’s mostly non-fiction.
My recommendation, in that case, would be to rewrite the manuscript as straight non-fiction. It’s going to be easier to place, anyway, if it’s easier to categorize. A fact-based look at the rain forest (or any other topic) without any distracting character element is the bread and butter of school and library NF picture book programs. The lesson? You don’t have to tack a character on to a manuscript if your passion is non-fiction. If you are qualified to write factually on a subject, do your best at that and pitch it as NF.
When there is too little information, it raises a lot of questions. It would be if the girl went to the rain forest, had some really awesome adventures, but only learned about one plant and two other animals. Why that plant? Why those animals? Why those facts about that plant and those animals? If your goal is to teach, why not teach more comprehensively? Why pick only five facts to span the course of a book?
I recently encountered this issue in a client’s premise. (I’m going to change the details of the premise for the sake of confidentiality.) The writer a century’s worth of decades, let’s say the 20th century. And their character stopped in each decade for one page. They learned one thing about each decade. Why that thing? Out of everything that happened in that decade, why that one thing? The educational element was too thin.
If you’re going to cover a topic (the 20th century), then you need to pick a specific angle and really dive in. A picture book on the 20th century isn’t going to sell that well, no matter how charismatic your characters are. It’s too broad. Now, a tour of the Roaring 20s? Getting there. Maybe just the music of the Roaring 20s or the fashion of the Roaring 20s? Very specific. A character recreating the fashion of the 1920s for a fashion show? Bingo. That represents a good blend of fiction and non-fiction.
I would say that a good blend of fiction and non-fiction is the Magic Schoolbus franchise. The class is always up to something. There’s action involved, a mystery to solve, etc. The learning happens almost “under the table” as they pursue an objective. But the books are chock-full of information, and they represent a very comprehensive look at a particular topic.
If you find yourself stuck halfway between fiction and non-fiction, make sure you have enough substance for each category, otherwise, you may be better off committing fully in one direction or the other.
By: Marjorie Coughlan,
on 4/29/2016
Blog:
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Na’ima B. Robert,
MWD Reviews,
MWD book reviews,
Mabrook! A World of Muslim Weddings,
Books,
Picture Books,
Non-Fiction,
Frances Lincoln,
Janetta Otter-Barry Books,
Shirin Adl,
Add a tag
By: Marjorie Coughlan,
on 4/25/2016
Blog:
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Books,
Non-Fiction,
Early Readers,
Osu Children's Library Fund,
Photographic,
The Lucky One,
MWD book reviews,
Kathy Knowles,
photographic picture books for children,
Deborah Cowley,
Children's and YA books about disability,
MWD Theme - All About Balance (Disability & Special Needs),
disability in children's books,
IBBY Collection for Young People with Disabilities,
Add a tag
The Lucky One
written by Deborah Cowley, photographs by Kathy Knowles
(Osu Children’s Library Fund, 2008)
One thing that still surprises me is how much little kids are fascinated by sharks. Shark books in my library are always checked out - even more so than dinosaur books. In light of this, I am truly surprised that Slickety Quick: Poems About Sharks written by Skila Brown and illustrated by Bob Kolar is the first book of its kind I have encountered. Happily, Slickety Quick: Poems About Sharks is a treat to read, both for Brown's playfully informative shape poems and for Kolar's colorful, watery illustrations that handsomely capture the (often beautiful) subjects. I don't usually include so many illustrations from a book in a review, but Brown's range of shark subjects and Kolar's illustrations are so fantastic, I wanted to give you a really good idea of all that Slickety Quick has to offer. 
Wisely, and with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor, Brown kicks off Slickety Quick with a poem about the great white shark - in the shape of that distinctive fin. Thirteen species and their poems, along with brief facts, follow and their variety might surprise you.
Brown's poems are as dramatic as her subjects and very fun to read out loud, especially the poem about the hammerhead shark for two voices, above. The pages of Slickety Quick are so fun to pore over and readers are sure to learn about sharks without even realizing it!
On his website Kolar mentioned that he loves creating the end pages of his books and this is where I realized I had reviewed a book illustrated by Kolar back in 2011 and, tickled by the end pages, I included them in my review of Nothing Like a Puffin by Sue Soltis. And, I also realized that I had reviewed Skila Brown's unforgettable debut novel in 2014! A verse novel set in Guatemala in 1981, Caminar tells the story of a young boy caught between the military government and guerillas fighting against it.
Source: Review Copy
Joanne Friar
naughty bunnies on the tree farm
from O Christmas Tree
By: Marjorie Coughlan,
on 3/29/2016
Blog:
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Young Adult,
Picture Books,
Articles,
Non-Fiction,
Eric Carle,
Bloomsbury,
IBBY,
International Youth Library,
Mary Hoffman,
Annick Press,
Mariatu Kamara,
The Bite of the Mango,
Susan McClelland,
Toronto Public Library,
Frances Lincoln,
The Very Hungry Caterpillar,
Dial Books,
The Great Big Book of Families,
Ros Asquith,
The Great Big Book Of...,
MWD Theme - All About Balance (Disability & Special Needs),
Ann Gomér,
Cecilia Höglund,
Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Mexico),
Diego Bianki,
IBBY Collection for Young People with Disabilities,
Jella Lepman,
Junko Murayama,
Landskrona Vision (Sweden),
Leigh Turina,
Moa åker på lager (Moa Goes to Camp),
Pequeño Editor (Argentina),
Rompecabezas (Puzzles),
Shogakukan (Japan),
tactile children's books,
Tenji tsuki sawaru ehon: Sawaru meiro / Touch Picture Book with Braille: Mazes by Touch,
Add a tag
Human Body Theater: A Non-Fiction Revue, the new graphic novel by Maris Wicks is a fantastic way to learn a vast amount of information in a very fun format. Wicks is the illustrator of one of my favorite non-fiction graphic novels, Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas, written by Jim Ottaviani. In eleven acts, a skeleton takes readers through the main systems of the body, beginning with the skeletal system and working up at the excretory system just before intermission. After that, five more systems are visited, from the endocrine system to the reproductive, immune and nervous systems, ending with the five senses. And, as you can see, Wicks's illustrations are fantastic. Crisp and clear, with a bright color palette and images outlined in black, Human Body Theater is a treat to look at that you will find yourself poring over. 
After a quick introduction to the hardworking stage hands, the cells, bones then muscles are explored. I'll be honest, I have vague memories of learning about the human body in my high school biology class and it was largely uninteresting and forgettable. However, Wicks's illustrations and presentation are so inviting that I genuinely enjoyed my trip through the human body! I guess giving faces and smiles to things like a cytoplasm, a Gogli body and atoms is just entertaining enough to keep my attention. To illustrate how the heart and the lungs work together to supply the body with oxygen, Wicks brings two, pink oxygen molecules in tutus on stage to dance readers through the process.
The Blood Bus takes readers through the cardiovascular system and a peanut butter and banana sandwich explains carbohydrates then, with a note of glee exclaims, "But what's really exciting is that I'm going to get eaten!" The scene ends with the natural conclusion. There is a splash in the toilet on stage and the skeleton thanking the sandwich for an "informative performance." There are also brief forays into heartburn, constipation and the fact that stomach aches, constipation, vomiting and diarrhea can be caused by the brain and the benefits of relaxing and removing stress for the whole body.
Human Body Theater very tactfully covers the reproductive system, starting with the endocrine system and hormones. Wicks very tactfully uses descriptions rather than depictions for this scene. While there is a sperm and an egg with faces that talk, along with anatomical images of the sex organs, many readers might not even realize what they are looking at. Menstruation and erections are covered along with other changes that puberty brings, like body odor, pimples, hair growth, voice changing and breast development. The scene ends with pregnancy, birth and infancy. After a romp through the five senses, the skeleton ends the show by putting on some skin, then quickly stepping behind the curtain for some clothes.
In an excellent move, Wicks includes a glossary, with the ASL sign for each letter starting off each section, then a bibliography and suggested reading section!
Besides being a first rate author and illustrator and graphic novelist, Maris Wicks has a background in oceanography and education, having worked at the New England Aquarium where she taught children about marine science. This month she can be found on the R/V Atlantis doing research for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This all makes perfect sense because Wicks's next graphic novel, coming later this month, can be seen below!
Source: Review Copy
2016, Random House
On August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden was having a typical morning. She got out her handkerchiefs to iron, and went out the the barn to find some fishing leads for her pole. But when she got back, chaos reigned...
Her father and step-mother had been brutally murdered, their faces hacked to pieces.
She was only gone 10-15 minutes. How could this have happened? Right away the police were called and the investigation into one of the most famous murders began to proceed. But what makes this murder and subsequent trial one of the most (in)famous trials in American history is the big whodunit?
At the time, it was HIGHLY irregular for a woman, especially a woman of society and wealth, to be put on trial for something as heinous as murder by an axe, but all evidence pointed to poor Lizzie. She was under house arrest, then taken to jail for months until the trial began in Fall River, Massachusetts. Who did it? Was it truly Lizzie or someone else? Will the real murdered be captured for the town could rest easy or not?
I absolutely LOVE narrative non-fiction, and Sarah Miller doesn't disappoint with her book. Not only does the reader feel like they're reading a novel, but she also leaves an air of mystery throughout, nudging the reader to the end to see if anything happened, new evidence was found, and who was ultimately responsible for the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Borden. Miller provides the reader with historical excerpts from newspapers and trial transcripts as well as eyewitness testimony from not only the day the murder happened, but all the interaction that happened between Lizzie Borden and themselves. Miller takes one of America's most intriguing events and creates a big picture that at the same time dispels rumors most people think from then until today. This is an excellent collection to any collection. Recommended JH/HS.
Other narrative non-fiction titles for young adults:
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin
Hitler's Last Days: The Death of the Nazi Regime and the World's Most Notorious Dictator
by Bill O'Reilly
Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny and the Fight For Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin
Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary by Gail Jarrow
The Witch of Lime Street: Seance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World
Chocolate: Sweet Science and Dark Secrets of the World's Most Favorite Treat by Kay Frydenborg
How They Choked: Failure, Flops and Flaws of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg
Lincoln's Grave Robbers by Steve Sheinkin
Red Madness: How a Medical Mystery Changed What We Eat by Gail Jarrow
Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O'Reilly
For the Good of Mankind? The Shameful History of Human Medical Experimentation by
Vicki Wittenstein
The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb
Superman vs. The Ku Klux Klan: The True Story of How the Iconic Superhero Battled the Men of Hate by Rick Bowers
Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures in the World's Most Polluted Places by Andrew Blackwell
They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of An American Terrorist Group by Susan Bartoletti Campbell
Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and American in the Age of Lies by Marc Aronson
Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet Below the Chilean Desert by Marc Aronson
Bootleg: Murder Moonshine and the Lawless Years of Prohibition by Karen Blumenthal
Graphic Novel Non-Fiction:
The Comic Book Story of Beer: The World's Favorite Beverage from 7000 BC to Today's Craft Brewing Revolution by Jonathan Hennessey
Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans by Don Brown
Andre The Giant: Life and Legen by Box Brown
Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness by Reinhard Kleist
Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm
My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf
Survival Secrets of Turkey Vultures
What makes vultures unique? What two weird defense tricks do turkey vultures use to freak out their predators?
By:
Bianca Schulze,
on 2/18/2016
Blog:
The Children's Book Review
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Ages 9-12,
Dance,
Sports,
Ballet,
Non-Fiction,
Chapter Books,
Black History Month,
Author Interviews,
Adoption,
African American Authors,
Memoirs,
African American,
featured,
Dancing,
Orphans,
Books for Girls,
African American History Month,
Sheryl WuDunn,
Nicholas D. Kristof,
Teens: Young Adults,
Elaine DePrince,
Michaela DePrince,
Add a tag
The extraordinary memoir of Michaela DePrince, a young dancer who escaped war-torn Sierra Leone for the rarefied heights of American ballet.
Historium is the second (wonderfully oversized) book in Big Picture Press's Welcome to the Museum series which started with Animalium. More than an encyclopedia, the Welcome to the Museum books are about organization and exploration. Readers "walk" through galleries, but not before a preface that introduces readers to the creativity of humanity. Next, an introduction from the curators lets readers know how the items in the book/museum were chosen then answers the question, "What is archaeology?"
Africa, America, Asia, Europe, The Middle East and Oceania make up the galleries/chapters in Historium. From there, each continent is divided into three to five smaller galleries with a paragraph or two about each civilization, most which are defunct. Rather than photographs of the 130 artifacts, Richard Wilkinson, using photographs as resource material, draws them in minute detail. They are then reproduced on smooth, not shiny paper, and presented on a solid, colorful background. Featuring items that range from the sacred items to the everyday tools, Historium is invaluable for the way in which it encourages readers to look at and think about the things that humans have created throughout the centuries.
Don't miss the first book in the Welcome to the Museum series:
Source: Review Copy
View Next 25 Posts
.jpeg?picon=3015)
Leigh Turina is Lead Librarian for the 
