How to use this Page

Bird, Bird, Bird! (A Chirping Chant)

For Nonfiction Monday, here's a look at the National Geographic Investigates Series. I reviewed one book in this series, Ancient Egypt: Archaeology Unlocks the Secrets of Egypt's Past by Jill Rubalcaba; Janice Kamrin, Consultant, and now here is a look at two other titles in the series. Copies supplied by Raab Associates.

Ancient Inca: Archaeology Unlocks the Secrets of Inca's Past by Beth Gruber; Johan Reinhard, Consultant

Ancient Greece: Archaeology Unlocks the Secret's of Greece's Past by Marni McGee, Michael Shanks, Consultant

It's About: This series explains archaeology, the process, the finds, how there is always something new to be discovered or a new interpretation to be made. I like the photos; I like the time lines; I love the resources. And I like how there is something unique about each book.

The Good:

For the Inca book: Mummies! Love mummies. And I also liked learning more about Gupis -- the knots in colored string to record calendar and keep track of livestock "without anyone who can read the stories tied into the colorful strings, understanding the ancient Inca is a lot like solving a mystery."

I was also intrigued by how people with an interest in this -- people like me -- may be contributing to the destruction of archaeological sites, grave robbing, and the simple physical impact of the people visiting the sites. This has led to such virtual tours as the 2005-2006 Machu Picchu Display at the Yale University's Peabody Museum of Natural History.

For the Greece book: I loved the description of an archaeology site being like a crime scene. (I like crime shows and books, in addition to history books; I guess this shows the two have more in common than I thought.)

It's amazing to think of the discoveries still being made, as well as interpretations to be refined and changed. This also included the issue of ownership of ancient artifacts such as the Elgin Marbles.

The book also featured my favorite artifact that makes history real: the cup of Euripides. WOW.

A general note about nonfiction:

One of the reasons I like nonfiction, and so look forward to the sharing of books via Nonfiction Mondays, is there is so much great nonfiction out there. Schools can only teach so much in a given day; so having nonfiction books available to learn more or learn more in depth is great.

_
Wow, I just about missed the very first Nonfiction Monday!

Loree Burns wrote on her blog today:

"In a perfect world I would have prepared this inaugural Nonfiction Monday post last week, polished it over the weekend, and posted it before the sun was up this morning. But my world is decidedly imperfect: last week was mayhem, the weekend was chaos, and I am still not entirely certain where this morning has gone."

 
Anastasia Suen has started a fun new event: Nonfiction Mondays, where bloggers will post about nonfiction books and writing nonfiction, along the same lines as Poetry Fridays.

I've been posting about my latest nonfiction project recently, so I thought I'd do something else today.

I've been teaching a class for people interested in writing children's nonfiction books for the educational market. Recently, everyone wrote cover letters for introductory packets and we critiqued them. Wow! They did an impressive job, and each one of them is really prepared and qualified to take on an assignment.

But what if there's only one assignment to hand out? Who stands out?

As I read everyone's cover letters, I had a small taste of what it's like to be an assigning editor. After reading each one, I thought, "OK, this person understands what's involved in this process; she has the necessary background; and she seems professional, intelligent, and competent." But at the end of reading 10 or 12 letters, it was hard to remember each person. In a group of 10 (or 50 or 100), how do you make your own cover letter stand out?

For me, it was the personal touch. People who wove in a personal anecdote, preferably one related to some really unusual topic (perhaps even one covered by their writing sample) were more memorable for me.

What tips to do you have? When introducing yourself to a nonfiction editor, how do you make your cover letter the one she'll remember?

Check out the Nonfiction Monday roundup later today at Anastasia's blog! Thanks for starting this, Anastasia!