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I read Tricia’s post Leap into the Year of the Frog at The Miss Rumphius Effect and found out about the efforts of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to call people’s attention to the fact that many amphibian species are threatened with extinction. For your information, I have included an excerpt from AZA’s website:

“Frogs are going extinct. So are toads, salamanders, newts, and the intriguingly unusual caecilians. In fact, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) estimates that at least one-third of known amphibian species are threatened with extinction. While the major culprit has historically been habitat loss and degradation, many of the declines and extinctions previously referred to as "enigmatic" are now being attributed to the rapidly dispersing infectious disease chytridiomycosis, which is caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Bd is causing population and species extinctions at an alarming rate. Can you imagine if we were about to lose one-third of the world's mammals?”


Here is a mask poem I wrote about frogs, which I am dedicating to The Year of the Frog.

LOOK AT US NOW!
by Elaine Magliaro

The day we hatched from jellied eggs…
We looked like fish.
We had no legs.
We breathed through gills.
We had no lungs.
We didn’t have long sticky tongues.
We didn’t look like frogs…for sure.
But then we started to mature.
And day by day we changed and grew.
To tails and gills we bid adieu.
Now we have lungs and four fine limbs…
And we can croak
and jump
AND

A Toad by the Road: A Year in the Life of These Amazing Amphibians
Written by Joanne Ryder
Illustrated by Maggie Kneen
Henry Holt

To read my review of this poetry collection, click here.

Lizards, Frogs, and Polliwogs
Written & illustrated by Douglas Florian
Harcourt

I enjoy all of Douglas Florian’s collections of animal poems. Lizards, Frogs, and Polliwogs is one of my favorites. The rhythmic, rhyming, lighthearted amphibian and reptile poems in this book are full of clever wordplay and are lots of fun to read aloud. This book is sure to be a hit with children and adults alike. The collection includes poems about polliwogs, spring peepers, a glass frog, the newt, the wood frog, the red-eyed tree frog, a bullfrog, and poison-dart frogs.

Here’s an excerpt from The Wood Frog, a poem about a hibernating amphibian:

My temperature is ten degrees.
I froze my nose, my toes,my knees.
But I don’t care, I feel at ease,
For I am full of antifreeze.

Marsh Music
Written by Marianne Berkes
Ilustrated By Robert Noreika
Millbrook

As night arrives, a marsh comes alive with music. A bullfrog maestro raises a baton and starts to conduct a chorus of different species of frogs as they begin singing:

The rain has stopped.
Night is coming.
The pond awakes with
Quiet humming.

Maestro frog hops to the mound
As night begins to fill with sound.

Peepers peep pe-ep, peep, peep.
They have had a good day’s sleep!

Chorus frogs are hard to see.
Hear them chirping do re mi.

Other frogs and toads join in, including green frogs and American toads and wood frogs and pig frogs. Two leopard frogs pirouette and leap through the air as they dance ballet on lily pads. Even stars “are twinkling to the tune/As they dance around the moon."

Then dawn arrives, the maestro puts down his baton, and the frogs go to sleep. The marsh is quiet…but not for long…because another marsh melody is heard—that of a bird!

The back matter of the book includes a Glossary of Musical Terms with definitions for certain words used in the text—including adagio, moderato, percussion, and woodwinds. It also includes two pages with information about “The Cast” of amphibian performers named in the book: “Maestro” Bullfrog, Spring Peepers, Chorus Frogs, American Toads, Green Frogs, Narrow-mouthed Toads, Wood Frogs, Pig Frogs, Green Tree Frogs, Leopard Frogs, Barking Tree Frogs.

INFORMATIONAL BOOKS WRITTEN IN VERSE

Here’s how the book begins:

The
GRAY
TREEFROG
is
quite
a
clown.
It leaps about,
then
settles
down.

With suction cups
upon its toes,
it clings to things.
Then off it goes.

Depending
on the
temperature,
the
dampness,
or
the light…
it’s sometimes gray
or
green or brown and sometimes pearly white.

The book goes on to inform readers, briefly, about other “camouflaged’ amphibians: the meadow frog, arum frog, the horn frog, cat-eyed tree frog, green toad, and salamander.

Frogs Sing Songs
Written by Yvonne Winer
Illustrated by Tony Oliver
Charlesbridge

I can’t find my copy of Frogs Sing Songs at the moment—so here is a review of the book from Booklist:

From Booklist - April 30, 2003
“This lyrical companion to Winer's Birds Build Nests (2001) makes a strong environmental statement about saving frogs, from Africa to the Artic. On each double-page spread, one of Winer's short, simple poems appears under a spot illustration of a frog. Opposite is a full-page, vivid, realistic watercolor illustration of that particular species in its natural habitat. Each of the poems begins with the refrain, "Frogs sing their songs," then the following four lines reveal beautiful details about that frog and the sounds it makes. The book closes with a two-page frog identification guide for each of the 15 species shown in the book, complete with physical descriptions of specific sounds, from an oxlike bellow to a baby rattle. Words and pictures celebrate the varied coloring and sounds and the amazing adaptability of frogs around the world; and children will celebrate the creatures, too.”

Be sure to check out Tricia’s post Leaping Into Books About Frogs (And Other Amphibians) for more book recommendations.

At Blue Rose Girls, I have a great poem by Sherman Alexie entitled Powwow at the End of the World.

Kelly Fineman has the Poetry Friday Roundup.

I hadn’t planned to write a book review for Nonfiction Monday. I was looking for a poem to post for Presidents’ Day in honor of George Washington when I remembered a book I used to share in the library with my elementary students—a book I still read to the students in my children’s literature course. It’s a nonfiction book about the dental problems that our first President faced, the constant pain caused by his rotting teeth, and the dentures that were made for him. It isn’t a typical book about one of the most illustrious figures in American history. It’s a humorous story written in verse that begins at the time of the Revolutionary War and ends after George Washington becomes President and gets a pair of dentures carved from a hippo tusk.

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S TEETH
Written by Deborah Chandra & Madeleine Comora
Pictures by Brock Cole
Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2003

George Washington’s Teeth is most certainly a great book to read aloud! It’s rhythmic and rhyming and sure to tickle children’s funny bones. But…the book was well researched. In the back matter, there is a four-page time line (1732-1799) of important events in Washington’s life taken from his own letters, diaries, and accounts. It includes two photographs of his last set of dentures. There is also a list of time line sources.

This is how the book begins:

The Revolutionary War
George hoped would soon be won,
But another battle with his teeth
Had only just begun…

George Washington rushed into town,
The dentist heard his shout.
“Hold still,” he said, then gave a yank—
A rotten tooth popped out!

But that’s not the end of George’s tooth troubles. He heads off to war again with another toothache. He has swollen gums, which he soothes with oil of myrrh. He continues to lose teeth and have teeth pulled. He has to eat soft foods like mush and pickled tripe. When he crosses the Delaware River, there are just nine teeth left in his mouth. At Valley Forge, he has but seven. By the time he returns home after the war is won, he can count the number of teeth in his mouth on one hand: five. So it goes…until Election Day, when…

Poor George had two teeth in his mouth
The day the votes came in.
The people had a President,
But one afraid to grin.

When an artist comes to paint George’s portrait, he has the President put cotton in his mouth to puff out his sunken lips. Later, his dentist brings him a set of dentures. The denture’s springs snap against his tongue, fly out of his mouth—and he loses his last tooth. Poor “toofless” George gets an idea. He rummages through Mount Vernon looking for the teeth he lost. He makes a plaster mold with the teeth he finds to show to the dentist. The dentist then carves Washington a set of dentures from hippo tusk. The rhyming story ends happily with George dancing the night away at a ball.

In the book’s time line, the authors state the following: “George dies at Mount Vernon at the age of sixty-seven. It is believed that a chronic, untreated infection from the old root fragments in his gums contributed to his death.” There are many other facts included in the time line—as well as pictures of some of Washington’s portraits—that children are sure to find interesting.

Brock Coles’ cartoon-like watercolor illustrations enhance the lighthearted tone of the text. Children are sure to enjoy this humorous tale of the dental woes of the Father of Our Country.

Edited to Add:

To see a picture of a set of George Washington’s dentures, click here.
To see two more pictures of George Washington’s teeth, click here and here.


Anastasia Suen has the Nonfiction Monday Round-up for February 18, 2008.

DIZZY
Written by Jonah Winter
Illustrated by Sean Qualls
Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic, 2006

Winter begins the story of Dizzy’s life by explaining how he was born into a poor family, how other kids beat him up because he was so small, and how he learned to fight back. Dizzy’s father also beat him often. Dizzy tried to be tough. He was often angry. One day a music teacher gave him a trumpet. Dizzy played that horn like crazy—blowing out the anger he felt inside. His music wasn’t pretty at first—but playing the horn made him feel good.

Dizzy kept practicing until he was the best musician in his small southern town. He became bored with just playing music that was written on a page. He wanted to play jazz, to break the rules, to invent new rules with his music. He headed for Philadelphia.

Dizzy was quite a prankster. While on stage, he’d fall off his chair, play practical jokes on other musicians, push the piano player off the bench and then play the piano with his left hand while holding the trumpet in his right hand. The older musicians didn’t care for his antics. Dizzy didn’t care. He wanted to be noticed.

In time, Philly seemed like small time to Dizzy—so he took off for New York, a city that was alive with jazz all night long. He began playing trumpet with a big name band—and clowning around again. He KNEW he had to do something to make himself stand out—even though it cost him his job. But that was okay. Dizzy was a man with a mission. He wanted to change jazz into something new, something cooler—a crazy kind of jazz that’s called bebop!

“BEBOP.”

That’s what Dizzy called
this CRAZY kind of jazz
that he had invented just
by having the courage to be himself
until the very thing that had gotten him into trouble
so much—
being a clown, breaking the rules—
had become the thing that made him great,

his ticket
into Jazz Heaven
where, on certain nights,
Dizzy Gillespie
Still shoves the Angel Gabriel out of the way
And shows him how to play

Bebop

In an interview in School Library Journal, Jonah Winter states: “I have always been a fan of Beat Generation poetry. I know it has its limitations, and is easily parodied, but it's fun—and that style seemed perfect for getting across the Dizzy Gillespie story.” Winter is right—he sets the perfect tone with his “beat generation” text for his biography of a jazz giant. And with his illustrations, artist Sean Qualls captures the jazzy, beat essence of Winter’s text and Dizzy and his music. Qualls’ stylistic mixed media pictures, which were done in acrylic paint, collage, and pencil, evoke the intensity of the trumpeter wrapped up in making music with his horn.

I’ll quote what Jonah Winter said about Qualls’ art for Dizzy in his SLJ interview: “I had never worked with Sean before this, and I didn't see the illustrations until they were pretty much all done, but I will say—they are so surprising, subtle. The cool palette he uses provides such a nice counterpoint to the crrrrrrrrrazy text. It really gets across the tension between what Dizzy Gillespie and his cohorts were doing with their music (which was explosive and cool at the same time) and that oh-so-hip/cool exterior which totally changed the image of how jazz musicians were perceived.”

Dizzy is an outstanding biography that tells about the life and music of one mighty cool bebopper! It’s a picture book in which both the text and illustrations work in perfect harmony

Dizzy Gillespie-Bebop Reunion—Diz, Kai, Monk

Dizzy Gillespie & Louis Armstrong—Umbrella

Dizzy Gillespie on the Muppet Show

The Buzz About Dizzy: Jonah Winter, an interview with Jonah Winter about his book Dizzy from School Library Journal (9/20/2006)

ELLA FITZGERALD: THE TALE OF A VOCAL VIRTUOSA
Written by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Illustrated by Brian Pinkney
Jump at the Sun/Hyperion, 2002

The narrator of Ella Fitzerald is Scat Cat Monroe. In the book, Scat Cat is pictured as a cat dressed up in a suit. He tells us the story of Ella Fitzgerald’s life in four parts, which focus on some of the most important periods/events of her life.

Track 1: Hoofin’ in Harlem
Track 2: Jammin’ at Yale
Track 3: Stompin’ at the Savoy
Track 4: Carnegie Hall Scat

Track 1: When Ella was young, she dreamed of becoming a dancer. She even taught herself to tap-dance. But when she entered a talent contest at the Apollo Theater in 1934, she got cold feet. She just couldn’t dance—so she started singing.

At first, her voice came quiet as a whisper.
A measly little hiss, soft as a cricket. But when the
band joined in, Ella rolled out a tune sweet enough
to bake. She won the contest straight up, kicked her
dance dreams to the curb, and pinned all her hopes
on being a singer.

Track 2: In 1935, the Harlem Opera House signed Ella as a featured singer. A man named Bardou Ali, who was the master of ceremonies for the Chick Webb Orchestra, saw her perform one night. Bardou thought Ella would be perfect for the orchestra—but Chick was a hard man to please…a perfectionist. Chick said he’d let Ella try out when the orchestra played at a dance at Yale University. Well, Ella had those “Yalies jammin’.” Chick welcomed her into the band that very night.

Track 3: Ella sang with the Chick Webb Orchestra at the Savoy. “The place was crammed full of folks who’d come to shake their tails to the orchestra’s sound.” And what of Ella who had once dreamed of becoming a dancer? Why, after she finished singing, she’d get down off the stage and dance with the patrons!

Chick saw Ella’s talent and helped her learn how to deliver a song…how to grab hold of a melody and wrap her voice around it. The two of them had a real chemistry and made beautiful music together. In May of 1937, the Chick Webb Orchestra took on the Benny Goodman Orchestra in a battle of the bands. Ella was on fire:

Her voice was quick-fired rhythm, with a brassy
satin twist.

She sizzled with Chick’s cymbals.
Busted loose with his bongos.

She sang like tomorrow wasn’t ever gonna come.

Track 4: Ella’s star continued to rise. She helped lift the orchestra to new heights. With Al Feldman, one of the other members of the orchestra, she wrote and recorded a song entitled “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” which was a smash hit. (You can hear Ella perform it in a YouTube video. Look for the link below.)

When bebop became the “hot” music, Ella got on board. Dizzy Gillespie asked her to join his band. She started scat singing—using nonsense syllables instead of lyrics to carry a rhythm. In September of 1947, she and Dizzy “headlined a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall.”

In A Note from the Illustrator, Brian Pinkney explains how he was inspired by some Harlem Renaissance artists, including Aaron Douglas and William H. Johnson, who worked during the days when Ella “came of age in Harlem.” He says he was also inspired in his use of colors by those that were in style during the Art Deco movement (1925-1940).

Pinkney’s illustrations, which were done in scratchboard, dyes, and acrylic paints, get into the free-spirited rhythm of jazz. Some of his compositions even touch on the surreal: Chick Webb’s “swinging” band swings on swings in the sky, Ella and Chick fly over the city above the Savoy, and Ella and Dizzy soar above the moon on a giant trumpet. These musicians have gone beyond the bounds of traditional music…to where they are free to improvise and really take wing with their jazz and scat and bebop. As in Dizzy, the art and text in Ella Fitzgerald work together in perfect rhythm to tell the story of a “vocal virtuosa.”

Ella Fitzgerald: One note samba (scat singing) 1969

Summertime—Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong

Ella Fitzgerald—A-Tisket, A Tasket

When I was still teaching in an elementary school, I usually began my unit on biographies in mid- January with the reading of books about Martin Luther King, Jr. The first month of the year seemed like a good time to introduce my second grade students to biographies. I think they are excellent vehicles for exposing young children to different periods in our country’s history and for introducing them to people who were important figures of the past, to scientists and explorers, artists and composers, writers and inventors, and to individuals who had to face great obstacles in their lives and yet were able to forge ahead. Biographies can provide children with a more personal view of history and bring the subject to life better than a social studies textbook can. They can show how people are affected by the times in which they live.

Starting in January and continuing through February, I would read a number of books about famous African Americans, including Benjamin Banneker, Jackie Robinson, Langston Hughes, Wilma Rudolph, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks. I’d also read books about the lives of presidents like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and of other remarkable individuals. My students, too, read biographies that they had selected from the books I had available in my classroom.

Before beginning the unit, I’d gather dozens of biographies from the school library and my own collection and set up a display table and bookcase where my students could peruse the biographies for a few days and then select the ones they wanted to read in class. Because I always liked to use poetry across the curriculum and to connect poetry to other literature, I had a folder of poems about famous people that I had collected over the years to share with students during the course of this unit. In the folder, there were poems about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Nancy Hanks, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Frederick Douglas, Langston Hughes, and others.

Today, I am recommending a book of poems about thirteen famous African Americans. The book was written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by John Thompson. It is perfect for use during Black History Month…or whenever your students are reading biographies. I’m also listing a few of my favorite picture book biographies and nonfiction books about some famous African Americans.

Classroom Connection: Instead of asking children to write a book report of a biography they have read, why not have them write poems about the subjects of their biographies? This kind of writing exercise allows children more freedom of expression and an opportunity for a creative response to a work of nonfiction. The poems in the following book can serve as excellent examples for your students own poems.

Here are a two examples of poems written by my second grade students about Abrham Lincoln in 1991:

LINCOLN
by Elizabeth S. and Lisa R.

We do not have a President
Like Abe—
Not as smart
And not as brave.
Abe was tall and touched the sky.
He fought for freedom for the slaves.
And when Abe died,
I know how much the people cried.

FREEDOM LIKE SUNLIGHT:
PRAISESONGS FOR BLACK AMERICANS
Written by J. Patrick Lewis
Illustrated by John Thompson
Creative Editions, 2000

FREEDOM LIKE SUNLIGHT is a collection of poems about African Americans who were freedom fighters, athletes, musicians and singers, and writers. Lewis wrote “praisesongs” for the following individuals: Arthur Ashe, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Louis Armstrong, Martin Luther King, Jr., Leroy “Satchell” Paige, Rosa Parks, Langston Hughes, Jesse Owens, Marian Andersen, Malcolm X, Wilma Rudolph, and Billie Holiday. Thompson’s illustrations serve as a fine complement to Lewis’s poetry.

The Poems: Lewis uses a variety of poetry in praising the thirteen African Americans who made their marks on history. Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Louis Armstrong, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X are persona poems in which Lewis speaks in the voices of these five individuals.

Here is the first stanza of Harriet Tubman:

I packed corn bread
And salt herring.
I packed my favorite patchwork quilt.
The shabby rags
That I was wearing
Came from the House that Evil built.


Here is an excerpt from Martin Luther King, Jr.

For having told
The truth, I am
Alone and cold
In Birmingham.

I speak to them.
They spit at me
Because it’s Mem-
phis, Tennessee.


In Langston Hughes, Lewis addresses the poet. This poem consists of four stanzas—each of which has four lines and an ABCB rhyme scheme. All of the stanzas begin in the same fashion. The repetition is quite effective.

The beginning lines of the four stanzas:

Someone said they saw you in Paris
Someone said they saw you in Africa.
Someone said they saw you in Harlem
Someone said they saw you, Langston.

The final stanza:

Someone said they saw you, Langston,
Spiriting summer. What was it they heard?
Poems that endlessly echoed…
A dream deferred.

The poem about Rosa Parks tells of her refusal to give up her seat on a bus and the debt that is owed to people like her. The poem about Leroy “Satchel” Paige speaks of his amazing ability as a pitcher to throw a variety of pitches, including “The looper/the drooper/the jump ball/the wobbly ball.” In Jesse Owens, Lewis focuses on the athlete’s triumph at the 1936 Olympics held in Germany and how “The Fuhrer looked away without seeing/the man jump over Germany.”

My favorite poem is Marian Andersen. With few words, Lewis captures the delicate beauty of Andersen’s voice:

She brushed
Her voice
Across the air
In colors
Not seen
Anywhere.

In colors
Beautiful
And strong,
She brushed the air…
And painted song.


The Illustrations: Like Lewis’s poems, Thompson’s illustrations are a fitting tribute to these thirteen people. Done in a variety of media, the pictures are elegant and sometimes moving. Most of the illustrations that accompany the poems are portraits of the people: Marian Andersen is depicted singing. Louis Armstrong, trumpet in hand, is shown singing, too. Captured in black and white, Arthur Ashe’s quiet grace speaks out to readers from the page. For some of the people, the artist chose to illustrate a pivotal moment—a Black women crying for the assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr., or something symbolic of the individual’s life—an empty bus for Rosa Parks and a typewriter with sun shining on it for Langston Hughes. Thompson also illustrated two double-page spreads on which no text is printed—pictures of Martin Luther King, Jr., bent over a counter at a police station when he was being arrested and Malcolm X, viewed from behind, speaking to a crowd of onlookers in a city. In the final illustration, we see Rosa Parks sitting on a bus and gazing out the window.

At the back of the book, Lewis included Biographical Notes about the thirteen Black Americans he honored with his “praise songs.”


Some Recommended Picture Book Biographies and Nonfiction Books about Famous Black Americans

COMING HOME: FROM THE LIFE OF LANGSTON HUGHES
Written & illustrated by Floyd Cooper
Philomel, 1994

Cooper’s book is by no means an in-depth biography of the famous writer —but it touches on many of the important relationships and experiences of his life. It is a fine book to read aloud and an excellent way to introduce children to a great American poet.


ROSA
Written by Nikki Giovanni
Illustrated by Bryan Collier
Henry Holt, 2005

This Caldecott Honor Book focuses on the historical event of December 1, 1955 in Montgomery Alabama, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus—and the ensuing boycott of buses by Black Americans.

TEAMMATES
Written by Peter Golenbock
Illustrated by Paul Bacon
Harcourt Brace, 1990

My elementary students loved this book about Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese, two remarkable and brave sports figures. This book takes readers back to the 1940s—a time when Black baseball players were not allowed in the Major Leagues and had to play in the segregated Negro Leagues. The book tells about Branch Rickey and the reasons why he selected Jackie Robinson to be the first Black player signed to play for a Major League team, the Brooklyn Dodgers; about the prejudice and hostility Robinson faced from fans and other baseball players; and about Pee Wee Reese, a man who believed in doing what was right—a man who had the courage to stand up for his Black teammate at a time when that was not a popular thing to do. Illustrated with watercolor paintings and photographs.

WILMA UNLIMITED: HOW WILMA RUDOPH BECAME THE WORLD’S FASTEST WOMAN
Written by Kathleen Krull
Illustrated by David Diaz
Harcourt, 1996

Wilma Rudolph was stricken with polio before she turned five. It was believed that she would be crippled for life. This biography tells of Wilma’s struggle to regain her ability to walk again, to triumph over adversity, and to become the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics. Wilma Unlimited is a truly uplifting and inspiring story.


DEAR BENJAMIN BANNEKER
Written by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Illustrated by Brian Pinkney
Harcourt Brace, 1994

This is an interesting biography of Benjamin Banneker, a free Black man who was born in 1731. Banneker, a self-taught mathematician and astronomer, was the author of the first published almanac by an African American. If Black people were not enslaved, he felt that they could study and learn as he had. He decided to write a letter to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson to express what he thought of Jefferson owning slaves even though he had written in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.”

Pair the reading of Dear Benjamin Banneker with the picture book Molly Bannaky, a fictionalized account of the life of Benjamin Banneker’s grandmother. The book was written by Alice McGill and illustrated by Chris Soentpiet.

Molly (Walsh) Bannaky was an English dairy maid who escaped being put to death for the crime of having spilled a pail of milk because she could read the Bible. She was sent to America as an indentured servant. After working for a planter for seven years, she gained her freedom, started farming, and bought a slave to help her. Later, Molly married the slave whose name was Bannaky. The couple had four girls. Benjamin was the child of their eldest daughter.


MARTIN’S BIG WORDS: THE LIFE OF DR.MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Written by Doreen Rappaport
Illustrated by Bryan Collier
Jump at the Sun/Hyperion, 2001

Although this is a very brief biography with a spare text, this book opens a door to a discussion about a great American and an inspirational leader who believed in fighting for the rights of Black people through non-violent means. The text in the book is printed in two different fonts and sizes: the narrative is printed in black and Martin’s “big words” are printed in large, bold letters in a variety of colors. This is a biography not just about this man’s life—but also a book about the way he used words to express his beliefs, to communicate his hopeful vision, and to inspire people to work peacefully in their quest for equal rights. Collier’s multi-media illustrations provide a window into the past...into American history...into the heart of the Civil Rights Movement and the man who spoke with such eloquence about his dreams for a brighter future for all citizens of our country.


ONLY PASSING THROUGH: THE STORY OF SOJOURNER TRUTH
Written by Anne Rockwell
Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
Dell/Random House, 2000

This is a powerful and riveting biography that reads like fiction. Sojourner (Isabella) Truth was not a slave of the South—but of the North. This book begins with Sojourner being sold at auction in New York in 1806 when she was just nine years old. It follows her through her experiences with different masters, her forced marriage to an older slave, her eventual freedom, her court case against a slave owner who broke the law when he sold her son Peter to a plantation owner in Alabama, and her later years when she became a great spokesperson in the fight to abolish slavery.

Only Passing Through is an excellent and poignant biography of a brave and strong woman who suffered great cruelty during her life as a slave. It would be an outstanding book to read aloud to third and fourth graders—and even to older children.


WHEN MARIAN SANG
Written by Pam Munoz Ryan
Illustrated by Brian Selznick
Scholastic, 2002

This biography of the famous Black contralto, a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book, is visually stunning. Selznick’s gorgeous, rich artwork draws a reader into the pages of this fine story of the life of the talented opera singer who grew up in America during the “Jim Crow” days. This is a book for all ages. It includes extensive Author and Illustrator Notes, a list of Notable Dates in Marian Andersen’s Life, and a Selected Discography.


MOSES: WHEN HARRIET TUBMAN LED HER PEOPLE TO FREEDOM
Written by Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Jump at the Sun/Hyperion, 2006

This is a fictionalized account of Harriet Tubman’s escape to freedom and her return to the South to show other slaves the route to follow out of bondage. As in Martin’s Big Words, there are threads of more than one text running through the book: the third person narrative tale, the words Tubman speaks to God, and the answers Tubman hears from the Almighty. Weatherford’s lyrical text and Nelson’s powerful images combine to make this an outstanding picture book to share with children. Weatherford includes a Foreword with some details about slavery and a comprehensive Author’s Note with information about the life of Harriet Tubman.

Click here to view some of the illustrations from Moses.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at AmoXcalli this week.

The moment finally came! Signing a copy of HUNGRY at Cobb Mountain's very own coffee shop and bookstore, The Bookkeeper. Bill made pistachio Home Worlder cookies, with five tentacles rather than six, but who's counting! Pipecleaner tentacles were made with googly eyes. There were green alien Italian sodas to drink and a t-shirt giveaway.

My good friend and writing partner, Mary, helped in my presentation as Commander Pggsbtk, (otherwise known as Deborah's grandmother Pig's Butt). Mary and I did a "spit and greet," and she ably assisted applying Pggsbtk's beauty secret to transform Tom, one of the Bookkeeper's visitor's, into an alien. There were wonderful screams of pain from the bathroom as the beauty secret did its job. Norm, Mary's husband, made a certificate for the kids that said they were officially part of the invasion force and were not to be eaten.

Since then Mary helped me at an assembly at school in which a sixth grader named Tristan outdid Tom with his screams from the back of the stage. He was very brave as he went out on his mission to terrorize Earthlings with his new alien face. One of the pleasures of all of this is being a teacher and a writer. The kids at school have been genuinely excited for me.

I signed books at Funtopia last weekend as a fund raiser for Minnie Cannon's sixth grade science camp. Over 200 dollars was raised!

My family, community, friends, collegues, and church (even Episcopalians can appreciate hungry aliens) have been so supportive. All I can say is a humble thank you to everyone who have made the last two weeks so memorable.

OVER IN THE OCEAN: IN A CORAL REEF
Written by Marianne Berkes

Illustrated by Jeannette Canyon

Dawn Publications, 2004

Over in the Ocean is a counting book written in verse that follows the format and rhythm of "Over in the Meadow." There are many reasons to recommend this book. First, it's an excellent book to read aloud. Second, the book has an attractive layout and the colorful, three-dimensional illustrations, shaped entirely from polymer clay, are really gorgeous and eye-catching. Third, the number words are printed in different colors to distinguish them from the rest of the text. Next, the author includes the full text of Over in the Ocean on one page at the end of the book along with the music to which it is to be sung. Other resources included in the back matter are the following:

• Additional information about the coral reef and the animals named in the book
• Fingerplay Fun! with directions for different hand movements children can make when singing the song
• Tips from the Artist
• A Sampling of Nature Awareness Books from Dawn Publications

Here's an excerpt from the book:

Over in the ocean

Far away from the sun

Lived a mother octopus

And her octopus one.

"Squirt," said the mother.

"I squirt," said the one.

So they squirted in the reef

Far away from the sun.

The manuscript for Over in the Ocean was reviewed by the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center.

IN ONE TIDEPOOL: CRABS, SNAILS AND SALTY TAILS

Written by Anthony D. Fredericks

Illustrated by Jennifer DiRubbio

Dawn Publications, 2002

Fredericks takes a non-typical approach with his nonfiction text. This book is a cumulative tale told in verse about a young girl observing the creatures in a tidepool: barnacles, fish, anemones, a blood-red sponge, crabs, snails, limpets, and a sea star. The names of all the creatures mentioned in the text are written in bold print throughout the book. This will be a help with word recognition--especially for children who are encountering these words for the first time.

Here is an excerpt to give you a flavor of the author's text:

Anemones with stinging cells

Hold fast to rocks and empty shells,

Friends to fish that dart and hide

And find their food in the surging tide,

Near barnacles with legs so small

That waved at the girl that watched them all.

In one tidepool, fun to explore,

A web of life on a rugged shore.

At the end of IN ONE TIDEPOOL, Fredericks includes a section called Field Notes, which contains information about the animals in the book. The author notes that all of the animals can be found on both coasts of North America--but that the specific species illustrated in the book live on the West Coast. He also provides a list of recommended books about seashore ecology. This is a good book for reading aloud to very young children to introduce them to the varied life that exists in tidepools.

AT HOME IN THE TIDE POOL

Written by Alexandra Wright

Illustrated by Marshall Peck III

Charlesbridge, 1992