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Children’s Author Trivia Volume 22

Today it’s our two year blogoversary here at Wrapped In Foil. Wow!

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To celebrate, let’s have a new children’s author trivia question.

46. Our first author comes to the writing world as an executive editor at a major publishing house, who has still found time to write over 20 children’s books. One of her books won a Coretta Scott King Honor Award in 2001. She often works with her husband, who just happens to be a Caldecott-Award winning illustrator. Did I mention she also has two children and runs marathons?

Do you know who this amazing woman is?

47. Our second author today is also had many talents. He was a musician, playwright, and also children’s author. One of his books defied categorization, but that didn’t stop an insightful editor from publishing it. Another was the first children’s book to be listed on the New York Times Bestseller List. Johnny Cash made one of the songs he wrote famous (A Boy Named Sue.) Our family’s favorite of his books is a book of spoonerisms that was published after his death. Can you identify this gifted author?

Edit: The answer is now posted.

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Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot

Have you seen  Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot by Sy Montgomery and photographs by Nic Bishop yet? It is on the shortlist for the Cybils in the Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction category. Fuse #8 has predicted it might be in line for the Sibert Medal. If you haven’t seen it, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. It just another book in the Scientists in the Field series, right?

The fuss is all about the strangest, most wondrous, and captivating bird on the planet, called a kakapo parrot.

My family first learned about the adorable kakapo parrot from Sir David Attenborough’s The Life of Birds. The kakapo lives in New Zealand, known for its unusual bird life. In this case “unusual” is an understatement. These large, flightless parrots (weighing up to eight pounds) have soft green feathers that smell strongly of honey, of all things. The sweet smell is thought to come from a bacteria that lives on the birds. They are active at night, and hide during the day in burrows under the ground. That is not where you would expect to find a parrot at all.

Photograph from Brent Barrett at Wikipedia

This tale does have a sad part. Over the last few hundred years, the kakapo numbers have plummeted. A few times they were thought to be nearly extinct. Right now conservationists are trying valiantly to save the less than 100 birds that remain.

With the team of experienced nature writer Sy Montgomery and and fabulous photographer Nic Bishop, you know Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot is going to be high quality. Two of their previous books have been Sibert Honor books. What really tips this book into another category is their obvious passion for the topic. You can tell these two are thrilled to be freezing and wet on a remote island near Antartica chasing the kakapo story to share with us.

Photograph by Mnolf at Wikipedia

As Montgomery so eloquently reminds us, we don’t know the ending to this particular story yet. “We could be witness to one of the most thrilling conservation success stories in human history – or one of the noblest but most tragic failures.”

What do you think?

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 80 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (May 24, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0618494170
ISBN-13: 978-0618494170

nonfictionmonday

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. We invite you to join us. For more information and a schedule, stop by the new Nonfiction Monday blog to see who is hosting each week. This week’s post is at Charlotte’s Library.

If you are a fan of children’s nonfiction books, be sure to visit the new Nonfiction Monday Facebook page.

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Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book Shortlist

Happy 2011!

And with the New Year comes a big cheer as the 2010 Cybils shortlists are announced!

What are Cybils? The acronym stands for children’s and young adult bloggers literary awards. Bloggers who specialize in children’s and young adult books have developed the Cybils awards to highlight some of the best books published in the previous year. Back in September people nominated their favorite books by genre. Since then the Round I panel of judges read and blogged like crazy to whittle the nominations down to this shortlist of seven. And they are:

2010 Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book Finalists
(The titles are linked to take you to Amazon for more information)

 Pop!: The Invention of Bubble Gum by Meghan McCarthy (Simon and Shuster)
Bones by Steve Jenkins (Scholastic Press)
Henry Aaron's Dream by Matt Travares (Candlewick Press)
Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney (Little Brown Kids)
Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat: Ella Fitzgerald by Roxane Orgill (Candlewick Press)
The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According To Susy)
 by Barbara Kerley (Scholastic Press)
Dinosaur Mountain: Digging into the Jurassic Age by Deborah Kogan Ray

(Farrar Straus Giroux)

What an awesome list!

A big thanks to the Round I judges for all their hard work:
Doret Canton, Happy Nappy Bookseller
Shirley Duke, Simply Science
Amanda Goldfuss, ACPL Mock Sibert
Abby Johnson, Abby (the) Librarian
Jone MacCulloch (category organizer)
Karen Terlecky, Literate Lives
Carol Wilcox, Carol’s Corner

And now it is time for the Round II judges (including me) to narrow the list to one winner. Looks like it is going to be quite a task.

Be sure to stop by the Cybils website and check out the shortlists for all the other categories.

cybils2010

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Mammoths and Mastodons

Mammoths and Mastodons:  Titans of the Ice Age by Cheryl Bardoe centers on a traveling exhibit by the Field Museum of Chicago.

In fact if you would like to see it, the exhibit is at the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey until January 9, 2011. Check here for the itinerary.

Let’s take a look at what the Mammoths and Mastodons exhibit is all about in this video:

Mammoths and Mastodons:  Titans of the Ice Age has many wonderful aspects, and was nominated for a Cybils award in the nonfiction picture book category. It was recently highlighted in a review post at the Cybils blog.

I do have a note of caution about this book, and the exhibit as well. Young, sensitive children may find the visuals of a dead, mummified baby mammoth upsetting. In the text are also vivid stories of dying animals, and one account of a scientist who ate a dead horse over a period of time. I know, it was in  the name of science, but I’m an adult scientist and I found that revolting!

Bottom line, there will be a lot of kids who will love Mammoths and Mastodons, but it probably would be better off in the middle grade level based on content.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 48 pages
Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers (March 1, 2010)
ISBN-10: 081098413X
ISBN-13: 978-0810984134

And for the young, sensitive types:

nonfictionmonday

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. We invite you to join us. For more information and a schedule, stop by Anastasia Suen’s Nonfiction Monday page. This week’s post is at Check It Out.