Tag: Nonfiction Monday Review

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Nonfiction Monday: Getting Ready For Fall

You have come to the right place, we’re hosting Nonfiction Monday today!

First up, I have a bit of promotion:

Have you ever visited the STEM Friday blog? This Friday, September 21, 2012, we are hosting a fall/autumn theme, which is always popular. Do you have any posts about science, technology, engineering or math children’s books that would fit in? They can even be older posts. If so, be sure to stop by with a link.

Also, Cybils judges are being announced today, starting at 10 a.m. PST. That means nominations open in just a few weeks!

Nonfiction Monday participants, go ahead and leave your link to posts discussing nonfiction children’s books in the comments and I’ll add them to the round up throughout the day.

Jeanne Walker Harvey at True Tales & A Cherry On Top celebrates the San Francisco Giants and baseball in general with Silent Star: The Story of Deaf Major Leaguer William Hoy by Bill Wise and illustrated by Adam Gustavson.
At NC Teacher Stuff, Jeff discusses the picture book biography Heart on Fire: Susan B. Anthony Votes for President by Ann Malaspina and illustrated by Steve James.
Lisa wonders why DK took so long to revise A Street Through Time: A 12,000-Year Walk Through History by Anne Millard and illustrated by Steve Noon, first published in 1998. She writes at Shelf-employed.
Jen at Reads For Keeps says author Author Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano uses analogies to help guide readers through the universe in A Black Hole is Not a Hole.
Learn about The Amazing Harry Kellar: Great American Magician by Gail Jarrow at Jean Little Library. Jennifer relates that Kellar was once a famous magician who led the way for Harry Houdini.
Tara at A Teaching Life reviewed The Camping Trip That Changed America by Barb Rosenstock and illustrated by Mordecai Gerstein, about how Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir first got together and hatched a plan to save our wilderness.
Margo also has a review of the new biography on magician Harry Kellar, who she says is a contemporary of Houdini, and even more famous during that time: The Amazing Harry Kellar: Great American Magician by Gail Jarrow at The Fourth Musketeer.
Shirley takes a look at National Geographic’s new African Animal Alphabet by Beverly and Dereck Joubert at her Simply Science blog.
Books featuring cats are always popular around our house. Anastasia has found a picture book biography Bambino and Mr. Twain by Priscilla Maltbie and illustrated by Daniel Miyares at Booktalking.
Jennie from Biblio File takes an in depth look at Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever, an assessment of early and emergent literacy by the vibrant Mem Fox.
Cindy reports that Bookends is in with Jim Murphy’s book Bomb: The Race to Build–And Steal!–The World’s Most Dangerous Weapon with Common Core Connections linked to the standards. What a good idea!
Tammy Flanders at Apples with Many Seeds has a short but sweet promo for A-B-A-B-A- a Book of Pattern Play by Brian Cleary.
Janet reveals her selection is Amazing animals : the remarkable things that creatures do written by Margriet Ruurs and illustrated by W. Allan Hancock at All About the Books with Janet Squires. Slugs have three noses?
Amy Broadmoore reminds us to Celebrate Constitution Week with a list of picture books at Delightful Children’s Books.

Thank you to everyone who has participated today.

Are you ready for fall?

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 Booktalking to see who is hosting each week.

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Minette’s Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat

How do you make a biography about Julia Child more accessible to children? Tell it from the point of view of her cat! Minette’s Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat by Susanna Reich and illustrated by Amy Bates is a warm, delightful telling of iconic chef Julia Child’s adventures learning to cook in Paris.

I should make a disclosure right up front:  Our family has three cats. I come from a long line of cat people. We are severely biased towards cats. 🙂 This may have colored my extreme enjoyment of this book.

Minette was real cat who was Julia Child’s pet when she lived in Paris. In the Afterword there is a lovely black-and-white photograph of Julia with petite Minette looking wild-eyed on her lap. The photograph was taken by Julia’s husband, Paul.

Children are likely to relate to the fact that Minette is not as impressed with fancy cooking as the adult humans seem to be. She is more interested in plain fare (mice and birds) and playing. In the end, however, she becomes a convert, perhaps because Julia’s skills as a cook have improved with all the lessons.

This book is full of treats for the reader. One of the treats is the actual dialogue from Julia and Paul Child’s letters, giving us the flavor of their characters. Another treat is the glimpse of life in France and the smattering of French words sprinkled throughout. The pencil and watercolor illustrations are also treats, as they give the ambience of Paris during the late 1940’s, and yet also imply the motion and zest of larger-than-life Julia Child.  C’est magnifique!

Minette’s Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat is sure to give readers the warm fuzzies. The beauty is that you don’t need to be a cat lover or a foodie or a Francophile to enjoy this book, but if you are any of those then you will definitely want a copy of your very own.

Jama’s Alphabet Soup has an interview with the author and illustrator, recipes and much more

This critic gives Minette’s Feast a definite four paws (the highest rating).

Reading level: Ages 3 and up
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers (May 1, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1419701770
ISBN-13: 978-1419701771

See what Susanna Reich has to say about writing children’s books and Minette’s Feast:

Book was provided by publisher for review purposes.

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids at the Nonfiction Monday blog.

This week’s round-up is at Books Together.

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It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw

It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw by Don Tate and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie is a fascinating picture book biography about a former slave who became a prolific folk artist after he started drawing when he was eighty-five years old.

It Jes’ Happened

The story of Bill Traylor is compelling. Not only did he start to draw at a ripe old age, but his drawings were an outpouring of all the things he had observed in his life. Before long his art caught the attention of a much younger artist who had gone to school to study art. He liked Bill’s drawings so much that he started to bring him art supplies and buying some of Bill’s art. He eventually made sure that Bill Traylor’s art was appreciated and displayed in art galleries.

Don Tate is an artist himself. This is his first book as an author, and it is a wonderful debut effort. He mentions in an interview in the Teacher’s Guide that none other than author Diana Aston suggested the idea to him, and it seems like it was a good fit.

It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw is jes’ plain captivating. It will be perfect for lessons in history, as well as art.

This book cries out to be accompanied with hands-on art activities.

Activity 1:  Assemble of personal memory collage.

Because Bill Traylor recorded his own memories and thoughts, have the students create a memory collage using photographs, images cut from magazines, or their own drawings.

Gather:

  • Large sheet of paper
  • Images: photographs, magazines to cut up
  • Materials to create own images and words:  colored pencils, markers, paint (optional)
  • Glue
  • Scissors

Have the children brainstorm about things they remember. Create or search for images that represent these memories. Arrange the images on the large piece of paper and glue them down.

Specific idea:  how about a memories of the beach collage?

Activity 2: American Folk Art

Explore American Folk Art at NGA Kids

American Flag

Reading level: Ages 6 and up
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Lee & Low Books (April 1, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1600602606
ISBN-13: 978-1600602603

Book was provided by publisher for review purposes.

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 Booktalking to see who is hosting each week.

This week’s round-up is at Swimmer Writer.

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Baby Flo: Florence Mills Lights Up the Stage

With the call for judges for Cybils, our thoughts turn to which books to nominate. I thought I had mine all picked out until this book came across my desk. Baby Flo: Florence Mills Lights Up the Stage by Alan Schroeder and illustrated by the husband/wife team of Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu is a picture book biography that will light up a child’s face when he or she reads it.

Baby Flo is about the early childhood of a dancer from early 1900s, Florence Mills. At a very young age Florence danced with such a spirited style that she caught the attention of many of the Washington, D.C. elite. Florence Mills was performing on stage by three years old and by the tender of age of seven she had her name in lights at the Bijou Theater.

As if the heartwarming story wasn’t enough, the vibrant watercolor illustrations capture the joy and spirit of the young Baby Flo perfectly. (You can see a preview at the publisher’s website.)

In three pages of Author’s Notes in the back, we find out about how as an adult Florence Mills went on to become an international celebrity. Photographs of the delicate beauty are included.

Baby Flo: Florence Mills Lights Up the Stage introduces children to a person and the culture of a by-gone era they might not otherwise encounter. Children who dream to become dancers or entertainers will find the story particularly inspiring. Before you know it, you will be warming up your search engine with the terms like “cakewalk” and “buck-and-wing.”

Hopefully someone else will nominate that other book I was considering…

Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Lee & Low Books (March 1, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1600604102
ISBN-13: 978-1600604102

 

Book was supplied by publisher for review purposes.

 

 

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 Booktalking to see who is hosting each week.

This week’s round-up is at Jean Little Library.