Nonfiction

Kate & Pippin: An Unlikely Friendship by Martin Springett, photograph by Isobel Springett

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Published by Square Fish

Summary:  When Isobel Springett found an abandoned fawn in the woods, she brought it home and put it near her Great Dane, Kate’s dog bed.  Kate immediately took to the fawn, who the family named Pippin, and Pippin followed Kate everywhere.  Before long, Pippin began spending her nights in the woods, but would return every day to play with her friend.  Pippin grew into a doe, and one day she appeared with two fawns of her own.  Although the fawns were too wild to come near a dog, Kate and Pippin continue to be friends, and still enjoy daily visits.  Ages 4-8.

Pros:  Animal lovers will enjoy this easy reader, illustrated with photos of Kate and Pippin.  For more information, they can read Kate & Pippin: An Unlikely Love Story by the same authors.

Cons:  The author flirts a bit with the anthropomorphic line.

Up In the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner with art by Christopher Silas Neal

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Published by Chronicle Books

Summary:  A little girl and her grandmother plant a garden in spring, care for plants in the summer, and harvest in the fall.  While they watch what is happening up in the garden, there is plenty of activity down in the dirt.  Many animals make their homes in both places, some helpful to the garden plants and some harmful.  The last few pages list the sixteen animals pictured in the book and give a bit more information on their roles in the garden.

Pros:  This is a perfect beginning-of-summer book to take into the garden.  Readers will enjoy finding the different life forms pictured in the bold, beautiful illustrations.

Cons:  The picture of the garter snake about to chomp a grasshopper may give you nightmares.

The Underground Abductor (An Abolitionist Tale About Harriet Tubman) by Nathan Hale

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Published by Harry N. Abrams

Summary:  Nathaniel Hale is about to be executed, but his executioners want to hear another one of his tales.  One of them accuses him of always making America sound perfect.  So Nathaniel tells the story of Harriet Tubman, which is also the story of slavery and the Underground Railroad.  Told in graphic novel format, the story spans the years from Harriet’s (or Minty’s, as she was known as a child) birth through the end of the Civil War.  Brief stories of Frederick Douglass and John Brown are woven into Harriet’s tale, and additional resources are listed at the end.  Ages 9 and up.

Pros:  This is the fifth installment in Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales. (It’s a little confusing. Nathan Hale is the real name of the author, but Nathaniel Hale of Revolutionary War fame narrates the stories). These books do an amazing job of teaching history through an appealing graphic novel format.  I learned a lot from reading this book, and it reads like a great story from start to finish.  I have a small but dedicated group of fifth grade boys in my school who have read all these books, and I can’t wait to give them a copy of this one.

Cons:  It’s impossible to tell Harriet Tubman’s stories without relating some of the horrors of slavery, so make sure readers are prepared.

Chasing Freedom: the Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony Inspired by Historical Facts by Nikki Grimes, illustrated by Michele Wood

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by Orchard Books

Summary:  This book imagines a conversation between these two women who were friends and worked tirelessly their whole adult lives to improve the lives of women and African-Americans.  They tell each other true stories about themselves and some of the other people they worked with, like John Brown, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Frederick Douglass.  The women relate their stories in alternating pages, just like a real conversation, and each page is illustrated with a folk art style painting.  The end pages includes brief biographies of the two women and fourteen other people who were involved with similar work; additional notes about some of the events of the period; a bibliography; and an author’s note about how she came to write the book.  56 pages, grades 2-5.

Pros:  This is a unique and engaging way to learn about these two very interesting women who blazed their own trails and made a difference in many lives.

Cons:  Kids will need some historical context to fully appreciate this book.

Trombone Shorty by Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, illustrated by Bryan Collier

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by Harry N. Abrams

Summary:  Bryan Collier has illustrated books by famous African Americans such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Langston Hughes.  Now he has collaborated with musician Troy Andrews to tell the story of Troy’s early life.  From a very young age, Troy looked up to his musician brother James and made music with whatever he could find.  When he was four, he found a broken-down trombone and taught himself to play, taking it with him wherever he went, and earning himself the nickname Trombone Shorty.  When his mother took him to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, he took his trombone and played along with Bo Diddley.  Bo stopped and asked who was playing.  The crowd passed young Troy up to the stage and the two played together.  Now Trombone Shorty has his own band, as well as a foundation to help other young musicians in New Orleans.

Pros:  Troy tells his story with a distinctive voice influenced by his New Orleans childhood.  Collier’s watercolor collage illustrations really capture the feel of New Orleans jazz.  Back matter includes more information about Andrews’ life and a note on how the illustrations were created.

Cons:  A person born the year I graduated college is an award-winning musician with his own foundation.

Fire Birds: Valuing Natural Wildfires and Burned Forests by Sneed B. Collard III

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Published by Bucking Horse Books

Summary:  Sneed B. Collard takes the reader to forests after major fires to show how birds thrive in the burned trees.  For instance, certain woodpeckers are almost never found outside of burned forests.  The wood boring beetles that lay eggs in the trees provide food for them, and the trees are perfect for the birds to make nests.  Collard profiles University of Montana professor Dick Hutto as he observes the birds, explaining how his research has helped scientists understand more about fire ecology.  More scientists are now supporting the idea that it’s better to let naturally occurring forest fires burn.  A glossary, index, and full page of additional resources are included at the end.

Pros:  This would make a great mentor text for demonstrating informational writing.  Illustrated with many photographs, the text is engaging and packed with information.

Cons:  Was Smokey the Bear really wrong about forest fires?

Wandering Whale Sharks by Susumu Shingu

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Published by Owlkids Books

Summary:  What is the largest fish in the sea?  The whale shark, measuring up to 60 feet long and weighing in at over 40 tons.  In contrast to its great white cousin, this shark is a gentle giant, gliding slowly through the sea and allowing divers to hold onto their fins and swimming with them for miles.  Susumu Shingu poetically describes these animals in just a dozen sentences, all illustrated in the blue and black colors of the ocean.  An end note gives more information.

Pros:  There’s quite a bit of information in this brief book.  A few sentences could be used to teach similes and metaphors.  The illustrations strikingly capture the way the light reflects off the ocean.

Cons:  Kids who usually like shark books might find the whale shark a bit of a yawn.  No blood was shed in the creation of these illustrations.

Egg: Nature’s Perfect Package by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

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Published by HMH Books for Young Readers

Summary:  From the royal albatross, which lays one egg every two years and watches over it for almost three months, to the fish tapeworm, which lays over seven billion eggs in its 20-year life, many animals lay eggs.  This book takes a look at where and how animals lay eggs, carry and protect them, and get out of the eggs when it’s time for them to hatch.  Egg sizes are compared with pictures showing actual sizes of all kinds of eggs, and cutaway pictures show how a chicken and alligator develop over the entire incubation period.  The information is given in short snippets, several on a page, with each accompanied by a cut-paper illustration.

Pros:  This husband-and-wife team may be my favorite nonfiction author and illustrator.  They have a real knack for finding fascinating facts about the animal world and presenting them in a way that sustains interest throughout the book.  And the illustrations are phenomenal.  It’s almost incomprehensible how Steve Jenkins is able to get the level of detail into each picture using cut and torn paper.  Check out “A Look Inside How This Book Was Made” on Amazon and the short video on Jenkins’ webpage (http://www.stevejenkinsbooks.com/making_books.html) to learn more about his artistic process.

Cons:  Reading this book right before breakfast kind of put me off my scrambled eggs.

Swing Sisters: The Story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm by Karen Deans

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by Holiday House

Summary:  Piney Woods Country Life School was a remarkable school for African-American orphans in Mississippi.  In 1939, the school’s director organized an all-girl band to raise money for the school.  He called the group the Sweethearts, and they played big band music at schools and churches around the state.  When the girls graduated, they decided to move to Washington, DC to try to make a living.  Eventually, they traveled all over the country, playing for crowds as large as 35,000.  Their biggest concern was making great music; when some of the women left, their replacements were of different races, which made for some complications when touring in the south.  The Sweethearts went on a six-month USO tour of Europe during World War II.  After the war, it was hard for them to make a living with their music, and the group broke up, but they had opened doors for women of all races in the music business.  Recommended for grades 2-4.

Pros:  This inspiring nonfiction picture book reminded me of the movie A League of Their Own about women baseball players from the same era.  It would be fun to share some of the Sweethearts music after reading this.  Here’s a YouTube clip that looks just like one of the illustrations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WczP3PyHt20

Cons:  Too bad these women couldn’t make enough money to keep the band alive after World War II.

Families by Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly

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Published by Holiday House

Summary:  A photographic celebration of every kind of family imaginable: big, small, multi-racial, two moms, two dads, single parents, extended family.  Each page has a single sentence with several photos illustrating the kind of family described.  The last few pages tell what families do (e.g., help each other, love one another), and finishes with a question, “There are many different kinds of families.  What about yours?”  Recommended for ages 3 and up.

Pros:  This is truly a celebration of family.  Even the dogs in the pictures are smiling.  The first page says that the creators hope the book will lead children and their parents to engage in conversation about their families, and this would indeed be the perfect vehicle for that.

Cons:  People objecting to certain family configurations will probably not want to share this book with their kids.