Live in Phillis Wheatley’s Shoes

November 2, 2015 | Deborah Amadei

A VOICE OF HER OWN: the story of Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet by Kathryn Lasky is a picture book biography of

Phyllis Wheatley that would be good for grades 3-5.

It has more information than the shorter picture book biographies which is important for school projects.

Take this sample which brings the reader into the mindset of a slave.

“At first there was just blackness….. Then the blackness dissolved into darkness, and the world in the creaking hold of the slave ship slid with shadows.”

Teachers, here are possible school assignments for Black History Month.

Have your students write a play about how a slave would feel on one of these ships .What smells would they encounter? What sounds? What would it feel like to be chained up?

Have your students write poems with Phillis Wheatley as a subject. Examples: What was life like for a slave at that time? What was travel like?

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Why Black Girls Should Become Ballerinas

July 27, 2015 | Deborah Amadei

Ballet is a form of dance that attracts few African Americans. Two African American ballerinas would like to change that and both of them wrote books.

FIREBIRD by Misty Copeland is really an essay in picture book form. The subtitle is Ballerina Misty Copeland shows a young girl how to dance like the firebird, character in a famous ballet.

Misty tells a potential ballerina of color what ballet means to her.

Sample: “you will soar become a swan, a beauty, a firebird for sure.”

One illustration in this book demonstrates the five positions of ballet.

Today Misty is a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre.

Ballerina Dreams: From Orphan to Dancer (Step Into Reading, Step 4)

BALLERINA DREAMS by Michaela and Elaine DePrince is a biography reader in the STEP INTO READING series.

Michaela DePrince is an orphan from Sierra Leone who was adopted by an American couple.

She told her new mother that she wanted to study ballet. Her mother bought her a video of the ballet The Nutcracker.

Michaela began her dance lessons. When she was eight years old she was able to audition for The Nutcracker. She won two roles in the ballet. Eventually she danced the role of The Sugar Plum Fairy, an important roll. She is now a professional ballerina.

Sample: “The music begins, and my heart beats fast with excitement. I fly on to the stage.”

This book gives definitions of ballet terms such as combinations: putting ballet steps together.

Activity

Write definitions for these ballet terms:

Firebird

The Nutcracker

Sugar Plum Fairy

Ballet barre

Port de bras

Tendu

Five positions

Plie

Combination

Grand jete

Pas de cat

En pointe

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

The Balloon Whisperer

May 4, 2015 | Deborah Amadei

Sometimes you have to be at the right place at the right time.

Balloons Over Broadway: the True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade, written and illustrated by Melissa Sweet, is a picture book biography of Tony Sarg.

What was his big moment?

Sample: “Macy’s had heard about Tony’s puppets and asked him to design a ‘puppet parade’ for the store’s holiday window. So Tony made new puppets based on storybook characters, then attached them to gears and pulleys to make them move.”

Then Macy’s decided to have an annual parade. At first they had live animals but children were frightened.

So Tony tried puppets. He had huge puppets made of rubber but many people couldn’t see them.

Next Tony tried balloons. It was a success!

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch

March 23, 2015 | Shelf-employed

The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch by Chris Barton, Illustrated by Don Tate. (Eerdmans, 2015)

The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch is a nonfiction picture book for school-age readers and listeners. More than just an inspirational story of a former slave who becomes a landholder, judge, and United States Congressman, it is a story that focuses on the great possibilities presented during the period of Reconstruction.

“In 1868 the U.S. government appointed a young Yankee general as a governor of Mississippi. The whites who had been in charge were swept out of office. By river and by railroad, John Roy traveled to Jackson to hand Governor Ames a list of names to fill those positions in Natchez. After John Roy spoke grandly of each man’s merits, the governor added another name to the list: John Roy Lynch, Justice of the Peace.

Justice. Peace. Black people saw reason to believe that these were now available to them. Just twenty-one, John Roy doubted that he could meet all those expectations. But he dove in and learned the law as fast as he could.”

Sadly, the reason that John Roy Lynch’s story is amazing to today’s reader is because the opportunities that abounded during Reconstruction dried up and disappeared as quickly as they had come. The period of hope and optimism for African Americans in the years from 1865 to 1877, gets scant attention today. The life of John Roy Lynch is an excellent lens through which to view Reconstruction.

To make sometimes difficult scenes accessible to younger readers, Don Tate employs a self-described, “naive … even whimsical” style. It works well with the sepia-tinged hues that help to set the time frame.

The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch is a powerful, historical reminder of what was, what might have been, and what is.

A Timeline, Historical Note, Author’s Note, Illustrator’s Note, For Further Reading, and maps round out the book.

Advance Reader Copy provided by

See all of my news and reviews at Shelf-employed.

Twitter: @shelfemployed

Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees, by Franck Prévot (ages 7-12)

March 9, 2015 | Mary Ann Scheuer

Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work helping women throughout Africa planting trees to improve the environment and their quality of life. As we celebrate Women’s History Month, I am excited to share this new picture book about her struggles and accomplishments with my students.

Wangari Maathai
The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees
by Franck Prévot
illustrated by Aurélia Fronty
Charlesbridge, 2015
Your local library
Amazon
ages 7-12
*best new book*

Maathai’s political activism shines through in this biography, in her determination to reverse environmental damage caused by large, colonial plantations and empower local villagers–especially women–to improve their local conditions.

This biography allows students to develop a deeper understanding of the political, economic and social structures Maathai stood up against. I love being able to share with students the value of reading more than one book on a subject, seeing how different authors draw out different details. I would start by reading Seeds of Change, by Jen Cullerton Johnson, and watching a short video on Maathai. If you build background knowledge, students can then dig into statements such as this:

“The government officials who built their fortunes by razing forests try to stop Wangari. Who is this woman who confronts them with a confident voice in a country where women are supposed to listen and lower their eyes in men’s presence?”

Definitely add this new picture book biography to your collection as you celebrate Women’s History month.

Read my full review at Great Kid Books.

Winnie by Sally M. Walker

February 9, 2015 | ckdobrez

Cindy: After a year on the 2015 Sibert Medal committee I said I was taking a short break from nonfiction, but when I saw the cover art, the title, and the name Sally Walker on Winnie: The True Story of the Bear Who Inspired Winnie-the-Pooh (2015), I just couldn’t resist. Last year saw the publication of many soldier-and-dog stories, including Ann Bausum’s Stubby the War Dog: The True Story of World War I’s Bravest Dog (2014)—but a bear?

Harry Colebourn, a Canadian Army Veterinary Corps lieutenant, had a chance meeting with a bear cub at a train station in 1914. He bought the cub for $20 and named him “Winnipeg” for the Corps’ hometown. Winnipeg became “Winnie” and Harry’s fast friend. The two were inseparable until the war took them too close to the battlefront and Harry made the hard decision to leave Winnie at the London Zoo. It was there that a young boy named Christopher Robin met a bear so gentle that children were allowed to pet and hand-feed him. That night, Christopher’s teddy bear got a new name, “Winnie-the-Pooh,” and his father, A. A. Milne, told him the first of many stories about a bear and boy—stories that children are still reading to this day….

Check out our whole post about this book at our Bookends Blog post for Winnie over at the newly designed Booklist Reader.

Great Men and Women in the History of Medicine

May 19, 2014 | Shelf-employed

Angus, David. 2013. Great Men and Women in the History of Medicine. Read by Benjamin Soames. Naxos Audiobooks.

It is a shame that this compendium of influential people in the history of medicine is not available in print or e-book format. It would be a great reference for students doing research or biography reports. Don’t let the audio book format deter you, however. As I wrote in my review for AudioFile Magazine (linked below), Benjamin Soames conveys a fascination for his topic that is infectious! (pun intended)

Some of the people featured in Great Men and Women in the History of Medicine include:

Hippocrates, Galen, Hildegard of Bingen, Ibn Sina, Al-Razi, Andreas Vesalius, William Harvey, Edward Jenner, Crick and Watson. You may not know their names, but their discoveries have benefitted you. I’m not sure of the best audience for this book, but I can tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Read my review of Great Men and Women in the History of Medicine for AudioFile Magazine here.

Listen to an audio sample of Great Men and Women in the History of Medicine here.

You can find all of my reviews at Shelf-employed

The Dumbest Idea Ever

May 19, 2014 | challengingthebookworm

Title: The Dumbest Idea Ever
Author: Jimmy Gownley
ISBN: 9780545453462
Pages: 236 pages
Publisher/Date: Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., c2014.

At the local elementary school in the town where I work, each student has a yearlong assignment to read a set number of books of different genres, with biographies/autobiographies always being a tricky one to find for students. Author of the Amelia Rules graphic novels presents an autobiographical account of his coming of age and becoming an artist. Jimmy Gownley is on the top of the world, attending school with his friends, and scoring points both in the classroom and on the basketball court as their high scorer. After spending weeks out of school and missing his championship basketball game (his team loses in the final minute) due to first chicken pox and then pneumonia, Jimmy’s grades start slipping. But Jimmy is more concerned working for months on his first effort as a comic book writer and illustrator. When he shows it to his friend though, he realizes that his piece of art is a piece of junk. Will he ever get anything right again?

If you are at all familiar with the Amelia Rules series, you’ll recognize the artwork and color scheme, but author Gownley adds something to it. When character Jimmy is sick, the illustrations turn gray and washed out, and they don’t turn bright and bold again until he enters the comic book shop for the first time, resulting in a Oz like page turn when the curtain is pulled back in a colorful landscape of possibilities. During a visit to a museum, the characters interact with famous paintings that are imitated really well. A flashback sequence featuring a childhood friend is rendered like the old Archie comics, with beige-yellow backgrounds interacting with the present day scenes. It’s done really well.

To see a list of some other autobiography options and my one minor complaint, check out the full review at Challenging the Bookworm.

The Mad Potter: George E. Ohr

March 31, 2014 | Shelf-employed

Greenberg, Jan and Sandra Jordan. 2013. The Mad Potter: George E. Ohr, Eccentric Genius. New York: Roaring Brook.

This book, recognized as a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book, one of 2013’s most distinguished informational books, is a photo-filled biography of George E. Ohr, a master of art pottery. A colorful character and far cry from the reticent or taciturn artist stereotype, Ohr was a self-proclaimed,

“rankey krankey solid individualist,” the “Greatest Art Potter on Earth,” and “born free and patriotic, blowing my own bugle.”

Sadly, his bravado did not serve him well in his lifetime, as one fan wrote,

“Mr. Ohr is by no means a crank, but is a naturally bright, even brilliant man, who has been led into the belief that the way for him to attain publicity is through the channel of preposterous advertising, and the signs which he placed round Biloxi do him more harm than good.”

Still, he was confident in his own mastery of his craft, and future generations came to recognize that he was indeed brilliant. The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art was built in his honor, and houses a permanent exhibition of his work.

The Mad Potter is a narrative chronology and includes a history of the museum, instructions on how to create a clay pot, extensive Notes, Bibliography and Picture Credits, and my favorite – “How to Look at a Pot,” a useful interpretation of the language and method used in describing and evaluating pottery.

A fascinating glimpse into an artist’s life, the art of pottery, and the nature and mindset of the art-collecting world.

Note:
Today is the final day of this year’s KidLit Celebrates Women’s History Month celebration. Please be sure to catch up on all of the wonderful posts!

You can find a link to photos of George Ohr’s pottery and all of my reviews at Shelf-employed

Writing nonfiction that honors women in history: an interview with Tracey Fern

March 31, 2014 | Mary Ann Scheuer

As I explore Women’s History Month with students, I want to help them think about how they can honor women in history. We talk about honoring women in their lives, because for young students the immediate it so important. But I’m also fascinated by the way authors investigate women whose stories we might not have heard yet.

Today, I’m thrilled to share an interview with Tracey Fern about her journey to learn about the life of Eleanor Prentiss and then writing Dare the Wind. My questions are in red; Tracey’s answers follow in black. To read the whole interview, head over to Great Kid Books today!

Mary Ann Scheuer: How did you first learn about Eleanor? What drew you to her story?

Tracey Fern: I first learned about Eleanor when I was browsing through my local bookstore and happened upon David Shaw’s book, Flying Cloud. I’m always on the lookout for strong female characters, and so I knew instantly that I wanted to write about Eleanor. Eleanor’s story also combined adventure and science, two elements that I’m also often drawn toward. Finally, I’m a Massachusetts gal who grew up with the ocean and the beach in my backyard, and I love that Eleanor grew up here, too!

MS: Did you travel at all to do your research? What was your research process like?

TF: I traveled to Marblehead, Massachusetts while writing Dare the Wind. Marblehead was Eleanor’s home town, and parts of the town still look much the way I imagine they looked when Eleanor walked its cobbled streets. I also visited the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut and toured the USS Constitution in Boston harbor to get myself in a seafaring state of mind! My research process for this book was different from my usual research, because there are relatively few primary sources available. As a result, I relied more heavily on secondary sources than I typically do.