#NF10for10: Books Featuring Women Who Nevertheless Persisted

The 5th annual #NF10for10 hosted by Mandy Robek and Cathy Mere is finally here.

From Cathy's Website:

What is #nf10for10
In 2010 Mandy Robek and I hosted our first picture book event.  In 2013, Julie Balen suggested we add a nonfiction picture book event that worked the same.  Participants choose 10 - well, usually 10 (they're a crafty bunch) - nonfiction picture books to share.  On the day of the event, we'll ask that you visit the Google Community site to add your nonfiction link to the 2017 #nf10for10 tab. 

What:  10 nonfiction picture books you can't live without.
Hashtag:  #nf10for10
Who:  Anyone interested --- educators, media specialists, librarians, parents, and book lovers. When:  Friday, February 10th
Where:  All posts will be linked on the 2017 #nf10for10 page of our Picture Book 10 for 10 Google Community Site.  
How:  Stop by our community site, join the community, and share your favorites on February 10th.

Originally, I had a different post planned for today. However, after Tuesday evening, when the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell attempted to silence Senator Elizabeth Warren for wanting to read a letter from Corretta Scott King from 1986 regarding Senator Jeff Session, who was up for the Attorney General's position, I knew I had to change my post. McConnell's words had an opposite effect than he anticipated by becoming a new battlecry for women everywhere. 

In honor of women who #neverthelessshepersisted, I have selected ten of my favorite picture book biographies about women that I admire. I am thankful for their contributions to the their communities, countries and the world. They have shown us what it means to be women and to make a difference. 

Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange; Illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Katherine Tegen Books, 2009) - I could not have a list without including a biography about Coretta Scott King given that it was her words that Senator Warren was trying to read on Tuesday night. You can read her letter here. 

Hillary Rodham Clinton: Some Girls Are Born to Lead by Michelle Markel; Illustrated by LeUyen Pham (Balzer & Bray, 2016) - Hillary will always be "my president" and I will continue to admire her and the work that she has done over the years and will continue to do.

Rosa by Nikki Giovanni; Illustrated by Bryan Collier (Henry Holt & Co, 2005) - Rosa Parks did not likely realize that she would become one of the most well known faces of the Civil Rights Era but she continues to serve as a reminder and a model. 

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford; Illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Hyperion, 2006) - With faith and conviction, Tubman worked to lead slaves out of the south by the Underground Railroad. 

Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 by Michelle Markel; Illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Balzer & Bray, 2013) - In a time, when there was little protection for any employees especially women, Clara Limlich organized a protest for better work conditions for women. She would have been leading the charge at the Women's March on January 21st if she were still alive. 

Who Says Women Can't Be Dotors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell by Tanya Lee Stone; Illustrated by Marjorie Priceman (Henry Holt & Co., 2013) - Despite discrimination and opposition against women becoming medical doctors, Blackwell persevered and paved the way for other women to become doctors. 

Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor by Robert Burleigh; Illustrated by Raúl Colón (Simon & Schuster, 2016) - Marie Tharp faced significant prejudice as a woman in the field of science research. Also, it wasn't until years later that her contributions were truly acknowledge. 

For the Right to Learn: Malala Yousafzai's Story by Rebecca Langston-George; Illustrated by Janna Brock (Capstone Press, 2015) - Malala was just a teenager when she bravely took on the fight for the right to an education in a country where girls are commonly denied education. 

Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees by Franck Prévot; Illustrated by Aurélia Fronty (Charlesbridge, 2015) - Wangari Maathai won a Nobel Peace Prize for her work in changing the lives of women and in bringing peace and democracy to Africa through reforestation. 

Eleanor, Quiet No More by Doreen Rappaport; Illustrated by Gary Kelley (Disney-Hyperion, 2009) - Eleanor Roosevelt is another role model. Given the time period in which she lived she truly did amazing work as the First Lady of the United States. 

There are many more women and books that I could feature but here are some of my favorite strong, courageous, brave and influential women. "She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted."  

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: And the winners are.....

Recently, the American Library Association held it's annual Midwinter Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Various book award committees met at the beginning of the weekend to discuss books and award the best of the best with shiny medals. Though I managed to pick two of the Sibert books correctly, I was surprised to see that Some Writer! by Melissa Sweet did not win. I wonder if it was a casualty of time? I have no concrete evidence of this but six out of the nine winners listed below deal with significant historical events dealing with World War II, Civil Rights, Immigration, or biographies of presidents and other activists. Given our current political climate I wonder if readers are looking for answers in the past? Even if it is unintentional. The other thing I noted this year is that there is only one picture book on this list resulting in lots of reading for older readers. Regardless of the reasons behind the decisions, I would like to thank the Sibert Award Committee and the YALSA Nonfiction Committee on their hard work and selection of fabulous books. 

Here are the winners of the two nonfiction award categories: 

Sibert Winners:

Winner:

March Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin; Illustrated by Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions.

Honor Books: 

Giant Squid by Candace Fleming; Illustrated by Eric Rohmann (Roaring Brook Press)

Sachicko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor's Story by Caren Stelson (Carolrhoda Books)

Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience During World War II by Albert Marrin (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler by Russell Freedman (Clarion Books)

YALSA Nonfiction Winners: 

Winner: 

March Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin; Illustrated by Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions.

Honor Books: 

Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History by Karen Blumenthal (Feiwel & Friends)

In the Shadow of Liberty: The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives by Kenneth C. Davis (Henry Holt & Co.)

Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune by Pamela S. Turner; Illustrated by Gareth Hinds (Charlesbridge Publishing)

This Land is Our Land: A History of American Immigration by Linda Barrett Osborne (Harry N. Abrams) 

Winner Information: 
Linda Baie has won the Mock Sibert Giveaway. I assigned a number to each person who left a link with a Mock Sibert post. With the use of a random number generator, the number generated was how the winner was selected. I will be emailing Linda to work out details. 

Artwork by Sarah S. Brannen, 2017

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews....

Exclusive Deleted Scene: Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team

Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team
by Steve Sheinkin
Roaring Brook Press * January 17, 2017
Nonfiction * Sports * Football
Indiebound | WorldCat
 

Read an interview with Steve Sheinkin on BookPage
Read an additional deleted scene at Fuse Eight/SLJ here. 

About the book: 
Jim Thorpe: Super athlete, Olympic gold medalist, Native American
Pop Warner: Indomitable coach, football mastermind, Ivy League grad

Before these men became legends, they met in 1907 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, where they forged one of the winningest teams in American football history. Called "the team that invented football," they took on the best opponents of their day, defeating much more privileged schools such as Harvard and the Army in a series of breathtakingly close calls, genius plays, and bone-crushing hard work.

Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team is an astonishing underdog sports story—and more. It’s an unflinching look at the U.S. government’s violent persecution of Native Americans and the school that was designed to erase Indian cultures. Expertly told by three-time National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin, it’s the story of a group of young men who came together at that school, the overwhelming obstacles they faced both on and off the field, and their absolute refusal to accept defeat.

__________________________________
Enjoy this deleted scene: 

[intro] One of the main things I needed to establish early on in Undefeated was the shockingly raucous and violent nature of early day football. This scene describes a famously nasty game between Harvard and Yale in 1894—we wound up cutting it because we get across the same points with Pop Warner’s experiences on the Cornell team.

Everyone knew football was a violent game—but was it becoming too violent?

      The game that brought this question to national attention was the 1894 edition of the annual Harvard-Yale showdown, essentially the Super Bowl of early-day American football. “It was a game in which an unusual amount of bad blood and foul playing was shown,” noted the New York Times.

      And that was saying something.

       Yale captain Frank Hinkey set the tone before the players even took the field. In his team’s hotel the night before the game, Hinkey urged teammates to intimidate the Harvard boys by ignoring their fair catch signals on punts—the signal meant the returner couldn’t advance the ball, but defenders couldn’t hit him.

      “Tackle them anyway,” Hinkey said, “and take the penalty.”

      The next day, at Hampden Park in Springfield, Massachusetts, 25,000 fans roared as the teams as they took the field. Some waved banners of Yale blue; most waved Harvard crimson. Police officers had made the trip from Boston to keep the peace between rival student bodies. But it was action on the field that needed policing.         

      When Yale punted early in the game, the Harvard returner waved for a fair catch. Frank Hinkey launched himself, knee raised, into the returner as the ball arrived, snapping the man’s collarbone. Yale was flagged for roughness. Harvard fans called for revenge.

      A few plays later, a Crimson lineman reared back and punched Hinkey in the jaw.

      “My friend,” Hinkey said, “if you hit me another blow like that, you will break your hand.”

      The battle was on. And keep in mind, the players were not wearing helmets. Or any other protective equipment.

      A Harvard man jammed his finger into a Yale player’s eye, causing blood to flow. Yale’s Fred Murphy broke a Harvard player’s nose with his fist. Harvard then gang tackled Murphy, working him over on the ground. Murphy got up and stayed in the game, but was so dizzy that between plays teammates had to guide him back to his position and point him in the direction of the opposing team. Eventually, he staggered to the sidelines, lost consciousness, and lay on the sideline as play resumed.  

      This was all in the first half. The second half, newspapers reported, was worse. “An ordinary rebellion in the South American or Central American States is as child’s play compared with the destructiveness of today’s game,” commented the Times. “Fully one half of the players suffered injuries of a more or less serious nature.”

      Seven of the twenty-two starters had to be carried off the field.

      Five, including Fred Murphy, were hospitalized.

      Two were ejected for excessive roughness.

      After the game, a 12-4 Yale victory, each school blamed the other. Horrified by what became known as the “Springfield Massacre,” and the “Hampden Park Blood Bath,” officials at Harvard and Yale agreed to cancel their heated football rivalry.

      But it didn’t last. Two years later, they started playing again.

About the author: 
Steve Sheinkin is the award-winning author of fast-paced, cinematic nonfiction histories for young readers. The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights, was a National Book Award finalist and received the 2014 Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for Nonfiction. The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery, won both the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award and the YALSA award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. Bomb: The Race to Build-and Steal-the World's Most Dangerous Weapon was a Newbery Honor Book, a National Book Award Finalist, and winner of the Sibert Award and YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War was a National Book Award finalist and a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award finalist. Sheinkin lives in Saratoga Springs, New York, with his wife and two children.  Found Steve on his blog or twitter.

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Antsy Ansel Guest Post with Cindy Jenson-Elliott

Antsy Ansel: Ansel Adams, A Life in Nature
by Cindy Jenson-Elliott; Illustrated by Christy Hale
Henry Holt and Co. (September 6, 2016)
Audience: Ages 5 to 9
Nonfiction * Biography * Art
IndieBound | WorldCat
 

Description from GoodReads: 
You may be familiar with Adams's iconic black-and-white nature photographs. But do you know about the artist who created these images?

As a child, Ansel Adams just couldn't sit still. He felt trapped indoors and never walked anywhere--he ran. Even when he sat, his feet danced. But in nature, Ansel felt right at home. He fell in love with the gusting gales of the Golden Gate, the quiet whisper of Lobos Creek, the icy white of Yosemite Valley, and countless other remarkable natural sights.

From his early days in San Francisco to the height of his glory nationwide, this book chronicles a restless boy's path to becoming an iconic nature photographer.

____________________________________________________

Thank you Cindy Jenson-Elliot for stopping by and talking about your new book Antsy Ansel: Ansel Adams, A Life in Nature. 

            If we have had the good fortune to view some of Ansel Adams’s iconic black and white photography, our chief memories are of both the massive spectacles and tiny wonder of the natural world. But Adams’s development as an artist came, in part, from the contrast he experienced between life in early industrial era schools, and the wonder of the outdoors.

            Imagine being stuck in a school like this:

            “It was a dismal three-story building, dark brown on the outside, dark brown and tan on the inside; everything, including its atmosphere, grimly brown. The students acquired this pervading mood of depression from the teachers, and the teachers must have caught it from the building: big square rooms, wide noisy staircases, grimy windows, ink-stained desks, smudged blackboards, and crummy toilets. The janitor dour, the principal grim, and the playground dirty!” (Ansel Adams: An Autobiography, p. 16)

            Not only was Adams’s school a depressing place, the teachers and administrators did not know what to do with a child like Ansel, who, in his own words, was “hyperactive.”

“Each day was a severe test for me, sitting in a dreadful classroom while the sun and fog played outside…Education without either meaning or excitement is impossible. I longed for the outdoors, leaving only a small part of my conscious self to pay attention to schoolwork.” (Ansel Adams: An Autobiography, p. 17)

After a final incident of misunderstood misbehavior, Adams’s father took him out of school. Between tutors, free access to the outdoors, and a season ticket to the San Francisco World’s Fair, Ansel Adams discovered his true love for learning.

In 2011 I had the good fortune to hear Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, speak about his book The Nature Principle. Louv spoke about people who had been saved by their connections with nature – and people who had been lost because of their broken relationship with the natural world. He mentioned Ansel Adams and his father, and immediately the words “antsy Ansel” flashed through my head. I went home and began to research his life.

Connection Children to Nearby Nature

As an outdoor educator and teacher, I have witnessed countless tiny, profound moments of connection between children and nature. These are not National Park moments found only in a special place at a special time. The natural connections that sustain and strengthen us are ordinary day-to-day moments when we connect with nearby nature, in our own back yards or school yards, and fall in love.

My heart leaps when I hear my favorite phrase echoed by a student: “Oh, wow! Look!” I want to write books to reach beyond my own students and connect the world to those moments of wonder. In writing Antsy Ansel: Ansel Adams, a Life in Nature, I wanted readers to feel what it was like to be in Ansel’s head and body: to be bombarded with stimulus, to feel stuck in a classroom, and to finally be released into the freedom of the natural world. Thirty-five drafts later, the book found its way to editor Christy Ottaviano, and into the arms of illustrator/collage artist Christy Hale, whose meticulous research on-site in Ansel Adams’ home turf gave the book deep roots.

My hope is that this book will encourage teachers, parents and children to see the outdoors as a resource for teaching and learning, and will open the door for people of all ages to develop a relationship with nature in their own back yards.

About the author: 
Cindy Jenson-Elliott is a teacher, environmental educator and the author of 17 books of nonfiction. She currently teaches writing programs to children through Words To Go in San Diego. Find her author page online at www.cindyjensonelliott.com, on twitter at @cjensonelliott, and on her blog at http://naturexplorer.wordpress.com. 

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews: 

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Blood Brother Blog Tour

Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and His Sacrifice for Civil Rights
by Rich Wallace, Sandra Neil Wallace
Calkins Creek (September 13, 2016)
Audience: Grades 5 and up
Nonfiction * Biography * Social Activists
Official Educator's Guide
IndieBound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads:
Jonathan Daniels, a white seminary student from New Hampshire, traveled to Selma, Alabama, in 1965 to help with voter registration of black residents. After the voting rights marches, he remained in Alabama, in the area known as “Bloody Lowndes,” an extremely dangerous area for white freedom fighters, to assist civil rights workers. Five months later, Jonathan Daniels was shot and killed while saving the life of Ruby Sales, a black teenager. Through Daniels’s poignant letters, papers, photographs, and taped interviews, authors Rich Wallace and Sandra Neil Wallace explore what led Daniels to the moment of his death, the trial of his murderer, and how these events helped reshape both the legal and political climate of Lowndes County and the nation.

Official Book Trailer:

Quick thoughts on this book:
Sometimes a book brings to the forefront a person that you have read about but never explored in depth. Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and His Sacrifice for Civil Rights is just that book for me. The Wallaces in Blood Brother gives voice and depth to the work of a young white seminary student who traveled to Alabama and played a significant role in the fight for Civil Rights. 

Despite a number of books that I have read about the Civil Rights Movement over the years, I have never really thought about who was the man who gave his life so that Ruby Sales would live. And nowhere had I made the connection that Jonathan Daniels was from Keene, New Hampshire. Of course that may seem like a small detail, maybe even irrelevant, but as someone who attended college in Keene, New Hampshire, I should have known this fact. 

Blood Brother provides readers with an abundance of primary source information in the form of quotes, news articles, photos and more to bring alive the narrative of Daniels life and work. 

Additional reading: Black Civil Rights Activist Recalls White Ally Who Took A Shotgun Blast for Her (Washington Post, August 2015).  Look for Blood Brother at you local indie bookstore or community library. 

About the authors:
Rich Wallace has written more than three dozen novels for children and teens. His first novel, Wrestling Sturbridge, was selected by the American Library Association as one of the top 100 YA books of the twentieth century. His recent children’s nonfiction includes the acclaimed Babe Conquers the World, co-written with his wife, Sandra Neil Wallace. He lives in New Hampshire. 

Sandra Neil Wallace had a lengthy career as a news anchor and ESPN sportscaster before writing realistic fiction and nonfiction for young readers. A pioneer in the journalism field, she was the first woman to cover the National Hockey League on network TV. Selected as a promising new voice in children’s literature by The Horn Book, Wallace’s titles have been named to state and national awards lists including Bank Street College’s Best Children’s Book of the Year, ALA-YALSA Quick Picks, and Booklist’s Top 10 Sports Books for Youth. 

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews: