#Road2Reading Challenge: Pugs, Engineers, and Spies

My bookstack keeps growing and I look forward to Thanksgiving break to make a dent in it. In looking through some of the books I have received lately, I moved to the top three books. 

Cowboy Pug by Laura James; Illustrated by Eglantine Ceulemans (Bloomsbury, May 2017)

Cowboy Pug is a follow up to Captain Pug. Both books make for a perfect transitional chapter book for readers moving from early readers to books with a few more chapters and pages. There are approximately six chapters in the each book and there is a nice balance between text, illustrations, and white space. Pugs may not be the most likely of adventure heroes but Miranda and her pug may just change your mind. 

Also, look for the first book in the series called Captain Pug: The Dog Who Sailed the Seas by Laura James (Bloomsbury, 2016). 

In my bookstack:
If you are looking to 2018 and some upcoming releases, I came across these two upcoming books. I have started them but haven't yet finished. I hope to finish them up over Thanksgiving break.

Ellie, Engineer by Jackson Pearce (Bloomsbury, January 16, 2018)

I love the concept of this book. It reminds me of a few conversations I have had recently with women school administrators who keep their own toolboxes in their offices for those times when a hammer or screwdriver is needed to fix something. 

Spy Toys by Mark Powers; Illustrated by Tim Wesson (Bloombury, February 16, 2018)

Another upcoming chapter book with a great premise. Spy Toys is about toys that are a bit different and ready to save the day. 

All journeys have a starting place.
This is a weekly place to find books and tools
that you may use with readers at the start of their reading journey.
Join in the conversation at #road2reading.

Each week, Michele Knott and I post about new early readers and transitional chapter books. 

#Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Some Early Thoughts on Mock Sibert

It's November. Holiday season is in full swing by the look at TV commercials and a glimpse at any store. The Hallmark Channel is running their holiday movies. And newspapers, libraries and others are beginning to share their end of the year best of lists. So, I have started to scroll through the 2017 nonfiction releases that I have read with an eye towards my own best of list. I am still am frantically looking for titles that I haven't read yet and know I need to find and read.

Aside from the end of the year best of lists, I have been chatting with friends about ALA's Sibert Award and Mock Sibert or Sibert Smackdown lists. Last year, when the Sibert Award was announced, I was surprised that it skewed towards the higher age range. Only one picture book made the list.  I keep wondering about this year. Will it lean towards the older or younger end of the age range? Will it somehow resonate with where we are as a country? 

Here are a few titles that are popping up onto an early Mock Sibert list for me....

Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers, Illustrated by Shawn Harris (Chronicle Books)

Dazzle Ships: World War I and the Art of Confusion by Chris Barton, Illustrated by Victo Ngai (Millbrook Press)

How to be An Elephant by Katherine Roy (David McCaulay Studios)

The Hidden Life of a Toad by Doug Weschler (Charlesbridge Publishing)

The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, A Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson, Illustrated Vanessa Brantley-Newton (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)

Check back in a couple of weeks for my official 2018 Mock Sibert post.

Some related posts to check out: Melissa Stewart's Getting Ready for the Sibert Smackdown | Sibert Smackdown Wrap-Up | My Mock Sibert 2017 | My Mock Sibert 2017 Winners Post | Mrs. Knott's Book Nook Mock Sibert 2017

Artwork by Sarah S. Brannen ©2017

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

#Road2Reading Challenge: BallPark Mysteries: Christmas in Cooperstown Plus Giveaway

Christmas in Cooperstown (Ballpark Mysteries Super Special #2)
By David A. Kelly, Illustrated by Mark Meyers
Random House Books for Young Readers (September 26, 2017)
Audience: Ages 6 to 9 years
Fiction * Mystery * Baseball
IndieBound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads: Mike and Kate get the BEST Christmas present ever--a mystery at the Baseball Hall of Fame!

After volunteering to wrap presents for charity, Mike and Kate get a special thank-you: a sleepover at the Baseball Hall of Fame! But when they're sneaking around the museum late at night, their flashlight reveals that one of the famous baseball cards on display is a fake! Can they find the real card, catch the crook, and get the presents to the charity's Christmas party on time? It's up to Mike and Kate to turn this Christmas mess into a Christmas miracle!

Ballpark Mysteries are the all-star matchup of fun sleuthing and baseball action, perfect for readers of Ron Roy's A to Z Mysteries and Matt Christopher's sports books, and younger siblings of Mike Lupica fans. Each Ballpark Mystery also features Dugout Notes, with amazing baseball facts.

Quick thoughts about the book: 
As a kid, I loved mysteries. I read every Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew book. They were predicable and followed a certain formula every time, but I couldn't get enough of them.  As I read these books, I was a bit jealous of the main characters and the adventures they would find. Why weren't there mysteries like these in my neighborhood? 

Kelly's Christmas in Cooperstown is set at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Kate and Mike and their friends not only get a special opportunity to spend time at the Hall of Fame but their special day turns into a special sleepover.  The two friends discover that the original Honus Wagner T206 baseball card has been replaced with a replica. Mike and Kate are now faced with the challenge to discover who stole the original card and get it back is on.

Young readers interested in baseball, and mysteries will enjoy learning about the Baseball Hall of Fame, the famous Honus Wagner T206, and trying to find out who stole the card and why. 

Click on image to go to the Hall of Fame website.

Look for Christmas in Cooperstown at your local bookstore or community library.

About the author:  DAVID A. KELLY is a former Little League right fielder. These days, he can often be found enjoying a game at a major-league park. He is also the author of the MVP series and Babe Ruth and the Baseball Curse. For adults, he has written about travel and technology for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Sun Times, and many other publications. He lives near Boston’s Fenway Park with his family. For more information, visit davidakellybooks.com and find him on Twitter at @davidakelly

Giveaway:
One lucky winner will receive a two-book set of the Ballpark Mysteries Super Special titles--THE WORLD SERIES CURSE and CHRISTMAS IN COOPERSTOWN. (U.S. addresses)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

All journeys have a starting place.
This is a weekly place to find books and tools
that you may use with readers at the start of their reading journey.
Join in the conversation at #road2reading.

Each week, Michele Knott and I post about new early readers and transitional chapter books. 

SCIENCE + COMICS = AWESOME: Interview with Molly Brooks

Thank you First Second for setting up this blog tour with various creators of Science Comics. I am excited to be hosting Molly Brooks today. 

What makes comics a particularly amazing format to tell science nonfiction in?
The combination of text and sequential visuals found in comics closely mimics the experience of having a teacher drawing diagrams on a blackboard, or walking the class through a practical experiment. The flexibility of being able to just SHOW things that are hard to describe, and to DESCRIBE things that are hard to visualize, means that complex scientific concepts can be explained without the reader feeling overwhelmed by information.

How did you do research to make your book?
I did some background reading on the time period, and spent a lot of time scouring the internet for old photos of the various people and locations discussed in the book. I also spent a lot of time going through youtube watching nerdy tourists' vacation videos from the historic Wright sites that have been preserved as museums—their childhood home, the interior of one of their bicycle shops—so that I could better understand the physical world they inhabited and interacted with. But the most important thing for me was accurately portraying how the various experimental flying machines operated. For that, I found the most useful resources to be modern replicas and scale models.

Tell us a little about the process of creating your book!
The thing that tripped me up over and over as I was illustrating this book was realizing that I didn't fully understand the thing I was trying to draw. I don't come from a science background, so if the script calls for a "diagram using an arrow to show air passing over the curved surface of a wing," I don't know enough off the top of my head to be sure about details like 1) how curved is it? 2) should I show air going underneath as well? 3) is the bottom of the wing curved concave, convex, or not at all? 4) should the arrow dip down or continue upward after passing the wing?, etc etc. I didn't even know enough to know whether those details mattered or not! It was really important to me that everything in the book be as accurate as i could make it, so i ended up taking a lot of detours and studying each of the basic concepts until i felt confident that i understood it well enough to explain clearly.

What's the toughest part of turning science research into a comic?
A lot of the work of cartooning and storytelling is knowing how to simplify images so that the important aspects are highlighted. The more I researched and learned interesting facts about early aviation, the more it started to feel like EVERY aspect was important, and it was hard not to pack ultimately irrelevant information into panels that needed to serve other storytelling purposes.

About Molly Brooks: 
Molly Brooks is a highly-sophisticated disaster machine fueled by green tea and jelly beans. She grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and is currently based in Brooklyn. She has a BFA in Communication Design from Washington University in St. Louis, and an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts. Her illustrations have appeared in The Village Voice, Time Out New York, The Nashville Scene, The Riverfront Times,The Toast, BUST Magazine, ESPN social, Sports Illustrated online, and others. She spends her spare time watching vintage buddy cop shows and making comics about knitting, hockey, and/or feelings. Follow her on twitter | tumblr

First Science is excited to celebrate the power of science and nonfiction in children’s books with their award-winning series SCIENCE COMICS. Check out the other interviews with the authors—as we get excited about the wonder of science.

10/23 — Sharp Read
10/24 — Bluestocking Thinking 
10/25 — YA Bibliophile 
10/26 — The Reading Nook Reviews  
10/27 — A to Z Book Reviews 
10/30 — The Roarbots  
10/31 — Undeniably Book Nerdy 
11/1 — The Windy Pages  
11/2 — Kid Lit Frenzy
11/3 — Ex Libris Kate  

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Dinosaurs, Spiders, and Bugs

Since I try to read as many new nonfiction picture books that I can find in a year, and since I also want to share as many books with readers of this blog, sometimes I try to share several books in a mini-review format. Today, I have three titles to share. 

Bugs From Head to Tail by Stacey Roderick; Illustrated by Kwanchai Moriya (Kids Can Press, October3, 2017) 

Roderick has written a couple of nonfiction picture books in this series of Head to Tail format ( Ocean Animals From Head to Tail and Dinosaurs From Head to Tail).  I enjoy the question and answer format that Roderick uses to communicate information through her text.

In BUGS FROM HEAD TO TAIL, readers see a portion of the bug revealed on the page and a question that leads into making a prediction followed by an informative response. This style is particularly good for young readers and can also be used as a mentor text for writing.

Pinocchio Rex and Other Tyrannosaurs (Let's Read and Find Out Level 2) by Melissa Stewart & Steve Brusatte; Illustrated by Julius Csotonyi (HarperCollins, November 7, 2017) - This book was probably my favorite of the three titles this week and I hope to follow this up with a longer post and interior spreads. So, I won't say a lot about it now other than look for it to come out next week. 

Spiders! Strange and Wonderful by Laurence Pringle; Illustrated by Meryl Henderson (Boyds Mills Press, October 10, 2017)

Pringle has a number of books in the Strange and Wonderful Series. For additional titles information, click here.  Spiders! Strange and Wonderful provides information about spiders with illustrations and smaller illustrations with labels that introduce to readers details about the drawings. 

Younger readers may be more attracted to the drawings and labels and picking pieces of information out of the text. Older readers may read through the book in a more in depth way. Fans of spiders or those wanting to learn more about arachnids, will find lots of facts and details within the pages of this book. 

Look for all three books at your local bookstore or community library. 

Illustration by Sarah S. Brannen ©2017

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