Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: ALA Annual Conference 2018 Part I

Last Thursday, I landed in New Orleans to attend the American Library Association's Annual Conference. And just late last night, I started to put this post together. This will be short and quick but I will do a longer post about the upcoming nonfiction titles that I am excited about. 

Kicking off ALA...

Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews and students musicians set the tone for the opening session of ALA. 

If you are wondering where you heard of Troy Andrews, well, he wrote about his life in the book Trombone Shorty. The book won a Caldecott and CSK Awards in 2016 and an Odyssey Award in 2018. 

Michelle Obama opened up the conference to a packed out room. 

Carla Hayden (Library of Congress) interviewed the former First Lady. It was wonderful to listen to both of these amazing women. 

Once I finish editing photos and pulling together book covers, I will finish the post. I leave you with a couple of photos from my last moments in New Orleans. 

In 2017, FREEDOM IN CONGO SQUARE by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie won a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Award Nominee for Illustrator Honor. Today, I wrapped up my trip to New Orleans by taking in a few of the local sites including the actual Congo Square that Weatherford writes about. 

A sign telling the story of Congo Square. 

A monument to the slaves and free Blacks who would gather at Congo Square. 

Artwork by Sarah S. Brannen ©2018

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

Countdown: 2979 Days to the Moon

Countdown
by Suzanne Slade
Peachtree Publishers (September 1, 2018)
Juvenile Nonfiction / Technology / Aeronautics, Astronautics & Space Science
Audience: Ages10-14
Indiebound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads: Free verse and illustrations tell the true story of the American effort to land the first man on the Moon.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced that the United States would try to land a man on the Moon within ten years. During the two thousand, nine hundred and seventy-nine days that followed his speech, eighteen astronauts climbed into spaceships; three of them died before even leaving the ground. Eight rockets soared into space. And four hundred thousand people--engineers, technicians, scientists, mathematicians, and machinists--joined Project Apollo in hopes of making the dream a reality.

Thank you to the Peachtree marketing team for sharing the link to the official book trailer. 

Countdown: 2979 Days to the Moon comes out on September 1, 2018. I wanted readers to have a chance to get a glimpse of this beautiful book. 

When the advanced copy arrived, I wasn't sure what to expected. The size is a bit larger than average (10" x 11") and despite the illustrated cover, I was still expecting to see photographs inside. 

When I did open it up, I was amazed at the realistic paintings done by Thomas Gonzalez. Some of the illustrations required a second look before I realized they were not photographs. I know that children's books are typically not referred to as "coffee table" books, but this one is so beautiful that even if you don't have children, you may want to leave it out for guests to look at. 

Slade also used a free verse style to convey the narrative of the journey from Kennedy's speech to our landing on the moon. The photographs of the various astronauts and their stories from Apollo 1 to Apollo II add to the power of this book. At the end of the book, Slade includes additional resources about the Team Apollo and Apollo 11. I would also encourage readers to not skip the author and illustrator notes at the end. 

Countdown is out on September 1st consider pre-ordering it from your local indie bookstore or requesting that your library order it. 

About the author & illustrator:

A mechanical engineer by degree, Suzanne Slade is the award-winning author of more than one hundred books. Before beginning her writing career, Suzanne worked in the Mechanical/Propulsion Department at McDonnell Douglas Space Systems in Huntington Beach, CA on Delta rockets, Titan rockets, and the Delta-Star spacecraft. She also designed pneumatic consoles for the Delta rocket's first and second stage checkout. While at MDSS, Suzanne worked with engineers who helped create the third stage of the Saturn V rocket which launched the Apollo moon missions. As part of her research for this book, Suzanne interviewed one of the six remaining astronauts who has walked on the moon, Alan Bean, and corresponded with Walter Cunningham, Apollo 7 astronaut.

Thomas Gonzalez was born in Havana, Cuba, and moved to the United States as a child. An artist and painter, he directed campaigns for clients such as Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, NASCAR, the NFL, and McDonald's, in addition to illustrating children's books. He lives in Georgia.

Ocean Meets Sky - An interview with The Fan Brothers

Ocean Meets Sky
The Fan Brothers
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (May 15, 2018)
Fiction * Imagination * Adventure
Audience: Ages 4 to 8
Indiebound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads: It’s a good day for sailing.
Finn lives by the sea and the sea lives by him. Every time he looks out his window it’s a constant reminder of the stories his grandfather told him about the place where the ocean meets the sky. Where whales and jellyfish soar and birds and castles float.

Finn’s grandfather is gone now but Finn knows the perfect way to honor him. He’ll build his own ship and sail out to find this magical place himself!

And when he arrives, maybe, just maybe, he’ll find something he didn’t know he was looking for.

________________________

I am excited to welcome Eric and Terry Fan to Kid Lit Frenzy. Thank you for stopping by and talking about your new book OCEAN MEETS SKY. 

Kid Lit Frenzy: I am curious about your collaborative process. As I looked at the illustrations, I kept wondering how you merge your individual styles into page spreads that work together so beautifully. Do you storyboard it first and then divide up the spreads or do you work on them together? And what happens when might not agree on something? 

Eric: We definitely always storyboard our art and do a rough dummy before proceeding to finals, so we have a pretty good idea of the basic composition and elements. Sometimes the image can change quite a bit as we move from rough to final because we like to give ourselves the creative headroom to allow new ideas to grow instead of being to chained to the rough. In any case, for the finals we’ll either work together on a spread if we’re in the studio together, or we’ll work on different parts of it and then bring the elements together in Photoshop and share the layered file in Dropbox. 

Terry: It’s nice to hear that our individual elements merge well, since that’s always our ultimate goal. It’s a fairly intuitive process and we’ve developed a good dialogue between us, and sense of how we want the image to develop, so we don’t run into too many disagreements. Our primary medium is still graphite or ballpoint. We scan the monochrome drawing and then colour it in Photoshop. Again, it’s a collaborative process and we can always count on the great feedback from our editor and art director to help steer us in the right direction if we’re unsure about something. 

KLF: Do you have a favorite spread in the book? And why? 

Eric & Terry: It’s really hard to pick a favourite spread from a book, but maybe the Library Islands spread, just because we knew going in that it was going to be a difficult illustration to execute, so there was a certain degree of relief when we finished it, which marked a turning point in the process where you feel like you’ve cleared a difficult hurdle. We also love books, and we had a lot of fun including books that have had an impact on both of us growing up, as well as inventing book titles as a shout out to friends and family. We completed the illustration during our Sendak Fellowship, and so we named one of the books “The Four Fellows” as a tribute to the two other artists attending the fellowship with us - Eliza Wheeler and Rashin Kheiriyeh - who we became good friends with.

KLF: The text and illustrations work amazingly well together. I love how the book flows from a young boy in play to this incredibly imaginative story and returns to the young boy and his mother, all the while, there is this nod to the grandfather and his stories. How did you decide on the direction and flow for the story? 

Terry: Thank you! It took us quite a while to find the story, and the text went through a number of different drafts. Much like The Night Gardener, the initial spark for the story started with a stand-alone image from many years ago. It was an image of a whale in the clouds surrounded by sailing ships. We knew we wanted to have our character Finn visit this magical place, but we also wanted to deepen the story and give it some resonance beyond just the adventure aspect. Early on we decided to make the character of Finn Asian, which got us thinking about our own family. Our grandfather and father were both storytellers, and the stories we were told as children had a big impact on us and likely steered us into wanting to tell our own stories as adults. We started seeing the “story” as a kind of seed planted that can grow in the mind of the person hearing it. 

Eric: We also saw kids reacting to The Night Gardener - inventing their own topiaries, even filming little movies based on our book - and we knew it was a theme we wanted to explore. So in some ways, even though the reader experiences Ocean Meets Sky from Finn’s perspective, for us as writers we’re more aligned to the grandfather’s perspective, with Finn being a proxy for the reader entering the imaginative world of the book. Like Finn, the hope is that a story can grow in the mind of the reader and act as inspiration, or grow into something entirely new. Since the book is also about loss, and coming to terms with loss, we wanted to show how a story could become a form of connection and closure; we build our life using stories, structure our memories and feelings into stories to make sense out of them. We liked the idea of Finn living through his grandfather’s story, and by breathing new life into it he’s kept his grandfather’s spirit alive inside him.

KLF: When you think of your journey as artists, who do you credit as influencing your work and did you see your career going in the direction of creating children's picture books? 

Terry: I think the biggest early influence on us was our parents. Our father loved to invent stories and would create magically little story-worlds for us to participate in. His stories usually had messages in them about tolerance or conflict resolution, and he would ask us to think our way out of various predicaments presented to the characters. Our mom has always been our biggest artistic champion. She’s perhaps the one person who’s believed in us throughout our entire lives, even when we weren’t working directly in the art field. Before we could even read or write she helped us collaborate on our first book together “Many Years Ago” which was about dinosaurs. She stapled it together for us and wrote out the text as we dictated it. Somehow we still have the book after all these years, and through many moves. 

Eric: As far as our journey into picture books, Terry and I both attended OCAD together, but up until relatively recently we both had full time jobs outside of the art field. Children’s books were always something I was interested in, and when I was younger I submitted a manuscript I had written and illustrated with my younger brother Devin. We sent it out unsolicited, and unsurprisingly most came back unopened, but we did get two lovely letters of encouragement from a couple of editors. Fast forward to many years later, when the internet started to change the landscape for artists. It’s now possible to have your work seen by a global market by showing it on social media, or uploading it to sites like Society6, Threadless, and Redbubble. Terry and I both started selling our art online and by chance it caught the attention of our agent Kirsten Hall. That lead directly to our first book being published, The Night Gardener. Even in retrospect it all feels a little unreal, and we feel so fortunate to have “fallen” into picture books through remarkable good fortune and happenstance. 

KLF: Can you share about any future projects that you are working on? 

The Fan Brothers: We’re currently illustrating a lovely story called The Scarecrow, by Beth Ferry (HarperCollins) and after that we’ll be working on our third book, with a third Fan - our younger brother Devin! It’s called The Barnabus Project and will be published by Tundra Books/Penguin Random House in 2020.

Look for a copy of Ocean Meets Sky at your local indie bookstore or public library. 

About the creators:
Terry Fan received his formal art training at Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, Canada. His work is a blend of traditional and contemporary techniques, using ink or graphite mixed with digital. He spends his days (and nights) creating magical paintings, portraits, and prints. The Night Gardener is his first book. Born in Illinois, he now lives in Toronto. Visit him online at Krop.com/TerryFFan and Society6.com/igo2cairo and on Facebook (Terry Fan Illustration).

Eric Fan is an artist and writer who lives in Toronto, Canada. Born in Hawaii and raised in Toronto, he attended the Ontario College of Art and Design, where he studied illustration, sculpture, and film. He has a passion for vintage bikes, clockwork contraptions, and impossible dreams. The Night Gardener is his first children’s book. See more of his work at Society6.com/opifan64 and on Facebook (Eric Fan Illustration).

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Hawk Rising Guest Post by Maria Gianferrari

Hawk Rising
by Maria Gianferrari; Illustrated by Brian Floca
Roaring Book Press (May 1, 2018)
Nonfiction * Animals * Birds
Audience: Ages 5 to 9
Indiebound | WorldCat
 

Description from GoodReads: In the companion to Coyote Moon, follow a red-tailed hawk in his hunt to feed his family in this picture book, from Maria Gianferrari (Coyote Moon) and illustrated by Brian Floca. Complete with back matter containing more information about how hawks hunt, nest, and raise families, as well as further sources.

Early morning and a ruffle of feathers,
A shadow gliding through the backyard.
High above your house Father Hawk circles, sharp eyes searching for prey. From the front porch, you watch.
Swoosh!
He dives after chipmunks, crows, sparrows, squirrels.
Screech!
The sun sets low in the sky. What’s for dinner?

______________________________________________

Thanks Maria for stopping by Kid Lit Frenzy and sharing more about Hawks with us. 

Top Five Ways for Kids to Research Hawks!!

As a self-proclaimed bird nerd, I am delighted to be writing this post on ways kids can research hawks for Kid Lit Frenzy!

Thanks for having me here, Alyson!

5.  Read books on hawks and birds of prey!

You can start with a classic field guides like Peterson’s Hawks of North America, named after naturalist Roger Tory Peterson. Birds of prey are also known as “raptors.”

 4.   Watch movies!

The Legend of Pale Male is a film about New York City’s most famous resident red-tailed hawk, Pale Male and his mate, Lola, who nested on an posh apartment building on 5th Avenue. See the trailer here.

Check out Looking Skyward: A Passion for Hawk Watching, a movie of why people hawk-watch. It also shares some major places for watching hawks migrate.

3. Field research!

Grab your binoculars! If you live in North America, a red-tailed hawk could be your neighbor! They are North America’s most common hawk. The area where hawks live is called their “range.”

Photo Credit: Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds/map

Red-tailed hawks live in all kinds of habitats: deserts, roadsides scrublands, fields and pastures, city and suburban parks, woodlands and forest and even tropical rainforests.

They love to perch hunt along highways, so look for them on light poles, telephone wires, roadside trees, and even highway signs.

Here’s a photo I took when I lived near Boston, Massachusetts:

This hawk was perched in an area where a bunch of major highways intersect.

2. Visit a local wildlife or raptor rehabilitation center!

Raptors who have been injured are treated, and if their injuries heal, they are released back into the wild. Those whose injuries will not allow them to survive in the wild become full-time residents in wildlife rehab centers and serve as “education ambassadors.” Wildlife vets and rehabbers often visit schools or libraries for educational programming events with these birds to talk about raptor biology, how they care for the birds, and their role in the wild.

Here is a directory of wildlife rehabilitation centers throughout the US: http://wildliferehabinfo.org/ContactList_MnPg.htm

Here’s a red-tailed hawk ambassador named Trouble from SOAR (Save Our Avian Resources), a raptor rehabilitation, education and research organization in Iowa

If you live in the northeast, you could also visit Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania.

If you can’t visit, you can learn a ton about hawks and especially raptor migration on their website. See RaptorPedia.

1.    Watch them live on webcams!!

Without a doubt, the best way to research hawks is via Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds website on their live webcams!!! You can directly observe Cornell red-tailed mates, Big Red and her new mate, Arthur as they prepare the nest and incubate the eggs.

This year, Big Red laid a clutch of three eggs:

You can watch the chicks “pip” or hatch, and see a newly hatched chick:

You can watch the nestlings grow

And grow

And grow!

And see the kind of prey they eat.

Watch it all live here!! You can scroll back to the very beginning.

And of course, you can also learn a bit about more about hawks by reading, Hawk Rising, while you marvel at Brian Floca’s stunning illustrations.

Roaring Brook Press is graciously offering a copy of Hawk Rising to one lucky US resident reader of Kid Lit Frenzy. (See the Rafflecopter below)

Good luck!

Thanks again, Alyson!

About the author: 
Maria Gianferrari's favorite pastime is searching for perching red-tailed hawks while driving down the highway. When she's not driving, she loves watching birdcams. Her favorite feathered stars are Cornell hawk Big Red and her late mate, Ezra, who together raised fifteen chicks since they began nesting in 2012. Maria is also the author of Hello Goodbye Dog and Coyote Moon, both published by Roaring Brook Press as well as the Penny & Jelly Books (HMH), Officer Katz & Houndini (Aladdin), Terrific Tongues (Boyds Mills Press) and the forthcoming Operation Rescue Dog (Little Bee). She lives in Virginia with her scientist husband, artist daughter, and rescue dog, Becca. Visit her at mariagianferrari.com, on Facebook or Instagram.

Enter to win a copy of Hawk Rising (must be 13 years old and have a US mailing address). 

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

Book Review and Giveaway: Goodbye Brings Hello

Goodbye Brings Hello: A Book of Firsts
by Dianne White; Illustrated by Daniel Wiseman
HMH Books for Young Readers (June 26, 2018)
Fiction * Social Themes * New Experiences
Audience: Ages 4 to 7 years old
Indiebound | WorldCat
Student Activities

Description from Goodreads: 
There are many ways of letting go. 
With each goodbye, a new hello.
  
From being pushed on a swing to learning how to pump your legs yourself, from riding a beloved trike to mastering your first bike ride, from leaving the comforts of home behind to venturing forth on that first day of school, milestones are exciting but hard. They mean having to say goodbye to one moment in order to welcome the next.   
  
Honest and uplifting, this cheerfully illustrated ode to change gently empowers readers to brave life's milestones, both large and small.

Quick thoughts on the book:
Dianne White tackles transitions and new beginnings in her latest book Goodbye Brings Hello. 

White uses simple rhyming text to share different ways that young children face a new challenge and grow. Similar to the idea that when a "door closes a window opens", White shares how a goodbye can become a hello. 

Whether it is learning to pump your legs on a swing or outgrowing an old sweater and getting a new winter jacket, children will relate to each of the examples throughout the book. 

Daniel Wiseman's uncluttered illustrations in bright colors match the text perfectly. 

Look for Goodbye Brings Hello at your local indie bookstore or public library. 

About the author: When she was five, Dianne White said goodbye to her house and her teacher, Mrs. Dunlap, and hello to a new school, and her newest favorite teacher, Mr. Loop. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is the award-winning author of Blue on Blue. She lives in Arizona, where she writes full-time. For more information, and to download a free activity kit, visit diannewrites.com.  Twitter @diannewrites

About the illustrator: Daniel Wiseman remembers saying goodbye to the training wheels on his bike, and saying a great big hello to skinned knees and elbows. But the freedom of rolling on two wheels was well worth the bumps and bruises. He still rides his (slightly larger) bike almost every day. Daniel loves to draw, and has illustrated several books for children. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri. Visit him at danieldraws.com. Instagram @d_wiseman

Giveaway!
One lucky winner will receive a copy of Goodbye Brings Hello, courtesy of HMH Books for Young Readers (U.S. addresses).

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