As part of the Non-Fiction Picture Book Challenge 2012 (Twitter:
#nfpb2012), my goal is to read and review as many of the new
non-fiction picture books that are released this year. Wednesdays will
be my primary day to post the reviews.
Here are some of the books from this past week:
Mrs. Harkness and the Panda Author: Alicia Potter Illustrator: Melissa Sweet Publisher: Random House (March 13, 2012) Audience: Grades 2-5
Ruth
Harkness in 1936 did something that most women would not have done.
She left her home and went to China to find a baby panda bear. Her
husband died during an earlier exploration (due to cancer) and Harkness
wanted to finish that search despite being a woman.
Now though we don't advocate going to another country to capture an
animal, in 1936 attitudes were different. Harkness's actions provided
many people with information about pandas that had not been available before.
I did find it humorous that she took 22 pieces of luggage with her but
again due to the times they had to pack everything they would need for a
long trip.
Definitely an interesting story which was released just in time for Women's History Month.
Melissa Sweet who created Balloons over Broadway uses similar techinques to create the illustrations for this book. They are wonderful and I do hope they get some recognition.
Another book out in time for Women's History Book focuses on the famous female artist Georgia O'Keeffe. Amy Novesky is paired up with Yuyi Morales covering the illustrations. Morales brings her considerable skill in painting rich, vibrant pictures that just jump out at you. The choice to use such vibrant colors paired with creating illustrations based off of O'Keeffe's actual work brings depth to the story.
Novesky's story captures Georgia's trip and experience in Hawaii. O'Keeffe was determined to explore Hawaii and paint the beautiful scenes which she was witnessing.
This put her in direct conflict with the wishes of the Pineapple Company which just wanted O'Keeffe to paint a pineapple.
Though the book ends a bit abruptly, I loved many of the illustrations and the sense of who Georgia O'Keeffe was as a woman and painter.
It's that time of the week...add your nonfiction reviews to the Mr. Linky below.
For some background information for my readers - When did you decide to become
a writer? And how did you come upon being a writer of nonfiction books for
children?
When I was a junior in high school, I won a competition
sponsored by my local New Jersey newspaper that enabled me to attend the
National High School Institute in Journalism at Northwestern University. That
five-week summer experience was the foundation for my career as a nonfiction
author. I had always liked to
write and was the editor in chief of my junior high and high school newspapers,
but the Northwestern program gave me the practical and ethical tools that have
used throughout my career. I see myself primarily as a reporter, but one who
usually reports on events and developments that happened in the past.
Basketball Belles came out about a year ago. When I read it, I
immediately had to tell others about it. What was the inspiration for
writing the story of about Agnes Morley and her team mates?
I first learned about the 1896 game portrayed in Basketball Belles more than 15 years
ago, when I was writing Winning Ways: A
Photohistory of American Women in Sports. At that time, I read some of the
reporting about the game in the San Francisco newspapers. Since no men were
allowed to watch the game, all of the reporters were women, and it was really
interesting to read their perspectives on this sports event. As it happens, my
college thesis advisor at Princeton had become a tenured professor at Stanford,
and that made the idea of researching this game, which was between Stanford and
Cal Berkeley, even more enticing. I didn’t decide to focus on Agnes Morley till
much later in the process, when I realized I needed a central character and decided
it had to be a player. I researched the backgrounds of a lot of players, but I
felt I got to know Agnes best because I read some of the short stories she
wrote, and her memoir. The circumstances of her childhood made her the perfect
protagonist.
How many hours of research goes into writing a nonfiction picture book
like Basketball Belles and how do you work to ensure that the facts are as
accurate as possible?
Since my writing background is as a journalist, I’m a
stickler for facts and the “truth.” I struggled with that when I was working on
Basketball Belles. It was my first
picture book, and I knew I had to make the story compelling and exciting, but I
also wanted it to be true. One of the drafts centered on a fictional girl who
was attending the game so she could write a school report, but it felt wrong
injecting a fictional character into the mix. I’m glad I jettisoned her and
highlighted Agnes Morley instead.
As for how much research I did, the answer is: LOTS! I went
to Stanford and Cal to use their libraries and even spoke to the current
women’s basketball coaches there. That wasn’t at all necessary, but I’m a
basketball fan and it was such a treat. It also helped me put that first game
in perspective. I think I read every article written about that game, before
and after it was played, in all the San Francisco papers, as well as those from
Berkeley and Stanford. I tried to follow up on the stories of as many players
as I could. I think there’s another book in that, or at least an article. The
group of players went on to be teachers, doctors, and scientists, as well as
wives and mothers. It was quite a crew.
Do you have any writing rituals or routines?
I’m big on organization. When I start a project, I label a
series of file folders so I can file my research articles according to the
chapters they belong in. I also have folders for photographs, memos and
correspondence, back matter, and other topics. That helps tremendously because
I gather lots of material and it does me no good if it just sits in a pile on
my desk. If I file it away, I can usually find it when I need it.
While I can read my research anywhere, most of my work is
done at my desk, in front of my computer. A few years ago I got a Mac with a
27-inch screen because I like to have a lot of windows open at once. When I’m
writing, I’ll often refer to Internet sites to check facts or confirm
spellings. When I’m doing online photo research, I’ll compare a number of
photographs head to head to decide which ones work best for me.
My other ritual is to let things gel by taking occasional
breaks to play an online game. When I was working on a PC, I would play Spider
Solitaire. Now I’m somewhat obsessed with the Jigsaw Puzzle Generator on the
National Geographic Web site (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/jigsaw-puzzles).
That makes jigsaw puzzles out of photographs, and you use your mouse to put the
pieces together. It’s a great way to step back from the intensity of writing,
and it usually ends up helping me move the story forward when I go back to it.
Recently, I heard some historical fiction writers talk about their research and
how some of the techniques could be used by children as part of the writing
process. Are there certain things that you can suggest to teachers that
they can use to assist young writers?
Whenever I write about a period in history, I try to read
the newspapers of that time. Often, I use the Library of Congress’s Historic
Newspapers collection (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov). It covers newspapers
from 1836 to 1922 and is easily searchable. If you want to find out what the
papers were saying about basketball in 1896, for example, you can use search
parameters to find the articles in the newspapers in the collection, which
includes papers from 30 states and the District of Columbia. You can even
target specific states or newspapers in your search.
I’m also big on timelines. I’m currently trying to lock down
an idea for a new YA nonfiction book, and I actually downloaded a timelines app
that automatically plugs information I input onto a graphic timeline. It really
helps me look at the big picture. For example, I input the lifespans of about
20 people I’m considering covering in the book, and with the timeline I can see
at a glance who was born first, who lived the longest, and when their lives
overlapped. It’s a very useful tool, whether your research covers a century or
only a year.
One of the challenges many of my librarian friends run into is with
the number of pages in a nonfiction book for 4th to 8th graders. Many
children will come in asking for a biography or nonfiction work on a particular
topic and say that it needs to be 150 pages I have noticed that many
nonfiction books for this age group fall between 96 to 130 pages. Many of these
books are fantastic. Any thoughts on how to help teachers recognize the
quality of a nonfiction book despite this randomly set number of page criteria
not being met?
When I started writing nonfiction for that age range in
1993, many books were straight narratives. The trim sizes of the pages were
similar to those of fiction books
and they usually had rivers of text, broken up by some captioned
pictures. Today, trim sizes are bigger to make room for sidebars and features
and primary source reprints. While there is still a narrative thread in most
books, there’s also supplemental material that helps readers gain additional
perspective on the story (and fulfills the mandate of the Common Core to teach
kids to use primary sources). If kids read all of these sidebars and analyze
the images, they may very well spend as much time with a 96-page book as their
predecessors did with a 150-page straight narrative. I’d urge teachers to
reevaluate the strict mandate on page length to allow for the realities of the
new nonfiction.
Anything that you can share about future books that you are working
on?
My next
project is a picture book about Roller Derby in 1948. It’s another subject I
first wrote about in Winning Ways.
There was a point in time when Roller Derby was first televised, and it both
exploded in popularity and led people to embrace television as a medium that
could show live action events. The book will focus on that moment in time, and
on the skater with one of my favorite sports nicknames ever, Midge “Toughie”
Brasuhn.
I’m also working on an idea about women in early television,
but it’s too early to tell you much about that yet.
Thanks Sue for stopping by and celebrating National Women's History Month with us. I am so going to check out the Library of Congress's Historic Newspaper link and the app for timelines sounds interesting.
It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Sheila of Book Journey. Jen & Kellee from
Teach Mentor Texts have adapted this to focus on Picture Books to Young Adult Books.
Each week I'll recap what I've read/reviewed the week before
and then look ahead to what I am planning on reading/reviewing in the upcoming week.
Last week's book adventures:
Have you ever had a week where you read a lot but very few of the books stand out? This is how I would characterize my reading week. However, there were a few that really stood out for me.
Here are my favorites from the past week:
Lester Fizz, Bubble Gum Artist by Ruth Spiro
I had been looking for this book for awhile and excited when I actually found it. The story was a bit different than I expected but I really enjoyed the book and all the great references to artists and classic art.
Mega Mash Up: Robots Vs. Gorillas in the Desert by Nikalas Catlow
This is not necessarily a book you would put in your library, but as a gift to a child - excellent choice. Children are encouraged to write directly into the book; add text and illustrations.
Marty McGuire Digs Worms by Kate Messner; Illustrated by Brian Floca
I love Marty and this time she is out to Save the Planet - by composting. I'll be working on a review. This is a definite favorite for the week.
City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
I started this on audiobook back in April and wasn't enjoying it. I also think I had mixed feelings about the series moving beyond what I thought was a well wrapped up trilogy that now was turning into a six book series. So I gave it some space. I needed to get back into the right mindset to read it. I think after finishing Clockwork Prince last week I was sufficiently back into the Shadowhunter world. I will be looking forward to City of Lost Souls when it comes out in May.
Caldecott Challenge Update:
I am going to be so excited when I have moved beyond the 1940's. These have not been my favorite books, but I am plugging away slowly.
Nonfiction Picture Books:
Remember - Nonfiction Picture Book reviews will be posted on Wednesday (and maybe some other days as well since I am starting to have too many books to post on just one day).
So, what are you reading this week?
Please share! And remember to check in at Sheila's or Jen & Kellee's blog to see what they and others are reading!
I just discovered a great blog resource for Women's History Month. In 2011, authors & illustrators & bloggers came together to write 31 blog posts focused on book reviews and guest posts related to famous women or topics related to Women's History. Don't miss out on this year's 31 special blog posts.
Information about the organizers taken from the blog:
This second annual celebration of Women’s History Month through
literature for children and young adults is organized by bloggers Margo
Tanenbaum, of The Fourth Musketeer, and Lisa Taylor, of Shelf-employed. Margo, who blogs about historical fiction and history books for young people at The Fourth Musketeer,
recently earned her master's degree in library science.She works
part-time at two public libraries in Southern California, and hopes to
secure a position as a children's librarian. Lisa lives in New Jersey,
where she is a youth services librarian in a county library system. She
may be found blogging at Shelf-employed or the ALSC Blog. Both Lisa and Margo review for School Library Journal and are currently serving as Round Two Cybils judges in the nonfiction categories.
Yesterday the students and staff at San Rafael Elementary had an opportunity to celebrate reading and their right to read as they participated in a schoolwide Read Aloud activity. According to Pam Allyn and her organization Lit World over 793 million people remain illiterate. Lit World wants everyone to imagine a world where everyone can read. By joining together to celebrate World Read Aloud Day, we demonstrate that the right to read and write belongs to everyone.
Thank you to Mr. Schu (@mrschureads) and MaryAnn Scheuer (@maryannscheuer) for skyping with a group of students at San Rafael. We read aloud together, shared the NEA's Reader's Oath, and even listened to MaryAnn's students sing for us.
We also had the chance to Skype with Iza Trapani. Kindergarteners at San Rafael not only got to hear Iza's new picture book, The Bear Went Over the Mountain, but listen to her sing the worlds to the story. They had lots of questions for Iza too.
In the afternoon, the whole school gathered on the front lawn to read aloud. Big kids read to little ones. Teachers read to classes. Heather Biggs from Scholastic Book Fairs dropped in to read to first graders. Tanganica Turner from Assemblyman Anthony Portantino's office dropped by with a donation of dozens of books for our library and read to a couple of classes.
Thanks everyone for a wonderful World Read Aloud Day!
