I have thought about it and thought about it and finally decided that since it is St. Patrick's Day my giveaway hop is going to be a "winner's choice". Do you have a book on your TBR list that you would like to get? Or does the book you want to read at the library have an incredibly long waitlist? Have you been wanting to try out an audiobook? On lucky reader can select a *book in the format (ebook, audiobook, or traditional format) of his/her choice.
* Please note: Ebooks & Traditional Books must be available on iTunes or Amazon for $15 or less. Audiobooks must be either $15 or less if on iTunes or worth one credit on Audible.com.
Rules for the Giveaway:
1. Though comments are very much appreciated, please do not enter any personal information in the comments section (including your email, website, etc.). If you do enter personal information, your comment will not be posted.
2. You must complete the entry form to official enter the giveaway.
3. The Contest runs from 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time on March 17, 2012 to 11:59 p.m. on March 22, 2012.
4. You must be 13 years or older to participate.
5. If you are selected as the winner, you will be notified by email. If you do not respond within 48 hours, I will select a new winner.
Cross-posted from Now That's Filmworthy (Visit Kate's blog for a chance to win Ripper!)
Author: Stefan Petrucha
Publisher: Philomel Books / Penguin Young Readers
Release date: March 1, 2012
Source: Advance Readers Copy
Audience: Young Adult
Good Reads Description:
Carver
Young dreams of becoming a detective, despite growing up in an
orphanage with only crime novels to encourage him. But when he is
adopted by Detective Hawking of the world famous Pinkerton Agency,
Carver is given not only the chance to find his biological father, he
finds himself smack in the middle of a real life investigation: tracking
down a vicious serial killer who has thrown New York City into utter
panic. When the case begins to unfold, however, it’s worse than he could
have ever imagined, and his loyalty to Mr. Hawking and the Pinkertons
comes into question. As the body count rises and the investigation
becomes dire, Carver must decide where his true loyalty lies.
Full
of whip-smart dialogue, kid-friendly gadgets, and featuring a then New
York City Police Commisioner Teddy Roosevelt, Ripper challenges
everything you thought you knew about the world’s most famous serial
killer.
Kate's thoughts on this book:
Ripperby
Stefan Petrucha was a fun read for me. Being a history groupie, you
always find that there are certain places, people, myths, and mysteries
that pique your interest. The case of Jack the Ripper is one of those
interests of mine, so I was especially excited to read this book. As I
read, I began to see past the history and appreciate the writing style
of the novel as well as the characters introduced. To be honest, it
reminded me of another one of my favorite adult mysteries, Caleb Carr’s The Alienist.
The book’s setting of the
turn of the 20th Century allows the author to explore the advances in
forensics and early investigative techniques. Petrucha takes full
advantage of the opportunity. I thank him for it! The novel’s pacing and
adventure makes it a great read for those guys who like a good mystery.
(There is romance, but it isn’t overwhelming. It is more of an
opportunity to give Carver, our hero, someone who is unconditionally in
his corner.) The story of the Ripper does include some disturbing
murder and mayhem, but it doesn’t get too explicit or overpowering.
The
characters were intriguing. I loved seeing Mr. Petrucha’s take on Teddy
Roosevelt. He really gave us an opportunity to relate to such a
life-sized personality in US history. The themes also jumped out at me:
the idea that your fate is our own no matter who your parents are, where
you grew up, but what actions you take. No person should be
pigeoned-holed especially as they are just discovering themselves.
Author: Andrea Menotti Illustrator: Yancy Labatt Publisher: Chronicle Books (February 29, 2012) Source: Book for Review Audience: Elementary Nonfiction * Math * Picture Book
Description from Chronicle Books: How many jelly beans are enough? How many are too many? Aiden and Emma
can’t decide. Is 10 enough? How about 1,000? That’s a lot of jelly
beans. But eaten over a whole year, it’s only two or three a day. This
giant picture book offers kids a fun and easy way to understand large
numbers. Starting with 10, each page shows more and more colorful
candies, leading up to a giant fold-out surprise—ONE MILLION JELLY
BEANS! With bright illustrations and an irresistible extra-large format,
How Many Jelly Beans? makes learning about big numbers absolutely scrumptious!
When this book arrived from the publisher, it was in a huge box. I assumed it contained several books until I opened it up and realized that this book was larger than the typical picture book and required a larger than normal box. The brightly colored jelly beans and black & white illustrations drew me in immediately. I had to read this one. Since receiving it, I have read it several times and enjoyed it every single time. I even read this one aloud to a group of teacher/librarians recently who also loved it. We couldn't stop plotting about ways to use this book with children.
The story kicks off with Emma being asked "how many jelly beans would you like?" She starts off with a conservative 10. The corresponding illustration shows 10 realistically sized jelly beans in all colors. Emma's younger brother, Aiden, though isn't as hesitant and asks for 20 jelly beans. Quickly the number goes up 25, 50, 75, 500, 1000. The two children eventually try to figure out how many jelly beans per day you would need to eat to consume 1000 in a year. Even Murphy the dog finds a way to get into the action. As the number of jelly beans goes up, the size of the jelly beans goes down. The book ends with a surprise pull-out to represent 1,000,000 jelly beans.
This is a fabulous book. It has it all - great concept, engaging illustrations, and well executed. The size of the book may be a challenge on a shelf and the pull out at the end may be a bit difficult for younger children to re-fold (think how hard it is to refold a map properly). However, this book needs to be used with children. I can see a child reading it and calling others over to "check this out". I can also see teachers using it with groups of children to discuss number sense.
Andrea Menotti and Chronicle Books have a winner on their hands. I am so excited about this book that I am giving away the copy I received (it is in perfect condition - I was careful in looking at it). And I plan on picking up several copies for the school library and for a personal copy at my local indie bookstore.
Rules for the Giveaway:
1.
Though comments are very much appreciated, please do not enter any
personal information in the comments section (including your email,
website, etc.). If you do enter personal information, you comment will
not be posted.
2. You must complete the Entry Form to officially enter the contest.
3. The Contest runs from 12:00 a.m. Pacific Time on March 15, 2012 to 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on March 22, 2012.
4. You must be 13 or older to participate in this contest.
5. If you are selected as a winner, I will notify you by e-mail. If
you do not respond within 48 hours, I will select a new winner.
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.
