Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Mock Sibert 2017

It's almost December and just a little less than two months to go until the ALA Youth Media Awards are announced. There are Mock Caldecott groups happening at schools and libraries and even online. Of course, there are Mock Newbery groups, too. But a few years ago I started promoting a Mock Sibert since a quick google search did not reveal much when it comes to the top award for children's nonfiction. 

What is the Sibert Award? The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award goes to the most distinguished informational book published in the United States. To be honored/win the Sibert Award, the book must include these important elements and qualities:

• Excellent, engaging, and distinctive use of language.
• Excellent, engaging, and distinctive visual presentation.
• Appropriate organization and documentation.
• Clear, accurate, and stimulating presentation of facts, concepts, and ideas.
• Appropriate style of presentation for subject and for intended audience.
• Supportive features (index, table of contents, maps, timelines, etc).
• Respectful and of interest to children.

Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh - Winner of the 2016 Sibert Award

Some year, I have joined with friends to promote great nonfiction titles.  This year, Michele Knott from Mrs. Knott's Book Nook will be joining in. Check out her posts today and next week when she makes her predictions. If you are interested in participating here is what you need to do.

• Decide whether you will do your Mock Sibert predictions as an individual or with students or children from your school or library. 
• Go back through the new release posts found at this blog and think about which ones would be eligible (based on the criteria above).
• Read, read, read. Either by yourself or with students and begin to create a top 5 list. 
• Post about your top 5 books and if you have students participating in your Mock Sibert indicate which ones they would like to see win.
• By January 18, 2017, share with everyone which of your favorites do you think will walk away with the "gold".  If you share your posts via social media, please use the hashtag #mocksibert2017
• If you need to tweak the above suggestions in order to participate, please do. Make this fun and no stress.

On Wednesday, January 25, 2017, I will post the winners of the Sibert Award announced on Monday, January 23, 2017.

Please indicate in the comments if you think you will be participating in the 2017 Mock Sibert event. And I do hope to see many of you participating this year.

Remember to check back in next Wednesday for my Mock Sibert book selections. 

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

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Congratulations to the 2017 Orbis Pictus Winners

Last week, the National Council of Teachers of English held their annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia. At the Children's Luncheon on Saturday, they announced the winners of the Orbis Pictus Award. 

The NCTE Orbis Pictus Award was established in 1989 for promoting and recognizing excellence in the writing of nonfiction for children. The name Orbis Pictus, commemorates the work of Johannes Amos Comenius, Orbis Pictus—The World in Pictures (1657), considered to be the first book actually planned for children.

Winner:

Some Writer!: The Story of E.B. White by Melissa Sweet (HMH Books for Young Readers)

Honor Books:

Animals by the Numbers: A Book of Animal Infographics by Steve Jenkins (HMH Books for Young Readers)

The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial by Susan E. Goodman; Illustrated by E.B. Lewis (Bloomsbury)

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

I Dissent: Ruth Ginsburg Makes Her Mark by Debbie Levy; Illustrated by Elizabeth Baddeley (Simon & Schuster)

¡Olinguito, de la A a la Z!: Descubriendo el bosque nublado / Olinguito, from A to Z: Unveiling the Cloud Forest by Lulu Delacre (Children’s Book Press)

Recommended: 

Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science: The First Computer Programmer by Diane Stanley, illustrated by Jessie Hartland (Simon & Schuster)

Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay by Susan Hood, Sally Wern Comport (Simon & Schuster)

Comics Confidential: Thirteen Graphic Novelists Talk Story, Craft, and Life Outside the Box compiled and edited by Leonard Marcus (Candlewick Press)

Dive!: World War II Stories of Sailors & Submarines in the Pacific by Deborah Hopkinson (Scholastic) 

How to Build a Museum: Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture by Tonya Bolden (Viking)

Miss Mary Reporting: The True Story of Sportswriter Mary Garber by Sue Macy, illustrated by C. F. Payne (Simon & Schuster)

Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story by Caren Stelson (Carolrhoda)

Step Right Up: How Doc and Jim Key Taught the World about Kindness by Donna Janell Bowman, illustrated by Daniel Minter (Lee & Low Books)

Congratulations to the authors and illustrators who were honored for producing high quality nonfiction for children. 

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews:

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Hopping Ahead of Climate Change - Guest Post with Author Sneed Collard

Hopping Ahead of Climate Change: Snowshoe Hares, Science, and Survival
by Sneed Collard
Bucking Horse Books (November 1, 2016)
Nonfiction * Environment
Audience: Grades 3 to 6
Indiebound | WorldCat

Hopping Ahead of Climate Change: Snowshoe Hares, Science, and Survival takes a look at the impact our warming planet is having on snowshoe hares. Every winter, snowshoe hares change their coat color to white. This helps them blend in with snow. Unfortunately, shorter winters are leaving many hares “mismatched.” With less snow, their white fur stands out against the brown forest floor, making them more likely to get eaten by a predator.

I loved doing the research for Hopping Ahead of Climate Change. For this book, I got to interview scientists, read about animals, and go out with Professor Scott Mills to catch snowshoe hares. As always, though, when writing the book, I had to leave out 90% of the information I gathered. Why? One reason is that longer books cost more money to manufacture. Another is that not all of what I learned related directly to my main topic. Last, I wanted to keep the book as interesting as possible so that you, the readers, wouldn’t start yawning and drooling all over the pages!

Still, some cool information always gets left on the cutting room floor. But now, thanks to Kid Lit Frenzy, for the first time ever I am pleased to give you TEN HAREY FACTS that you won’t find in Hopping Ahead of Climate Change—or any other book. They are things that I learned while writing the book, but just didn’t quite make it into the final draft. Enjoy!

Harey Fact #10:

A jackrabbit is actually a kind of hare!

Harey Fact #9:

For a small animal, hares need a lot of space to live in. In his work, Scott usually finds only .5 to 2 hares per hectare. Can you figure out how many hares that per acre?

Harey Fact #8:

Scott and his team named one of their favorite hare study areas “The Milk Shake.” That’s because it was close to a great milk shake place in the nearby town of Seeley Lake. Mmmmm… milk shakes…

Harey Fact #7:

Have you ever wondered why science museums collect and store millions of dead animal specimens? Scott’s work provides the answer: because future scientists might need them one day! Old museum specimens are helping Scott and his team in at least two ways—telling them how early or late coat colors changed in the past, and if the animals genes have changed in the last century or so.

Harey Fact #6:

When I first started talking to Scott, he was about to spend a year in Bhutan, at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains. There, Scott expected to find coat-color-changing animals, but guess what? There weren’t any! That’s startling in one of the world’s highest and snowiest regions, but it shows the importance of having scientists to actually look at places instead of just assuming what the world is like.

Harey Fact #5:

Besides finding hares in their traps, Scott and his team have caught marten, grouse, wood rats, and gray jays. More than anything else, though, they catch skunks! It takes real skill to get a skunk out of a trap without getting sprayed!

Harey Fact #4:

Scott measures the health of a hare by the ratio of its weight to the length of its hind foot. The length of the hind foot gives Scott an idea of how old the hare is. Its weight tells him how healthy it is for that age. Which do you think survives better—heavier or lighter hares? (Answer at the bottom.)

Harey Fact #3:

Scott’s team has given names to some of the hares they keep in captivity. These include Harry Houdini, Buns, Nibbler, and my favorite, David Hopperfield.

Harey Fact #2:

As a college student, Scott wanted to be a wildlife veterinarian. After spending a summer working with mountain goats in Olympic National Park, he decided to become a wildlife biologist. He got his PhD at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

And now for…(drum roll and hares thumping)…

Harey Fact #1:

During his career studying hares, Scott Mills and his crew have caught and tagged more than 10,000 hares!

___________________
Answer to Fact #4: heavier hares.

About the author:
Sneed B. Collard III is the author of the award-winning books Fire Birds—Valuing Natural Wildfires and Burned Forests; Double Eagle; Shep—Our Most Loyal Dog; Dog Sense; Pocket Babies and Other Amazing Marsupials; and The Prairie Builders—Reconstructing America’s Lost Grasslands, winner of the AAAS/Subaru/Science Books & Films Prize for Excellence in Science Books. Sneed has evolved through several life-history stages on his way to becoming one of today’s leading children’s authors. His first book, Sea Snakes, was published in 1993. His seventy-fifth (or so) book, his memoir Snakes, Alligators, and Broken Hearts—Journeys of a Biologist’s Son, was released in Fall, 2015. In 2006, Sneed was the recipient of the Washington Post Children’s Book Guild Children’s Nonfiction Writer of the Year Award for his body of work.

Thank you Sneed for stopping by Kid Lit Frenzy and sharing great facts about hares and your new book. 

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews:

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Cover Reveal: Can An Aardvark Bark?

Do you have a favorite author or illustrator? The one author or illustrator that when you hear that they have a new book coming that you mark your calendar or place a pre-order? The author or illustrator that your students or readers are always excited to read? I know I do. 

Both Melissa Stewart and Steve Jenkins fits this for me. For a book to be written by Melissa Stewart and illustrated by Steve Jenkins, it is a dream book. So, mark your calendars because in June of 2017 there will be a new book you will want to add to your personal, class or school library.

And I am excited to be able to share with all of you the cover for Can an Aardvark Bark. 

In talking with author, Melissa Stewart, I asked her to share what inspired her to write this book. Here is her response: 

"Can an Aardvark Bark? was inspired by a question my nephew asked me in 2010 while we were on a family trip to Disney World. It lead to a google search, which satisfied him, but only made me ask more questions. I set off on a fascinating research journey in which I eventually compiled a list of more than 300 animals that bark, bellow, chirp, chatter, grunt, growl, and more. That’s when I knew I had the makings of a book.

"It took four long years to find the perfect format and text structure for the book. When it was acquired shortly before Christmas in 2014, I couldn't wait to share the news with my nephew. He was gobsmacked. He couldn't believe I'd been thinking about his question for all those years. But that's what nonfiction writers do. They become obsessed with ideas and information and don't give up until they find a way to share it with other people."

Can an Aardvark Bark? 
by Melissa Stewart; Illustrated by Steve Jenkins
Beach Lane Books (June 13, 2017)
Audience: Preschool to Age 8
Nonfiction * Animals

Description from GoodReads: 
From award-winning author Melissa Stewart and Caldecott honoree Steve Jenkins comes a noisy nonfiction exploration of the many sounds animals make.

Can an aardvark bark? No, but it can grunt. Lots of other animals grunt too…

Barks, grunts, squeals—animals make all kinds of sounds to communicate and express themselves. With a growling salamander and a whining porcupine, bellowing giraffes and laughing gorillas, this boisterous book is chock-full of fun and interesting facts and is sure to be a favorite of even the youngest animal enthusiasts.

Don't forget to link up  your nonfiction reviews below: 

Guest Post by author SF Said

Today author, SF Said, drops by to talk about his new book Phoenix (Candlewick, October 2016) and share about his love for science fiction. 

I was 10 years old when the first Star Wars film came out.  It was a life-changing moment for me, as for many of my generation.  As I looked up in awe at that first starship filling the screen, I remember thinking that I wanted to write a story as big as that one day.  I wanted to write a book that contained an entire galaxy.

I loved science fiction.  I grew up watching Star Trek and Doctor Who on TV, and wishing there were more children's books set in space.  There weren't many, even then; film and TV were boldy going where publishing was not.  But I wanted to see a sci-fi space epic for young readers – so I finally sat down and wrote one myself. 

When Phoenix was published in the UK in 2013, it stood more or less alone.  British children's literature had seen waves of books about wizards and witches, vampires and werewolves, post-apocalyptic dystopias – but somehow, not space.  The prevailing wisdom was that it wouldn't work, despite occasional books in which space was an ingredient, like Frank Cottrell-Boyce's Cosmic.  Space stories had yet to take off.

But a new wave of science fiction is rising in children's literature.  In the last three years, we've seen big sci-fi titles from some of the UK's leading children's authors, such as Philip Reeve (Cakes In Space, illustrated by Sarah McIntyre, for younger readers; Railhead and Black Light Express for older ones), Malorie Blackman (Chasing The Stars), and Paul Magrs (Lost On Mars and The Martian Girl). 

I've seen booksellers and librarians make fabulous displays from all the new space-themed children's books.  Many authors have told me they're now writing one too, and the next few years will see the field expand still further.  Sci-fi is even being mixed with other genres; I recently shared a panel discussion with writers of sci-fi thrillers (Kat Ellis, Purge) and romances (Lauren James, The Next Together). 

It makes sense, when you consider the resurgence of public interest in space itself.  NASA's Mars missions have restored a sense of discovery.  Astronauts like Chris Hadfield and Tim Peake have used social media brilliantly to spread the wonder of space exploration.

Meanwhile, breakthroughs in astronomy have revealed a truly awe-inspiring universe.  We now believe there are 2 trillion galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars.  The incredible images captured by the Hubble telescope have only amplified the awe people have always felt when looking up at the stars.  Such images are thrilling to young people, who are also enthusiastic followers of figures such as Neil deGrasse Tyson.  His new Cosmos series means as much to young people today as Carl Sagan's original Cosmos meant to people like myself.

I have to admit, though, Phoenix is not exactly 'hard' sci-fi.  It's a story about a human boy and an alien girl who have to save the galaxy.  Its scientific plausibility matters less to me than its metaphorical resonance.  I've certainly tried to write a story that taps into all the things I find electrifying about space: the science of stars, black holes, dark matter.  But I'm also interested in the mythic dimension; the sense that there's something transcendent about the stars.

They pose the biggest questions imaginable, making us consider our place in the universe, and what it means to be alive in it.  We now know that the atoms in our bodies were created in the hearts of exploding stars: something that feels closer to ancient myth than astrophysics.  That's one reason why Phoenix contains as much mythology as science, and why I'm as comfortable calling it 'mythic fiction' as 'science fiction'. 

But I think the same is true of Star Wars.  So when I visit schools to talk about Phoenix, I always start by telling kids about seeing that first Star Wars film, so long ago.  They know exactly what I mean; they've felt the same awe with each new Star Wars film.  It belongs to them as much as it does to me – even if they never believe me when I say it wasn't called "Episode IV: A New Hope" back then, but just "Star Wars"!

It's been wonderful to see that young readers in the UK are thrilled by the idea of space and hungry to read stories about it.  I hope readers in the US and beyond will be open to it too, and will enjoy flying through the stars with the new wave of children's science fiction.

About the book: 
Lucky lives a relatively normal life on a remote moon of the planet Aries One, safe from the turmoil and devastation of the interstellar war between Humans and Aliens. Lucky has seen images of the horned, cloven-hooved Aliens before, but he’s never seen one up close. Then one night, he dreams that the stars are singing to him—and wakes to evidence suggesting that he is not so normal after all. When Lucky’s mother sacrifices herself to help him escape an elite Human military force called the Shadow Guards, he must rely on the Alien crew of a ramshackle starship, where he finds that humanity’s deadly enemies seem surprisingly Human up close. In fact, they may be more Human than Lucky himself, who has a dangerous power that could change the course of the war and the fate of the galaxy—if he can learn how to use it. Star Wars fans seeking another saga to love need look no further than this epic middle-grade adventure from SF Said, illustrated by Dave McKean with remarkable white-on-black spacescapes.

A boy with unprecedented power must turn to the terrifying Alien enemies of humanity to discover his true nature and bring peace to a galaxy at war.

About the author:
SF Said is the award-winning author of Varjak Paw and The Outlaw Varjak Paw. His new book Phoenix was chosen to represent the UK on the IBBY International Honor Book List, and was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Award.  It is published in North America by Candlewick Press. You can find him on twitter: @whatSFSaid