Annette Bay Pimentel

I love to read nonfiction picture books by other people. Unless otherwise stated in a post, I do not accept any books for the purpose of review. I check books out of the library or buy them before I review them.

Recent Posts

17May

Martin’s Dream Day

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

[My publisher is giving away my book, Mountain Chef along with John Muir Wrestles a Waterfall over at Page Through the Parks on Facebook. There will be five winners–so go comment on the giveaway post to enter!] I had seen Martin’s Dream Day mentioned on a few lists, so I was happy when my library got it, but […]

Tags: civil rights photographs

16May

Sensory-rich Writing with Kids

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Craft

Kids’ writing takes on depth and power when they learn to use words that evoke the real world. I loved doing a workshop on sensory-rich writing with kids in a fourth grade class this year. We used a 1915 photo of an outdoor picnic, one that I had used in researching Mountain Chef, as our point […]

Tags: teaching writing

15May

Charlesbridge Giveaway!

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Uncategorized

Charlesbridge Publishing has issued an educator’s guide for Mountain Chef. It’s available in a beautifully-formatted form on their website or in a bare-bones format here on mine. And they’re also offering a Charlesbridge giveaway! With summer approaching, Charlesbridge is offering five lucky people two of their national parks related titles–Mountain Chef and John Muir Wrestles a Waterfall. The giveaway […]

10May

The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

There are plenty of dinosaur books that explore the natural history of extinct creatures. But The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk explores, in greater detail and with much greater authority than dinosaur books ever achieve, the natural history of a creature tht went extinct in 1844. It explores with heartbreaking specificity why it went extinct […]

Tags: animals Groundwood Books science

3May

This House, Once

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

Deborah Freedman’s book This House, Once speaks to that human desire to know how stuff is made. In spirit, it’s a lot like the wonderful book Where Did My Clothes Come From? by Chris Butterworth. But that books revels in the intricate details of cloth- and clothes-making, while This House, Once is atmospheric and poetic. The book begins with […]

Tags: Atheneum science

26Apr

Mickey Mantle, The Commerce Comet

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

Last week I looked at a deeply serious book by Jonah Winter. Today I look at another of his books, Mickey Mantle, the Commerce Comet, which has a completely different tone. This is an enthusiastic biography of a famous baseball player. As Winter notes in the front matter, Mantle “had a rough childhood” and is “famous […]

Tags: biography narrative voice Schwartz & Wade sports tense

21Apr

Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Uncategorized

I’m thrilled that my book, Mountain Chef, was chosen as a Notable Book in the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award. I’m especially flattered to be in such august company. Here are the winners in the children’s division: Children’s Winner “Journey: The Most Famous Wolf in the West,” by Emma Bland Smith with illustrations by Robin […]

19Apr

The Secret Project

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

I was excited to get my hands on The Secret Project. Who could resist that mysterious cover? And I love nonfiction picture books that interpret tough moments in history for kids. What could be a tougher moment to interpret than the Manhattan Project and the creation of the atomic bomb? The book is gorgeous and carefully […]

Tags: Beach Lane World War II

18Apr

Library Hamster

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Uncategorized

Our local library offered to send their mascot, Library Hamster, with me on my school visits this week and next. They dressed him ready for the road and gave him a book to read, too!

12Apr

Trudy’s Big Swim

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

Sue Macy writes big, bold picture book biographies of female athletes. Trudy’s Big Swim: How Gertrude Ederle Swam the English Channel and Took the World by Storm is a gorgeous book that begins with Trudy in the Channel and follows her swim, hour by hour, to a new world record. I loved the details of her […]

Tags: back matter Holiday House sports

5Apr

Dorothea Lange

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

Recently I talked with a writer friend about a new project, her first attempt at a picture book biography. She started telling me all sorts of fascinating details about her subject’s life, and then stopped and asked, “How do you decide what to keep in?” Carole Boston Weatherford’s new picture book biography, Dorothea Lange: The Photographer […]

Tags: Albert Whitman biography theme

29Mar

Bravo! Poems about Amazing Hispanics

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

One of my favorite questions to ask teachers and librarians is what books they wished they had to put in kids’ hands. A school librarian who works near San Diego told me she desperately wants more books with Hispanic protagonists. She worries that her kids don’t see themselves often enough in the books she has […]

Tags: biography Hispanic poetry

22Mar

The Search for Olinguito

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

The Search for Olinguito: Discovering a New Species is aptly named. Sure, it’s about a big-eyed, cuddly mammal. And the book is full of photos that will make you fall in love with the olinguito. But the emphasis in the book is on the scientific work that went into that discovery. The book tells the […]

Tags: animals Millbrook scientists

1Mar

The Great Doodler

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

Who doesn’t love Dr. Seuss? His pictures and his rhymes are funny, inventive, and memorable. I usually write about traditional nonfiction picture books, but today I’m joining Michele Knott and Allyson Beecher in their #Road2Reading Challenge. Dr. Seuss: The Great Doodler is an early reader biography that explores the life of the author/illustrator everybody knows. I […]

Tags: Random House writers

22Feb

2016 Round-up Post

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

It’s nearly March and my stack of 2016 books seems not to be dwindling. So here’s a round-up of books from last year that I liked but still haven’t gotten around to writing about. Beautiful, watery illustrations tell the story of a female shark researcher who followed her passion despite discrimination. Swimming with Sharks: […]

17Feb

Presidents Day books

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Storytime lists

Happy President’s Day! This is a holiday that commemorates Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays, but it’s also a great time to reflect on the vigor of the US Constitution and to remember some others who have served as US President. Here’s my list of ten great nonfiction picture books about Presidents and the Presidency. […]

Tags: US Presidents

15Feb

To the Stars!

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

Most picture book biographies, unsurprisingly, have a linear structure. Someone did something and then did something else and then did something else. To the Stars! The First American Woman to Walk in Space uses a refreshingly different structure. One spread shows Dr. Kathy Sullivan’s interests and activities as a child or teenager, and then the next spread […]

Tags: astronaut Charlesbridge structure women

10Feb

People You’ve Probably Never Heard of Who Changed the World #nf10for10

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Storytime lists

Famous people change the world. But often people who are forgotten by history also have a hand in changing the world. Here’s a list of ten books about people you’ve probably never heard of who changed the world. They overcame disability, circumstance, prejudice, and poverty, and did what they could to make the world a […]

8Feb

Real Cowboys

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

My grandfather was a real cowboy. I feel sad that I never got to share Real Cowboys with him. He would have appreciated this book and nodded his head at it, “Yep. That’s right.” This wonderful title for young readers describes what real cowboys actually do, turning the cultural image of the cowboy on its head. […]

Tags: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

1Feb

Giant Squid

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

In Giant Squid, Candace Fleming explores how understanding parts of the whole can lead to understanding the whole. In her beautifully-written and elegantly-constructed book, she shows us parts of the mysterious giant squid, and describes how scientists use tiny clues to piece together more and more information about this fascinating deep-water creature. At the end of […]

Tags: Neal Porter Books

25Jan

Nonfiction and Big KidLit Literary Awards

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

In the last few years, the American Library Association Youth Media Awards have increasingly recognized nonfiction. By my count, between 1942 and 1983 no Caldecott medals went to nonfiction books. That’s 0 awards in 41 years. In 2014, 2016, and now 2017, the Caldecott medal went to nonfiction picture books. This week Radiant Child by Javaka […]

Tags: African American artists Little Brown

18Jan

Sibert Guesses

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Uncategorized

This Monday the Siberts will be announced. I would love to see Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis honored–the art is stunning and the voice is pitch-perfect, but it has only a short author’s essay at the end. It would be a stronger contender if it had a more complete bibliography. […]

Tags: Sibert

18Jan

Like a Bird

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

As a general rule, books happen text-first, especially when the author and illustrator are different people. An author writes a story, and then an illustrator illustrates it, often shaping it in new ways. But still, the general rule is that words come before pictures. Like a Bird: The Art of the American Slave Song is […]

17Jan

Metalmouth

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Uncategorized

My eighth grader got braces today. I got braces in eighth grade, too. I remember spending a long time with the orthodontist with his hands in my mouth, tugging and yanking. When I went home with my mouth full of metal, it felt like he had installed a set of doll knives in my mouth, […]

11Jan

Lift Your Light a Little Higher

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

One of my New Year resolutions: to find people whose stories haven’t been told. Whose stories do we get to hear? Usually, it’s the stories of the people in power. There’s a good reason for that: their stories are memorialized in documentary evidence. Historians can examine papers and books and stitch together stories. The problem […]

Tags: Atheneum biography explorers slavery

10Jan

Ebelskiver Portal

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Uncategorized

My grandmother was a great cook. Of course, she spent most of her life cooking. She woke up early, often before the sun was up, stoked her coal stove (yes! she cooked on a coal stove into the 1980s), and made hearty breakfasts for Grandad and my uncles before they tramped out for their irrigation […]

4Jan

Esquivel! Space Age Sound Artist

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

“Rinty-Tin-Tin!” “Whiz! “clink!” “Whoosh!” This joyous picture book biography of quirky composer Esquivel rejoices in the weird sounds he incorporated into his music. It tells the story of his childhood in Mexico, his move to the United States, and his experiments with using new sounds in new ways in his music. The book is full […]

Tags: Charlesbridge Mexico musician onomatopoeia

21Dec

Are You an Echo?

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

A sixty-four page picture book? By a tiny regional press? I never would have predicted that a book fitting that description would end up on my Christmas list, but that was before I’d seen Are You an Echo? The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko. This unusual book is really two books in one. The first half […]

Tags: Asia book design Chin Music Press poetry

14Dec

Mock Sibert

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Uncategorized

Alyson Beecher of Kid Lit Frenzy and Michele Knott of Mrs. Knott’s Book Nook are hosting a Mock Sibert. I’m thrilled to join, remembering my favorite nonfiction picture books from 2016. My nominations are: Esquivel! Spage-Age Sound Artist (my post about the book coming soon) I loved the lively language and the great onomatopoeia […]

Tags: Mock Sibert

7Dec

The Darkest Dark

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review

Today is Pearl Harbor Day. We commemorate that frightening moment when the United States was plunged into dark terror. Adults fear metaphorical darkness, but kids often have to face head-on their fear of the actual dark. The Darkest Dark is a lovely memoir by astronaut Chris Hadfield of how he conquered his childhood fear of the […]

Tags: astronaut autobiography Little Brown memoir

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