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28Mar

Timelines in Nonfiction Picture Books: Mentor Texts

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Craft
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I love to ask librarians what they wish they had in their libraries. One librarian told me that her teachers are always looking for timelines. I realized that my children have all been assigned to make timelines for various projects in elementary school. I’m sure teachers are looking for mentor texts to examine how timelines are constructed, what they can convey, and how they can be presented. So I’ve been noticing timelines lately!

A timeline in the endpapers shows protesters holding posters with the timeline information

Let the Children March, by Monica Clark-Robinson, illustrated by Frank Morrison (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 2018), has used the endpapers for its timeline. The children protesters, who are the subject of the book, are each holding a poster, as if it were a protest sign, but each poster has a different significant event for the timeline. I think it’s so brilliant to use the endpapers to add extra content to the book, and the information is connected beautifully through the art to the rest of the book.

 

 

Timeline shows dates after subject's death

A Lady Has the Floor: Belva Lockwood Speaks Out for Women’s Rights, by Kate Hannigan, illustrated by Alison Jay (Calkins Creek: 2018) devotes two pages of the back matter to a timeline. You’ll notice in the middle of the first column of the second page, “Belva Lockwood dies in Washington, D.C., at age eighty-six.” And yet the timeline continues! The timeline highlights Lockwood’s legacy–what happened to the fight for the vote and individual women who broke gender barriers to serve in government. Keeping the timeline going after the subject’s death is a great way to point to the importance of the life of a trailblazer.

Timeline of life on Earth

Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years, by Stacy McAnulty, illustrated by David Litchfield (Henry Holt: 2017) doesn’t relegate the timeline to back matter but plops it smack-dab in the middle of the book as an important part of the text. I love how the graphics–using a ruler under all the text–manages to show just how new life is to Earth.

Timeline surrounded by border of pink roses.

And sometimes a straightforward timeline is made irresistible by the sweet wreat of pink flowers surrounding it. Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen, by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Qin Leng (Balzer + Bray: 2018).

Picture of children surrounding a globe

Alyson Beecher hosts the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge at kidlitfrenzy.com. Visit there for more great nonfiction picture books!

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14Mar

Nonfiction Picture Books about Three Women

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review
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Picture of children surrounding a globe

Alyson Beecher hosts the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge at kidlitfrenzy.com. Visit there for more great nonfiction picture books!

Nonfiction picture books about three women for Women’s History Month!

Cover of book shows young Jane Austen writingOrdinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen surprised me. Why would an elementary student be interested in Jane Austen? But Deborah Hopkinson convinced me with her sweet biography that focuses on how very ordinary Jane was, and yet able to develop her talent in an extraordinary way by observing, reading, and writing, writing, writing. It’s a heartening story for those of us who also feel ordinary.

The back matter includes a short summary of each of Austen’s novels (a good idea since I don’t think many children have read her yet!) and famous quotes from each book, as well as places to learn more about Jane Austen. The illustrations are charming and accessible, and the endpapers are the sweetes pink of the year.

Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Qi Leng. Balzer + Bray: 2018.

 

Cover of book shows Belva Lockwood protesting in front of CapitolA Lady Has the Floor tells the inspiring story of Belva Lockwood, who started out as an educator who reformed the schools she worked in so that girls got to have the same experiences as boys–public speaking, physical activities. She then broke down gender barriers to attend law school, and was the first woman to argue before the Supreme Court. As if that weren’t enough barrier breaking, she next became the first woman to run for president, even before women had the right to vote. She said, “I cannot vote, but I can be voted for.”

The back matter for this book about a trailblazer includes a detailed timeline that includes events that happened after her death but are arguably her legacy. I loved that it included source notes for all the quotations in the book. The art was made with a crackle varnish that gives all the pictures an old-timey feeling.

A Lady Has the Floor: Belva Lockwood Speaks Out for Women’s Rights by Kate Hannigan, illustrated by Alison Jay. Calkins Creek: 2018.

 

Cover shows young Lil Hardin Armstrong playing pianoI wasn’t sure who Lil Hardin Armstrong was when I read the subtitle of Born to Swing. Louis Armstrong’s daughter? His sister? I was surprised to learn that she was his wife, and much more famous than him at first. The back matter includes a telling quote from a 1925 newspaper: “Louis Armstrong. Who is he?…Louis is the feature man in Lil’s jazz band at the Dreamland.” This lively biography tells the story of how Lil moved from the church music that her mother approved of to the jazz that she adored. The book is written in first person. Mara Rockliff explains why she chose first person:

Since Lil never got to tell her own story, I tried to tell it as she might have chosen to. I used many of her own words from the interviews she gave over the years. Like all stories told aloud, lil’s stories changed a little every time she told them. Sometimes she even bent the truth a bit. Reading what other people said about her helped me bend it back.

Born to Swing: Lil Hardin Armstrong’s Life in Jazz by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Michele Wood.  Calkins Creek: 2018.

If you’re also reading Girl Running for Women’s History Month, I’d love it if you’d post a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Those reviews help authors a lot! Thanks.Cover of Girl Running shows Bobbi Gibb running, her blonde hair billowing behind her.

 

 

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16Nov

The Music in George’s Head

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review
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Cover of The Music in George's Head shows George Gershwin seated at a pianoThe Music in George’s Head: George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue is an elegantly-structured story. The book has three main parts. First, we learn about the many types of music Gershwin listened to as a boy. For example, “He just couldn’t stop thinking about Melody in F, a classical tune he’d heard at the penny arcade.” He played ragtime on the piano, listened to classical pianists, “roller-skated to New York’s Harlem neighborhood to hear the smooth syncopated jazz rhythms in clubs,” listened to noise on the city streets, and sampled a wide variety of styles in his job playing piano to sell sheet music at a music store.

The second part of the book focuses on how Gershwin, as an adult, composed Rhapsody in Blue. We see him work hard–and unsuccessfully–to put the music on his head on paper. We see him keep trying to solve the problem as he goes on a train trip. And finally we see him write out what he had imagined. Rhapsody in Blue.

The final part of the book gives us a glimpse of the first public performance of Rhapsody in Blue. We see the audience start to get bored by the too-long numbers before Gershwin’s piece. But then “a clarinet fluttered softly, like butterfly wings” and Rhapsody in Blue begins. “People were surprised to hear new melodies mixed with classical, ragtime, jazz, and the blues.”

I loved the design of this book. The type flows in organic lines and different sizes emphasize important words. The artist’s palette is blue and black, with brown highlights. It’s a surprising choice but it works very well here with the sketchy, improvised look of the art.

Calkins Creek Publishing typically lavishes care on back matter. This book is no exception. The author’s note gives fascinating details that had to be left out of the main text and talks about Gershwin’s legacy in American culture.

Ideally, you’ll want to listen to Rhapsody in Blue while you read this book, but if you can’t do that, the text may make you hear it in your mind anyway.

The Music in George’s Head: George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Stacy Innerst. Calkins Creek: 2016.

Children around a globe.

 

 

I participate in the Nonfiction Picture Book Challene every week at KidLit Frenzy.

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27Apr

Dorothea’s Eyes

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review
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Cover of book showing Dorothea Lange. Dorothea's eyes are looking through viewfinder of an old-fashioned camera.Dorothea’s Eyes fills a gap. Here, at last, is a biography of the great photographer Dorothea Lange.

In her straightforward text, Rosenstock tells the story of Lange’s life. She traces how Lange’s childhood polio gave her keen empathy. We see Lange face struggles as the child of a single mother. We watch her insist that photography is her path, even without family support. Finally, we see her shift attention away from her successful and lucrative photography studio. She begins to photograph real people in challenging circumstances.

My favorite part of the book was the reproductions of some of her iconic and moving photographs on the final page of text.

If you want to delve into more of her photographs, check out the Library of Congress website. It has excellent resources for teachers, homeschoolers and individuals. You can find lesson plans and primary sources (including Lange photos) about the Great Depression here. Here you can see multiple shots from the session in which “Migrant Mother” was made.

There have lately been other interesting stories about photographs and photographers. If you want to delve deeper into this very modern art, try looking at these books.

Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph, by Roxane Orgill. Candlewick: 2016.

Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America, by Carole Boston Weatherford. Whitman: 2015.

Coming soon! Antsy Ansel: Ansel Adams, a Life in Nature, by Cindy Jenson-Elliott. Henry Holt: September 2016.

Dorothea’s Eyes by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Gerard DuBois. Calkins Creek: 2016..

Children surrounding a globe and the words "Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge 2016"

 

I participate in the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy. 

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9Mar

Fearless Flyer

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Book trailer Review
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Cover of book, showing Ruth Law flying in a biplane.What did it take to be a woman aviator in the early 1900s? Pluck. Intelligence. Courage.

Ruth Law had them all. This story of her record-breaking flight from Chicago to New York City had me worrying for her, pulling for her, and ultimately applauding her success.

I especially loved the way quotes from Law are used throughout this book. There are thirteen quotes in all, and each of them is strategically placed for maximum impact. None of them are introduced with “she said” or any dialogue tag at all. They give the reader a sense of immediacy, as if I were really hearing Ruth Law tell her own story. For example, as she enters New York City, I read:

Gliding, Ruth circled around the State of Liberty toward Governor’s Island.

“She smiled at me when I went past. She did!…I think we both feel alike about things.”

As soon as I turned to the back matter, I knew this book had to have been published by Calkins Creek. They love back matter and lavish care and attention on it. We get two full pages of “More About Ruth Law,” giving more details about this trip as well as telling what happened to her after the trip. There’s a full page of bibliographic material and more than a full page of source attribution for the quotes–all in type just as big as that used in the rest of the book!

I especially loved the photos in the back matter. That, combined with Raul Colon’s pencil illustrations, made the book feel alive. You can get a glimpse of the photos and the illustrations together in this one minute long trailer. 

Fearless Flyer: Ruth Law and Her Flying Machine by Heather Lang, pictures by Raul Colon. Calkins Creek: 2016

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12Jan

Ben Franklin’s Big Splash

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review
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Ben Franklin  This book is based on a passage in a letter (helpfully included in the book’s back matter) where Franklin describes his youthful invention of a swimming aid: swim fins and flippers! Using that single paragraph as her starting point, Barb Rosenstock imagines the process young Ben Franklin–or anyone–would follow to invent something new.

The book is a buoyant read. Every page is filled with “s” alliteration in lists of verbs telling what Franklin did to develop his invention:

speculated…stared…sprinted away

sketched…snapped up…shaped…sanded…strung on…strapped on

sprinted…stood…stripped off…strapped…stuck…spread…stomped…splashed in…sunk

And this is just the beginning of the “s” lists! Many of the verbs are helpfully highlighted, which would make this book a dream to teach in a lesson on alliteration.

Ben’s invention doesn’t really work that well. In fact, you could say it was a belly flop. But Rosenstock’s text leaves us with a shiver of giddiness rather than a feeling of defeat.

It’s a fun story about the process of invention, the scientific method, and one of America’s founding father. What’s not to like?

Ben Franklin’s Big Splash: The Mostly True Story of His First Invention by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by S.D. Schindler. Calkins Creek: 2014

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8Oct

Review: The Streak: How Joe DiMaggio Became America’s Hero

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Book trailer Review
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Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak is an amazing story in itself, but Rosenstock puts the streak in its historical context. We see how DiMaggio struggled to achieve the record and how his brilliant success gave hope to a nation facing a world war. Rosenstock sets the stage deftly on the first page where she talks about the first hit in DiMaggio’s streak:

It wasn’t news. Instead, the headlines in 1941 shouted about the war spreading like a fever through Europe.

She keeps her focus on DiMaggio, but with a few words here and there, we’re reminded of that war threatening in the distance.

Rosenstock’s verbs quiver with life: “whip,” “scuff,” “roar,” “soak,” “surge,” “yell,” “grab,” “rub,” “pound,” “trot,” “dance.” Her narrative voice is muscular and nimble. It’s a fun book to read aloud.

The back matter is satisfyingly hefty. She writes more than 500 words about what happened next, gives us memorable quotes and statistics, as well as providing quote attributions and explaining the sources of the newspaper headlines shown in the illustrations.

I admire Rosenstock’s ability to shape real life into a compelling, vivid story. She’s on her own streak with with creating great nonfiction picture books.

Here’s the one minute trailer, which focuses on the mystery aspect of the book: can DiMaggio break the streak without his beloved bat?

The Streak: How Joe DiMaggio Became America’s Hero by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Terry Widener. Calkins Creek: 2014.

 

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