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3Jun

Queen of Physics

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Uncategorized
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Cover of Queen of Physics shows Wu Chien Shiung at work with papers, pondering physics

Teresa Robeson’s picture book biography, Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom may seem to be a book about a physicisit. And it is!

But it is also a book about a girl born into a society that devalued girls. A book about a democrat born into a society that quashed dissent. A book about an immigrant who was cut off from her family. A book about a woman whose contributions were marginalized.

Wu Chien Shiung was a physicist who helped develop many important principles of modern thinking. Robeson does a good job of translating those tricky concepts into accessible language. But she does something even more remarkable in the pages of this book. While celebrating scientific achievement, she paints Wu Chien Shiung as a complex, many-layered person.

Throughout the book, Wu Chien Shiung is pictured wearing a string of pearls. Don’t miss the endpapers where a string of pearls floats amid physics symbols!

Not surprisingly, this book won the Asian/Pacific American Award for picture books and was an NCTE Orbis Pictus Recommended book.

Endpapers of Queen of Physics shows a string of pearls floating amidst symbols of atoms

For another book about an inspiring female in a STEM field, click here.

More about Teresa Robeson.

Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom by Teresa Robeson, illustrated by Rebecca Huang (Sterling: 2020).

Image shows a tree growing from a book and reads Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge 2020

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22Jan

Patricia’s Vision

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review
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Cover of book shows the hand of an African American woman adjusting an opthalomogical machine.

A female, African American physician and inventor whose work gave many the gift of sight. Why haven’t I heard of Dr. Patricia Bath before? Michelle Lord’s picture book biography, Patricia’s Vision, aims to correct that.

The story starts with Michelle’s childhood and how her early life steered her toward a life in science. It touches on the cutting indignities she faced in her profession but her persistent concern for people with visual impairments. We see her develop new tools in order to do laser surgery on people with cataracts and continue her concern for people with sight problems even into her retirement.

Throughout the book, quotations from Dr. Bath are set at appropriate spots in the story. The back matter explains that Lord was able to do telephone interviews with Dr. Bath for the book.

This is an inspiring story about caring for others and persisting despite discouragement. It does a good job showing how careers in science can make a big difference in people’s lives.

Patricia’s Vision: The Doctor Who Saved Sight, by Michelle Lord, illustrated by Alleanna Harris (Sterling: 2020).

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6Nov

A Girl Called Genghis Khan

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review Uncategorized
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Cover of book shows silhouette of a girl's head in front of a rising sun.

I loved this lively book about a girl, supported by her family, who found a way to be active in a society that discouraged it. The story tells the inspiring true story of how a Pakistani family supported their daughter in masquerading as a boy so that she could have an active childhood.

Eventually, she gravitates toward playing squash. Even when her secret comes out, she persists in her commitment to practicing her craft.

It’s tricky to explain unfamiliar cultural mores to young readers, but Michelle Lord does a great job creating a scaffolding of explanation to support the story. I also loved the language she uses to describe how Maria is drawn to the action, speed, and fun of squash: “Swinging her racquet, she served. WA-POW. WHOOSH. WHACK.”

I loved the art and page design in the book, too. The text is placed on the page like a standard picture book, but the art uses graphic novel conventions–multiple panels per page, for example, and close-ups of eyes or other details. It gives each page an energetic and modern look.

The pages are also designed to showcase quotations from Maria that comment on the main text. It’s a great way to incorporate quotes without having to wrest the text to make them fit.

An inspiring book!

A Girl Called Genghis Khan: How Maria Toorpakai Wazir Pretended to be a Boy, Defied the Taliban, and Became a World Famous Squash Player, by Michelle Lord, illustrated by Shehzil Malik. (Sterling: 2019).

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17Oct

Protesting

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review
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A couple of new picture books take a look at protesting: how to do it, what forms it can take.

Cover of book shows 4 children holding up a poster with title.

If You’re Going to a March is a how-to book. In fact, for schools that assign kids to try writing how-to texts, this would be a great mentor text. It assumes you’ve found your protest and know what issue you care about and starts right in with instructions about making posters and packing for the protest. Illustrations show three different kids attending a protest, and the text examines issues to think about in getting to the protest, and describes what you might encounter during the protest, including reporters, police assigned to patrol the event, and opposition protesters. The book concludes with the three protesting children going home and climbing into their own beds for the night.

Peaceful Fights for Equal Rights describes a range of actions people take to enact social change. The book is an ABC book, but it never explicitly tells the reader than in either title or text. Instead, it leaves it up to you to uncover the organizational principle. For example, the “B” page reads:

“Make buttons. Make banners. Make bumper stickers. Boycott! Boycott! Boycott!”

I love the art in the book. It’s in bold colors and is made from cut paper.Cover of book shows children of different sizes, genders, and races, marching with signs. The signs form the title of the book: Peaceful fights for equal rights.

These books would pair well with a more traditional picture book biography about protest–Walking in the City with Jane or The Youngest Marcher, for example, or any of the wonderful books profiled on M is for Movement.

If You’re Going to a March by Martha Freeman, illustrated by Violet Kim. Sterling: 2018.

Peaceful Fights for Equal Rights by Rob Sanders, illustrated by Jared Andrew Schorr. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers: 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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8Aug

Up in the Leaves

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review
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Cover of book shows a boy sitting on a treehouse platform in a tree.It’s good to be home! After a summer of adventures, I loved finding Up in the Leaves: The True Story of the Central Park Treehouses at our library. It’s a nonfiction picture book about a city boy, Bob Redman, who doesn’t feel at home in the city crowds, but finds his own kind of home in the trees of Central Park. He climbs them and builds treehouse after treehouse. Each treehouse is torn down when it’s discovered. And he always responds by building another, even better treehouse. Until finally, the park grounds crew discovers him in his treehouse. It’s a lovely book about how one boy found nature when he needed it and ultimately about the goodness of human nature, helping him find a way to make that passion part of his everyday life.

I was surprised to discover in the author bio on the back flap that the book was written by his partner, the mother of his children. I’m a sucker for family history stories like this. There’s an immediacy and level of detail in family history books that is tough to achieve when the author isn’t part of the family.

The endpapers are some of the loveliest I’ve seen this year–green leaves layered on each other. I kind of want it to be wallpaper in my house. The back matter is very brief–only about 150 words about Bob Redman, but it also includes a wonderful photo of him. Up in a tree, of course!

Up in the Leaves: The True Story of the Central Park Treehouses by Shira Boss, illustrated by Jamey Christoph. (Sterling: 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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4Oct

Grace Hopper Queen of Computer Code

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review
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Cover of Grace Hopper Queen of Computer Code shows a woman fiddling with an early computerGrace Hopper Queen of Computer Code celebrates the life of one of the pioneers of computer programming. The book is structured like a pearl necklace–it’s made up of a series of discrete anecdotes, strung together in roughly chronological order. Each anecdote tells us a bit about Grace Hopper’s character, but each basically also stands on its own. We read about the way she destroyed alarm clocks as a child in order to figure out how they worked, about her invention of a dollhouse elevator, about her conquering learning Latin, etc. It’s a life, with all the boring bits taken out and just the sparkling stories left behind.

I loved reading about Hopper’s experiences as a child that pointed her toward a technical field, about her experiences in college, and about how she famously found the first computer “bug.”

Throughout the book, quotations from Hopper are incorporated into the illustrations. I loved hearing her voice–feisty, joking, passionate–emerge in those quotes. The back matter spills onto the end papers, as if there just weren’t enough pages to contain “Amazing Grace.”

Grace Hopper Queen of Computer Code by Laurie Wallmark, illustrated by Katy Wu. Sterling: 2017

 

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I participate every Wednesday in the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge at Kid Lit Frenzy.

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