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15Apr

Madame Saqui

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review
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Cover of book shows a girl confidently posing on a tightrope.

Madame Saqui: Revolutionary Rope Dancer is a nonfiction picture book. The biography transports readers back hundreds of years to pre-revolutionary France. We meet a family of tighrope perfomers and their tiny daughter, Marguerite, who yearns to join her parents on the tightrope.

But trouble looms. First, Marguerite’s family deals with the French Revolution. Then, they face her father’s career-ending fall from the tightrope. But Marguerite continues to love the circus. Without her parents’ knowledge, she finds someone to teach her the art of tightrope-walking.

Her public performance surprises her parents. And her success lures them back into performing. Finally, the rest of the book celebrates Marguerite’s life-long career as a tightrope performer.

I don’t often find picture book biographies set so far in the past. I loved the way Lisa Robinson weaved in historic details about the revolutionary fervor of the time. The art, by Rebecca Green, adopts the red, white, and blue palette of the French flag.

I loved the design of this book. It’s a very long, thin rectangle, which emphasizes the idea of height. It echoes the book’s theme about the inherent risk of tightrope walking. The endpapers are elegantly simple–blue horizontal lines stretched across the page, like tens of tightropes.

I’m delighted to have learned about this gutsy girl, and glad to have such a beautiful book on my shelves.

Madame Saqui: Revolutionary Rope Dancer by Lisa Robinson, illustrated by Rebecca Green (Schartz & Wade: 2020).

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15Jan

Sweet Dreams Sarah

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Cover shows African American woman holding tools in a carpentry shop

Sweet Dreams Sarah by Vivian Kirkfield is a nonfiction picture book that hits the sweet spot of combining STEM principles with social studies content.

In the book, we see the engineering process at work. Every element of the story zeroes in on the engineering process:

identify the problem

brainstorm solutions

construct a prototype

analyze the results

redesign

A nineteenth century, newly-freed woman, Sarah, tries to solve a problem for the customers in her furniture shop. They live in tiny apartments and the furniture she sells is just too bulky. Once she has identified the problem, she brainstorms solutions and builds a prototype. The prototype has problems so she redesigns it. When her patent is rejected, she revises and resubmits it. Her story would be a great introduction to a unit on invention

At the same time, her story has lots of social studies content that can spark conversation and build understanding in kids. It addresses slavery, Reconstruction, entrepreneurship, and how government processes (like patents) work. Importantly, it discusses the roles of women in history in a clear way.

The book is clear and fun to read aloud. It keeps the story active and moving along with refrains like, “Measure. Cut. Sand.”

And now I want one of the desk-beds that Sarah invented!

Sweet Dreams Sarah by Vivian Kirkfield, illustrated by Chris Ewald. (Creston Books: 2019).

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10Jul

Gloria Takes a Stand

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In Gloria Takes a Stand, Jessica M. Rinker brings us an engaging picture book biography of Gloria Steinem. She ties together disparate parts of the activist’s life with a shifting refrain:

Cover of book shows a Ms. magazine cover with Gloria Steinem's face on it.

“Gloria watched. She learned. And helped….

“Gloria wished. She read. And imagined…”

and so on, all the way to “Gloria still writes. She still speaks. And still listens.”

I was impressed with how ably the author explains the very different world that led to Steinem’s activist. Her explanations do a great job of grounding the story for young readers. For example:

“Not only were laws different depending on the color of a person’s skin, women were also struggling to gain the same rights as men. They didn’t make as much money as men. They could be fired if they became pregnant. Women couldn’t apply for checking accounts or credit cards without their husband’s or father’s signature.”

Both the author and the illustrator add notes in the back matter, and there’s a timeline of events in US women’s history.

Gloria Takes a Stand: How Gloria Steinem Listened, Wrote, and Changed the World by Jessica M. Rinker, illustrated by Daria Peoples-Riley. Bloomsbury: 2019.

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7Nov

Counting on Katherine

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Cover of book shows an African American girl standing in front of a full moon, which is covered with mathematical notations.Counting on Katherine tells the story of Katherine Johnson, the African American woman who calculated Apollo 13’s trajectory.

The book plays with the word “count.” It starts, “Katherine loved to count.” We see tiny Katherine Johnson playing with, and fascinated by, numbers. But “count” quickly assumes another meaning as Katherine counts on her father and then becomes the mathematician whom astronauts count upon.

I loved how elegantly Becker provides the necessary historical and scientific knowledge for young readers. Her explanations of the historical context are clear and simple:

“But back then, America was legally segretaged by race. her town’s high school didn’t admit black students–of any age.”

She also tackles the question of what Katherine actually did in her job using kid-friendly language:

“Sending a rocket ship into space is like throwing a ball into the air.”

And

“Because math is a kind of language, Katherine could ask those questions…”

And

“Katherine plotted the numbers she’d calculated on a graph. When she joined the points together, they formed a curved line. At one end of that line was Earth at the time the rocket ship launched. At the other was where Earth would be when the ship landed.”

Illustrations support the text, but ultimately Becker makes these explanatory passages look easy. But it’s not!

Back matter includes a list of sources. And don’t miss the end papers: chalkboards covered with math problems that many young readers will be able to tackle.

Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13 by Helaine Becker, illustrated by Dow Phumiruk. Christy Ottaviano Books: 2018.

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

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29Aug

Fairies

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review
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Cover of book shows an old photo of two girls with fairies.In 2012 I read a middle grade nonfiction book that bowled me over: The Fairy Ring: Or Elsie and Frances Fool the World  by Mary Losure (Candlewick: 2012). It was the true story of how two girls faked photos that tricked many adults, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, into believing that fairies are real. I had never imagined a nonfiction book could so compellingly capture such a strange and fascinating story. It expanded my idea of what nonfiction for kids could do.

Earlier this year I started seeing mention of a new book about the same topic, Fairy Spell: How Two Girls Convinced the World that Fairies are Real. I immediately assumed it was another middle grade book. After all, it took chapters to explain why they set up the fake photos, how they did it, and the aftermath. Eventually, though, it worked through to my brain that this new book was a picture book. How could you tell the same story in a picture book format?

Nobleman does a good job of it, and some of the differences between the book help show basic differences between picture books and longer nonfiction. He keeps the focus tight on the two girls’ emotions and their reasons for setting up the photos. He doesn’t go into a lot of detail about how they made the photos. And he definitely doesn’t dive into other people’s heads, as the longer nonfiction does. This is very much a book about the two girls. The art in the picture book also helps keep us focused on the girls. It wordlessly conveys much of the emotion that is briefly described in the book as the root source of the photo scam.Cover of book is a detail of a black and white photo of a girl looking at a fairy.

It was a pleasure to read again about this strange historical event. And now I want to reread Losure’s book, too.

Fairy Spell: How Two Girls Convinced the World that Fairies Are Real by Marc Tyler Nobleman, illustrated by Eliza Wheeler. (Clarion: 2018).

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

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22Aug

Pass Go

Posted by: annettepimentel@gmail.com Categories: Review Uncategorized
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Cover of book shows people around a boardgame.The story of an invention can be surprisingly convoluted. Pass Go and Collect $200 does a great job of tracing the complicated story of the boardgame Monopoly.

Monopoly arguably started as Landlord’s Game, a game created by Elizabeth Magie to critique capitalism. Tanya Lee Stone deftly describes the social conditions that led Magie to patent the idea in 1904. She traces Magie’s attempts to market the game and shows the ways the game took on a life of its own. We see individuals making their own gameboards and passing the rules one, one to another, until Charles Darrow, tried his hand at it.

Darrow had great graphic design instincts and was the source of many of the iconic graphic elements of Monopoly. He was also the one who eventually sold the game to Parker Brothers, igniting the feud over who was the real inventor of the game.

I was especially impressed by how balanced Stone is in her discussion of both Magie’s and Darrow’s claims. While she’s obviously trying to help people remember an innovative woman’s role in the game, she doesn’t hestiate to give Darrow his due. It’s a great model of how to make an argument without ignoring the opposing viewpoint.

The back matter in the book is really fun, too. There’s a section with Monopoly math questions, Monopoly trivia, a list of sources, and–my favorite–an author’s note. In the author’s note, Stone tells how the idea for the book came from an editor who apologized at the time for it’s not being an idea about a woman. Little did she know that it was an idea about a woman!

The book will be especially popular with kids who love Monopoly, but there’s something in it for everyone.

Pass Go and Collect $200: The Real Story of How Monopoly Was Invented by Tanya Lee Stone, illustrated by Steven Salerno, Christy Ottaviano Books: 2018.

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

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20Jun

Grandma Gatewood Hikes the Appalachian Trail

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Cover of book shows Grandma Gatewood hikingGrandma Gatewood Hikes the Appalachian Trail is a wonderful summer book. It’s about a gutsy grandma who in 1955 decided she’d like to be the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail. So she did!

The back matter explains that the 1955 hike was actually her second attempt–the first time she tried she got lost and realized she was unprepared. So she went home, trained, and tried again. But the main text of the book focuses on the day-to-day of hiking the trail. We see her battling weather and bugs and, once, a bear. But, with wonderful picture book pacing, we also get glimpses of the gorgeous scenery that inspired her to keep going.

Jennifer Thermes, the author-illustrator, is a map-maker, and the illustrations include six full-spread maps–one of the entire trail (on the front endpapers), and five of smaller sections of the trail. The back endpapers are an illustrated timeline.

This book could be part of a set about everyday women and girls breaking athletic barriers. I’d add in Girl Running (of course), Anybody’s Game, and Long-Armed Ludy.

It’s a book that will you want you to lace on your hiking boots and head it outside.

Grandma Gatewood Hikes the Appalachian Trail by Jennifer Thermes (Abrams: 2018).

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

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2May

Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor

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Cover of book shows Joan Procter with reptiles on her head, on her shoulders, and in her handJoan Procter, Dragon Doctor tells the story of a self-taught herpetologist who transformed the ways reptiles are displayed in zoos and helped introduce the Komodo Dragon to the Western world. The book starts and ends with proper British tea parties, but since these are parties that Procter participates in, they are also reptile tea parties.

I loved the lively voice and the alliteration in the book–“gawked at the geckos, peered at the pythons, marveled at the monitors.”

The book does an especially good job of making the case for loving reptiles. We see Procter spend time with them, examine them, and love them. I think even the reptile-phobic would be won over by Valdez’ account of Procter’s passion for the creatures.

The back matter includes a couple of entrancing black and white photos of Joan Procter and a hefty bibliography, which includes many newspaper and magazine articles from the 1920s and 1930s.

I found the art by Felicita Sala gorgeous and an easy way into the story. The book has some of my favorite endpapers–a tea table scene, but with reptiles.

This is a book for everyone, not just reptile lovers.

Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor: The Woman Who Loved Reptiles by Patricia Valdez, illustrated by Felicita Sala. Knopf: 2018.

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

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25Apr

Anybody’s Game

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Cover of Anybody's Game shows a girl playing baseballWhen you read Anybody’s Game, I think you should start with its back matter. There, waiting patiently at the end of the book, is a wonderful essay that contextualizes the story.

In 1950, Kathryn Johnston loved playing baseball, but no girls played on Little League teams. She sneaked her way onto a team. But the next year, as the back matter tells us, probably at least partly in response to her, Little League explicitly banned all girls from their teams. And that’s the way it remained until a lawsuit forced Little League to make space for girls in 1974.

I also learned from the back matter that Heather Lang interviewed Johnston for this book and had her review the manuscript. All of which made me glad to embrace the lively dialogue that peppers the biography.

The book is the story of how Johnston finagled her way onto the baseball team in 1950 and about her experience playing with the boys. It’s an inspiring story that’s made even better once you know the stuff in the back.

Anybody’s Game: Kathryn Johnston, the First Girl to Play Little League Baseball by Heather Lang, illustrated by Cecilia Pugliesi. (Whitman: 2018).

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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

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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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29Nov

Trail-blazing Female Artists

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Today I’m reading picture book biographies of two trail-blazing female artists: Zaha Hadid, an architect; and Amalia Hernandez, a dancer

The World Is Not a Rectangle introduced me to Zaha Hadid.

I loved learning about this architect I’d never heard of, and found myself falling down an Internet rabbit hole of looking at her designs!

The book starts with her childhood in Baghdad, Iraq, where she explored the countryside, thought about ancient cities, and lived with Persian carpets. We follow her to London and get a glimpse of her architectural training and then see her set up shop as an architect, making design after design that is not built. But “Hadid means iron in Arabic, and Zaha is strong as iron. She keeps on working–one plan after another. ‘I made a conscious decision not to stop.'”

And eventually her persistence pays off. In the most wonderful pages of the book, Winter draws the buildings Hadid designed, with their flowing, organic shapes, next to the natural features that inspired her designs.

I loved reading Danza! by Duncan Tonatiuh not because it was unknown but because it was about such a very familiar institution–ElCover of Danza! shows Mexican folk dancers Ballet Folklorico de Mexico. When I was an exchange student in Mexico, we of course went to a performance, and I have seen similar dances in the United States. But I had never known about the passionate dancer behind the institution: Amalia Hernandez.

The book tells the story of Hernandez’ early dance training and how that eventually led her to looking for a way to put traditional Mexican dances on the stage. Tonatiuh’s art is spot-on for this project. His profile characters and the carefully detailed costumes he puts on them, along with the set and stage details he includes capture my memory of that night when I watched El Ballet Folklorico better than any photographs I’ve ever seen.

I loved the extra details he shares in the back matter–including the controversy over the way some people saw her as appropriating folk dances.

The World Is Not a Rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid by Jeanette Winter. Beach Lane Books: 2017.

Danza! Amalia Hernandez and El Ballet Folklorico de Mexico by Duncan Tonatiuh. Abrams: 2017.

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11Oct

Margaret and the Moon

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Cover of Margaret and the Moon shows Margaret Hamilton contemplating the full moon as an astronaut and lunar module drift pastLot of recent books about female scientists! An eighteenth century astronomer. a marine biologist, a computer programmer. And today, a female member of the moon launch team is profiled in Margaret and the Moon.

I loved the voice of the book, and its quick pace. The book starts, “Margaret Hamilton loved to solve problems. She came up with ideas no one had ever thought of before.” The spare, efficient text tells about her interests as a child and about how finding computers changed her sense of what was possible. It’s exciting to see her struggling with the problems faced by space travel. The culminaton of the book is the moment when it looks like the computers may fail the astronauts in space, but it becomes clear that Hamilton’s careful computer coding has properly anticipated the problems, and solved them far in advance.

The illustrations are by graphic novelist Lucy Knisley. I loved her art in Relish and it’s just as accessible and fresh here. All of the text is hand-lettered (or maybe just looks hand-lettered?). The back endpapers include black and white photos of the real Margaret Hamilton. I kept flipping back and forth between the photos and the illustrations. Knisley does a great job capturing the look of the actual Margaret Hamilton in the illustrations.

Margaret and the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Saved the First Lunar Landing by Dean Robbins, illustrated by Lucy Knisley. Alfred A. Knopf: 2017.

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4Oct

Grace Hopper Queen of Computer Code

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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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27Sep

Shark Lady

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Cover of Shark Lady shows a woman in scuba gear underwater with a sharkIt’s sometimes tough for kids–and adults!–to look at successful adults and figure out what their success has to do with the day-to-day life they had as children. In Shark Lady Jess Keating does a wonderful job of showing how childhood interests and passions led to Eugenie Clark’s important discoveries as a marine biologist.

Clark is today known for her discoveries about sharks, but she didn’t even see her first wild shark until after college. And yet a full half of the book is devoted to Clark’s life before she graduated from college. How does Keating make it work? She helps us see the rich imaginative life Clark had as a child: “What would it be like to swim with her sharks? To breather underwater with gills of her own?” She shows us things Clark did not specifically related to sharks that eventually helped her as a scientist. We see her reading in the library. We see her tending a home aquarium with guppies, goldfish, and snails. We see her swimming and diving for fun. By the end of the book I was convinced of Clark’s passionate exuberance for her subject matter, and I loved thinking about how everyday childhood interests propelled her down her path.

The art in the book is rounded and delights in whimsy–fish and sharks swimming down the aisles of the natural history museum along with the patrons, lurking behind bookshelves in the library. The endpapers are covered with wonderful drawings of sharks and sea creatures.

The back matter includes digestible and highly entertaining “Shark Bites”–fascinating quick facts about sharks, a nicely composed timeline of Eugenie Clark’s life, and an author’s note focusing on Clark’s legacy and the research Keating did for the book.

This is, of course, a great book to pair with Swimming with Sharks, Heather Lang’s picture book biography of Eugenie Clark, but it stands exuberantly, delightfully on its own, the story of one child’s passion fueling an entire career.

Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the World’s Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating, illustrated by Marta Alvarez Miguens. Sourcebooks: 2017.

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31May

Lighter than Air

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A woman in old-fashioned dress flying in a basket under a balloon.Balloons! Fancy hats! Napoleon! All this plus female empowerment. Lighter than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman Pilot is a biography of an eighteenth century woman balloonist. As Matthew Clark Smith warns in the back matter, “I was forced to use my imagination in describing Sophie’s childhood.” But he grounds it in real events of the same time–“Fashionable ladies wore balloon-shaped hats. Families dined on balloon-painted plates.” The book, especially in the early pages, probably crosses the boundary out of nonfiction, but it is a sacrifice that I think is required in order to tell a story that would otherwise be silenced.

Most of the illustrations show Sophie’s hair blowing in the wind. The book seems, appropriately, breezy, as if we were up in the air with Sophie.

I loved the brief mention of Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries’ balloon flight over the English Channel when “they  had to toss everything overboard to keep from crashing into the sea–even their trousers!” Makes me want to pull out A Voyage to the Clouds to read as a companion book. The tone of the two books couldn’t be more different, but some of the content is the same. I can imagine fascinating conversations and an interesting Venn diagram or two from a comparison of the two books with kids.

Lighter than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman Pilot by Matthew Clark Smith, illustrated by Matt Tavares. Candlewick: 2017.

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15Feb

To the Stars!

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Cover of book shows female astronaut floating in space near space shuttleMost 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 shows an analogous task in her adult work as an astronaut. This structure invites readers to make thematic connections between disparate parts of her life. I think it would be a fun book to use to make predictions. After reading about a childhood activity, challenge kids to think of how that might have prepared her for her work as an astronaut?

The structure is reflected in the typeface choice. Each spread that shows modern-day life for Dr. Sullivan is printed in italic, emphasizing the shifting timeframe.

The book has lots of dialogue and quotes that are unattributed in the back matter, but since Sullivan is a co-author, I trust them.

There are 2 full spreads of back matter, including a note from Dr. Sullivan and a biographical essay about her. My favorite part, though, was the list of short biographies of 13 other women astronauts. I hadn’t heard of most of them. but even the short glimpse of their lives was fascinating and inspiring.

This is a great companion book to another astronaut book from last year that examined how childhood experiences shaped adult passions–The Darkest Dark.

To the Stars! The First American Woman to Walk in Space by Carmella VanVleet and Dr. Kathy Sullivan, illustrated by Nicole Wong. Charlesbridge: 2016.

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30Mar

Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea

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Cover of book shows woman looking across ocean sceneI love to find nonfiction picture books about women in science! This lovely new picture book tells the story of Marie Tharp, a cartographer and ocean researcher. She didn’t live that long ago, but she still encountered lots of opposition to her working in science. She managed to carve out a tiny place for herself at the ocean-studies lab at Columbia University and with a colleague came up with the idea of mapping the ocean floor.

Because she was a woman, she wasn’t allowed to actually do the research required to make the map, but she gathered all the data and figured out how to put it into a usable form. In her work, she became convinced that the theory of tectonic plates was accurate and then used her maps to convince her colleagues. What a great role model of a gutsy, persistent scientist!

The book is written in first person, a choice that makes it easy for the reader to identify with Marie Tharp’s passions, patience, and success.

The back matter includes an interesting glossary (interesting! a glossary!) of terms related to Marie Tharp’s work: Pangaea, Ring of Fire, seafloor spreading. There’s also an interesting section titled “Things to Wonder About and Do” which invites young readers to do things like make soundings in a lake, to research deep ocean spots online, and to speculate about the center of the earth.

Raul Colon’s art is beautiful and lovely accompaniment to this biography. This video profiles another book he did using the same materials he used in this book.

Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea, by Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Raul Coloon. Paula Wiseman Books (Simon & Schuster): 2016.

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16Mar

Right to Vote

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Cover of book shows Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass talking to each otherIn this voting year, no child is going to escape bombardment with news about the election. But will those children understand the significance and context that led to that vote? Two new books look at the right to vote in very different ways.

The first book is Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass is an account of the famous tea party where they met and discovered that they shared similar opinions. In the text, Dean Robbins opens with them having tea together. In flashback, he uses parallel structures to show the opinions they held in common about the right to vote. We read that Susan:

read about rights in the United States.

The right to live free.

The right to vote.

Some people had rights, while others had none.

Why shouldn’t she have them, too?

A few pages later we read that Frederick:

read about rights in the United States.

The right to live free.

The right to vote.

Some people had rights, while others had none.

Why shouldn’t he have them, too?

 The book is an interesting contrast to Friends for Freedom, which is also about the tea party. In tone, though, the books couldn’t be more different. Two Friends is a lyrical, spare account, while Friends for Freedom, which is much more reportorial, gives a lot more details about their collaboration. The two would make an interesting comparison in a classroom. It would be a great way to discuss tone and authorial choices.

Cover of book showing Elizabeth Cady Stanton leading women in a march for rightsAnother book that has just come out is also about the right to vote, but instead of focusing in on a single event, it covers the sweep of the women’s suffrage movement, from 1776 to the present day. In Elizabeth Started All the Trouble, Doreen Rappaport takes us on a whirlwind tour of the people and events that led to American women finally getting the vote.

It’s a hard thing to get a survey topic right in a picture book, but Rappaport does a great job. This would be a good book to read before reading many other books about women’s suffrage, as well as other civil rights, to put things into context.

The western US states come out looking a lot better than the eastern states when it comes to women’s suffrage! (And as a Utah native, I’d like to point out that while Wyoming was the first state where women kept the vote, Utah women also received the right to vote in 1869, after a unanimous vote of the state legislature, but the US Congress stripped them of that right in 1887 and they had to wait 8 years to win it back.)

Books like these are especially important in an election year, to help young readers understand the historic significance of the vote. These are a great addition to that stack of voting picture books.

Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, by Dean Robbins, illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko. Orchard: 2016

Elizabeth Started All the Trouble, by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Matt Faulkner. Disney Hyperion: 2016.

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