March 2022 – Nonfiction Monday

March 28, 2022

Moving Words About a Flower

Perfect to read for National Weed Appreciation Day (March 28) and then have on hand for National Poetry Month (April), comes the gorgeous new picture book Moving Words About a Flower by K. C. Hayes and illustrated by Barbara Chotiner.

At its simplest, this book is about the life cycle of dandelions. Open the first pages, however, and you will be surprised and delighted. It is filled with bright, bold shape –or also called concrete– poems. The words form images in many fun and creative ways. For example, in this spread can you find lightning and rain?

After the rain, a dandelion grows in a crack in the sidewalk in the city.

When the dandelion plant is mature, its seeds fly out to the countryside, where we learn more about how dandelions grow and what happens to them.

The back matter has a lovely diagram of the life cycle of a dandelion, when it blooms, how the seeds fly, and their value as food.

Young readers will want to explore Moving Words About a Flower again and again. Use it to inspire lessons on life cycles, poems, and art.

Look for activity suggestions at Growing With Science blog.

March 28, 2022March 27, 2022

Only Margaret: A Story about Margaret Wise Brown

Only Margaret: A Story about Margaret Wise Brown
by Candice Ransom (Author) and Nan Lawson (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: When Halley’s comet arrived in 1910, so did an extraordinary person: Margaret Wise Brown. Margaret had a boundless imagination and a gift for spinning stories. Most grown-ups thought children’s books were frivolous and silly, but Margaret didn’t agree. Could writing stories for children be important work–a incredible way to share truth, beauty, and wonder?

Other people might call Margaret strange, and sometimes her own worries and doubts felt overwhelming. But only Margaret and her original ideas could lead to Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny, and other classics beloved by children around the world.

Snippet: One night, Margaret dreamed of a green room and a red balloon and a picture of a cow jumping over the moon. The next morning, she reached for the notebook by her bed. Her pen sped, scrawling line after line about a bunny who named all the things in his room before he went to sleep.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

March 21, 2022March 20, 2022

Close-Up on War

Close-Up on War: The Story of Pioneering Photojournalist Catherine Leroy in Vietnam
by Mary Cronk Farrell (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: French-born Catherine Leroy, one of the war’s few woman photographers, documented some of the fiercest fighting in the 20-year Vietnam War. Although she had no formal photographic training and had never traveled more than a few hundred miles from Paris before, Leroy left home at age 21 to travel to Vietnam and document the faces of war. Despite being told that women didn’t belong in a “man’s world,” she was cool under fire, gravitated toward the thickest battles, went along on the soldiers’ slogs through the heat and mud of the jungle, crawled through rice paddies, and became the only official photojournalist to parachute into combat with American soldiers. Leroy took striking photos that gave America no choice but to look at the realities of war–showing what it did to people on both sides–from wounded soldiers to civilian casualties.

Snippet: Her parents and friends did not understand her desire to leave home, travel across the globe, and drop herself into danger. For Catherine, it was simple.

“I want to become a photojournalist, and the biggest story at the moment is the Vietnam War.”

Nonfiction Monday

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March 14, 2022March 13, 2022

MEGA-COOL MEGAFAUNA series

MEGA-COOL MEGAFAUNA series
by Anastasia Suen (Author)

Booktalk: My MEGA-COOL MEGAFAUNA series came out during the pandemic and now all four books are online as e-books. Hooray! Click the links under each title to find them at your library.

@ Hoopla | Overdrive | WorldCat

These middle grade expository books are written in prose, but I’ve been writing STEM poetry for years, so that’s what I did for this author visit mini-comic.

In the What is your favorite BIG animal? mini-comic, I’ve written two pocket poems about two of the creatures in the MEGA-COOL MEGAFAUNA Creatures of Today book. Each pocket poem is based on two facts from the book.

What will the third poem be? That’s up to you–and your students! Write two facts about your favorite BIG animal on page 6 and write a pocket poem using those facts on page 7. Then draw your animal on page 8.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

March 14, 2022March 13, 2022

Stacey Abrams: Champion of Democracy

Stacey Abrams: Champion of Democracy
by Artika R. Tyner (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Stacey Abrams is a lawyer, entrepreneur, and voting rights activist. After working in government, she founded Fair Fight Action to improve voting access. Learn about Abrams’s early life and what she plans to do next.

Snippet:

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

March 7, 2022March 6, 2022

Pura’s Cuentos

Pura’s Cuentos: How Pura Belpré Reshaped Libraries with Her Stories
by Annette Bay Pimentel (Author) and Magaly Morales (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Pura’s abuela always has a cuento to share. She crows ¡Qui-qui-ri-quí! for Señor Gallo, booms Borom, Borom for Señor Zapo, and tells of a beautiful cockroach who loves a mouse. Pura clings to these stories like coquíes cling to green leaves.

When Pura grows up and moves from Puerto Rico to Harlem, she gets a job at the library, where she is surrounded by stories–but they’re only in English. Where is Señor Gallo? Where is Pérez the mouse? Where is Puerto Rico on these shelves? She decides to tell children the tales of her homeland in English and in Spanish.

Snippet:

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

March 7, 2022March 6, 2022

Breaking Through the Clouds: The Sometimes Turbulent Life of Meteorologist Joanne Simpson

Right in time for Women’s History Month, we have a wonderful new picture book biography, Breaking Through the Clouds: The Sometimes Turbulent Life of Meteorologist Joanne Simpson by Sandra Nickel and illustrated by Helena Perez Garcia.

Joanne Simpson’s story is one of perseverance. When she was a girl, Joanne discovered the joy of watching clouds. As she sailed in her boat– or flew in her plane in later years– she learned the importance of paying attention to the weather.

Joanne went to the University of Chicago about the same time World War II broke out. They needed someone to teach Air Force officers about winds, and Joanne an aptitude for weather and knew how to fly, so they asked her to take over. Once the war ended, however, and Joanne decided to continue her studies, her professors didn’t agree. They told her:

“No woman ever got a doctorate in meteorology. And no woman ever will.”

Joanne wasn’t willing to give up. She worked hard.

She discovered so many important things that she achieved her dream.

Breaking Through the Clouds is a perfect choice for Women’s History Month, as well as for budding historians and budding scientists. Get inspired by a copy today!

Be sure to visit Growing with Science blog for the full review and activity suggestions.