Rounding up the best nonfiction for children and teens
Inventions of the USA: A Shine-A-Light Book
by Carron Brown (Author) and Giordano Poloni (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Get your flashlight ready to meet American inventors and discover their inventions with this “shine-a-light” see-through-page format.
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Copyright © 2023 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Big Ideas from History: A History of the World for You
by The School of Life (Author) and Anna Doherty (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop
Booktalk: This middle grade book is a big history of the world, from the beginnings of the universe to now, which places the reader at its center by encouraging children to think about how they experience the world and asking them to imagine a world they would like to live in. What might they learn from self-knowledge? How can they grow, develop and create their own place in history?
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Copyright © 2023 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
I Begin with Spring: The Life and Seasons of Henry David Thoreau
by Julie Dunlap (Author) and Megan Elizabeth Baratta (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop
Booktalk: Formatted like a nature notebook, this exploration of seasonal changes in Thoreau’s day is also a visual story of his life and times with an introduction to climate change in the back matter showing the use of his 150-year-old observations in our time.
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It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2023 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Courage Like Kate: The True Story of a Girl Lighthouse Keeper
by Anna Crowley Redding (Author) and Emily Sutton (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop
Booktalk: Fayerweather Island had seen blustery blizzards and rip-roaring tides, but it had never seen a pint-sized hurricane until Kate Moore claimed that tiny island as her own. Little Kate was supposed to be the lighthouse keeper’s daughter, but she thought of herself as Papa’s assistant.
The thirty-three spiraling lighthouse stairs finally took a toll on Papa’s body, and so twelve-year-old Kate stepped up. Over the years, she kept the flame lit to guide ships to safety, listened for cries for help, and, time and again, pulled men to safety–twenty-three of them in all. At the age of forty-seven, Kate received word–she had been named the official lighthouse keeper of Fayerweather Island.
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Copyright © 2023 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Fighting for YES!: The Story of Disability Rights Activist Judith Heumann
by Maryann Cocca-Leffler (Author), Vivien Mildenberger (Illustrator), and Judith Heumann (Afterword)
@ Amazon | Bookshop
Booktalk: From a very young age, Judy Heumann heard the word NO. When she wanted to attend public school, the principal said, “NO.” When she wanted her teaching license, the New York Board of Education said, “NO.” Judy and people with disabilities everywhere were tired of hearing “NO.”
In the 1970s an important disability rights law, Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, was waiting to be signed. Judy and other disability rights activists fought for “YES!” They held a sit-in until Section 504 was signed into law. Section 504 laid the foundation for the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was established thanks in large part to the ongoing work of Judy and her community.
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Copyright © 2023 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Troublemakers in Trousers: Women and What They Wore to Get Things Done
by Sarah Albee (Author) and Kaja Kajfez (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop
Booktalk: Meet twenty-one women throughout history who broke fashion and norms to do something groundbreaking in this middle-grade collection that celebrates trailblazers and troublemakers.
Snippet: In ancient and medieval times, men did not wear pants. They wore dress-like attire. Go ahead and call it a tunic, toga, loincloth, chiton, kilt, sarong, or robes. Whatever. Men did not wear pants. (In many countries today, men still don’t.)
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2023 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Not Done Yet: Shirley Chisholm’s Fight for Change
by Tameka Fryer Brown (Author) and Nina Crews (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop
Booktalk: Shirley Chisholm was a natural-born fighter. She didn’t like to be bossed and she wanted things to be fair. She poured her energy into whatever she did–from teaching young children to becoming Brooklyn’s first Black assemblywoman. Not afraid to blaze a trail, she became the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first woman to seriously run for US president. With a vision of liberty and justice for all, she worked for equal rights, for the environment, for children, and for health care. Even now, her legacy lives on and inspires others to continue her work . . . which is not done yet.
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Copyright © 2023 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Love Is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement
by Sandra Neil Wallace (Author) and Bryan Collier (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop
Booktalk: Diane grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1940s. As a university student, she visited the Tennessee State Fair in 1959. Shocked to see a bathroom sign that read For Colored Women, Diane learned that segregation in the South went beyond schools–it was part of daily life. She decided to fight back, not with anger or violence, but with strong words of truth and action.
Finding a group of like-minded students, including student preacher John Lewis, Diane took command of the Nashville Movement. They sat at the lunch counters where only white people were allowed and got arrested, day after day. Leading thousands of marchers to the courthouse, Diane convinced the mayor to integrate lunch counters. Then, she took on the Freedom Rides to integrate bus travel, garnering support from Martin Luther King Jr. and then the president himself–John F. Kennedy.
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Copyright © 2023 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
BIG LIES: from Socrates to Social Media
by Mark Kurlansky (Author) and Eric Zelz (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop
Booktalk: Big lies are told by governments, politicians, and corporations to avoid responsibility, cast blame on the innocent, win elections, disguise intent, create chaos, and gain power and wealth. Yes, big lies are as old as civilization. They corrupt public understanding and discourse, turn science upside down, and reinvent history. They prevent humanity from addressing critical challenges. They perpetuate injustices. They destabilize the world.
The modern age has provided ever-more-effective ways of spreading lies, but it has also given us the scientific method, which is the most effective tool for finding what is true. In the book’s final chapter, find out how you can deconstruct an allegation. Ask if there is credible, testable evidence to support it. If not, suspect a lie. A scientific theory has to be testable, and so does an allegation. Then ask more questions! Who is the source? Who benefits? Is there a money trail? Especially in the age of social media, critical thinking counters lies and chaos. Are you ready to think for yourself?
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Copyright © 2023 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming, 3rd Edition
by Eric Matthes (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Booktalk: Start by learning basic programming concepts, such as variables, lists, classes, and loops, and practice writing clean code with exercises for each topic. You’ll also learn how to make your programs interactive and test your code safely before adding it to a project. Put your new knowledge into practice by creating a Space Invaders-inspired arcade game, building a set of data visualizations with Python’s handy libraries, and deploying a simple application online.
As you work through the book, you’ll learn how to:
This third edition is completely revised to reflect the latest in Python code. New and updated coverage includes VS Code for text editing, the pathlib module for file handling, pytest for testing your code, as well as the latest features of Matplotlib, Plotly, and Django.
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Copyright © 2023 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.