Nonfiction Monday

February 5, 2024February 2, 2024

Ketanji Brown Jackson: Supreme Court Justice

Ketanji Brown Jackson: Supreme Court Justice
by Emily Dolbear (Author)
@ Amazon* | Bookshop*

Booktalk: On June 30, 2022, Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the 116th Supreme Court justice. In that moment, she also became the first Black woman to serve on the highest court in the United States. This middle grade biography explores Jackson’s childhood, education, and adulthood, providing readers with a better understanding of who Jackson is and what led to her historic seat on the US Supreme Court.

Snippet: “On this vote, the yeas are 53, the nays are 47, and this nomination is confirmed,” announced the vice president. Loud applause broke out on the Senate floor of the US Capitol. For almost a minute, many senators recognized the historic moment with clapping and cheers.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

January 29, 2024January 26, 2024

Black Achievements in Arts and Literature

Black Achievements in Arts and Literature: Celebrating Gordon Parks, Amanda Gorman, and More
by Elliott Smith (Author)
@ Amazon* | Bookshop*

Booktalk: There are many forms of art, and all of them have changed over time. In literature, dance, and fine arts, artists and writers have shared Black life, culture, and history. Many of them have broken barriers and inspired future generations. Celebrate the artists and writers who have excelled in the past and present, including author Jason Reynolds, dancer Misty Copeland, artist Kehinde Wiley, and poet Nikki Giovanni.

Snippet:

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

January 22, 2024January 21, 2024

There Was a Party for Langston

There Was a Party for Langston
by Jason Reynolds (Author), Jerome Pumphrey (Illustrator), and Jarrett Pumphrey (Illustrator)
@ Amazon* | Bookshop*

Booktalk: Back in the day, there was a heckuva party, a jam, for a word-making man. The King of Letters. Langston Hughes. His ABCs became drums, bumping jumping thumping like a heart the size of the whole country. They sent some people yelling and others, his word-children, to write their own glory.

Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, and more came be-bopping to recite poems at their hero’s feet at that heckuva party at the Schomberg Library, dancing boom da boom, stepping and stomping, all in praise and love for Langston, world-mending word man. Oh, yeah, there was hoopla in Harlem, for its Renaissance man. A party for Langston.

Snippet:
THERE WAS A PARTY
FOR LANGSTON at the library.
A jam in Harlem to celebrate the word-making man–

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

January 8, 2024January 7, 2024

Fighting with Love

Fighting with Love: The Legacy of John Lewis
by Lesa Cline-Ransome (Author) and James E. Ransome (Illustrator)
@ Amazon* | Bookshop*

Booktalk: John Lewis left a cotton farm in Alabama to join the fight for civil rights when he was only a teenager. He soon became a leader of a movement that changed the nation. Walking at the side of his mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis was led by his belief in peaceful action and voting rights. Today and always his work and legacy live on.

Snippet: “Working for nothing,” is what John grumbled to his parents as he dragged his cotton sack behind him.

“God’s gonna take care of his children,” his momma told him, and kept on, picking all day, praying all night.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

December 18, 2023December 16, 2023

I Ship: A Container Ship’s Colossal Journey

I Ship: A Container Ship’s Colossal Journey
by Kelly Rice Schmitt (Author) and Jam Dong (Illustrator)
@ Amazon* | Bookshop*

Booktalk: Come aboard a massive container ship as it pulls into port, loads up with cargo, and heads out to the open ocean. The ship’s voyage includes starry skies and stormy seas, swift currents and unforeseen delays. Through it all, the crew keeps working–with goods to keep the world going, they must carry on.

Snippet:

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

December 11, 2023December 9, 2023

Be Thankful for Water

Be Thankful for Water: How water sustains our planet
by Harriet Ziefert (Author) and Brian Fitzgerald (Illustrator)
@ Amazon* | Bookshop*

Booktalk: Explore the many ways that water is essential to our lives and the existence of life on earth in this 80-page rhyming picture book.

Snippet:

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

December 4, 2023December 1, 2023

Absolutely Everything!

Absolutely Everything! Revised and Expanded: A History of Earth, Dinosaurs, Rulers, Robots, and Other Things too Numerous to Mention
by Christopher Lloyd (Author) and Andy Forshaw (Illustrator)
@ Amazon* | Bookshop*

Booktalk: Embark on a journey across millennia and around the world, from the latest understanding of the origins of the universe through the birth of the Earth, the very first life, the age of dinosaurs, the rise of humans, ancient civilizations, colonialism, wars, technology, everyday life, global struggles for freedom and equality, pandemics — and much more.

Snippet:

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

November 27, 2023November 26, 2023

Everything You Know About Dinosaurs is Wrong!

Everything You Know About Dinosaurs is Wrong!
by Dr. Nick Crumpton (Author) and Gavin Scott (Illustrator)
@ Amazon* | Bookshop*

Booktalk: Each time you turn the page in this 64-page book for middle grade readers, you’ll see a dinosaur “fact” that has been proved wrong with more research.

Snippet:
ALL DINOSAURS BECAME FOSSILS
WRONG!

Everything we know about dinosaurs comes from fossils, so we depend a lot on finding them. But there’s a problem . . . a bone becoming a fossil hardly EVER happens. It is an incredibly rare event and the chances of one single bone being fossilized is about one in a billion!

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

November 20, 2023November 17, 2023

Beulah Has a Hunch!

Beulah Has a Hunch!: Inside the Colorful Mind of Master Inventor Beulah Louise Henry
by Katie Mazeika (Author / Illustrator)
@ Amazon* | Bookshop*

Booktalk: Growing up in the 1890s, when Beulah Louise Henry spotted a problem, she had to find a solution, turning it around and around in her mind until..aha! She had a hunch–what she called the inventions she came up with to solve the puzzles she saw all around her.

Beulah’s brain worked differently. She had hyperphantasia, which meant she saw things in extreme detail in her mind, as well as synesthesia, which caused words and numbers and even music notes to show up as different colors in her brain. Beulah’s unique way of seeing the world helped her think up vivid solutions to problems–Her hunches came to her fully formed with gears whirring and wheels spinning. She invented everything from a new and improved parasol to cuddly stuffed animals and from ice cream makers to factory machinery. Beulah’s inventions improved daily life in lots of ways, earning her the nickname “Lady Edison,” and she became one of the most prolific inventors in American history.

Snippet: