Nonfiction Monday - great Cybils finds + one more!

Last weekend, was the huge Junior Library Guild warehouse sale here in our neck of the woods. Every book cost only $5!! The warehouse was packed with not only books, but librarians and teachers. It was great sport just to watch everyone try to wheel their massive amount of purchases up and down each aisle.

But, this year, I was a little more focused with my own buying. Since I am on the Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book Panel, and I know that is harder to get publishers to send copies to the panel due to economics, I was looking for some of the books on my category's nomination list. I found three that look very interesting, and then I fell in love with one other but I don't think it is on our list.

Here are the nonfiction picture books from the Cybils nomination list that I brought home:

• Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum by Meghan McCarthy -- Even the front cover makes you want to open it; great colors! As I read it, I actually wished I had owned this book two years ago when one of my students, who loved to chew bubble gum, decided to do research on it. This book would have been perfect for her! Factual text backed up by fun, kid-friendly pictures make this book a good fit for a classroom library!

• Stand Straight, Ella Kate: The True Story of a Real Giant by Kate Klise and M. Sarah Klise --I was hooked by the title and knowing the Klise sisters were at it again! This is a great book about a fascinating woman who led a very full life. A wonderful example of a biography for students, and I really liked that the whole story is told in first person.

• The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) by Barbara Kerley and illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham: This story is told from Susy's (Mark Twain's daughter) viewpoint. It has a very unique layout -- quite a few times in the book, a journal has been inserted with actual words from the actual Susy. I am fascinated by how difficult those smaller journal pages that flip open must have made actually publishing this book. Kerley is such a reliable author, and once agian, Fotheringham's pictures delight -- they make an excellent team!

The final book I found at the JLG Warehouse sale was The Circulatory Story by Mary K. Corcoran and illustrated by Jef Czekaj. I loved the illustrations from the beginning - they made me chuckle, even while learning. When I realized Czekaj had illustrated Unite or Die: How Thirteen States Became a Nation, I realized why his style looked so familiar. This book shares how our ciruclatory system works with great illustrations and wonderful analogies that students will understand. I will definitely be using this text with my 5th graders this year when we study the circulatory in health. It's the best text I've ever seen to help students comprehend what could be a very difficult topic.

As you can tell, it was a great day at the Junior Library Guild sale -- I walked away with some great nonfiction titles to share with my class. What makes it even better is that I feel fairly certain that these are the types of titles that will fly off the shelf once they are introduced.

For more great nonfiction ideas, check out the Nonfiction Monday roundup at Write About Now. To see where the roundup will be each week, check the master list.