Nerdy Awards for Nonfiction Picture Books

I was so delighted to write today's post at the Nerdy Book blog and announce the nonfiction picture books that won the 2012 Nerdies Awards.  If you haven't already seen the post, stop over and check out these 7 amazing books!!!!!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? - Dec. 3

 I have been so glad to make time to actually get some reading done this past week, and so I decided to dive into some of my ARCs from #ncte12.  I will be quite the hero when I show up with some of these books this week.  In addition, I have been doing even more reading in order to finish all the nominated books in my Cybils category of nonfiction picture books.

With no further ado, I'll start with the Cybils nominees (some of which are also on the Nerdies nominee list as well):

Minette's Feast: The Story of Julia Child and her Cat -- What a lovely story about a famous cook and her cat.  Yet another great nominee for the Cybils nonfiction picture book category.

Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman -- I reread this Cybils NFPB nominee yesterday.  Given how visually oriented my students are this year, both in their own reading and writing, I think this will be a wonderful book to which they will relate.  Add the Skype visit we had with Stephen McCranie of Mal and Chad fame, and they will bring a lot of background knowledge to reading this biography.  They love graphic novels, so getting the inside story on how the Batman comics began will be great for them.  I expect kids to be indignant that it took so long for Bill to get the credit for Batman he so richly deserved.

Words Set Me Free -- One of our 5th grade history standards includes understanding the reality of the slavery situation.  Words Set Me Free would be a wonderful addition to this social studies instruction.  It's the type of biography that young readers will really enjoy.  But the message throughout the story of how it was truly words that set Frederick Douglass free is incredibly powerful.
This is also a Cybils nonfiction picture book nominee this year.

The Camping Trip That Changed America -- This is a great book that does a nice job explaining how the national park system came to be under the guidance of Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir.

FUN ARCs

My Life as a Cartoonist -- I met Janet Tshjian last year at NCTE at a Macmillan publisher dinner. When I ran into her again in the exhibit hall this year, I was delighted to see her and even more happy that she remembered me. The icing on the cake - the 3rd book in the My Life as a Book series was out in ARC format and I got a signed copy. Life is good! I so enjoy this series, and have many students, especially boys, reading it this year. They gravitate to the illustrations, either because they just enjoy them or it provides them enough support to make sense of the story. Which is great, considering Janet's son, Jake, does the illustrations because he had difficulty learning vocabulary words when he was in school.
In the latest book, Derek is still drawing his cartoons, only this time is joined by a new kid to the school, a bully in a wheelchair, Umberto. Turns out Umberto has quite a knack for cartooning as well, even when he is making Derek's life miserable. Fun story that kids will truly enjoy!
Look for My Life as a Cartoonist in May 2013.




Hide and Seek -- Kate Messner is such a diverse writer. Hide and Seek is the follow-up to Capture the Flag. This time, we see the events transpiring more through the eyes of Jose, even though it is still written in 3rd person. The setting takes all the main characters to the rain forests of Costa Rica, a perfect setting for the action and adventure that takes place in this book. Good guys, bad guys, trying to recover important artifacts for the Silver Jaguar Society - what's not to like? I especially enjoy the author's note at the end, where Kate shares the research she and her family did before she wrote this book. All the nature things in the story came from the trip they took to Costa Rica. And it is an author's note truly addressed to students - it sounds like she is talking right to them. I can really appreciate her teaching background when I read this.
Hide and Seek due out April 2013.

A Tangle of Knots -- A blurb about this book said it is "Savvy meets When You Reach Me", and I think that's a good analogy for A Tangle of Knots. The different points of view make this delightful - the reader becomes very invested in each character. Lisa Graff weaves a plot that is magical with almost everyone in the book having a Talent, but there is also a Talent stealer. I think I am a good reader, but as the story skipped around with characters in the beginning, none seeming to have anything thing to do with the other, I was puzzled and then enchanted. This book is due out February 2, 2013, and fans of Lisa Graff might be treated to one of her best books yet!

Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Summer Vacation -- From the minute I saw the title of the first book in this series, Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading, I knew it would be a hit with kids and I was right.  This series is spreading like wildfire in both of my classes.  So when I had the opportunity to get the 3rd book, Guide to Summer Vacation, as a review copy at NCTE, I grabbed it!
What I like is that Greenwald continues to have Charlie Joe be a schemer and always getting in trouble, but as the books have progressed, so has Charlie Joe's self-actualization.  In a fun series like this, I think that would be a fine line to walk as an author but Greenwald has done a great job.  Great freedom of speech and editorial writing in this last one as well.
Mark your calendars for May - this is yet one more book due out that month.

Please join Kellee and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts, who are the cohosts of this wonderful Monday event!  I love finding out what others are reading, and start planning my next week's reading using some of the participants ideas.

Cybils Time Again!!

I'm so very excited to be involved with the Cybils Awards for the 4th year in a row!  Incredibly, I have been a judge in the same category for all four years - nonfiction picture books.  I've served on both the first and second rounds of judging and have enjoyed both, but I will be a first round judge again this year.  I think the months of October, November, and part of December will be jam-packed with reading some great new nonfiction, and I can't wait!

I love that these awards exist; they are such a nice complement to the ALA awards.  We get the opportunity to focus not just on literary merit, but also on kid appeal.  That last being said, I'm the most popular teacher as I constantly share these new nonfiction books with my class.  And this year, having 52 students/critics, will help me fine-tune my own thinking about what actually has kid appeal.

I'm excited to work with some amazing people in the coming months:

Round 1
Janssen Bradshaw
Everyday Reading
@everydayreading

Deb Nance
Readerbuzz
@debnance

Amy Broadmoor
Delightful Children's Books
@delightchildbks

Ellen Zschunke
On the Shelf 4 Kids
@ontheshelf4kids

Karen Terlecky
Literate Lives
@karenterlecky

Susan Murray
From Tots to Teens
@semurray

Laurie Thompson
Laurie Thompson
@lauriethompson

Round 2
Jen Fukuyama
Perogies and Gyoza
@perogies_gyoza

Shirley Duke
SimplyScience
@slduke

Roberta Gibson
Wrapped in Foil
@RobertaGibson

Mandy Robek
Enjoy and Embrace Learning
@mandyrobek

Amy Uptain
Hope is the Word
@HopetheWordBlog

Looking forward to what will be the finalists in all the judging categories, and then finding out the ultimate winners sometime after the first of next year.

I spent some time at the Cybils website this evening, and I was reminded once again what a terrific website it is as a resource for great new titles.  I will be sharing it with my staff again this year, and hope that they will spot a great book that they are dying to share with students once the nominations start pouring in!

Let the Cybils fun begin!

A Full Moon is Rising

I love Marilyn Singer! Her poetry book Mirror, Mirror is one of the most-read books in our classroom. Children are always astounded at how the point of view changes when the lines are reversed.

So, when I saw Marilyn Singer's name on A Full Moon is Rising on the "New Books" bookshelf at my public library, I had to read it. Now that I've read it, I will truly have to have it and buy it for our classroom library!

This collection of poems reminds me a little of Amazing Faces, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins, which I absolutely adored! Both books deal with a single topic, but throughout the book, the topic is looked at through different cultural lenses.

In A Full Moon is Rising, the focus topic is the full moon. On each new set of pages, we look at the full moon from different locations in the world. What I love about this is Singer has chosen some sites that most children might not know, so there is a world map included that highlights all the different locales. In some of these places, the reader even learns about celebrations connected to the full moon. Great learning with accessible text. And if the reader wants to know even more, Singer has included more text in the back of the book about each location, and has also included a section about the different phases of the moon. The nonfiction text and the poetry in this book blend beautifully together to share important knowledge of cultures and of moon facts.

In addition to the fact that I love Singer's poems, one of the topics covered in 5th grade is about the Earth and the moon, including its phases. This will be a great book for my teaching partner to share when she teaches science, but A Full Moon Is Rising will also be a wonderful book for me to share in my language arts classes as an example of wonderful language and good mentor text for literary nonfiction.

10 For 10 Event - 2011 version (karen)

Last year, when I participated in this fun event, I focused on picture books I used in multiple ways as mentor texts in my classroom. The picture books I chose this year are all nonfiction or informational. Their strengths lie in the fact they are full of wonderful information, they can easily be used to work on comprehension strategies, and they are all wonderful mentor texts for writing. Like the books I shared last year, these books will be ones our class will come back to time and time again.

So, with no further ado, here is my 2011 10 For 10:

1) Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Rick Allen. This book deserved every award it received this past year. It is a gorgeous book about creatures and events of the night. The pictures are very dark, appropriately so, given the setting of night. What I love about this book the most is how on one side of the 2-page spread is a poem about the creature, full of amazing, beautiful language. On the other side, is a clear concise nonfiction text that shares further information about the animal. When doing research last year, several of my students modeled their writing presentation like this book.


2) Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by Vicky White. The layout of this book is gorgeous; I recently handed this book out to participants in a workshop, and you could hear gasps all over the room as they looked at the illustrations. Once you get past how beautiful the book is, the reader can then focus on the text which is equally as powerful. This picture book will again serve as a nonfiction writing mentor. In addition, when I got this book last year, the focus on saving the environment and specific animals were great lessons for students. It allowed us to talk about cause/effect and problem/solution over and over and over. What a great way to look at real problems in our world with a beautiful book.


3) Hot Diggity Dog: The History of the Hot Dog by Adrienne Sylver and illustrated by Elwood H. Smith. This is a very visually appealing nonfiction text, starting with the front cover where a hot dog is designed as a space ship. Fun for the reader! So many times in some of the "traditional" nonfiction texts for children, there are subheadings, fun facts, and informational text, but this book has taken those components and made them both easier, and more fun, to read. Each subheading starts on a new 2-page spread, and there is great information for the reader to find on each page. There are vocabulary words on the side, fun facts, easy narrative text to read about the subtopic, and great illustrations. Last year, this was a widely popular nonfiction writing mentor text as well as a great text for me to use time and time again with nonfiction comprehension strategies and vocabulary conversations.


4) Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World by Allan Drummond. Love, love, love this book! It takes an important topic like renewable and non-renewable energies and makes it incredibly friendly for students to understand. The narrative text tells the story of an island in Denmark, Samso. This island has strong winds that blow across it, and we find out how those winds were harnessed in a way that brought energy to Samso. The best part of this story however is the message that one person can make a difference. The actions of one farmer and one scientist ended up changing the thinking of the entire island population. Better yet, they started small and built up to bigger ways to harness the wind for energy.


5) Faith by Maya Ajmera Magda Nakassis, and Cynthia Pon. I read this book last year, but I had forgotten about it until I reread it a workshop this summer. It is a beautiful portrayal of what faith looks like in many different religions and cultures, using expressive photographs of children engaging in various aspects of their faith. As we become a more global society, and as our classrooms reflect that change, it is important to honor those cultures, traditions, and faiths. Equally important as honoring, however, is the need to expose children who only look at the world with one lens to a variety of different lenses. It doesn't take away from their own faith and beliefs, but allows them to make connections to others as well.


6) Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated by Brian Pinkney. This is the story of the four college students who went into a Woolworth's hoping to get a cup of coffee and a doughnut. The text is written in verse with the phrase (or something similar to it) repeating over and over: They waited and wanted " a doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side." This patient waiting, respectful at all times, regardless of the hate directed to them, or things being thrown on them, is such a great conversational opening for students about similar topics. It shares with them how awful things were back in the 1960s, and allows us to talk about whether or not things have changed. This is important talk to have with children in this day and age. Andrea Davis Pinkney's words are brilliant and Brian Pinkney's illustrations are superb. This is a book that is shared over and over for so many reasons.


7) America's White Table by Margot Theis Raven and illustrated by Mike Benny. A colleague introduced me to this book about 5 years ago, and I've used it every November 11 (Veteran's Day) since then. This story is informational, while having a fictional narrative (so I'm stretching me category a little here). However, this book beautifully tells a tradition of setting a small table complete with white tablecloth, black napkin, turned-over glass, white candle, red rose in a vase tied with red ribbon, lemon slice, grains of salt on a plate, and an empty chair. The importance of each of these items is explained in greater detail. Throughout the book, the readers find the words of "America the Beautiful". It is a touching story with a backdrop of history.


8) How the Sphinx Got to the Museum by Jessie Hartland. This was one of the Cybils nonfiction picture book nominees this past year, and I fell in love with it. The author takes the reader from the time 1470 B.C. when the Sphinx was first designed to recent times when the Sphinx was brought to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. So much to appreciate about the book. First, this is an add-on story where each person starting with the Pharaoh who ordered the Sphinx to be built and the sculptor who sculpted it. Everytime someone new deals with the Sphinx it is added in a different font and color and then everything that happened previously is repeated also. Second, the vocabulary in this book is amazing. Through each initial add-on, the reader learns something new about that person or person's occupation. Finally, it's great that students are exposed to a "how did that happen?" in the real world. Great picture book!


9) The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Suzy) by Barbara Kerley and illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham. Though students may not be all that familiar with Mark Twain, having the story told through his daughter's (Suzy) words helps bring it to a kid-friendly level. As a lover of words, I couldn't help but be delighted that actual phrases from Mark Twain are included. Because his words sound different from the way students talk, it makes for great conversation to discuss what exactly his phrases mean. In addition, a genius move on the part of the publisher/author/illustrator is that actual journal entries from Suzy are sewn into the binding of the book. It is so fun to turn the page and find a "journal" with the regular text. This is an appealing biography for students.


10) I wanted to include 2 biographies, and it was sooooo hard to commit to just 2, but if I'm not going to talk about Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, and Slave by Laban Carrick Hill, AND if I'm not going to talk about Henry Aaron's Dream by Matt Tavares (I know, I know! I'm so cheating right now!), I'll have to share my final pick which is Mermaid Queen by Shana Corey and illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham (same illustrator as Mark Twain book). I fell in love with this book 2 years ago. The colors in the book are amazing, and Fotheringham does an amazing job having "waves of water" on every page; it totally ties the story together visually. This is another great mentor text if a student was writing a biography. The author plays with font and words, and the language is much fun to discuss. The fact that this is about a strong woman who didn't fear being different is just icing on the cake!

So, there you have it. My 10 (or really 12) for 10. Great nonfiction and informational picture books. Each has an important place in our class learning, thinking, writing, reading, and discussions.

Thanks so much to Mandy and Cathy for hosting this 2nd annual event. Now that I've finished my post, can't wait to read what others have on their lists!!!

3 New Non Fiction Picture Books On My Shopping List

I'm preparing my shopping list for Cover to Cover when my budget opens again and I can start buying books for the library. I reviewed three new picture books here. I've also been looking for non-fiction picture books that I want to add to our Bailey collection.

Time to Eat by Steven Jenkins and Robin Page: I don't know how Steve Jenkins keeps up with all of his projects, but everything he puts out is good. Animal eating habits are covered in this book. The weird diets, the weird way some animals eat, and the amazing amounts that some animals eat are all presented in short, easy to read paragraphs. I think one of my favorite factoids is a human would have to drink like 6000 milkshakes in order to eat as much as a tick, comparisons like that are fascinating to me and I think kids too. The fact that Jenkins and Page cover so much info in such short presentations is one of my favorite things about their books. As always, the illustrations are amazing and the back has additional information on all of the animals in the book.

Just Fine the Way They Are: From Dirt Roads to Railroads to Interstates by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge; Illustrated by Richard Walz: This book tells the story of our nation's roads beginning with dirt roads to our first National Road Route 40 and moves through to today's super highways. I thought it was interesting and a great timeline book that could be used for teaching that concept. I liked how the author brought in the "fear of change" theme throughout and how, thank goodness, that fear was ignored and progress was made. The illustrations by Richard Walz are bright and colorful and fun to look at. The Columbus connection made this an especially interesting book for me.




If Rocks Could Sing: A Discovered Alphabet by Leslie McGuirk: I'm sort of picky about buying ABC books, they have to really stand out somehow, because there are SO many of them. This one passes the test. Rocks sculpted by ocean waves are amazing things to me and apparently its the same for author/photographer Leslie McGuirk who spent years finding the letters for this book. She has used weathered rocks that look like letters to create the pictures in this book. I think kids will be intrigued by the fact that all of these rocks were shaped by nature and were just found on Florida beaches. It may give them something to think about and on their next trip to the beach.

Nonfiction Monday - Energy Island

Don't you love it when you find a book at exactly the perfect moment?! That's what happened with this great nonfiction picture book Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World by Allan Drummond.

I found this book last Saturday. This Tuesday begins some learning about renewable and nonrenewable energy sources in our classroom. How timely was that? I was absolutely meant to buy this book!

Energy Island is a story based on a real island, Samso, located in the middle of Denmark. Drummond actually read about this island in The New Yorker magazine, and knew right away that the topic had potential as a picture book for children. How right he was! He went to Samso and interviewed the people there, specifically Soren Hermansen, who was chosen by the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy to lead a project that would allow Denmark to become independent of nonrenewable energy.

Drummond's text clearly tells a story about people on an island who are very typical of many others - in how they live, play, and use energy. One of the reasons I enjoyed this story so much is that Drummond keeps coming back to the point of how slowly change came to the people of Samso. More than that, the powerful message is that the young children were some of the first to embrace the need for change; most adults came to the idea of changing energy habits much later.

In the end, though, Energy Island is a story of huge success -- the islanders of Samso harnessed energy from the sun, the wind, straw, and fuel oil from canola crops. Some people embraced big ideas for how to use more renewable sources of energy; others started smaller. But everyone became part of the solution.

In addition to this great storyline of gaining command of renewable energy sources, Drummond has wonderful illustrations that are very kid-friendly and easy to understand. But, the final piece that I love about this nonfiction picture book is the sidebar information he inserts from time to time to better aid the understanding of what these big concepts are.

All this packed into one picture book makes Energy Island a true winner in my book! I can't wait to share it with my class this Tuesday so that hopefully they can start to make a difference in the world in which they live much like the children of Samso.

For more great nonfiction titles and ideas, check out Writing Nonfiction for Children for the entire Nonfiction Monday roundup.

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.

Cybils Nominations About to Begin...

It's that time of year again. The time when kidlit bloggers and lovers of kidlit get to nominate the books that they just absolutely adored this past year for an award -- specifically a Cybils Award. There are many categories for nominations.

The category I will be watching with great interest in the coming weeks is the Nonfiction Picture Books. So, if you have a favorite book that you think is deserving of an award, please join in the nomination fun!

For more specifics on the Nonfiction Picture Book category, I have included the following information:

"Kids love interesting non-fiction books. Kids love information books. And the sky’s the limit for kids' interests. The Nonfiction Picture Book category is looking for stunning, visual nominees that capture the curiosity and wonder of children of all ages by providing lots of great information.

From science to art, history to sports, or current events to biographies, will the book be picked up because of its fresh approach, kid appeal, fabulous illustrations, and or photography? If yes, then nominate it!

Nonfiction picture books are 48 pages or less and aimed at younger readers. Longer books (48 pages or more), denser text divided into chapters and/or a mature theme belong in the Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction category. The committee refers to the Library of Congress classification as a transferred referred to appropriate committees.

Previous winners in this category include The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton,Nic Bishop’s Frogs (2008), Lightship by Brian Floca (2007), and An Egg is Quiet by Diana Ashton (2006)."

--Jone MacCulloch, category organizer

So, if you have a book that sounds like the above description, please head on over to the Cybils website to make your voice heard! Nominations begin October 1st.

Cybils 2010

It's that time of the year again -- time to start thinking about nominations for the Cybil Awards. I am in awe of how the kidlit blogging community has pulled together to present their own award to deserving books, and will be celebrating the 5th annual Cybils Awards this year -- awards giving to the most deserving of books in the following categories:

• easy readers / short chapter books
• fantasy and science fiction
• fiction picture books
• graphic novels
• middle grade fiction
• non-fiction picture books
• non-fiction: middle grade and young adult
• poetry
• young adult fiction

If you don't know about these awards, I would encourage you to bookmark the Cybils site and follow as the nominations for these categories begin pretty soon. There are some wonderful titles in multiple categories that I find each year! Since the categories for the Cybils don't exactly align with the ALA award categories, it makes it fun to see when books win both an ALA award as well as a Cybil Award. As a 5th grade teacher, I am always checking out the nominations for the middle grade fiction category. I also have a soft spot for the non-fiction picture book category.

That being said, I'm very excited to share that I'll be serving on the Cybils non-fiction picture book panel again this year. I'm thrilled to be working with the other panelists, guided by our fearless leader, Jone. I look forward to reading close to 100 books or more, trying with my fellow panelists, to narrow it down to the seven most worthy of being a finalist in this category. A tough job, but I get an opportunity to see so many wonderful non-fiction picture books. I look forward to the nominations beginning!