Review of Shaped by Her Hands, by Anna Harber Freeman and Barbara Gonzales

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Shaped by Her Hands

Potter Maria Martinez

by Anna Harber Freeman and Barbara Gonzales
illustrated by Aphelandra

Albert Whitman and Company, 2021. 32 pages.
Review written April 14, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

Shaped by Her Hands is a picture book biography of Maria Povika Martinez, a woman who carried on the tradition of Native American pottery and became famous for perfecting new techniques.

It begins her story as a girl in a pueblo among the Tewa people of San Ildefonso. She learned to make pottery from her aunt.

Aunt Nicolasa was happy to show Maria the centuries-old tradition of san-away. Together, they gathered clay and thanked Mother Earth for sharing with them.

Nicolasa showed Maria how to mix the clay with water and volcanic ash, and how to roll coils between her hands to build the pot’s walls.

As the two of them worked, Nicolasa told Maria about the importance of sharing clay knowledge. She wanted Maria to know how to make pots to store seeds and grains in, so their Tewa traditions would live on.

The book shows Maria growing up and marrying and coming back to the clay. She developed a new technique from an ancient sherd of black pottery an archaeologist showed her. She and her husband, who added decorations, created beautiful black-on-black pottery that was extremely popular.

And throughout her life, she always found it important to share what she knew.

When Julian died in 1943, Maria’s heart and pots felt empty without her husband and partner. But she had spent her whole life sharing clay with her family.

First, her children came to paint the designs.

Later, her grandchildren came to help with the painting and polishing.

They made pots as a family, remembering to thank Mother Earth, and teaching new hands to form, polish, and design.

A lovely and simple book about someone who made beautiful art and passed on the knowledge.

albertwhitman.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Kitten Lady’s Big Book of Little Kittens, by Hannah Shaw

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science 0

Kitten Lady’s Big Book of Little Kittens

by Hannah Shaw

Aladdin (Simon & Schuster), 2019. 56 pages.
Review written July 11, 2020, from a library book

A big thank-you for my co-worker Pam Coughlan for alerting me to this book. Reading it makes me sad we didn’t get to booktalk in the schools this year – because the many, many adorable photographs of little kittens that fill this book would make it an absolutely certain hit.

The book is written by the “Kitten Lady,” who fosters hundreds of kittens every year, getting them to a point where they can be adopted into a forever family.

Fostering is when you give temporary care to a homeless animal. Once the kittens are healthy and old enough, they go to a permanent home with a loving adopter, and then my house is empty so I can save even more kittens.

It’s like a revolving door of tiny tigers!

She goes on to talk about the care the kittens need and steps in their growth. It’s all loaded with photographs. I think my favorites are the ones of kittens learning to eat solid food. I had no idea that kittens could be just as messy as babies – more so, because instead of putting their hands in the food like babies, kittens put their feet in the food.

Of course, that was also the page that kept me from rushing out to foster a kitten myself. Be warned that if you expose your kids to this book, you should probably be prepared for them to want to start a new family activity of fostering kittens.

But if you just want an overload of cuteness, this book will do the trick.

KittenLady.org
simonandschuster.com/kids

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Source: This review is based on a book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Bake Infinite Pie with X + Y, by Eugenia Cheng, illustrated by Amber Ren

Children's Nonfiction Review, Mathematical, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Bake Infinite Pie with X + Y

by Eugenia Cheng
illustrated by Amber Ren

Little, Brown and Company, 2022. 32 pages.
Review written July 13, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

My readers won’t be surprised that every time mathematician Eugenia Cheng writes a picture book, it delights my heart. I’ll list this under Children’s Nonfiction, because although it is a story, the emphasis is on the ideas.

This one tells of two kids, named X and Y, who are dreaming of infinite pie — X, pie that is infinitely wide, and Y, pie that is infinitely tall. They think of course that such pie isn’t real, but they ask their Aunt Z, who can create amazing things with her brain.

The book that follows explores infinity in many different ways, and all of them involve pie!

There are infinitely different ways you can make pie, and once it’s done, if you keep eating half your pie, it will last until infinity.

You can make a pie with infinite corners, cut pie crust infinite ways, and even make pastry with infinite layers.

I hope that gives you the idea of ways to explore infinity with pie — it’s all presented in a family setting with a fun aunt bending kids’ minds with tasty treats.

And there’s even a recipe for pie at the back! (After a spread that lays out mathematical ideas presented.) The recipe is for Banana Butterscotch Pie — and believe it or not, I couldn’t resist trying it out. (I hadn’t made a pie with crust in decades.) The pie was indeed delicious, but alas – the instructions didn’t specify how big your pie pan should be. I used a 9-inch one, and my pie was more of a tart — the filling only went about halfway up the pie crust. I think an 8-inch pie pan would do nicely. And it still tasted wonderful.

eugeniacheng.com
amber-ren.com
lbyr.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of All in a Drop, by Lori Alexander

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 0

All in a Drop

How Antony van Leeuwenhoek Discovered an Invisible World

by Lori Alexander
illustrated by Vivien Mildenberger

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019. 93 pages.
Review written April 2, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review
2020 Robert F. Sibert Award Honor

This book is about the man who discovered that there were tiny organisms in drops of water. And what surprised me is that even the members of the Royal Society in London didn’t believe him for a whole year after his report.

Born in 1632 in the Netherlands, Antony van Leeuwenhoek never studied science, and he became a draper, a seller of cloth. But to examine cloth closely, they used magnifying lenses. After a trip to London, where he saw a book about a new invention called a microscope, Antony decided to make one himself.

What fascinated me is that Antony didn’t make just one microscope and then look at many different things. Instead, he’d glue his specimens to a base, and then make a new microscope to look at that thing. He devised a system, and he’d shape the glass and screw the lenses into focus. They ended up being the best microscopes in the world at the time.

And Antony proceeded to make discoveries. He discovered that insects didn’t spontaneously generate, as was thought at the time. And he found “little animals” in rivers and streams and also in people’s mouths. In fact, he made discoveries in many different fields of science without ever being trained as a scientist, but simply a curious person.

I love it when I read a children’s book and learn about someone I knew nothing about. This short chapter book is full of fascinating information and tells about a man who changed the way we see the world.

lorialexanderbooks.com
vivien.mildenberger.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Women in Art, by Rachel Ignotofsky

Art, Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Women in Art

50 Fearless Creatives Who Inspired the World

written and illustrated by Rachel Ignotofsky

Ten Speed Press, 2019. 128 pages.
Review written August 5, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

I’ve gotten a little tired of collective biographies that tell about a bunch of people and after awhile they all lump together. This one was different and distinctive. It probably helped that I had it checked out while the library was closed during the pandemic, because I found I only wanted to read about one artist per day, since there was so much information packed on each spread. I was in no hurry and didn’t have to worry about having to return the book before I was done.

The stylized illustrations are wonderful, featuring a page that highlights a portrait of the artist opposite the page with the text summary of her life and accomplishments. Both the portrait and the text, though, are surrounded with highlights from her life and images of her work.

There was a huge variety in the types of art these women made. The earliest woman featured combined poetry and painting in ancient China. The book includes more painters and sculptors, but also quilters, graphic designers, filmmakers, architects, fashion designers, photographers, and animators. I’d only heard of a small fraction of them before reading this book.

This wonderful book inspired me and reading it became a delight rather than some sort of educational chore. Here’s a paragraph from the conclusion:

Throughout history, female artists have pushed boundaries, created important works, and inspired the world. Many of these artists had to struggle against sexism, classism, racism, or other obstacles to get their work seen and taken seriously. Now we can include these women in their rightful place in art history and celebrate their contributions. Let us honor their legacy by continuing to create. Build what you see in your wildest dreams! Express yourself by creating something new! Share your ideas with the world! And go out there and make your own masterpiece!

RachelIgnotofskyDesign.com
tenspeed.com

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Review of Guts, by Raina Telgemeier

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Graphic Memoir, Starred Review 0

Guts

by Raina Telgemeier

Graphix (Scholastic), 2019. 218 pages.
Review written 9/19/19 from a library book
Starred Review

Raina Telgemeier does it again! Here’s another autobiographical graphic novel (really a graphic memoir) about when she was in fourth and fifth grade. After catching the stomach flu, she began having trouble with stomach aches when she was worried about anything, and then became excessively afraid of vomiting. The problem fed on itself.

That’s easy to summarize – but seeing it lived out in graphic novel form helps the reader understand and feel for her. There are also some problems with friends and enemies (of course) and small school and family issues. Raina sees a therapist, and I like the way she gets over feeling like that means there’s something wrong with her. She also gets some actually helpful ways to cope with her fears.

Kids are going to love this – the hold list is already long, with both boys and girls on the list. I heard that one child complained there was too much vomiting, so I think a child like Raina herself who doesn’t want to hear about vomit might have trouble with it. But for kids who like gross things, that will be an additional attraction.

scholastic.com/graphix
goRaina.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Marshmallow Clouds, by Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek, illustrated by Richard Jones

Children's Nonfiction Review, Poetry, Starred Review 0

Marshmallow Clouds

Two Poets at Play among Figures of Speech

by Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek
illustrated by Richard Jones

Candlewick Press, 2022. 72 pages.
Review written May 13, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

I don’t usually get too excited about poetry collections, but this one had me smiling at new ways of looking at things I’d never thought of before. I started wanting to read bits aloud to a coworker. Though I’d also have to show them the beautiful images accompanying the poems.

The poets are indeed playing with ideas. First, we meet a winter tree that looks like it’s clowning around on the top of a hill, up on one leg and juggling a pie. Then there’s a meteor shower like scratches a black cat playing with an enormous ball that glitters, a fireplace like a playpen for the fire, a book as a sandwich of words and ideas, and a harp like a great golden moth as a harpist smooths the veins in its wings. Or let me type out the whole poem “Thunderstorm”:

This one’s gotten up in the night
and, not wanting to wake us,
stumbles around, bumping the walls
of the long empty hallway leading away,
now and then lighting a match
and then, just as quickly, blowing it out.

I love the images in these poems. They’re creative and so imaginative. Here’s the first stanza of a poem called “July”:

One summer day I was boiled and salted
like a peanut. I was the meat
in a heat sandwich, the dog in a hot.
I was the crimson crayon
melting in a sunny car,
the color of firecrackers and flags
and Mars, where once water
cooled the red stones.

Here’s the first stanza of a poem called “Secret”:

It’s safe to tell a secret to the stars,
aliens all. They haven’t
a word of English,
which means they are reliable
in their silence.

That poem has more about stars and secrets and fire burning up the secrets and how good it is to let them go.

And I need to stop giving examples, because there are far too many good ones. At the back, poet Ted Kooser tells what they are trying to do with this book:

Each of us is born with a gift of imagination and, as if it were a favorite cat or dog, playing with your imagination can keep it healthy and happy. The poems in this book are about fooling around, about letting one’s imagination run free with whatever it comes upon. Our idea is to encourage you to run with your own imagination, to enjoy what you come up with.

The poems in this book, combined with the simple and meditative images, filled me with delight. They’re divided into sections for Fire, Water, Air, and Earth.

A lovely collection of poems that might surprise you — as it did me.

candlewick.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Boy Who Invented the Popsicle, by Anne Renaud and Milan Pavlovic

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Boy Who Invented the Popsicle

The Cool Science Behind Frank Epperson’s Famous Frozen Treat

by Anne Renaud and Milan Pavlovic

Kids Can Press, 2019. 40 pages.
Starred Review
Review written October 23, 2019, from a library book

This is a picture book biography of Frank Epperson, the inventor of the Popsicle, with a little bit more.

I’m always impressed when children’s nonfiction manages to surprise me. The big surprise in this book is that Frank Epperson invented the Popsicle before household freezers were common. And he first experimented with making them when he was eleven years old, living in San Francisco, during an unusual cold spell.

The book shows that he was an inventor at heart, making a two-handled handcar when he was a kid. He also experimented with making flavored soda water.

The book has experiments you can do at home to go with the text. One is making your own lemon-flavored soda water. (Hmm. Is using baking soda what gave soda its name? The book doesn’t say.)

His first frozen drink on a stick happened when he tried freezing one of these drinks. Later, as an adult, when he saw people eating chocolate-covered ice cream bars, he thought he’d experiment with making more of his frozen drinks on a stick.

But he needed to freeze them at a cooler temperature than water freezes because of the sugar and flavorings included – and an experiment helps the reader understand that. And he needed to freeze them quickly, because he didn’t want the flavorings and water to separate – another experiment helps the reader understand that.

He came out with his frozen treats – which he first called the Ep-sicle – in the early 1920s. This was long before homes were typically stocked with a refrigerator-freezer, so they were mostly sold in stores and at special events.

This book gives an interesting story of ingenuity, experimentation, and implementation. The experiments give it a little something beyond the typical picture book biography.

kidscanpress.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Bringing Back the Wolves, by Jude Isabella, illustrated by Kim Smith

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science 0

Bringing Back the Wolves

How a Predator Restored an Ecosystem

by Jude Isabella
illustrated by Kim Smith

Kids Can Press, 2020. 40 pages.
Review written August 22, 2020, from a library book

Bringing Back the Wolves is not flashy, but it’s simply presented nonfiction in a picture book format – and I learned a whole lot.

This book explains that all the wolves in Yellowstone National Park were gone by 1926. The government had offered a bounty on wolves and other predators in its quest to tame the west. But what nobody at the time realized was that would affect the entire ecosystem.

The book talks about the food web and food chains. But it shows that wolves affected the ecosystem far beyond ways you’d expect. Especially effective for me were spreads at the beginning and end of the book showing a valley in Yellowstone’s northern range in 1995 just before wolves were reintroduced, contrasted with a picture of that same valley twenty-five years later.

In between those spreads, it’s clearly laid out how much the wolves affected. First, it was the large herds of elk, which in 1995 were five times larger than in 1968. Fewer elk affected which plants and trees could survive and thrive. That affected animals in the middle of the food chain as well as bringing more birds and raptors to Yellowstone. Then, especially affecting the landscape, beavers came back, building dams and reviving the ecosystem on their part. Songbirds returning mean that the park even sounds different than it did in 1995. I’d no idea how much is affected, down to the insects in the soil.

Here’s how the author finishes this book, on the spread with the picture of the revitalized valley:

Twenty-five years after their reintroduction, about 500 wolves roam the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, staking their claim in the food web. Wolves have helped to balance the ecosystem just by being themselves, apex predators. But perhaps even more important, studying the wolves has exposed just how complex and interconnected the ecosystem is, revealing surprising links no one could have imagined.

kidscanpress.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of A Dream of Flight, by Rob Polivka and Jef Polivka, illustrations by Rob Polivka

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

A Dream of Flight

Alberto Santos-Dumont’s Race Around the Eiffel Tower

by Rob Polivka and Jef Polivka
illustrations by Rob Polivka

Farrar Straus Giroux, 2019. 40 pages.
Starred Review
Review written September 2, 2019, from a library book

Here’s a picture book about one of the pioneers of flight – and one I didn’t know anything about. Alberto Santos-Dumont, who went by Santos, dreamed of flying and worked hard to invent a machine that would fly and could be steered.

Santos made balloons, trying to make their shape facilitate steering. He added a motor to make them move even against the wind. Yes, his airships crashed. He used that as an opportunity to improve the design.

After Santos had already built five airships, a prize of 100,000 francs was announced for the first person who could pilot an airship from the Aero Club in Paris around the Eiffel Tower and back in less than 30 minutes. His first attempt failed, and Airship No. 5 was destroyed.

This book tells the dramatic story of his next attempt. He won this prize even before the Wright Brothers achieved their historic flight.

Alberto Santos-Dumont’s life and adventures make a good story. It’s dramatic and easy-to-follow – and teaches the reader that there was more to the development of flight than just the Wright Brothers or just what was happening in America. There’s a page of more facts in the back of the book.

mackids.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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