Review of Follow Follow, by Marilyn Singer

Follow Follow

A Book of Reverso Poems

by Marilyn Singer
illustrated by Josée Masse

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2013. 32 pages.

Like Mirror Mirror, Follow Follow is a book of Reverso poems based on fairy tales. Marilyn Singer created this form. It consists of a pair of two poems. “Read the first poem down and it says one thing. Read it back up, with changes only in punctuation and capitalization, and it means something completely different.”

The beauty of using fairy tales for the reversos is that children will know the stories they are based on (notes in the back explain the basics if any need to be filled in), and will appreciate the implications of the two perspectives.

Some of the poems include the two perspectives of the hare and the tortoise, the emperor and the boy who sees he’s wearing no clothes, the big bad wolf climbing down the chimney and the pig in his brick house waiting for him, the mayor of Hamelin and the Pied Piper.

These are fun to read and clever, and what better way to illustrate that there’s always another side to the story?

marilynsinger.net
joseemasse.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.

Review of Becoming Babe Ruth, by Matt Tavares

Becoming Babe Ruth

by Matt Tavares

Candlewick Press, 2013. 40 pages.

Who knew Babe Ruth went to reform school at age 7? Becoming Babe Ruth looks at George Ruth’s childhood and how even he had to work at becoming a great baseball player.

The book focuses on his years at St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, where he played baseball and learned from Brother Matthias. Years later, when he was famous, he still had a special relationship with the school and helped them raise money to rebuild after a fire. The band from the school got to go on the road with the New York Yankees for the last two weeks of the 1920 baseball season, special guests of Babe Ruth.

This is also a beautiful picture book, with extra large pictures of a larger-than-life baseball player. I like the focus on a boy down on his luck who works hard and makes it big, but still remembers where he came from.

The author says in a note at the end, “Becoming the king of baseball took countless hours of practice and plenty of support and guidance from his school and from his teacher and mentor, Brother Matthias. And even at the height of his fame, he remained eternally grateful to those who helped him become Babe Ruth.”

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I’m posting this review today in honor of Nonfiction Monday, hosted today at Booktalking.

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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.

Review of The Tapir Scientist, by Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop

The Tapir Scientist

Saving South America’s Largest Mammal

text by Sy Montgomery
photographs by Nic Bishop

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2013. 80 pages.

The Tapir Scientist is another volume in the fabulous Scientists in the Field series. This series follows real scientists doing interesting work out in the real world.

The scientist featured in this book is Pati Medici of Brazil. She and her team are studying tapirs. In this book, they are in the Pantanal region, trying to put radio collars on wild tapirs. To do that, they must either trap the tapir or shoot it with a tranquilizer dart.

They also get blood samples and tick samples when they trap the tapirs. And, of course, they track the ones that already have a collar.

This book follows the routine of the team on their mission, explaining the day to day process when the author and photographer joined the expedition. As in all the books in this series, plenty of lavish photographs illustrate the story. In this book, many of the photographs are of other exotic wildlife in the area, but I’m not going to begrudge any animal photography done by Nic Bishop, even if it’s only loosely related to tapirs.

I like the way this book tells how it went — with setbacks as well as triumphs. There were times when the dart didn’t work and times when they captured a tapir that already had a collar.

This series shows that the life of a scientist can be adventurous and exciting. And you’ll find out about tapirs while you’re at it.

I’m posting this review tonight in honor of Nonfiction Monday, hosted today by Abby the Librarian.

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hmhbooks.com
tapirconservation.org.br

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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.

Review of Frog Song, by Brenda Z. Guiberson and Gennady Spirin

Frog Song

by Brenda Z. Guiberson
illustrated by Gennady Spirin

Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2013. 32 pages.

Frog Song is a beautifully illustrated celebration of frogs all over the world. Each two-page spread has a painting that features one particular species of frog. The text gives an onomatopoetic sound like the frog makes (Psst-Psst, Click-Clack, TinkTinkTinkTink) and tells something distinctive about that frog, usually how it lays and cares for its eggs.

Here’s an example:

In northeastern Australia, the Scarlet-sided pobblebonk sings by a pond after heavy rain. Bonk . . . Bonk . . . Bonk. The female frog lays her eggs on the water and whips the gooey mass into a ball of bubbles. Fwish! This floating raft protects the eggs until the tadpoles hatch.

There are notes at the end with facts about the featured frogs, as well as a bibliography, online links, and a message about frogs being endangered.

But what makes this book really stand out are the gorgeous paintings. They go so beautifully with the poetic language. Yes, you get facts in this book, but they are presented in a way that fills the reader with wonder.

brendazguiberson.com
gennadyspirin.com
mackids.com

I’m posting this review today in honor of Nonfiction Monday, hosted today by Perogies & Gyoza.

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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.

Review of Revolutionary Friends, by Selene Castrovilla and Drazen Kozjan

Revolutionary Friends

General George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette

by Selene Castrovilla
illustrated by Drazen Kozjan

Calkins Creek (Highlights), Honesdale, Pennsylvania, 2013. 40 pages.
Starred Review

This is what a nonfiction picture book should be. It tells a story, complete with flourishes, such as inserting French words in spots. And it also gets in the facts, particularly in the form of pictures of parchment on many pages, with quotations from Lafayette or Washington, talking about the episode featured on that page.

I didn’t know much about Marquis de Lafayette. I knew he was important during the American Revolution, but didn’t really know why. Now I do. And now I understand his deep friendship with George Washington, which began during the war and extended through the rest of their lives.

The book begins in 1777, when nineteen-year-old Lafayette came to America and introduced himself to General Washington, eager to help. Washington was not so impressed — at first. Other Frenchmen had come but had held themselves above the Americans and not bothered to learn English.

Lafayette was blissfully unaware of Washington’s opinions.

He had adopted the motto cur non — “why not.” Having come this far, why not go further?

Lafayette was anxious to be trained and eager to communicate. He had studied English while on the rough sea.

He adored America. And because Washington represented America, Lafayette idolized him.

Washington approached.

Enchanté!

The commander complimented Lafayette on his noble spirit and the sacrifices he had made. He invited Lafayette to live in his quarters.

Voilà!

To Lafayette, the cementing of their bond was as simple as that.

The book goes on to tell how the Americans were in a tight spot, and Congress wouldn’t trust Lafayette with a command. He finally proved himself in a way they couldn’t ignore, risking his life at the Battle of Brandywine. Washington told the doctor, “Take charge of him as if he were my son, for I love him with the same affection.”

There are several pages of back matter after this ending, the decisive cementing of their friendship. It tells how the friendship continued, gives timelines for both their lives, and even lists places to visit.

The strong point of this book, well supported with the rest, is the accessible story, a story of two men who became friends in a time of war. And changed the world.

SeleneCastrovilla.com
DrazenKozjan.com
calkinscreekbooks.com

This review is posted today in honor of Nonfiction Monday, hosted today at Shelf-Employed.

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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.

Review of ZooBorns: The Next Generation

ZooBorns: The Next Generation

Newer, Cuter, More Exotic Animals from the World’s Zoos and Aquariums

By Andrew Bleiman and Chris Eastland

Simon & Schuster, New York, 2012. 148 pages.

I booktalked this book at the local elementary schools when promoting the library’s Summer Reading program at the end of the school year. This was an example of a book that booktalked itself. All I had to do was show the pictures. Such cuteness! And in a few cases, such freakiness! (The aye-aye baby, for one, doesn’t look like it could possibly be real. I would guess they actually took a picture of a muppet if I didn’t know better.)

The book consists of pictures of baby animals from zoos and aquariums from all over the world. They’re babies. They’re cute. I only had to show a few, and I’d have a crowd of little girls after the talk, ooing and ahing over this book.

But it is also packed with lots of facts. Besides exotic animal species – Have you heard of the Polynesian tree snail? The South American coati? The epaulette shark? The klipspringer? – there are plenty of pictures and facts about all the animals. The book tells the particular animal’s name, species, home, and birthdate, as well as their status (whether endangered or not) and several facts about the species. It’s fascinating stuff, mixed in with a whole lot of cuteness.

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simonandschuster.com

I’m posting this review tonight in honor of Nonfiction Monday, hosted today at Wendie’s Wanderings.

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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.

Review of Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum, by Meghan McCarthy

Pop!
The Invention of Bubble Gum

By Meghan McCarthy

A Paula Wiseman Book (Simon & Schuster), 2010. 40 pages.

This nonfiction picture book tells the story of the invention of bubble gum. Walter Diemer, the man who came up with the breakthrough, was actually an accountant in the Fleer candy factory. He started watching a pot for a chemist, and ended up testing out new combinations. He finally found the formula for bubble gum. Pink was the only color he happened to have on hand, so that was the color of the new invention.

This simple story is told with big bright illustrations. It’s true, and it’s about something near and dear to children’s hearts, so this is an excellent choice to get kids interested in nonfiction. Notes at the back tell more about Walter Diemer and facts about gum.

I’m posting this review today in honor of Nonfiction Monday, hosted today at A Mom’s Spare Time.

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Source: This review is based on my own copy, which I got at an ALA conference.

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.

Review of The Boy Who Loved Math, by Deborah Heiligman and LeUyen Pham

The Boy Who Loved Math

The Improbable Life of Paul Erdös

by Deborah Heiligman
pictures by LeUyen Pham

Roaring Brook Press, New York, 2013. 38 pages.
Starred Review

I’ve been looking forward eagerly to this book ever since Betsy Bird reviewed it. My hold came in today, and I am absolutely delighted! I need my own personal copy!

Now, I have a Master’s in Math. Having studied mathematics at UCLA, I’d like to think that my Erdös Number (explained in the book) is at least 4, maybe even 3. So I’m simply saying that I’m predisposed to like it.

But there’s so much here for anyone to like! Even without looking deeper (more on that later), the pictures are full of life and interest, fitting the lively descriptions of a little boy in love with numbers.

Here’s an example from page 6:

So Paul kept counting . . .
And thinking about numbers. One day, when he was 4, Paul asked a visitor when her birthday was. She told him.

What year were you born? he asked.
She told him.

What time?
She told him.

Paul thought for a moment.
Then he told her how many seconds she had been alive.

[The picture shows 1,009,152,358 in a speech bubble coming from the little boy. He’s with his Fräulein and a woman who could indeed reasonably be 32 — even the details are right!]

Paul liked that trick. He did it often.

She goes on to show Paul growing, full of movement, learning more, always thinking about numbers. I love the detail that the illustrator included at the end: “As a young boy, Paul was known to flap his arms when something particularly excited him. This behavior continued through his teen years, when his friends would often have to explain to passersby that there was nothing wrong with Paul — he was just thinking hard.” The illustrations reflect this, full of life and movement.

And the author makes a smooth transition from childhood antics to a stellar adult career:

By the time Paul was 20, he was already famous around the world for his math. People called him The Magician from Budapest.

But he still did not know how to . . .

do his laundry

or cook his food

or butter his bread.

That was not a problem.
He still lived at home and
Mama still did everything for him.

She goes on to explain his unusual, collaborative manner of living. He’d fly to different countries, staying with other mathematicians, and then he had a way of bringing out brilliance in others as well.

Now, like I said, I have a huge soft spot for mathematicians, and my heart simply warms at the picture of the big group of actual mathematicians (women included, yes indeed) discussing together number theory, combinatorics, the probabilistic method, and set theory.

So the first run through of the story is wonderful enough. A story showing a brilliant mathematician with an unconventional life who produced great mathematics and brought out brilliance in others. How many picture book biographies are there celebrating mathematicians? It simply makes me happy.

But look a little deeper. The illustrator’s note shows the incredible level of detail she worked into the illustrations. Early on, the numbers you see are amicable numbers, and worked into the buildings we have dihedral primes, good primes, Leyland primes, Mersenne primes, prime triplets, unique primes, palindromic primes, Ramanujan primes, and two-sided primes. Paul Erdös worked in graph theory, and there are diagrams in the illustrations including the famous Konigsburg Bridge problem and other famous graphs. She includes actual buildings from Budapest and actual distinguished mathematicians as well.

And this book achieved something picture book biographers aspire to — I am absolutely going to read more about Paul Erdös. But even better, this is a book that celebrates young number lovers and will encourage them that their passion is part of something grand.

I’m posting this tonight in honor of Nonfiction Monday, hosted today at

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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.

Review of Hoop Genius, by John Coy and Joe Morse

Hoop Genius
How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball

by John Coy
illustrations by Joe Morse

Carolrhoda Books, Minneapolis, 2013. 40 pages.
Starred Review

Hoop Genius is a simple picture book about the invention of basketball. The story it tells is pretty much summed up in the subtitle: James Naismith was a desperate teacher who’d taken on a gym class that had already forced two teachers to quit. But the author and illustrator dramatize that story in an exciting way (showing the young men in the class with progressively more injuries, for example). Then they show where Naismith got the idea (from a childhood game) and how he worked out the rules with his class. Then briefly, we’re shown how basketball took off. (James Naismith met his wife when she played in a women’s game he refereed.)

I love the endpapers – with copies of the first draft of the rules of basketball.

The story’s simple, but so interesting! This marvelous presentation of the story of how Basketball began will captivate readers of all ages.

lernerbooks.com

I’m posting this review tonight in honor of Nonfiction Monday, hosted today at Shelf Employed.

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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 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.

Review of That’s a Possibility! by Bruce Goldstone

That’s a Possibility

A Book About What Might Happen

By Bruce Goldstone

Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2013. 32 pages.
Starred Review

A book about probability for kids! Hooray! What’s more, I find it tremendously impressive, because Bruce Goldstone keeps things far, far simpler than I could possibly have done if I were trying to write such a book.

Back in my college-math-teaching days, I often taught Introduction to Statistics. That’s probably why it never would have occurred to me that it’s possible to write a book explaining probability without even using fractions. In fact, the only place where he comes close at all is in the explanation about flipping a coin: “So the odds that the coin will land heads up is 1 out of 2 possibilites. (You can also say 50%, because 50 out of 100 is the same as 1 out of 2.)”

He manages to explain every fundamental concept with pictures. The pictures are vibrant, colorful, and interesting – and they so beautifully get across the concepts.

He begins by talking about possibilities. For example, there’s a picture of a kid holding 7 animal-shaped helium balloons. He asks, “If one of these balloons POPS, will it be the monkey? That’s a possibility!”

Then he goes on to talk about when things are impossible. And then what it means to be certain. Then the concepts of “likely,” “probable,” and “improbable.” Those are easily showed with pictures. He uses colorful pictures of flowers, parrots, and gumball machines.

And he goes on beyond the concept of “equally likely outcomes” (which he doesn’t mention, but didn’t I tell you I don’t know how to keep it as simple as he does.) There’s even a page that says, “Your imagination can help you think of possibilities, too.” It shows a girl jumping into a swimming pool, and asks, “What will probably happen when this jumper hits the water?”

Then it goes on to odds and flipping a coin. He explains “independent outcomes” without using those words – the idea that no matter what has already happened, your odds of getting tails on the next toss will always be 1 out of 2.

Then he looks at colorful spinners and a simple game that uses them. Then he looks at the classics of probability theory: playing cards and dice. Instead of listing all the possibilities of a 2-dice roll, he puts pictures of all the possible rolls in a chart, using one white and one black die. Kids can see at a glance that it’s more likely to roll a 7 than any other number.

Then he takes on Combinations and Permutations, again keeping it beautifully simple. Squidgy the Bear has 10 shirts and 10 pairs of pants. We see a picture of all 100 combinations before the author asks us what are the chances he’ll wear one particular outfit.

And the culmination (about permutations), before the notes at the end, is especially fun. Rabbit, Ribbit (a frog), and Robot run in a race. What are the possible results? They’re all pictured for you. I especially like the final questions:

Can you say all the possibilities together without getting your tongue twisted? That’s a possibility, but is it probable?

The notes at the end explain some activities kids can do at home, and then define some terms (like permutations) he didn’t use earlier. This is only very slightly more complex than what went before.

So, what makes me rave about this book? He keeps it so simple! The design is magnificent, and the pictures are beautiful and colorful – and helpful at the same time. But having taught probability to college students, let me tell you, his ability to explain the concepts at an elementary-school level is nothing short of genius. Magnificent!

brucegoldstone.com
mackids.com

This review is posted today in honor of Nonfiction Monday, hosted this week at Sally’s Bookshelf.

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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.