Review of The Bug Girl, by Sophia Spencer with Margaret McNamara, illustrated by Kerascoët

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

The Bug Girl

(A True Story)

by the Bug Girl herself, Sophia Spencer,
with Margaret McNamara
illustrated by Kerascoët

Schwartz & Wade Books, 2020, 40 pages.
Starred Review
Review written 02/20/2020 from a library book

This picture book is written in the voice of the author, who is a fourth-grade student – and does a marvelous job of telling other kids that it’s okay to love bugs.

Sophia begins with her first encounter with a bug – when she was two years old, in a butterfly conservatory, one butterfly landed on her and decided to stay the whole time she walked around the conservatory.

After that, Sophia became obsessed with bugs. She got books and videos about them and learned all she could about them. She collected bugs, and her mom let her keep them out on the porch.

In Kindergarten, other kids thought Sophia’s obsession with bugs was cool. But that changed when she got to first grade. Now they started teasing her and calling her weird. There’s a very sad page in that section:

Then I brought a grasshopper to school. I thought the kids would be so amazed by the grasshopper that they’d want to know all about it. But they didn’t. A bunch of kids crowded around me and made fun of me.

“Sophia’s being weird again,” one of them said.

“Ew! Gross!” said another. “Get rid of it!”

Then they knocked that beautiful grasshopper off my shoulder and stomped on it till it was dead.

Sophia became afraid to talk about the bugs she loved. She continued to be teased and excluded at school and called weird. She thought she’d have to give up her passion.

But Sophia’s mother was sad to see her so unhappy.

She wrote an email to a group of entomologists asking for one of them to be my “bug pal.” She wanted me to hear from an expert that it was not weird or strange to love bugs and insects. “Maybe somebody will write back,” said my mom.

“Maybe,” I said.

“Or at least call.”

We thought those scientists would be too busy to respond.

But an email came from an entomologist named Morgan Jackson who asked to put the letter online.

He asked other bug scientists – all around the world – to let me know if they had any advice for a girl who loves bugs.

That set off a flood of responses, with a hashtag: #BugsR4Girls

I couldn’t believe how many people around the world loved bugs as much as I did. And how many of them were grown-up women!

Some were scientists who wrote about the work they do in their labs. Others shared videos of themselves with bugs on their arms and sent pictures of themselves hunting bugs in the wild.

The response also set off more publicity of its own – Sophia got interviewed by newspaper reporters and even appeared on television.

Now, as a fourth-grader, Sophia has many other interests, but she still loves bugs.

This picture book presents all this in a child-friendly way with bright pictures and simple text. At the back are six pages of cool bug facts from Sophia.

margaretmcnamara.net
rhcbooks.com

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Review of Bird Girl, written by Jill Esbaum, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Bird Girl

Gene Stratton-Porter Shares Her Love of Nature with the World

written by Jill Esbaum
illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon

Calkins Creek, 2024. 44 pages.
Review written April 30, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Bird Girl is a picture book biography of Gene Stratton-Porter. Many years ago, I read A Girl of the Limberlost, and I expected the story of her life as an author. Instead, the book told about her fascination with studying and caring for birds and her groundbreaking work as a nature photographer who photographed birds in their natural settings.

And then I remembered that I learned from her novels how important it is for farmers to leave trees on the edges of their fields – because then birds will help them eliminate pests. And that was only a bit of the nature lore in her novels.

The book is bright and colorful and uses entertaining anecdotes to tell the story. When she was a girl, she hid a hawk’s droppings from her farmer father so he wouldn’t know where the nest was and kill it. Later, when he did shoot down a hawk, she took care of it and befriended it until its wing healed.

As an adult, Gene Stratton-Porter had a house with a conservatory that had windows with special hatches so birds could come and go, and she kept food for birds throughout her house.

She began photographing birds because the illustrations a magazine wanted to use for her stories were drawings of stuffed birds in unnatural positions. She learned to photograph and develop her own film – and then she went out into the nearby Limberlost swamp to take the pictures.

She fights through spongy muck and tangled undergrowth – rattlesnake territory – to reach the hollow tree where a vulture nests. She goes back time and again to capture the world’s first photo series of a growing vulture chick.

She ended up with a vast knowledge of wildlife acquired through patient observation that began when she was a child. And her story shows kids the power of a quirky obsession.

jillesbaum.com
rebeccagibbon.com

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Review of Mother Jones and Her Army of Mill Children, by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

Mother Jones and Her Army of Mill Children

by Jonah Winter
illustrated by Nancy Carpenter

Schwartz & Wade Books, 2020. 36 pages.
Review written February 27, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

The topic of this picture book biography stirred me up besides telling me about someone I hadn’t known much about. Mother Jones – Mary Harris Jones – was the “grandmother of all agitators.” She spoke out strongly against oppressive labor conditions, and especially about child labor. The title and the focus of the book are about a Children’s March where she led mill children on a protest march from Philadelphia to New York City in 1903, which she called the Children’s Crusade.

The book is written in first person from Mother Jones’ perspective. Quotes from her speeches are used in a few places, and famous quotes are included on the endpapers. All caps are used in places to convey her anger at injustice.

Well, I’ve seen lots of things to get RILED UP about, but the worst thing I ever saw was in the fabric mills of Philadelphia. I saw children YOUR AGE – nine and ten years old – who worked like grown-ups, forced to stand on their feet for TEN HOURS STRAIGHT, tying threads to spinning spools, reaching their hands inside the dangerous machines that make the fabric, sometimes getting skirts caught, sometimes getting hair caught, sometimes hands or legs, working for hours and hours, never resting, breathing deadly dust – robbed of their childhoods, robbed of their dreams, and all for a measly TWO CENTS AN HOUR, while outside the birds sang and the blue sky shone.

The majority of the book is about the Children’s March. They didn’t stop at New York City, but marched on to the summer home of President Theodore Roosevelt on Long Island – where he refused to see them.

But the actions of Mother Jones ended up resulting in child labor laws that are still in effect today.

I liked that the artist used a dark palette for this book, with sobering pictures of the kids – as well as happier pictures, such as when the kids tried out the rides on Coney Island.

This book gives an important story, and I’m glad I learned about it. It’s told in a way that kids can appreciate a woman – and children – who made a big difference.

nancycarpenter.website
rhcbooks.com

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Review of The Superpower Field Guide: Ostriches, by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Nicholas John Frith

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 0

The Superpower Field Guide

Osriches

by Rachel Poliquin
illustrated by Nicholas John Frith

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019. 96 pages.
Review written April 23, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

This is the second Superpower Field Guide, and I just put the first one written, Beavers on hold. These are some of the most entertaining books about animals I’ve ever read.

The tone is conversational, directly addressing the reader. Although the writer includes scientific terms, she starts out with kid-friendly descriptions, so it’s all easier to understand.

To give you an example, here she is talking about Superpower #7, the Impossible Ever-Flow Lung:

First, bird lungs aren’t balloons. They are stiff tubes. The fancy word for these tubes is parabronchi, but I’ll just call them tubes. At either end, these tubes are connected to balloons – seven to twelve in total, depending on the bird. Ostriches have ten. These balloons take up about a fifth of the space in a bird’s body – that’s a lot! They squeeze around a bird’s organs; some are even inside its hollow bones.

Now, bird balloons are part of the whole lung system, but they are not actually lungs. And they are not made from millions of tiny alveoli like your lungs. They are just basic balloons. They all have names, but I’ll keep it simple. I’ll divide them into two balloon teams: TEAM FRESH and TEAM STALE.

What follow is an explanation, with diagrams, of how breathing works for ostriches (and other birds) so that fresh air is always flowing through their lungs, whether they’re breathing in or out – an amazing fact that I certainly didn’t know before reading this book.

Rachel Poliquin is good at making amazing facts about animals sound amazing. That’s the whole focus of the Superpower Field Guides. The superpowers she attributes to ostriches are: Colossal Orbs of Telescopic Vision, Thighs of Thunder, Toe Claws of Death, Super-fantastic Elastic Striders, Two-toed Torpedoes, Do-it-all Dino Flaps, the Impossible Ever-Flowing Lung, Epic Endurance, the Egg of Wonder, and the Hydro-hoarding Heat Shield.

Reading these books, you do realize how surprising some of these abilities truly are. These are the kinds of books I want to read more of because they’re so interesting, and I have no doubt they’ll have the same effect on kids.

rachelpoliquin.com
nicholasjohnfrith.com
hmhco.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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*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of I Never Saw Another Butterfly, edited by Hana Volavková

Children's Nonfiction Review, Poetry, Starred Review 0

I Never Saw Another Butterfly

Children’s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942 – 1944

Edited by Hana Volavková
Expanded Second Edition by the United States Holocaust Museum

Schocken Books, 1993. 106 pages.
Review written July 22, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

I found this book in good condition, hidden in the children’s nonfiction section of our library. It’s a thin paperback, and not many had noticed it. Besides, it’s a thin book and doesn’t draw the eye. But instead of weeding it from our collection, I was pulled in. I checked it out and read a few poems a day while the library was closed.

This book is a collection of poems and artwork created by children who were incarcerated in the town of Terezin, a ghetto in the Czech Republic during World War II. Jews were sent there supposedly for their safety, but as a stop on the way to extermination camps.

There’s a description of the history of Terezin and what life was like there at the front. At the back, an index tells what happened to the children who created the art and poetry. Most died in the camps, though a few escaped.

Something that made Terezin remarkable, though, was that some teachers decided to encourage the children to write and draw about their experiences. And their work, miraculously, has been preserved.

If you think about the words and pictures in this book much at all, they’re heart-wrenching. Reading it felt like a small way to honor these children, who experienced things no child should ever have to deal with.

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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 Lizzie Demands a Seat! by Beth Anderson, illustrated by E. B. Lewis

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

Lizzie Demands a Seat!

Elizabeth Jennings Fights for Streetcar Rights

by Beth Anderson
illustrated by E. B. Lewis

Calkins Creek (Boyds Mills & Kane), 2020. 32 pages.
Review written April 22, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

We’ve all heard of Rosa Parks, but in this book I learned about Lizzie Jennings, a free black woman who fought in court for her right to ride on streetcars with whites in New York State in 1854.

This picture book dramatizes her encounter. She was physically thrown off a streetcar on her way to church, but got right back on.

Five blocks later, the conductor hailed an officer.

Again a crowd gathered and watched in silence.

“Officer,” said the conductor, “the passengers object to this woman’s presence. It’s my duty to remove her.”

“No one objected!” Lizzie said, leaping up. “I have rights!”

The officer forced her off the streetcar. “Make your complaint. You’ll not get far.

Lizzie did go to court about it, with her whole community behind her. Her lawyer was Chester Arthur – who later became President of the United States.

The whole story is dramatic and inspiring. I’d had no idea that African Americans also had to fight for rights in the North – of course that shows my ignorance. It’s always good to read about someone standing up for what’s right. And especially good when they win rights for others as well.

The book is beautifully illustrated, with a nice variety of scenes pictured and a focus on faces. I’m glad this story is being told.

bethandersonwriter.com
eblewis.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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*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of The Unstoppable Garrett Morgan, by Joan DiCicco, illustrated by Ebony Glenn

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review 0

The Unstoppable Garrett Morgan

Inventor, Entrepreneur, Hero

by Joan DiCicco
illustrated by Ebony Glenn

Lee & Low Books, 2019. 40 pages.
Review written April 22, 2020, from a library book

Here’s another fascinating picture book biography about an amazing person I knew nothing about.

Garrett Morgan was an African American inventor and born in 1877. He grew up on a farm in the South and moved to Cincinnati to find opportunities. He worked as a janitor, but was good at fixing equipment and was promoted to machinist for a clothing manufacturer.

When he wanted to marry a white seamstress from Germany, he quit his job and opened his own sewing machine repair shop. Together with his wife, they expanded their business to a company making affordable clothing.

But where Garrett Morgan really made a name for himself was designing and manufacturing “Safety Hoods” for firefighters to wear. It would bring fresher air up from ground level to keep the wearer from smoke inhalation. Where he gained the reputation of a hero was when he wore one of his own Safety Hoods to rescue people from a tunnel explosion.

And he continued to keep people safe, as later in his life he invented a system of traffic signals.

His story is told as someone who wasn’t stopped by obstacles.

With determination and courage, Garrett Morgan went around, over, and through every obstacle between him and his goal to help others. Today his legacy is all around us. Whenever firefighters rescue people from smoke-filled buildings or motorists and pedestrians safely cross an intersection, we have a brave inventor to thank: Garrett Morgan.

joandiciccowriter.com
ebonyglenn.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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*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of Nature’s Ninja, by Rebecca L. Johnson

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 0

Nature’s Ninja

Animals with Spectacular Skills

by Rebecca L. Johnson

Millbrook Press, 2020. 48 pages.
Review written May 1, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

This book was made to be booktalked to elementary age kids! I wish we were doing in-person booktalks this year, but I’m going to make a note to myself to be sure to include this book next year.

The book presents nine ninja skills, with their Japanese names, and then nine animals that demonstrate those skills in amazing ways.

I also want to say that books about animals with strange characteristics are a booktalking staple, but I hadn’t heard about any of these abilities before, except maybe the sticky feet of the gecko – but I didn’t know why they are so sticky, or about their microscopic suction cups.

The most striking skill to me was the same one the author said prompted her to write the book — shuriken-jutsu, Ninja throwing stars. It turns out that the collector sea urchin throws small parts of itself at predators. They’re shaped like mini-throwing stars, and they open and close their jaws to bite a would-be attacker.

Other animal ninjas include the sailfish with its sword-wielding skills, the alkali fly and its ability to stay dry underwater, ground spiders with their abilities to throw web silk to attack, and fish-scale geckos that easily escape by releasing their scales and skin.

Each chapter features a ninja skill and an animal or animals that demonstrate the skill. Then in “The Science Behind the Story,” we learn how scientists discovered this animal’s amazing abilities.

This book is short at only 48 pages, but it packs a lot of surprising science.

rebeccajohnsonbooks.com
lernerbooks.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.

What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of How Women Won the Vote, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, illustrated by Ziyue Chen

Children's Nonfiction Review, History 0

How Women Won the Vote

Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Their Big Idea

by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
illustrated by Ziyue Chen

Harper, 2020. 80 pages.
Review written July 13, 2020, from a library book

This nonfiction story of women winning the vote is in large format like a picture book, but packed with facts, so it’s suitable for upper elementary school readers. The story is simplified, focusing on Alice Paul and Lucy Burns and beginning when they met in London in 1909. There’s a timeline in the back that highlights key events in the battle for women’s rights that happened before that last push.

There are pictures on every spread, but in many cases black-and-white photographs from the time are included. There’s a wonderful large photo filling two pages in the middle of the book and showing the women’s march in Washington, DC, the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration.

The parade covers a lot of space in the middle of the book, but we also get coverage of the arrests, imprisonments, hunger strikes, and force feedings the women went through.

The main text of the book ends with the first federal election where women voted, which happened on November 2, 1920. There is an Afterword telling about more work to be done, including a picture of the 2017 Women’s March.

The author and illustrator do an excellent job of boiling the story down to pertinent information. I’ve read several thicker books about women getting the vote, and I think this one presented the most information with the most clarity.

scbartoletti.com
ziyuechen.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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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.

What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of World of Glass, by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review 0

World of Glass

The Art of Dale Chihuly

by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2020. 60 pages.
Review written July 13, 2020, from a library book

World of Glass is a biography of artist Dale Chihuly, who works in glass. It’s longer than a picture book biography, but has large square pages that fit large photographs of the artist’s work on almost every page, making the book suitable for upper elementary through middle school.

I was interested in this artist because on the afternoon after the 2019 Newbery committee had made our choice and delivered our press release to the ALA office, but hadn’t announced our choice to the world yet, I was left to my own devices in Seattle. I rode the monorail to the Space Needle, as I could vaguely remember doing as a little girl. But at the grounds of the Space Needle, unlike when I was a little girl, I found the Chihuly Garden and Glass, where the glass sculptures of Dale Chihuly are featured. I spent a couple of hours browsing and was enchanted.

This book filled in details for me of the artist’s work. Even reading it more than a year after I saw the gallery, I now understand better what was being accomplished with the various forms made in glass. The book explains how he got his start and tells about various series of art pieces he has made.

Until I saw that museum, when I thought of an artist, I would never have thought of glass blowing. This book may expand kids’ ideas about art as well.

Dale has said that in order to get better at glassblowing, an aspiring artist must do it over and over again. “You’re making something that’s never been made before. It’s an ancient craft that someone invented two thousand years ago. Can you imagine blowing human breath down a blowpipe and getting a bubble and then heating it up in fire, using a couple of little tools and then making forms you can’t touch? All you have to do is blow glass once and you want to become a glassblower.

JanGreenburgSandraJordan.com
abramsyoungreaders.com

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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.

What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.