Review of Dissenter on the Bench, by Victoria Ortiz

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review 0

Dissenter on the Bench

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Life and Work

by Victoria Ortiz

Clarion Books (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), 2019. 199 pages.
Review written June 3, 2020, from a library book
2020 Sidney Taylor Book Award Young Adult Honor

This book is a biography of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg written for kids approximately ages 10 to 14.

Each chapter begins with an important case that Justice Ginsburg ruled on, either with the majority, or writing the dissent. I like the way this book was presented for kids by using cases that affected kids at the start of the book.

The first story told in the first chapter is about Savana Lee Redding, who was subjected to a strip search for drugs at her school when she was thirteen years old. When her case went before the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the only woman on the bench. The chapter ends by talking about Savana winning her case.

We can safely assume that when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg strongly urged her male colleagues to step out of their shoes and into Savana’s she tapped in to both her own experiences as a young girl and her long-held beliefs about justice and fairness. About her fellow justices, she said straightforwardly: “They have never been a thirteen-year-old girl. I don’t think my colleagues, some of them, quite understand.” Fortunately for Savana and for all schoolchildren from then on, Justice Ginsburg had persuaded all but one of the other justices to decide the case in Savana’s favor.

In the middle of the chapter, the book tells about Ruth Bader as a small child. And that’s how the book continues, telling about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life, but framed by cases she later heard. We do see from that a very clear trend that there should be equity for all. She worked for the ACLU for many years, and took cases of gender discrimination not only for women but also for men who weren’t treated fairly (such as a man not getting social security benefits after his wife died that she would have gotten if it had been the other way around).

At times, that did make the timeline of her life a little bit confusing, since they were skipping ahead in her life with the cases. There was a little bit of repetition in all that skipping, too. But overall it’s a nice solid portrayal of an important figure who has spent her life speaking out against unfairness. And the kid-friendly cases presented will catch kids’ interest and get them thinking about what rights they do have in America under the Constitution.

hmhbooks.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 First Dinosaur, by Ian Lendler

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

The First Dinosaur

How Science Solved the Greatest Mystery on Earth

by Ian Lendler

Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon & Schuster), 2019. 220 pages.
Review written May 29, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

The First Dinosaur told all about the discovery and study of dinosaurs – how scientists finally figured out that giant creatures like nothing they’d ever seen before even existed. I had no idea the large number of people and long sequence of discoveries it took.

The main part of the book begins in 1676 in Oxfordshire, England, when a man named Dr. Plot discovered a large fossilized bone.

Humans have been wondering over fossils for thousands of years, but the reason this book starts with this particular fossil is because of what Dr. Plot did next.

He examined it closely. He measured and described it in detail (weight, size, composition). He even illustrated it . . . and then he recorded all this information in a book.

Plot may not have understood fossils, but because of this record we are able to look back and identify what it truly was – the thighbone of a megalosaur.

Plot had created the first scientific illustration and description of a dinosaur bone.

He didn’t come up with this idea on his own. It was one of the fundamental techniques of a new method of thinking that was spreading all over Europe at the time. Its name was Science, and it was the key to unraveling the mystery of “the formed stones.”

The book continues from there, talking about how fossil collections became popular, and eventually museums. Then people began to look more closely at these fossils they discovered. But through it all, a big obstacle was the idea that creatures might have lived long ago that are not alive on earth today.

There were many colorful figures involved in the new science of geology and eventually in paleontology. I like the story of William Buckland looking after a hyena to discover that they tore apart bones exactly the way that bones in a cave were torn apart – and their poo is shaped the same way as some strange rocks in the same cave.

I was surprised how many people it took to finally realize these bones belonged to a species not identified before, and to give them the name dinosaurs — and that was as recent as 1842.

The book finishes up by showing how dinosaurs captured the popular imagination with the Crystal Palace Exhibition and giant dinosaur replicas created by Waterhouse Hawkins.

This fascinating book gives a window into how science works and how sometimes visionaries have to think beyond what they’ve been taught. It also gives credit to those who changed their minds when the evidence showed them they were wrong.

simonandschuster.com/kids

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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 Cast Away, by Naomi Shihab Nye

Children's Nonfiction Review, Poetry, Starred Review 0

Cast Away

Poems for Our Time

by Naomi Shihab Nye

Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins), 2020. 159 pages.
Starred Review
Review written March 6, 2020, from a library book

This is a book of poems about trash. And I was surprised, but it made me want to write poems about trash, too. In fact, I will never look at things thrown by the side of the road the same way.

In the Introduction, Naomi Shihab Nye writes about her compulsion to pick up trash. She makes a habit of going out and cleaning up her spaces. And other spaces in her neighborhood. And even spaces where she visits.

And then she writes poems about it. Here are a few short ones.

Two

Two white buttons
not matching
in hot white gravel
dreaming of
shirts

Junk Mail

The great poet
William Stanley Merwin
known as W. S.
wrote first drafts of his poems
on junk mail envelopes
plucked from the garbage
so he never had to worry
about wasting paper
or being perfect

Most of the poems are longer than these. And most either make you smile or make you think.

I enjoyed this book, reading several poems per day. I will not look at things thrown out the same way again. I’m even thinking maybe it’s time to pick up some of the detritus on the edges of my local lake.

My favorite part of the book, though, is at the back, called “Ideas for Writing, Recycling, Reclaiming.” After reading all the poems about things thrown away, I was ready for ideas about getting out and cleaning up – and then writing about it. Here’s the second idea listed, after the first idea of ways to equip yourself to get out and pick up trash:

Write about what you find. You learn a lot about human nature while doing this. Why do people throw certain things away? What do these leavings tell you about your neighbors? Imagine the litterer. Create a character study from everything you find on one day, as if it all came from one person. Or write a story including 5-10 of the items you find.

Further ideas involve ways of including other people as well as further writing prompts. I also like this one: “Write a letter to a particular piece of trash.”

The final paragraph of this section is something she’s shown to be true with the entire book:

It’s never too late to make things better. Understanding them more might help.

harpercollinschildrens.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 Animal Albums from A to Z, by Cece Bell

Children's Nonfiction Review, Poetry, Starred Review 0

Animal Albums

from A to Z

by Cece Bell

Walker Books, 2024. 72 pages.
Review written April 23, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is seriously the silliest serious silly children’s book I have seen in a long long time.

And oh my goodness — that’s what I thought before I found the QR code leading to the YouTube channel featuring performances of all the songs. (Oh wait. It looks like only four of the songs are up when I’m writing this. But I hope more will come.)

The book is played completely straight. We’ve got an intro at the front that the author is sharing her obsession with us. That page is just too good – so let me share how it begins:

I love finding and acquiring old albums, especially those created by animal musicians. The “animal albums” in my treasured collection reflect the visionary work of several small human-run recording studios whose mission was to elevate and promote musical talents of all kinds. From the 1940s to the 1980s, these albums proved somewhat popular and profitable, with the animal musicians themselves experiencing varying degrees of success.

However, my research reveals that these albums were never easy for the studios to produce. The communication difficulties between humans and animals during the recording sessions were a constant challenge; the volatile disagreements regarding proper toileting procedures could not have helped, either. By the early 1980s these difficulties, coupled with a waning interest from audiences, both human and animal, signaled the beginning of the end of an extraordinary time in the history of music.

In this book, Cece Bell shares 26 gems from her supposed collection, including beautiful album cover art, with the lyrics to one of the songs printed out on the facing page. I couldn’t resist sharing this book with my coworkers, and more knowledgeable than me about album cover art, they’re pretty sure most of them reference classic albums.

Some of the albums are “Blame It on the Baloney” from the Barbershop Beagles, “A Little Lounge Music” from Leo Lionel, and Tubby Tapir’s “Let’s Twist Tomorrow and Tuesday Too.” The lyrics are completely silly in their seriousness. Here’s a bit from The One and Only Olga the Ostrich of Opera singing “The Oysters Are a Little Off”:

The oysters are a little off my love
There’s mold upon the bread
Let’s postpone the party
Let’s watch TV instead

The oysters are a little off my love
The house, a total mess
Our party days are numbered
Don’t cry, I must confess

It is I who left the oysters out
It is I who let them rot
A party wasn’t in the cards
My dear, it just was not

Or from Ivanna the Iguana, “I Am an Inspiration to Me”:

You might think
You’re as lovely as me
But we both know that’s simply a lie —
My skin is the best
My hair’s even better
The pink of my lips makes me sigh!

REFRAIN
I’m an inspiration to me, to me
I’m an inspiration to me!
I do everything perfectly —
I’m an inspiration to me.

As if all this weren’t enough, at the back there are bios of all 26 performing groups. My favorites are N and Y:

Nose flautist Natalia Numbat is beloved worldwide for mystical soundscapes that evoke the tinkling of mountain streams and the flushing of porcelain toilets. Numbat got her start touring with her siblings, the Numbat Nine. She left the group in 1982, stating, “My siblings couldn’t appreciate the subtle nuances that my nose fluting brought to the music.” Her song “Next November (I’ll Be Normal)” addresses that familial fissure.

Despite having no musical talent, siblings Yvette and Yohan Yak were pressured by their mother, Yolanda, to perform a yodeling act throughout the Carolinas in the early 1970s. Neither sibling was able to play the alphorn that Yolanda had ordered from a Sears catalog; what you hear on Yodelay-Yoo-Hoo was lifted (illegally) from Heilwig Schweizer’s instructional recording “The Alphorn and You.”

My first reaction was not being sure who this is for. Will kids get any of the references? But then I reflected that I have a stunted musical education and don’t get any of the references (just know enough to be pretty sure there are lots of references) — and I’m completely delighted with the cleverness and ingenuity and just plain silliness. And all that before I found the YouTube channel. I’m sure there are kids out there who will be delighted, too.

The fact that this book exists makes the world a better, and sillier, place.

YouTube channel
walkerbooksus.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 Drawing on Walls, by Matthew Burgess, pictures by Josh Cochran

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Drawing on Walls

A Story of Keith Haring

by Matthew Burgess

pictures by Josh Cochran

Enchanted Lion Books, 2020. 60 pages.
Review written October 3, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

This extra-large picture book biography of Keith Haring is exuberant and joyful – like the subject’s work.

It emphasizes how much Keith related to children and how much he valued the reactions of people to his work. The book begins with action:

Here is Keith Haring painting a mural with hundreds of children in Tama City, Japan.

Keith draws the outlines and the kids fill them in with their own designs.

It goes on to tell about his childhood and drawing together with his dad. Even when he was young, his art spilled out and all over the place.

Different phases of his life are told about with bright and colorful pictures. We see him ignoring boundaries and following his dreams. The book nicely communicates what was important to Keith in a few sentences and episodes like these:

Keith especially liked painting on the floor by the open door where the sunlight poured in.
People passing on the street would stop to watch or talk with him about what he was making. Keith loved it!…

One day in the subway, Keith noticed blank panels where advertisements used to be.
Suddenly, he zipped up to the street, bought a box of white chalk, dashed back downstairs…
and began drawing on the walls.

People paused as they rushed from here to there.
For Keith, this was what art was all about – the moment when people see it and respond.

Maybe it makes them smile,
maybe it makes them think,
maybe it inspires them to draw
or dance or write or sing.

This is a lovely celebration of an artist who painted with joy.

enchantedlion.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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*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 Butt or Face? Revenge of the Butts, by Kari Lavelle

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 0

Butt or Face?

Revenge of the Butts

Can You Tell Which End You’re Looking At?

by Kari Lavelle

Sourcebooks eXplore, 2024. 48 pages.
Review written April 19, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

They’re back! The wildly popular kid-pleaser Butt or Face? has a sequel!

Kari Lavelle didn’t change the winning format. You’ve got close-up photographs of an unusual creature’s front end or back end. And the question is posed:

Is it a BUTT or a FACE?

Turn the page for the reveal, where you see the full animal, including how the part you’ve already seen fits into the whole. Pertinent facts are displayed about the animal and how it’s particular butt or face helps it live its life (if this is known).

The animals featured in this book include such goodies as a warty frogfish, a dugong, an axolotl, and an alien butt spider.

I like the Author’s Note at the back that tells us the author got the idea when she read about farmers in Botswana painting eyes on the behinds of cattle to scare away lions.

These books are a fantastic way for your child to pick up trivia about wild animals and have giggling fun while they’re doing it. Who could ask for anything more?

karilavelle.com
sourcebookskids.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/revenge_of_the_butts.html

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 Harlem Grown, by Tony Hillery, illustrated by Jessie Hartland

Children's Nonfiction Review, History 0

Harlem Grown

How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood

by Tony Hillery
illustrated by Jessie Hartland

Paula Wiseman Books (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), 2020. 36 pages.
Review written October 7, 2020, from a library book

Harlem Grown is a simple picture book about a community farm in the center of Harlem. It’s a true story, and written by the creator of the farm. However, the picture book text focuses on a young girl who attended the elementary school across the street from the vacant lot where the kids got to start the farm.

Nevaeh called it the haunted garden. It was cluttered with wrecked couches, old TVs, broken bottles, and empty cans.

The picture book takes us through the process of cleaning up the lot, and then the kids in the school being shown how to put seedlings into the ground. We’re even told that the first planting didn’t do well, so the sponsor, Mr. Tony, built raised beds for the plants.

The kids took their green beans and carrots and cucumbers home to their families for dinner.

A note at the back, with a photograph, explains that the neighborhood where the first Harlem Grown farm was created was also a neighborhood with no stores where you could purchase healthy food. Now there are twelve urban farms across Harlem that grow thousands of pounds of food, given back to the community free of charge. So they provide food for the community as well as giving the children a chance to tend living things.

I realized that many of these students growing up in the concrete jungle didn’t know where a tomato came from until they were introduced to Harlem Grown’s farms. Now, they happily eat fresh vegetables because they’re proud to have grown them themselves.

So besides being a nice picture book story, it’s also an inspirational true story of kids helping to make the world a better place.

harlemgrown.org
simonandschuster.com/kids

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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.

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 Little Larry Goes to School, by Gerry Ellis with Mary Rand Hess

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science 0

Little Larry Goes to School

The True Story of a Timid Chimpanzee Who Learned to Reach New Heights

by Gerry Ellis
with Mary Rand Hess

National Geographic Kids, 2019. 32 pages.
Review written October 7, 2020, from a library book

Here’s a sweet picture book, beautifully illustrated with photographs, about an orphaned chimpanzee baby who was afraid to climb trees.

It’s all a true story and they took plenty of heart-warming photos along the way. Little Larry suffered an accident that injured him and left him an orphan when he was only a few days old (and that’s all the detail they give about the accident). So human caregivers at a sanctuary in Africa cared for him and nursed him back to health.

Little Larry had to learn how to live with other chimpanzees in the forest of the sanctuary. This book shows the process he went through, with plenty of cute photos of Little Larry.

Little Larry’s new chimp companions had fun jumping and climbing in the trees, but Little Larry preferred the forest floor. The book shows the slow process Little Larry went through to overcome his fear and learn to climb with the others.

There’s fun information at the back, including a page “Speak like Little Larry” that shows three of the sounds Larry makes – the Food Grunt, the Play Face, and the Pant-Hoot – what they mean, and how to imitate him.

This book is visually so interesting, if I ever get to booktalk in the schools again, it will be an easy winner. The message of overcoming your fears – even if you’re a chimp – is inspiring as well.

natgeokids.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.

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 Our Subway Baby, by Peter Mercurio, illustrated by Leo Espinosa

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

Our Subway Baby

The True Story of How One Baby Found His Home

by Peter Mercurio
illustrated by Leo Espinosa

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2020. 36 pages.
Review written October 7, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

This true picture book story makes me a little teary. It tells about how the author’s partner found a baby in a subway in 2002. The book is addressed to the child, and is a sweet story without being cloying.

It was a cool August night in New York, and Danny was riding the subway home. On his way out of the station, he saw something tucked away in the corner. At first it looked like a doll. But it wasn’t.

It was you.

You were only a few hours old, wrapped up in a sweatshirt. Danny brushed your cheek. You wiggled your arms and legs.

For a moment time stopped. But then Danny jumped to action. He called the police. And then he called me.

The story tells how the two of them fell for the baby instantly and worried about him. With the help of a friendly judge, despite difficulties at that time for two dads to adopt, Danny and Peter got to adopt the subway baby.

The book shows their worries about so suddenly becoming parents, but how the baby captivated them, and how the new family of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. helped them get everything they needed.

The Author’s Note at the back has photos and tells us that in 2012, it was Kevin’s idea to ask the same judge who facilitated his adoption to perform his dads’ marriage.

Just a lovely and sweet story, simply told. I like the way the text doesn’t make a big deal of two dads adopting but focuses on the love between the three of them that made a family. The pictures of the baby are adorably cute, too!

penguin.com/kids

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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.

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 The Spirit of Springer, by Amanda Abler, illustrated by Levi Hastings

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 0

The Spirit of Springer

the Real-Life Rescue of an Orphaned Orca

by Amanda Abler
illustrated by Levi Hastings

Little Bigfoot (Sasquatch Books), 2020. 52 pages.
Review written July 27, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

The Spirit of Springer is in picture-book format, but it tells a sophisticated story of an orphaned baby orca who had traveled hundreds of miles from her pod and was rescued by scientists.

In 2002, a little orca on her own was discovered in Puget Sound, near Seattle. First, it took scientists to figure out where she belonged and which pod she had come from. Using her calls as well as other data, they determined that she was three hundred miles away from her family and that she was an orca who had been named Springer.

She was also in poor health and was not doing well on her own. The scientists also established that her mother was dead, but they needed to figure out how to get her back to her family.

This book tells about that endeavor, which was ultimately successful. It uses the perspective of two scientists who worked on the project, with notes in the back about many more people who were involved, along with more details about the pod where Springer belonged.

I expected a light-hearted, shallow story about saving an orca when I saw the cover. What I got was a detailed and inspiring story of the best efforts of humans to bring a little creature back to her family.

I thought it was especially fascinating how much is known about orca sounds and dialects. They know enough to be able to determine this when Springer was brought back to the waters of her family (in a holding pen until scientists were sure she was ready for release).

For a moment, Springer fell silent. This was the first time she had heard another orca calling in her dialect in over a year. She was so excited she could only make nonsense whale sounds, just like someone might scream, “Ahhh!” when surprised at a birthday party.

Besides giving so many scientific details, this book also is written with heart. You come to love Springer and cheer at the happy outcome.

SasquatchBooks.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.

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!