Review of Me, Frida, by Amy Novesky and David Diaz

Award Winners, Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Picture Book Review 1

Me, Frida

by Amy Novesky
illustrated by David Diaz

Abrams Books for Young Readers, New York, 2010. 32 pages.
2011 Pura Belpre Illustrator Honor Book

As appropriate for the story of an artist, this picture book biography is a work of art. David Diaz’s beautiful paintings are done in the style of Frida Kahlo and are simply beautiful to look at.

The story of the book tells about how Frida Kahlo got her start as an artist. She married her mentor, Diego Rivera, and very much felt herself in his shadow when they moved to San Francisco. But then she gained inspiration from the beautiful parts of the city and her memories of her home, and came into her own as an artist, with her own unique style.

This book tells a story of a woman working alongside someone she loves, rather than being content to stay in his shadow. It’s a lovely and inspiring book.

We have some fabulous picture book biographies in the library. I always think it’s a shame how hard they are for customers to find. A picture book biography is not necessarily a good source for a school report. It’s an inspiring story about someone amazing, told in simple terms and with accompanying pictures. I’d like to put picture book biographies in a place all their own, but will probably have to settle for doing a display now and then.

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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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Radioactive, by Lauren Redness

Biography, History, Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Radioactive

Marie & Pierre Curie

A Tale of Love and Fallout

by Lauren Redniss

!t Books (HarperCollins), 2011. 205 pages.
Starred Review

This book is amazing, and like no book I’ve ever read before. It’s a biography, a record of love and scientific discovery, but it’s also a work of art.

There are striking images on almost every page. The artist used cyanotype printing, which she explains in a note at the back.

“Using this process to create the images in this book made sense to me for a number of reasons. First, the negative of an image gives an impression of an internal light, a sense of glowing that I felt captured what Marie Curie called radium’s ‘spontaneous luminosity.’ Indeed, the light that radium emits is a cyan-like, faint blue. Second, because photographic imaging was central to the discovery both of X-rays and of radioactivity, it seemed fitting to use a process based on the idea of exposure. Last, I later learned, Prussian blue capsules are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a “safe and effective” treatment for internal contamination by radioactive cesium and radioactive thallium. (After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, cyanotype ingredients were spread on the grass in North Wales to safeguard grazing animals.)”

The story told in the book is also fascinating. She tells how Marie met Pierre Curie and their progress in science together. She tells about Pierre Curie’s tragic death and Marie’s life afterward and continued distinguished work. Throughout the story, she provides images and clips and stories about things that happened with radioactivity later, such as Hiroshima, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl.

I had no idea how radium was touted and marvelled over when it was first developed. The Curies did not patent their findings, but others were not so scrupulous.

“A fictitious Dr. Alfred Curie was hatched to shill Tho-Radia face cream. Radium-laced toothpaste, condoms, suppositories, chocolates, pillows, bath salts, and cigarettes were marketed as bestowers of longevity, virility, and an all-over salubrious flush.

“Radium was also touted as a replacement for electric lighting. Early electric light was both brilliant and blinding. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, ‘Such a light as this should shine only on murders and public crime, or along the corridors of lunatic asylums, a horror to heighten horror.’ Even after the development of softer, incandescent bulbs, some lamented that electric light would ‘never allow us to dream the dreams that the light of the living oil lamp conjured up.’ The fragile glow of radium, on the other hand, offered a retreat into forgiving shadows and candlelit intimacy. Radium let the wistful romantic pose as champion of scientific advance. A chemist named Sabin von Sochocky concocted a luminous goulash of radium and zinc sulphide, with dashes of lead, copper, uranium, manganese, thallium (a neurotoxin discovered by chemist and Spiritualist William Crookes), and arsenic, and sold it to the public as ‘Undark Paint.’ Undark was marketed for use on flashlights, doorbells, even ‘the buckles of bedroom slippers.’ ‘The time will doubtless come,’ von Sochocky declared, ‘when you will have in your own house a room lighted entirely by radium. The light thrown off by radium paint on walls and ceilings would in color and tone be like soft moonlight.'”

The story is fascinating and surprising. The images are stunning and memorable. This book is definitely not for children, but if it were, I would think this was a sure winner of the Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished picture book providing a visual experience. Spend a little time gazing at the pages of this book, and you will be amazed. Spend a little time reading the pages of this book, and you will be intrigued.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/radioactive.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.

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

Review of I Dreamed of Flying Like a Bird, by Robert B. Haas

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

I Dreamed of Flying Like a Bird

My Adventures Photographing Wild Animals from a Helicopter

by Robert B. Haas

National Geographic, Washington, DC, 2010. 64 pages.
Starred Review

This book is a delight to look at. Robert Haas is an aerial photographer. In this book, he tells the story of getting his stunning images — and he also includes the images.

He tells about his methods; it sounds much more difficult than I ever would have guessed. He usually flies with the door off the helicopter and not one, but two, safety harnesses. It’s very cold up there with the door off, so he wears many layers of clothes.

In this book, he focuses on some images that have a story behind them, like the time he saw a herd of African buffalos being hunted by lions. Another time, he found a bear in Alaska just coming out of its den from a winter’s hibernation. He also does amazing photography of sea creatures, and once the pilot almost lost control right over a large group of sharks.

My favorite image, though, is the one that goes with this description:

“One of the most beautiful sights from the air is a large flock of flamingos moving around in shallow water. The flock forms one shape after another and leaves different patterns as it sweeps across the water. One time off the coast of Mexico, I came across a large flock of flamingos that changed its shape every few seconds, and I kept shooting and shooting for a very long time. And then, when I was just about to leave, I noticed something that was simply unbelievable — the hundreds of flamingos in the flock had actually formed the shape of a flamingo! I was able to capture that shot, and it has become one of my best known photos.”

I’m taking a class on the Caldecott Medal, and we have been discussing whether a photographer will ever win for the most distinguished picture book. I hope last year’s committee gave this book consideration, since the images are truly stunning. This book will be enjoyed and marvelled over by children and adults alike.

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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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Me . . . Jane, by Patrick McDonnell

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

Me . . . Jane

by Patrick McDonnell

Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2011. 40 pages.
Starred Review

This is an exquisitely designed and perfectly crafted book. All the art and the words come together beautifully, with economy of word, to tell the childhood of a scientist.

Me . . . Jane tells of the childhood of Jane Goodall. The title refers to the fact that Jane loved the stories of Tarzan of the Apes, and dreamed of living in the jungles in Africa like the Jane in those books.

The book begins:

“Jane had a stuffed toy chimpanzee named Jubilee.

“She cherished Jubilee and took him everywhere she went. And Jane loved to be outside.”

Every single illustration that shows Jane as a child shows her with Jubilee. And then at the end, a photograph of Jane as an adult reaching out to a chimpanzee mirrors the illustrations of her as a child. But my favorite thing is the picture at the front of the book of a happy Jane as a girl, holding her stuffed chimpanzee. The illustrations, even though cartoons, are recognizably of the same girl and toy.

I appreciated the pictures even more when I got to the end of the book and saw a picture of baby Jane hugging the same toy chimpanzee. Only in the baby picture, the toy is fluffy and new. Looking back at the picture of an older Jane still proudly holding Jubilee, now I noticed that almost all the fur is worn off! Especially in the middle, where she’s holding it. I now truly believe that she did everything with Jubilee!

The story tells of a curious and observant little girl. She loved animals, and was patient enough to hide in the chicken coop and watch until she found out where eggs came from. She loved nature and read the Tarzan books sitting in her favorite tree.

The story is told simply, with just a sentence or two on each page. You could read this to very young children, but older children will find plenty of details to think about as well. The design is beautiful, with most pages of text decorated with “ornamental engravings from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,” across from an illustration of Jane and Jubilee in that part of the story. The note at the back says that the engravings “collectively evoke Jane’s lifelong passion for detailed, scientific observation of nature.” I think they succeed in that.

This book is magnificent because it tells a true story, and at the same time evokes the feeling of what was in this little girl that motivated her to become the famous scientist. The author doesn’t have to come out and tell you she was patient and observant and indeed had great attention to detail. You get all those things from the story.

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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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Amelia Lost, by Candace Fleming

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, History 0


Happy Independence Day! I’m posting this review today in honor of Nonfiction Monday, hosted today by Bookmuse.

Amelia Lost

The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

by Candace Fleming

Schwartz & Wade Books (Random House), New York, 2011. 118 pages.

I’ve been impressed with Candace Fleming’s exceptional ability to make biographies come alive ever since I read Ben Franklin’s Almanac. Reading The Lincolns only confirmed her brilliance.

Like those others, Amelia Lost makes good use of photographs and other supplementary materials to really give you a taste of what Amelia Earhart must have been like.

In this book, she weaves through the book stories from people in the continental United States who heard Amelia Earhart broadcasting while the search for her was going on. That helps us understand the tragedy behind this paragraph later in the book, as Amelia is preparing for her around-the-world flight attempt:

“She needed more practice with her radio equipment, too. Joseph Gurr, who had been hired to install the plane’s communication system, was eager for Amelia to learn how to use her radio and direction-finding equipment. He wanted to show her how to tune the receivers and how to operate the transmitters; to teach her correct radio procedures and help her understand what her radio system could and could not do. But every time Gurr begged her to come for a lesson, she put him off. She was too busy, she said. Her schedule was full. Finally — just weeks before her departure — she turned up at the airport hangar. Relieved, Gurr assumed he had all day to teach her everything about her radio. But after only an hour, Amelia left for an appointment. Gurr was stunned. ‘We never covered actual operations such as taking a bearing with the direction finder, [or] even contacting another radio station,’ he recalled. This very brief lesson was Amelia’s only formal instruction in the use of her communication system. And it would be her gravest mistake. Wrote one aviation expert, ‘The solution to Amelia’s future communication problems was right at her fingertips — if only she had understood how her radio worked.'”

This book was an interesting contrast to Chris Van Allsburg’s Queen of the Falls. Both books were biographies of women who, in the early 20th Century, sought fame and fortune through daredevil acts, and then telling about them on the lecture circuit. Amelia managed to achieve that fame and fortune, partly because she was young and good-looking, partly because she never rested on her laurels, but kept trying to top herself, and partly because she had a savvy publicist who eventually married her. But unfortunately, Amelia’s most lasting fame came from the trip where she didn’t return.

Another top-notch biography from Candace Fleming. This book is absorbing reading and extremely informative. I will be very happy to find it for the next child needing a biography “over 100 pages.” This is not one of those boring books written to help kids write a school report — but it has all the information they would need for a school report, and is presented in such a way that they are even sure to remember it.

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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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Queen of the Falls, by Chris Van Allsburg

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

Queen of the Falls

by Chris Van Allsburg

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010. 40 pages.
Starred Review

Chris Van Allsburg’s books have always amazed me. One of the first ones my husband and I were given was The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, and those pictures still fill me with wonder and a sense of something mysterious and magical. In fact, all of his books, and all of his pictures, convey that sense of mystery and magic.

What’s amazing is that he managed to convey that same feeling in a nonfiction book about a historical event. But perhaps it’s not completely surprising, since Niagara Falls certainly have wonder and majesty. Still, I don’t think every artist could convey it so well.

This book tells the story of sixty-two-year-old Annie Edison Taylor, who was the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. In fact, she was the first person to even have the crazy idea of going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. She hoped to make her fortune after doing this amazing act by traveling on the lecture circuit and showing the barrel.

The book shows the process she went through. There’s an awe-inspiring spread as Annie’s barrel hits the calm right before going over the edge. I wonder if it’s possible to read that page without your pulse quickening.

After her daredevil stunt, fame and fortune did not follow. A grandmother in her sixties didn’t look like a daredevil, and it turned out that the publicists she hired weren’t trustworthy.

Reading this book was an interesting contrast to another book I just read — Amelia Lost, by Candace Fleming, about Amelia Earhart. Amelia Earhart did achieve fame and fortune by doing daredevil stunts and then traveling on the lecture circuit. But Amelia was young and beautiful, and had an outstanding publicist who was also in love with her.

But Annie still achieved something amazing, and this book memorializes her story in a beautiful way.

I like what Annie tells a reporter at the close of this book, with the Falls spread out before them:

“That’s what everyone wonders when they see Niagara. How close will their courage let them get to it? Well, sir, you can’t get any closer than I got. You ask any person who’s stood here, looking out at those falls, what they thought of someone going over them in a barrel. Why, every last one would agree, it was the greatest feat ever performed.

“And I am content when I can say, ‘I am the one who did it.'”

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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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Biography, Nonfiction Review, Parenting, True Stories 0

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

by Amy Chua

The Penguin Press, New York, 2011. 235 pages.

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle reading this book. Here in Northern Virginia, there are so many Tiger parents pushing their kids, and I had a feeling I’d feel sorry for the kids. Either that, or I’d be filled with guilt that I hadn’t been more of a Tiger Mom and ended up with prodigy children.

But Amy Chua handles the delicate topic with grace and humor. Although she acknowledges that there are stereotypes involved here and every single Chinese mother is not one way and every single American mother the other way, she does point out that the culture in which she was raised was completely different than typical American parenting culture.

“There are all these new books out there portraying Asian mothers as scheming, callous, overdriven people indifferent to their kids’ true interests. For their part, many Chinese secretly believe that they care more about their children and are willing to sacrifice much more for them than Westerners, who seem perfectly content to let their children turn out badly. I think it’s a misunderstanding on both sides. All decent parents want to do what’s best for their children. The Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that.”

However, she also uses the book to show that, no matter how strong your convictions about parenting, every child is different, and what works for one may not work for another. We all make mistakes, and the important thing is to do your best.

And nothing shows you your own weaknesses and misconceptions like being a mother.

Amy Chua tells a good story, too. She tells of her noble quest to sacrifice to raise perfect children, and the obstacles and drama along the way. I found myself a fascinated by how well it was working out with her prodigy children, though she definitely shows her own defeats. And, what do you know, the girls did not turn out to need years of expensive therapy.

“All the same, even when Western parents think they’re being strict, they usually don’t come close to being Chinese mothers. For example, my Western friends who consider themselves strict make their children practice their instruments thirty minutes every day. An hour at most. For a Chinese mother, the first hour is the easy part. It’s hours two and three that get tough.”

And this Tiger Mother believed her way was definitely best:

“As I watched American parents slathering praise on their kids for the lowest of tasks — drawing a squiggle or waving a stick — I came to see that Chinese parents have two things over their Western counterparts: (1) higher dreams for their children, and (2) higher regard for their children in the sense of knowing how much they can take.”

All in all, this book made me feel much less judgmental of the overachieving parents I see come into the library. And other people who don’t parent the way I do. The fact is, everybody can think they have the one right way to parent, but there are strengths and weaknesses with every approach, and every child is different. In Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, you can read along as Amy Chua learns that lesson.

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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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of All the Way to America, by Dan Yaccarino

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

All the Way to America

The Story of a Big Italian Family
and a Little Shovel

by Dan Yaccarino

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2011. 36 pages.
Starred Review

This is a picture book biography, but it’s not a book kids will use for school reports, so I feel a little sad that it will be shelved with the biographies rather than the picture books. First and foremost, this book tells an engaging story. It’s a story simple enough for preschoolers or young elementary school students to have read to them or to read themselves. That the story is true is an exciting bonus, which I’m sure will fascinate young readers.

In this book, Dan Yaccarino tells about how his great-grandfather Michele Iaccarino came to America all the way from Sorrento, Italy. His bright and distinctive illustrations add to this tale of family, food, and adventure.

“And so when he was a young man, Michele left Italy and went all the way to America in search of new opportunities.

“‘Work hard,’ his father told him, handing him the little shovel.

“‘But remember to enjoy life.’

“‘And never forget your family,’ his mother said. She hugged him and gave him their few family photographs and her recipe for tomato sauce.”

Each generation has a new use for the little shovel. And each generation, the family got larger. Each generation, they found uses for the traditional tomato sauce.

To emphasize that this is a true story, the author poses on the back cover flap with the actual little shovel his great-grandfather brought to America.

This would make a great addition to a storytime about family. It gives you a nice warm feeling of family traditions and good food.

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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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Little Princes, by Conor Grennan

Biography, Cross Cultural, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Little Princes

One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal

by Conor Grennan

read by the author

Books on Tape, 2010. 8 CDs.
Starred Review

I was happy when I learned that Little Princes is the 2011 choice for All Fairfax Reads. I was captivated by the audiobook version and found myself listening as eagerly as to a novel.

I do like that the author doesn’t try to glamorize what he set out to do. He freely admits that he was planning to spend a year traveling around the world, and he decided to volunteer to help at an orphanage in Nepal to make himself sound less selfish. He didn’t know anything about taking care of children. When he meets them, they literally pile on top of him, and from there, you can hear in his voice how the children win him over.

I especially enjoyed hearing the author tell the story himself. That way, you know the names are being pronounced correctly, for one thing! He tells how he didn’t have the heart to tell the children he would never come back, and so a promise to them got him to return. Then he found out that these “orphans” were not actually orphans. That child traffickers told families in remote villages that for a steep fee they would protect their children from being conscripted as soldiers and give them an education and opportunities. Instead, the children are sold or abandoned in Kathmandu.

It began with seven children that Conor and his co-worker almost rescued. When they learned that those children had been lost, he had to come back to Nepal to try to find them. And along the way, he began a mission to find the children’s families.

The story is beautiful and compelling. Above all, it’s about bringing hope and joy to children, children who are like any other children in the world, playful and loving and deserving of a wonderful future.

I enjoyed the audiobook very much, but I did check out a copy of the print version in order to see pictures of the children, whom I felt I had come to know. A map in the front is also helpful.

www.nextgenerationnepal.org
www.harpercollins.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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of The Day-Glo Brothers, by Chris Barton

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, History 0

The Day-Glo Brothers

The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors

by Chris Barton
illustrated by Tony Persiani

Charlesbridge, 2009. 44 pages.
2010 Sibert Honor Book

Here’s a picture book biography that will engage the reader. It’s accessible and interesting for kids, but also offers information that adults will find interesting.

The brothers Bob and Joe Switzer had plans to be a medical doctor and a magician. But when Bob was laid up after an accident, the two brothers were playing and experimenting with ultraviolet light. One of the chemicals in their dad’s drugstore gave off a yellow glow.

“That glow lit up the Switzers’ imaginations. They brought home lots of books from the library and began learning how to use different chemicals to make glow-in-the-dark paints. In regular light they looked plain, but under the ultraviolet light they radiated bright, attention getting colors.

“Bob thought they could use the paint for more than just Joe’s magic act. They could sell it for use in store-window displays and make a little money to help cover Bob’s medical bills.”

Their fluorescent paint was indeed a big hit, and found many popular uses. But their business really took off when they discovered a way to make the colors glow even in the daylight.

The pictures in this book magnificently illustrate the story. A retro, cartoony style is used throughout. At the start, the pictures of their early life are done in black and white. When they invent the fluorescent paint that glows in the dark, that’s done with light fluorescent colors. Then, after they develop the Day-Glo colors, entire pages are covered with the eye-popping colors.

The book tells the many ways their product ended up being used, including on safety equipment during the war. I like the author’s summing up:

“When they were growing up, Bob and Joe Switzer wanted different things. Bob wanted to make his fortune by becoming a doctor, and Joe wanted to make his mark on the world through magic. At first it may seem that neither brother ended up where he wanted to be. But in that darkened basement, the Switzer brothers began to look at the world in a different light.

“One brother wanted to save lives. The other brother wanted to dazzle crowds. With Day-Glo, they did both.”

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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 a book purchased at ALA and signed by the author.