The Nonfiction Detectives

Monday, July 2, 2018

As Seen at ALA Annual (Part 1)

Part One

We are back from the 2018 American Library Association Annual Conference. This year we traveled to New Orleans where we sampled lots of amazing food including pastries at Le Croissant d'Or on Ursulines Street. While we were at the conference, we both spent time looking for interesting nonfiction titles for kids. Here are some 2018 nonfiction books that caught our attention in the exhibits and at publisher preview events. Thanks to all of the publishers who took time to talk about upcoming titles, provided us with review copies and invited us to book previews.

Cathy and Louise

Bonnie and Clyde: The Making of a Legend

by Karen Blumenthal

Viking Children's Books

Release Date: August 1

Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad

by Ann Petry

Harper Collins

Release Date: September 4

Sea Creatures

by Seymour Simon

Harper Collins

Release Date: June 26

Everything & Everywhere

by Marc Martin

Chronicle Books

Release Date: October 9

Lights! Camera! Alice!

by Mara Rockliff

Chronicle Books

Release Date: September 4

Never Too Young!: 50 Unstoppable Kids Who Made a Difference

by Aileen Weintraub

Sterling Children's Books

Release Date: September 4

Heroes of Dunkirk

by Lisa L. Owens

Lerner

Release Date: August 1

Pandemic: How Climate, the Environment, and Superbugs Increase the Risk

by Connie Goldsmith

Twenty-First Century Books

Release Date: August 1

Eavesdropping on Elephants

by Patricia Newman

Millbrook Press

Release Date: August 1

The Great Rhino Rescue

by Sandra Markle

Millbrook Press

Release Date: August 1

The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just

by Melina Mangal

Millbrook Press

Release Date: November 1

Thirty Minutes Over Oregon

by Marc Tyler Nobleman

Clarion Books

Release Date: October 9

The Orca Scientists

by Kim Perez Valice

HMH Books for Young Readers

Release Date: July 24

Girls Think of Everything

by Catherine Thimmesh

HMH Books for Young Readers

Release date: October 9

New edition with updated content!

Backyard Bears

by Amy Cherrix

HMH Books for Young Readers

Release Date: October 23

The Strange True Tale of Frankensteins's Creator Mary Shelley

by Catherine Reef

Clarion Books

Release Date: September 18

The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees

by Don Brown

HMH Books for Young Readers

Release Date: September 18

Unpunished Murder: Massacre at Colfax and the Quest for Justice

by Lawrence Goldstone

Scholastic Focus (new imprint)

Release Date: August 28

The Grand Escape

by Neal Bascomb

Scholastic Focus (new imprint)

Release Date: September 25

Blacklisted!

by Larry Dane Brimmer

Calkins Creek

Release Date: October 9

Spooked!: How Radio Sparked the 1938 Invasion of America

by Gail Jarrow

Calkins Creek

Release Date: August 7

So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth's Long Walk to Freedom

by Gary D. Schmidt

Roaring Brook Press

Release Date: September 25

Spring After Spring: How Rachel Carson Inspired the Environmental Movement

by Stephanie Roth Sisson

Roaring Brook Press

Release Date: August 14

Attucks!: Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team That Awakened a City

by Phillip House

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Release Date: October 23

Undocumented: A Worker's Fight

by Duncan Tonatiuh

Abrams ComicArts

Release Date: August 7

Pipsqueaks, Slowpokes and Stinkers: Celebrating Animal Underdogs

by Melissa Stewart

Peachtree Publishers

Release Date: September 1

Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote

by Kirsten Gillibrand

Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers

Release Date: November 13

Check back on Thursday for Part Two of our #alaac18 nonfiction sightings!

Thursday, June 28, 2018

A Glorious Freedom by Lisa Congdon

A Glorious Freedom: Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives

by Lisa Congdon

Chronicle Books. 2017

ISBN: 9781452156200

It is really hard to be over 55 in our youth oriented society. Adjectives used to describe older people, mostly women, include outdated, irrelevant, unimportant. You become invisible. When reading children & teen fiction, more and more, or maybe I’m just noticing it more, older women are portrayed as silly, bothersome, out-of-touch, creepy, and often described as ugly because of gray hair and/or wrinkles.

In, A Glorious Freedom. Lisa Congdon celebrates women over the age of 40. “You might ask, Why make this book? Why are the lives of older women worth celebrating?” Because, getting older is liberating. One becomes less self-centered, more aware of the needs of those around you. You are more hardworking, determined, creative, willing to take risks.

The book is a combination of profiles of well-known women, along with brief essays and question & answers with current women who found a more fulfilling path to their lives upon turning 40.

The profiles include writers, scientists, activists, both living and deceased who did not let age or gender discrimination stop them from doing what they were passionate about. Described as late bloomers, these women began their careers after turning 40. Included are: Beatrice Wood, Vera Wang, Louise Bourgeois, Sensei Keiko Fukuda, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Minnie Pwerle, Julia Child, Mary Delany, Sister Madonna Buder, Carmen Herrera, Helen Gurley Brown, Angela Morely, Eva Zeisel, Anna Arnold Hedgeman, Grandma Moses, Katherine Johnson, and Marguerite Duras.

In the introduction, Congdon explains that the idea for this book came after she posted an essay on her blog about how getting older changed her life in a positive way. Receiving an overwhelming response, she asked followers who considered themselves late bloomers to submit essays about the process of aging, their relationship to aging, the struggles, the triumphs.” She was astounded by the response.

Congdon is an illustrator and fine artist. Her black & white portraits accompanies each profile. Quotes from famous women (We turn not older with years, but newer every day. Emily Dickinson) in bold, hand drawn letters and her playful, colorful signature style art is scattered throughout the book.

There is a bibliography, credits for quotes as back matter.

A Glorious Freedom is a wonderful celebration of women and aging. It helps redefine what it means to grow older. When shared with students from middle school up, or given to parents with children in that age range, is a hopeful reminder that women get better with time. Growing older is natural and we can make it whatever we want it to look like.

Watch a brief book promo by clicking here.

Go here to see interior shots of the book.

I borrowed this book from my local public library to write this review.

Monday, June 25, 2018

Hawk Rising Blog Tour

Hawk Rising

by Marian Gianferrari
illustrated by Brian Floca

Roaring Brook Press, 2018

ISBN: 9781626720961

All ages

Today we are taking part in the Hawk Rising Blog Tour.

Like she did in Coyote Moon, Gianferrari newest informational picture book offers younger readers a glimpse in a day in the life of a Red-Tail Hawk. The blend of poetic text and Floca’s realistic, watercolor illustrations make for a perfect pairing.

The book opens at daybreak, just as the first rays of sun are pinking the sky. “Father Hawk perch-hunts from a pole, silhouetted, as sunbeams scratch the sky. Red streaks spread. Black talons curving into wood. Hooked beak, sharp as a knife. Head turning. Eyes searching. Chicks waiting.” Will he catch the chipmunk? The sparrows as they flit in the bushes? Or maybe the squirrel?

Watching the hawk throughout the day is a mother and child. As the day ends, and Father Hawk finally has success with catching food, he flies off into the “navy-blue sky.” “Back in the nest he lands. Chicks screech and jostle, beaks wide open, no longer waiting. You yawning. Through the night, safe in your nests, you and the hawk family sleep…”

Atmospheric. Enlightening. Engaging.

Gianferrari includes facts about the Red-Tailed Hawk, books for viewing reading, and websites to learn more.

To write this review, we were given Advanced Readers Copies by the publisher.

Cathy and Louise

Thursday, June 21, 2018

#alaac18 in NOLA!

Cathy and I are headed to New Orleans for the American Library Association's (ALA) Annual Conference. It is quite the experience: educational, exhilarating, overly stimulating, exhausting, but, mostly, just plain fun. A chance to get recharged about being a librarian, hang out with colleagues, talk with publishers about upcoming titles, rub shoulders with authors, and, best of all, meet up with friends who also blog about books (Alyson Beecher/Kid Lit Frenzy), Mary Ann Scheuer/Great Kid Books, Travis Jonkers/100 Scope Notes).

To get in the spirit of this grand adventure, we are listing a few titles that have a connection to New Orleans. That way, if you are not joining the thousands of librarians in the city of music, you can at least experience the weekend thru books. Personally, I can't wait to take a walk through the French Quarter. Music is everywhere in this friendly city.

Born to Swing: Lil Hardin Armstrong's Life in Jazz

Written by Mara Rockliff; Illustrated by Michele Wood

Calkins Creek, 2018

Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans (Graphic Novel)

by Dan Brown

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2017

Freedom in Congo Square

by Carole Boston Weatherford; Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

little bee books. 2016

Just a Lucky So and So: the story of Louis Armstrong

by Lesa Cline-Ransome

Holiday House. 2016

Molly the Pony: a true story

by Pam Kaster

Louisiana State University Press. 2008

Trombone Shorty

by Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews; Illustrated by Bryan Collier

Abrams. 2015

On Friday, June 22, Cathy and I will be in the audience listening to Michelle Obama,

the Opening General Session speaker on Friday, June 22

Who Is Michelle Obama?

by Megan Stine; Illustrated by John O'Brien

Scholastic. 2013

We will be sure to post new nonfiction sightings once we get back home.

Happy summer!

Monday, June 18, 2018

The Hyena Scientist

The Hyena Scientist

by Sy Montgomery
photos by Nic Bishop
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018
Grades 4 and up

The reviewer checked out a copy of the book from the public library.

Sibert Medal winners Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop traveled to Kenya for their latest book in the Scientists in the Field series. This time the focus is a misunderstood mammal: the hyena.

Montgomery eloquently describes the behaviors, sounds, and habitat of hyenas. The descriptive narrative text will pull in readers on the first page as the author dispels myths associated with hyenas.

"At the den, the fluffy spotted babies play like puppies, dashing and lunging, wrestling and spinning. Tiny infants, still coal black lacking their spots sit on opposite sides of a patient, older cub- each chewing gently on an ear of their tolerant sibling" (p. 1).

The book highlights the work of zoologist, Kay Holekamp and her team of researchers and assistants, as they track and observe hyenas in Masi Mara, Kenya. Bishop's stunning photographs capture hyenas in the wild and shows scientists as they weigh, measure and collect blood samples from hyenas. By embedding themselves with the research team, Bishop and Montgomery offer readers a first hand account of Holkamp's work and the important role hyenas play in the food chain. Readers will also learn how challenging it can be for scientists in remote locations to prepare food, shower and use the toilet. Despite the challenges, Holekamp and her team are enthusiastic about their mission to understand more about the complex mammal, the hyena.

Be sure to add The Hyena Scientist to your next book order. Read an excerpt from the first chapter on Sy Montgomery's site.