Lightship

Author & Illustrator:   Brian Floca
Publisher:  Anthenum
Publication Year:   2007
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Sibert Honor Book, Booklist’s Top Picture Book, Cybil Award for Best Nonfiction Picture Book, ALA Notable, Junior Library Guild Premier
 
Summary:  This is a tribute to the lightships that were anchored to warn ships away from hazards in the ocean. It introduces the crew and the jobs that they each do. The off kilter illustrations bring the feeling of the movement of a ship on the ocean. Floca's descriptions of the ship and the crew are highly accessible for young readers. The full-page spreads of the heat with a glowing sun and the cold with falling snow are gorgeous! The font and words used when the lightship blows its warning horn in the fog is priceless and kids will visit that page again and again.

Classroom Ideas: A preschool/kindergarten class study of transportation or ships/boats would be perfect for this book. There is a great deal of onomatopoeia.

Extras: The endpapers include a labeled diagram and an author's note explains more about the lightships that were used from the 1730s to the 1980s.

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11

Author & Illustrator:   Brian Floca
Publisher:  Atheneum
Publication Year:   2009
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Sibert Honor, NYT Best, Society of Illustrators Silver medal, ALA Notable, Kirkus Best Books, School Library Journal Best Books, Horn Book Fanfare, Smithsonian Notable, Cybil Award Finalist

Summary:  The story tells the story of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in very kid friendly language. It has a mood of excitement shown through lots of run-on sentences and fragments. The drawings are beautiful- on the full page liftoff spread you can practically feel the heat of the explosion. The font size is chosen carefully to match the words.

Classroom Ideas: Obviously this book could be used in a classroom study of space exploration. The word choice is perfect in this book with lots of onomatopoeia (flapping, crackling flame) and alliteration (the moon growing and glowing).

Extras: The endpapers include a cutaway diagram of the shuttle along with a timeline. there is also a sources list and an author's note on the back endpage telling more about the story.

http://www.brianfloca.com/Moonshot.html
Link to Floca's website with more resources.