Drawing from Memory

Author & Illustrator:   Allen Say
Publisher:  Scholastic
Publication Year: 2011  
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Sibert Honor, ALA Notable, Booklist Best, Kirkus Best, NYT Notable

Summary:  Beautiful drawings, diagrams, paintings, and photographs illustrate this autobiography of the exclaimed author/illustrator. Say traces his birth in Japan where he learned to read at an early age and dreamed of being a cartoonist. His father did not approve, "Artists are lazy and scruffy people - they are not respectable!" After World War II, he moved to Sasebo, and his parents were divorced. He went to live with his grandmother who got him an apartment by himself at the age of 12. He became the apprentice of a famous cartoonist while going to school. In 1952, he immigrated to America with his father. His mentor called him the "treasure of his life."

Classroom Ideas: autobiography, art, The theme of this book is spoken by Say's mother "Let your dear child journey."

Extras: map of Japan, author's note with photographs of Say's reunion with his former mentor,

The Wall

Author & Illustrator:   Peter Sis
Publisher:  Farrar, Straus, & Giroux
Publication Year:   2007
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Caldecott Honor, Sibert, ALA Best Books, ALA Notable, Parents' Choice Award Winner,  Boston Globe - Horn Book Award, NYT Best Illustrated, CBC Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, Orbis Pictus, Booklist Editors' Choice,  Horn Book Fanfare, Kirkus Reviews Editor's Choice, Publishers Weekly Best Books, School Library Journal Best Books

Summary:  This autobiography parallels Sis's writing life with his early years in Czechoslovakia. As he continued to grow in his artist ability (his journal entries note that he won the Historical Museum Drawing Competition in 1962), life behind the Iron Curtain is very restricted. In the 1960s, he began to learn about Western culture and question what he was being taught. In 1968, censorship is lifted and Western popular culture influences (the Beatles, Harlem Globetrotters, etc) began to flow into Sis's life. Then the Iron Curtain falls again and finally in 1989 Mikhail Gorbachev brings down the wall and the Cold War is over. What an amazing book that tells the tale of the fall of the communist way of life!!

Classroom Ideas: autobiography, This book takes place during the 1950s-60s with the growth of communism in eastern Europe, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Vietnam War. The vocabulary is explained very well (communism, compulsory, prohibited) and there is a wonderful feeling of what life would have been like during this time period.

Extras: endpaper map of Europe with inset of Prague, photographs of Sis growing up on the jacket

The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-new Colors

Author: Chris Barton
Illustrator:   Tony Persiani
Publisher:  Charlesbridge
Publication Year:   2009
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Sibert Honor; Publisher's Weekly, School Library Journal, & Kirkus Best Books, Cybils Best Picture Book

Summary:  This is the story of two brothers: Joe who was a magician and Bob who studies to be a doctor. While in university, Bob had a summer job at a kitchup factory where he was hurt and damaged his memory. While he was recovering in the basement, his brother Joe was experimenting with black lights which made things glow. He was hoping to use this is his magic act, and Bob wanted to help him. They built an ultraviolet lamp and saw that it made the label on a bottle glow. They added the chemicals to paint that glowed under the lamps and were soon used for costumes, posters, toys, and magic acts. Eventually they learned to add alcohol to the paint and created glowing fluorescent paint! The paint was used for many purposes during World War II and then moved to popular life. The illustrations begin in simple black and white and gradually the day-glo colors take over until the final few spreads absolutely pop with color.

Classroom Ideas: classroom study of biography, science & scientist, accidental discoveries

Extras: Addendums on how fluorescence works, author's note on how Barton got interested in the story (reading the obituary of Bob Switzer), list of sources

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.

Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin

Author & Illustrator:  Robert Byrd
Publisher: Dial Books
Publication Year:  2012
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:  Sibert honor, Horn Book Best Nonfiction, Kirkus Best Book,

Summary: A biography of the founding father Benjamin Franklin with a great deal of text, obviously intended for older readers. In the four columns per spread, the story of Franklin's life and accomplishments is told in details. The writer tries to capture Franklin's personality and character through the anecdotes and events from his life. The layout of the book is referential of early newspapers  of the Revolutionary time with inset quotations from Franklin's writings and full-color captioned sketches. There are so many places here for young readers to stop and stare and study the details.

Classroom Ideas: Class study of the American Revolution, founding fathers, and Franklin.

Extras:The endpapers contain many of Franklin's famous sayings, an author's note with information about how Byrd chose the stories in the book and how he would create the pictures, a comprehensive timeline, and a bibliography

Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade

Author & Illustrator:   Melissa Sweet
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin
Publication Year:   2011
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Sibert, NCTE Orbis Pictus

Summary:  The biography of Tony Sarg who created the first Macy's large parade balloons/puppets in 1928. In the beginning, Sarg's life on a farm is presented in a comic strip form. The full-page spreads soon bring us into Tony's move to the city with his marionettes and his work at Macy's. When they   decide that live animals are too dangerous for the Thanksgiving Day parade, the company turns to Tony to come up with a "spectacular" idea. Thinking of blimps, he comes up with the idea for large puppet/balloons to float over the parade ("But what if the controls were Below and the puppet could Rise up?") In an awesome vertical spread, the first balloon elephant is shown--"It was a parade New Yorkers would never forget!" The amazingly detailed mixed media collages are the true stars here. I could stare at the illustrations for hours and find new things to look at each time.

Classroom Ideas: Could be used around Thanksgiving time in conjunction with the Macy's parade or in a study of the 1920s. An art teacher could also use this gorgeous book to talk about collage and mixed media or to create puppets.

Extras: The endpapers include more information about Tony Sarg's Marionettes and an original NYT 1933 advertisement. There's also an author's note about Tony Sarg, one about the art in the book, some thank yous, a Bibliography, and quotation sources.

http://www.hmhbooks.com/kids/resources/BalloonsOverBroadway_ActivityKit.pdf
An activity kit from Houghton Mifflin Books

The Tarantula Scientist

Author: Sy Montgomery
Illustrator:   Nic Bishop
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin
Publication Year:   2004
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Sibert Honor, School Library Journal Best Books, Kirkus starred review, Outstanding Science Trade Book

Summary:  The story of Sam Marshall, a scientist who studies tarantulas. It follows him into the rainforest as well as back to his laboratory. Along the way, Sam encounters other rainforest animals as well as some dangers. The close up photographs of tarantulas are either incredibly cool or incredibly creepy depending on who you are, but they are definitely amazing. The information included really captures the life of a research scientist in the field.

Classroom Ideas: A classroom study of spiders or rainforests could include this book. It would also be interesting to read as an introduction to what scientists really do.

Extras: A map of the rainforest areas where tarantulas are found, along with labeled photographs and information about Sam's findings in the rainforest. There is also a glossery, index, and bibliography.

Spiders

Author & Illustrator:   Nic Bishop
Publisher:  Scholastic
Publication Year:   2007
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Sibert Honor, Orbus Pictus Outstanding Nonfiction

Summary:  This book tells facts about spiders. The use of colored text for interesting tidbits draws in the reader and encourages them to read the rest of the page more carefully. The full-color photographs are amazing and I may have nightmares about the closeup of the wolf spider with hundreds of babies riding on her back!

Classroom Ideas: Would be a welcome addition to any classroom study of spiders.

Extras:

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.