The Star-Spangled Banner and We the People for kids

Just in time for Independence Day, Doubleday Books for Young Readers (Random House Kids) has released two new titles by Caldecott Medalist, Peter Spier. He has taken the words of two of our nation's greatest symbols, the Constitution and "The Star-Spangled Banner," and created two sprightly illustrated, perusable picture books,

We the People: The Constitution of the United States and The Star-Spangled Banner.

In We the People, it is the preamble to the Constitution that creates the story.  Short phrases ("We the people of the United States") appear on each double-spread page, accompanied by many small pen and watercolor vignettes relating to the phrase.  On many pages, such as "promote the general Welfare," the small paintings contrast our past and future.  One set of images shows a man with a three-cornered hat delivering the post on horseback.  The facing image is that of a U.S. mail truck stopping at a line of rural mailboxes.We the People has a copy of the original document as its endpapers, and contains a brief history of the Constitution and its entire text in the back matter. Names and images of the Constitution's signers are also featured.

The Star-Spangled Banner features large, often double-spread paintings for each line in our national anthem. The illustrations depict the 1814 Battle of Baltimore which inspired the lyrics.  The first two verses comprise the illustrated story, while the remaining two verses, along with the sheet music are included in the back matter.  Also included is an image of the original hand-written poem, a receipt for the 30' x 40' flag that flew over Fort McHenry (made and sold by Mary Young Pickersgill for the sum $405.90), a photograph of the battered Fort McHenry flag when it arrived at the Smithsonian Museum in 1907, and of course, historical information regarding the flag and battle.  The endpapers feature "A Collection of Flags of the American Revolution and Those of the United States of America, Its Government, and Its Armed Forces."

At 48 pages each, and a sizeable 12.5" x 9", these books offer young readers plenty of opportunity to peruse their many small characters and details. Both books should have a place in every school.

Ick! Yuck! Eew! Our Gross American History - a review

Huey, Lois Miner. 2014. Ick! Yuck! Eew! Our Gross American History. Minneapolis, MN: Millbrook.

Imagine that you have the ability to travel  to America, circa 1770.  You'll be able to blend in and talk with people who will have no idea that you have traveled back in time.  That's the fun premise of Ick! Yuck! Eew! Our Gross American History, just the kind of book that I love -- one that brings history alive as no textbook can do.

From "The Awful Smells,"

Your nose runs as you approach the people in a room.  When a woman smiles at you, you see she's missing several teeth.  Her breath is horrid.  You can't escape it.  Almost everyone in the room has bad breath from rotting teeth.  Plus, both men and women smoke white clay pipes.  So their breath (and clothes and hair) also smells of strong tobacco.  People aren't completely unaware of the smells. They know they have bad breath.  Women try to hide it by chewing cinnamon, cloves, orange peel, and honey melted in ashes.  Men don't bother.  Women mostly wave fans to keep the smell away and to cover their own black smiles. 

 As a traveler from the future, you'll visit a cobbler's shop (also full of stomach-churning smells), a tavern complete with bedbugs and rotting food, a barbershop (where people go to have their rotting teeth ripped from their jaws), and the homes and wardrobes of wealthy, poor and working class Americans.

Colorful inset boxes offer facts about smallpox, bathing habits, and other public health issues of the time. Period illustrations, photographed realia, and other buggy and bloody spot illustrations, add interest and break up the small text.

An introduction, "The Yucky Past," and four chapters, "The Awful Smells," "The Creepy-Crawly Bugs," "The Nasty Germs," and "The Uncomfortable Fashions," are followed by an Author's Note, Glossary, Source Notes, Selected Bibliography, Further Reading, Places to Visit and Index.

The author's note is well worth reading, and finishes with,

I don't think we should feel superior to the people of the past. They knew of nothing better than the conditions in which they lived. Despite all the hardships they faced, they worked hard, raised their children, and made the best of what they had.

A well-done look at our nation's earliest days.  How will we be viewed by citizens from the centuries to come?

You're in the right place!  Nonfiction Monday is here today. 

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Thanks for participating in today's Nonfiction Monday roundup!

• At NC Teacher Stuff, Jeff is our first contributor of the day with "Two Creepy Titles from National Geographic."  That's Creepy! and Weird but True! should be great kid-pleasers.

• At Randomly Reading, Alex offers "Three Books About Nature," On the Move: Mass Migrations, Animal Helpers: Sanctuaries, and Nature Recycles: How About You?  all published by Sylvan Dell.

• At Jean Little Library, Jennifer is featuring Secrets of the Ancient Gods: Anubis Speaks!   A slightly gruesome book, "narrated" by the god, Anubis, this one is not for the picture book crowd. 
  

• Brick by Brick is the nonfiction picture book selection of Jeanne at True Tales and a Cherry on Top this week.  It is the story of the construction of the White House, created by many workers, including slaves who endured horrible working conditions.
  

• Jennie at Biblio File shares Hacking Your Future: Ditch the Lectures, Save Tens of Thousands, and Learn More than Your Peers Ever Will, a manifesto espousing the benefits of self-directed learning as opposed to the college experience. An interesting concept, but one I'm hoping that my son doesn't choose. ;) 

• Eggs 1, 2, 3: Who Will the Babies Be? is today's offering from Jen at Perogies and Gyoza. Eggs ... is one of last year's Cybils' finalists and Jen declares it "an adorable book on numbers and eggs for preschoolers." She also reminds us to nominate our favorites for consideration in this year's Cybils voting!

• Over at Booktalking, Anastasia reviews a book that will "help students learn critical thinking skills by examining the different types of questions they can ask as they do research." Be sure to check out Know What to Ask: Forming Great Research Questions.

• At Geo Librarian, Heidi has a brief review of "a fabulous MG/YA nonfiction book about the art of drawing/sculpting dinosaurs."  Head over to Geo Librarian to read about Scaly Spotted Feathered Frilled: How do we know what dinosaurs really looked like?

• Cindy, one half of the duo that makes up Bookends, has just added her featured book, Things that Float and Things that Don't, a picture book for young readers about flotation and density.

• Today at Sonderbooks, you'll find a review of Revolutionary Friends: George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette.  Read this one with Ick! Yuck! Eew! and you'll imagine history with your nose as well as your eyes and ears!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

 Note:
 I'll be working all day, and will update the post with your links later in the day.

Picture Book Roundup - Nonfiction Monday

It's Nonfiction Monday again (where did the week go?).    It's also spring and baseball season.  With those in mind, I'll highlight two books that feature America and her national pastime.

• Bates, Katherine Lee. 2013. America the Beautiful: Together We Stand. New York: Scholastic.

With illustrations by a group of stellar artists (including Yuyi Morales, Bryan Collier and Mary GrandPré) and appropriate margin quotes from selected US presidents, this is a large and beautiful picture book rendition of one of America's favorite songs, "America the Beautiful." Rounded out with a collection of useful facts about the nation and its system of government, this is a "must-have" book.

• Tavares, Matt. 2013. Becoming Babe Ruth. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

Baseball, the Babe, and Matt Tavares - if that's not a triple play, I don't know what is!  Matt Tavares' reverence for the sport of baseball shines through in this inspirational and entertaining third-person bio, focusing on the earlier years of one of baseball's greatest players.  Get an inside glance at the author's website. An Author's Note, Stats, and Bibliography are included. For young and old alike.

And on a baseball-related note, my family went to see 42: The True Story of an American Legend on Friday.  A great movie - not just for baseball fans!  I highly recommend it.  Watch the trailer here.

That's the best of America.  Here's the downside - it's April 15th - tax day.  Although we can only wish that we could print our own money, kids may enjoy this video of how the government does it.

 

Today's Nonfiction Monday roundup is at NC Teacher Stuff. Stop by.

We are America

Myers. Walter Dean. 2011. We are America: A tribute from the heart. Ill. by Christopher Myers. New York: Collins.

Due to the long holiday weekend and my scurrying back and forth between two library branches, on Friday afternoon at 4:55pm, I found myself scrambling to find an appropriate nonfiction book to bring home and share for nonfiction Monday.  I had missed this one when it first arrived, and thankfully found it on a cart full of returns.

In We are America, Walter Dean Myers traces the history of the nation.  With elegant poems, he begins the history with the Lakota in

"Before there was America."
Before the ships came
Their white sails ablaze
     against the clear blue sky
My Lakota heart pounded the rhythms
Of this sacred land ...

He continues, recounting in poetry the birth of the nation, the slave economy, the Civil War, the building of America,

"We were machines belching smoke"
Pushing carts, baking bricks, cleaning sewers
Inventing, daring, lifting our hopes to skies
     that suddenly seemed
Within reach
We were Irish muscle and Polish pride
Germans and Italians
Africans and Chinese
Mexican and English
We spoke a hundred languages
We were laborers building the hugeness
     of the fantasy that was
The Unites States of America ...

and America's future possibilities. His poems are accompanied by quotes that reflect great, decisive, or conflicted moments in American history -quotes from varied people and documents of great meaning to our country.

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?  Forbid it, Almighty God!  I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" Patrick Henry

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Emma Lazarus

"We have a positive vision of the future founded on the belief that the gap between the promise and reality of American can one day be finally closed."  Barbara Jordan

Each poem on a stark white page is accompanied by an oil painting representing the people and times that are or have been "America" - from John Smith to Jimi Hendrix, Amelia Earhart, textile workers, a Japanese internment camp, soldiers in Europe, Vietnam, and Iraq, Chinese railroad workers, Mark Twain, Gloria Steinem, and everything in between.



What better book to share for this solemn and reflective national holiday? Enjoy your Memorial Day and remember those who made it possible.

As I waited in line to meet Llama Llama Misses Mama author, Anna Dewdney, on Wednesday, I was less than 2 feet from Walter Dean Meyers as he was signing books in the next row. Unfortunately, after meeting the talented and friendly Ms. Dewdney, the line to meet Mr. Myers was too long for me to get through before he finished greeting librarians and other fans. He sure did look like a nice guy, though. It's comforting to find that famous authors and illustrators are such "regular" people.

Today's Nonfiction Monday is at History with a Twist.