Happy New Year 2020 One Little Word Nonfiction

Here we are in the middle of the first full week of 2020.  It's also the first entry in the 2020 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge hosted by educator Alyson Beecher at Kid Lit Frenzy.  Each week participants link their recommendations to her blog.  It's an opportunity to learn about nonfiction picture books, some a little bit longer than others, which the contributors have enjoyed.

As in posts on January 2, 2020 and January 3, 2020 showcasing 2019 fiction picture books, I am featuring multiple 2019 nonfiction titles not previously discussed here.  For each book there will be a link to the publisher's, author's, and illustrator's websites as well as any other pertinent and helpful posts.  A short summary and a quote from the text are included.  I have given each book a single word.  The titles are listed in order of release date.

THRIVE

Moth: An Evolution Story (Bloomsbury Children's Books, June 25, 2019) written by Isabel Thomas with illustrations by Daniel Egneus
The Classroom Bookshelf, School Library Journal
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast 

In a fascinating discussion we learn about the peppered moth. Throughout generations the colorations on this moth's wings have adapted to environmental changes and challenges.  The wings switch from a lighter, mottled hue to a charcoal shade depending on the area where it needs to hide and survive from predators.  Clear, simple sentences give a very real sense of time and place.  At the close of the book is a two-page note about its evolution, natural selection, and adaptation.  In a word---resilient.

When the sun rose, the peppered moths
dozed on lichen-covered branches.

Silent, still, they hid.

Someone else was looking for food.
Who was the best hidden?
Who would survive?




VISUALIZE

Earth By The Numbers: A Book Of Infographics (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, July 16, 2019) written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins

This title is packed with data visually presented on the topics of:

the earth's surface, the changing globe, what's inside?, the deepest places, volcanoes, earthquakes, mountains, rivers and lakes, ice and snow, oceans, tornadoes, hurricanes, danger from the sky, danger from the sea, earth extremes, a warming planet, and the earth: a timeline.

Within each of these sections, there are general definitions and further divisions of high interest carefully selected by Steve Jenkins.  For example under rivers and lakes we are informed about the areas with the most fresh water, the length of the four greatest rivers in the world and their locations, the four largest lakes in the world and their places on a map, the four deepest lakes and a comparison of their surface areas.  One or two pages are dedicated to each subject.  At the conclusion are a glossary and bibliography.  In a word---incredible.

Danger from the sky 
Lightning strikes occur during a thunderstorm.  They can be awesome, but they are also very dangerous.  

A lightning flash can heat the air around it to five times hotter than the surface of the sun.


DEFEND

Under Threat: An Album Of Endangered Animals (Candlewick Studio, an imprint of Candlewick Press, August 19, 2019) written by Martin Jenkins with illustrations by Tom Frost
Penguin Random House---multiple interior images

The layout and design of this book is to place one of the thirty showcased animals on the right in a full-page depiction on a stamp.  On the left the name, a several-sentence introduction, and a history of the animal's population, its habits and habitat and survival are stated.  In a separate box is the scientific name, the class and family, the status of the animal, its population, where it breeds and its distribution.  In a word---preserve.

GREVY'S ZEBRA
Grevy's zebras are elegant long-legged animals, the largest and rarest of the three living species of zebra.  They live in drylands in northern and central Kenya and Ethiopia, where they feed on grasses and other low-growing plants.

MOST ADULT MALES LIVE in territories of a few square miles/kilometers that they defend against other males, but females and young males wander over huge areas in search of good grazing, sometimes covering up to 50 miles/80 kilometers in a day.


FORM

Monument Maker: Daniel Chester French and the Lincoln Memorial (Tilbury House Publishers, in association with the Concord Museum, September 3, 2019) written by Linda Booth Sweeney with illustrations by Shawn Fields

The life of Daniel Chester French is chronicled in informative and interesting text from his boyhood until the age of sixty-five.  At that time, he was asked by his friend and architect, Henry Bacon, to sculpt the statue of Abraham Lincoln which would be placed in the memorial.  There is an extensive representation of his and others work on the formation of the memorial, the statue and of its significance.  This is followed by a timeline of Daniel Chester French's life until his passing in 1931.  There is a page titled Author's Note and Dan the Maker, and several for The Lincoln Memorial.  We can read about The Creations of Daniel Chester French, and extensive Selected Resources.  In a word---impressive.

Three years later, on April 19, 1875, thousands of people crowded onto the Old North Bridge for the unveiling of Dan's statue.  A biting north wind failed to chill the festive occasion.  Judge French and his family led the procession.  President Ulysses S. Grant came with the Marine Band from Washington, DC.  May Alcott and her family were there.  So were Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Ralph Waldo Emerson.  But one person was missing---Dan.  He had already sailed by steamship to Florence, Italy, to study and work in the studio of Boston-born sculptor Thomas Bell.


CELESTIAL

What Miss Mitchell Saw (Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, September 3, 2019) written by Hayley Barrett with illustrations by Diana Sudyka
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb---Hayley Barrett

From her birth to the receipt of the medal from the King of Denmark for her outstanding discovery, we are privy to the life of Maria Mitchell.  She was a studious child from a very young age, paying attention to details, learning and remembering the names of people, and objects.  She began to assist her father studying the night sky through a telescope.  She worked during the day and watched the sky at night.  That's when she saw the comet!  In a word---perseverance.

By her father's side, Maria learned to rate the chronometers.  Using a sextant and careful calculation, she determined their accuracy so that sailors at sea might establish their position and, when their arduous work was at an end, set a course toward family and Nantucket Town.

Maria knew the whalers by name.


DETERMINATION

Soldier For Equality: Jose de la Luz Saenz and the Great War (Abrams Books for Young Readers, September 3, 2019) written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh
Duncan Tonatiuh Talks with Roger, The Horn Book
KidLitTV: Storymakers
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast  

The life of Jose de la Luz Saenz (Luz) is presented to us from his childhood to the formation of the League of United Latin American Citizens.  As a young Mexican American Luz suffered prejudice in his hometown of Alice, Texas.  He lived by words told to him by his father:

"Luz, I don't want you to fight," said his father, "but don't let anyone make you feel ashamed.  You should always be proud of who you are, mijo."

Luz became a teacher, married and had a family.  When the United States entered World War I Luz volunteered wanting to serve his country.  He believed if Mexican Americans served, they would be treated more fairly when they returned home.  There is an author's note, Luz's Words, a Select Timeline Of The United States' and Luz's Involvement During World War I, a Select Timeline Of The League Of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and a Select Bibliography.  In a word---remarkable.

The trip across the Atlantic Ocean was not easy.  The soldiers were tightly packed belowdecks.  They slept in hammocks next to one another.  Luz often felt seasick.  At night he thought of Maria Petra and their children at home and wrote in his diary:  I hope they are proud of me and that my efforts help them and others like us.  Espero que esten orgullosos.


FIRST

Thurgood (Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, September 3, 2019) written by Jonah Winter with illustrations by Bryan Collier

Using the technique of a single word, FACT, we learn example by example of the discrimination faced by Thurgood Marshall and other African Americans.  We see how the influence of supportive parents contributed to his drive to eliminate this discrimination law by law.  Readers will feel a fire growing within them case by case as Thurgood Marshall accomplishes one feat after the other, not without danger, until he becomes the first African American Supreme Court Justice.  In a word---powerful.

Back at home, over dinner, his dad would engage him in arguments about these trials, about the news, about anything.  He would raise his voice, demand that Thurgood back up his points with evidence.  And Thurgood would put it right back to him, word for word, point for point---with glee, with fire.


SHAPE

Prairie Boy: Frank Lloyd Wright Turns The Heartland Into A Home (Calkins Creek, an imprint of Highlights, September 10, 2019) written by Barb Rosenstock with art by Christopher Silas Neal
Penguin Random House
at the author's website there is a video, and links to a Pinterest board, text set and educator's guide
at the illustrator's website there are several interior images

Layer by layer, each portion of Frank Wright's life is placed before readers.  He took great joy in his life on the prairie as a child and it continued into this adult life.  When the family had to leave, as a gift, his mother gave him a variety of wooden shapes.  He used these to fashion all sorts of things.  Everywhere he looked this boy saw shapes.  This was transferred into his work as an architect.  His signature work is a combination of his two loves, the prairie and shapes.  At the conclusion there is an author's note, a list of selected sources and source notes.

Thousands of shapes kept Frank company until his family returned to Wisconsin.  Twelve-year-old Frank nailed fences and milked cows on his uncle's farm.

He flew kites and sang around the piano with school friends.

He collected dried weed pods and painted prairie landscapes in his attic bedroom.


DEFEND

Survival (Running Press Kids, September 17, 2019) text by Anna Claybourne, art by Louise McNaught

This is a collection of twenty animals found around the world facing extinction.  They are stunningly and realistically portrayed by the artist on brilliant backgrounds with sometimes only their faces showing.  It is a very intimate experience for readers.  Opposite the portrait on the right is a map of their habitat, their Latin name, status, population, size, habitat, and location.  Beneath this is information about their history and status.  In a word---breathtaking.

GIANT PANDA
This iconic black-and-white bear once lived across much of eastern and southern China and parts of Myanmar and Vietnam.  Today, it survives in a handful of remote mountainous forest in central China.  A panda's diet is almost entirely bamboo, and bears will feed for up to fourteen hours a day, eating twenty-two pounds or more of shoots.


GATHER

Red Rover: Curiosity On Mars (Roaring Brook Press, October 29, 2019) written by Richard Ho with illustrations by Katherine Roy
at the illustrator's site there is an additional post as well as a video when she and the author were unboxing their first printed copies of the book
KidLit411---interview with the author

Told from the point of view of the planet Mars, we are informed about Curiosity the rover which landed there in 2012 in order to explore the planet, gather and transmit data to us (NASA).  We learn about its routines and those rovers which arrived before it.  We are privy to the type of information it collects about the planet.  Marvelous illustrations accompany the factual but nearly lyrical text.  There are a four-page foldout and a two-page diagram, labeled, of Curiosity.  There are additional pages about Curiosity, Mariner 9, Viking 1, Pathfinder and Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity and the Mars 2020 Rover.  There is a Mars At A Glance box, a bibliography and websites.

The little rover likes to roam.
It leaves long, straight tracks as it goes.

The tracks play hide-and-seek . . .
. . .waiting for the rover to find them again.