Missions: Incredible

On February 2, 1925, a man and a team of dogs arrived by sled in the community of Nome, Alaska.  Gunnar Kaassen and Balto, the lead dog, became instant heroes for the delivery of a life-saving serum.  The children of Nome were battling a disease, diphtheria, and desperately needed the antitoxin.  Kaassen and his team drove the last leg, about fifty-five miles, of the serum's journey from Anchorage, Alaska, more than one thousand miles away.   

For many years there were people who didn't know that without the efforts of Leonhard Seppala and his lead dog, Togo, the last leg of the race might have been different.  Seppala, Togo and his other dogs left Nome to meet another team with the serum coming from Nulato. They then traveled back toward Nome to give it to yet another musher and his dogs who gave it to Kaassen's team.  Leonhard Seppala with Togo in the lead traveled a total of 261 miles, the farthest of any musher and their dogs.  And they crossed Norton Sound twice in treacherous conditions. 

Often in the chronicling of events, those in the lead seem to garner more attention then those working as hard or harder, but more in the background.  After reading The Indestructible Tom Crean: Heroic Explorer of the Antarctic (Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, January 24, 2023) written and illustrated by Jennifer Thermes, you will understand the importance of those with special and specific talents to a group effort.  It is their determination and steadfastness that can alter the outcome, sometimes between life and death.

PROLOGUE

At the turn of the century, Antarctica is the last unexplored continent on Earth.

This time period is known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.  In England, the Royal Geographical Society, private investors,

commercial companies, and the Royal Navy support expeditions to the southernmost place in the world. 

 . . .

Born on the seacoast of western Ireland, in a large farm family, Tom Crean, like other Irishmen, aimed his sights on the sea.  At sixteen, he joined the British Royal Navy, working and learning for ten years.  Just before the ship Discovery led by Captain Scott left New Zealand for Antarctica, he needed a new member for his crew.  Tom Crean was that man.  This was the first of three explorations to Antarctica in which Tom participated.

Tom's rank was able seaman.  He and others pulled 800-pound sleds through snow and ice to leave a path of supplies for returning adventurers to the base camp at Hut Point.  Their ship was frozen in place for two years! 

Six years later, Captain Scott called on Tom again for another exploration to Antarctica.  This time their goal was not scientific discoveries but to be the first to reach the South Pole.  They left on a ship called the Terra Nova with ponies, dogs, and sleds with motors.  It was a race against time and Roald Amundsen.

After building a camp, they started to drag supplies along a route toward the pole, going back and forth.  Weather delays and food shortages slowed their progress to the South Pole.  Men, including Tom, were sent back to camp while Captain Scott and four others made the last 150-mile trip to the pole. At the camp on Cape Evans, winter ended but Scott and the four men did not return.  It nearly crushed Tom's spirit when he and the search party found Captain Robert Falcon Scott.  He and the four men were no longer alive.

In August 1914, one year later, Tom Crean was aboard the Endurance as a second officer under the command of Captain Ernest Shackleton.  Shortly after leaving South Georgia Island, the Endurance was trapped in ice.  The men rode out the winter on the ship, but the ice had no mercy.  The ship had moved 1,000 miles!  The story of the survival of the twenty-eight men (but no dogs) of the Endurance was (is) one of heartbreak and unimaginable fortitude.

The twenty-eight made it to Elephant Island, but no one knew they were there.  Twenty-eight became six and six became three.  Of those three, one was Tom Crean.  He and two others crossed a glacial range for thirty-six hours without stopping to bring help to the other twenty-five.  For a few more years after the Endurance, Tom served in the British Royal Navy.  Finally back at his beloved home in Ireland, Tom Crean never spoke of his Antarctic excursions.  

The meticulous research conducted by author Jennifer Thermes is evident through the factual edge-of-your-seat episodes she includes in this nonfiction narrative.  She sets the stage in the prologue, providing general information about the expeditions and the unrelenting environment of Antarctica.  Her text prior to the Discovery exploration is conversational, supplying us with the right words and knowledge to build a bit of suspense.

As we are told about Tom Crean's part in each Antarctic trek, readers find themselves fascinated and astonished at the same time.  Would you be able to balance for hours on an ice floe with killer whales circling, ready for you to slip?  Can you imagine walking alone for thirty-five miles (with no GPS) in Antarctica?  When Jennifer Thermes writes about Tom Crean and his time in Antarctica, we are there with him every moment.  Here is a passage.

Tom Crean, Bill Lashly, and Lieutenant Teddy Evans must return to base camp as fast as they can, before starvation and exhaustion overtake them.  Evans gets sicker by the day with scurvy, which ravages a body in need of vitamin C.  Tom and Lashly pull him on the sled.  The men are tired.  Evans begs to be left behind.  Tom and Lashly refuse.  Tom will go for help.

The artwork seen on the dust jacket, book case, endpapers, and interior pages were rendered by artist Jennifer Thermes using

watercolor, colored pencil, and salt on Arches hot press paper.

On the right side of the dust jacket, the front, we see Tom Crean with his beloved dog Sally, who accompanied him on the Endurance.  The ship is locked in ice under a chilly sky streaked with light.  On the other side of the spine is a cool blue canvas.  An oval image is framed in the center and slightly more toward the top.  It is of Tom and two others hoping to survive the wild seas.

The book case is covered in blue and blue green hues.  It looks exactly like ice.  This pattern overlaps the far left of the opening endpapers and the far right of the closing endpapers like flaps on a jacket.  Opposite this on the opening endpapers is a bulleted list of thirteen Antarctica facts.  Prepare to be surprised.  On the right side and crossing the gutter is a detailed map of Antarctica and the surrounding waters.  The closing endpapers showcase fifteen Animals Of Antarctica with portraits and labels.

With a page turn, we see the Prologue on the left and the title page on the right.  Jennifer Thermes has placed pertinent items around the Prologue representing Tom and the expeditions.  Most of Tom's face, close to us, is beneath the text on the title page.

Jennifer Thermes uses double-page panoramic scenes, geometric panels grouped on a single page, a blend of vertical and horizontal visuals, and full-page pictures to supply pacing and enhance her text.  You pause at each one to study her exquisite details.  She leaves no doubt in readers' minds as to what Tom Crean, the other men and other inhabitants are experiencing. (I nearly cried at the tiny, moving image for the words---The ice can break your heart.)  Carefully labeled maps are frequently included to give readers a sense of place and the paths the explorers took.  (The six small wordless square panels spanning two pages beneath a two-page horizontal map show the events on the trip Tom Crean, Bill Lashly and Lieutenant Teddy Evans took in their struggle to return to the base camp.  You find yourself holding your breath more than once.)

One of my many favorite illustrations is a two-page picture.  The image is filled with the high waves of a rough sea.  There are only two small portions toward the top of the pages showing a star-studded sky.  An enormous wave is curling from the center of the right side to the top of the page and across the gutter.  Tom Crean, Captain Shackleton, and the other four men trying to get help have swooped down from the left side in their twenty-three foot boat to be positioned under the crest of the wave.  In their wake is one word--- Whoosh!

This book, The Indestructible Tom Crean: Heroic Explorer of the Antarctic written and illustrated by Jennifer Thermes, is not only an outstanding biographical account, but depicts three thrilling South Pole adventures.  Her chilly color palette with warmth shown in some of the skies and in the men and their interior surroundings combined with her informative, perfectly-paced text are certain to have readers turning the pages as fast as they can.  At the close of the book is a full-page Afterword along with a Timeline and Select Sources.  This title would be a fantastic read aloud.  You will want at least one copy on your professional bookshelves and one in your personal collection.

To learn more about Jennifer Thermes and her other work, please access her website by following the link attached to her name.  She has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  You can see multiple images from this book at her Instagram account.  At the publisher's website linked above, you can see the opening endpapers and the Prologue page.

Oh, Those Amazing Animals

Each new fact we add to our understanding of an animal, the better we grasp their place in the network of life on our planet.  Each animal, like each human, has an effect.  Many of them have been impacting our lives before we were born.  And they continue to do so.  

At a winter camp one year shared with students, we were listening to a lecture about horses.  We were close to a horse, closer than many of the gals and guys (including me) had ever been.  One piece of information has stayed with me for decades.  It has to do with horses' ears.  When asked for volunteers to ride, no one responded, so I did.  When you see people getting on and off horses and riding them in movies and videos and on television, it appears effortless.  Truthfully, getting on and off was fairly easy, but no one told us how high you would be off the ground. The distance from the saddle to terra firma seemed huge.  Horse Power: How Horses Changed The World (Abrams Books for Young Readers, April 27, 2021) written and illustrated by Jennifer Thermes will enthrall readers of all ages as we take a journey back in time to present day.  Along the way we learn about the power of horses and their impact.

About fifty-six million years ago, horses first appeared on earth.  The earliest-known ancestors

of the modern horse lived in North America.  The size of dogs, with toes on their feet, they 

nibbled tender leafy plants that grew from the warm, steamy earth.

Over long periods of time, the survivors evolved into larger animals with single hooves. Suddenly, eleven thousand years ago, they vanished.  Somehow, using a former land bridge that connected Asia to North America, they began to flourish once more.  How many thousands of years ago do you think it was when horses finally let humans ride them?  This was the beginning of immense transformation.

Horses provided a means to do everything faster and more efficiently.  Their physical characteristics, each one, are designed for the horse to survive in a variety of conditions.  Did you know a horse's height is measured four inches, a hand, at a time to their withers?  Around the globe different people from different cultures used different horses to suit their needs.  Unfortunately for horses, they were used in conquests and war.  Horses were returned to the lands of North and South America by the Spanish.

Did you know horses reside on every continent except for Antarctica?  As people moved, so did horses.  Horses across continents gave people the opportunity to continue communicating.  The Pony Express in the United States is only one example.  In time, even with advancing technologies, horses were still necessary.  Their necessity in turn created new jobs.

With the invention of the automobile, that necessity diminished.  Horses were replaced by cars and more cars and still more cars until now we humans have a global problem.  Horses shaped human history.  Today, there are herds roaming wild on six of the seven continents. 

When author Jennifer Thermes writes, readers take note.  Her meticulous research is found in each sentence we read.  She is building a world for us with her words.  In this book, she fuels, through facts, a story of horses which increases our admiration page turn by page turn.  Aside from the main narrative, she presents other information in her illustrations and in her sidebars.  Here is a passage and a sidebar.

City horses were trained to stay calm through the noise

and frenzy of a big metropolis.  Some wore blinders to shield

their eyes from sudden movements, since their natural instinct

is to run when frightened.  Without horses, human society

would have been brought to a halt.

Horses were the engines that powered everything.

One horse produces an

average of 35 pounds of

manure daily.  In 1900

more than 130,000 horses

lived in New York City,

which meant millions of 

pounds of fresh "road

apples" in the streets

every day!

A blue wash acts as a frame around a golden yellow wash on both the front and back of the open dust jacket.  The galloping horse on the front depicts horses' power when running free.  All the smaller vignettes around this creature represent how they made our lives better.  The tail on the horse on the front crosses over the spine to its completion on the back.  There praise for a previous book is placed over an image.  A farmer stands next to a large horse, resting one hand on its flank.  A cat looks up at the horse's face.

On the book case, a golden yellow canvas uplifts a spirit of freedom supplied with the image.  Left to right, back to front, a herd of horses races.  A range of color in their coats and breeds is shown to us.  Their beauty is staggering.

On the opening endpapers, on a white background, is a map of the world.  On the map are numbers corresponding to the thirty-three featured horse breeds.  Smaller images of the horses are placed around the map.  They are labeled with their name and country.  On the closing endpapers, hosting the publication information and the dedication, are horse portraits.  These portraits showcase how horses have been historically shown in artwork during ancient times. 

A double-page picture is presented on the title page.  On the left, so close you feel as though you could touch it, is a golden-brown horse.  Its gaze is toward rolling hills on the right.  A herd of horses runs upward as a parent and foal watch.  Is this the same herd running across the book case?  Perhaps. 

These illustrations by Jennifer Thermes were rendered

with pencil, watercolor, ink, and colored pencils on Saunders Waterford watercolor paper.

Their details are astounding.  Each is an exquisite portrayal and enhancement of the text.  There are many double-page pictures with smaller insets.  Some images are half-page and framed with fine black lines.  Other visuals span one and a half pages horizontally with fine black lines acting as borders.

One of my many favorite illustrations is a double-page visual.  It is a swirl of three separate but blended images.  Crossing the gutter from the right and moving across the top and side on the left portion is a steam-powered locomotive.  It gets larger as it gets closer to us.  The smoke from the engine stack moves along the top of the picture, enlarging on the right to hold the text.  Under the smoke is a scene of horses and horse-drawn vehicles moving to and from the train station.  Underneath this is a close-up of one particular family.  A couple embraces each other before the woman boards the train.  To the right of them and extending one and a third pages is a large, gray-dappled horse.  The train moves through a star-studded blue.  Golden yellow frames the other two portions of this marvelous whole.

You will want to have more than one copy of Horse Power: How Horses Changed The World written and illustrated by Jennifer Thermes in your professional collections.  People who already admire these majestic animals will read this over and over.  For others, this book will open their minds and supply them with a greater appreciation of horses.  At the close of the book is an extensive author's note, a list of select sources, and a two-page timeline.  This book is a treasure you will want to add to your personal bookshelves.

To learn more about Jennifer Thermes and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  Jennifer Thermes has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  At the publisher's website is a video with Jennifer Thermes speaking about this book.

Living in the Midwest, the chance of seeing a parrot fly outside your window or through the woods on a walk are slim.  If one were to be seen, it would be downright strange.  These flying wonders, nevertheless, hold a fascination for many of us.  Their characteristics and behaviors as revealed in The Truth About Parrots (Seriously Funny Facts About Your Favorite Animals) (Roaring Brook Press, May 25, 2021) written and illustrated by Maxwell Eaton III are truly remarkable.

These are parrots.

There are about 350 different parrot

species across the world.

Despite the differences perceived in parrots, they share similarities.  Their heads, beaks, and tongues, yes tongues, set them apart.  They have distinguishing feet, zygodactyl feet, with two toes in front and two toes in back.  The plumage on parrots is vivid.  Did you know parrots can see ultra-violet light?  

Parrot couples, mates, are often partners for life.  They express their care for each in loving actions.  Parrots in captivity can live more than fifty years.  In the wild, we are not as sure about their life spans for several reasons, but we do know about the kakapo found in New Zealand.  Can you imagine living more than one hundred years?  They are unfortunately endangered.

As varied as their colorful feathers, so too is the diet of parrots.  Some like nuts, others like nectar and pollen, and one prefers a fruit.  On rare occasions, one parrot has been known to be carnivorous.

To say parrots have the gift of gab is an understatement.  They are well known to be particularly gifted mimics.  Their cleverness does not end there.  They can communicate an understanding of other things using our language.  Speaking of language, it is thought by specialists some parrots make up their own words and definitions.

As with many animals, we humans continue to be the cause of much harm in the world of parrots.  We destroy their living spaces and take them from their homes as pets.  The more we know, the more we can protect them.

This eighth and final book in this outstanding series written by Maxwell Eaton III is equally as memorable as its predecessors.  The mix of facts and humor is engaging from beginning to end.  It starts on the jacket and book case, continues on the title pages and throughout the book.  Facts are presented in the main body of the narrative and in smaller insets on each one or two pages. (All the parrots are labeled with their names and where they live.)  The humor is found in the commentary and conversations in the speech balloons.  It is made by other parrots, other animals (even prehistoric), and a human child.  It is guaranteed you will burst out laughing at the hilarity and cleverness.  Here is a passage with commentary.  

One thing all parrots share is a keen

mind with vocal learning abilities.  Many

can copy sounds.  Most famously, human

speech.

I've noticed. (child)

I've noticed. (Eclectus parrot, New Guinea)

I've noticed. (a second parrot)

I've no itch. (a third parrot)

That's a relief. (a fourth parrot)

On the matching dust jacket and book case, illustrator Maxwell Eaton III begins his pictorial interpretation.  The leaves framing the right and left of the front indicate the climate in which most parrots reside.  The green spine acts as a branch.  The comment by the larger of the three parrots is a fitting introduction.  

To the left of the spine, on the back, two slim leafy tree branches extend from the spine.  On them perch two rows of small yellow parrots.  One on the top says:

I'm hearing

voices again.

The opening and closing endpapers are covered in the same hue of red as on the parrot highlighted on the front of the jacket and case.  On the initial title page two more of those parrots offer their opinions on the title.  Across the formal title page, a flock of those same birds flies from left to right from leafy branches.  The one in the lead exclaims:

We're colorful

characters!

These visuals by Maxwell Eaton III are highly animated.  They are defined by black lines and a full color palette.  There are double-page pictures, single-page pictures, partial-page pictures, and double-page pictures with framed insets as places for more images, commentary, and information.  Several of the funniest images involve the play of keas.  A duo appears in a double-page picture, a single-page picture two page turns later and at the end.  (So very clever, Mr. Eaton III.)  

One of my favorite illustrations is the left side of a double-page picture.  There two Salmon-crested cockatoos found in Southeast Asia are resting on a branch among treetops.  They are close together, a parrot pair.  The one bird is grooming the other bird.  The one being groomed says:

Thanks.

I can never

reach that

spot.

The Truth About Parrots (Seriously Funny Facts About Your Favorite Animals) written and illustrated by Maxwell Eaton III is a book holding an array of fun-filled facts.  This author and illustrator has a knack for selecting the points most will find intriguing, and his commentary displays his ingenious wit.  At the close of the book, prior to the end page, are two pages of additional information.  Parrot nest sites are discussed, as is the eating of clay, eggs, and chicks.  Further research is suggested.  I highly recommend this title for both your professional and personal collections.  

To learn more about Maxwell Eaton III and his other work, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  Maxwell Eaton III has accounts on Instagram and Twitter.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.

There are places on this planet many of us will never visit or reside.  It is with gratitude we can thank those writers and illustrators of nonfiction for taking us to those spaces.  On the continent of South America in the country of Peru, there is a national park.  This park, Manu, is home to one of the most diverse populations of monkeys.  In Fourteen Monkeys: A Rain Forest Rhyme (Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing Division, July 6, 2021) written by Melissa Stewart with illustrations by Steve Jenkins, we travel to the Manu National Park, learning of fourteen very different monkeys who reside in this shared community.

Fourteen monkeys share Manu,

a warm, lush forest in Peru.

Most tropical rain forests are home to just a few kinds of 

monkeys.  But 14 species live in Manu National Park, in

Peru.  How can they all survive together in one place?

They may shout out a good morning call from the tops of trees, but red howler monkeys are known for sometimes sleeping eighteen hours a day.  Spider monkeys in Peru use their physical traits, long legs and feet designed for securely grasping, to move quickly.  You won't believe what they play in their spare time.  Gray's bald-faced saki would give Olympians a contest when it comes to leaping.  The distance is impressive and mind-boggling.

Two kinds of capuchins share the distinguishing curled tail, but they hunt in particular parts of the rain forest for specific types of food.  Pygmy marmosets build relationships by grooming each other when they take a break from eating.  Amiable in nature, one specie moves carefully from place to place using their tails.  Their greetings are affectionate.

You will never guess what feast is the most pleasing to the Goeldi's monkeys after the rainy season.  Wow!  Black-capped squirrel monkeys have twenty-six unique calls to speak to each other.  Two tamarin types, like the capuchins, frequent different heights in the rain forest.  One acts as a sentry.

In the dark of night, one specie moves to feed.  When the moon is full, they race, hoot, and meet mates.  The dusky titis are known for literally sticking together, especially at night.  They twine their long, thick tails together.  From the top of the trees to the bottom of the rain forest floor, these fourteen monkeys show the world how differences can be an advantage.

Known for her painstaking research, author Melissa Stewart delivers her results in three distinct manners for readers.  Each of the fourteen monkeys are tied together with single sentence rhyming couplets.  These act as introductions and combined as an informative poem.  Coupled with each sentence are paragraphs offering further items of interest.  At the close of the book fourteen groups of facts are presented, one for each monkey.  These include the common name, the scientific name, group size, diet, predators, young, lifespan, and a field note.  Here is a passage.

Way up in the leafy crown,

woollys dangle upside down.

Grey woolly monkeys move through the treetops

at a slow, steady pace.  To cross gaps, they hang

by their tails and gently lower themselves to the

next branch.  They also swing by their tails to

reach tasty fruit.  . . .

Even without his name on the dust jacket and book case, the artwork of Steve Jenkins is evident.  His 

cut-and torn-paper collages

are extraordinary in their representations.  On the front of the jacket and case is a Goeldi monkey ready to consume fungi.  The crisp white canvas, used in most of his images, highlights the varied green hues of the rain forest, the fur on the monkey and the startling shade of the food.

To the left, on the back, of the jacket and case is a green silhouette of rain forest trees and shrubs.  Placed in the branches of the trees are the fourteen monkeys.  Fourteen circles, outlined in red, hold their portraits.

A rich spring green covers the opening and closing endpapers.  A single monkey crouches between the text on the title page.  With a page turn, deep green shades fill tree outlines on the left and white text offers a welcome on a dark green background on the right.

Each monkey is given a double-page picture with the exception of the capuchins and tamarins.  The monkeys are placed in their most-frequented settings.  They are shown in a mixture of perspectives.  For each one an iconic, smaller image of a rain forest in a darker color is placed within the larger visual.  A circle on this element shows the level of residence of that showcased monkey.  Some prefer the tops of the rain forest, others in the middle, and a few are closer to the ground.  For each of the monkeys, you will be astounded at the extent of the details.

One of my many favorite illustrations is for the marmosets.  On the left amid greenery a sturdy tree trunk rises.  Clinging on the right side, ready to seek food, is a marmoset.  On the right, after hours of eating, two marmosets are cuddled together for a nap.  One already is sleeping.  The other looks at the reader.

Reading this book is like taking a trip to the Manu National Park in Peru.  Through the words of Melissa Stewart and the artwork of Steve Jenkins, Fourteen Monkeys: A Rain Forest Rhyme takes us on an adventure to remember.  At the close of the book is a two-page vertical picture of rain forest trees with the monkey silhouettes placed where they reside.  They are numbered and named as are the layers of the rain forest.  Then, there is an extra column of narrative preceding the factual entries for each monkey.  Along the bottom of pages two and three of these factual entries are the monkey sizes shown to scale compared to a human.  I highly recommend this title for both your personal and professional collections.

To discover more about Melissa Stewart and Steve Jenkins and their other work, please visit their respective websites by following the link attached to their names.  Melissa Stewart has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.  At the publisher's website you can view interior illustrations.  At Andrew Hacket's website and at Reading Rockets, Melissa Stewart speaks about this book.  Here is a link to an extensive study guide.

Bordered By Water

Patience and Fortitude have been residing there since 1911.  It is the site of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.  It is the home of the tallest building in the world, the Empire State Building completed in 1931, until 1971.  Overlooking the East River, the accommodations for the United Nations have been there for more than seventy years.  It is here, in Times Square, each new year begins with a countdown.

The island of Manhattan has a recorded past dating back to the Lenape, Native Americans, at least 10,000 years ago.  Manhattan: Mapping the Story of an Island (Abrams Books for Young Readers, August 6, 2019) written and illustrated by Jennifer Thermes chronicles the growth of this incredible space from the earliest human inhabitants to present day.  It is a journey of blending people, places and designing spaces.

MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO when the glaciers melted, before anything had a name, the island lay sheltered in an estuary, where freshwater river met saltwater sea, anchored on bedrock far below the surface of the earth.

The seasons shifted and life on and around the island was abundant.  The Lenape called the island Mannahatta.  It means

"island of many hills."

These people fashioned an existence for themselves from the abundance offered by the island and the waters around it.  In 1609 Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for a Dutch businessman, arrived with his ship, Half Moon.  This marks the beginning of the island's transformation.  By 1700 the Lenape were no longer living on the island, unwillingly made to go.  (Did you know the population of beaver, on and around the island, dropped from 60 million to zero due to trapping?)

Slaves, eleven, were brought to the island to make canals, build a fort and a wall around the southern tip.  When the English took over the island in 1664 the name was switched from New Amsterdam to New York.  As the island developed forming more roads, filling in the canals, and constructing buildings, the horrific slave trade grew.  Some free Africans were able to settle at a place called The Collect Pond.  In reading this book you will discover why a national monument is placed near this space today.

After the long and treacherous Revolutionary War with the British, the island was home to the new capital of the United States of America for two years.  Did you know George Washington was named president here?  The population grew by thousands and the streets expanded and were renamed.  The buying and selling of humans as slaves grew.

In 1811 a man named John Randel Jr. was hired to design a grid system for the island.  It took him ten years to place all the grid markers.  People and structures were displaced by the grid which filled in faster than city planners believed possible. A large fire in 1835 and growing population pointed to the necessity for clean water and a place for peace, a park.

The development of the 843-acre Central Park was (and is) a haven to this day.  Did you know they planted twenty-year-old elm trees there?  Factories multiplied with workers enduring grueling conditions.  People from around the world came here to work and build a better life for themselves, entering at East River, Castle Gardens and Ellis Island.  Two separate places grew during the Gilded Age.  

It was a time of sharp contrast between those who had more than they needed and those who got by with very little.

Time on the island is marked when it stops as in the Great Blizzard of 1888 and Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.  In between those dates people saw the establishment of the remarkable subway system, astounding bridges and towering skyscrapers.  It's hard to believe it, but now on this island of Manhattan, 1.6 million people call it home.  (And you won't believe what came back after being absent for centuries.)


No matter how many times you read this title, each time the fascination grows.  Author Jennifer Thermes is an extraordinary historical tour guide with her words.  She includes vital information within a descriptive context bringing the past into the present.

With each page turn, there is a continuing narrative, but other columns include pertinent conversations about the good and not-so-good results of changes on the island.  Every two to four pages is devoted to a certain historical time period.  With the establishment of New York, New York, several pages discuss other time periods and events directly effecting people and the expansion of the city.  Here is a passage and a partial passage.

BY THE LATE 1800s, elevated trains (the El) chugged up and down avenues and over busy streets lined with restaurants, shops, and music halls.  Electric wires and telephone lines crisscrossed the island.  Lights blazed day and night.  The city on the island never slept!  But when the Great Blizzard of 1888 hit, all came to a halt.

Wind, ice, and snow slammed into the island---toppling poles, tangling wires, and cutting off communication with the outside world.  Water and gas pipes froze, leaving homes without steam heat.  The El stopped running, and fifteen thousand passengers were stranded on the tracks overhead. . . .


In a stroke of genius, the front of the dust jacket shows the island in three different historical perspectives.  The details seen here are prevalent throughout the book.  Every line is intentional.  Every color contributes to light and shadow.  Seagulls are frequent visitors in the illustrations, signifying the island's nearness to large bodies of water.  The text is varnished.

To the left, on the back, a portion of an interior image is used.  It is a view of the island after the Revolutionary War with labeled roadways, points of interest, important buildings, and slip and ferry locations.  There are a few labeled roads, at this point, beyond Collect Pond.  For page titles, artist Jennifer Thermes places the text within scrolled banners usually held by birds.

On the opening and closing endpapers is a highly detailed map of the island; a portion on each set of pages.  On the first set there are sixteen numbered highlights.  On the second set there are nine numbered places showcased.  In a separate image the island's bedrock is explained here.  Opposite and on the title page is the island, first in its natural uninhabited state and then as it is today.

Each page turn asks readers to pause, not only for the intricate elements but for the multiple perspectives, points of view, in these visuals rendered

using watercolor, colored pencil, and ink on Arches hot press paper.

There are labels and captions throughout.  From time to time, speech bubbles are added for information and emphasis.  All page turns reveal a double-page picture with the exception of eight full-page illustrations.  At times one illustration is placed within another image.  There is a feeling that these pages could come to life at any minute.

One of my many, many favorite pictures is the one dedicated to Central Park after its completion.  Framing the text along the top of the two pages are large treetops on the left and the right.  In the lower left-hand and lower right-hand corners are the bases of these trees. Across the center of the page is a map of Central Park bordered by roads.  Amid all the special areas are people enjoying the park.  Along the bottom of the page, left to right, are six circular images featuring close-ups of people boating, children playing with toy boats, horseback riding, strolling along the pathways, ice skating and cart rides by goat.


In a word, Manhattan: Mapping the Story of an Island written and illustrated by Jennifer Thermes is stunning.  It is a brilliant nonfiction work of bookmaking to savor for the information and for the splendiferous illustrations.  At the close of the book is a lengthy and highly detailed Time Line and Selected Sources.  These sources are books, websites, museums and a just for fun suggestion.  I highly recommend this title for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Jennifer Thermes and her other work, please follow the links attached to her name to access her website and blog.  Jennifer Thermes maintains accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. About a year ago Jennifer Thermes speaks in a podcast at The Manuscript Academy about her work.

Jennifer has been sharing process art on Twitter.  Here are some recent tweets.

More from the process files... all of MANHATTAN in miniature! I made a rough color plan of the entire book, which usually makes painting the final art easier. (Usually.) 😅#ManhattanIslandBook pic.twitter.com/isElN3PHcb

— Jennifer Thermes (@jenthermes) August 21, 2019

A detail from MANHATTAN and still standing today... Fraunces Tavern, where George Washington bid his troops farewell at the end of the American Revolution. History is all around us! #ManhattanIslandBook pic.twitter.com/X46mPOxoN7

— Jennifer Thermes (@jenthermes) August 14, 2019

Map detail.

(MANHATTAN: MAPPING THE STORY OF AN ISLAND, out two months from today!) #manhattanislandbook pic.twitter.com/u1QHSmGTrh

— Jennifer Thermes (@jenthermes) June 7, 2019

UPDATE:  Jennifer Thermes is interviewed at Picture Book Builders about this book on September 3, 2019.


Please take a few moments to visit Kid Lit Frenzy to view the other titles selected this week by those participating in the 2019 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

A Walk To Remember

Every single day people walk from one point to the other within their homes, from their homes to school and places of work.  They walk on pathways designated for walkers or make their own trails through fields, forests or along waterways.  Some walk because they lack another mode of transportation.  Others walk for the exercise.  And many walk for the sheer joy of being able to walk.

For me, walking with my dog is a peaceful time to reflect on current events in my life, my country and the world as a whole.  It's a time to let our imaginations run free.  It's a time to absorb the out-of-doors using as many of our senses as possible.  Whatever prompts you to walk, most of us don't endeavor what one woman did in 1955.  Grandma Gatewood Hikes the Appalachian Trail (Abrams Books for Young Readers, May 8, 2018) written and illustrated by Jennifer Thermes will leave you astounded at the tenacity of this sixty-seven year old woman.

Between eleven children, the clothes to wash, the cow to milk, the garden to tend, the occasional tramp passing through to feed, and one husband, Emma Gatewood rarely got a break.  But, sometimes, she found a way to escape.

This way to escape, rambling walks, was the fuel which fed the fire burning in Emma when she decided to hike the Appalachian Trail.  This trail began in Georgia and ended in Maine.  Emma was the first woman to walk the entire trail alone.

Starting on May 3, 1955, wearing canvas sneakers, she survived with little in her bag eating and drinking what she found along the trail.  She usually slept under the stars.  As you can imagine the trail passed through all kinds of terrain.  Sometimes Emma got lost but she found her way again and again.  Most of those folks she encountered along her walk were gracious and generous.

She often found the kindliest welcome from the poorest of families.

By July 6, 1955 Grandma Gatewood had reached Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.  It was considered the "mental" halfway point.  No matter where the trail took her or the weather, nothing stopped this woman.  Soon reporters were greeting her at one point or another point.  Everyone it seemed wanted to know about this courageous and determined woman.

As the summer wore on, the weather took a turn for the worse.  A hurricane was set to batter the East Coast.  For Emma, with no contact to the outside world, it was the worst kind of weather she had faced.  That night Grandma Gatewood did something she rarely did and the next day kindness was given to her.  Regardless of who she met, she loved being alone the best.

By August 22, 1955 this remarkable woman was in New Hampshire.  She was nearing the end of her travels.  Her body was battered, one of the lenses in her glasses was cracked but she climbed to the top of the last mountain on September 25, 1955.  You won't believe what she did.


What we learn of Emma's life on the first page before she is sixty-seven is just enough to peak our interest.  Even before we are turning the page, we are wondering how someone survives all her daily tasks.  Jennifer Thermes moves us forward years later with the beginning of the memorable hike.

On the first of five mapped two-page spreads we gain further insight into the trail and Grandma Gatewood's progress.  These special pages are interludes leading us into a more detailed narrative with specific details.  As a combination they propel us forward, fascinating us again and again.  Here is a passage.

Emma wore canvas sneakers and carried a homemade sack, packed lightly.  She ate berries from the side of the trail and drank from cold mountain springs.  She rested under trees and on top of rocks warmed by a fire.

Some nights, the sky was so big and dark that Emma was afraid to sleep.  Other nights, she curled up on a soft bed of leaves, with plenty of mice to keep her company.

Emma hoped to avoid meeting a bear . . . 


There is no mistaking the signature style of Jennifer Thermes.  Her choice of color, fluid lines, attention to detail, love of maps and portraits of people draw us into whatever story she is visually telling. On the front of the dust jacket the blend of map with topographical elements is a direct invitation.  To the left, on the back, three interior images are displayed above a quote by Ben Montgomery, Pulitzer Prize Finalist and author of Grandma Gatewood's Walk.  

The book case will take your breath away.  It's a beautiful rendering of Grandma Gatewood hiking at night over rolling hills.  Beneath her path is another rolling hill with a line of evergreen trees along the bottom.  A star-studded sky lights her way.

On the opening endpapers Jennifer gives us a partial map of the United States with the focus on the Appalachian Mountains and the trail.  The closing endpapers depict a timeline of events in Emma's life and significant historical events.  All the text on these pages is easy to read and understand.

The verso and title pages feature Grandma Gatewood on a mountain top sitting on the edge of a cliff.  She is gazing at the vista spread before her. The illustrations by Jennifer were created using watercolor and colored pencil on Fabriano hot press paper.

The size of the illustrations shifts between two page pictures, single page images and groups of smaller visuals representing the passage of time.  Jennifer moves us close to a particular scene or moves us father back, altering the perspective in accordance with the text and pacing.  As we look at each illustration we get a true sense of the emotional moments felt by Grandma Gatewood.  We feel as though we are beside her, walking and walking and walking but also gaining a deeper respect for our world.

One of my many favorite illustrations spans two pages.  It's a full moon night.  On the right the full moon is so close you feel as though you could pluck it from the sky.  Jennifer has swirls of blue filled with stars radiating from it.  Several gentle hills are beneath it.  On the left, Grandma Gatewood is resting on a high mounded hill.  Her head is on her bag.  A striped blanket covers her body.  She is still wearing her canvas shoes.  Her walking stick is next to her.  She is smiling at the moon, soaking up the deep calm of the night.


When I first read this book, I had to share it immediately with someone, so I did.  I conveyed the true marvel of this woman's accomplishments by reading aloud Grandma Gatewood Hikes the Appalachian Trail written and illustrated by Jennifer Thermes.  No one can help but be astounded, especially when viewing the wonderful images.  I highly recommend this title for your professional and personal collections.  Jennifer has two pages of notes at the close of the book with thumbnail sketches along the top and bottom.  She talks about Emma and the Appalachian Trail. She also includes selected sources.

To learn more about Jennifer Thermes and her other work, you can follow the links attached to her name to access her website and blog.  Jennifer maintains accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.  I think you will find her Pinterest boards very interesting.  Jennifer and this book are featured on Celebrate Picture Books.


If you haven't visited Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by Alyson Beecher this week, take a few minutes to view the titles chosen by others participating in the 2018 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Looking For Answers

There are those who can never have enough questions answered.  They extend themselves daily not content with a reply but wanting to know why.  We have all had them in our collective classrooms.  We might even be one of those people who have a driving need to know.

The world is an entirely different, a better, place because of these people who never rest in their search to obtain a complete picture of whatever it is (or was) they are pursuing.  Charles Darwin's Around-The-World Adventure (Abrams Books For Young Readers, October 4, 2016) written and illustrated by Jennifer Thermes follows one of these people on a voyage which changed his life.  It changed all our lives, then and now.

Charles Robert Darwin would have rather been outside searching for bugs, beetles, worms, butterflies, birds, rocks, and bones than sitting in a classroom.

He was a seeker and a collector, much smarter than his teachers thought he was.  He was unable to follow in his father's footsteps in the medical profession but sought to become a clergyman.  After his completion of studies at Cambridge University, his professor of botany recommended Charles as the naturalist sailing with the HMS Beagle.  The ship would be voyaging to South America to take map measurements.

The ship was captained by Robert FitzRoy (he and young Charles did have disagreements).  It was ninety feet long.  There was not a bit of room to spare between the men on board and the supplies.  Thankfully Charles decided very early to journal everything about this journey.

Charles was happier than he had ever been when visiting the rain forests along the east coast of South America. Stick insects he observed helped him ponder how creatures adapt to continue their species.  He continued to collect and send specimens back home.  Did you know that Charles spent a lot of time on land while the ship sailed along the coast?  What he discovered there prompted other theories.  Everything he saw contributed to his quest to discover as much as possible about animals and their survival.

One hundred miles from the HMS Beagle Charles, the captain and a few sailors had a near-death experience.  Just reading about it gives you the shivers.  You have to wonder how our world would be if Charles had not survived.  Through personal experiences Charles formed hypotheses about earthquakes and volcanoes and their effect on the earth's surface.  One was confirmed with a trip to the Andes and a discovery there.

After four years the HMS Beagle needed to return home but first there were stops at the Galapagos Islands, around New Zealand, Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, Ascension Island, and back to Brazil.  Five years away from home changed Charles more than in age (22-27).  A path for his life's work stretched before him.


Painstaking research and a love of what she read lead Jennifer Thermes to create a nonfiction narrative which captivates readers. Interesting incidents make Charles Darwin the person more accessible.  In the first paragraph she relates an encounter with a beetle that will astound at the very least.  It's a little gross... in a good kind of way.

It's important for us to know Charles was often seasick but his desire for adventure and quest for knowledge overcame any hardships he met.  This leads into his being on land for more time than we might have previously known.  Thermes' descriptions of the surroundings in which Charles finds himself give us a sense of being there with him.  Another skillful technique she employs is to insert questions in the text, suppositions made by Charles.  It will lead readers into forming their own questions.  Here are two pieces of sample text.

In the rain forest, the ground soaked up the downpour while the plants grew green and lush.  Charles was surrounded by the buzz of millions of insects, yet the jungle wrapped him in velvet silence. 

He studied rocks and tried to figure out how steep cliffs and flat plains were formed.  Was it possible that the shape of the land affected the animals' survival?


In a clever artistic move Jennifer Thermes has the tree on the front of the dust jacket aligned with mountain peaks of the Andes on the back, to the left.  This image on the back is taken from the interior of the book.  The illustration on the front is a beautiful blend of a multitude of places Charles visited.  It allows us to see how his views expanded on this trek around the world.  The fine lines and exquisite attention to detail seen here is only a glimpse of what the remainder of the book holds for readers.  The book case is a series of waves, layered from nearly the top to the bottom.  Above them are sky and the HMS Beagle sailing west.  Beneath the vessel is a quote from Charles Darwin.

The opening and closing endpapers are elaborate portraits of the world portraying the voyage as a departure and as a return.  Arrows show the line of travel and stops.  Continents and places are appropriately named.  By turning the page to view vertically you can see a detailed timeline for the five years corresponding to the points in the journey.  The title page and verso is one single illustration of sea and sky with the HMS Beagle beneath the title text.  On the left a picture is placed over this.  There are several specimen jars, rocks, a shell, a bone, a butterfly, and other insects with a magnifying glass.  A dedication is placed on the largest bottle.  Under this is an open journal with the publication information.

Rendered in watercolor and black colored pencil on Fabriano Hot Press Paper these images, wonderfully realistic and brimming with elements, ask us to stop and look.  This is how Charles Darwin viewed our world.  He stopped and looked. (I love that Thermes places a puppy in the picture of Charles as a boy and has the dog grow with him and greet him when he arrives home.)

There are eight maps of varying sizes throughout this title, one which needs to be viewed vertically.  Thermes has them labeled completely and includes animals found in each of the places after leaving England.  Her images range in size from double-page spreads to single pages to smaller pictures set in larger ones.  Her cross section of the ship at sea is illuminating.  Her perspectives are marvelous; a bird's eye view of the ship at sea, Charles riding across the pampas amid mice, rabbits, armadillos, and birds. Gauchos ride alongside him swinging their bolas.  A close-up of collected fossils will have readers searching for their own treasures.

One of my many favorite illustrations is of Charles in a small sailboat in the Tierra del Fuego waters.  Behind him is the HMS Beagle on the left.  The scene is framed by sky and mountains.  Penguins stand on ice floes.  Seals swim near him and rest on ice.  Beneath the water we can view an array of marine life; seals, fish of all sizes, a whale, jellyfish, starfish, crabs and an octopus.  All move around in a garden of seaweed.

For this post I borrowed a copy of Charles Darwin's Around-The-World Adventure written and illustrated by Jennifer Thermes from my public library.  But rest assured I not only will be getting a personal copy but several others to give away.  This is a stellar work of nonfiction sure to promote curiosity and the value of never stopping pursuit of your passion.

To learn more about Jennifer Thermes and her other work please visit her website and blog by following the links attached to her name.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images including one of my favorite pictures.  There is artwork and process sketches at author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson's blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  At Miss Marple's Musings Jennifer Thermes is interviewed.  We get to see her work space and more artwork tied to this title.  We also get to see more about this book and the process involved at The Little Crooked Cottage.  Enjoy Jennifer's tweets.

Out one month from today... CHARLES DARWIN'S AROUND-THE-WORLD ADVENTURE! @abramskids #kidlit #charlesdarwin #STEM pic.twitter.com/wxMBtLZfgP

— Jennifer Thermes (@jenthermes) September 4, 2016

Color proofs for CHARLES DARWIN'S AROUND-THE-WORLD ADVENTURE (Abrams, 2016). It's getting really real! pic.twitter.com/JGnTcyMnRW

— Jennifer Thermes (@jenthermes) December 9, 2015

Remember to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to enjoy the other selections by bloggers participating in the 2016 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.