Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall by Lynn Brunelle (illustrated by Jason Chin; Neal Porter Books, 2024) is a nonfiction picture book about the complete ecosystem that forms around a whale carcass on the bottom of the ocean. It begins with an elderly whale and in the first pages, the whale
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (published 1940) is a great tale of endurance and survival for the Ingalls family, pioneers in the brand new city of De Smet in the Dakota territory. During this historic winter, frequent blizzards lasting 3 or 4 days crippled towns and halted railway traffic, which means that De
Twelve-year-old Rosie can see color when she hears music and she hears music when she sees colors. Her perfect “echoic” or audio memory mean that she is surrounded by constantly music, including in her thoughts. In the beginning of her story in The Color of Sound by Emily Barth Isler (Carolrhoda Books, 2024), Rosie is
Candace Fleming’s The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets and Helped Win World War II (Scholastic Focus, 2024) is well worth the buzz that has been spreading about it. Although labeled a young adult nonfiction book, The Enigma Girls will interest anyone interested in the intellectual challenges to defeating Germany during World
Grace Goes to Washington by Kelly DiPucchio (illustrated by LeUyen Pham; Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2019) is a friendly picture book introduction to government. It begins with a school lesson about the branches of government, making correlations between the principal and the president as well as between the student council and the Congress.
What was Anne Frank like before she started her famous diary? How did she get along with her sister, her mother, and the changing world around her? When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary by Alice Hoffman (Scholastic, 2024) is intended to give us a glimpse into this real girl
The Wild Robot Protects by Peter Brown (Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2023) is the third volume in the story about The Wild Robot. My daughter and I listened to the others in anticipation of seeing the movie (as soon as it’s not $$$ to rent online!). I was excited when I first learned
I was unfortunately a little disappointed with oversized nonfiction picture book I Am Wind: An Autobiography by Rachel Poliquin (illustrated by Rachel Wada; Tundra, 2024). As the title indicates, this book teaches about wind with a first-person narration. Interspersed with the narration are side paragraphs (in a different font) that identify and name specific winds
Life in a Coral Reef by Wendy Pfeffer, illustrated by Steve Jenkins (a Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out, Stage 2, book) has colorful, textured collage illustrations that wonderfully match the child-friendly text. The text is written in present tense, which helps the reader feel present in the setting, among the tentacles of the sea anemone with the clown fish
The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Stories by Ella Young (published 1929) records the traditional Irish Fionna saga, which features the story of Fionn (pronounced “Finn”), a young son of a clan chief in ancient Ireland. In the forward, the author notes that this is one of the oldest sagas from Gaelic people, and yet so
The Leadership Journey: How Four Kids Became President by Doris Kearns Godwin (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers; September 3, 2024) is a fantastic nonfiction volume with four presidential biographies, all tied together with a focus on the qualities of leadership that these presidents portrayed and how they developed these qualities from childhood. The
Taking place about forty-years after the Ingalls family settled in the Dakota territories, The Jumping Off Place by Marion Hurd McNeely (published 1929) tells a similar yet fictional pioneer tale. In this Newbery Medal runner-up for 1930, four orphaned children travel to the claim in the Dakota prairie that their dear Uncle Jim has set
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