Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
The Lighthouse Santa by Sara Hoagland Hunter (illustrated by Julia Miner; New Horizons Partners, 2011) is based on the true story of the man who brought Christmas presents to the distant lighthouses along the New England coast each year. It tells of a fictionalized family in a remote location, where one Christmas a snow storm meant
Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner (Chronicle, 2011) captures the fascinating natural worlds below the snow. As a child cross-country skis with her father, she learns about the animals hiding underneath her feet. In beautiful illustrations, the over and under natural worlds are revealed. Raisin loved finding the mice, bears, bullfrogs, and so forth in
How You Were Born by Joanna Cole (Harper Collins, 1994) is unlike the other books I’ve read by Joanna Cole. This book is illustrated with photographs of babies in utero, newborn babies, and happy families, as well as with a few illustrations and diagrams. It’s also written for slightly older children. Although the words are quite
Footprints on the Moon by Mark Haddon (illustrated by Christian Birmingham; Candlewick Press, 1996). I have not read many memoir picture books, but this one worked wonderfully. Best-selling author Mark Haddon writes of his own childhood studying the solar system and dreaming about the moon, then shows him tuned in the television, watching the first humans
The best part of The Moon by Seymour Simon (Simon and Schuster, 2003) is the gorgeous NASA photographs on every page. It brings his basic facts to life. I personally loved pouring over the photos. Although the paragraphs are definitely a bit lengthy for a three-year-old, my son and I went through the book a few
Moon by Steve Tomecek (illustrated by Lisa Chauncy Guida; National Geographic Kids, 2005; Jump into Science! series) introduces young readers to basic facts about the moon with cartoon illustrations featuring a fun and friendly cat. It’s an easy to read picture book to read aloud, and not too dense. My three-year-old son and I read the
I’ve mentioned before that I love Gail Gibbons’ nonfiction picture books: she does a great job at capturing a subject with lots of detail, but presenting it in a way that kids can understand. The Moon Book (Holiday House, 1997) is no exception. While it is illustrated, it is not cartoony. Gibbons provides a readable picture book,
After reading Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, April 2011), I must admit that I had not been very familiar with the life of Jane Goodall, who is an expert on chimpanzees and anthropology and a proponent of environmental and social issues. My son (age 4) certainly had never heard of Jane
The illustrations to Abraham Lincoln by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire are quaint color pencil, which matches the folktale-like subject matter. They don’t wow me as other Caldecott winners do, but as the 1940 Medal Winner, I think the art in d’Aulaires’ biography about Lincoln are sufficiently award-worthy. Abraham Lincoln reads like a novel; it was easy
My Caldecott challenge: Although these Caldecott winner and honor books are not, for the most part, books I’ve read aloud to my son, I still found them interesting. A few I had strong negative opinions of; they show that even books that earned the Caldecott award do become dated! A River of Words by Jen
The Body Book by Shelley Rotner is one of my favorite nonfiction books for my toddler. We’ve checked it out a few times. It shows photos of children at all different ages, and it shows them engaging in fun outdoor activities with their feet, hands, legs, heads, eyes, noses. This is not a boring anatomy book,
I can finally recommend something related to the Three Cups of Tea story. Remember how I hated listening to the audiobook of Three Cups of Tea, which felt like a journalistic report despite being called a memoir? My mother loved Three Cups of Tea and thought it was wonderful, so I enlisted her help in
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