The Joy of Curiosity – New Nature Picture Books

Lynn: One of the great traits of humanity is curiosity. It blossoms in childhood as we absorb and wonder about the world around us. Encouraging and nurturing that ability is a focus of two new and outstanding picture books that I am reviewing today.

How Birds Sleep (Astra/Mineeditionsus, 2023) by Sally Pedry and David Obuchowski.
How DO birds sleep? It’s a question I’ve often thought about myself as the night settles in and the world quiets. Obuchowski was also curious about this question, later stumbling on a book in a used book store that examined the science around the question. Like most things about birds, it varies from species to species. This is a fascinating exploration of a question that many children ask too and done in a lovely bed-time book style. Sarah Pedry’s illustrations are beautiful and soothing. Using familiar and unfamiliar birds labeled on each page, the book takes readers through the world of sleeping birds and their fascinating ways of sleeping. Some sleep in huddles, some hanging upside down and some even fly in their sleep.

Back matter includes much more information about the subject, how the book came to be and suggestions of how to help birds being affected by climate change.

The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish: What Magic Lies Beneath? (Candlewick, 2023) by Chloe Savage. This charming picture book celebrates the magic of following your curiosity.

Dr. Morley has always yearned to discover the truth about the fable of the Giant Arctic Jellyfish. Is it real or just a lovely sailor’s yarn? While this scientific journey is an imaginary tale, much about such a research effort is true. As Dr. Morley and her crew search the Arctic seas they encounter Narwhals, a pod of Belugas, freezing temperatures, monotony, frustration and even a Polar Bear. And, of course, there is something under the water all the time that trails the scientists.

Chloe Savage’s intricate whimsical illustrations reveal a cutaway view of the research vessel from top to bottom. The scientists and crew, clad in matching red and white sweaters, go about their tasks in labs, engine rooms, kitchens and bathrooms or out on ice flows and scuba diving into the icy seas. Each page is a delight, filled with small touches of humor that reward careful perusing. The book is one of those delightful gems that provides more each time it is read.

Do Images Tell the Truth? Seen and Unseen Takes on that Question for Kids

Lynn: Do photographs always tell the truth about history? I believe most students will answer yes to that question but Elizabeth Partridge’s brilliant book Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyakaki, and Ansel Adams’ Photographs Reveal about the Japanese American Incarceration (Chronicle, 2022) explores just how misleading photographs can be. Partridge presents a shameful part of American history as seen through the lenses of 3 outstanding photographers, each seeing those historic moments in a different way. Are any of them wrong? It is an extraordinarily effective way to help students look with a critical eye at images—historic and current—and one of the most necessary skills young people need to develop today.

Partridge chose three period photographers: Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams. All three took photographs at Japanese American Incarceration camps during WWII. Each brought a different focus to their work. Lange despised the whole concept of the incarceration of Japanese Americans. Famous for her Depression-era photos, the U.S. Government hired Lange to show that the program was being carried out in a “humane and orderly” way. Lange saw it differently, believing that what was happening was unfair and undemocratic. But the officials in charge disapproved of most of Lange’s photographs and from early in the project a soldier trailed her and she had to work within strict parameters. When she turned in her photographs, many of them were impounded and disappeared into archives for 50 years.

Toyo Miyatake was a professional photographer and after being incarcerated at Manzanar, he built his own camouflaged camera and took secret photos of the conditions of the camp. His photos showed much that Lange had been forbidden to photograph but those photos were rarely seen at the time and are still held in a private collection.

Ansel Adams, known for his incredibly beautiful landscape photography, was also hired to reassure the public. He came into the project not particularly opposed to the incarceration. Now close to the end of the war, there was great concern about how the Japanese Americans would be treated on release. Adams was asked to record images of hard-working, loyal, and cheerful people, which was how he saw them. Posing his subjects, Adams’ photographs concentrated on smiling people against a stunningly beautiful desert setting.

The work of all three photographers is used throughout the book but the book is also beautifully illustrated by the work of Lauren Tamaki, who is of Japanese descent. I wished strongly for more photographs to have been used but the book is nevertheless deeply effective and thought-provoking. It is the rare reader who won’t come away thinking about this book and the many issues it raises.

There is extensive and important back matter included too, with essays on issues such as the violation of rights of the Japanese Americans incarcerated, the issue of the official language used and its impact on the public, information on what happened to those incarcerated after the war, and biographies of the 3 photographers.

While understanding and evaluating images is the major focus of the book, Partridge also takes on other important issues such as the incarceration of Japanese Americans and the issues surrounding that action and its long impact. Seen and Unseen received many well-deserved accolades including the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal for 2023.

Who Doesn’t Love Sloths? Check Out these New Picture Books

Lynn: I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t smile upon seeing a picture of a sloth and I guarantee the two books in today’s post will spend very little time on the library shelf! There is something about these unique and fascinating creatures that we humans respond to immediately.

Happy Sloth Day (S&S/Beach Lane, 2022) by the acclaimed author April Pulley Sayre and photographer co-author Jeff Sayre. This wife and husband team spent 8 years photographing sloths in the Panamanian rain forest and learning about this truly amazing animal. The book is a terrific blend of poetry, eye-catching photographs and solid factual information. It is wonderfully child-centered in every way. The poetry is a delight to read aloud, loaded with vivid colorful language.

A tree is a sloth salad

Rip! Snip! Chew. Chew”

Jeff Sayre’s photographs are masterful and a real joy to see. Since these creatures live high in the rain forest canopy, the sheer difficulty of the photographic work is especially notable. Sidebars provide extensive factual information about the sloths and the creatures they interact with. In the back matter, two pages of additional sloth science is presented. This is an absolutely delightful book to read for pleasure and equally well suited to non-fiction reading and reports.

The Adventures of Dr. Sloth: Rebecca Cliffe and Her Quest to Protect Sloths (Millbrook, 2022) by Suzi Eszterhas.

Another outstanding wildlife photographer and author, Suzi Eszterhas also has a fascinating book with enchanting photographs and solid factual information about sloths. Her book, however, focuses on a scientist who is currently doing ground-breaking work studying this complex animal. Very little was actually known about sloths, partly because studying them is a difficult challenge. Eszterhas and Cliffe have become friends and the book presents an excellent look at what the work of a biologist is really like from examining sloth poo, to scaling giant trees to creating sloth backpacks to track and record daily activities of a wild sloth.

Cliffe, who wanted to be a scientist from a very young age, is also deeply involved in sloth conservation as these amazing creatures are threatened in their habitats.Information is provided on how young readers can help protect sloths and back matter includes a glossary, and list of additional resources.

These two outstanding books are must purchases and will have instant waiting lists!

How To Draw a Duck – Mr. McCloskey’s Marvelous Mallards

Lynn: November is Picture Book Month and what better way to celebrate than writing about a picture book that celebrates a classic and much-loved picture book? Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings (Viking, 1941) won the Caldecott and is still treasured by children. The story behind McCloskey’s book has been told in Leonard Marcus’ book, Caldecott Celebration (Walker, 2008) and now Emma Bland Smith brings that inspiring story to children in Mr. McCloskey’s Marvelous Mallards (Calkins Creek, 2022).

Having published his first book, young Robert McCloskey was searching for an idea for a second book. He remembered watching a pair of Mallards and their ducklings waddling into Boston’s Public Gardens all in row. Bingo! But getting the illustrations right turned out to be much harder. He sketched and sketched, only to have his editor, the legendary May Massee reject them all. McCloskey was determined to do better! He started by first bringing home a box of live ducklings to observe and sketch. Still not satisfied, he next brought home adult ducks to add to the chaos in his apartment before finally setting them all free on a pond at a friend’s home. This time his editor loved the sketches and text and an enchanting picture book came to life.

Smith tells this story wonderfully for children with just the right touch of humor and stressing McCloskey’s persistence and hard work to get the drawings just right. Illustrator Becca Stadtlander does a lovely job depicting the famous author/illustrator and his signature illustrations working in gouache and colored pencils in place of McCloskey’s iconic warm brown tones. It is a charming look at the artistic process as well as a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how a book is created. A perfect pairing of books for any story hour or classroom.

And, if you missed our earlier post, To McCloskey’s Ducklings with Love, check that out as well as Nancy Schon’s book Ducks on Parade about the sculptures of McCloskey’s ducks created for the Public Gardens in 1987.

True Courage and a New Leica – YA Nonfiction – Close-up On War

Lynn: Did you ever wonder where the term “snapshot” comes from? Mary Cronk Farrell includes this tidbit (from the sound made as a picture was taken and the film advanced) in her outstanding new book, Close-Up on War: the Story of Pioneering Photojournalist Catherine Leroy in Vietnam (Abrams/Amulet, 2022). This fascinating book is also a snapshot – a captured picture of a pivotal time and the determined woman who recorded it on film for the world to see.

French woman Catherine Leroy was just 21 years old when she arrived in Vietnam in early 1966. She spoke limited English, carried a new Leica camera she was still learning to use, and she was determined to make her way in what was then a man’s world of photojournalism. Barely 5 feet tall, slim and blonde, Catherine’s appearance belied her fierce ambition, persistence, initiative, and courage.

Farrell begins the book with an excellent and succinct overview of the history of Vietnam and the decades of conflict that had beset the area giving young readers a necessary background for a war that, while still painfully present for many of us, is ancient history to teens. Into this chaotic stew, Catherine Leroy arrived and the book then follows her from her early months struggling to win respect, get jobs, and make her way to the action. Farrell uses a wealth of primary sources including Catherine’s own letters to her mother, accounts from people who knew and worked with her, her articles, and a treasure trove of photographs.

Catherine was extremely humble and always gave credit to others but through these many sources, Farrell creates a sharp image of a remarkable woman, her struggles, obstacles, battle experiences, and the price she paid for her achievements. In her groundbreaking work, Catherine Leroy put an up-close and personal face on the distant war in Vietnam. She brilliantly caught the suffering and the human impact in her photography and brought it into the living rooms of America. Her work helped to align public understanding with the reality of that horrible war.

Wonderfully written and documented, Farrell has brought this important story to today’s young readers in an account that feels as if it is happening before our eyes. The included back matter is excellent. It includes an Author’s Note, lengthy glossary, timeline, and source notes. There is also a remarkably clear explanation titled “How a Camera Worked in 1960s” that will be eye-opening to teens accustomed to digital photography.

There are so many extraordinary photographs included in the book. Some are of Leroy, many are taken by her, and others are taken by others at the time. Abrams/Amulet has done an excellent job of book design and reproduction and this collection adds extraordinary interest and value to the book.

I am long-time admirer of Catherine Leroy and her work and of photography and photojournalism in general. For teens interested in these subjects, or in history or women’s history this is highly recommended. It will be an excellent resource for high school and college history classes as well.

A Perfect Spot – A Perfect Science Picture Book for Young Readers

Lynn:

I adore Isabelle Simler’s exquisitely beautiful illustrations! Each new book is a new and wondrous visual treat. Her newest, A Perfect Spot (Eerdmans, 2022) has instantly joined Plume, My Wild Cat, and The Blue Hour as some of my favorites.

Here, a tiny Seven Spotted Ladybug completes her metamorphosis and flies off looking for the perfect spot to lay her eggs. A twig, a rosebush, a tall oak, each looks safe but the instant she lands hidden insects reveal themselves. The tired ladybug finally finds a safe place and the cycle begins again.

This is a wonderful way to discuss camouflage and the ways insects employ it to stay hidden for safety or to hunt their prey. Each scene is meticulously detailed and the results are as informative as they are gorgeous.

Back matter includes larger illustrations of each of the insects in the story with accompanying scientific information. Did you know that you can tell the age of a Seven Spotted Ladybug by the depth of their color? This is a glorious purchase for any library and sure to delight young readers, especially those with a passion for insects.

Sweet Potato Pie and Sweet Justice

Lynn: Rosa Park’s name is familiar to most of our students but there were so many more people who sacrificed and worked to make the Montgomery Bus Boycott a success. Mara Rockliff brings us the sweet story of one important woman in the her new picture book, Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott (Random Studio, 2022).

Georgia Gilmore was a cook in a Montgomery restaurant in 1955 and when a bus driver took her dime and then drove away without her, she started her own personal boycott. Georgia was a big woman and after a hot day cooking her feet ached, but Georgia walked the long way home. In December, Georgia was joined by so many others as the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. But Georgia did so much more than walk. After a long day cooking her famous fried chicken and sweet potato pie, Georgia cooked in her own kitchen, selling her delicious food to raise money to support the boycott. When Dr. Martin Luther King was arrested, Georgia testified at his trial and then lost her job because of it. King gave her money to start her own restaurant and Georgia’s place became the gathering spot for planning and organizing as well as for enjoying her chocolate cakes and stuffed green peppers.

I loved this skillfully written story about a truly inspirational woman who remained important in Civil Rights movement after the boycott and who cooked wonderful meals right up to the day she died. Rockliff provides excellent back matter with additional information about Georgia, a note about her sources and an extensive list of sources.

R. Gregory Christie’s warm-toned illustrations are so moving and vibrant, bringing Georgia and her aching feet and generous heart to life. The only thing missing for me was a taste of that sweet potato pie!

Code Breaking: The Woman All Spies Fear

Cindy: We realize that many of you are already familiar with this 2022 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults finalist, but we have to talk about The Woman All Spies Fear (Random House Studios, 2021) by Amy Butler Greenfield anyway. Years ago, Lynn and I had a middle school girl who would only, and I mean ONLY, read books that featured math. In that pre-STEM publication world we struggled to keep her in books. Greenfield’s biography of code breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman would have pleased that student immensely. If you’ve ever struggled to solve a coded message, you’ll appreciate Friedman’s talent.

Elizebeth left Indiana in 1916, after earning a degree in English Literature and with a need to distance herself from a controlling father. Offered a strange job at a tycoon’s estate in Geneva, Illinois, the work at Riverbank would change the course of her life and help her discover her talent for code breaking. Colonel George Fabyan, the bizarre and also controlling millionaire, had many research teams working on his estate, but Elizebeth was put to work helping a team seeking to prove that Francis Bacon was the true author of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. The work involved looking for ciphers within the text and also introduced Elizebeth to the man she would marry and work alongside the rest of her life as cryptanalists. Shakespeare’s authorship was never debunked, but the work sparked an interest provided a valuable training ground for understanding ciphers.

As Greenfield sheds light on Elizebeth’s growing skills in code-breaking, she also throws some challenges to her readers as she explains the various types of codes. I found myself pulling out paper and pencil to work some of them myself, and I’m sure teen readers will do the same. Elizebeth and her husband William made a great team as code-breaking involves multiple skills and Elizebeth had a talent for intuition that was invaluable in their work. Working in the first half of the 20th century, she faced bigger challenges than the codes she untangled, that of being a working female in a man’s world. Many of her accomplishments went unrecognized, the credit claimed by the FBI or other agencies as the Friedman’s escaped from Fabyan’s grips and became successful code-breakers working for the government and military the rest of their careers. Her intelligence, tenacity, and dedication to her work are inspiring.

Lynn: Cindy is so right about how inspiring this incredible woman is! Amy Greenfield does a masterful job of presenting the many facets of Elizebeth’s life and abilities, and she had to decipher this information often from the smallest of hints or comments from Elizebeth’s letters and diaries. She and William spent a lifetime dealing with the weight of world-shaking secrets, life or death discoveries, and the binding need for utter secrecy—even from each other. For much of their later working life, they each carried this enormous mental weight alone. William’s mind crumpled at many times but Elizebeth soldiered on, always supportive of him and her family. That their love for each other only strengthened despite this wall of secrecy amazes me.

The treatment of Elizebeth in the workplace, the lack of recognition for her brilliant work and the ultimate outrage of the NSA’s seizure of their personal records is something that will horrify any reader. The fact that Elizebeth persevered, achieved marvels with her work, and remained steadfast, humble, and courageous is truly inspiring. I hope young readers will be as inspired by this woman as they are outraged by the obstacles she overcame.

This is a masterfully crafted work and a well-deserved finalist in the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. Greenfield carefully cited her sources, attributions, and conclusions—something of a work of crypto-analysis itself due to the intense secrecy surrounding Friedman’s work and life. It is a compelling story to read as well. A perfect choice for any high school collection and ideal for STEM collections as well.

Doing the Impossible – Neal Bascomb’s The Race of the Century

Lynn: Did you know that 70 years ago most people believed that running a mile in 4 minutes was impossible and beyond the limits of the human body? “It was something that God himself had established as man’s limit,” said one writer. But suddenly in 1952, three runners were poised to do just that. It did happen, of course. Two of the three broke the 4 minute mile in 1954. Today’s record is 3.143.13 seconds. How did mankind achieve this “unbreakable” speed? I am not a runner. My idea of exercise is a daily walk with my camera. But it is amazing the unfamiliar paths that a wonderful nonfiction writer will coax a reader to trod and thanks to Neal Bascomb’s latest book, The Race of the Century: the Battle to Break the 4 Minute Mile (Scholastic, March 2022), I have become fascinated with the amazing story of this ongoing battle of man running against the clock.

Bascomb chronicles the stories of 3 individual racers, Roger Bannister of England, Wes Santee, a Kansan and Australian John Santee. Each one found himself poised on the threshold of a ground-breaking achievement. All were amateurs in the strictest sense of the word. Bannister was finishing his medical training to become a physician, Landy was studying science at university and Santee was working his way through Kansas University while running on both the track and cross country teams. All three expected their athletic efforts to end on graduation. Suddenly all three were facing intense attention from the press and huge national expectations.Who would break the record first and how would he do it?

Bascomb follows each runner through their unique racing careers and experiences, detailing each man’s training regimes. Even to a non-runner, this was fascinating as each runner was remarkably different from the others. Imagine trying to do elite intense training in the little free time left available to a medical student in his last year of training and working as an intern! The moment by moment accounts of the pivotal races, each runner’s race strategies, physical struggles and mental preparations are presented in clear prose and for young runners, this part of the book will be especially absorbing.

For me as a non-runner, it was the individual personalities and their approaches to the challenge that were the most compelling. The stark contrast between the elite amateur runner in the ’50’s and the world class runners of today also stood out for me.

I read this book in galley and the included black and white photographs added so much. Bascomb, as always, does an excellent job of citing his sources in detailed chapter notes and the back matter also includes an Author’s Note and an intriguing bibliography.

Hand this book to young runners and to those teens who love historical nonfiction.

PHEW – A Picture Book About a Stinky Subject

Lynn: Say the word “poop” and you get every kid’s attention. But of course, the management and disposal of poop is a critically important health issue for people everywhere. So how do you help kids learn about the serious facts behind this stinky subject—all the while acknowledging that the giggles are inevitable? Colleen Paeff has the answer with her wonderful picture book, The Great Stink: How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London’s Poop Pollution Problem (S&S/Margaret McElderry, 2021). Paeff’s fascinating story of the brilliantly innovative engineer Joseph Bazalgette who truly saved London from its offal self is guaranteed to captivate and inform young readers—all without anyone having to hold their noses!

Told with a smile and engaging language, the history will make kids laugh but at the same time clearly delivers important facts about health and history. For most American kids, plumbing is a given and the protection the system provides us mostly out of mind with each flush. The reality for both history and many countries even today, is of course, another story.

Paeff focuses her story on London, beginning in 1500 with an introduction as to what passed for sanitation then. People in those days put human waste into deep cesspools in their basements and hired “nightsoil men” to come dig out and carry away the poop when it got too deep. Yuck!!! In 1819, when Bazalgette is born, flush toilets were just beginning to catch on but all the sewage goes directly into the Thames. A series of cholera outbreaks kills many Londoners who blame the disease on the bad air or misasmas while continuing to drink the polluted water. By 1850, Joseph Bazalgette, now an engineer, disagrees and he thinks he knows how to help.

But the city fathers didn’t agree and it took a lot of years, Bazalgette’s persistence, and a summer heat wave that produced an event called The Great Stink in 1858 to get his plan approved! But soon, thanks to Joseph Bazalgette, the London sewer system is flush with success!

Cindy: I don’t think I can keep up with Lynn’s stream of sewage metaphors but I do agree with her assessment of this important book. It’s hard to make such a putrid topic a joy to read, but Paeff has done it and Nancy Carpenter’s illustrations are the perfect touch to keep young readers flipping through the filth. The watercolor and ink artwork depict detailed scenes starting with the title page showing the royal “throne” occupied by the queen reading a newspaper! Plumbing pipes snake across later pages while earlier pages show Londoners using umbrellas to protect more from chamber pots being emptied than rain falling. Gross! But history isn’t always pretty, eh?

Knighted Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s story comes to an end in this book in 1874, but added backmatter includes an update on “Poop Polution Today” with tips for readers that include building a rain garden, planting trees, and touring a wastewater treatment plant, small acts to help prevent water pollution. There’s also a “Detailed Timeline,” a list of “Further Reading, and a “Selected Bibliography” for children and adults who want to learn more. My husband works in the wastewater industry, and we live on the water downriver from a large city that still struggles with sewage overflow into the river after big storms. Bazalgette was a hero, but it will take many more heroes to keep our waters safe. It’s never too early to be informed, and reading The Great Stink is a great start.