Take Me Out to the Ballgame
20 May 2011 2 Comments
in Picture Books, Sports, Spring stories Tags: Baseball, Colin Bootman, E.B. Lewis, Jackie Robinson, Major League Baseball, Richard Michelson, Sports
Peanuts, Cracker Jacks, and a good baseball story or two make for a fine afternoon, come rain or come shine. Even if you’re not a fan of the sport, you’ll find plenty to cheer about if you bypass most of the lackluster new titles in favor of these children’s books.
Uhlberg, Myron. Dad, Jackie, and Me. illus. by Colin Bootman. Peachtree, 2005. Ages 7-10. Don’t miss this fine historical fiction, set in the summer of 1947 in New York. Jackie Robinson, the new first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, has inspired a boy’s deaf father to follow baseball. The boy can barely believe his good luck when his dad gets tickets to see the Giants vs. Dodgers game at Ebbets Field. Uhlberg, who has written about growing up with his own deaf father, puts readers right there in the ballpark. At first the boy’s embarrassed as his father chants Jackie’s name as “AH-GHEE, AH-GHEE, AH-GHEE!” The excitement is contagious, though, and other fans join in. Adults reading this aloud to a group can invite children to join in, with some chanting “Jackie” while others say “Ah-ghee.” It’s impossible not to root for Robinson, especially as the author shows how the great player calmly persevered despite racist taunts from the Giants fans. The boy and his dad share much joy that season, filling scrapbooks with newspaper clippings and getting a special surprise at the end. Bootman’s realistic paintings capture the thrill of the game, as well as interesting details of the era. Schneider Family Book Award (2006). For younger children, try Luke Goes to Bat by Rachel Isadora.
Michelson, Richard. Across the Alley. illus. by E.B. Lewis. Penguin, 2006. Ages 6-9. Two boys, one Jewish and the other African-American, become friends, but they play only at night. Such are the constraints of their segregated world. Lewis, acclaimed for his illustrations, provides a memorable visual metaphor for the boys’ relationship, with his watercolor painting of the two playing catch between their windows. Willie’s dad, a starter in the Negro leagues, expects his son to play ball in the majors. Abe’s Jewish grandfather, a violinist before World War II, intends for his grandson to become a classical musician. At night, though, the boys trade for the hobby that suits each one. When Abe’s grandfather discovers Willie is a talented violinist, he asks him to play at the temple. People stare as Willie’s dad, Abe’s grandfather, and the boys walk there. Willie’s dad points out, “Ignorance comes in as many colors as talent.” Willie triumphs at the recital, and Abe enjoys the baseball game later that day. The loving families have found a way to honor not only the boys’ true talents and feelings, but also a way past the prejudice that surrounds them.
Older children might enjoy such novels as the delightful In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson and fiction by Fred Bowen, Matt Christopher, Dan Gutman, and Mike Lupica.
Amazing, Beguiling, Curious
16 May 2011 2 Comments
in Alphabet books, Animals Tags: ABC, Alan Schroeder, Alphabet book, Anne E.G. Nydam, Bob Raczka, Eugene Gagliano, Harriet Ziefert, John O'Brien, Stephen T. Johnson
Gagliano, Eugene. V is for Venus Flytrap: A Plant Alphabet . Sleeping Bear, 2009. Gagliano, a horticulturist, gives fascinating facts about the plant kingdom, including exotic species and their locations. In a child-friendly way, he also touches on plants’ role in a healthy lifestyle, how food crops fit into the global economy, and why conservation matters.
. Also seek out Johnson’s Caldecott Honor winner, Alphabet City (1995).Raczka features Twentieth-century sculpture, from the A shaped like an arrow to the Z in zig-zag form. He introduces readers to various styles of sculpture such as abstract, kinetic, and relief, and highlights the materials sculptors use.
ohn O’Brien. Holliday House, 2011.The author cleverly employs the format of an almanac in this amusing book spanning Ben Franklin’s amazing discoveries.
Bravo for this book and CD sparkling with star-power and a full cast of facts. Theater fans will pore over the theatrical lore, as well as the clever illustrations. Enhancing the experience is a CD of Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell singing “I Was Here,” adapted from a song in the musical The Glorious Ones.
Related articles
- Abc (superradnow.wordpress.com)
How Does Your Garden Grow?
10 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Picture Books, Poetry, Spring stories Tags: Carol Lerner, Christine Davenier, Erika Tamar, Garden, Henry Cole, Juanita Havill, Pat Mora, Peter Brown, Rafael Lopez
Spring’s beauty and late summer’s bounty both begin in the dirt — the darker the better. You can cultivate garden experiences with children by sharing books that celebrate the whole messy process. 
Brown, Peter. The Curious Garden. Little Brown, 2009. While Brown has gotten a lot of attention for his goofy, likable Children Make Terrible Pets (2010), this ecological fable is one to savor. Liam is exploring his drab city when he discovers plants growing on the old elevated railroad tracks. He decides to tend the patch, and the plants spread. What will happen, though, when winter comes? Spring delivers a big surprise, as other children join Liam in tending plants — and in transforming the city. In his note, Brown says he always wondered what would happen if an entire city were to cooperate with nature. This picture book invites us to imagine the possibilities.
Cole, Henry. On Meadowview Street. Greenwillow, 2007. Caroline and her family have moved to a new house in the suburbs. Noticing a flower in the middle of their lawn, she asks her dad to mow around it. The lone flower multiplies and gains companion flowers, and Caroline discovers birds and butterflies visiting her little wildflower plot. Soon her parents get inspired, and help her plant a shade tree and make a bird house. Now, instead of a boring lawn, they have a view of a lovely, biologically diverse meadow. For details on creating your own wildlife habitat, see the National Wildlife Federation site.
Havill, Juanita. I Heard It from Alice Zucchini: Poems About the Garden. illus. by Christine Davenier. Chronicle, 2006. Twenty fun poems celebrate the cycle of a garden, from winter’s seeds that “rattle their packets with chattering” to a potato buried in the snow.
Bright paintings and clear text point out flowers that attract butterflies and show how they grow, from caterpillars to proficient fliers. Each butterfly inside the book also appears on the endpapers, thereby inviting readers to play a matching game. Best of all, it might inspire you and your children to create your own butterfly garden.
Mora, Pat. Yum! MmMm! Que Rico!: America’s Sproutings. illus. by Rafael López. Lee & Low, 2007. Enjoy the fruits of farmers’ labors with this collection of haiku lauding the attributes of foods native to the Americas. Each poem is accompanied by information on the food’s origins and uses. Tasty topics include the papaya, the blueberry, chile, corn, cranberry, pecan, pineapple, potato, prickly pear, pumpkin, tomato, vanilla, and chocolate. López adds appeal with his vivid, Latin-flavored paintings. Américas Award winner.
Tamar, Erika. The Garden of Happiness. Harcourt Brace, 1996. An inspiring story of how Marisol and her neighbors create a lush community garden out of a vacant lot.
Beauty in Numbers
02 May 2011 6 Comments
in Biographies/Autobiographies, Nonfiction, Picture Books Tags: Arabic numerals, Fibonacci, Franklin Institute, HarperCollins, Limits on e-books, Math, Middle Ages, Nature
D’Agnese, Joseph. Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci. Illus. by John O’Brien. Holt, 2010. 
Once upon a time in medieval Italy, there lived a boy named Leonardo Fibonacci who loved numbers. He spent so much time thinking about numbers, people called him a blockhead.
As an adult, Fibonacci traveled far and wide and noticed how some people wrote numbers in other, sometimes better ways — the Hindu-Arabic numerals, for instance. He marveled as he discovered that many living things exhibited a numerical pattern. O’Brien’s atmospheric, detailed pen-and-ink and watercolor paintings evoke the wonder of the man who became known as the greatest Western mathematician of the Middle Ages. D’Agnese’s accessible and engaging biography of this intriguing man provides educators with a fun way to teach a number of mathematical concepts. Flowers with eight petals, lemons with eight sections, clovers with three leaves: these are all Fibonacci numbers. Then there are Finbonacci spirals to find: in a ram’s horn, an ocean wave, an unfurling fern. Teachers can employ a range of activities, from nature walks to photography to poetry exercises to open children’s eyes to the patterns around us. Fibonacci’s in the air!
For more on D’Agnese, check out this interesting interview. Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci is also available as a CD/book or as a DVD (16:20 min.), with an online teacher’s guide from Spoken Arts.
Educators, check out Nature’s Numbers , lesson plans from the Franklin Institute, and “Developing Young Scientists” from the National Gardening Association’s Curriculum Connections.
Pair Blockhead with Sarah C. Campbell’s gorgeous Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature, 2011 Outstanding Science Trade Book for Students K-12.
Related Articles
Can Publishers Make E-Books Self-Destruct? Librarians Fight Back. How’s this for working the numbers? 
HarperCollins is pushing a policy that limits libraries to only 26 check-outs for electronic books. After that, they disappear! If you think this is a bad deal for readers, click on the link and sign the petition. Then share it with others.
- Divine Composition With Fibonacci’s Ratio (The Rule of Thirds on Steroids) (digital-photography-school.com)
- Numbers in Nature – the Movie (delamagente.wordpress.com)
