Nonfiction Monday - Locomotive

Floca, Brian. Locomotive. New York, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2013.

            2014 Caldecott Medal / Sibert Honor Book

                        A lyrical description of a train trip by two children (boy and girl) and their mother across the Great Plains to San Francisco (to meet their father who is pictured, but not mentioned in the text) during the summer of 1869, soon after the Union Pacific joined with the Central Pacific which connected eastern trains to the Pacific ocean.
 Extensive notes at the end of the book explain the background of train travel at this time period.  Floca, who illustrated as well as wrote this book, takes advantage of his complete control by playing with the typeface to give even more emphasis to certain parts of the tale – especially the sound effects.

                        CLANK CLANK CLANK!

                        Men came from far away

                        to build from the East,

                        to build from the West,

                        to meet in the middle.

                  It’s not poetry, but it is rhythm. “…the passengers, have packed and shipped and sold their things, all their things, everything.” (I love this repetition, this interior rhyme pattern.) Unfortunately, there is no information about the people’s responses to this mode of travel, even though the illustrations feature this family. The text focuses on facts about the train and the illustrations show this trip across America. (I would love to know what created the land formation called the Devil’s Slide.) Even the endpapers will fascinate the train aficionado illustrating the route and showing how fire and steam propel the engine. A good example of illustrations being part of the story and extending it.

Did you agree with the Caldecott awards this year?

Wow
Take a look at the differences of opinion in the comments on this discussion of the Caldecott medal winners here on the Horn Book blog today.

Not everyone agrees with the committee's choices.  But that's normal.
The intenseness of this discussion by some of the top people in children's publishing is outstanding, however.  Some people are even calling this a Blog War.
Do click on over.
And join the discussion.

Newbery/ Caldecott predictions?

Click on the link to check out the books Super Librarian, Betsy Bird has her list of what she considers the contenders for the Newbery/ Caldecott medal awards.

Here's another article , this time from NPR, featuring a few of the wonderful picture books that might win the Caldecott medal on Monday.

Be sure to check the ALA website to watch the award announcement (beginning 8 am eastern standard time) or check the website later to read the list of award winners on their publicity announcement.

It's always men winning the big awards?

True or false:
Do men have a better chance at winning the big awards (and thus reaping the monetary benefits that go along with that from book sales and invitations to speak at events) than women?

This discussion has been going on for quite some time and one of the best places to read about it is on the Horn Book blog, Calling Caldecott.
What do you think?

Here's a link to another article about this problem:  On her blog, One Minute Book Reviews, Janice Harayda talked about the problem after seeing the complete sweep of the Caldecott awards by male illustrators in 2012.

(ah only one of the books shown here have been illustrated by men. Bad example)

And, along with that -- what books do you think the Caldecott committee of ALA will chose this year? What picture books stand out in your mind.
(and now that you are thinking about it -- which ones of those have been illustrated by men?)

Writing a Newbery Winner

If you were an Annimorphs fan some years ago, you already know who Katherine Applegate is.  Therefore it should be no surprise to you that her latest book, The One and Only Ivan, won the top award in children's literature -- the Newbery Award -- this week.   Here's a link the the Publisher's Weekly magazine article about it.

It's another example of a writer who didn't give up, but kept writing and rewriting until the story was the best it could be.

And here's an interview of the double Caldecott winner, Jon Klassen. (one of Jon Klassen's books won the major award and another book he illustrated won a Caldecott honor.)

Nonfiction Monday -- Snowflake Bentley

Well, if you've been following this blog, you know that we've had quite a snowstorm here in Maryland. My house had about 20 inches and it looks like my library has had about a foot. (The library is near the bay, so it gets less snow.)

Strangely enough, I like snow. (Except when we're told to report to work and get to sit in a neighboring parking lot because the library's lot and sidewalks hadn't been cleared yet.)

One of the things I like about snow is its variety. Check out various websites that show the many different words describing snow by people who live near the Arctic circle. Inuit/ Lapland/ and others. (I was going to link to one, but he says the language is Eskimo, which is NOT their proper name.)

For this nonfiction Monday, I'd like you to check the Caldecott winner of 1999 -- Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, Illustrated by Mary Azarian. (She's the one who got the medal) Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. Available in your library, or any bookstore will order it for you.

Once there was a boy who loved snow. (like me) When he was 17 years old, his parents bought him a camera. Since he lived in the late 1800s, it was a huge camera that used glass negatives. He figured out how to photograph snowflakes and discovered that no two snowflakes are alike! The book of his snowflake photographs, Snow Crystals, is still available and would be a wonderful secondary source to share with the child who reads Bentley's biography.

Although the 'story' part of the biography uses simplified sentences and is quite short, there are sidenotes on all the pages giving more facts.
Enjoy the snow.
Enjoy reading about snowflakes.

The Nonfiction Monday roundup is at SimplyScience today.
-wendieOld