Finding Narnia

The Story of C.S. Lewis
and His Brother

Roaring Brook Press
(MacKids)
(pub. 11.19.2019) 
48 pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Caroline McAlister
 and illustrator:  Jessica Lanan

 
C haracter: C.S. Lewis and Warnie Lewis

O verview: 
     "Before C.S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, he was a young boy named Jack who spent his days dreaming up stories of other worlds filled with knights, castles, and talking animals.
     His brother, Warnie, spent his days imagining worlds filled with trains, boats, and technology.
     One rainy day, they found a wardrobe in a little room next to the attic, and they wondered, What if the wardrobe had no end?"

T antalizing taste: 
     "Another terrible war broke out. Families in London sent their children to the countryside to  be safe from the bombs. On Sundays, Jack noticed the church was full of refugee children, squirming uncomfortably on unfamiliar pews among unfamiliar people. He didn't know much about children, but he figured he and Warnie could help out.
     That's how two girls came to stay with Jack and Warnie. One rainy day, the girls were exploring the house, and they found the old wardrobe..."

And something more: Caroline McAlister's Author's Note explains that "Different groups of children arrived throughout the war, and Warnie met many of them. We don't know exactly which ones gave Jack the idea for the premise for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Perhaps it was more than one that asked about the old wardrobe." In these days of "shelter in place", it's nice to imagine stepping into a wardrobe into another world.

Fallingwater

The Building of Frank Lloyd Wright's
Masterpiece

Roaring Book Press
(MacMillan)

(pub.10.17.2017)

40 pages

A True Tale with
A Cherry On Top   

A uthors: Marc Harshman

                  & Anna Egan Smucker

      and art: LeUyen Pham

C haracter: Frank Lloyd Wright

O verview from the jacket flap: 

     "In the wooded heart of Pennsylvania a house perches atop a waterfall. The water's tune echoes through its sunlight-dappled rooms and the facade blends effortlessly into the rock and forest behind it. This is Fallingwater, an architectural masterpiece born from the marriage of meticulous research and unbounded imagination, the legacy of the lauded American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

     This stunning picture book ... guides readers through Wright's process designing Fallingwater, from his initial inspiration to the home's breathtaking culmination. It is an exploration of the creative process; a celebration of potential and the vision required to unlock it. Graceful prose and rich, dynamic illustrations breathe life into the story of Wright and Fallingwater, a man and a home utterly unlike any other."

T antalizing taste:        

 

"Now concrete wings

and long, flat roofs
step up the hillside.

In the thundering water,
scaffolding spreads its spindly legs.

Like branches extending 
from a tree,
the house stretches out over the falls."

 

and something more: I was intrigued by the illustration process described in the Artist's Note written by LeUyen Pham: "I have long been an admirer of the architecture of Frank Lloyd wright, but my favorite among his buildings has always been Fallingwater. Of all those he designed, it is the one that best connects the structure to the environment.  
       While visiting, I spent hours going over each of the rooms of the house lingering on the terraces for as long as I was permitted, sketching on site as much as possible, and memorizing details of the exterior where cameras weren't allowed. I also spent days going over architectural drawings piecing together one level to another... 
       Wright was a controversial figure... [R]everence for his art, however, remains intact. It was his amazing sense of design, inspired greatly by his love of Japanese prints, that most influenced how I painted these images. His devotion to simple lines and clean treatment of materials - stone, glass, metal - has kept his buildings alive decades after their construction."

Flying Solo

How Ruth Elder Soared
into America's Heart

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Roaring Brook Press

(Macmillan Publishers)

(pub.7.23.2013) 32 pages

A True Tale with 

A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Julie Cummins
           and Illustrator: Malene R. Laugesen

    

C haracter: Ruth Elder

O verview from the jacket flap: 

    "In 1927, women were supposed to stay at home, mostly in the kitchen, with their feet planted firmly on the ground. But one woman proved that she could do anything a man could do - even fly an airplane. Before Amelia Earhart made her name crossing the Atlantic Ocean, Ruth Elder set out to beat her to the record. She didn't make it, but she flew right into the spotlight and America's heart.

     This is the story of a remarkable woman who chased her dreams with grit and determination and whose appetite for adventure helped pave the way for generations of female flyers."

T antalizing taste: 

     "By nature, spunky Ruth wasn't easily cowed, but during the race she had a standoff with real cattle. On the second day, temperatures climbed to 120 degrees, causing extreme turbulence. The strong wind blew her maps over the side of the plane, and she landed in a farmer's field to get her bearings and fill her water bottle. As luck would have it, cattle were grazing in the pasture ... 

      But the farmer's wife was a bigger threat. Washing clothes outside in a washtub, she marched over to the plane and yelled at Ruth for scaring the cattle. Ruth didn't dillydally; she just swung the plane around and took off!"

and something more: I particularly liked that Flying Solo features a woman, Ruth Elder, who sought to be the first to cross the Atlantic and win the Powder Puff Derby. She wasn't the first or the winner, but she's recognized for trying and for what she did accomplish which was for a woman to be "flying airplanes [at a time when it was considered] not just daring but outright shocking." 

       The lovely dedication in Flying Solo by the author, Julie Cummins says it all: "To the young women who see the horizon of their dreams and soar toward it - fly, girls, fly!"  

When The Beat Was Born

DJ Kool Herc and 
the Creation of Hip Hop

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Roaring Brook Press (MacMillan)

(pub. 8.27.2013)  32 pages

A True Tale with 
A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Laban Carrick Hill
           and Illustrator: Theodore Taylor III

    

C haracter:  DJ Kool Herc

O verview from the jacket flap: 

"DJ Kool Herc lived in the Bronx, where there was a lot of fighting. But he didn't want to fight. He wanted to play music.

DJ Kool Herc had a new way of spinning records. He played the breaks of songs back-to-back so that the music best for dancing could go on and on...

This is the story of DJ Kool Herc. The story of how he came to be a DJ, how kids in his neighborhood stopped fighting in order to break-dance, and how he invented a new kind of music that would change the world.

This is the story of hip hop."

T antalizing taste: 

     "Clive loved music. It didn't matter what kind. Whether it was a wah wah scat of a jiving trumpet, a sorrowful twang of sad voice, or the belting boom of a gospel singer, little Clive loved the way sound thumped and bumped all the way down in his stomach. he loved the way the music made his feet go HIP HIP HOP, HIPPITY HOP."

and something more: In the Author's Note, Laban Carrick Hill writes that in 1980 he had a job that "entailed walking block by block through Harlem and the South Bronx... In the late afternoon, I would approach a corner and hear a loud thumping. The booming would be so deep that it would almost shake the ground... When I came around that corner I saw fifty or so teens dancing some of the most amazing dances I had ever seen. The dances defied gravity and human flexibility. The performances were miraculous feats of physical agility. And they were all done to the beat of records spun by a DJ." As he explained, it was "a youth movement that was the antithesis of gang violence."  Laban Carrick Hill "was so captivated by the music and the dancing that [he] started going to clubs... and heard the story of DJ Kool Herc."  
     

The Boy Who Loved Math

The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos

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kidlit blogs hosted today
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Roaring Brook Press (MacMillan)

(pub. 6.25.2013)  44 pages

A True Tale with 
A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Deborah Heiligman 
           and Illustrator: LeUyen Pham

    

C haracter:  Paul Erdos - mathematician 

O verview from the back cover: 

      "There once was a boy named Paul who loved math. He spent his days calculating, counting and thinking about numbers.
       He couldn't tie his shoes or butter his own toast - sometimes the world just didn't seem like it was made for a boy who only thought about math all day long.
      This is the story of how Paul found his own way in the world by making friends and sharing his ideas, and how he grew to become one of the world's most famous an beloved mathematicians."
  

T antalizing taste: 

     "He was the kind of person to do math.  All of the time. And he still didn't like to follow rules.
     So he invented his own way to live.
     Here is what he did... He flew across the world, from Toronto to Australia. 'I have no home,' he declared. 'The world is my home.'
     And wherever he went, when he got there, the same thing would happen.
     A mathematician would meet him and take him home. The mathematician and Paul worked on math. Paul played with the mathematician' epsilons. That's what Paul called children, because an epsilon is a very small amount in math...
     Why did friends all over the world put up with him? And take care of him? Call him Uncle Paul and love him?
     Because Paul Erdos was a genius - and he shared his brain... and his money, too. Whatever money he had, he gave away. He gave money to poor people and he offered prize money for unsolved math problems.
     Paul said he never wanted to stop doing math. And he didn't."

and something more: 
     What a terrific book to entice kids to love math! 
     I was interested to read Deborah Heiligman's explanation in "A Note From the Author" as to why she wrote this book: "When I was a child I loved math as much as I loved reading the writing. But as I got older, I started to think that math was for other people not me. So how did I come to write a book about a brilliant and important mathematician? All the credit goes to my sons... Paul [Erdos] demonstrated that math could be fun and social. If he weren't already depicted as a saint on a church wall (in San Francisco), I'd lobby for it."  I'm heading to this Potrero Hill church to check out this artwork!
     I too have two sons who love math, and I can't wait to ask them if they know about Paul Erdos. And, I want to know if their math teachers ever mentioned if they had an "Erdos number."  Deborah explains the concept of the Erdos Number in The Boy Who Loved Math: " All over the world mathematicians still talk about and love Uncle Paul. Even people who never met him. They talk about their 'Erdos number. If you did math with Paul you get an Erdos number of 1. If you worked with someone who worked with Paul, your Erdos number is 2. People are so proud of their Erdos numbers." I laughed when I read Deborah's jacket flap bio: "While researching this book, Deborah was told she might receive a special Erdos number of 1.5. That would make her infinitely happy." And she would deserve it! 

Abe Lincoln's Dream

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Roaring Brook Press

(pub. 10.16.12) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor and illustrator: Lane Smith

C haracter: fictional girl with ghost of Abe Lincoln

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "How long should a man's legs be? [answer: long enough to reach the floor]

       The 16th president had recurring dreams, liked corny jokes, and now his ghost paces the White House fretting about the state of the union. It takes a a little girl on a school tour - armed with a few corny jokes of her own - to answer his questions and settle his spirit.

        From one of our most celebrated picture book artists comes an affectionate ode to our most celebrated president and the nation he shaped. Inspired by true stories and White House trivia, Lane Smiths' Lincoln takes flight with characteristic humor and extraordinary artistry."

        

T antalizing taste: 

           "Then one day a girl wandering from her tour discovered a tall man standing over the Gettysburg address.'

           'Hi,' said Quincy.

           'Hello, child,' he said.

            He was dressed in black from hat to boot, but she wasn't frightened; he had a long face that made her feel sorry for him.

            'Are you lost?' she asked.

            'I don't think so,' he said, walking through a wall.

         

and something more: I was intrigued to learn that Lane Smith's wife, Molly Leach, is the designer of his creative whimsical books, including Abe Lincoln's Dream. I loved what he wrote about her on his website: [She's the] greatest book designer working today. She has designed nearly all of my books. When she designed the Stinky Cheese Man back in 1992 folks called it a 'watershed moment.' Suddenly every designer wanted to make books with crazy type and upside-down pages. The problem is it is very hard to do unless you know how. Molly knows how. She is also very funny and very pretty...She makes everything I do 100 times better but since most people don’t know what a designer does, I usually get all the credit. This isn’t fair." Well, here's to both Molly Leach AND Lane Smith -- a great team!

Django

World's Greatest Jazz Guitarist

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday 
hosted today by proseandkahn

 

 Roaring Brook Press Flash Point (MacMillan)

(pub. 9.1.2009)  32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top 

A uthor and illustrator: Bonnie Christensen

    
C haracter: Django Reinhardt

 

O verview from jacket flap: 

      "'When I think about the best guitar players ever, the first name that comes to mind is Django Reinhardt. No one has ever equaled his sound or technique.' - Willie Nelson

     Born into extreme poverty in a gypsy encampment, Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) overcame tremendous obstacles, including a debilitating injury, to become the world's most acclaimed jazz guitarist."

 

T antalizing taste: 

       "Djano doesn't hear the chatter
        Listening to the saxes sigh.
        Trombones moan, clarinets wail
        Jazz riffs curling through the night.

        Jazz Americain, jazz like Django -
                      moving bending
                      changing blending
        Try that rhythm, stretch that measure,
        syncopation.  Twist that line."    

and something more: I recently saw Picasso's Guitars exhibit at MOMA in New York, and was struck by the beauty of his various interpretations of guitars, mostly in a cubist style.  In the exhibit catalog, I read that although he wasn't particularly interested in music, Picasso was drawn to flamenco music -- the guitar music of Spanish gypsies.  And then I found this wonderful nonfiction picture book biography, Django, by Bonnie Christensen about a gypsy guitarist -- isn't it funny how ideas seem to attract similar ideas?  Serendipity!