Author: Loree Burns

MADAM PRESIDENT, The Extraordinary, True (and Evolving) Story of Women in Politics
By Catherine Thimmesh
Illustrated by Douglas B. Jones
Houghton Mifflin, 2004

Category: Middle Grade Nonfiction

A super book for Super Tuesday …

I met with the one and only Erica Zappy yesterday so that we could hammer out a presentation we are giving together at the Cambridge Science Festival in May. (Details on that soon.) I came away, as I always do, wowed by Erica’s passion for her work. I also came away with a pile of great books (Thank You, Erica!) … including MADAM PRESIDENT.

“Revised and Updated” since its 2004 publication, the book is a compendium of the history of women in politics. Author and illustrator use a clever frame to organize their profiles of twenty-two female political pioneers: a sassy, contemporary young lady who declares in the book’s opening spread,

“When I grow up, I’m going to be the president of the United States.”

“You …?” she’s asked, “a … GIRL? Well, maybe you could marry a president …”

And so we meet first ladies with passion and grit: Abigail Adams, Edith Bolling Wilson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ladybird Johnson, Rosalyn Carter, and Hilary Rodham Clinton.

“And, of course, when you’re eighteen you can at least vote for the president …”

And we meet women who fought for our right to vote: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Charlotte Woodward, Susan B. Anthony, Sara Bard Field, Mrs. J.L. Burn.

Thimmesh and Jones go on to introduce Congresswomen, Cabinet women, female political candidates, and international leaders, each with the perfect amount of detail. I learned new things about women I admire, met women I had not known before, and was inspired by the sassy heroine and the brilliant final art spread (a photomosaic of the White House composed entirely from images of women) to wonder about my own place in women’s history.

So, Dear Readers, go forth today and read about amazing women.

Go forth today and vote.

And if you really want to make my day, go forth today and vote for an amazing woman:

FROGS
By Nic Bishop
Scholastic, 2008

Category: Nonfiction picture book

Nic Bishop’s name on the spine of a book is fast becoming the mark of a must-read for me. There are his “Scientists in the Field” books, of course. And there is SPIDERS, which just last month was awarded a Sibert Honor medal for excellence in children’s nonfiction. And now, there is FROGS. And it is S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G.

The format is the same as for SPIDERS (Is there a whole series planned? Oh, I hope so.). Bold-colored pages and pullouts (sentences visually pulled from the text by changing the font size and color) are superbly coupled with images of frogs … the gleeful leap of a grass frog, the pulsating-on-the-page underside of a glass frog, the wide grin of a satisfied horned frog. Simple backgrounds and incredible lighting give the images an artistic feel, and as a viewer/reader you have no choice but to sit in awe of the unfettered beauty of a frog. The effect is breath-catching.

FROGS got my highest seal of approval: today I bought a copy for me and a copy for my soon-to-be-six nephew. It’s that good.

To read about more great nonfiction for kids, visit today’s Nonfiction Monday roundup at the Anastasia Suen’s Picture Book of the Day blog. (The Roundup won’t be up until later in the day.)

WALT WHITMAN, Words For America
By Barbara Kerley
Illustrated by Brian Selznick
Scholastic Press, 2004

Category: Picture book biography

Happy Nonfiction Monday!

In a perfect world I would have prepared this inaugural Nonfiction Monday post last week, polished it over the weekend, and posted it before the sun was up this morning. But my world is decidedly imperfect: last week was mayhem, the weekend was chaos, and I am still not entirely certain where this morning has gone.

In times like these I find the best thing is to stop and breathe … and read a book. Today I picked up WALT WHITMAN. Picture book biographies are one of my favorite genres, and I have been meaning to read this once since Elizabeth Partridge recommended it. It feels right, too, that my first Nonfiction Monday post have a poetry connection. (Read why here.)

I often feel, when reading poetry, that I have been given a dozen pages from the middle of a breathtaking novel– the climax of the book, perhaps–but nothing more. The import of the pages is obvious; there is something exhilarating and nearly-meaningful in the words, but without the opening chapters to lay the groundwork and the final pages to lay out the resolution, I can’t quite understand what the author was trying to say. I end up feeling frustrated … and more than a little dense.

Today Barbara Kerley, Brian Selznick, and WALT WHITMAN changed all that. Today, after snuggling up with a picture book, I realized something important about poetry: context helps. And now I can read O Captain! My Captain! (printed, along with other poems cited in the text, in the backmatter of WALT WHITMAN) and understand, at long last, the mixture of joy and sorrow. Kerley and Selznick let me glimpse the heart and times of Walt Whitman, and this glimpse, in turn, gave me access to his poem.

Not bad for a children’s book, eh?

Hooray for Mondays, Nonfiction, and books that teach and center at the same time.

For a summary of today’s Nonfiction Monday posts, visit Anastasia Suen’s Roundup.