Blog Tour and Giveaway: Hero for the Hungry: The Life and Work of Norman Borlaug by Peggy Thomas, illustrated by Sam Kalda

Welcome to the Hero for the Hungry Blog Tour!

Follow along all week for exclusive guest posts from author Peggy Thomas, plus 5 chances to win Hero for the Hungry (on shelves 9/1)!

Hero For the Hungry Resource List
by Peggy Thomas

Like most nonfiction authors, I dive deep into my research. There is just so much to learn besides the basics. For Hero for the Hungry, I not only had to learn about the man, Norman Borlaug, but I also had to understand the times he lived in, the anatomy of wheat, how to breed plants, characteristics of bread, etc. Of course, not everything fit into the storyline, and there was too much to put in the backmatter, so I created a resource list of related books, videos, games, activities and even a rap song sure to rev up even the most reluctant reader. 

1. The Kid Who Changed the World by Andy Andrews and illustrated by Philip Hurst is a picture book, but it reveals how Norman was influenced by others like Henry A. Wallace and George Washington Carver. 

2. Play It Hard - Norman Borlaug 100 Year Tribute is a short clip of Norman discussing his work. It was created by the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement and Biology Fortified to celebrate what would have been Norm’s 100th birthday. Although the dialogue has been jazzed up, you’ll get to hear Norm’s voice and sense his enthusiasm. 

3. Wheat Ag Mag is a downloadable pdf all about growing wheat in America. Get the stats, the facts, or purchase a stack for the classroom.  

4. Wheat Crossing is an Ag Science video that I watched several times to learn the step-by-step process of crossing two different varieties of wheat. While you watch, just imagine Norm having to do this thousands of times!

5. Enjoying the Harvest lesson plan includes milling your own flour. Kids will be amazed at how much grain is needed to make enough flour for a loaf of bread. 

6. Loaves of Fun by Elizabeth Harbison is a hands-on history of bread. Once you’ve milled your own flour try baking one of the recipes in this book. 

7. My American Farm is a collection of games created by the American Farm Bureau for grades Pre-K to 5. Explore poultry, ag technology, international trade, water conservation, ranching, and much more. I particularly liked Seeds to Shirt. 

8. The Story of Wheat For Kids is a downloadable pdf from the Nebraska Wheat Board. It includes coloring sheets, crossword puzzles, and other activities. 

9. Norman Borlaug’s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech can be used as a call to action to follow in Norm’s footsteps and end world hunger. 

10. The Norman Borlaug Rap was created by MC Tractor and DJ Redd. Listen and follow along with the lyrics. It’s catchy! 
 

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Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

Can a quiet Iowa farm boy grow up to change the world? Norman Ernest Borlaug did. Norman Borlaug was the Father of the Green Revolution, saved millions from starvation, and won the Nobel Prize.

How? Science, true American grit, and a passion for helping those in need.

Born in 1914, raised on a small farm, and educated in a one-room schoolhouse, Norman Borlaug learned to work hard and excelled in sports. Against odds and adversity, Norm studied forestry and eventually became a plant scientist, dedicating his life’s work to ending world hunger. Working in obscurity in the wheat fields of Mexico, Norm and his team developed disease-resistant plants, and when widespread famine threatened India and Pakistan, Norm worked alongside poor farmers and battled bureaucracy to save millions from mass starvation. Often called the “Father of the Green Revolution,” Norm helped lay the groundwork for agricultural technological advances that alleviated world hunger. He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1970. He was a true hero for the hungry.

Can pursuing science help you and your future generation? This book is sure to inspire young learners!

Sidebars include topics such as a deeper dive into the science Norm was using to produce new and better wheat varieties, agronomy, wheat genes, stem rust, nutrients and more. Back matter includes a timeline of events and discoveries and a call to action for readers to use science to solve problems and do small things to help with hunger and food waste.

Hero for the Hungry is excellent for a science class learning about genetics, an agriculture class studying agronomy, or a history or English class looking for a well-written biography on a hero scientist.

About the Author

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Peggy Thomas has always loved true stories, and can’t remember a time when she wasn’t thrilled to find animal bones, musty encyclopaedias, or a history plaque by the side of the road. It's that same curiosity that has fueled the research and writing of more than twenty nonfiction books for children.

With a master’s degree in anthropology, Peggy explores a wide range of subjects, blending history and science to create award-winning titles. Her most recent books include Lincoln Clears a Path (Calkins Creek, 2021) and Full of Beans: Henry Ford Grows a Car (Calkins Creek, 2019), which earned NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book, 2020 Best Book from the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture, and Book of the Year from the Henry Ford Heritage Association.

Peggy is a member of SCBWI, a blogger for Nonfiction Ninjas, and on the creative team behind Nonfiction Fest, a month-long celebration of writing nonfiction for children.

About the Illustrator

Website | Twitter | Instagram

Sam Kalda is an illustrator and artist based in Saint Paul. His commissioned works include editorial, book, advertising and pattern illustration. In 2017, he received a gold medal in book illustration from the Society of Illustrators in New York. He also won a medal from the Cheese Club in college for being able to identify the most amount of, well, cheeses. His first book, Of Cats and Men: History's Great Cat-loving Artists, Writers, Thinkers and Statesmen, was published by Ten Speed Press in 2017. He recently illustrated his first picture book, When We Walked on the Moon, written by David Long and published by Wide Eyed Press in 2019, as well as the follow-up, When Darwin Sailed the Sea.

He lives in an old house with his husband and two cats, Arthur and Frances. In their role as studio assistants, the cats specialize in houseplant demolition and pencil relocation. He enjoys futzing around in his garden, going to estate sales, and taking long walks. So basically, when he's not working, he's retired. He's taught at CUNY Queens College and Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

About the Publisher

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Feeding Minds Press is a project of the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture, whose mission is to build awareness and understanding of agriculture through education. We focus on helping young readers understand where their food comes from, who grows it, and how it gets to them and believe in cultivating curiosity about food and farming and how agriculture plays a role in our daily lives. All books from Feeding Minds Press have accompanying lessons, activities, and videos to further learning available on their website, www.feedingmindspress.com.

 

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GIVEAWAY

• One (1) winner will receive a finished copy of Hero for the Hungry
• US/Can only
• Ends 9/11 at 11:59pm ET
• Enter via the Rafflecopter below
• Visit the other stops on the tour for more chances to win!

 

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Blog Tour Schedule:

August 29th — Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers
August 30th — Mom Read It
August 31st — A Dream Within A Dream
September 1st — Randomly Reading
September 2nd —YA Books Central

King Sejong Invents an Alphabet by Carol Kim, illustrated by Cindy Kang

 

King Sejong Invents an Alphabet by Carol Kim,

illustrated by Cindy Kang

Albert Whitman & Company, 2021, 32 pages

This is the story of a king who loved books and reading so much he wanted to share that love with all the people in his kingdom. But how could he do that when Korean had no alphabet?  Born in Gyeongbakgung Palace in 1397, as a boy, Yi Do loved to read. And he was lucky, because only those who were a members of the royal court could learn how to read, because that required knowing how to read and write Hanja, the complex Chinese characters that were used in Korea because there was no Korean alphabet. Unfortunately, that meant that most people in Korea could not read since learning Hanja required time and money.

Even after his father hide his books, young Yi Do was overjoyed to find one book that had been missed. He loved books and learning so much that he read the missed book over and over. Years later, his father realized how valuable his son's love of learning was, believing it  would make him a good leader and chose him to be the next king at age 21, changing his name to Sejong. After an unfortunate incident between a father and son,  Sejong had a book printed and given out all over the country in an effort to teach the people to honor their parents. But no one could read the book because no one knew how to read Hanja. 

Dismayed, Sejong realized that what Korean needed was its own alphabet instead of the complex Hanja characters. But how does one invent an alphabet that would match the spoken Korean language and be easy to learn? And how to do it secretly since the yangban or ruling class didn't want to give any power to the people or sangmin class.

Sejong spent many years working in secret on a Korean alphabet and finally in 1443, he released an alphabet of twenty-eight letters, which was later called Hangeul or "the great script." And yes, the yangban did protest the use of the alphabet, but now that they could read, imagine how much the lives of the Korean people were improved. All thanks to one young boy's love of books, reading, and learning and wanting to share that.

King Sejong Invents an Alphabet is a deceptively simple yet very informative biography of both King Sejong and the Hangeul alphabet. Coupled with Carol Kim's engaging text works in harmony with Cindy Kang's colorfully detailed illustrations that reflect Korean life in the 15th century. 

Back matter includes more information about the Hangeul alphabet and why it is an ingenious design, its fate after King Sejong died and the long journey to its acceptance, as well as Selected Sources and Source Notes.

This is an excellent book to include in diverse libraries, whether public, school or home libraries. 

Thank you, Edelweiss+ for providing me with a digital ARC of this book.

Breaking Through the Clouds: The Sometimes Turbulent Life of Meteorologist Joanne Simpson by Sandra Nickel, illustrated by Helena Perez Garcia

 

Breaking Through the Clouds:

The Sometimes Turbulent Life of Meteorologist Joanne Simpson

written by Sandra Nickel, illustrated by Helena Perez Garcia

Abrams BFYR, 2022, 48 pages

Available March 8, 2022

Who among us hasn't spent time as a child laying in the grass, looking up at the sky and gazing at the clouds floating by? I know I have and so did young Joanne Simpson. For Joanne, the cloud watching offered an a respite from her mother's cold, harsh words, criticizing her for being so stubborn. But, it was that stubbornness that carried Joanne through to achieve her dream of studying clouds. Attending college at the University of Chicago finally gave her a real escape from her mother, and just before WWII, famed meteorologist Carl-Gustaf Rossby arrived in the US and taught Joanne enough about weather to allow her to teach officers about it for the war effort. 

After the war, Joanne wanted to study more about clouds but she was laughed at by the men at the university. Clouds weren't really that important. In fact, Rossby even told her to go home, saying "No woman ever got a doctorate in meteorology. And no woman ever will." But Joanne was stubborn. She continued to study clouds, discovering some surprising properties about them. Finally, after presenting her finding to the professors at the university, Joanne had indeed earned a doctorate of meteorology, the first woman to do so. 

Returning home to Wood's Hole, Massachusetts, Joanne continued to study clouds, discovering more and more surprising things about them. Unafraid, she would fly under, over and through all kinds of clouds, including the scary cumulonimbi clouds filling with gusting winds and rain, eventually coming to understand the power of these massive clouds. 

Joanne continued to work and study clouds for the rest of her life. And eventually, even Rossby knowledged her work as valuable, and giving her access to his massive computer.  

This picture book biography for older readers is a fascinating and inspiring look at the life of Joanne Simpson. Faced with all kinds of negativity that might have prevented someone a little less stubborn from achieving their dreams, Joanne is a shining example of determination and persistence. In other words, stubbornness. 

One of the things I really liked about the way Joanne's life was presented were the many weather related metaphors that the author used. It's a wonderful way to get kids to understand not just metaphors, but also a topic about which they may have no other knowledge. For example: "By the time Joanne was ten, she had learned her mother's words could be icier that the coldest winds." 

Nickel's text is accompanied by detailed layered and textured gouache illustrations, some full page, other spot images, but all done in a complimenting brightly colored palette. 

Back matter consists of an Author's Noted, accompanied by photographs of Joanne Simpson at work, a Selected Bibliography and a Timeline of Joanne Simpson's Life.  

Meet the Author: 

Sandra Nickel says that story ideas are everywhere; you just have to reach out and grab them.  She holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her first book, Nacho’s Nachos: The Story Behind the World’s Favorite Snack, was awarded a Christopher Award and was a Golden Kite Award finalist. Sandra lives in Chexbres, Switzerland, where she blogs about children’s book writers and illustrators at whatwason.com. To learn more, visit https://sandranickel.com/. 

 

Twitter:  @senickel

Facebook: @sandranickelbooks

Instagram: @sandranickelbooks

 

Check out the trailer and other cool resources here!

Thank you, Barbara Fisch @BlueSlipMedia for providing a copy of this book.

Inspiring words from Joanne Simpson, perfect for Women's History Month:

The Faith of Elijah Cummings: The North Star of Equal Justice by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Laura Freeman

 

The Faith of Elijah Cummings: The North Star of Equal Justice

written by Carole Boston Weatherford,

illustrated by Laura Freeman

Random House Studio, 2022, 40 pages

Carole Boston Weatherford's picture book biography about Elijah Cummings begins with the front endpapers - a bold American flag that just as boldly represents everything he believed in and fought for.  Elijah's parents were originally sharecroppers on land that their enslaved ancestors had worked on in South Carolina. In the 1940s, they decided that they and their children would have a better chance at life if they moved north to Maryland. It was seven children and two adults living in very cramped quarters, but Robert and Ruth Cummings has faith in their decision. 

Elijah, who had difficulties in school, found solace and help in the public library, where librarians would stay after work to tutor him. But in the summer of 1962, when he was 11, Elijah participated in a protest with other African American kids to integrate a Baltimore city pool. The demonstration was organized by Juanita Jackson Mitchel, a civil rights lawyer. Learning that he had rights he would have to fight for led Elijah to consider becoming a lawyer, too.

Life wasn't easy, and there were those who tried to discourage Elijah from following his dream of becoming a lawyer, including his high school counselor, but his mother's faith gave him hope" "Have faith," she said. "God has a plan for you." And she wasn't the only one who had faith in Elijah. In 1973, after graduating from Howard University with honors, Elijah went to law school.

Ten years later, in 1983, Elijah was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates where he fought for the safely of inner-city children. In 1996, Elijah was elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he became a voice for all people of color, a civil rights champion who knew that Americans of color would have to fight the good fight if they were to be treated fairly and equally, but always believing that "In God's time, we shall overcome."

While you won't find many of the particulars that are often included in biographies, readers will find the important influences in Elijah Cummings life that led him to become an important voice in congress and a strong advocate of civil rights. Boston Weatherford uses the same direct, straightforward language her children's books are so well known for and on each two page spread she has included a direct quote by Elijah relating to the text. Coordinating and complimenting the text are Laura Freeman's digital illustrations using a bold color palette and at times a photo realistic style.      

While this biography by Carole Boston Weatherford focuses on the life of Elijah Cummings, sadly, and not really emphasized in this book, he passed away on October 17, 2019. Front matter includes a except from the eulogy given by Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives at the funeral of Elijah Cummings on October 25, 2019, and which you can read in its entirety HERE.

Back matter includes an excerpt of the October 17, 2019 Statement from the Congressional Black Caucus, a Timeline, a Bibliography and the Quote Sources used. This book ends with the same bold American flag, an image made all the more powerful by the profile of Elijah Cummings superimposed on it. 

This book was gratefully received from Barbara Fisch at Blue Slip Media.

Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge by Gary Golio, illustrated by James Ransome

 

Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge 

written by Gary Golio, illustrated by James Ransome

Nancy Paulsen Books. 2021, 32 pages

Imagine being a jazz musician and not being about to practice playing your saxophone every day in your own apartment because the beautiful sounds you make disturbs your neighbors.

Well, that was exactly the situation Sonny Rollins found himself in. So, Sonny leaves his house, taking his saxophone with him, and walking down Delancey Street, he heads straight  to a place where he knows he can play to his heart's content, and as loudly as he wants/needs to. Sonny continues walking until he reaches the Bridge, taking the walkway to the highest point of this long suspension bridge, he pulls out his sax and begins to play.  But "is that a/ strange/ place/ to play his/ horn?" No, not when you need to do it, not when you are compelled to play. 

There, standing mid-Bridge, Sonny can practice playing his saxophone as loudly as he wants against the background noise of the city, the busy East River below, including squawking seagulls, the passing subway trains, and all the car traffic by his side. It is the perfect spot for this talented jazzman to freely hone his skills without disturbing anyone.

You're probably thought that Sonny found what he needed on the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, but no, indeed. At the end of Delancey Street, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan where he lived is the Williamsburg Bridge and that Bridge and this Musician were perfect together.

Gary Golio is a picture book biography Meister with an already impressive oeuvre, and now, with the inspirational Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge, he has once again proven this to be true. His poetic text reads like a jazz performance, by which I mean that instead of classical poetic forms, readers can feel the rhythmic beat and syncopation. It almost makes you want to snap your fingers as you read because of its musicality that capture's all of Rollins' moods and emotions throughout. 

Harmonizing with Golio's jazzy text are James Ransome's equally jazzy watercolor and collage illustrations. The illustrations range from detailed full color two page spreads to simple spot images, catching the busy streets of the Lower East Side as Sonny walks to the Bridge. I particularly liked the way Ransome represented the music from Sonny's horn - as various shapes of golden notes.

I love picture book biographies. They can be so inspiring and they are a wonderful way to introduce young readers to people and their achievements they might not otherwise learn about. And often, their stories show readers that problems and obstacles are solvable - and Sonny Rollins' is a prime example of that.

Back matter includes information about Sonny Rollins as well as the Williamsburg Bridge and Sonny's Words about how this book came to be.

FYI: In 1962, Sonny Rollins recorded an album simply called The Bridge. It was his first album after taking a 3 year hiatus from music during which time he practiced his saxophone on the Williamsburg Bridge. 

This book is recommended for readers age 6+

This book was gratefully received from the author.

Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World by Uma Krishnaswami

 

Threads of Peace: 

How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Change the World

written by Uma Krishnaswami

Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Atheneum, 2021, 336 pages

Publisher's Summary: 

Mahatma Gandhi and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. both shook, and changed, the world, in their quest for peace among all people, but what threads connected these great activists together in their shared goal of social revolution?

A lawyer and activist, tiny in stature with giant ideas, in British-ruled India at the beginning of the 20th century. 

A minister from Georgia with a thunderous voice and hopes for peace at the height of the civil rights movement in America. 

Born more than a half-century apart, with seemingly little in common except one shared wish, both would go on to become icons of peaceful resistance and human decency. Both preached love for all human beings, regardless of race or religion. Both believed that freedom and justice were won by not one, but by many. Both men met their ends in the most unpeaceful of ways - assassination. 

But what led them down the path of peace? How did their experiences parallel...and diverge? Threads of Peace keenly examines and celebrates these extraordinary activists' lives, the thread that connect them, and the threads of peace they laid throughout the world for us to pick up and weave together.  

My Thoughts: 

I always knew that Martin Luther King Jr. use of civil disobedience during the Civil Rights Movement was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, but that was pretty much it. Reading Uma Krishnaswami's new book about these two great men made me realize how little I actually knew about either one of them and just how extensive their impact on the world was and still is. As young men, both Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. faced similar instances of racial discrimination that led them into a peaceful fight for equality for all people. 

As part of the merchant caste in Hindu society, Gandhi was able to go to school and get a good education. And following tradition, his married a 13 year-old girl named Kasturba in a union that had been arranged by his parents. Ironically, it may been the headstong Kasturba who first planted the seeds of passive resistance in his mind when she quietly refused to bend to his authoritarian demands that she obey him unquestioningly. Later, Gandhi's ideas about nonviolence may have been further influenced after reading Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau while imprisoned in South Africa for urging passive resistance to the ruling British among working Indians who were required by the 1906 Asiatic Registration Act to be fingerprinted and carry registration cards or be deported. He called this "passive resistance strategy satyagraha or holding fast to truth." (pg 67) 

Protesters March in Transvall (pg71)

Martin Luther King Jr. grew up in the south, in a world divided into white and "colored." At a young age, Martin learned to stay away from angry white people, but it was Martin's father who refused to accept the discriminatory system under which they were forced to live, imparting the values of dignity, self-respect and resistance to injustice that became guiding principles in Martin's life. Later, studying to become a minister, Martin began to read Walter Rauschenbusch, a theologian who believed that not just people's souls should be ministered to, but their bodies as well. Martin realized that he also needed to be concerned with unemployment, living conditions and economic insecurity in the lives of America's marginalized populations. Another influence was J.J. Muste, activist and clergyman, who believed in pacifism and peacefully resisting injustice. "Could nonviolent resistance ever be practical?" Martin wondered. (pg 135)  

March to Montgomery (pgs 256-7) 

The first section of Threads of Peace is devoted to Gandhi and his life, the second section covers the life of MLK Jr, but it is the third section that is so difficult to read as it cover the assassination of both men. But, as Krishnaswami shows, their untimely deaths hardly cut the threads to peace and equality that both men had worked so hard for during their lifetimes. 

Accompanying her well-researched biographies of Gandhi and MLK Jr. are copious photographs and documents, along with text boxes give more information. The author's text is simple, straightforward, and follows a linear timeline. Back matter includes an Author's Note, a Timeline for both Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., a Glossary, an excellent Bibliography for further reading, and a list of Sources used.

Click to Enlarge

This histories of Gandhi and MLK Jr., a lawyer and a minister, makes for fascinating reading, all the more so because their stories a real and still resonate in today's world. I think this 1968 cartoon by Bill Mauldin of the Chicago Sun-Times says it all (pg291). Fifty-two years later, I personally witnessed an example of this in the spring, summer, and fall of 2020 when I joined supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement who were peacefully protesting down the street from me every evening.   

Meet the Author: Uma Krishnaswami

Uma Krishnaswami is the author of several books for children including Book Uncle and Me (International Literacy Association Social Justice Literature Award, USBBY Outstanding International Book [and one of my personal favorites]) and Step Up to the Plate, Maria Singh (Asian Pacific American Librarians Award. 

Uma was born in New Delhi, India and now lives in British Columbia, Canada.

To learn more, visit her website: umakrishnaswami.com or her Facebook page: umakrishnaswami.author

Praise for Threads of Peace: 

★ “Krishnaswami’s comprehensive yet accessible text, complemented by intriguing, lesser-known facts, traces the life of each man, from his formative years to his rise as an influential leader to the untimely assassinations that cut both lives short…. A reflective presentation that will inspire young peacemakers.”  —Booklist (starred)

★“The book’s attractive design, lucid text, and carefully chosen details combine to create an inviting and original treatment of its subjects. History has been carefully intertwined with the present in this engaging and reflective book.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Dr Fauci: How a Boy From Brooklyn Became America's Doctor by Kate Messner, illustrated by Alexandra Bye

Dr. Fauci: How a Boy From Brooklyn Became

America's Doctor

written by Kate Messner, illustrated by Alexandra Bye

Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2021, 48 pages

For a lot of people, it felt like the world turned upside down in March 2020 as cases of COVID-19 began to rapidly spread and sometimes it felt like no one in high places cared. But, there was one person who did care - Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. But who exactly is this quiet unassuming man with the big smile and characteristic Brooklyn accent? Author Kate Messner apparently asked herself the same question and set out to find the answer and what she discovered was this...

Anthony Fauci was a curious boy, always asking questions about the things he observed in the world and how they actually worked. Lucky for him, Anthony's father was very supportive, helping him with homework when it was needed, and telling him to not get discouraged, to think carefully and try to work problems out. Important advice that Anthony carries with him to this day. His father owned a pharmacy and Anthony worked for him delivering prescriptions to neighborhood people. He also figured out speed was his friend, allowing him to join the older, tougher kids playing stickball in his Bensonhurst neighborhood and later to be on with his high school's basketball team, despite being shorter than most players. 

In high school, Anthony also decided to become a doctor. After graduating college and medical school (first in his class), Anthony went to work at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he studied new diseases as they emerged, searching for answers to help people who became sick. Aids, Sars, Ebola, West Nile were all new diseases that needed answers and either cures or vaccines. Then, in 2020, COVID-19 arrived in the United States. 

By now, an expert in his field, Dr. Fauci knew people wanted answers and they wanted them quickly. But, as COVID-19 spread and more and more people became sick, it seemed to were no answers. But, Dr. Fauci knew there had to be a solution. 

Pretty soon, there were guidelines for people to help contain the virus. Dr. Fauci consulted with researchers and doctors around the world. Finally, in less than a year, a vaccine was ready. Maybe life could get back to normal again...until the next challenge. But he was ready for it.

Dr. Fauci: How a Boy From Brooklyn Became America's Doctor is, to say the least, a very timely biography as well as one that is very accessible to young readers who might be worried about what they hear or experience with regard to COVID-19, given all the controversy surrounding mask wearing and vaccines. As always with a nonfiction book written by Kate Messner, it is well researched and thought out resulting in a very inspiring picture of a man we see so often on television, but don't really know.

The cartoon-style digitally rendered illustrations are colorful, diverse and have lots of kid appeal. Most are two page full-bleed spreads that contribute so much additional detail to the text. 

Messner has also included some important back matter including information on how vaccines work and their safety. My favorite part is "Dr. Fauci's Five Tips for Future Scientists" written by Dr. Fauci. There is also a Time Line of his life, recommended reading and Messner's list of Sources, as well as some of Dr. Fauci's personal photographs. She also had a Zoom interview with Dr. Fauci in November 2020.  

You can find a detailed, 9-page Educator's Guide for this book HERE

I'm a Brooklyn girl and a big fan of Dr. Fauci, so you know I really scrutinized this book and I found it to be an excellent biography. And even though I don't like needles one bit, I got pfizered on Dr. Fauci's recommendation. 

This book is recommended for readers age 4+

This book was provided to me by Audrey Gibbons at Simon & Schuster

BOX: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Michele Wood

 

BOX: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom

written by Carole Boston Weatherford,

illustrated by Michele Wood

Candlewick Press, 2020, 56 pages

In BOX: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom, a picture book biography for older readers, Carole Boston Weatherford offers a heartbreaking personal look at the life of on enslaved man who decided that he had nothing to lose by attempting to mail himself to freedom after everyone he loved - his wife and children - were sold:

"What have I to fear?

My master broke every promise to me.

I lost my beloved wife and our dear children.

All, sold South. Neither my time nor my body is mine.

The breath of life is all I have to lose.

And bondage is suffocating me."

Henry was born to an enslaved mother in 1815 in Virginia and put to work as a young child, along with his seven sisters and brothers. By the time he was 33-years-old, he had been moved from the farm to a tobacco factory in Richmond. There, he met his wife Nancy and soon there were children. But Nancy and the children were sold over and over. Finally, Henry manages to struck a deal to try to get her back - if he would chip in $50. of the $650 asking price for Nancy, he was promised that she would not be sold again. But when Henry couldn't meet demands for more money, his family is taken to be sold.

With nothing left to lose, Henry paid a carpenter to build a box to mail himself to freedom with the help of trusted friends. And difficult and physically painful as the trip north was, he succeeded in arriving at the Philadelphia headquarters of the Anti-Slavery Society and freedom.

Using Henry Brown's 1851 Narrative of the Life of Henry Brown written by Himself as her guide, Boston Weatherford begins Henry's story with a concrete poem called "Geometry" in the shape of the number six, and asking the question: how many sides to a box? The answer, of course, is six sides and from then on, the number six dominates each page.

Each of the 48 poems are written in sixains, six line stanzas, here done in spare free verse poems with each poem replicating the six-sides of a box and with the boxes arranged on the pages like packing crates carelessly stacked one on top of the other and giving the reader a claustrophobic feeling of confinement and lack of freedom, whether referring to Henry's enslavement or to the confines of his box to freedom.

Boston has tight control over her poems and yet, there is a musicality that never gets lost - even in the few 1 line, 6 stanza poems she includes. Each of the poems creates it's own image: clear, affective, detailed, and each connects to the poem that comes before and after it to ultimately paint a complete picture of Henry's life as well as the events of the time, in which he lives, such as the Nat Turner revolt and his subsequent murder. And most importantly, the poems do not shy away from the inhuman brutality of enslavement.

Complimenting and continuing the theme of the six sides of a box are Michele Wood's boldly dynamic mixed media illustrations in a palette of blues, reds, pinks, greens and browns. Illustrations are often set against a background of six-sided quilt patterns. 

Back matter includes a Time Line of Henry's life as well as important national events, a Bibliography, A Note from the Illustrator and A Note on Numbers  and Language used. 

You can download a useful Teacher's Guide courtesy of the publisher, Candlewick Press

This book is recommended for readers age 10+

This book was gratefully received from NetGalley

Remember:

Marjory Saves the Everglades: The Story of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas by Sandra Neil Wallace, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon

 

Marjory Saves the Everglades: The Story of Marjory Stoneman Douglas

written by Sandra Neil Wallace, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon

Paula Wiseman Books, 2020, 56 pages

By now, most of us recognize the name Marjory Stoneman Douglas because of the tragic 2018 shooting that happened in the high school named in her honor just east of the Everglades. But few of us know why the school was named after Marjory. Now, thanks to the excellent research by Sandra Neil Wallace, we have our answer. 

In this richly illustrated picture book for older readers, Wallace begins her biography with Marjory's first trip to Florida to visit her dad where she fell in love with the sunshine. Returning home, Marjory grew up, attended Wellesley College, got married and divorced, until finally she headed back to Florida to work as a reporter for her father's newspaper, the Miami Herald. It was there that Marjory found the voice she would need later as an activist.

During WWI, Marjory enlisted in the Navy and went to Europe with the Red Cross. But when she retuned to Florida after the war, she was absolutely dismayed to see how much of the Everglades had disappeared as developers dynamited, dug and drained it to expand post-war building. 

But dismay wouldn't save the destruction of the Everglades, It would take a visit by Ernest Coe, a landscape architect, and a meandering trip with him through the glades that made Marjory realize that the Everglades needed to become "a national park to save the birds, the plants, and the other wildlife."

But how to convince the National Park Service, who felt that 'a swamp is a swamp.' Other people just wanted to drain the Everglades to expand the land and build. But, Marjory wondered, were the Everglades really just a swamp, or were they something else? Something beautiful, living and unique? By now middled aged, Marjory was determined to find the answers to her questions, and dedicated the rest of her life to saving her adopted home from hungry developers, including the U. S. Army. 

And although the area became the Everglades National Park in 1947, it didn't stop developers. But through activism and organization, Marjory and the group she formed, Friends of the Everglades, managed to get developers to reverse their destructive building, restoring this unique ecosystem back to what it once was. 

Marjory Saves the Everglades is a such an inspiring story for young readers, showing them what a difference one dedicated voice can make in the world. Marjory lived to be 108 years old, but was an early activist, a suffragette and feminist, before she became involved in saving the Everglades and Wallace has really captured her independent spirit. The book is written in accessible language, and includes quotes by Marjory from various sources including her own work River of Grass. Marjory Saves the Everglades would make a wonderful addition to any STEM classes learning about ecosystems and the environment. 

Rebecca Gibbon's folk-art style illustrations, done with acrylic inks and colored pencils, are the perfect compliment to a book about the Everglades, done in shades of brilliant greens and blues, and including lots of vibrant birds, grasses and flowers throughout.  

Wallace's back matter includes an Author's Note, a page of creatures and plants indigenous to the Everglades, a Timeline of Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the Everglades, some tips for protecting the environment, as well as additional resources for learning more about this amazing, but overlooked woman. 

You can find an in-depth Discussion Guide courtesy of Sandra Neil Wallace HERE

You can also download an Activity Kit courtesy of Sandra Neil Wallace HERE

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Sandra Neil Wallace hope that her stories inspire readers as much as they inspire her. Her book The Teachers March! How Selma's Teachers Changed History was written with her husband, Rich Wallace, and has received three starred reviews to date. Between the Lines: How Ernie Barnes Went From the Football Field to the Art Gallery received the Orbis Pictus Book Award, was an ALA notable Book and a Booklist Top 10 Biography for Youth. Formerly, Sandra was an ESPN reporter and was the first woman to host an NHL broadcast. She continues to break barriers as co-founder of DailyGoodNH.org and lives with her family in New Hampshire. You can find Sandra at

Website: Sandra Neil Wallace

Facebook: Sandra Neil Wallace

Twitter: @SandraNWallace

Instagram: @sandraneilwallace

IMO, Marjory's life and work become even more important these days as we hear about developers eyeing National Parks for their natural resources. 

This book is recommended for readers age 7+

This book was gratefully received from Barbara Fisch at Blue Slip Media

Dark Was The Night: Blind Willie Johnson's Journey to the Stars by Gary Golio, illustrated by E.B. Lewis

Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson's Journey to the Stars 

by Gary Golio,

illustrated by E. B. Lewis

Nancy Paulsen Books, 2020, 32 pages

One of the things I love most about being a reviewer is that I get to read all kinds of picture books and share them with my young readers. And one of my favorite picture book genres is biography. I have been introduced to so many people I  probably never would have known about otherwise thanks to picture book biographies.  

Take for example this new biography about Willie Johnson, an African American musician. Willie was born in 1897 in a small Texas town. As a young boy, he lost his mother and at age seven, he lost his sight. 

Despite being blind, Willie made music - at first, with a cigar box guitar his father made for him, then in church and later busking on the streets, traveling about Texas with a guitar and a tin cup, hoping for enough money to buy food and get a rented room.

And Willie knew how to sing the blues, sliding his pocket knife up and down the steel strings of his guitar, and giving it a voice of its own.

Discovered on the street by a man from a record company, Willie was given a chance to make a record his music and went on to enjoy a music career. But the one recording that Willie became best known for was a heartbreaking yet hopeful emotional gospel blues song called "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground." 

Small wonder that in 1977, when NASA was choosing what to include on the Golden Record they were sending into space that reflected the diversity of who we are as a people on Earth, a recording of Willie Johnson performing "Dark Was the Night" was chosen with its simple message of hope and a reminder that we are not alone.

Dark Was the Night is not exactly a picture book biography filled with facts, dates and places, and yet, after I finished it, I felt like I knew the real Willie Johnson, the persistent musician who could use music as if it were his own voice to express himself and his truth. And one of the ways the author did this was by contrasting the sources of lightness and darkness that impacted Willie throughout his life. 

And Golio's writing is a perfect compliment to his subject- full of emotion and musicality. He begins Willie's story in deep, dark space and brings it full circle, where his music "shined a light in the darkness and finally touched the stars." 

Adding to Golio's lyrical text are E.B. Lewis's subtle watercolor illustrations done in a palette of predominately dark blues and bright yellows. This is one of my favorite illustrations because I feel it really captures the sense of light and darkness that was so much a part of Willie's life, but not allowing either one to dominate it.

Be sure to read the back matter to learn more about Willie Johnson and the Golden Record that carried his beautiful music into the far reaches of the Universe.

And if you would like to hear Willie playing "Dark Was the Night,", you can find it on YouTube HERE. I have been listening to it repeatedly and I guarantee it is well worth your time.

This book is recommended for readers age 6+

This book was gratefully received from the author, Gary Golio

Fred's Big Feelings: The Life and Legacy of Mister Rogers by Laura Renauld, illustrated by Brigette Barrager

❤️Happy Valentine's Day!❤️

And what better day to look at the life and legacy of Fred Rogers A/K/A Mister Rogers.  OK, it is an unconventional book for Valentines Day, but it is a day for love and we’ve heard a lot about Fred Rogers lately and all of it stressing was a caring, compassionate man he was. But who was he really and how did he become the famous man on TV that children loved for more than 50 years of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood?   

Author Laura Renauld begins Fred's story by inviting the reader onto the set of the TV show with a big Hello, neighbor! just like Fred always did. But then, she switches to a behind the scenes look at who this charismatic figure was before he became Mister Rogers when "...he was Freddy Rogers, a quiet boy with big feelings."

Underweight and asthmatic, he was sad when kids didn't play with him, and scared when other kids bullied him. Asthma kept him inside the house as a boy, with made him feel lonely. And so Fred learned to express his feelings through music, but the person who really helped build his self-esteem was his grandfather McFeely, who told him "You made this day really special just by being yourself...and I happen to like you just the way you are."

Buoyed by love and an unlikely friendship in high school athlete, Fred's confidence began to soar. Eventually, Fred used his love of music to create a children's television program hoping to counter the poor quality kids' shows already on TV. He wanted it to be a place where kids would feel welcomed, loved and special. Although The Children's Corner was successful, it didn't last, but it did open the door in 1968 for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, a show that focused on feeling, all kinds of feelings:

Click to enlarge

And what a success it was. But in 1969, Congress threatened to pull funding for public television, including Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. So Fred did what he had to do - he went to Capital Hill and explained that he just wanted to teach kids "how to express emotions constructively" and then he recited a song he had written called "What Do You Do with the Mad That You Feel?" Since his show continued for 49 more years, you know that Congress provided the funding needed for public television to stay on the air.

Fred Rogers' was all about helping kids deal with their emotions and he did it through affection, compassion and respect for the children who watched him. Most importantly, they learned that everyone has feelings and that they express them in their own special way.

Author Laura Renauld has really captured Fred's message and legacy in this thoughtful biography that is so accessible to young readers. I especially liked that throughout the book, she has italicized all the emotion words (and so did I) so that they really stand out and are readily available for generating all kinds of discussions.

Artist Brigette Barrager's illustrations compliments and harmonizes with the text on each page with her cartoon-like gouache and pencil images done in a mix of primary and secondary colors. 

Fred's Big Feelings is sure to be a family and classroom favorite, especially among those who remember the shows. And kids who have never had the pleasure of watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood will at least take away Fred's message of love and acceptance and remember that

This book is recommended for readers age 4+
This book was gratefully received from the publisher, Atheneum BFYR, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

Sonny's Bridge: Jazz Legend Sonny Rollins Finds His Grove by Barry Wittenstein, illustrated by Keith Mallett

Sonny's Bridge: Jazz Legend Sonny Rollins Finds His Grove

by Barry Wittenstein, illustrated by Keith Mallett

Charlesbridge, 2019, 40 pages

What better way is there to introduce young readers to some of the world's greatest artists than through a well-done picture book? And Sonny's Bridge is a perfect example of that.

Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins was born in 1930 when the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing - for musicians, that would be literally. Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Glenn Miller were some of the jazz greats during Sonny's childhood, popularizing a new swing sound. And Sonny already knew that being a jazz musician was in his future as he practiced his saxophone at home in the closet.

Later, during WWII, Sonny continued to practice, listening to a new generation of musicians, people like Charlie "Bird" Parker and John "Dizzy" Gillespie as they perfected a new sound called bebop. But even though he was too young to join the army, he also began to see the inequalities around him and to demonstrate for equal rights for all African Americans and to end Jim Crow laws.

Sonny and his saxophone Henrietta soon began to get some gigs, playing in "...fancy joints and two-bit joints./Two shows a night, two sets per show" and to gain so much recognition, he found himself playing in Carnegie Hall with other jazz legends.

But somehow, despite his success, at 29 years old, Sonny was dissatisfied and decided to leave the jazz world behind, believing that his name was bigger than his talent, that his fame had come too soon. His life, he decides, needed an intermission.

But as Sonny continued to play, he realized he also needed to finds a place to practice that wouldn't bother the neighbors, a place where he could play as much and as loudly as he needed to, a place that was right in from of his eyes - the Williamsburg Bridge, connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan. It was the perfect place to reconnect with himself: "seeking refuge and sol-i-tude. Finding inspiration, finding himself/in the echoes of the echoes of the echoes" on the walkway of the bridge.

Eventually, more confident in his sound and himself, Sonny goes back into the recording studio where his music, "enters a new dimension: his subconscious" and within two weeks, a new album with a new sound is produced and appropriately named "The Bridge." Sonny is back and better than ever!

Sonny's Bridge is such a perfectly wrought picture book for older readers. Wittenstein has written the text in a free verse style that resembles a jazzy bebob composition that Sonny might have played himself, capturing all the energy of bebop, and all the passion of this musical genius.

Mallett's digitally illustrations are bold and vibrantly colorful, carrying their own sense of rhythm that compliments both the free verse text and the excitement of the jazz scene to which Sonny belonged over the course of 40 years, from his years as a young listener and learner to his years as a self-assured musician and creator.

I also loved the design of this book as well as the content. Maybe it's because I'm old enough to remember buying record albums before cassettes, CDs, and now Vinyl. Albums always had a colorful cardboard jacket, and inside of it, the record was usually held in a brown paper sleeve with a hole in the center that showed the record label. And that is exactly the sense you get when you open Sonny's Bridge. And in keeping with musical traditon, Sonny's biography is set up like a gig itself - with a first set, and intermission, and a second set that harmonizes perfectly with Sonny's life.

There is plenty of back matter for further exploration into Sonny's life and music, and an excellent curriculum guide is available from the publisher, Charlesbridge, HERE 

This book is recommended for readers age 6+
This book was sent to my by the published, Charlesbridge Publishing