26/31 Books With Connections?

        Five more days! What will you share in those five?  
         Great to be writing for the Slice of Life Challenge at the blog, Two Writing Teachers.   And today I'm also posting at Alyson Beecher's blog, Kid-Lit Frenzy for Non-Fiction Picture Book Wednesday. 

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          I’ve loved reading about Teddy Roosevelt all my life. He is a fascinating man in our history, and it a pleasure to read about his life. Today, I share two different books that include his acts, both with positive endings, but the first one shares a side of his breaking the law to get what he wanted. I’ve read of his egotism, his pushing the limits sometimes even placing his well-being in jeopardy in order to “conquer” something. So I am not surprised. These two books are worth reading as starters for information in unique ways.

The Panama Canal – A Wonders of the World Book – written by Elizabeth Mann, illustrations by Fernando Rangel

       According to Goodreads, This series is well-known for Elizabeth Mann's ability to synthesize technical and factual information about a topic in easily understood and accessible language for younger readers. The illustrations include detailed drawings of the canal locks, beautiful paintings accompanying the varied stories of the canal’s building, and photographs where important. I took this from our library because I wanted to read some background of the canal and the story of its building before I began reading Margarita Engle’s verse novel, Silver People, out today!

       The book gives a broad overview of the history and challenges of the canal.  Each part 


summarized is well done, but really the summaries only hint at the details behind the stories. For example, the evasive tactics taken by Theodore Roosevelt means really that he broke laws to get what he wanted, and while the book says that, it concludes that complaints faded, and he charged ahead to get the canal done. There must be many things written about his tactics, and I infer that he was never a hero to Panamanians.

         Also, toward the end of the book, there are some few pages about the hardship of all the workers on the canal, except the Americans. Americans were housed in fine homes, their children went to excellent schools, etc. The “others” lived and worked in horrid, unsanitary conditions, and were paid much less than white workers.

         This is a taste of the incredible accomplishment of the canal, with a positive conclusion of the benefits to commercial shipping throughout its use. And the book was published just before the country of Panama again became free, no long having ties to the U.S.

          I imagine all of these books offer good overviews of the building of amazing structures all over the world, like this canal, The Great Wall, the Brooklyn Bridge, etc. They are beginnings of research, and for younger researchers provide a bridge to the next, deeper step.

The Camping Trip That Changed America – Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and our National Parks – written by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein

           It’s a romantic and beautiful picture book about the one time these two renowned people met, camped, and dreamed. Fortunately, Roosevelt was the president at the time, and motivated to do something to save the wilderness so loved by Muir, and thus the idea was born of the acts to save America's special wilderness lands.