NF Pic Books-If you love The Little Prince

           Time to share on Wednesdays with Alyson Beecher's Non-Fiction Picture Book Challenge at her blog, Kidlit Frenzy.   

        Thanks Alyson!   Tweet - #NFPB15

           It's a special day today. I get to celebrate nonfiction picture books I love, and a couple of birthdays! 

           Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born on this day in 1900, the year one set of my grandparents were born. It was fascinating to read these books and to see what my grandparents saw during their lifetimes, as well as what Saint-Exupéry saw and did. 

          And special to share, it is also my granddaughter Imogene’s fourth birthday! What amazing thing will she see in her lifetime?

The biography by Peter Sis was published last year, and the book by Bimba Landmann, in 2013. Both are interesting. I reviewed the Sis book earlier this year, and I just got the other one at my library. Two years ago was the 70^th anniversary of The Little Prince. What a gift we still have from this fascinating man in love with flying and the stars!

The Pilot and the Little Prince - the life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - written and illustrated by Peter Sis

It’s a marvelous book to introduce this famous man of our past to younger students. Older students will love the book because of its story, and because of the illustrations. They are gorgeous, innovative and filled with more information than seems possible. Peter Sis has told well the story of Saint-Exupery.

In Search of the Little Prince - the story of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - written and illustrated by

Bimba Landmann

Landmann also illustrated I Am Marc Chagall, among others.  This, too is an amazing and beautifully done story, tells about Tonio, as Saint-Exupéry was known affectionately, as a young boy already writing poetry. At twelve he built his first airplane, which didn’t work, but eventually Saint-Exupéry got to fly, and fly he did. Landmann follows his adventures all over the world and manages through those adventures, to tell about his early books (Wind, Sand and Stars won The National Book Award), Argentina is where he found his “Rose”, Consuelo, his love and then wife, and the desert where he tamed his fox.  

Both books share many facts about and quotes from Saint-Exupéry. Here is one that Landmann put at the end of her book:

One morning you wake up and say: “It was just a fairy tale.” You laugh at yourself, but deep down you’re not laughing at all. You know that a fairy tales are the only truth of life.

And when he returned to flying after success in writing, he wrote: “I’m happy with my job; I feel I’m a farmer with the stars.”

Both books are beautifully written and illustrated, treasures of biographies. Sadly, Saint-Exupéry flew a final mission in World War II just a month after his 44th birthday. He and his plane were never found. 

Finally, a special announcement:

The 2015 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award winner is:

Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers