#SOL17 - 15/31 And Non-Fiction Specials

 

SOLC #15/31 - 

      I'm slicing with the Two Writing Teachers community for Day Fifteen of Thirty-One of the Slice of Life Challenge in March.  Thank you, Stacey, Beth, Deb, Betsy, Lanny, Kathleen, Lisa, and Melanie.  

                                          HALFWAY!

              And, Thanks to Alyson Beecher's Non-Fiction Picture Book Challenge at Kidlit Frenzy. Each Wednesday a group of us share non-fiction picture books we believe everyone should know about. The books inspire and teach, and help students if you're a teacher of writing see how others share non-fiction research. 

        It's amazing to me how those who find their passion continue on through physical challenges, through grief, through frustration. I'm glad for us that authors and illustrators are telling those stories in beautiful picture books. They can now be known by most all ages instead of only older readers capable of reading longer biographies.

           Finally, I received this from my library. Many holds kept it away for a long time. Growing up with a mother who knew how to restore tapestries was the beginning of Louise Bourgeois’s life, and she soon became an expert at it. The story tells that she said drawing was “like a thread in a spider’s web.” That seems to be the portent of Louise’s life as an artist because her most acclaimed work is a giant spider of bronze, steel, and marble which she named Maman. She was very close to her mother, and thought spiders fascinating, said her mother was not unlike a spider, “a repairer of broken things.”  The illustrations swirl through the pages in mostly pinks and blues, with that hint of weaving throughout. Until people started talking about this book I had never heard of Louise Bourgeois. Her life is a fascinating story.

           Here is another artist’s life story told in this new fascinating book by Carole Boston Weatherford with illustrations by Sarah Green. Dorothea had polio as a child, ended up walking with a limp, and she was teased about it, became an outcast. After her parents’ divorce, she finished school (which she didn’t like) and ended up in California with a friend. She worked in a department store, but in only a few months opened her own studio, earning money by taking portraits of rich people. The book tells bits about her life, hiding her limp, marriage and children, divorce. As she photographed many things, she began to realize that she was meant to photograph people’s lives. It was then she was asked by a writer to illustrate an article he had written. He was drawn to her street photos and soon they collaborated in capturing lives. Dorothea became “a storyteller with a camera”. The illustrations are simple in conveying the scenes written, including some of the most famous of  Dorothea’s work. There is an afterword that does show that one well-known photo of the woman in the migrant camp. For those who aren’t familiar with Dorothea Lange, it’s a good introduction.

      If you're interested in additional titles, here is a list of a few more I've read and enjoyed recently. There are so many!

Preaching To The Chickens - Jabari Asim - about the early life of John Lewis
My Name is James Madson Hemings - Jonah Winter - about one of Sally Hemings' children
Fascinating: The Life of Leonard Nimoy - Richard Michelson
Big George: How A Shy Boy Became President - Anne F. Rockwell
Around America To Win The Vote: Two suffragists, A Kittten, and 10,000 Miles - Mara Rockliff
Mountain Chef - Annette Bay Pimental - The story of a Chinese-American mountain chef who, through his actions, helped create the National Park Service