#NF10for10 - Favorites

Hurrah, it's #NF10for10 2019 (non-fiction picture books). Add your link here with Mandy Robek at Enjoy and Embrace Learning. Thanks to Mandy's partner, Cathy Mere, who tells "how" here at  Reflect and Refine: Building A Learning Community.  Julie Balen at Connecting to Learn is also part of this fabulous book-sharing! Thank you, Mandy, Cathy and Julie!

In the past:

2013    2014    2015    2016    2017    2018

               Like last year, I'm linking each to my Goodreads review, so if you want to know details, you can take a look. You may know most, but I hope you'll find at least one or two that becomes a "must read"! I've chosen favorite books that have lingered in my mind, although there are many more. Each one is about a person, some known, some I was thrilled finally to learn about. And each one is given center stage so marvelously by the authors and illustrators! 

               Here are my favorites this year.

The Iridescence of Birds - Patricia MacLachlan and Hadley Hooper

         It’s a lovely basic introduction for younger children to Matisse’s life.

Separate Is Never Equal - Duncan Tonatiuh

          Well before the Civil Rights Act, Sylvia Mendez and her family fought a years long battle to get her children into the schools where everyone went instead of those “for Mexicans” which were nearly falling down, without playgrounds, not to the standards of those built for white children.

Brick by Brick - Charles R. Smith, Jr. and Floyd Cooper

         The story of the construction of the first White House unfolds with Floyd Cooper's beautiful paintings of the working men, mostly slaves, who built it. 

Looking at Lincoln - Maira Kalman

          I used this book to inspire my students to begin their learning about President Lincoln before we visited Washington D.C. and to learn how to illustrate their own non-fiction research. My review doesn't say much more, really. I do adore Kalman's art and the way she chose important parts of this President's life.

Mountain Chef - Annette Pimental and Rich Lo

         It's a story of a long-ago American who cooked for a crew led by Stephen Mather to entice some influential men to fight for a national park system. It's wonderful that more and more authors are writing the stories of little-known people who made a difference in people's lives.

Some Writer: The Story of E.B. White - Melissa Sweet

          I’ve read other biographies of E.B. White, and I enjoyed each, but I’ve never loved one as much as this one. Melissa Sweet titled it Some Writer!, and I call it Some Book! The mixed media approach calls for the reader to slow down to observe all the details, something we know, and Sweet emphasizes, that E. B. White did himself. It’s filled with maps and collages that connect to the stories/chapters included of his life.

Dorothea's Eyes: Dorothea Lange Photographs The Truth - Barb Rosenstock and Gerard Dubois

          Born to love seeing what others might miss, early on she loves faces. At seven, she contracts polio, ending with a limp and a brace. She learns that others make fun of it, learns to be still and hide unnoticed, but at the same time, she watches.

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer - Carole Boston Weatherford and Ekua Holmes

        There is a scope in this book that I hadn't imagined. From six years to death, Fannie Lou Hamer worked hard, first for the landowner where her family sharecropped, and then, defying danger, perhaps death, she worked for equal rights, for everyone's rightful place in the world. 

Before She Was Harriet - Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome

           This book begins with an aged and wrinkled Harriet going back and back to when she lived other lives, all the way back to Araminta. 

Caroline’s Comets - Emily Arnold McCully

            Women's stories are often of their struggles to follow their dreams, use the talents they have despite the naysayers, despite sometimes also fulfilling the stereotypical female roles. Caroline Herschel lived from 1750 to 1848, became a great astronomer and the first woman to be paid for her discoveries.

         

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Bonus (Doesn't everyone have a bonus?) - It's a graphic novel, too, but isn't that also a picture book? And, I do love that there is one about a person that seems meant for older readers and ones whose passions is art, specifically photography.

Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide - Isabel Quintero and Zeke Pena

           Her story told through this medium made it even more special.