When a statue has a biography

STONE GIANT by Jane Sutcliffe is a picture book biography of a statue: David by Michelangelo. The city of Florence had a huge block of marble everyone hoped a sculpture could make into a statue of David but no sculptor would take on the challenge, until Michelangelo.  And it was a challenge.

Sample: “Every night he went home floured with the dust of not-David. He combed bits of not-David from his beard.”

Jane has thoughtfully provided a teacher resource for this book.

GOLDIE TAKES A STAND

Let’s say that you want to write a picture book about a historical event but you have only the briefest information available. What do you do?

You can follow the example of Barbara Krasner who wrote Goldie Takes a Stand: Golda Meir’s First Crusade. She wrote a book on an incident from Golda’s childhood. Poor children couldn’t afford books so Golda helped raise money for them.  Barbara’s only documented information was a newspaper clipping. She invented first person dialogue, which makes this book biographical fiction. But still a learning tool.

Sample: “Will the meeting come to order?” I announced to the girls crowded into our two-room Walnut Street apartment.”

What does this tell us about Golda? That she was a take-charge person.

That she lived in a crowded apartment.

ACTIVITY

Take any historical figure that interests you. Pick an event from that person’s life. Write a skit imagining the conversation that could have gone on during that event. Answer these questions: Who else was there? What did the event accomplish?

MISS MOORE THOUGHT OTHERWISE

MISS MOORE THOUGHT OTHERWISE

By Jan Pinborough

 Anne Carroll Moore ran the Central Children’s Room at the New York Public Library and was responsible for making the children’s room inviting for the child patron. This picture book biography will introduce the reader to the important contributions she made.

Sample: “She gathered collections of shells and butterflies to display. Then she filled the shelves with the very best children’s books she could find.”

Activities

1. Miss Moore had a wooden doll named Nicholas Knickerbocker she used during story hours.

Pretend that Nicholas could talk and was interviewing a child who had just immigrated to the U.S. and was at his or her first story hour.

What questions would Nicholas ask the child about his or her life?

What country the child came from? What customs from that  country did the child  especially like?

2. These are Nicholas’s treasures. http://www.missmoorethoughtotherwise.com/#!nicholass_treasures/cwvn.

Pick one and write a paragraph about one of them using the Who, What, Where, When of journalism.

A Really Cool Inventor

The Coolest Inventor: Willis Haviland Carrier and His Air Conditioner by Alison and Stephen Eldridge

Here's a snippet: "When Willis was in school, he had trouble understanding math with fractions. His mother had him cut up apples to work out problems with them. This taught Willis that he could solve problems if he just broke them down into simple pieces."


This book gives steps for young inventors to take  when they get a great idea.
It also includes a timeline, a glossary called words to know, books and websites, and an index.

Yours for Justice, Ida B. Wells: the Daring Life of a Crusading Journalist by Philip Dray is a picture book biography of the enterprising African American woman who began life as a slave  and then went on to become a teacher and journalist who exposed the evil practice of lynching.

When her parents died Ida began teaching to support her siblings. This snippet reflects the preparation Ida made:
"Her aunt lowered the hems of Ida's dresses and taught her to put her hair up. When she saw herself in the mirror, Ida couldn't believe her eyes: she looked like a grown-up!"

The back-matter includes additional information about Ida, lynching and a bibliography.

 The title  is the signature Ida used for her writing.  

Barreling Over Niagra Falls

Barreling Over Niagara Falls by Nancy Kelly Allen is a picture book biography about Annie Edson Taylor, a woman of big dreams.

As a child she dreamed of becoming a music teacher and did.
She also taught dance.
And then she  got an even bigger idea.
"Annie would do what no one had ever done-ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel."
Read how she implemented her plan.  The book gives a description of how she built her barrel.

A Monster of a Picture book For Halloween

Check out this perfect picture book for Halloween, The Monstore by Tara Lazar.
Here is a sample:  "The Monstore sells only the most useful monsters, just  right for doing tricky things around the house. The kind that love cab-leg casserole....And the kind that frighten pesky little sisters away."

Readers will enjoy the frustrations that Zack experiences when he buys monsters that fail to scare his little sister, Gracie, away and can't return them because the store offers no refunds.

 I like the way dialogue is put in the characters' mouths by the use of balloons, like in the comics.
When I asked Tara how she came up with the idea, this is what she said:

"THE MONSTORE began as just a title. I love playing with words, making puns, and smooshing words together to make new words--and that's what happened here. I loved the title immediately and thought--nah, this will never fly. Someone has probably already thought of this! But after an exhaustive search, I found ZERO children's books with that title and decided I had a winner. But it would be months before I even attempted to write the story. I didn't have a premise--just the title. And a title does not a story make!

After meeting an agent at a conference, I was forced to come up with a premise. Very quickly I thought, "A boy wants to return the monster he bought because it doesn't spook his little sister." The agent told me it was a winning idea and to go ahead and pursue it. I still hesitated. I was afraid of ruining a perfectly good idea! LOL

Weeks later, when I finally sat down and wrote it, it spilled out. I wanted to give this boy lots of problems and the first thing I thought of was to have the Monstore manager refuse to take his monster back. That's where the refrain "No returns, no exchanges" came from. From there, the story just worked itself out. Although I did revise the first draft several times, the whole of the story pretty much remained the same."

Thanks, Tara!