Trombone Shorty

1. 

TROMBONE SHORTY by Troy Andrews is a picture book biography of his growing up in New Orleans and the importance of music in his life. One day he found a broken trombone.

Sample: “The next time the parade went by my house, I grabbed that trombone and headed out into the street. My brother James noticed me playing along and smiled proudly. ’Trombone Shorty!’ he called out, because the instrument was twice my size.”

Activity:

Make your own musical instrument like Trombone Shorty did.

He made a drum from a 12 pack soda box and used pencils for drumsticks. He used empty soda bottles as wind instruments.   

The Balloon Whisperer

Sometimes you have to be at the right place at the right time.

Balloons Over Broadway: the True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade, written and illustrated by Melissa Sweet, is a picture book biography of Tony Sarg.

What was his big moment?

Sample: “Macy’s had heard about Tony’s puppets and asked him to design a ‘puppet parade’ for the store’s holiday window. So Tony made new puppets based on storybook characters, then attached them to gears and pulleys to make them move.”

Then Macy’s decided to have an annual parade. At first they had live animals but children were frightened.

So Tony tried puppets. He had huge puppets made of rubber but many people couldn’t see them.

Next Tony tried balloons. It was a success!

Teachers  grade 3 and up, the author has provided a puppet for your students to make. 

Insects Who Eat Poop

Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle by Cheryl Bardoe is a science picture book that will delight kids and gross out their parents. These beetles live on the poop of animals (but not their own.)

Sample: "For these beetles, dung is a precious pile of food and drink."

Readers will learn that there are three types of dung beetles, each with a special way of eating feces: dwellers, rollers and tunnelers.

This book  has a fascinating facts section, glossary, and selected bibliography.

Activity:
Locate dung beetles by looking under cow patties or deer droppings but as the author warns, wear gloves, so you don't get sick from the bacteria that live in dung and wash your hands afterwards.

Athletes to Know

Wilma Rudolph by Isabel Martin is an ideal biography for grades two and three. It has chapter titles: Meet Wilma, Growing Up, Adult Years and Later in Life. The back page gives suggestions for critical thinking using the Common Core.

Sample: “Wilma Rudolph was a famous Olympic track runner from Tennessee.She was very fast.”

Teachers will like the glossary, suggested titles for further reading and internet sites.

History Through the Eyes of Unknown People

Sometimes you can learn about  American history through stories of people you may have never heard  of.  One example is: Searching for Sarah Rector : the Richest Black Girl in America by Tonya Bolden.

Because Sarah and her family had a relationship with the Creek Nation, they qualified to receive land.  Sarah's land had oil wells.

Sample: "If that first oil well kept kicking.... eleven-year old Sarah Rector would be able to afford piles of playthings, clothes, and doodads, not to mention a bigger house for her family."

Activity

Do you know someone who  participated in a historical event?
Ask this person for an interview.
 Find out what he or she thought while the event was going on.
What details does the interviewee remember?

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?