November 2021

This month is all non fiction. I include the first line, but instead of analyzing it, I also note the structure/hook of the book.

Fave Five Titles This Month 

Twenty-One STEPS: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The Last Straw: Kids vs Plastics

Flight for Freedom: The Wetzel Family's Daring Escape from East Germany

If the World Were 100 People

So You Want to Be an Owl

I Am Frida Kahlo

by Brad Meltzer, art by Christopher Eliopoulos

2021

First line: I am Frida Kahlo.

Structure: first person chronology of Frida Kahlo's life.

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How to Apologize

by David LaRochelle, art by Mike Wohnoutka

2021

First line: Everyone makes mistakes.

Structure: Examples of mistakes and examples of insincere and sincere apologies.

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A Life Electric: the story of Nikola Tesla

by Azadeh Westergaard, art by Julia Sarda

2021

First line: At the stroke of midnight on July 10, 1856, thunder clapped.

Structure: the chronological story of Nikola's life.

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If the World Were 100 People

2021

by Jackie McCann, art by Aaron Cushley

First line: How many people are there in the world?

Structure: breakdown of who we are as humans if there were only 100 people. For example, 50 would be male; 50 would be female. 

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NANO: The Spectacular Science of the Very (Very) Small

by Dr. Jess Wade, art by Melissa Castrillon

2021

First two lines: Look around your home. Everything is made of something.

Structure: an accessible intro to atoms and elements and a look at how very (very) small materials are being used in nanotechnology.

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Our Subway Baby: The true story of how one baby found his home

by Peter Mercurio, art by Leo Espinosa

2020

First line: Some babies are born into their families.

Structure: chronological story, talking to the baby, of how one man found a baby in the subway and adopted him with his male partner. 

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Beautiful Shades of Brown: the art of Laura Wheeler Waring

by Nancy Churnin, art by Felicia Marshall

2020

First line: Laura loved the color brown.

Structure: story chronicling Laura Wheeler's journey to a career as an artist famous for painting portraits of Black people, starting by spotlighting her childhood fascination with the color brown.

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Bunheads

by Misty Copeland, art by Setor Fiadzigbey

2020

First line: When Miss Bradley announced they'd be performing the ballet Coppelia for the recital, everyone in Misty's class shouted excitedly and gathered around to hear their teacher tell the story of Coppelia.

Structure: Misty Copeland was the first black woman promoted to principal dancer at American Ballet Theater. This story is about her very first recital, performing Coppelia.

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Alice Across America: The Story of the First Women's Cross-Country Road Trip

by Sarah Glenn Marsh, art by Gilbert Ford

2020

First line: When Alice Ramsey was little, she loved to ride horses.

Structure: third-person story of the first women's cross-country road trip, which was a marketing ploy to demonstrate that the newly released car was safe enough for a lady to drive. 

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So You Want to Be an OWL

by Jane Porter, art by Maddie Frost

2020

First line: Welcome to Owl School!

Structure: An owl professor questions whether the reader is eligible for Team Owl by going through all the skills and characteristics of owls.

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Just You And Me: Remarkable Relationships in the Wild

by Jennifer Ward, art by Alexander Vidal

2021

First line: Just you and me.

Structure: series of four-line AABB rhymes about partnerships in the wild, each rhyme followed by a paragraph in prose naming the animals from the rhyme and offering more detail about the relationship.

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All the Way to the Top: How One Girl's Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything

by Annette Bay Pimentel, art by Nabi H. Ali

2020

First line: Jennifer Keelan may be small, but her voice is mighty.

Structure: after describing Jennifer's struggles as a kid in a wheelchair, the story tells of her involvement in rallies for Disability rights and how she made the news--and ultimately history--by literally pulling herself up the steps of Congress, in order to persuade Members to pass the ADA.

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Jump at the Sun: the true life tale of unstoppable storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston

by Alicia D. Williams, art by Jacqueline Alcantara

2021

First line: In a town called Eatonville--a place where magnolias smelled even prettier than they looked, oranges were as sweet as they were plump, and the people just plain ol' got along--lived a girl who was attracted to tales like mosquitoes to skin.

Structure: conversational chronological narrative of Zora's experience with stories as a child and her journey to becoming a famous author.

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We Move the World

by Kari Lavelle, art by Nabi H. Ali

2021

First line: First words and first steps--we stretch; we grow.

Structure: Each page has a line describing a universal action, a line about a general human accomplishment, and a line about something a specific person or group achieved that fits the theme established in the first two lines.

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The Last Straw: Kids vs Plastics

by Susan Hood, art by Christiane Engel

2021

First line: Is plastic fantastic?

Structure: each page shares in a different poetic format something important to know about plastic and its effect on our world.

Twenty-One STEPS: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

by Jeff Gottesfeld, art by Matt Tavares

2021

First line: I am an Unknown.

Structure: lyrical history of the guarding of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, from when an Unknown Soldier  was first entombed in 1921 to represent all Unknown Soldiers, to the first guard assignment, including the requirements of being a guard, all from the perspective of the entombed soldier.

A Peek at Beaks: Tools Birds Use

by Sara Levine, art by Kate Slater

2021

First line: Have you ever imagined you were a bird?

Structure: a silhouette of a specific type of bird followed by a description of that type of bird's beak.

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Sakamoto's Swim Club: How a Teacher Led an Unlikely Team to Victory

by Julie Abery and Chris Sasaki

2021

First stanza: Valley Isle. Lush terrain. Migrant workers cutting cane.

Structure: a rhyming poem with short phrases telling the chronological story of a science teacher who started a swim club of children he saw swimming in the irrigation ditches of Hawaii's sugar plantations.

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Good Night, Oppy

by James McGowan, art by Graham Carter

2021

First two lines: Opportunity loved her job. She was one of two lucky rovers exploring planet Mars to help humans understand it better.

Structure: story of Opportunity's time on Mars from the perspective of the rover.

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Dr. FAUCI: How a boy from Brooklyn became America's Doctor

by Kate Messner, art by Alexandra Bye

2021

First line: Anthony Fauci was always asking questions, wondering about the world.

Structure: chronological third-person narrative of Fauci's life, spotlighting all the life lessons that prepared him for his job as America's doctor.

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Flight for Freedom: The Wetzel Family's Daring Escape from East Germany

by Kristen Fulton, art by Torben Kuhlmann

2020

First line: In the days when Germany was divided by a wall, life was very different.

Structure: story tells how the family made the hot air balloon and then used it to escape East Germany.

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The Metric System

by David A. Adler, art by Edward Miller

2020

First line: Here are Jennifer and Robert.

Structure: a breakdown of the metric system compared to the English system, starting with linear measurements and continuing through weight and volume.

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She Caught the Light: Williamina Stevens Fleming: Astronomer

by Kathryn Lasky, art by Julianna Swaney

2021

First line: More than one hundred years ago in the city of Dundee, Scotland, a very smart baby girl was born.

Structure: chronological narrative of Williamina's life, spotlighting her interest and experience in astronomy.

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What's in Your Pocket? Collecting Nature's Treasures

by Heather L. Montgomery, art by Maribel Lechuga

2021

First line: When you explore the great outdoors and find something strange and wonderful, do you put it in your pocket?

Structure: Series of anecdotes spotlighting a famous scientist as a kid collecting something before describing what they are known for.

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From A Small Seed: the story of Eliza Hamilton

by Camille Andros, art by Tessa Blackham

2019

First line: Eliza grew up in a big brick house surrounded by a grove of tall, tall trees with branches strong for swinging.

Structure: chronological narrative of Eliza's life, comparing her strength to that of a tree and highlighting examples of her compassion for orphans.

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111 Trees: How One Village Celebrates the Birth of Every Girl

by Rina Singh and Marianne Ferrer

2020

First line: Sundar watches how his mother balances the water pot on her head.

Structure: story of how one man, after losing his mother as a young boy, and his daughter as a young man, become the head of his village in India and convinced his village to plant 111 trees for every girl born in the village.

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MARS! Earthlings Welcome

by Stacy McAnulty, art by Stevie Lewis

2021

First line: You're Invited! Mission to Mars

Structure: Mars tells readers about himself, in the context of inviting them to a party, pointing out how he's better or more interesting than earth and the other planets.

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The Ups and Downs of GRAVITY

by David A. Adler, art by Anna Raff

2020

First line: What happens to a ball when it falls off a table?

Structure: examples of how gravity works in everyday life and in space interspersed with info about Isaac Newton and how he helped us understand gravity.

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Sounds All Around: the science of how sound works

by Susan Hughes and Ellen Rooney

2021

First line: Summer, sunlight, a gentle breeze blowing the clouds.

Structure: explains how sounds happen, what they communicate, and how we hear.

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The Gravity Tree: the true story of a tree that inspired the world

by Anna Crowley Redding, art by Yas Imamura

2021

First line: A tree may seem like a rather ordinary thing.

Structure: the story of the tree  that inspired the discovery of gravity, starting with it growing from a small seed and continuing through Isaac Newton sitting under it and everyone else who came to visit--famous and not famous-- and where it ended up.

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MASTERS of DISGUISE: Camouflaging Creatures & Magnificent Mimics

by Marc Martin

2021

Structure: alternating spreads of explanations of a camouflaging species and an I Spy-style scene readers can look at to spot the camouflaging animals.