Boy by Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl's story telling abilities shined through as much through his autobiography as through his fiction works.  Dahl's narrative of his boyhood intrigued me.  I appreciated Dahl's commitment to his writing style.  While reading Boy, I couldn't help but make endless connections to his other authored works.  Dahl's ruthless headmasters reminded me of none other that the dreadful Ms. Trunchbull of Matilda.  And the candy shop of Dahl's walks to primary school pointed to no other book than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (in fact, Dahl explicitly makes this connection for the reader).

Throughout the pages, Dahl includes pictures and letters from his boyhood that make his stories come to life.  I often found myself staring at one of Dahl's pictures, looking for every detail, just wondering if Dahl knew at six-years-old that he would be a famous author one day.  I often forget that the iconic figures in our lives once had a childhood, too.  How wonderful it is that Dahl wrote this book because young readers can see that Dahl had similar trials, tribulations, and triumphs as they do.  Children can read how Dahl transformed from a "normal" boy into a beloved children's book author.  I hope the opportunity will arise in my future elementary school classroom to read Boy as a class.

Nothing touched me more than Dahl's letters signed "love from Boy."  The inclusion of these letters, seeing Dahl's own handwriting signing "Boy," made the title of the book increasingly significant.

When I checked this out at the library, I saw that a sequel accompanies this book.  Titled Going Solo, the book includes more narratives of Dahl's life.  I am relieved there is a sequel, as Dahl ended Boy writing that his adventures post-high school are "a different tale altogether" that "if all goes well, I may have a shot at telling it one of these days."  And he did! In Going Solo, Dahl, in similar story telling fashion, tells the tales of his days in Africa and as a RAF pilot in World War II.  Due to the subject matter, this book would be more appropriate for middle and high school-aged students.  I can't wait to crack it open!

Chingis Khan by Demi

My favorite period of American History is the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods, and when this week came to read a biography, I immediately gravitated towards the children's biographies on George Washington and Ben Franklin.  Then, I stopped myself.  Surely, not every child in my classroom will pick up a biography on a Revolutionary figure.  So I searched a bit further, scanned the shelves at the library, and my eye picked up on a glimmering gold binding of the biography of Chingis Kahn.

I'm afraid to admit I knew little of the details of Chingis Khan's conquest before reading the picture book biography Chingis Khan.  In fact, the last time I studied any history of the Mongolian Empire was in high school in tenth grade world history.  I was delighted to run across this biography.  Any knowledge I obtained in tenth grade was quickly forgotten, as I had no motivation to commit to memory the details of my history textbook.  Demi, however, presents the conquest of Chingis Khan through an intriguing narrative accompanied by colored-pen illustrations with a symbolic presence of gold.

Chingis Khan, born along the Onon River in 1160, originally was named Temujin.  His father, Yesugei, was the leader of the Great Mongol Clan, which at that time was one of many clans in Mongolia.  Demi shares Temujin's prowess at an early age: archery at five, hunting at six, and the responsibility of the tribe at nine due to the death of his father.  At this point, the illustrations which previously had great usage of a gold pen, now lack the presence of any gold.  For the next several pages, as Temujin struggles to keep his position and his tribe alive, the illustrations are almost monotone.    Not until the Blue Sky God responds to Temujin's prayer to become the most powerful tribe leader of all, does the gold return.  Demi then describes Temujin's rise to power as the leader of one tribe to become the "Emperor of Heaven" controlling all in Eastern ASia as far as the eye can see.

Demi's work has been praised by many.  She has illustrated Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales as well as many books of her own.  Demi's books often provide a great opportunity to present other cultures and countries' histories in the classroom.  Some of her other authored and illustrated titles include The Magic Boat and The Empty Pot.

When the Wolves Returned: Restoring Nature's Balance in Yellowstone by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

We often think of our nation's national parks as one of the few places protected from human interference.  National parks today have strict no-trash policies, allow for little development, and are havens away from the hustle and bustle of our modern lives.

Yellowstone is one of the national parks we have come to treasure.  In 1872, Congress declared Yellowstone a national park in an attempt to protect, as author Dorothy Hinshaw Patent of When the Wolves Returned writes, the place that "contains more natural geologic wonders than any other place on Earth."  When the park opened, hundreds of people came to visit and camp.  Many came to hunt the wildlife such as elk and deer.  The hunters, however, had a competitor: the wolves.  The park thus hired hunters to kill the wolves to leave more elk and deer for visitors to shoot.  By 1926, all the wolves were gone and elk and deer ran in their largest numbers.  Little did anyone know how crucial the wolves were to the ecosystem of the park's habitat.  In When the Wolves Returned, Patent shares the story of the fall of Yellowstone's precious balance of life and how it was finally restored.

Patent tells a somber story with a subdued narrative stating just the facts.  The reader needs no help to read between the lines.  When the Wolves Returned includes photographs from its first years of Yellowstone's opening contrasted against photographs taken in the 21st century by Dan and Cassie Hartman.  The older photographs, property of the National Park Service, give the reader a look at its first visitors who came in suits and dresses as people once dressed when they took the day for a vacation.  The black-and-white photographs contrast sharply against Dan and Cassie's high-definition, color photographs that enable the reader to grasp the vastness of the beauty Yellowstone contains.

When the Wolves Returned would work wonderfully as a read aloud in a classroom on a unit on ecosystems.  The book concludes with a flow chart tracing the "wolf effect" created in Yellowstone by wiping out the wolves.  The book and concluding chart allow children to being to grasp how much change one alteration in a natural cycle can cause.

Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building by Deborah Hopkinson & James E. Ransome

Sky Boys takes the reader back to the Depression Era through the eyes of a young boy who places his hope in the construction of the Empire State Building, the building so tall "it will scrape the sky."

The boy's father has just lost his job and along with his job all hope of a better tomorrow.  When the boy announces to his father one day that Mr. Raskob will be building the tallest skyscraper in the world, his father replies, Things are so bad, it seems foolish to even try."  But the boy believes in the building and so he watches the construction week-by-week until after just over a year later, the building is officially dedicated on March 18, 1931.

Hopkins uses the boy to present information to the reader about the Empire State Building's construction and the Sky Boys, who climbed higher than ever before to build the tallest building of its time.  Accompanied by James E. Ransom's illustrations, Hopkins explains the four-man system of riveting used on the construction site.  Though a seamless order of "Toss-catch-steady-pound.  Toss-catch-steady-pound." the four-men team placed "one or two rivets a minute, five hundred rivets a day."  While some men riveted, others hoisted limestone, pipes and wires.  And still others crawled, spun, and banged.  Amidst all the fury of construction, Hopkins does not let the reader forget about the dismal job situation through italicized verse at the bottom of each page.  Hopkins sings of the ease of replacing one worker for another who will work for lower pay.

Ransome's illustrations add depth to the sheer scale of the Empire State Building and the sorrows of those without jobs.  Ransome's illustrations include a painting of the 2010 red columns sunk 55 feet into the ground to give the building a solid base, and a week-by-week progression of the building's construction.  Perhaps what is most touching are the facial expressions of the people of Ransome's illustrations.  In one picture depicting the boy dreaming of the building-to-be, the reader sees hoped etched on his face.  In another illustration of unemployed men waiting in line hoping to be employed, the reader can see quiet desperation.  Ransome's medium of oil painting gives the illustrations an antique look that bring the reader into a world of eighty years ago.

The Empire State Building upon its completion on March 18, 1931, was the tallest building in the world.  It held the title for 40 years.  Though the Empire State Building no longer olds the title of tallest building in the word, it remains a powerful symbol of hope for many.   For a complete history on the Empire State Building, visit its official site.

Birds by Nicola Davies

Published as part of a series by Kingfisher Young Knowledge, Birds is a comprehensive resource for children on everything about birds from what exactly a bird is, to how they build thier homes and birds that are in danger.  Each spread includes a full-page photograph zoning in on the feature of the page's topic.  On the spread title "Hardworking feathers," Birds includes a magnificant picture of a macaw with its wings fully spread so children can see every feather that constitutes a bird's wings.  Every page includes bolded words across the footer defining possible new vocabulary for its reader making the text accessible for readers as young as eight-years-old. 

Davies' writing makes Birds a great nonfiction read.  She uses terms and examples that children can relate to.  On the page "Raising babies," Davies includes a section about teamwork writing that "Mom, dad, and a whole team of older others and sisters work teogether to feed teh bee eater babies."  When reading this I immediately imagained a family of my own with older brothers and sisters to help out with the arrival of a new sibling.

At the end of the book, Birds presents crafts projects such as making a bird book or a bird feeder.  These projects allow for further exploration of birds in their natural habitat and create an awareness of our interation with birds.  Overall, Birds is a great read for children as young as eight-years-old to learn the basics of these magnificent creatures!

Some other titles among the Kingfisher Young Knowledge series include:
Animal Homes
Robots
Rocks and Fossils


For science lesson ideas using the books, click here.

Journey into the Deep: Discovering New Ocean Creatures by Rebecca L. Johnson

In Rebecca Johnson's forward of Jounrey into the Deep, I ironically found a direct connection to the book of this blog's previous post, Mars and the Search for Life.  Sylvia A. Earle who wrote the forward of Journey into the Deep writes:

"If aliens came looking for life on Earth, they would probably first dive into the sea...Curiously, humans have only recently embakred on serous exploration fo the sea."

I found this to be a wonderful introduction to the book as it changed my reading from the beginning and how I thought about the sea.  I have spent many times wondering about the mystery of what lies beyond Earth's atmospthere, but rarely have I thought about what lies within the abyss of the ocean.

Using data from the 2010 Census of Marine Life, Johnson introduces the reader to just a fraction of the more than 250,000 species of life in the ocean.  Johnson lays out the book wonderfully, devoting between six and eight pages to each zone of the ocean: shallow edges, open water, deep slopes, the dark zone, abyssal plains. sea moutains, ridges and vents, and the "unfathomable deep."  Each section includes the most recent coloful, full-page photographs taken of marine life.  The photographs are so clearly defined I found myself hesitating to turn the page by touching the corner where a picture of the squidworm laid.  Johnson not only introduces the reader to the sea life of each ocean zone, but the research methods scientiest used to plunge into the depths of the ocean.  In the "unfathomable deep" section, Johnson includes a photograph of the lander, a titanium metal box with a camera in the middle, which is used to take picures of the ocean's deepest ponints where the pressure "is so great it would be like having fifty jumbo jets piled on top of you."  The lander brought, for the first time, video footage of life living almost seven miles beneath the surface!  Journey into the Deep never ceased to amaze me!

Rebecca L. Johnson has written numerous nonfiction science books for children and young adults.  For a complete listing of her works, click here.

Mars and the Search for Life by Elaine Scott

"Life on Mars -- science fiction, right?  Maybe...or maybe not."

After reading the above first lines of the summary on the inside flap of Mars and the Search for Life, I found myself flipping through the book trying to find photographic evidence of that "maybe not."

I was not dissapointed as I imagine no other reader would be.  The 2009 publication has no lack of updated pictures of space or references to pop culture.  Elaine Scott bridges science across time by tracing the development of scientific discovery and the public's interpretations and dreams of it.  The first chapter begins with a picture of a scene from Steven Speilberg's 2005 verson of War of the Worlds contrasted against and illustration of the 1906 edition of the book and a poster from the 1953 film version.  Children reading Mars and the Search for Life will immediately realize the depth to which the question of life on Mars has infiltrated our thoughts -- real and fantasy alike.

Scott breaks down Mars and the Search for Life into eight chapters beginning with the earliest myths of the planets to the latest scientific discoverites of outer space.  The chapters include an abundance of information through page text and picture captions.  The illustrations and photographs can be used in any science classroom to show the development of space engineering while the more advanced text level would be appropriate for readers beginning in fifth or sixth grade.

As would be expected, Mars and the Search for Life does not present any previously hidden evidence about lifeforms living on Mars' surface.  However, in concluding the book, Scott draws a wonderful comparison between our quest for a way to live on Mars and the first humans' quest to find out how to survive on Earth:

"Traveling to Mars, living in an alien world in a cramped habitat, wearing a spacesuit any time you leave the habitat, harvesting water or ice where you find it, growing food in a greenhouse, learning to walk without the pull of Earth's gravity -- none of it will be easy.  But it wasn't easy for the first humans to leave Africa and move out across the plains of Asia and Europe.  It wasn't easy for Ferdinand Magellan to circumnavigate the Earth.  And it wasn't easy for Neil Armstrong to become the first person to step on the surface of the moon.  However, human beings are adventurous creatures, and exploring space is one of the most exciting -- and most challenging -- adventures of all."


Among her nonfiction books for children, Elaine Scott has also authored When is a Planet Not a Planet?  The Story of Pluto