Looking for Nonfiction Monday?

Hooray!  You've found it.  Please leave me a comment with a link to your Nonfiction Monday post, and I'll update this post to include your links as the day goes on.  Or just click through to read other people's posts about nonfiction for kids.  Either way, thanks for visiting bookstogether!  I hope you'll come back soon.

Welcome to first-time Nonfiction Monday participants!

Zoe at Playing by the book is all about flags today, with a post titled Vexillology (that is, the study of flags).  Playing by the book features all sorts of great books for kids and the projects they inspire Zoe and her kids to create--today, it's a regatta!

Mandy at Enjoy and Embrace Learning reviews Z is for Zookeeper, which is about the changing role of zoos (not just the animals in them).  Her daughter is meeting author Roland Smith at school today.

Paula at Pink Me reviews some Really, Really BIG Questions about Life, the Universe, and Everything, Dr. Stephen Law's attempt to reach the youngest philosphers.  42?

Mid-morning edition (or, We're glad you're back, too!)

100 Scope Notes recommends DK's Children's Book of Art, which is beautifully laid out (see the post for a look at the inside).

Sarah at In Need of Chocolate reviews Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution by Steve Jenkins.  She mentions a timeline of the development of life on earth as if it were taking place during a 24-hour day.  When do humans show up?  Read her post (and the book) to find out.

Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect is in today with Nic Bishop Marsupials.  I'm glad to see that Bishop is training his lens on some furry animals and wonder what Tricia's favorite, the bilby, looks like.

Roberta at Wrapped in Foil enjoyed reading Nic Bishop Butterflies and Moths, which is a Cybils nonfiction picture book nominee this year.

Lynn and Cindy's post at Bookends comes with a warning:  do not read while eating!  It's about Crust and Spray: Gross Stuff in Your Eyes, Ears, Nose and Throat by CS. Larsen.

The Wild About Nature blog reviewed two titles this week, Marsh Music and Marsh Morning, both written by Marianne Berkes.  The marsh is the place to go for music, it seems.

Abby (the) Librarian has a review of Sacred Mountain Everest by Christine Butler-Taylor, all about our relationship with Everest and about the mountain itself.

The NEW Lori Calabrese Writes! reviews How We Are Smart by W. Nikola-Lisa and Sean Qualls. Learn all about multiple intelligences and the different ways people are smart.

Shirley at SimplyScience has DK's Open Me Up (and an activity to go along with it).

Mid-afternoon edition

Jennie at Biblio File is in with Show and Tell by Dilys Evans:  not really for kids, but for adults who like picture books.  One of the picture book artists profiled in this book (and highlighted by Jennie) is Denise Fleming, whose medium is...paper.

Anastasia at Picture Book of the Day is reading The Obama Family in Pictures by Jane Katirgis, just in time for Election Day tomorrow.

Amanda at a Patchwork of Books has a review of A Really Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, which emphasizes science and natural history.

And for their very first Nonfiction Monday post, the Z-Kids and their dad Aaron Zenz of Bookie Woogie have interviewed author Patricia Newman about "Nugget on the Flightdeck," an exciting book about life aboard an aircraft carrier (illustrated by Zenz himself).  Bookie Woogie features the kids' commentary  and fan art for every book they review.

Late evening news

Jone is in with a review of Bubble Homes and Fish Farts by Fiona Baycock, another Cybils nonfiction picture book nominee with a great title and unusual focus on the uses of bubbles in the natural world.

And Bookmoot is back in the saddle with Texas Bluebonnet List Picture Book Biographies.  There are two biographies on the list this year: Surfer of the Century and The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau.

One more:  Doret at The Happy Nappy Bookseller has Sweethearts of Rhythm by Marilyn Nelson and Jerry Pinckney.  It's the story of the greatest all-girl swing band in the world, and you'll never guess who tells it.

Thanks for participating in Nonfiction Monday this week, everyone!

[The Tuesday Edition:  3T News and Reviews looks at books from Lerner's history and Visual Geography series.]

Welcome to Nonfiction Monday

Welcome to Nonfiction Monday at books together! I'm delighted to be hosting today (as always). Please leave me a comment with a link to your post for Nonfiction Monday; I'll update this post to include your links at various times throughout the day. Thanks for visiting, and for participating in this edition of Nonfiction Monday.

Good Morning!

Sarah N. of In Need of Chocolate posted about Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing Butterflies and Moths, one of her family's favorite books about butterflies.

Kim Hutmacher reviews The DesertAlphabet Encyclopedia at The Wild About Nature Blog.

Fuse #8 reviews The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand New Colors by Chris Barton.

Jennifer reviews Sea Cows, Shamans, and Scurvy by Ann Arnold at Jean Little Library.

Lori Calabrese reviews Swifter, Higher, Stronger by Sue Macy at Lori Calabrese Writes!

Shirley posts on Not a Drop to Drink at SimplyScience.

[We're off to pick strawberries and will update at lunchtime. Thanks again!]

Lunchtime

The ACPL Mock Sibert Blog has posted its first reading list of non-fiction books to be considered fortheir Mock Sibert Award, to be awarded in January, 2010.

Amanda of A Patchwork of Books has a review up of What's Inside?

Robin ofThe Book Nosher is posting about I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer.

This past week on INK: Interesting Nonfiction for Kids -- "Out of a Tunnel" by Cheryl Harness; "Let's Give 'Em Something To Talk About" by Linda Salzman; "Just The Facts, Ma'am" by Susan E. Goodman; "Figs" by Barbara Kerley; "Some Observations on the History and Future of Informational Books" by guest blogger Jean Reynolds; and "Writing Children's Nonfiction Made Simple" by Steve Jenkins.

[Thenext round of posts will go up later this afternoon. Time to eat the strawberries!]

Afternoon and Evening

There haven't been any additional posts this afternoon, but there should be plenty to keep you busy here. I'll round up one more time tonight, just in case. Thanks for visiting!

Nighttime

On Wendie's Wanderings this week, Wendie has done a review of Melissa Stewart's new series, A Rainbow of Animals.

Nonfiction Monday is here today

Welcome to Nonfiction Monday at books together! I'm delighted to be hosting today. Please leave me a comment with a link to your post for Nonfiction Monday; I'll update this post to include your links at various times throughout the day. Thanks for visiting, and for participating in this edition of Nonfiction Monday.

Good morning!

At Just One More Book!, Mark and Andreachatted about two non-fiction children's books this week: Dr. White and There's a Babirusa in My Bathtub.

Great Kid Books reviews two nonfiction books for young dog lovers in Puppy Love.

Jennifer of Jean Little Library reviews White Owl, Barn Owl by Nicola Davies.

In honor of Read Across America, Lori Calabrese takes a look at "The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss!"

After lunch

MotherReader has a book review of Unite or Die.

Jen Robinson is in with a review of Bubble Homes and Fish Farts.

Anastasia Suen has a fiction/nonfiction pair plus activities inHappy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Valerie at Not Enough Acres Farm posted about a cute nonfiction polar bear book.

Another title (Eleanor, Quiet No More) is up on the ACPL Mock Sibert blog! (From Mandy.)

At Book Scoops, the Doublescoop of the month (where Cari and Holly review a book together) is Nic Bishop's Spiders.

Abby (the) Librarian has a post about seeing three history book authors (Sally M. Walker, Larry Day. and Candace Fleming) at an event last week in History Night at Anderson's Bookshop.

Amanda at A Patchwork of Books has three books today, all on dogs and cats.

Jone shares something professional:  a great book for library media specialists about how to teach comprehension in the library.

Evening

Tricia highlights the NSTA's list of Outstanding Science Trade Books for 2009 at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

Kimberly at lectitans posted about Karen Kingston's Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui (not a kid book, says Kimberly, but kid-friendly).

Jennie kicks off Graphic Novel Week at Biblio File with a review of Journey into Mohawk Country.

Claire at StoryForce posts about Students on Strike: Jim Crow, Civil Rights, Brown, and Me.  The voice in this one is so strong, says Claire, that "teenagers today will feel like they are marching, too."

Nonfiction Monday: Script and Scribble

Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting by Kitty Burns Florey (Melville House, 2009) is part memoir, part history, part examination of handwriting's place in an increasingly digital world.  Like Florey, I identify with my own script (13); and I found the whole thing fascinating (okay, I might have skipped the chapter on graphology).

The section on handwriting programs in Chapter 5, "Is Handwriting Important?" is particularly relevant to parents whose children are learning cursive in school.  I'm now convinced that it doesn't make sense to teach kids to print and then a few years later switch them to cursive.  Just teach them a sixteenth-century Italic hand right from the start, I say!  [Note that this is not as crazy as it sounds; the Portland (OR) Public Schools have been using the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting System for 24 years.]

Any anecdotal evidence re:handwriting programs?  Our county uses Handwriting Without Tears: I don't like it.

[Nonfiction Monday is at Charlotte's Library.  Thank you, Charlotte!]

White House Farm

There was an interesting short series of articles in the Washington Post Food and Home sections earlier this month on the possibility of transforming the South Lawn of the White House into a working farm, or at least creating a Victorian-style walled kitchen garden on the White House grounds.  That's the South Lawn on the cover of the wonderful Our White House: Looking in, Looking Out (Candlewick, 2008), which features at least one related entry:  "White House Colonial Kitchen Gardens" by Stephanie Loer, accompanied by S.D. Schindler's illustration of Thomas Jefferson taking a bite out of a tomato.  I love the idea of growing food at the White House (I suspect kids would, too) and am pleased that there are presidential precedents for it:  if you're interested, find out more at www.thewhofarm.org.  And even more about the White House in the book and at its companion site.  Welcome home!

Nonfiction Monday: A Second is a Hiccup

How long is a minute?

Sixty seconds to a minute,
Sixty hiccups, sixty hops.

Or if you sing just one small song
Chorus, verses, not too long
That's just enough to fill

A minute.

From A Second is a Hiccup:  A Child's Book of Time by Hazel Hutchins, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton (First American edition, Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic, 2007).  Hutchins describes measurements of time, from seconds to minutes, hours to days, weeks to months to years, in terms children will recognize from experience.  Parents will be reminded of just how quickly that time passes.  A delight to read aloud and to look at together.

[Kady MacDonald Denton's illustrations of children here are just as charming and expressive as her work in this year's A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker (Candlewick, 2008).  According to her website, a sequel to that book (A Birthday for Bear) is now in progress.  How long do we have to wait?]

Nonfiction Monday: Note by Note

If you took piano lessons as a child, or if you have a child who is taking them now, then you'll want to read Note by Note: A Celebration of the Piano Lesson by Tricia Tunstall (Simon and Schuster, 2008).  I like Tunstall's description of music lessons:  "weekly session[s] alone together, physically proximate, concentrating on the transfer of a skill that is complicated and difficult, often frustrating and frequently tedious, but that every now and then open suddenly and without warning into joy" (3).  And the chapter on recitals is particularly, sometimes painfully, well-observed.

Recommended at Read Roger (see the comments for what readers remember from past piano lessons; Spinning Song, anyone?).  I only wish there were something comparable for violin lessons--that's what Leo takes.  Although Little Rat Makes Music by Monika Bang-Campbell (illustrated by Molly Bang; Harcourt, 2007) comes close, from a child's perspective.  So that's what elementary violin playing looks like!

Nonfiction Monday: The wolves of Yellowstone

When the Wolves Returned:  Restoring Nature's Balance in Yellowstone by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent; photographs by Dan Hartman and Cassie Hartman (Walker, 2008).
The Wolves Are Back by Jean Craighead George; paintings by Wendell Minor (Dutton, 2008).

These two nonfiction picture books cover the same topic in very different, equally effective ways.  We have a soft spot for wolves; so we read both of them.

When the Wolves Returned is illustrated with historical and contemporary photographs of the park, its human visitors and its wild inhabitants.  Patent's text is dual-level:  one sentence in large type on the left hand page, a more detailed paragraph in smaller type on the right.  Back matter includes a note about the photographs, a bibliography, and an index; there is also a diagram of "The Wolf Effect" that tests your memory of how the wolves' return has impacted other plants and animals at Yellowstone.

The Wolves Are Back is illustrated with Wendell Minor's realistic watercolor-and-gouache paintings.  George's text tells the story of Yellowstone's wolves in the context of one wolf pup's adventures (not surprisingly; George is a novelist, author of the Newbery Award-winning Julie of the Wolves); it is more poetic, punctuated by the refrain "The wolves are back."  There is no back matter apart from the artist's list of sources.

I think these two books--these two types of books--are complements rather than substitutes.  I was interested in which type of book appealed most to which of my kids (I had some ideas, although they both generally prefer fiction to nonfiction read-alouds); but there was no comparison: the kids saw them as two different, equally appealing books.

[The Nonfiction Monday round-up is at Picture Book of the Day.  Thanks, Anastasia!]

Nonfiction Monday: Ancient Egypt

Leo's second grade class has been studying ancient civilizations this spring, beginning with Imperial China in February.  They recently wrapped up (pun!) a unit on Ancient Egypt.  Here's a small selection of the Egypt books we read at home:

Mummies, Pyramids, and Pharoahs: A Book About Ancient Egypt by Gail Gibbons (Little, Brown Young Readers, 2004).  A Gibbons book is always a great place to start.  Leo read this one to Milly; it was her favorite.

The following three books are each part of a series that includes titles about other ancient civilizations, medieval Europe, and/or peoples of the Americas.

• Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Ancient Egypt by Joanna Cole; illustrated by Bruce Degen (Scholastic, 2001).  Ms. Frizzle is an old friend of ours; here she shifts her focus from science to social studies.  There are two other titles in this series (Imperial China and Medieval Castle); we hope there will be more.
• How to Be an Egyptian Princess by Jacqueline Morley (National Geographic Children's Books, 2006).  The books in this series address the reader in the second person and conclude with an "interview" to determine his (or her, in this case) qualifications for the job.
• The Egyptian News by Scott Steedman (Candlewick).  The History News books are very clever; Leo loves them all.  [Aside: I wonder how long the newspaper format will be recognizable to kids?  At least we still take a print copy of the Washington Post and read it over breakfast.

Finally, we highly recommend The 5,000-Year-Old Puzzle: Solving a Mystery of Ancient Egypt by Claudia Logan; illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Melanie Kroupa, 2002).  Fiction and nonfiction intersect in both text (a fictional family joins an archeological expedition to Giza, 1924) and illustrations.  I love Melissa Sweet's work; here she combines "acrylic and watercolor as well as collage including stamps, postcards, and archival documents and newspapers" (from back flap).  This book was produced with the cooperation of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, whose collection of Egyptian art includes artifacts from the same expedition to Giza.  Maybe we'll visit this summer (the MFA, not Giza!).

[N.b., I'm not an Egyptophile.  And Leo, while interested in all the ancient civilizations (he now wants to be a history professor), definitely prefers the Greeks and Romans.  Thankfully, because I think I've read enough about Egypt for awhile.]

Nonfiction Monday: Frogs!

Milly's preschool class is learning all about the rain forest.  A few weeks ago they went on a field trip to the National Geographic Museum at Explorers Hall in Washington, DC to see Frogs! A Chorus of Colors.  The field trip itself was an expedition to rival any of National Geographic's, but the exhibit was worth it.  There were live frogs from around the world (our favorites were the tiny jewel-like poison dart frogs) in terrarium habitats right at the kids' eye level.  We also saw this exhibit of frog photography by Mark W. Moffett (the images were blown up so that in many cases the frogs were bigger than the kids, which was fun).  If you're not local, you can check out Moffett's excellent Face to Face with Frogs  (National Geographic Children's Books, 2008), part of NGS's Face to Face series of kids' nonfiction.  If you are local, the frogs are here til May 11.  After reading the book, Leo wants to see them, too.  Ribbit!

[We also like Red-Eyed Tree Frog by Joy Cowley; photographs by Nic Bishop (Scholastic, 1999).  This one tells a day-in-the-life of a tree frog story with short, simple text (one or two sentences per page) and amazing close-up photos. Perfect for preschoolers.]

Nonfiction Monday: Mia Posada's egg book

When Leo was little he was obsessed with eggs.  We still read a lot of egg books.  Lately we've been enjoying this one, Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg by Mia Posada (Millbrook, 2007).  It's an especially good choice for reading aloud to kids of different ages (like mine, who are 7 and 3).  Milly still likes to guess what's in each egg, on the basis of a close-up like the one on the front cover and a little riddle like this one (from the back cover):

Under this feathered belly, it's cozy and warm.
The egg is safe from the icy Antarctic storm.

"It's a penguin!" she tells me excitedly, every single time.  When we turn the page, Leo can hear or practice reading aloud a short paragraph about penguins (or alligators, ducklings, sea turtles, spiders, or octopuses) while Milly patiently (or not) looks at a longer shot, taken in watercolor collage, of the newly-hatched penguin chick (alligator, duckling, etc.) in its natural environment.  Posada's other books are about dandelions, ladybugs, and robins--she knows what we like!

[Nonfiction Monday Round-up at Anastasia Suen's blog Picture Book of the Day.  Thanks, Anastasia!]

Nonfiction Monday: A New Beginning

I just ordered A New Beginning: Celebrating the Spring Equinox by Wendy Pfeffer; illustrated by Linda Bleck (Dutton, 2008).  I couldn't resist, not with the gorgeous early spring weather we're having today.  Milly even saw a robin!  I like Pfeffer's other books about the seasons, We Gather Together: Celebrating the Harvest Season (also illustrated by Bleck; it's in our fall book basket) and The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice (illustrated by Jesse Reisch; I posted about it here).  A New Beginning offers the same combination of scientific information about spring (when the days get longer, the growing season begins, and animals have their babies); and historical or cultural background about springtime celebrations around the world (including the Chinese New Year, Passover, and Easter).  Activities, crafts, and recipes at the back of the book.  I hope we have time to try some of these before spring arrives!

Nonfiction Monday: Vegetables

Sometimes a Gail Gibbons book is exactly what you (and your preschool-aged child) want:  colorful, concise, and informative.  This one is about The Vegetables We Eat (Holiday House, 2007).  It might be more accurate to say that it's about some vegetables we eat and some I wish the kids would eat more of, but in any case, it's just the thing to read alongside the big stack of seed catalogs that have been coming in the mail since December 24 (our favorite is Seeds of Change; the 2008 catalog focuses on urban gardening).  Now we know that there are eight different kinds of vegetables, grouped according to the part of the vegetable that is eaten (leaf, bulb, flower bud, root, tuber, stem, fruit, and seed).  Which ones do we eat?  Which ones will we grow?  Gibbons also covers how vegetables are grown (on small and "great big" vegetable farms, as well as in your own garden), where they are sold (at farmers' markets and grocery stores), and how they're eaten.  Watercolor and ink illustrations are bright and cheeful; I love the vegetables that spell out "Vegetables" on the cover.

[I can't resist suggesting that you pair The Vegetables We Eat with Caldecott Honor book Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens (Harcourt, 1995).  My kids just discovered this book (our library bought a new copy, I assume because the old one was worn out from being read so much).  It's a trickster tale with roots in slave stories of the American South:  clever Hare agrees to split successive harvests with lazy Bear, tops and bottoms.  Which crops does Hare grow for their bottoms?  Which ones does he grow for their tops?]

Nonfiction Monday: The Story of Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays.  I know there are people who don't like it, but they're getting a (handmade) valentine from me anyway.  A lot of people do, just like in grade school:  I don't think of Valentine's Day as only a romantic holiday.  As Clyde Bulla writes in The Story of Valentine's Day (newly illustrated by Susan Estelle Kwas; HarperCollins, 1999), "It is a day to give small gifts of love and friendship to someone special."  This small book would make a perfect valentine (hint)--there's even a heart-shaped bookplate inside.  Also a brief and very readable history of Valentine's Day, beginning with the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia; and of valentines themselves.  Back matter includes instructions for making old-fashioned "pinprick" valentines, examples of acrostic valentines, and a recipe for Valentine Cookies.  I really like the new illustrations by Susan Estelle Kwas, too (especially the Cupid on the cover).  Leo and Milly really liked the idea of celebrating Lupercalia, but I think we'll stick to making valentines over here!  Maybe we'll have to make one for Lupercus.

[Nonfiction Monday]

Nonfiction Monday: Pompeii

What is it about the story of Pompeii that is so compelling?  I think it's not so much the volcanic eruption--although that's certainly compelling--as the record of everyday life in a Roman town that Vesuvius inadvertently created almost 2000 years ago.  Pompeii Lost and Found by Mary Pope Osborne, with frescoes by Bonnie Christensen (Knopf, 2006), is primarily about the record, and is the perfect introduction to the story of Pompeii for young readers.

About the illustrations in Pompeii Lost and Found:  According to the flap copy, Christensen "brings to works of nonfiction a style of art that is especially suited to the period in which each book is set."  For this book, she painted actual frescoes inspired in color and style by ones found in Pompeii (a note in the back of the book describes the technique).  One of the first spreads features small frescoes of six objects found in the ruins and asks readers to guess how they were used (answers in the back; my kids really liked this).  Many of the later spreads include a smaller fresco of a found object that relates to the larger fresco of a scene from everyday life:  a scene in the bustling outdoor marketplace (forum) is accompanied by scales and gold coins; one of a dinner party is accompanied by a loaf of bread and a glass pitcher.  I like the way this design encourages kids to imagine being archaeologists and reminds them throughout of the archeological evidence that allows us to imagine life in Pompeii, 79 AD.

Nonfiction Monday: Ox, House, Stick

Today is the first Nonfiction Monday for children's book bloggers.  Thanks to Anastasia Suen for designating a day to post about nonfiction, which I love and which doesn't get as much attention as it might.  I also like having some sort of structure to my posting (see Poetry Friday, which I missed last week).  And we read a lot of nonfiction at our house.  Right now, it's mostly about Ancient Rome.  Maybe I should just make this Ancient Roman Week at bookstogether!

I knew right away that my first Nonfiction Monday post would be about this book:  Ox, House, Stick:  The History of Our Alphabet by Don Robb; illustrated by Anne Smith (Charlesbridge, 2007).  [Jules at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast had the same idea; see her review here.]  After all, our alphabet is Roman.

Ox, House, Stick was a Cybils nominee in the middle grade nonfiction category, and I would have been delighted if it had won (unfortunately, it's not a finalist).  The book, like the alphabet it describes, is a marvel of clarity, both visual--the illustrator, Anne Smith, is also a graphic artist--and informative.

It begins with a few pages about how people communicate; how written language developed from pictures and symbols to letters; and how those letters--our alphabet--spread "around the Mediterranean and through the centuries."  The rest of the book traces the origins of each letter or group of letters, interspersed with brief discussions of things like pronunciation, writing practices, and the invention of print.

All things that interest me, of course, but Leo was fascinated, too, as soon as he saw the ox head in the A (turn it upside down).  Thank you, Ancient Romans.

[And thanks again, Anastasia!  See more Nonfiction Monday posts listed here.]

Snow, origami, and dogs

Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect came up with a list of some her favorite gift books for the December Carnival of Children's Literature (to be hosted by Big A little a).  She organized them by category:  snow, origami, puzzles and mysteries, nonfiction, and dogs; and wrote a nice precis of each one.  She also asked for readers' favorites in those categories; here are some of mine:

Snow

Grandmother Winter by Phyllis Root; pictures by Beth Krommes (Houghton Mifflin, 1999).  What happens when Grandmother Winter shakes her feather quilt?  Why, it snows, of course:  big soft feathery flakes; then all sorts of creatures (and children!) must make ready for the cold winter.  I love Phyllis Root's work; here, she was inspired by the German tales of Mother Holle.  And Beth Krommes's scratchboard-and-watercolor illustrations (this was her first picture book; she went on to illustrate Joyce Sidman's award-winning poetry collections) are both beautiful and true.

Origami

Yoko's Paper Cranes by Rosemary Wells (Hyperion, 2001).  Spare text and beautiful art (using origami and washi papers, gold leaf, rubber stamps, and paint) combine to tell a many-layered, extremely satisfying story.  Yoko moves to California, but comes up with a symbolic birthday gift to send her grandmother in Japan.  Includes diagrams for folding an origami paper crane (not the easiest thing to fold, but perhaps the most well-known).  This is also a good wintertime and holiday read, especially for children who live far from their grandparents.

Puzzles and mysteries

The Westing Game by Ellen Rankin (it won the Newbery Medal in 1979).  I still remember reading The Westing Game for the first time; it was so unlike any book I had read before (or since).  The granddaddy of the puzzle/mystery mid-grade novel.  Check out this website, The Westing Heirs; it was created by a group of fourth-graders (and their teachers).  So kids are still reading it!

Nonfiction and Dogs

Dogs and Cats by Steve Jenkins (Houghton Mifflin, 2007).  Milly loves dogs; we have a basket full of her favorite "dog books."  The usual suspects are in there:  Spot, Biscuit, Harry, McDuff; as well as a random assortment of others and a revolving door of dog library books.  This fall we added nonfiction, mostly because Steve Jenkins's cut and torn paper collage illustrations are so appealing (ahem, to me), but his text is nicely organized around questions and comparisons.  It's fair to say that the "and Cats" part of this two-sided book rarely gets read at our house, though.

Thanks again, Tricia!  Everyone (two? three?) else, please feel free to list or link to your favorites in these categories in the comments as well.

Seasons of Light

Leo's second-grade class saw a performance of Seasons of Light at the Smithsonian's Discovery Theater this morning (I saw it with them).  The program is about the history and customs of winter holidays (mostly religious holidays) celebrated around the world, and emphasizes how all of the holidays have to do with light: light from the sun, the stars, candles and oil lamps.  The learning guide for Seasons of Light contains information on the winter solstice and on all of the holidays presented in the program.

At home, we read The Shortest Day:  Celebrating the Winter Solstice by Wendy Pfeffer (illustrated by Jesse Reisch; Dutton, 2003).  This book explains, in language even Milly can understand, how and why the days grow shorter as winter approaches, what the winter solstice is, and how that day (and night) has been marked and celebrated by different cultures (Egyptian, Chinese, Incan, and European) throughout history.  The emphasis here is on the scientific, not the religious.  The activity suggestions for the shortest day sometimes span the days and weeks surrounding it, such as making a winter sunrise/sunset chart (we did this last year, looking in the newspaper for the times) and measuring shadows.  My favorite suggestion:  have a winter solstice party!  Or two:  one for you, with yellow-frosted sun cupcakes and candles, and one for the birds.

Look for these collections of stories to read around the time of winter solstice (I'm still looking for them myself, actually!):

• The Return of the Light:  Twelve Tales from Around the World for the Winter Solstice by Carolyn McVickar Edwards (Second edition; Marlow and Co., 2005).  For grownups.
• Fireside Stories:  Tales for a Winter's Eve by Caitlin Matthews; illustrated by Helen Cann (Barefoot Books, 2007).  We would love a copy of this book; unfortunately, our library doesn't hold it yet.  Barefoot's themed collections are very nice, and this one looks perfect for cozy read-alouds.