Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: In the Age of Distance Learning

Lately, I have been scouring the web for resources and other ideas to share with my Preschool and Afterschool teachers as they look for easy enrichment activities to share with students and families. I decided to share a few of my favorites along with some books to pair with the videos.

Here are a few of my favorite videos that I found and thought would be fun to share with you…

TED-ED: The Chemistry of Cookies - Check out the lesson by Stephanie Warren, here.

Mystery Doug has a series of short videos that are inspired by questions from kids. Anyone up for chocolate?

Pair this video with Melissa Stewart’s No Monkeys, No Chocolate

The California Science Center have created a series of videos called Stuck at Home. Click here to see all of the current videos. Some are available in both English and Spanish.

Pair this video with National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Things That Go (National Geographic Little Kids First Big Books) by Karen De Seve

Don’t forget to link up your nonfiction reviews here…

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: New Releases Coming in April

It’s time for my favorite post of the month - sharing upcoming new releases. There are so many wonderful books coming out in April. Here is just a few of the books that will begin releasing in several days.

If you missed the previous posts, you will find them here: 2020 Preview | January/February Post | March Post

March 2020

The Fabled Life of Aesop: The extraordinary journey and collected tales of the world’s greatest storyteller by Ian Lendler, Illustrated by Pamela Zargarenski (HMH Books for Young Readers)

The Voice that Won the Vote: How One Woman’s Words Made History by Elisa Boxer, Illustrated by Vivien Mildenberger (Sleeping Bear Press)

April 7, 2020

Dads by John Coy, Photos by Wing Young Huie (Carolrhoda Books)

Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade, Illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera (Abrams Books for Young Readers)

Follow Those Zebras: Solving a Migration Mystery by Sandra Markle (Millbrook Press)

Lost Cities by Giles Laroche (HMH Books for Young Readers)

Play Like an Animal!: Why Critters Splash, Race, Twirl, and Chase by Maria Gianferrari, Illustrated by Mia Powell (Millbrook Press)

Small Matters: The Hidden Power of the Unseen by Heather Ferranti Kinser (Millbrook Press)

A Sporting Chance: How Ludwig Guttmann Created the Paralympic Games by Lori Alexander, Illustrated by Allan Drummond (HMH Books for Young Readers)

You’re Invited to a Moth Ball: A Nighttime Insect Collection by Loree Griffin Burns, Illustrated by Ellen Harasimowicz (Charlesbridge)

April 14, 2020

Alphamaniacs: Builders of 26 Wonders of the World by Paul Fleischman, Illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Candlewick Studio)

Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford, Illustrated by Michele Wood (Candlewick)

The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity: A Tale of Genius Ramanujan by Amy Alznauer, Illustrated by Daniel Miyares (Candlewick)

In the Woods by David Elliott, Illustrated by Rob Dunlavey (Candlewick)

Rescuing the Declaration of Independence: How We Almost Lost the Words That Built America by Anna Crowley Redding, Illustrated by Edward Fotheringham (HarperCollins)

Seagulls Soar by April Pulley Sayre, Illustrated by Kasia Bogdańska (Boyds Mills Press)

April 28, 2020

What Do You Do If You Work at the Zoo? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page (HMH Books for Young Readers)

Don’t forget to link up your nonfiction reviews…

Cover Reveal: WHERE IS OUR LIBRARY? A Story of Patience & Fortitude

Thanks for having me at Kid Lit Frenzy, Alyson! I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but you and your website have long been one some of the best resources for children’s book fans everywhere - from educators, to families, to booksellers, to authors and illustrators. Thank you for all you do to support children and the kid lit community. I hope you and all of your readers are staying healthy.

So where did Where Is Our Library?: A Story of Patience & Fortitude start? Well, it’s the sequel to 2018’s Lost in the Library (also A Story of Patience & Fortitude), which follows the two world-renowned marble lion statues that sit outside the New York Public Library’s Schwarzman building on 5th Avenue.

Quick review (with spoilers): In Lost in the Library, Patience goes missing (he’s lost in the library). Fortitude ventures into the library for the first time and searches through all the historic rooms until he finally finds Patience in the Children’s Center while reading all of their favorite books.

But why another adventure? And why this particular one?

The answer is … because of back matter.

As fans of Kid Lit Frenzy surely know, back matter is a section at the end of some picture books (often nonfiction) that may illuminate certain topics in more depth, share additional resources, and so on (Alyson, I’m sure you have a better definition of backmatter up your sleeve. - Thanks Josh, I am actually working on a special post about backmatter, but what I will say is that it is often the part of the book that people skip but may contain some of the most important information of the whole book that you don’t want to miss.).

Because Lost in the Library takes place in a real building, I was asked to write a few bullet points of back matter. My facts were checked by folks at the New York Public Library and some of the points were edited, including one very big one below. I wrote the first sentence, but when I saw the final version of the book, another was added.

The Children’s Center would be moving? In 2020?! Just two years after the book’s release?! But that’s where Fortitude finds Patience?! That (sort of) ruins the plot of the book! (thanks for pointing that out in your review, Kirkus … *eyeroll*)

But like any author worth their salt, I realized (six months later) that this problem could be the conflict of their next adventure...

In Where Is Our Library? Patience and Fortitude visit the children’s section one night only to find … the books are ALL GONE! And rather than searching through the library to find them, they search through ALL OF MANHATTAN, stopping at literary locales all along the way. They visit all over the island from Broadway shows featuring children’s books (of which there are MANY!) to statues of Alice in Wonderland and Hans Christian Andersen in Central Park to many of my favorite NYC picture book settings (in books like Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, And Tango Makes Three, Henry and the Kite Dragon, The Curious Garden, and more) to many of the nearly 100 NYPL branches.

Where Is Our Library? is an ode to both New York City and the picture books that take place there. I hope you enjoy taking a tour of the city through the eyes of a pair of marble lion statues in search of their beloved books. And without further further ado, here is the cover:

And because the whole jacket looks so gorgeous, here’s that, too:

Where Is Our Library?: A Story of Patience & Fortitude is illustrated (gorgeously, once again) by Stevie Lewis, published by Henry Holt/Macmillan in conjunction with the New York Public Library, and will be available at bookshops and libraries everywhere on October 27th, 2020.

Josh Funk is a software engineer and the author of books like the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast series, the It's Not a Fairy Tale series, the How to Code with Pearl and Pascal series, the A Story of Patience & Fortitude series, Dear Dragon, Pirasaurs!, Albie Newton, and more. For more information about Josh Funk, visit him at joshfunkbooks.com and on Twitter at @joshfunkbooks.

Stevie Lewis illustrates children's books, including Lost in the Library, Sun! One in a Billion, and Moon! Earth's Best Friend. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona and can be found at chocosweete.com and @chocosweete on Instagram.

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Women's History Month & Celebrating the Women of Visual & Performing Arts

March has flown by and we are coming to the end of Women’s History Month. I decided to do my last post featuring women in the fields or art, writing, and performing arts. It has been fun scrolling through all of the amazing picture book biographies and narrowing down my choices to ten each week.

If you are interested in the previous posts celebrating Women’s History Month, you can locate them below.

Woman Suffragists & The Right to Vote, click here.
Women & Civil Rights, click here.
Women & Science, click here.

For this week, here are some of my favorite books celebrating women artists, writers, and performers…

A is for Audra: Broadway's Leading Ladies from A to Z by John Robert Allman, Illustrated by Peter Emmerich (Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 2019)

It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way by Kyo Maclear, Illustrated by Julie Morstad (Tundra Books, 2019)

A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks by Alice Faye Duncan, Illustrated by Xia Gordon (Sterling Books, 2019)

Out of This World: The Surreal Art of Leonora Carrington by Michelle Markel, Illustrated by Amanda Hall (Balzer & Bray, 2019)

Lights! Camera! Alice!: The Thrilling True Adventures of the First Woman Filmmaker by Mara Rockliff, Illustrated by Simona Ciraolo (Chronicle Books, 2018)

Pocket Full of Colors: The Magical World of Mary Blair, Disney Artist Extraordinaire by Amy Guglielmo, Jacqueline Tourville, Illustrated by Brigette Barrager (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2017)

Fancy Party Gowns: The Story of Ann Cole Lowe by Deborah Blumenthal, Illustrated by Laura Freeman (Little Bee Books, 2017)

The Bluest of Blues: Anna Atkins and the First Book of Photographs by Fiona Robinson (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2019

Strange Fruit by Gary Golio, Illustrated by Charlotte Riley-Webb (Millbrook, 2017

Firebird by Misty Copeland, Christopher Myers (G.P. Putnam & Sons, 2014)

Look for these at your local indie bookstore or community library.

Don’t forget to link up your nonfiction reviews…