Geo Librarian

With the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic being memorialized this year, there has been an influx of new books on the topic, both fiction and nonfiction.  This is a perennially favorite topic among my students so I'm sharing some of the ones I've read.  Today I'm highlighting two nonfiction books, later this month I hope to highlight several fictionalized stories.  See here for another nonfiction book on the Titanic. ICEBERG, RIGHT AHEAD! The TRAGEDY OF THE TITANIC written by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson Twenty-First Century Books, 2012 ISBN: 978-0-7613-6756-7 Grades 3 and up Reviewed from personal copy. Only 160 minutes passed between the time a sailor on lookout duty uttered these chilling words and the moment when the mighty ocean liner Titanic totally disappeared into the cold, dark waters of the North Atlantic. This century-old tragedy, which took more than 1,500 lives, still captivates people in the twenty-first century. Seventy-three ...

We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March written by Cynthia Levinson Peachtree, 2012 ISBN: 978-1-56145-627-7 176 p. Grades 3 and up Reviewed from purchased copy. BLURB : We ve Got a Job tells the little-known story of the 4,000 black elementary-, middle-, and high school students who voluntarily went to jail in Birmingham, Alalama, between May 2 and May 11, 1963. Fulfilling Mahatma Gandhi s and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. s precept to fill the jails, they succeeded where adults had failed in desegregating one of the most racially violent cities in America. Focusing on four of the original participants who have participated in extensive interviews, We ve Got a Job recounts the astonishing events before, during, and after the Children's March. Levinson has done an incredible job with this book.  Not only does she give an account of the events leading up to and including the Children's March but she merges comments from some of the participa...

How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg, illustrated by Kevin O'Malley Walker and Company, 2011 Grades 4-8 Reviewed from my school library copy. I debated for quite some time about whether to read this book.  There is after all a warning at the beginning that the book contains "the blood, sweat, and guts of real people."  And I've never been one for grossness.  But in the end I decided that in order to share it with my students, many of whom I knew would be fascinated by this book, I needed to read it. This book specifically looks at the lives (briefly) and unpleasant 'ends' of some of the worlds most famous people.  Included are King Tut, Cleopatra, Henry VIII, Pocahontas, George Washington, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Darwin, etc.  I confess that I didn't really expect to learn anything new.  I love history and most of the people Bragg talks about are well-known.  But I did learn things that surprised me.  Fo...

Today for Nonfiction Monday , I am highlighting a great new nonfiction book about Amelia Earhart.  Not only does Earhart still fascinate us, but she provides a glimpse into a past that was anything but boring.  I'm always on the lookout for nonfiction books I can use to show the kids I work with that history can be really fascinating. Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming schwartz & wade books, 2011 Grades 4-8 Reviewed from purchased copy. From the acclaimed author of The Great and Only Barnum —as well as The Lincolns , Our Eleanor , and Ben Franklin's Almanac —comes the thrilling story of America's most celebrated flyer, Amelia Earhart. In alternating chapters, Fleming deftly moves readers back and forth between Amelia's life (from childhood up until her last flight) and the exhaustive search for her and her missing plane. With incredible photos, maps, and handwritten notes from Amelia herself—plus informative si...

It's Nonfiction Monday and it's my turn to host.  I'm excited to be a part of this weekly activity.  If you have a book or books to share, please include it in the comments and I will add them to the post throughout the day. Queen of the Falls Written by Chris Van Allsburg Illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2011 Grades 2 and up Reviewed from purchased copy. She could remember standing in a park near the falls, hypnotized by the sight and sound, and holding her father’s hand as they took a walk that would lead them closer. That’s what everyone wonders when they see Niagara . . . How close will their courage let them get to it? At the turn of the nineteenth century, a retired sixty-two-year-old charm school instructor named Annie Edson Taylor, seeking fame and fortune, decided to do something that no one in the world had ever done before—she would go over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel.  Come meet the Queen of the Falls ...

Tom Thumb: The Remarkable True Story of a Man in Miniature by George Sullivan Clarion Books, 2011 Grades 4-8 Reviewed from copy provided by publisher through NetGalley. When Charles S. Stratton was born in 1838, he was a large baby, perfect in every way. But then he stopped growing. At age four, though a happy and mischievous child, he was just over two feet tall and weighed only fifteen pounds—the exact same size he had been as a seven-month-old baby. It was then that the notorious showman P.T. Barnum dubbed him Tom Thumb and put him on display, touring him around the world as a curiosity.      A natural performer, Charley became enormously popular and wealthy, more so than any other performer before him. In this spirited biography—the first on its subject—George Sullivan recounts the fascinating adventures of Tom Thumb, and raises challenging questions about what constitutes exploitation—both in the 19th century and today. (Book description f...