The Glorious Flight

The Glorious Flight, Across the English Channel with Louis Bleriot by Alice and Marin Provensen
1984 Caldecott Medal

I like learning about history through picture books and this one tells the story of  a real early aviator, a Frenchman by the name of Louis Bleriot, the first person to fly across the English Channel.

Told in sweet quant pictures (reminds me somehow of one of my favorite author/illustrators Barbara Cooney) and a simple text. We learn about his family . . . a wife, four children, a cat and a cockatoo; and we hear about his invented airplanes, starting at Bleriot I and ending with Bleriot XI, the one that flew across the English Channel.

I can't really imagine building airplanes,  and then flying them,  as a back yard enterprise! Sort of like if NASA was being run in a neighbors basement down the street. It's fun to think about a time when that's how things happened and a person who was inspired to figure something like that out with his own ingenuity by trail and error.

Bright Path

Bright Path: Young Jim Thorpe by Don Brown
no awards that I know about

Jim Thorpe competed in the 5th Olympic Games in 1912. His score in the decathlon remained unbeaten for 20 years. His score in the pentathlon was never equaled.

But his "training" for these events consisted of running around on the Oklahoma plains, helping out on the farm, and running away from the Indian boarding schools that he was sent to! He hated these schools that were military strict and designed to "break" Indian children from their culture. Once Jim ran off moments after being dropped off at school by his father and arrived home BEFORE his dad reached home on horse back!

Pick up football games were the bright spot in the drudgery of boarding school, but his beginnings as a world class athelete happened entirely by accident when in 1907 he happened by the track team at Carlisle and noticed that none of the high jumpers could clear the bar. He asked if he could try--- and cleared it on the first try, dressed in overalls! He was asked to join the team and suddenly this young man who was unhappily struggling through school was a star athlete.

There are a few pages of authors notes and bibliographic information at the end of book. Here I learned that because of Jim's playing baseball in a minor minor league one summer when school was out at Carlisle, the Olympic Committee stripped him of his medals and his name was stricken from Olympic records. Since receiving the gold medal was "the proudest moment of my life" according to Jim himself, I can't imagine the emotional impact that must have had on this young man.

He played professional sports for a time after leaving school --- baseball, football and even basketball. When he retired from professional sports he worked at various odd jobs and died of a heart attack at age 64, in 1953. It wasn't until 1973 that the Olympic Committee restored Jim's amateur status and presented replica's of Jim's gold medals to his children.

The heartbreaking info in the end notes are NOT presented in the picture book, which is a story that celebrates this remarkable athlete.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein
2004 Caldecott Medal

I love this book. First of all, I'm partial to street performers and circus arts and this story features Phillipe Petit, the french tight rope walker,  and his famed high wire walk between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

I think I had heard of this man on a tight rope between sky scrapers in NYC, but to hear the details of it was SO much better than this single image of a man walking a wire.

First of all the towers were 1/4 mile high. The tallest buildings in New York City.
Second of all he didn't just walk between the towers. He was out there for almost an hour, walking dancing, running, and even kneeling in a salute. He even lay down to rest.
Finally, it was completely against the law and when he came off the wire he held out his hands for handcuffs, but this was only after the police had been shouting at him for an hour!

The towers were not quite complete when he did this. He dressed up as a construction worker and some how got a 440 pound reel of cable to the top floor, carrying it up the last 180 stairs to the roof. Other friends were on the other tower. They tied a thin strong line to an arrow and shot it across to Philippe, 140 feet away. They worked all night to secure the cable.

The pictures include two fold out pages giving the feel of how NYC must look from 1/4 mile up--- for Phillipe, "happy and absolutely free"; and what Philippe must have looked like from the street--- "It was astonishing. It was terrifying and beautiful. A quarter mile up in the sky someone was dancing."

I love this part:
"Officers rushed to the roofs of the towers. 'You're under arrest!' they shouted through bullhorns. Phillipe turned and walked the other way. Who would come and get him?"

You'll be glad to know that when the case came to court he was sentenced to perform in the park for the children of the city!

OK, so this would be a GREAT story under any circumstances. But this book was written in 2004 after 9/11 and the towers he walked between are already gone. The poignancy of this gives the story a deeper context that makes it a very memorable story, and kicks it into my "favorites" category!

Marching With Aunt Susan

Marching With Aunt Susan; Susan B. Anthony and the Fight for Women's Suffrage
by Claire Rudolf Murphy, illustrated by Stacey Schuett

no awards yet, but I'm predicting there will be some! It was published in 2011, so we'll see what happens.

I really enjoyed this picture book. It is written from the point of view of a girl named Bessie who gets to meet "Aunt Susan" Susan B. Anthony, hear her speak and get involved in the Suffrage movement. Bessie was a real little girl who lived in Berkley California in 1896. In fact the story is based on fact very closely. But still a good STORY (in other words my 7 year enjoyed the book too!)

The author had the opportunity to read real letters exchanged between Bessie's Aunt Mary and Susan B. Anthony and she says "I wanted to find a real girl to write about and eventually I found the Keith-McHenry-Pond papers at The Bancroft Library at the  University of California, Berkley. Inside boxes and cartons were Bessie's journals, newspaper articles about her family's hiking, and the suffrage collection of her aunt, Mary McHenry Keith. My hand shook as I read letters from my hero Susan B. Anthony to Aunt Mary."

There is a nice collection of supporting material and links to further resources at the end of the book including a photo of the real Bessie.

Love, Louise

An Apple for Harriet Tubman

An Apple for Harriet Tubman bu Glennette Tilley Turner, illustrated by Susan Keeter
no award that I know of, though I don't see why not!

I love this book. It's based on stories told to the author by Harriet Tubman's great niece Alice Brickler, who learned it from Harriet herself. I like it when stories about big people and big events have specific little details that pull us in.

Harriet Tubman loved apples. Who knew?
This story carries her from picking apples while being forbidden to eat any, and getting whipped for taking a bite of one.  . . . to owning her own land in NY and planting a row of apple trees that she ate her fill of shared with her neighbors.

Both of my children (age 10 and 7) enjoyed the book also.

Rosa

Rosa by Nikki Giovanni, illustrated by Bryan Collier
2006 Caldecott Honor Book
2006 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award

More poets should write history for children. This is a splendid and powerful book. And beautifully written. I suspect that Nikki Giovanni was able to talk with Rosa and others in the story personally. The text is full of intimate details about what people were thinking and doing through out first days of the historic events of the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.

 "Jo Ann Robinson was at the PIggly Wiggly when she learned of the arrest. She had stopped in to purchase a box of macaroni and cheese. She always served macaroni and cheese when she baked red snapper for dinner. A sister member of the Women's Political council approached her just as she reached the check out lane.
 'Not Mrs. Parks!' Mrs Robinson exclaimed. She then looked furtively around. 'Pass the word that everybody should meet me at my office at ten o'clock tonight," she said."

I love the person of Rosa Parks. Her long life lived with dignity and strength.

Pete Seeger tells a story about being at a training for civil rights activists at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. On the last day, they went around the circle and everyone said what they were going to do when they got home. Several "movers and shakers" were there, and each person spoke about their plans. But one woman, when it was her turn, said she just didn't know what she would do. That, was Rosa Parks.

She wasn't just a worn out seamstress. She was an activist making a choice. A spontaneous choice! But one very much in keeping with her participation in the movement.

Here is a link to her website: Rosa Louise Parks Biography

The illustrations strong and luminous, by Bryan Collier, someone who has won a bunch of awards before and since. I like his work and his choices about what he illustrates, often powerful stories from African American History. Here is a link to Bryan Collier's website. I enjoyed learning about him, especially his dedication to community service and empowerment of young people. Bryan Collier | Bio

I personally liked this book a bit better than the 2006 Medal winner! And would definitely recommend it!

Henry's Freedom Box; A True Story from the Underground Railroad

Henry's Freedom Box; A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
2008 Caldecott Honor Book

This is a powerful book worth reading and sharing. It's not a happy book and deals with gritty real life issues. Henry is a slave that successfully puts himself in a box and mails himself to freedom. But the "success" of that plan is against the backdrop of his dispair after his wife and children have been sold, never to be seen again.

The illustrations by Kadir Nelson are beautiful and convey the emotions of the story well. The text is also excellent. There is depth and sensitivity in how she shares the story. She doesn't overplay any of the painful elements, she tells it like it is, but in a steady poets voice, without punishing us with the facts.

"His friend James came into the factory. He whispered to Henry, "Your wife and children were just sold at the slave market." 


"No!" cried Henry. Henry couldn't move. He couldn't think. He couldn't work. 
"Twist that tobacco!" The boss poked Henry. 


Henry twisted tobacco leaves. His heart twisted in his chest. 


The pictures and stories together also convey well the closeness in the bonds between mother and child, husband and wife. I also appreciate the white people in the story who don't believe in slavery and assist in the plan, especially the character of Dr. Smith, who helped Henry mail himself to Philadelphia.

Slavery is something I have discussed with my children starting in pre-school. I think it's a necessary discussion and I appreciate this and other picture books for giving us the jumping off places and the context and details for those conversations. My son LOVED learning about history from a young age and developed a keen sense of justice from reading this kind of book, and we read a lot of books about African American history. My daughter is more inclined towards fantasy than non-fiction, so we haven't done as MUCH of this kind of reading, but I intentionally include this kind of book in the mix.

I recommend this book.

A River of Words

A River of Words; The Story of William Carlos Willams by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
2009 Caldecott Honor Book

Ever since my son Jabu, now 10 years old, was little (like 3 or 4) he has loved picture book biographies. And I have loved them right along with him. Our children are adopted and African American (I am Japanese American-Russian American mixed, and my husband is European American). I used my sons interest in biographies to share lots of African American history with him. I don't know if there were as many great picture book biographies when I was little, but I sure didn't discover them if there were! I can honestly RAVE about many of them that I have read. It's just a part of the library worth spending time in!

OK, now to the book at hand! This is a picture book biography of the poet Willam Carlos Williams. I can DISTINCTLY remember being introduced to his poetry in a high school English class and loving it immediately. I can remember especially the poem:

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depend
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed  with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

******
I loved this poem! So I was excited to learn more about this poets life! He was a doctor. And a Dad. He wrote his poetry, several volumes of it, on top of all those other responsibilities, until the end of his life when he'd had some health difficulties that allowed him to curtail his medical career but still allowed him to write.

The illustrations in this book are a combination of drawings, paintings and collage. Many of the illustrations have his poetry embedded in them, either hand lettered or typewritten on an old fashioned typewriter. All in all a pleasing combination!

There is also a cool time line in the back of the book that has three columns, one for events of his life, one for the poems he published, and one for world events. It's amazing to think about the years his life spanned, from 1883 to 1963, going all the way from the first car to space capsules orbiting the earth .

I think older children (8 and up?) would be most likely to enjoy this book. I wouldn't hesitate to share it with my 10 year old.

The Wall; Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain

The Wall; Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis
2008 Caldecott Honor Book

I found this book fascinating. It is a first person narrative about growing up in Czechoslovakia and spans from the late 1940's through the 70's, and references the wall coming down in 1989. I love learning about history through a personal lens, and this book definitely provides that. I found the journal entries especially powerful.

I read it aloud to Jabu,  my 10 year old, and he both didn't much like it and had no patience at all for the journal entries (my favorite part).  I don't know if I just caught him at the wrong time,  or what,  Jabu usually really likes biographies and books based on history.

Looking at it again today, I think the problem might have been that the layout/format of this book doesn't lend itself to reading ALOUD. The story doesn't run in a straight line. And this is actually part of what makes it an interesting book. There are definitions in small print running along the edges of some pages (Cold War, Communism, Iron Curtain). The introduction gives a great overview of the historic context of the book, but for a read aloud listener is not story-like at all. There is a thread of text  about the authors own life "As long as he could remember, he had loved to draw."that is "interrupted" by captions giving historic details beside the frames of cartoon like pictures "1948. The Soviets take control of Czechoslovakia and close the borders."  And all of this is "interrupted" or (in my opinion supported) by pages of journal entries that are interspersed occasionally.

Here are a few examples from the journal entries:

"April 1956 My father's cousin Lamin is in prison as an enemy of the state. My grandmother talks to my parents about it in German so my sister and I won't understand. But we understand some of it. He was on a national volleyball team that was going to a tournament in the West, and the players were all planning to stay there. The secret police found out. Lamin is twenty years old and will be in prison for the rest of this life."

 "1961 We watch an American movie called On the Bowery at school. It shows poor people sleeping in the street. We're told this is how people in a capitalist country live."

"May 19665 Allen Ginsberg, the American beat poet, comes to Prague. Students make him our Kral Majales (King of May). Then the secret police accuse him of subversion and deport him."

The picture Peter Sims paints of life behind the Iron Curtain is not pretty. It sounds pretty scary and oppressive. I'm have my concerns about capitalism as well, but what he grew up with would not be an attractive alternative!

Anyhow, a very interesting read. Possibly a better book for ADULTS than children. But, in the Afterward I learned that the book was written in an attempt to explain his childhood to his own children.  "Now when my American family goes to visit my Czech family in the colorful city of Prague, it is hard to convince them it was ever a dark place full of fear, suspicion, and lies. I find it difficult to explain my childhood; it's hard to put it into words, and since I have always drawn everything, I have tried to draw my life---before America--- for them."

How I Learned Geography

How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz
2009 Caldecott Honor Book

This story is based on the author/illustrators memories of being a boy during World War II. They had to flee Poland empty handed. As refugees in a strange place, they were often hungry.

One day the boys father going to market to get bread and coming home instead with a map of the world. "I had enough money to buy only a tiny piece of bread, and we would still be hungry" he explained apologetically. Both Mother and Boy were bitterly angry.

But the next day, the Father hangs up the map. It is bright and colorful and takes up a whole wall. The boy spends many hours gazing at the map, making magical incantations out of the names of the cities and countries, and traveling to all the parts of the world in his mind.

There is also an authors note with a photo of the author at this age and a picture he drew at age 10 of Africa. I read it to both of my children (ages 6 and 10) and they both enjoyed it. I like a book that makes kids think and inspires conversations about big topics. I like a book that combines fancy with substance. This book definitely succeeds; recommended!