Non-fiction-Always beautiful!

           Thanks to Alyson Beecher, we discover favorite non-fiction picture books every Wednesday when others link up on her blog, KidLit Frenzy. 

         I have two lovely books to share today. Hope you're discovering good ones, too.

Feathers: Not Just for Flying - written by Melissa Stewart and Illustrated by Sarah Brennan

            This is a perfect book for those studying about birds, those who use journals in the field, and many who write poetry with a non-fiction theme. It's an incredibly wonderful book that gives interesting information about feathers via similes. The illustrations are not only beautiful, but helpful. It's like a field journal, but also a scrapbook. I just loaned this to a class studying birds this year. They will love it!

The Great Migration: An American Story - written and illustrated by Jacob Lawrence, with a poem in tribute by Walter Dean Myers

          This is an older book from the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, and oh so inspiring with the story told in the beautiful art by Lawrence and his personal tale told briefly in the text. Around World War I, African-Americans in the south began a migration for a better life, and never stopped moving north. Lawrence was born around that time, and says his family was part of the migration. Sadly, although they found work, there was no great welcome in the north, but families persevered and life did improve. I didn't know that labor agents enticed African-Americans to move, were often jailed along with those who worked with them. The south was losing their cheap labor and the northern workers were angry that jobs were being lost to them. The final lines of Myers' poem is: But there are the children, and there is the hope/Of a people with yet one more river to cross. It's a beautiful book.