Greg Pizzoli's New Biography

        Visit Alyson Beecher on Wednesdays for Non-Fiction Picture Books at Kidlit Frenzy.  From Alyson and others, you will discover terrific nonfiction picture books!

   Be sure to visit my other post today with a giveaway of a new middle-grade book!

          I have read a number of books chronicling adventures in jungles like the memorable River of Doubt by Candice Millard about Theodore Roosevelt's dark journey on the Amazon. Yet, it is so exciting to read of this explorer in the early 20th century, a new adventurer to me, and a book for middle-grade students who love exploring, maps, and learning about interesting places in our world. I enjoyed Greg Pizzoli's Tricky Vic, and this one, too, so well presented from the early life of Percy Fawcett to his work and travel for the Royal Geographical Society. The story tells of numerous trips, the equipment needed, dangers faced, like giant anacondas and many kinds of dangerous insects. Eventually, Fawcett centered his life's goals on finding a hidden city that he called "Z", one of great stone buildings built by a people long ago. He knew that if found, he would gain worldwide celebrity. He trekked into unknown areas in a final trip with only his son and his son's friend. The ending is shocking, and Fawcett did indeed become renowned.
         Throughout the tale, Pizzoli adds a few side pieces with further information, like about the Amazon and about mosquitos. Wow! Did you know there are estimated to be about 3,500 species of mosquitos on earth? These extras expand the story well, in addition to an author's note, added biographical information, a glossary and a source list. Pizzoli explains the interesting illustrations also which are cartoon-like, created with cut paper collages, and the use of various kinds of technology. He also traveled to Central America and Southeast Asia, trips that inspired the art.

The marvelous pages about that huge anaconda!

       If beginning a study of rain forests, mapping, or explorers, this book will inspire students to want to know more, to plan research in numerous areas, to consider what might be needed to make such trips, pragmatically and emotionally. I enjoyed it very much!

Blog Tour & Giveaway - Dewey Fairchild!

          I'm excited to share about a book coming soon in partnership with The Children’s Book Review and Amberjack Publishing. Dewey Fairchild, Parent Problem Solver, will be available August 8th!

         It may have started when eleven-year-old Dewey's friend Seraphina came to him at lunch one day, exasperated about her mom. It seems that her mother was one of those helicopter moms who still held Seraphina's hand when they walked across the street and then all the way into the classroom. Other things were happening too, and that's how Dewey became a "Parent Problem Solver". Within the story, Dewey manages to solve more than one problem and is so busy he's asked his next-door neighbor and elder friend Clara to be his assistant. Fortified by Clara's cookie baking and welcoming the clients with cookies set out through a secret passage to Dewey's attic, his "secret" life becomes busier and busier. Dewey has older and younger sisters, a mom who's often cold and a dad who's a dentist, but the story evolves into his own family problem. And Dewey is not sure he can solve that one.

         I wasn't sure I would enjoy this book. It seemed a bit fantastical to me, yet Dewey's fun sense of humor that intertwines with the serious tone he takes when helping other kids won me over. I believe there is a part of every child who would love the power to do the things Dewey manages and helps his friends manage, in order to "fix" a parent problem. I can hear the giggles while reading about the sleuthing that occurs and see the nodding heads in agreement about parents whose habits aren't always to their children's liking. Lorri Horn's writing shows she knows about children's deepest wishes for some power to change things in their lives.

Enter to win a Dewey Fairchild, Parent Problem Solver themed prize pack!

One (1) winner receives:

• A copy of Dewey Fairchild, Parent Problem Solver, by Lorri Horn
• A Dewey Fairchild themed gift pack. Includes items such as cookies, gum, notebooks, pens/pencils, Tootsie Rolls, Monopoly game etc.

Giveaway rules:

• NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.
• Enter between 12:00 AM Mountain Time on August 1, 2017 and 11:59 PM on August 31, 2017.
• Open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 13 and older.
• Winners will be selected at random on or about September 3, 2017.
• Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

Prizes provided by Amberjack Publishing.


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It's Monday, Sharing Books

              Visit Jen at Teach MentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to discover books you'll love!                                      

                      tweet #IMWAYR

       I finished Nikki Grimes' One Last Word. and several other wonderful picture books, have started The Best Man by Richard Peck, on my #MustReadIn2017 list. I have one new title from NetGalley, too! 

          Sorry that I've waited so long to read this, but finally I did, reading and savoring a few pages all this week! Nikki Grimes has written a book's worth of tributes to those poets of the Harlem Renaissance by sharing some of the poems and writing what are called "Golden Shovel" poems in response. A Golden Shovel poem asks the writer to take a line, or "all" the lines, and place each word at an end of a line, weaving one's own words to create one's own poem. Each poem and response are illustrated, and by a variety of artists. Those, plus the poems themselves are heartfelt, considering and celebrating African American experiences. They are contemporary, show the grit and feelings of a variety of people, young and old, parents and children. A favorite of mine is written from a line by Paul Lawrence Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask". In part, Grimes writes, "freshen your mouth/with ferocious lines of potent poetry, with/metaphors that mightily reveal the myriad/of emotions you feel--yet, in all their subtleties. It's book for the middle and upper grades, to share, to respond to, to love.

Celebrating A Birthday

          Celebrating with Ruth Ayres and others today. Come visit to see how lovely it is to celebrate all the delights of the week! 

         It feels good to choose the celebrations of the week. I've been home a week from our beach time, and while I'm sorry that our weeks flew so fast, I've also enjoyed the week at home. There are things that make my life good, and the time I have in retirement now helps, too, like time for reading, writing, the bookstore, and family.

         Today, celebrating my youngest granddaughter, Imogene Marie. She is six, a lovely and lively curious young girl. This week, at the museum, Imi chose to return to the rocks and minerals exhibit. She loves learning about the mining and adores the mystery of this special crystal cave. Among many others, we've visited this one several times in the past.

 Enjoy A.A. Milne's "Now We Are Six".

Happy Birthday, Imi!

Poetry Friday - Swap Sweets

           Poetry Friday is hosted by the enthusiastic Linda Mitchell at A World Edgewise! And tonight, she's sharing a delightful activity for poets, word and image prompts and a challenge! Thanks, Linda!

Summer poem swapping is the best thing. For one who receives little more than junk mail in my mailbox, finding a package with surprises inside is a joy. Thanks to Tabatha Yeatts for organizing us several times a year!

My swap this time is from Buffy Silverman, who loves and writes about nature, and shares gorgeous pictures from nature on FB, and often! I am grateful to have a special poem from her, and included with a note were two bookmarks with two more Buffy-written and illustrated poems.

                  she casts off her skin                                                      I wait for sunset
                  with her underwater ways                                              to spill its streaks of amber
                  life after life                                                                    damselfly settles
                                                                                                          on hollow pickerel weed
                                                                                                          her secret glow fills the pond

created by Buffy Silverman