How they croaked: The awful ends of the awfully famous

Bragg, G. (2011). How they croaked: The awful ends of the awfully famous. New York: Walker. This book is filled with grotesque stories about the gory deaths of historical figures. The stories are intertwined with educational facts and humor. The snarky humor used to tell of their deaths keep readers going. She uses so many synonyms for death and dead, such as croaked, kicked the bucket, and said his last words. This book is divided into chapters and introduced with a black and white comic sketch of the famous person. Bragg includes a table of contents, sources for further reading and show accurate accounts and an index for a quick reference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_g1DKSH6T8

It's so amazing

Harris, R. (1999). It's so Amazing A k about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies and Families. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press. This nonfiction book introduces topics that parents find it difficult to discuss. This book answers questions for children such as where babies come from, sex, the maturing body, love, etc. These issues are explained by funny characters a bird and a bee making it more child-friendly and easier to address the topic. The organization of this book allows the reader to pick and choose the sections that would like to be read. Reference aids such as table of contents, index, and subheadings direct the reader’s attention to the topic. This book should be read side by side so parents can discuss or elaborate on issue that child is curious about.

Rosa

Giovanni, N. (2005). Rosa.New York, New York: H. Holt. This biography describes Rosa Parks’s role in the battle for civil rights. This book also gives a background of Rosa’s personal life. The illustrations depict the heroic stand of Rosa not giving up her seat. The reader can see the pain and hopefulness that that community had for change. This book can be used as part of Black History month and the Civil Right Movement unit. Students can create a collage of words that describe Rosa Parks’s heroism.

Butterflies and Moths

Bishop, N. (2009). Butterflies and Moths. New York, New York: Scholastic. Nic Bishop takes us on a journey on how he was able to take fantastic photographs and explains the life cycle, diet, habitat and interesting fun facts about butterflies and moths. His humorous tone and down to earth description of the butterflies and moths will have readers running to his other books. Bishop takes the time to describe how he managed to take close up and enlarged photos of these beautiful insects. He also describes how he worked parallel to scientists in Costa Rica to learn more about them and spent years researching this topic. The flow of the book with an index, captions to describe the photographs and a glossary to decipher complex terminology are great reference aids. This book would be great as part of an insect unit. Teachers may order butterfly or moth eggs to observe and record the life cycle.

Hitler Youth

Campbell Bartoletti, S. (2005). Hitler Youth Growing Up In Hitler's Shadow. New York, New York: Scholastic. By combining first-hand accounts of a dozen young men and women of the Hitler Youth Organization and historical facts, Bartoletti paints a clear picture of how these children were brainwashed to fight and die for Hitler’s beliefs. Hitler Youth also includes riveting photographs that create a true image of these riveting stories. The compilation of credible sources at the end of the book shows the depth of research she did to include accurate accounts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQzIQQcsXcE

Balloons over Broadway

Sweet, M. (2011). Balloons over Braodway The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children.Everyone wonders how the Macy’s parade started. This biography is an account of the puppeteer Anthony Frederick Sarg’s life and art. Anthony started tinkering with items from a very young age. Macy’s hired him to design a puppet parade for the store’s holiday windows. As an appreciation for their employees, Macy’s hired Anthony to put on a parade to celebrate the holiday traditions of his immigrant employees. It started out small with clowns, floats, bands, and animals from the zoo, to prop up balloons/puppet and ended with the vision of the puppets rising and the controls before. Anthony’s visions lead to the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. The author provides readers with accurate details of Anthony’s vision of the parades. The included the sources that helped her put this book together make the reader want to pick up one of those books. Especially, The Tony Sarg Marionette Book which Sweet featured some of his illustrations in her book.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYuYtkdGsyE

Magic Windows Ventanas magicas

Lomas Garza, C. (2003). Magic Windows Ventanas magicas. San Francisco, California: Children's Book Press. Magic Windows is a nonfiction book that describes and explains how to create designs on papel picado (cut-paper art) in English and Spanish. This informative book discusses Mexican cultural traditions and shares stories about the author’s life. She describes these windows as seeing a whole new world. Garza’s style in this book is so personal. Sharing her wonderful experiences with her families in the designs /text and continuing the tradition with future generations in her family. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U_qe67gznY