Balloons Over Broadway

Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade
by Melissa Sweet
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is one of the biggest parades in the entire United States. Every year, one of the highlights of the parade are the giant balloon characters that fill up the New York City streets. But how did these giant balloons come to be? Who came up with the idea? The answer is Tony Sarg (rhymes with aargh!), a puppeteer and toy maker that Macy's first hired to do their Christmas windows and then to work on their Thanksgiving Day parade. Sarg loved puppets and marionettes from a very young age, so when Macy's asked for something spectacular to replace live animals in the parade, Sarg immediately turned to puppetry. His puppets so far had only been about 3 feet tall though, so he knew if he used those in the parade no one would be able to see them. How could they be bigger - much bigger? And if they were much bigger, where would the strings go? Soon Sarg was off and running with ideas and a parade legend was born!

Melissa Sweet tells the story of Sarg's life and accomplishments and accompanies it with illustrations that combine watercolors, paper scraps, bits of fabric, buttons and other small objects. You'll want to take your time over this picture book biography of a little-known, but fascinating, creative talent. Winner of the 2011 Sibert Award for best children's informational book.

 

Heart and Soul

Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans
by Kadir Nelson
Imagine: You're standing in the Capitol Building in Washington D. C., looking at the paintings depicting the forming and history of our nation, the United States. After a few moments, you start looking quickly from picture to picture as you begin to notice not one person in those paintings looks like you or the people in your family - not one of them is black. Now, you know black Africans have been part of our history - there was a whole war that happened in part to end their enslavement. So where are they? What part did African Americans play in the history of the U.S.? Kadir Nelson brings us the answers in this lusciously illustrated volume that shows black Africans have been part of America since the very beginning. Using some of his own family stories, Nelson starts with colonization and takes us all the way through Martin Luther King, Jr.'s epic "I Have a Dream" speech showing how African Americans have been, and continue to be, a vital part of America.

Recommended for grades 4 and up
Reviewed by Jennifer Baker 

Franklin and Winston: A Christmas That Changed the World

by Douglas Wood
With the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor this year, this engaging junior illustrated book tells the story of the first Christmas after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a naval base located in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Although Americans were trying hard to catch the holiday spirit, it proved a difficult task due to the tremendous amount of sadness they were feeling because of the number of lives lost when the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Only a few days later, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and English Prime Minister Winston Churchill decide to meet with one another over the Christmas holiday, in order to make a strategic plan that would lead to the success of the Allied powers in defeating Hitler and the rest of the Axis powers. It was hoped that a swift defeat would also lead to a continuing peace after the war ended. Interestingly, this would also be the first time Roosevelt and Churchill actually meet one other, despite exchanging numerous letters and telegrams over the years. Their friendship and genuine affection for each other, despite differences in their daily routine, is revealed in Douglas Wood's text. Moser's illustrations are also perfect at capturing the colorful personalities of both men, as Churchill adjusts to being Roosevelt's one week houseguest at the White House. For those looking for an out of the ordinary true story, as well as another way to explain the mood of the home front during World War II that will appeal to history buffs both young and old, Franklin and Winston: A Christmas That Changed the World, will fit the bill. To learn more about these two men and the times they lived in, a bibliography is also included. 

Recommended for grades 2 and up
Reviewed by Rozanne Porter 

How They Croaked

How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous
by Georgia Bragg
You will have a new appreciation for modern medicine after reading the grisly, gory, and gross true stories of the lives and deaths of nineteen famous figures from history.  Beginning with King Tut and ending with Albert Einstein, centuries of awful medical practices are covered.  For example, doctors didn't know that germs were spread by not washing their hands, so they put their dirty fingers all over sick patients.  (Rubber gloves weren't first used in an operating room until 1890!)  Antibiotics weren't invented until 1939, so until then, sick people were covered with things like smashed up blister beetles, mustard paste, wax, animal fat, and all kinds of other disgusting substances.

The story of each person's awful end begins with a little information about his or her life, how sickness struck, and how death came.  Extra pages between chapters give more information about ailments and various medical treatments or other random and interesting facts.  Not for the squeamish, these stomach-turning tales are sure to delight readers who enjoy history and gory stories.

Recommended for grades 5-10
Reviewed by Sara Murray

Two Miserable Presidents

Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War
by Steve Sheinkin
If you think history is boring, chances are you've been reading a book with all the good parts taken out.  During the Civil War, there were two presidents, and neither one was happy about the war.  Abraham Lincoln was president of the Union in the north, and Jefferson Davis was president of the Confederacy in the south.  They both led their armies to many bloody and gruesome battles, and the soldiers suffered terrible conditions.  They did not always have enough food to eat, and sometimes what they had was rotten or full of bugs.  The water was not always clean, and sometimes the soldiers had to go days without washing their hands and face and weeks without a bath.  Despite the fighting, the soldiers on both sides would sometimes call short truces in order to trade tobacco for newspapers, coffee, or playing cards.

This book starts with 13 steps that led the United States from being a peaceful country to a country torn apart and is full of stories of battles and fighting, spies, women who dressed as men in order to fight, and all the good bits of civil war history.  If you have to study the Civil War in school (or you just want to know the real story for yourself) and you want an interesting account of how it all happened, this is the book for you.

Recommended for grades 5-10
Reviewed by Sara Murray

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

by Phillip Hoose
In March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks, 15 year old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was dragged off the Montgomery, Ala. bus, arrested, and convicted. She, along with four other women, bravely fought a court case that declared that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional. Claudette faced lack of support from her community, was considered overly emotional by her lawyers, and then faced disgrace when she became pregnant while still unmarried. The leaders of the Civil Rights movement chose Rosa Parks, another bus protestor to be their "poster" girl in the Montgomery bus boycott. Hoose presents detailed research, interviews with Colvin herself, as well as period photographs and newspaper articles to present a vivid picture of the times and of Colvin herself. She is portrayed as a determined, brave, yet flawed young woman who decided to fight for justice, and what she knew to be right. This book is a very interesting biography that sheds a new light on the Civil Rights movement.

Recommended for grades 5-8
Reviewed by Alexa Newman

The Hive Detectives

The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe
by Loree Griffin Burns
Pretty much everyone knows that bees make honey and can be pests at picnics, but what many people may not realize is that the majority of our food supply is dependent on the honey bee.  Plants need sunlight, water, and soil to grow, but they also need pollinators.  That's where honey bees come in.  There are some beekeepers that drive trucks full of hives containing millions of bees across the country just so they can do their work and pollinate crops!  But something tragic and unknown is happening to honey bees.  They're dying in record numbers due to colony copllapse disorder, or CCD.  Scientists haven't yet figured out the cause of CCD, but they're doing all they can to understand it and stop it.

This book is filled with fascinating bee facts.  Did you know that only female bees sting? Did you know that a bee can carry nearly half its own weight in pollen?  Did you know that bees can be trained to sniff out bombs?  Pick up this book to learn more about the honey bee and why it is important that we do all we can to save this special insect.

Recommended for grades 3-8
Reviewed by Sara Murray

Frederick Douglass: A Noble Life

by David A. Adler
Frederick Douglass, born in 1818 to a slave named Harriet Bailey (his birth name was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey), was taken from his mother soon after his birth. He lived with his grandparents until at the age of 6 when he was taken to live at the home of Colonel Lloyd, the slave owner. Frederick grew up pretty much alone, except on one occasion when his mother walked 12 miles to visit him. He said of that day, "that night, I learned as I had never learned before that I was not only a child, but somebody's child. I was grander upon my mother's knee than a king upon his throne." Frederick learned first hand the hardships of life as a slave and at one point asks "why am I a slave?" Unable to submit to slavery anymore, Frederick escapes and eventually becomes an outspoken opponent of slavery and a mesmerizing orator. This well researched biography examines his public life more thoroughly than his private life. Douglass's life is well documented and one can only read in amazement what he accomplished. When in 1870, a bust in his likeness was placed at the University of Rochester, Frederick Douglass wrote: "Incidents of this character do much amaze me. It is not, however, the height to which I have risen, but the depth from which I have come that amazes me." I agree.

Recommended for grades 6-10
Reviewed by Alice Woertendyke

Amelia Lost

by Candace Fleming
For those who love real-life unsolved mysteries, the story of Amelia Earhart and her 1937 doomed flight is one that is gripping and suspenseful as the story of her last flight is intermingled with the hour by hour drama of the day Amelia Earhart, along with her crew member Fred Noonan, disappear over the Pacific Ocean as they were trying to land on a small island to refuel their airplane. Amelia Earhart was a daring young woman who developed a passion for flying at a time when airplane travel was still in its early stages. She succeeds in becoming the first woman to fly solo two thousand miles across the Atlantic Ocean. In her day, Amelia was a huge celebrity who was admired and respected by young and old alike. The pinnacle of her flying career was to take place in 1937. This was the year that Amelia, looking for a greater challenge, sets out to do the seemingly impossible: circumnavigate the globe at its widest point. This would mean flying a total of 27,000 miles round trip. After a successful first leg of the trip, covering 22,000 miles fairly uneventfully, Amelia, along with her highly trained navigator Fred Noonan, were attempting to land on Howland Island. This is a very small strip of land that is only two miles long, and less than a mile wide. The coast guard cutter, Itasca, is standing nearby in order help Earhart spot such a small landmark in the Pacific Ocean. Fuel was beginning to get low, and it was imperative for Earhart to land quickly. Instead, for some unknown reason, she could not spot the island. This is despite the Navy's best efforts at communicating with her - and time was running out fast. Through alternating chapters, Fleming successfully navigates between the Navy's intense efforts to find her, and detailing her childhood experiences which helped to develop the free-spirited woman she later became. Numerous samples of handwritten notes and photographs that bring Amelia back to life are peppered throughout the book. Also intermingled are interesting pieces of trivia such as the food she ate while flying - chocolate and tomato juice! Middle school, high school, and adults will surely learn something interesting, while also feeling very sad that Amelia's string of triumphs concludes without the happy ending.

Recommended for grades 6-12
Reviewed by Rozanne Porter

Almost Astronauts

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream
The True Story of the "Mercury 13" Women
by Tanya Lee Stone
You have probably heard of Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, and Christa McAuliffe, but have you ever heard of the "Mercury 13"?  Twenty years before the first women were let into NASA's astronaut program, a brave and determined group of 13 women tried to break down barriers and become astronauts.  At the time, the role of women in society was different than it is today.  Back in the 1960's, women weren't allowed to rent cars, take loans from banks, or play on professional sports teams.  And they certainly weren't invited to take the place of men on space missions, even though their lighter weight would have saved NASA a lot of money.  But those barriers didn't stop everyone. 

Jerrie Cobb had been flying airplanes since she was 12 years old.  She had broken altitude and speed records.  She had flown all over the world.  She was a perfect candidate for Randolph Lovelace's program to see if women were actually tough enough to be astronauts.  Cobb took all the same tests as the men in the space program, and not only did she pass the tests, she did better all the men.  With these encouraging results, Lovelace opened the testing to a larger group of women, many of whom also excelled.  However, politics, rules, and "social order" prevented these women from ever getting on a spacecraft.

The story of these women - the "Mercury 13" - outlines the history of doors of opportunity being forced open for women.  While none of the Mercury 13 ever made it to space, you can bet Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, and Christa McAuliffe are grateful that they dared to dream.

Winner of the 2010 Sibert Award for distinguished informational books

Recommended for grades 6 and up
Reviewed by Sara Murray

Before Columbus

By Charles C. Mann
Ancient stone carvings and painted rock caves are a couple of things we might expect to learn about in a title like this, but they are only small pieces of what is actually inside this book. Mann packs his pages full of amazing facts about the many people who lived here for thousands of years before the Europeans came. Included in this book is an Incan city with so many royal mummies "living" in their individual palaces that when a new ruler came to power, he had no place to put his throne. Also, there were the desert mummies of the Chinchorro, who suffered from tapeworms up to 16 feet long in their intestines. And yes, there was a painted cave with handprints on the walls dating back to almost 13,000 years ago. The photos and artwork make this a good choice for browsing history, and the great information makes it a good choice for research.

Recommended for grades 6 and up
Reviewed by Kore Power

The Omnivore's Dilemma

by Michael Pollan
Don't eat that! Michael Pollan does an excellent job of describing EXACTLY what is going into the food we eat. He explains the terms we hear related to health and food, such as "free-range" and E. coli. He talks about how what fish, chicken, and cows eat affects us, humans, when we eat them. There is a lot of great information here - from salmon farms to McDonald's fries. Originally, Pollan wrote this title in 2006 for an adult audience. This new book has been simplified into one hundred less pages, but the best thing about it is that rather than being "dumbed-down," the information has been corrected and updated. This book is written with respect and intelligence.

Recommended for Grades 5 - 12
Reviewed by Koren Power

Frogs

by Nic Bishop
Did you know that frogs' ears are like tiny drums? Can you believe that indigenous Australians learned how to squeeze desert frogs to get a drink and then let them go? Have you ever heard of the gastric brooding frog that swallows her eggs so the tadpoles can grow in the safety of her stomach for about two months and then hiccups them out?

All this and more can be found in Nic Bishop's Frogs. While this would be a great book for reports (use the index to find information like diet and lifespan) it's mostly just fascinating to read. Amazing, vibrantly colored photographs of frogs from all over the world dominate the pages - keep an eye out for the glass frog whose skin is so thin you can see his insides! If you can't get enough of fascinating frogs after this, try Face to Face with Frogs by Mark Moffett; if you can't get enough of Nic Bishop's photographs, try Spiders for a cool look at another tiny animal.

Recommended for ages 5 and up or readers Grades 3 and up
Reviewed by Jennifer Baker

Two Bobbies

by Kirby Larson
How do you explain tragedy to children? When there are catastrophes that invade the world of our young loved ones, we are often at a loss to balance our needs to shelter and to explain. This book does an excellent job of telling a heart warming tale of heroism in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. A tailless mutt acts as a seeing-eye dog for a blind, tailless cat as they struggle to survive post-hurricane and find a new life. Based on a true story with photos and a description of their happy ending, this title offers many opportunities for discussion and provides a warm fuzzy story to share. The illustrations show in subtle colors the ravaged homes with water damaged toys and furniture in the streets and bolder images of the animals in front. This is a true find for parents and teachers needing something for one-on-one or group discussions.

Recommended for ages 5-10
Reviewed by Koren Power

Knucklehead

Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories about Growing Up Scieszka
by Jon Scieszka
If you've ever read The Stinky Cheese Man or The Time Warp Trio series and wondered how someone could come up with such silly stories and adventures, now you'll know!  Jon Scieszka was the second oldest in a family with six boys.  His mother was a nurse and had plenty of bruises and broken bones to attend to, and his father was a school principal and tried to keep his boys in order.  With six boys in the house, it was sometimes easier to ask "which knucklehead put an army man in the toaster" than to ask each kid who did it.  Jon and his brothers found all kinds of adventures, from the "foxholes" in new construction down the street to the lake at their grandparents' summer house.  But they also found plenty of trouble, whether it was breaking the living room sofa or breaking a brother's collar bone, and usually managed to make a younger brother take the blame.

Even though Jon Scieszka's childhood might be very different from your own, his stories are funny and will make kids, parents, and grandparents laugh out loud!

Recommended for grades 3-8 -- and parents and grandparents!
Reviewed by Sara Murray

Masterpieces Up Close

Masterpieces Up Close: Western Painting from the 14th to 20th Centuries
by Claire d'Harcourt
This colorful oversize book is a wonderful introduction to art history, covering artists from Botticelli to Warhol. Readers learn fascinating facts about 21 paintings. Each two-page spread includes a large central painting with several details from each one enlarged and explained in the margins. What is neat about this is that you can then find the details in the large painting and view them in context. The book also includes short summaries of all the paintings, discussing the artists' techniques, histories, and more. At the end is a collection of lift the flap versions of each work, with a brief biography of the artist under the flap.

Recommended for grades 2 and up
Reviewed by Alexa Newman