Hopkins has assembled poems from an impressive list of authors, including Nikki Grimes, Jane Yolen, Janet S. Wong, and Joseph Bruchac. But the list of names fade away as the poems take center stage. Some are powerful, some are gentle, and some take your breath away. For example, about storyteller Aunt Mary Sky:

You can read so many things in her face
Like a cloud touched by a breath of wind
one shape, then another takes its place
as even the trees lean close and listen.

This book is really meant to be shared. Readers will want to discuss and ponder each poem and accompanying illustration. Although listed for ages 4-8, this inspiring collection is definitely appealing to a readers of a wide range of ages.

Teachers and librarians take note: you’ll want to have this one in within reach as a useful, multipurpose resource.

Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Lee & Low Books; 1 edition (June 30, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1600603343
ISBN-13: 978-1600603341

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. For more information, stop by Anastasia Suen’s Nonfiction Monday page. This week’s post is at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

This book was provided for review.

23. This author’s first book was a fictional account of her older sister’s early death, called A Summer to Die. For later books, she won Newbery Medals in 1990 and 1994. Who is she?

Lois Lowry has included some of the speeches she gave throughout the years on her website. For example, she has included the speech she gave when she won the Newbery for The Giver in 1994. If you have some time, it is well worth poking around her website and blog.

Check out these videos, too. In this video, Time for Kids reporter Hannah Spicijaric interviews Lois Lowry, particularly about The Willoughbys.

In this video, Lowry is interviewed by Time for Kids reporter Sarah Horbacewicz about her recent book The Birthday Ball.

What a fascinating person!

24. This writer enjoyed fairy tales as a child and her books often have a fairy tale quality. She was given art lessons by her mother, and has worked as an illustrator as well as a writer. In fact her first book was a collaboration with her husband. He wrote the book and she illustrated it. Two of her books have been made into movies, and one was a Newbery Honor book. Do you recognize the author?

Natalie Babbitt has had two books made into movies:  Tuck Everlasting and The Eyes of the Amaryllis.

We were introduced to Natalie Babbitt’s work when my son chose Search for Delicious for a book report. It is definitely a story with multiple layers of meaning and complexity. It will stick with you after you read it.

Here are some of her other books:

Can you see the fairy tale influence?

Note: Children’s Author Trivia is taking a vacation this week, but will be back next Thursday.

Dan Green has chosen some common animals to highlight, like the elephant and the hippopotamus, but also a few unusual ones like the narwhal and wallaby. Each two-page spread has the name of the animal, a photograph of the animal, a few facts about the animal written in an engaging way, and then a big bold capital letter with a black-and-white image that pops up or interacts with the letter kinetically. My favorite is the dinosaur, Utahrapter, which requires you to actually open the letter to see what is underneath.

Of course this book is designed to be engaging to young children, but I noticed the older ones like to take a peek too. If nothing else they try to figure out, “how did they fold that?”

To get a better idea of the book, here’s a very well-designed trailer. Isn’t the music fun?

What child wouldn’t enjoy the thrill of Wild Alphabet?

Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 52 pages
Publisher: Kingfisher; Pop edition (September 14, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0753464721
ISBN-13: 978-0753464724

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. For more information, stop by Anastasia Suen’s Nonfiction Monday page. This week’s post is at TheBookNosher.

This books was provided for review.

23. This author’s first book was a fictional account of her older sister’s early death, called A Summer to Die. For later books, she won Newbery Medals in 1990 and 1994. Who is she?

24. This writer enjoyed fairy tales as a child and her books often have a fairy tale quality. She was given art lessons by her mother, and has worked as an illustrator as well as a writer. In fact her first book was a collaboration with her husband. He wrote the book and she illustrated it. Two of her books have been made into movies, and one was a Newbery Honor book. Do you recognize the author?

Are the clues with more details helpful? What do you think?

Yes, the movie was based on Maurice Sendak’s picture book, Where the Wild Things Are.

Maurice Sendak is a fabulous illustrator, but the books he authored are the ones that have grabbed the most attention. One of our family favorites is the rollicking romp through the months, Chicken Soup With Rice.

21. Do made-for television movies count? If you suffer from arachnophobia you might not enjoy this movie as much as most children do.

Guess I should have given better clues for this one. David Kirk’s Miss Spider books are unlikely to instill fear in anyone. Starting with the release of Miss Spider’s Tea Party, this vegetarian spider has been helping countless children learn how to get along with others.

David Kirk lives in upstate New York. He started out making toys, but says the little book The Gnome’s Almanack, illustrated by Ida Bohatta Morpurgo (1942) inspired him to try children’s books. The result has been a rousing success. (Note:  To show how much of a book nerd I am, I actually found a copy of The Gnome’s Almanck to buy after reading about David Kirk’s affection for it.)

Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Kids was released for TV in 2003, with Brooke Shields as the voice of Miss Spider and Rick Moranis as Holley.

Now you can buy an iPad App for Miss Spider’s Tea Party. Bet Ida Bohatta Morpurgo didn’t see that coming!

22. This author also had more than one book made into movies. His books are best known for their animal main characters. Arachnophobia might be a problem for people watching one of these movies as well.

E.B. White wrote Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Charlotte’s Web, which were all made into movies. In fact, Stuart Little led to a series of three movies, the last being Stuart Little: Call of the Wild, and Charlotte’s Web can be found in both animated and live action versions. The Trumpet of the Swan was released as an animated film in 2001, but did not receive much popular acclaim.

Stuart Little is about the adventures of a mouse who is born to human parents. It was E.B. White’s first children’s book.

The Trumpet of the Swan features a swan who learns how to play the trumpet. The swan has a human friend, a boy named Sam.

Charlotte’s Web is the story of Wilbur the pig and his great friendship with Charlotte the spider. I thought my reference to arachnophobia my trigger someone to think of Charlotte, although I don’t think anyone could fear spiders after reading this classic book.

Chemistry: Getting a Big Reaction! by Dan Green and Simon Basher is not written like a textbook. It is organized more like a reference book, such as a dictionary or an encyclopedia. The different terms/concepts are developed as characters. The sections are written in the first person from that character’s point of view, and each section stands on its own. For example, Acid says, “I’m mad, I’m bad, and thoroughly dangerous to know. Given a chance I’ll eat away Metal and burn through your skin.” (In case you wondered, all characters’ names are capitalized.)

As with Punctuation: The Write Stuff, each character has an accompanying illustration to show what it would look like. The illustrations appear to have roots in Japanese chibi; they are cute and brightly colored, such as the bright orange character in the center of the cover, which represents “Combustion.” These images really help visual learners remember details about what the terms mean. The symbolism of the illustrations works more clearly for some concepts than others, probably because of the complex nature of the topic.

I like that Green chose to include organic materials like esters, found in ingredient lists on labels of common products. The section on “Smart Materials” is fascinating. It inspired me to look up more and write a blog article about them.

The overall organization of material, however, is not as strong as it could be. Why did Green add a discussion of the elements carbon and nitrogen at the very end of the book, after a discussion of complex molecules like proteins that are made up of those elements? He also talked about enzymes, which are basically proteins, well before defining and discussing proteins.

Organizational flaws aside, this book would be useful for the child that needs to brush up on chemistry terminology or who has struggled with chemistry presented in a more traditional way. The concepts are really shaken up and given a lively new twist, which makes them fresh and interesting.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Kingfisher (July 6, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0753464136
ISBN-13: 978-0753464137

In this video, you can see some of the other books offered in this series.

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. For more information, stop by Anastasia Suen’s Nonfiction Monday page. This week’s post is at Playing By The Book.

This book was provided for review.

20. How do you change a simple picture book into a full length movie? The filmmakers must have had a few nightmares trying to get this one right. Or maybe just a wild time…

21. Do made-for television movies count? If you suffer from arachnophobia you might not enjoy this movie as much as most children do.

22. This author also had more than one book made into movies. His books are best known for their animal main characters. Arachnophobia might be a problem for people watching one of these movies as well.

Please let us know your guesses, answers and/or comments.

Edit:  The answers are now posted. Congratulations to Zann and Karen for figuring out the first one.

Question 17. Like her main character, the author of this book (part of a series) spent a lot of her childhood living on a small island with no electricity and no phone. The reluctant hero of her books lives in a desolate environment and has to overcome some fierce challenges. The story line has been changed substantially in the recent movie, but the title remains intact. Any ideas who the author might be?

Cressida Cowell wrote How to Train Your Dragon based on her experiences staying as a child on a small island off the west coast of Scotland.

Here is a video of her reactions to the changes that were made between the book and the movie.

If you haven’t picked up the How to Train Your Dragon books, they are fun and full of adventure, but don’t expect them to be exactly the same as the movie.

Question 18. Known for his black and white illustrations, both the movies made from this author’s books are not only full of color, but full of special effects, too. Who is he?

Chris Van Allsburg actually had three books made into movies, sorry I misled you. Have you heard of Jumanji and Zathura? I had forgotten that he also wrote The Polar Express, which was made into a movie as well. Blame it on the heat.

In his website biography, Chris admits that he fell into art at a whim. Amazing, when you consider he had never had an art class before college that he won the Caldecott Honor Medal for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi in 1980, and Caldecott Medals for Jumanji and The Polar Express.

In this video, he explains how he took up drawing when his sculpture studio was too cold.

My family’s favorite Chris Van Allsburg book is Two Bad Ants.

Question 19. In this case the main character gave his name to both the book and the movies, but the green guy’s story in the book was changed for the scripts. What author developed the unique character who then launched a series of successful animated films?

William Steig is the author of Shrek of movie fame, as well as Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (Caldecott Medal), The Amazing Bone (Caldecott Honor book), Abel’s Island (Newbery Honor book) and Doctor De Soto (Newbery Honor book).

Unlike Van Allsburg, Steig was destined to an artist given that all his family members were active in the arts. He worked for The New Yorker, as well.

Have you read any of William Steig’s books? Which is your favorite?

The book begins with a scene of Wangari’s mother showing young Wangari the mugumo, the wild fig tree, and explaining its importance to both the environment and her culture.

Her brother tells her of the things he learns at school, and Wangari decides she would like to go too. Although it is unusual for a girl to receive an education, Wangari does go to school. In fact she goes all the way to study in the United States and becomes a scientist.

When Wangari returns to Kenya, she find many things have changed. She finds the trees have all been cut down and the resulting environmental damage means that people can no longer grow food for themselves. In a move that is in one hand simple, and in the other incredibly insightful, she encourages the women to re-plant the trees.

Her tree-planting movement grew and flourished as did the trees themselves, but not completely without hardship. Wangari had to overcome harsh political resistance and was even briefly imprisoned. She was released, however, and in 2004 Wangari became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

You will not believe this is Jen Cullerton Johnson’s first picture book. She has done a masterful job of incorporating multiple layers of meaning. She adds important concrete details, such as the feel of the rough bark of the tree, the sounds of the birds, and the things Wangari’s brother taught her from his school. Children can relate to these things. Mothers reading the book can relate to the mothers being able to feed their children. People interested in environmental issues will be encouraged by the message that simple things initiated by a handful of people can make a positive difference in our world. People of many ages and backgrounds will find something that resonates in this wonderful book.

Sonia Lynn Sadler’s illustrations are bright, bold and beautiful. I was not surprised to read that she is inspired by quilts, you can see the influence of warm, colorful, geometric quilt designs on almost every page.

Together the text and illustrations make a fabulous package, sure to sow some Seeds of Change of its own.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Lee & Low Books (June 30, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 160060367X
ISBN-13: 978-1600603679

Book supplied by publisher.

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. For more information, stop by Anastasia Suen’s Nonfiction Monday page. This week’s post is at Apples with Many Seeds

Today let’s test your knowledge of children’s books turned into movies.

Question 17. Like her main character, the author of this book (part of a series) spent a lot of her childhood living on a small island with no electricity and no phone. The reluctant hero of her books lives in a desolate environment and has to overcome some fierce challenges. The story line has been changed substantially in the recent movie, but the title remains intact. Any ideas who the author might be?

Question 18. Known for his black and white illustrations, both the movies made from this author’s books are not only full of color, but full of special effects, too. Who is he?

Question 19. In this case the main character gave his name to both the book and the movies, but the green guy’s story in the book was changed for the scripts. What author developed the unique character who then launched a series of successful animated films?