You Never Heard of Willie Mays?!

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Schwartz & Wade Books
(Random House)
(pub.1.8.2013) 40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Jonah Winter
      and Illustrator: Terry Widener

    

C haracter: Willie Mays

O verview from the publisher's website: 

      "He hit 660 home runs (fourth best of all time), had a lifetime batting average of .302, and is second only to Babe Ruth on The Sporting News's list of 'Baseball's 100 Greatest Players.' Many believe him to be the best baseball player that ever lived. His name is Willie Mays. In Jonah Winter and Terry Widener's fascinating picture book biography, young readers can follow Mays's unparalleled career from growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, to playing awe-inspiring ball in the Negro Leagues and then the Majors, where he was center fielder for the New York (later San Francisco) Giants. Complete with sidebars filled with stats, and a cool lenticular cover, here is a book for all baseball lovers, young and old."

T antalizing taste: 

     "You could fill a whole book with all the jaw-droppin' plays Willie made, all the homers he hit, all the bases he stole. But what made 'the Catch' in '54 so special was that millions of people all over America had seen it on TV ... 
      Just look at him: Even as he falls to his knees after makin' that play, his eyes still takin' in the path of the ball - even then, you could see he was mentally still in the game, wantin' to win, never givin' up, ready for more.
     Yessir, in that one moment when Willie made the Catch, he showed the world a new way of playing the game. He changed how people saw his skin. In his own way, he changed the world."

and something more: Today's feature of yet another baseball player biography picture book was inspired by fellow kidlit blogger, Jeff Barger at NC Teacher Stuff. Jeff asked if I knew of any picture book about Willie Mays. Voila! Jeff had recently visited my favorite and local baseball stadium, AT&T Park in San Francisco, and I had mentioned the sculpture of Willie Mays in front of the ballpark.
     I learned that WIllie Mays joined the SF Giants in 1958. Just this past May, Willie Mays celebrated his 82nd birthday and the San Francisco Chronicle posted photos from his career. A living legend and amazing role model!

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A Splash of Red

The Life and Art of Horace Pippin

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Alfred A. Knopf/ Random House

(pub. 1.8.2013) 40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Jen Bryant

     and Illustrator: Melissa Sweet

C haracter: Horace Pippin

O verview from the publisher: 

     "As a child in the late 1800s, Horace Pippin loved to draw...He drew pictures for his sisters, his classmates, his co-workers. Even during W.W.I, Horace filled his notebooks with drawings from the trenches . . . until he was shot. Upon his return home, Horace couldn't lift his right arm, and couldn't make any art. Slowly, with lots of practice, he regained use of his arm, until once again, he was able to paint--and paint, and paint! Soon, people—including the famous painter N. C. Wyeth—started noticing Horace's art, and before long, his paintings were displayed in galleries and museums across the country..."

        

T antalizing taste: 

         "Then, if he could find a scrap of paper and a piece of charcoal, he drew pictures of what he'd seen that day.
        Horace loved to draw. He loved the feel of the charcoal as it slid across the floor. He loved looking at something in the room and making it come alive in front of him. He loved thinking about a friend or a pet, then drawing them from the picture in his mind."

                       

and something more: I was intrigued to read the collaborative efforts behind A Splash of Red. Melissa Sweet recounts the background in her Illustrator's Note: "Typically, authors and illustrators stay fairly separate when making a picture book, but after Jen [Bryant] wrote this text, we bucked the tide by researching Horace Pippin together. Driving through the back roads of eastern Pennsylvania, we shared what we both knew and loved about art and Pippin." 
          And, as Jen Bryant explains in her Author's Note: ".... once the story was written, Melissa and I retraced many of these paths [of her earlier research] and forged some new ones. We were inspired and amazed by the very real struggles in Horace Pippin's life and the incredible, simple elegance of his work. Through his art, he transcended personal loss, injury, poverty, violence, and racism, producing a body of work that remains wholly original and deeply American"... AND inspiring!

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Harlem's Little Blackbird

The Story of Florence Mills 

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Random House Books for Young Readers

(pub. 10.23.2012) 40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Rene Watson

     and Illustrator: Christian Robinson

C haracter: Florence Mills

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "Growing up in Washington, DC, at the turn of the twentieth century, Florence Mills knew that she was blessed with a gift - a sweet, birdlike singing voice that everyone loved. But she also knew firsthand the profound ache of racism. When she moved to New York City, the stages got bigger, the lights grew brighter, and offers that could make her an international star were hers for the taking. Instead, Florence chose shows that helped promote other black performers. And she sang songs that heralded the call for civil rights.
     Together Renee Watson's gorgeously evocative prose and Christian Robinson's stunning mixed-media art shine a light on this little-known but much-loved member of the Harlem Renaissance elite - a performer whose story may have faded from the history books, but whose influence resonated long after she sang her last song."

        

T antalizing taste: 

     "Each night, Florence gave her best. Every part of her body danced. Her eyelashes fluttered, her fingers wiggled. She whirled around and boogied down. Night after night, she gave the audience a hand-clapping, foot-stomping good time...
      Florence's dream lives on in the singers and dancers who came after her. It lives on in the heart of every boy and girl from a teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy place who dreams of doing great big, gigantic, enormous things."

                       

and something more: Christian Robinson, the illustrator of Harlem's Little Blackbird, was interviewed on the blog, Random Acts of Reading. He talked with Suzy Capozzi, editor of the book at Random House, about the process of working with the art director Ellice Lee:
       "There was a real sense of creative freedom, I wasn’t asked to alter my style or to make something that '…looked more like this thing over here.' It was as if whatever came naturally for me was appreciated, which is like having a huge weight lifted. There was room for play and exploration, which made illustrating a positive experience and a lot of fun." 
        Sounds like a wonderful collaboration!

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Jim Henson

The Guy Who Played with Puppets

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hosted today by Tales from the Rushmore Kid

Random House 
(pub. 8.23.2011)  40 pages

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top
  
A uthor: Kathleen Krull

      and Paintings: Steve Johnson and Lou Fancherr

C haracter: Jim Henson

 

O verview from the jacket flap: 

        "What do you want to be when you grow up? A teacher? A poet? The president? Well, Jim Henson wanted to play with puppets.  If you want to make the world a better place, making people happy is a great way to start ..."

 

T antalizing taste:

       "Jim hesitated. The show had a weird name - Sesame Street. Joan [the TV producer] explained that just as the command 'Open Sesame' in the old Arabian tale opened a door to treasure, she wanted her show to open doors in young minds.  Jim wasn't sure he wanted to limit his Muppets to children. But years of watching his own children convinced him... Maybe TV could be a good influence." 

and something more:
Kathleen Krull was awarded the 2011 Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award, and I liked what the site said about her writing and biographies: "What draws her to writing biographies?  As a self-confessed 'nosy' person, Krull enjoys researching the details that spice a life and offer insight into personality and accomplishments.  But biographies also 'fill a great need,' she says.  'We read them to find out who we are.'  By discovering how we resemble and differ from others, be they ordinary or extraordinary, says Krull, we learn 'something about our own identity, our goals, our possibilities in life.'  She considers it a privilege to help young readers in this search."  I couldn't agree more!

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The Incredible Life of Balto

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday 

hosted today by Capstone Connect

Alfred A. Knopf (Random House)

(pub. 8.9.2011)  40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor and illustrator: Meghan McCarthy

C haracter: Balto, a famous Alaskan dog

 

O verview from the jacket flap: 

         "Most people know the story of Balto, the world-famous dog who led his sled team through a blizzard to deliver a liefesaving serum to the stricken people of Nome, Alaska, in 1925.  Balto shot to instant stardom - a company named dog food after him, a famous sculptor erected a statue of him that stands in New York's Central Park to this day and the dog even starred in his own Hollywood movie.
         But what happened to Balto after the hoopla died down?  With a lively, informative text and humorous, vibrant illustrations, Meghan McCarthy captures the extraordinary life of Balto beyond his days as a celebrity." 

 

T antalizing taste: 

       "Sadly, Balto and the team were sold again, this time to a man who ran a sideshow.  There Balto and the others were all but forgotten.  For a dime, people could go into a room and see the once-celebrated dogsled team."

and something more:   As a author of narrative nonfiction picture books, I was fascinated by Megan McCarthy's discussion of her research experiences and how she dealt with contradictory accounts regarding Balto, including what color fur he had.  As she explains in her "Detective Work" section at the back of The Incredible Life of Balto, "No matter where information comes from, it gets filtered through many perspectives over time.  As a nonfiction writer, I make it my job to take all of the information and piece it together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.  But there's more to it than that.  I like to choose subject matter that hasn't been covered before or shine a new light on a known topic."  Yes!  A true tale with a cherry on top, as a I see it.
         Meghan explains her focus for this book: "Many children's books about Balto tout him as a hero, but none mentions the fact that he was essentially abandoned, sold off, and shown as a live attraction in a dime show.  What inspired me about Balto's story was the happy ending after all his struggles.  I knew that the whole story needed to be told." 
         Meghan's student activities included in the book remind me of my high school journalism class.  Unbeknownst to us, one day our wonderful teacher, Mrs. Hallenbeck, asked two students to argue and push and shove right before class began.  And after we learned that it was a staged argument, we had to write everything we had seen and heard --- we ended up with a roomful of different reports.  It certainly made an impression on us regarding the reliability of "eyewitness" reports.

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