Rachel Carson

And Her Book That Changed The World

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday  hosted today by
Hope Is the Word

and joins It's Monday!

What are you reading?

at Teacher Mentor Texts

Holiday House

(pub. 2.1.2012) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Laurie Lawlor

     and Illustrator:  Laura Beingessner

C haracter: Rachel Carson

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "'Once you are aware of the wonder and beauty of earth, you will want to learn about it,' wrote Rachel Carson, the pioneering environmentalist. Rachel found many adventurous ways to study nature. She went diving to investigate coral reefs and tracked alligators on a rumbling 'glades buggy' through the Florida Everglades.
        However, one of the bravest things she did was to write and publish Silent Spring, a book pointing out the dangerous effects of chemicals on the living world... Silent Spring went on to become the book that woke up people to the harmful impact humans were having on our planet."

        

T antalizing taste: 

"As a biologist for fifteen years,
she went places where few women ventured...
counting deep-sea fish in foggy,
dangerous currents south of Nova Scotia;
observing reef animals in a special suit
with an eighty-four-pound diving helmet
off the coast of Florida...
Meanwhile she worked on her own writing in the evening or on weekends.
She began to notice disturbing trends.
What happened to the web of life
when more and more garbage was dumped into the ocean?
How did rising ocean temperatures affect living creatures?"

                       

and something more: I thought the quote from Vice President Al Gore included in the Epilogue perfectly sums up the importance of Rachel Carson's work and book: "Silent Spring came as a cry in the wilderness, a deeply felt, thoroughly researched, and brilliantly written argument that changed the course of history. Without this book, the environmental movement might have been long delayed or never have developed at all."

Read More

Coppernickel Goes Mondrian

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday

hosted today by Jean Little Library

and joins It's Monday!

What are you reading?

at Teacher Mentor Texts

Enchanted Lion Books

(pub. 5.8.12) 40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor and illustrator: Wouter Van Reek 

C haracter: fictional Mr. Quickstep (alias for Piet Mondrian) 

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "Mr. Quickstep (alias for Mondrian) is looking for the future. On the way, he bumps into Coppernickel. Coppernickel tells Mr. Quickstep he shouldn't bother looking since the future will arrive anyway. Quickstep disagrees, for the future he's after doesn't exist, but needs to be discovered. What stands out in this graphically distinguished homage to one of the great artists of the 20th century is the idea that the future is ours to create. A wonderfully imaginative story about art, vision and creativity!" 

        

T antalizing taste: 

           "'Look, I'm on the verge of a completely new future,' says Mr. Quickstep. 'I can feel it.'

             'But there's still something missing ... a touch of something so new it may not even exist yet.'

[Illustration shows Mr. Quickstep in his studio with classic Mondrian primary color square/rectangle paintings against the wall. And he's holding a roll of tape.]

            'What have you got here?' says Coppernickel. 'This is great stuff! Does it stick to everything? Can I give it a try?'

         

and something more: The note at the back of Coppernickel Goes Mondrian explains that "In the 1930s, with Hitler's rise to power, Mondrian realized he could no longer stay in Paris, so he fled, first to London, then to New York ... He loved New York immediately, with its straight avenues, skyscrapers, busy streets and vibrant atmosphere... His new friends took him to dance halls where the very newest music, the boogie-woogie, was being played. .. New York thus inspired him to recreate himself once again... For the first time, he began to stick lengths of colored tape onto his canvases. This allowed him to move and shift his colors as often as he liked until everything looked just right. Only then would he replace the colored tape with paint.  It was in this way that he created his renowned, Broadway Boogie Woogie."

       San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has a wonderful Mondrian painting, New York City 2 (unfinished), that still has tape on it so viewers get to see Mondrian's process.  As a docent for school groups at SFMOMA, I've led a fun art project in front of this artwork in which students  use colored tape to create their own Mondrian inspired paintings. They always create wonderful art!

Read More

The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday
hosted today by Wrapped in Foil

and joins It's Monday!
What are you reading?
at Teacher Mentor Texts

Eerdmans Books
for Young Readers

(pub. 6.11.2012) 34 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Michelle Markel

     and Illustrator:  Amanda Hall

C haracter: Henri Rousseau

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "Henri Rousseau loved nature, and basked in the beauty of the sunshine and the towering trees of Paris. He wanted to capture all of this, so he taught himself to paint. And then he worked until the jungles and animals and distant lands in his head came alive on the space of his canvases.
      Rousseau endured many harsh critics to create his brilliant paintings. Michelle Markel's vivid text and Amanda Hall's vibrant illustrations together artfully introduce young readers to this beloved painter."
        

T antalizing taste: 

"Henri Rousseau wants to be an artist. 
Not a single person has ever told him he is talented. 
He's a toll collector. 
He' s forty years old.

      

But he buys some canvas, paint, and brushes, 

and starts painting anyway.

Why? Because he loves nature. Because

when he strolls through the parks of Paris,

it's like the flowers open their hearts,

the trees spread their arms, and the sun

is a blushing ruby, all for him."

                       

and something more: I didn't realize that Henri Rousseau began painting at age forty without formal training, and that his art was ridiculed year after year. Michelle Markel's Author's Note in The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau explains that he "gradually developed a following. Avant-garde artists and writers such as Picasso, Delaunay, Jarry, and Apollinaire admired his innocence and charm."
          And, although he is best known for his jungle paintings, he could never afford to leave Paris. Instead, he travelled in his mind. As he said to a journalist, "I don't know if you're like me ... but when I go into the glass houses and I see the strange plants of exotic lands, it seems to me that I enter into a dream. I feel that I'm somebody else completely."  The power of imagination! 

Read More

Abe Lincoln's Dream

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday
hosted today by Booktalking

and joins It's Monday!
What are you reading?

at Teacher Mentor Texts

Roaring Brook Press

(pub. 10.16.12) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor and illustrator: Lane Smith

C haracter: fictional girl with ghost of Abe Lincoln

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "How long should a man's legs be? [answer: long enough to reach the floor]

       The 16th president had recurring dreams, liked corny jokes, and now his ghost paces the White House fretting about the state of the union. It takes a a little girl on a school tour - armed with a few corny jokes of her own - to answer his questions and settle his spirit.

        From one of our most celebrated picture book artists comes an affectionate ode to our most celebrated president and the nation he shaped. Inspired by true stories and White House trivia, Lane Smiths' Lincoln takes flight with characteristic humor and extraordinary artistry."

        

T antalizing taste: 

           "Then one day a girl wandering from her tour discovered a tall man standing over the Gettysburg address.'

           'Hi,' said Quincy.

           'Hello, child,' he said.

            He was dressed in black from hat to boot, but she wasn't frightened; he had a long face that made her feel sorry for him.

            'Are you lost?' she asked.

            'I don't think so,' he said, walking through a wall.

         

and something more: I was intrigued to learn that Lane Smith's wife, Molly Leach, is the designer of his creative whimsical books, including Abe Lincoln's Dream. I loved what he wrote about her on his website: [She's the] greatest book designer working today. She has designed nearly all of my books. When she designed the Stinky Cheese Man back in 1992 folks called it a 'watershed moment.' Suddenly every designer wanted to make books with crazy type and upside-down pages. The problem is it is very hard to do unless you know how. Molly knows how. She is also very funny and very pretty...She makes everything I do 100 times better but since most people don’t know what a designer does, I usually get all the credit. This isn’t fair." Well, here's to both Molly Leach AND Lane Smith -- a great team!

Read More