Tag: American history

Book Review: Heart And Soul By Kadir Nelson

Happy Juneteenth! On this important day commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States, one book came to mind immediately. I am still learning, unlearning, and grappling with the ugly history of America and my role in its future. In this process, I continue to turn to powerful books, adult and adolescent, to teach me. Today, allow me to share a glimpse of this difficult, beautiful, and necessary book: Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson, 2011.

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Book Review: Memphis, Martin, And The Mountaintop By Duncan & Christie

Among the many reasons that I love picture books, a major point for me as an adult is that I continually learn about important things through them. As a child with a vivid imagination and creativity, I was never much for history, biographies or period stories growing up. Even now, non-fiction books consistently take me longer to get through, while I devour fiction and stories at an almost alarming rate. But give me bite-size chunks of history, depict it with powerful illustrations, and you’ve got my attention. That’s what today’s book did.

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Book Review: 1621, A New Look At Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers! Last year, I shared one of my new favorite Thanksgiving themed books by Melissa Sweet, Balloons Over Broadway, that celebrates the famous parade and its history. It was again a big hit at this year’s storytime. This year, my mind has been struggling with some different feelings about what used to be a favorite holiday. With my broadening education about the continual stereotyping of Native people in picture books, I’ve become quite disheartened towards typical Thanksgiving picture books with their constant questionable portrayals of “Indians” and misrepresentation of “the first Thanksgiving.” Not wanting to disdain the holiday completely, I am striving to take Debbie Reese’s comment to heart and even beyond books: “Sometimes I think that Thanksgiving books for young children should just focus on things people are grateful for.”

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Book Review: Noah Webster’s Words By Ferris & Kirsch

There are a lot of things in life that I never stop and wonder where they came from. Occasionally though, I will get curious about a product or a person or even a word. Those moments of curiosity are when it is lovely to discover that someone else already did some research for me and has prepared a presentation of that piece of history in a delightful package called a picture book. For example, on the Fourth of July, I posted a Cooney illustrated edition of “the blue-backed speller” which was created in the late 1700s by Noah Webster. I am very familiar with Webster’s Dictionary, especially when it comes to quick searches for words online. But I’ve really never stopped to ponder who that “Webster” was until that post. Thankfully, someone handed me a great new book that covered a lot of the questions I should have had about a certain Mr. Noah Webster. Allow me to share some newfound knowledge with you today found in this book. Here is Noah Webster’s Words by Jeri Chase Ferris, illustrated by Vincent X. Kirsch, 2012.

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Book Review: Knit Your Bit By Deborah Hopkinson & Steven Guarnaccia

If books like this keep being published, I may just have to permanently change my mind about disliking historical fiction. Previews of this book continually caught my eye and after finally getting my hands on it this weekend, I have to say it has me hooked. And how could it not with a winning combination of elements – WWI, boys, soldiers, competition, and… knitting? Add to that surprising theme twist some excellent cartoon illustrations and you have a stellar, and very touching book. Here is Knit Your Bit by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Steven Guarnaccia, 2013.

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