Series: Little Bug Books (PB) (Jnr NF)

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Graeme Base (Aust)
PUBLISHED: Penguin ; 2015.
PAGES/ILL: 14 unnumbered pages : col. ill.




REVIEW:
This is a new series by author/illustrator Graeme Base. It uses pictures of animals to teach young children language. It starts off with the singular, and the pages pull/fold out to reveal the group. The original picture splits (you can see the fold going through the picture).

• A Heard of Elephants teaches collective nouns (a caravan of camels, a swarm of bees, a pod of whales, etc).
• Starfish are pointy: adjectives.
• Birds fly: animal movement.
• Cows say moo: animal sounds.
• Monkeys live in trees: animal homes/habitats.
• Pigs have piglets: animal babies.

AGE: 2+.
GENRE: Non-fiction.
RATING: 5 stars.

Non-Fiction That Reads Like Fiction

Readitforward had a great little list of non-fiction that reads like fiction (Also known as narrative non-fiction). While these titles adult, not juvenile, I can see this list being gobbled up by older teens, especially those who are not really into science fiction or high fantasy.  (Of course, not all adult fiction is suitable for all young adults, so knowledge of the particular child and the particular title would help before recommending these books to teens willy nilly).

Titles include:

• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (The incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair)
• In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (Portrait of Berlin during the first years of Hitler's reign)
• Dead Wake by Erik Larson (Story of the sinking of the Lusitania)
• A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre (Portrait of Kim Philby, the greatest spy in history, a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain’s counterintelligence against the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War — while he was secretly working for the enemy)
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (Reconstructs the murder of four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers)
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (About a murder at Savannah's grandest mansion, 1981
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (Also made into a movie. About Christopher McCandless, who died in the Alaskan wilderness)
• The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (account of the first emergence of the Ebola virus)
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo (Story of families striving toward a better life in Mumbai)
• The Boys in the Boat by Daniel Brown (Story of the University of Washington’s 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal at the Berlin Olympics, 1936)
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Henrietta Lacks, as HeLa, is known to present-day scientists for her cells, taken without her knowledge, and used for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions)
• Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (First-hand account of a fatal expedition up Mount Everest, 1996)
• Pilgrim's Wilderness by Tom Kizzia (True story of a modern-day homesteading family in the deepest reaches of the Alaskan wilderness)
• Black Count by Tom Reiss (Biography of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas)
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (Made into a movie. Story of WW2)
• Two Lives by William Trevor (Made into a movie. Actually two books: Reading Turgenev, a lonely country girl escapes her loveless marriage in the arms of a bookish young man. In My House in Umbria, a former madam befriends the other survivors of a terrorist bombing)
• Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel (Memoir describes the childhood of the author who grew up in the 1960s in the small town of Mooreland, Indiana)
• The River of Doubt by Candace Millard. (An expedition is led by Teddy Roosevelt down an unexplored river to see if it connects to the Amazon)
• The Circus Fire by Stewart O'Nan (Account of tragedy and heroism-the great Hartford circus fire of 1944)

Other suggestions include:

• Scoop: Notes from a Small Ice Cream Shop by Jeff Miller
• The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston
• Five days at Memorial by Sheri Fink
• The Innocent Man by John Grisham
• Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer
• Red Rover by Deirdre Mcnamer
• Dewey: the small town library cat who touched the world by Vicki Myron
• The Blooding by Joseph Wambaugh
• Two Lives by Vikram Seth
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• In the Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III (About 9/11)
• Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
• Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
• The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne
• The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
• Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horowitz
• The Bounty, the true story of the mutiny on the bounty by Caroline Alexander
• Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives Through the Secret World of Stolen Art by Joshua Knelman
• Dial M: The Murder of Carol Thompson by William Swanson
• The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
• One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson
• The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
• A Civil Action Aug 27, 1996 by Jonathan Harr (True story behind the scenes of a civil action lawsuit against environmental pollution and big money)
• Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, by Johann Hari

The one that comes to my mind would be

• In Search of the Source by Neil Anderson (About missionaries in Papua New Guinea).

Bugs (NF) (Pop-up)

FULL TITLE: Bugs : a pop-up journey into the world of insects, spiders and creepy-crawlies
AUTHOR: George McGavin ; ILLUSTRATOR: Jim Kay ; PAPER ENGINEERING: Richard Ferguson
PUBLISHED: London : Walker books, 2013

PLOT:
Larger-than-life bugs spring from the pages, peek out from behind flaps and hide under tabs, inviting young entomologists to marvel at the mind-boggling variety of arthropod life. What reader can resist a chance to peel back the flaps to look inside a cockroach's body to see how it works, or open a wasps nest to see what's inside? Useful information (why does the world need bees?) and scientific trivia (which beetles are strongest and fastest?) pack every page, while exquisite art, dramatic pop-ups, and a multitude of lift-the-flaps bring the world of bugs to life. Presented in a field diary format, with hand-written notes and specimen samples.

REVIEW:
Absolutely enthralling. I can't see that anyone, child or adult, would be able to simply flick through this book - no, every page must be analysed for what can be lifted, folded out, and taken out of little pockets.

AGE: 7-77 (adult supervision and guidance required for younger ages; the paper crafting is quite fragile).
RATING: STRONG 5 stars

Rainforest VS Rainforest (NF) (compare)

For the first time, I am comparing two titles. Both are Non Fiction for Primary school ages (middle primary and up), on the topic of rainforests around the world, published in the same year and in the same country.

1)
AUTHOR: Penny Arlon and Tory Gordon-Harris.
PUBLISHED: England : Scholastic, 2013.

2)
AUTHOR: Elinor Greenwood.
PUBLISHED: England : Dorling Kindersley, 2013.

Both present roughly the same information (e.g the different layers of the rainforest, where they grow, what animals live there, what is unique about the ecosystem, why they are important to the environment of the world, etc). The most significant difference is that the second title does not make mention of the Papua New Guinea rainforest (the first one does). PNG rainforest is one of the most significant in the world. New species are discovered there each year. It's like writing a book about deserts, but leaving out the Middle East.

There ARE different approaches to how the titles present the information, and what facts are given prominence. Each title has information the other does not, but the absence of PNG in the second is starkly notable. There is nothing wrong with the second title (it has its place in a school and public library), but it highlights the importance of having a range of titles on the same topic available to children, and in some cases they will need adult guidance to help them understand that accessing more than one title will give them a more comprehensive view of the topic.

AGE: Middle to upper primary. RATING: Both are more than adequate NF resources.

Go Ask Alice

AUTHOR: Anonymous (USA). PUBLISHED: 1970's

ISSUES: drugs, family, friendship, trust and betrayal, homelessness, running away, addiction, death.

NOTES: The diary of a drug addict. Easy to read, and gives an interesting insight into teenagers. A good book for discussion and analysis of issues of being a teenager. In particular note the fact that the girl was a "follower" and from that you can discuss how and why children need to build strength-of-character and self esteem.

AGES: Recommended for ADULTS who work with children, or have them.
For children: minimum age 12, depending on maturity.

GENRE: Non-Fiction (supposedly)/Realistic Fiction. RATING: 4 stars.