Nonfiction Monday: The Raucous Royals by Carlyn Beccia

Happy Nonfiction Monday! Today, I'm presenting another book that has been nominated in the Nonfiction Middle Grade/Young Adult category for the Cybils Awards.


Raucous Royals: Test your Royal Wits: Crack Codes, Solve Mysteries, and Deduce Which Royal Rumors are True is a very fun and engaging book that investigates whether or not common rumors about the world's most famous royalty throughout history are true or false. For example, did Anne Boleyn really have six fingers? Was Napolean Bonaparte as short as he was rumored to be? Was King Henry VIII so large that his servants had to carry him because he couldn't walk?

Throughout the book, readers encounter speech bubbles, quizzes, funny caricatures, tabloid magazine-style articles, and other interactive text that make readers become a part of the investigation and learn how over time, facts can be twisted. The information in the book is chunked into short segments so that readers never feel overwhelmed with content. A section at the end of the book even tells readers how they can begin to investigate other rumors they may have heard.

Carlyn Beccia made smart choices about which information to present, creating a book that makes history fun and appealing and that I believe will have kids interested in learning more. I'm definitely keeping my eye out for more books by her in the future.


Resources:

The Book's Blog and website include a lot of resources for further investigation. They're well worth checking out.

What Other Bloggers Are Saying:

I.N.K. "A book with wickedly appealing art and layout, little quizzes, juicy historical tidbits." (read more...)



More Info:

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 1 edition (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618891307
• ISBN-13: 978-0618891306
• Source: Review copy from publisher

Also by Carlyn Beccia:

Check out Picture Book of the Day for more Nonfiction Monday selections.

Cybils Nonfiction Middle Grade/ Young Adult Suggestions

Nominations for all Cybils categories close this Wednesday, October 15. I'm on the panel for the Nonfiction Middle Grade / Young Adult category and would LOVE to see more nominations in this category.

Here's the category description from the Cybils site:

"Facts First! Don't fall under the misconception that facts are boring. Facts can break boundaries. Facts can open eyes. Facts can inspire. Facts can do anything fiction can do. Maybe more. Not that we don't love fiction, but nonfiction has been a special focus of many bloggers in the kidlitosphere since the inception of Nonfiction Monday for good reason. We want to highlight the best of 2008 in informational books for kids and teens.--The Editors

We're also drawing the line between this category and the younger non-fiction titles by, well, looking at the drawings. If the book's more than 48 pages, has more text and seems geared for somewhat older kids, you're probably right. Put it here."

Have you read a great book published between January 1 and October 15 that fits within this category? If so, head on over and nominate it if it's not already there. Here are some books I've recently seen that haven't been nominated if you're looking for suggestions.

• Madam President: The Extraordinary, True (and Evolving) Story of Women in Politics by Catherine Thimmesh and Douglas Jones
• Why You Shouldn't Eat Your Boogers and Other Useless or Gross Information About Your Body: Information About Your Body by Francesca Gould
• One Million Things: A Visual Encyclopedia by DK Publishing
• Hocus Pocus by Paul Kieve
• Coyote Speaks: Wonders of the Native American World by Ari Berk, Carolyn Dunn
• X Doesn't Mark the Spot: Tales of Pirate Gold, Buried Treasure, and Lost Riches by Ed Butts
• Who's Haunting the White House?: The President's Mansion and the Ghosts Who Live There by Jeff Belanger, Rick Powell (ill)
  

Don't forget to nominate your favorite books in other categories if you haven't done so already! Time's going by quickly!

Cybils Nominations Open Tomorrow!

Nominations for the 2008 Cybils open up tomorrow. Please check out Jen Robinson's post for tons of information because there's no way I say it better than her.

I will completely rip off her call to action though. Jen says:

"We think that the Cybils nominations will be of interest to parents, teachers, librarians, writers, and teens. If you have a blog or an email list or belong to a newsgroup that serves one of these populations, and you feel that your readers would be interested, please consider distributing this announcement (you are welcome to copy it). The Cybils team would very much appreciate your help in spreading the word. And if you, or the children that you know, have any titles to suggest, we would love to see your nominations at the Cybils blog, starting on Wednesday. "

Oh, and while I'm ripping off bloggers, I'm stealing Charlotte's idea and telling you which books I'm thinking of nominating. I clearly have no shame.

Fantasy and Science Fiction:

• The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson (my review)
  

Fiction Picture Book:

I'm torn between:

• The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum by Kate Bernheimer (ill. Nicoletta Ceccoli) (my review)
  
• In a Blue Room by Jim Averbeck (ill. Tricia Tusa) (my review) (this is also Charlotte's choice)
• Splat the Cat (my review)
• Wave (my review)
• The Sea Serpent and Me (my review)
• The Scrambled States of America Talent Show (my review)
  

Can we really only nominate just one? Waaaaaaaah!


Nonfiction Picture Books:

I'm also torn between:

• Sisters & Brothers: Sibling Relationships in the Animal World by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page (my review)
• As Good as Anybody by Richard Michelson (ill. Raul Colon) (my review)
• Manfish: The Story of Jacques Cousteau by Jennifer Berne (ill. Eric Puybaret) (my review)

Graphic Novels: I haven't read any I would nominate

Middle grade fiction:

• A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg (my review)
  

Nonfiction Middle Grade/Young Adult:

• I'm not nominating anything in this category because I'm on the round 1 panel! Woot Woot! I can't wait to take a look at all of the fabulous books you're going to nominate in this category.

Easy Readers:

• I haven't read any 2008 published easy readers, so no nominations from me. I seriously need to start reading and reviewing those though.

Poetry:

• T4 by Ann Clare LeZotte (my review)

Young Adult Fiction:

Once again I'm torn. Here are my top choices:

• Madapple by Christina Meldrum (my review)
• Sweethearts by Sara Zarr (my review)
• Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott (my review)
  
• The Patron Saint of Butterflies by Cecilia Galante (my review)
  

Alright...so I've got serious thinking to do for some categories. I'm looking forward to seeing your nominations!

One Thousand Tracings by Lita Judge

One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II written and illustrated by Lita Judge

A 2007 Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book Finalist

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (June 5, 2007)

I don’t think I have ever read a picture book, a NONFICTION picture book at that, that has moved me the way One Thousands Tracings moved me. Author/illustrator Lita Judge was inspired to write this picture book, her first, when she found a box of full of old letters containing foot tracings. She learned from her mother about the huge relief effort her grandparents, Fran and Frederick Hamerstrom, led to help families in need in post-WWII Europe.

One Thousand Tracings is the story of this effort told from the perspective of young girl (Lita Judge’s mother). The story begins in December 1946, “When I was three, Papa left home to join the war. When I was six, the war was over, and Papa came back to me and Mama. I thought everyone we loved was home and safe. But just before Christmas, a letter arrived that changed everything.”

That letter was from their friends in Germany who said they were starving and had no shoes. They put together a care package for the family, and weeks later received a thank you letter from the family along with a list of ten families who needed help. There were foot tracings for each family member in the letter. Over the next two years, the Hamerstrom’s received over a thousand foot tracings, and enlisting the help of friends and neighbors, over 3,000 care packages including shoes matching the foot tracings and other supplies were sent to families all over Europe.

In addition to telling us the story of the relief effort, Lita Judge draws us in by telling, through letters sent to the Hamerstrom’s, the story of one family with a little girl named Eliza who is the same age as the narrator. Her father is still missing, and she, her mother, and brother are in need. The reader is filled with anticipation to find out what happens to this family and the father.

The most poignant part of the story is the fact that Americans put their differences with Germany aside and helped PEOPLE. They were no longer fighting the enemy, but helping mothers, fathers, children who didn't even have shoes to keep their feet warm in the bitter cold. But perhaps the most engaging part of the book are pictures of the actual foot-tracings, yellowed letters, and photos sent with the letters scattered throughout the pages of the book and on the end papers. Mixed in with Judge’s soft watercolor illustrations, we can SEE what Lita Judge found in the attic. We see a picture of the real Eliza, a pair of warn boots that would be a godsend to a poverty-stricken family, a doll like the one Judge’s mother made for Eliza, and more.

One Thousand Tracings is beautifully written and tells the heartwarming story of human compassion. Sure to spark a lot of conversation, no child’s library should be without it.

Awards and Finalists and Grants...Oh My!

ALA 2008 Awards
It's that time of year when the air is buzzing with the excitement of the upcoming ALA awards. The ALA Midwinter conference begins held this weekend in Philadelphia, and the 2008 Newbery and Caldecott winners (among many others) will be announced a week from today. Can't make it? Listen to their live webcast, starting at 7:45 AM on the 14th.

As you can imagine, the kidlitosphere is swarming with predictions and commentary...I can't wait to see what it's like on Monday! Check out Ms. Bird's predictions at A Fuse #8 Production. Have you ever wondered what this time of year is like for small, independent booksellers? Check out Susan's post at Wizards Wireless who gives us some insight and also a list of books that she will have stocked on her shelves on Monday.

The Cybils
The Cybils finalists for the following categories have been announced. I can't wait to get my hands on some of the nonfiction picture books!

• YA Fiction
• Nonfiction Picture Books
• Graphic Novel
• MG/YA Nonfiction

The Big Read Grant
The National Endowment for the Arts is awarding grants ranging from $2,500 to $20,000 to community arts, cultural, literary, and civic organizations such as libraries, museums, and local arts agencies. The Big Read is an initiative designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. It brings together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment. The 2008 application deadline is February 12, 2008, but applicants are encouraged to submit an "Intent to Apply" by January 11, 2008. Get more information here.

The Verizon Tech Savvy Awards
The deadline is quickly approaching for the Verizon Tech Savvy Awards (JANUARY 11, 2008!). The awards honor programs that promote computer/technological literacy among children and their parents. Four $5,000 regional scholarships and one $25,000 national scholarship are up for grabs. Learn more here.

The Cybils Finalists!

The finalists in four of The Cybils categories have been announced! Here they are. Visit the Cybils for a brief description of each one and links to panelist reviews.

SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY FINALISTS

Teen/Young Adult:
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury USA Children's Books)
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (Hodder Children's Books (UK))
Northlander (Tales of the Borderlands)by Meg Burden (Brown Barn Books)
Repossessed by A. M. Jenkins (HarperCollins)
Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum)


Elementary/Middle Grade:
The Chaos King by Laura Ruby (HarperCollins/Eos)
Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst (Penguin/Razorbill)
The Land of the Silver Apples by Nancy Farmer (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books)
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy (HarperCollins)
The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex (Disney/Hyperion)


PICTURE BOOK FINALISTS
Pssst! by Adam Rex (Harcourt Children's Books)
Go to Bed, Monster! by Natasha Wing (Harcourt Children's Books)
The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County By Janice N. Harrington (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Leaves by David Ezra Stein (Putnam Juvenile)
Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn William & Khadra Mohammad (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers)
Knuffle Bunny Too by Mo Willems (Hyperion)
The Incredible Book-Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers (Philomel)


POETRY FINALISTS
Animal Poems by Valerie Worth (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux)
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick Press)
Here's a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry edited by Jane Yolen
(Candlewick Press)
Poems in Black and White written and illustrated by Kate Miller (Front Street/Boyds Mills Press)
This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness by Joyce Sidman (Houghton Mifflin)
Twist: Yoga Poems by Janet S. Wong (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill
(Random House Children's Books)

MIDDLE GRADE FINALISTS
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban (Harcourt)
Cracker: The Best Dog In Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum)
Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis (Dial)
Leap of Faith by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (Dial)
Leepike Ridge by Nathan D. Wilson (Random House)
Louisiana's Song by Kerry Madden (Viking)
Miss Spitfire by Sarah Miller (Atheneum)
Wild Girls by Pat Murphy (Viking)

Wow! What a great list. I haven't read many of these, but Four Feet, Two Sandalssounds right up my ally.

Thanks to all of the panelists for their hard work. They had so many books to review, and I'm sure it wasn't easy narrowing it down.

The rest of the finalists will be announced by January 7th, and winners will be announced on February 14th!

Do you have any favorites?

The 2007 Cybils

I recently learned about the Cybils, the first internet awards for children's literature. This is the Cybils' second year, and there are some great books that have been nominated. On January 1, the finalists will be announced, and the winners will be selected on Valentine's Day. Kidslit bloggers form the nomination and judging panels. Learn more about the Cybils here. I'll let you know when the finalists are announced!