Great Children’s Non-Fiction! (4)

Welcome to a new round up featuring recently read and recommended children’s non-fiction titles! Just a note that your library may catalogue some of these titles in children’s non-fiction or in picture books, etc.- it really depends on how your library has decided to categorize them!

Let’s begin with Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters by Michael James Mahin, illustrated Evan Turk, a remarkable, deeply affecting and memorable biography of legendary musician Muddy Waters; equally outstanding for its content, prose, structure, and artwork, this biography should not be missed. Canadian author/illustrator/book designer Sara Gillingham’s Seeing Stars: A Complete Guide to the 88 Constellations, a marvelous and incredibly easy-to-follow layout of constellations (everything from myths, animals, the Zodiac, etc.), with ‘Location’, ‘How to Find It‘, ‘Stories and Myths’ and pictorial representation given to every constellation as well as a wealth of resources included (i.e. sky maps, tools for stargazing, notes about magnitude of stars, etc.). Up next we have: Secret Engineer: How Emily Roebling Built the Brooklyn Bridge by Rachel Dougherty, a fascinating study and spotlight on the (often historically ignored) instrumental contributions made by Emily Roebling to the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge after her husband, a civil engineer leading the project, fell ill with caisson disease; Jane Goodall by Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara, with illustrations by Beatrice Cerocchi, another strong entry in the popular Little People, Big Dreams series that serves as a good starting off point for readers just getting introduced to the incredible life and work of Goodall; The Origin of Day and Night by Paula Ikuutaq Rumbolt, with illustrations by Lenny Lishchenko (published by independent, Inuit-owned Inhabit Media), a beautifully told and illustrated Inuit tale about the words spoken by a fox and a hare that determine the creation of day and night; and last but not least, the poignant and rousing A Poem for Peter by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher, a lyrical telling of how Ezra Jack Keats came to write and illustrate his groundbreaking picture book The Snowy Day, and its significance in/to children’s literature and to generations of readers. Happy reading!