Nonfiction Wednesday

Thanks to Kid Lit Frenzy, I made a goal to read more children's nonfiction this year which I will be featuring on my blog every Wednesday.  True confessions...I haven't read nonfiction kidlit for a few weeks, so there hasn't been a "Nonfiction Wednesday" post for awhile, but I'm back to my commitment!

 

Here are the nonfiction books I read this week:

 

 

Paul Thurlby's Wildlife by Paul Thurlby

 

2013-book, animals, art, bookaday2013, idioms, mock-caldecott-2014, nature, nonfiction, nonfiction-challenge-2013, picture-book, play-on-words, puns,  science   Did you know that every dog has a unique nose print? Did you know that giraffes use their 21-inch-long tongues to clean themselves all over - including their ears? Did you know electric eels can produce enough electricity to power ten lightbulbs? I LOVE Thurlby's illustrations and the thick pages of this eye-catching picture book about animal facts.  I also love the word play Thurlby uses throughout the book to express the facts.      From the Good Mountain: How Gutenberg Changed the World by James Rumford   2012-book, biography, bookaday2013, books-about-books, nonfiction, nonfiction-challenge-2013, picture-book, questioning, reading-gap-challenge-2013     Gutenberg was the first European to use movable type printing. It changed the world. "What mysterious thing came from Mainz (Germany) that was made of rags and bones, soot and seeds, covered in leather and decorated with gold? What did lead and tin, strong oak and a mountain make? A printed book." Through a series of questions and vibrant illustrations, we see book-making as artistry. The epilogue talks about Gutenberg's Bibles and muses over how books may change in the future.     Revolutionary Friends: General George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette by Selene Castrovilla, illustrated by Drazen Kozjan   2013-book, bookaday2013, history, nonfiction, nonfiction-challenge-2013, reading-gap-challenge-2013, social-studies-connections, war   This is long, but if you're a history buff, it's worth watching!  It would be great for a classroom, pairing it up with this picture book!   This is my first #bookaday book of the summer! I really liked the beginning of this book about the friendship of George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette. However, it suddenly drops the story and summarizes the rest in the back along with other nonfiction text features like a time line, places to visit, bibliography, etc. I thought it was so odd that I thought maybe I had a faulty copy, but when I saw other reviews, I realized I didn't and was not alone in feeling confused about the format...more  I really liked the beginning of this book about the friendship of George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette. However, it suddenly drops the story and summarizes the rest in the back along with other nonfiction text features like a time line, places to visit, bibliography, etc. I thought it was so odd that I thought maybe I had a faulty copy, but when I saw other reviews, I realized I didn't and was not alone in feeling confused about the format. Even with that flaw, there is some good information in this book, and it could still be used in the classroom while studying the American Revolution.   What nonfiction did YOU read this week?