Nonfiction Wednesday

I'm excited that Alyson Beecher, at Kid Lit Frenzy, is continuing her Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge for the third year in a row.

 

 

I only read one nonfiction picture book this week, and it's not new, but it is a wonderful one!

 



 

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis

 

award-winner, government, human-rights, intermediate-kids-book, liberty, memoir, multicultural, nonfiction, nonfiction-challenge-2014, picture-book, social-studies-connections       I'm going to the Czech Republic this summer, so I wanted to learn more about its history. I started looking through my classroom books, and realized I had this Peter Sis memoir and had only skimmed it when I purchased it. Wow! It's an amazing history of Prague through the eyes of Sis, who has always been an artist. He chronicles what it was like being born in the beginning of the Cold War in Communist Czechoslovakia. During the most restrictive of times, he still tried to express himself through...more I'm going to the Czech Republic this summer, so I wanted to learn more about its history. I started looking through my classroom books, and realized I had this Peter Sis memoir and had only skimmed it when I purchased it. Wow! It's an amazing history of Prague through the eyes of Sis, who has always been an artist. He chronicles what it was like being born in the beginning of the Cold War in Communist Czechoslovakia. During the most restrictive of times, he still tried to express himself through his drawings, but it was difficult. Through his beautiful art, captions, and journal entries, the reader gets a thorough picture of what it was like to grow up in such tumultuous times. I was especially amazed by how artists can be catalysts of change and freedom. I will be sharing this with my fellow travelers.   Another children's nonfiction book I read this week was not a picture book.  I already wrote about it Monday, but it's worth putting here, too, for those who missed my post.           The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the impossible became possible...on Schindler's list by Leon Leyson, with Marilyn J. Harran & Elisabeth B. Leyson; read by Danny Burstein   2013-book, audio-book, fears, global-awareness, history, holocaust, intermediate-kids-book, memoir, war, young-adult-book     This is a phenomenal audio book. I had to get the hard copy, too, so I could see the pictures. I plan on reading it again in hard copy form. Leon Leyson's story of being one of the boys on Schindler's list is horrifying, inspiring, and hopeful. Every student should read it. It will definitely be part of my 6th grade curriculum from now on. I'm planning a global awareness literacy contract for the fall, and this will be one of the nonfiction choices.   These two books would definitely fit beautifully together in a human rights or global awareness unit, exploring what liberty means and what happens when a government denies it.