Nonfiction Wednesday - Sibert Award Winners and a 2016 NFPB!

 

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

 

I had a few books on my Youth Media Awards prediction list that won, but a few I need to catch up on soon!  The Sibert Award winner was Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh  , which I predicted for the Belpré Illustrator Award (it won a Belpre Honor).  The only one I got right on my Sibert predictions is Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans written and illustrated by Don Brown.  I predicted it as a Sibert Honor, and that's what it got.  There were a lot of other wonderful nonfiction books that received awards on Monday (Alyson has them all on her blog post today), and I'm happy that I've read most of them.  Here's one I didn't get to before the awards, but I caught up on it yesterday:

 

 

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement  written by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Ekua Holmes

 

2015-book, african-american, award-winner, biography, civil-rights, creativity, mock-caldecott-2016, mock-sibert-2016, multicultural, nonfiction, nonfiction-challenge-2016,  slavery, social-injustice, social-responsibility, social-studies-connections   Told from Fannie Lou Hamer's point of view, the powerful text and bold, beautiful illustrations tell the story of a strong and unconquerable civil rights leader. This book won a Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award at the ALA Youth Media Awards. I can see why! Ekua Holmes's illustrations are full of movement, texture, light, color, and power. Perfect for depicting Fannie Lou Hamer!   And my first 2016 NFPB!!     When the Sun Shines on Antarctica by Irene Latham, illustrated by Anna Wadham   2016-book, animals, creative-nonfiction, nature, nonfiction, nonfiction-challenge-2016, picture-book, poetry, science   How fitting that this book showed up at my doorstep on a snow day! Even the cold temperatures of Ohio right now, though, can't compete with Antarctica's frigid winters. This book, however, highlights its summer - a time October to March when the sun never sets. Irene Latham's playful and descriptive poetry and interesting informational paragraphs are accompanied by Anna Wadham's soft and captivating illustrations of the flora and animals that thrive in Antarctic summers. The adaptations of animals and plants that live in such harsh conditions are fascinating. I can see my students being (wonderfully) horrified by the southern giant petrels and its awful-smelling vomit... "His belly/is where all/the garbage/goes;/his beak/is the lid/that never/stays closed." They are also going to love the irresistible cuteness of the Weddell seal, Wadham portraying her sweet smile after shedding her old fur and Latham writing, "Off/comes the heavy,/dingy brown./In its place,/a sleek coat/grows --/ the perfect match for her smile." This book will be a great mentor text for literary nonfiction and a wonderful addition to my classroom library!