We are happy to host Nonfiction Monday today. Do leave your links in the Comments section and we shall update this throughout the day.
What’s up with Nonfiction this Week?
Jeff Barger from NC Teacher Stuff is sharing a review of Photographer and Writer David FitzSimmons’ Curious Critters who was described by Jeff as “fortunate enough to have 21 North American animals not only agree to sit for a portrait, but they also shared their thoughts with him on their life in the wild.” It does look like a fascinating read.
The beautiful Jeanne Walker Harvey of True Tales & A Cherry On Top is up early with a picture book biography of Josephine Baker entitled Jazz Age Josephine written by Jonah Winter and illustrations by Marjorie Priceman. Josephine Baker is one of my favorites, so 
I’d be sure to check this one out.
Mary Ann Scheuer from Great Kid Books is exploring nonfiction book apps that her students have found interesting. She noted that she is immensely fascinated by how these apps are able to “integrate so many features of excellent nonfiction books and learning.” Mary Ann also kindly shared a few of her favorite iPad apps such as Bats: Furry Fliers in the Night by Mary Kay Carson, Bobo Explores Light by Game Collage and National Geographic Explorer just to cite a few. Visit her site to know more.
Meanwhile, I share a review of Kathleen Krull’s immensely fascinating book entitled Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and what the Neighbors thought) illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt. This is perfect for our bimonthly theme on Girl Power and Women’s Wiles as it highlights female empowerment. It includes life story narratives of diverse females from all over the world including Cleopatra, Aung San Suu Kyi, Eva Peron, Tz’u-Hsi from China among others.
Zoe from Playing by the Book offers us a beautiful pairing of the nonfiction The Stick Book by Jo Schofield and Fiona Danks and Stanley’s Stick by John Hegley and Neal Layton. As per usual, Zoe shares with us an array of activities she has done with her own children as inspired by these two lovely books. You should definitely check out her consistently-comprehensive and insightful posts. Always comes with fabulous photos and wonderful music to boot.
Miss Yingling of Ms. Yingling Reads has two fabulous books for us today as she shares Raymond Bial’s Rescuing Rover: Saving America’s Dogs and Marty Crisp’s Everything Dog: What Kids Really Want to Know About Dogs. For those who love dogs, these two books seem like a must-read.
The dynamic duo Cathy and Louise from The Nonfiction Detectives share Cynthia Levinson’s We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March. In Cathy’s post, she shares how impressed she was by Levinson’s research as she wrote this book which tackles a very important issue that young people should be cognizant of. With the aid of black and white photographs and masterful narrative, this book seems like a keeper.
Lisa from Shelf-employed has several assorted treats for us with an announcement of the blog tour of
Minette’s Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat, a video trailer of The Hobbit (yes, it’s in the production stage now, apparently) and links about the ‘dirt’ on The Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake – 
yee-haa! Delectable sampler indeed!
Amy from Hope is the Word raves about a delightful picture book: The Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont by Victoria Griffith. Amy shared that the book has captivated her from page one and she has also included two possible companion books that children might enjoy reading after they have devoured this lovely book by Griffith. I have yet to read this book, now I am definitely intrigued!
Jennifer Wharton from Jean Little Library serves us How Cooking Works, a book that would get the little tykes wearing an apron which says “Kiss the Chef” as they learn new recipes and how to serve simple dishes. I have a feeling that most of my fears when it comes to cooking might have been prevented if I read this as a child.
Sue Heavenrich of Archimedes Notebook concludes Earth Month with a review of “Waiting for Ice” along with a helpful interview with author Sandra Markle who talks about what it means to be a writer and to be a teacher – and playing around with both to imagine how it would be like to capture the sensibilities of a child – to hopefully inspire “the scientists of the future.” Find out more about the polar bears of Wrangle Island through Sue’s review.
Books 4 Learning takes us back in time with Pompeii: Lost and Found as written by one of our favorite authors, Mary Pope Osborne. If you want to have a feel of what life was like 2000 years ago and the sensation of being frozen in time, do check this book out. Perfect as well for budding historians, archaeologists, and 
anthropologists – okay, let’s make it more general and say social scientist then.
Janet Squires from All About the Books brings a little bit of action to the group through her sharing of “Basketball belles: how two teams and one scrappy player put women’s hoops on the map” written by Sue Macy with illustrations by Matt Collins. Since I have a ten year old daughter who plays for their school’s basketball team, this is one book that I am more than certain would inspire her greatly. I should try to find this in our libraries pronto!
Wendie from Wendie’s Wanderings takes us to sea this time around (paddles up, everyone) as she reviews Escaping Titanic: A Young Girl’s True Story of Survival by Marybeth Lorbiecki. Find out who Ruth Elizabeth Becker is through this picture book and know that it isn’t just Rose and Jack who was in that giant ship (*sings My Heart Will Go On*).
For Second Servings
Deliciously snarky Jennie of Biblio File ushers in the eerie early this morning (in my part of the world) with Rosalyn Schanzer’s Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem. Find out why this book broke Jennie’s heart “in a way nothing else about Salem ever has” – she had me at that description. Will definitely look for this book.
Anastasia Suen is in with another plate of Minette’s Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her
Cat at Booktalking. Her post also includes a beautiful interview with Susanna Reich, the book’s author, as part of its blog tour. Seymour Simon booktalks Butterflies on the Nonfiction Book Blast blog. Do check these links out.
Shirley Duke from Simply Science is revisiting her book Environmental Disasters. The book cover looks intense.
Gathering Books 
Hi Myra! Thank you for hosting this week. Lives of Extraordinary Women looks like a keeper for biography studies. At NC Teacher Stuff, I have posted a review of Curious Critters:
http://ncteacherstuff.blogspot.com/2012/04/nonfiction-monday-curious-critters.html
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Hi Jeff, Curious Critters looks ‘curiously cute!’ Thanks for sharing the book with us this week. 🙂
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Pingback: Nonfiction Monday: Lives of Extraordinary Women «
Thanks so much for hosting this week! At Great Kid Books, I’m exploring nonfiction book apps that my students have found interesting. I’ve been fascinated by the way these apps integrate so many features of excellent nonfiction books and learning.
http://greatkidbooks.blogspot.com/2012/04/exploring-nonfiction-book-apps-at.html
Mary Ann
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Hi Mary Ann, great review of those lovely apps. I have been sorely remiss in investigating more of these apps, I should really work on that this summer.
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Thanks for hosting this week. I have a review of the nonfiction title The Stick Book by Jo Schofield and Fiona Danks. I’ve paired it with a very lovely picture book too, Stanley’s Stick by John Hegley and Neal Layton. Not nonfiction, but it works really well with the first book!
http://www.playingbythebook.net/2012/04/30/all-you-need-is-a-stick/
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Hey there Zoe, your post is fabulous as always, and I love the cute pairing too!
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My daughter went as Indira Ghandi one year for Halloween, and her brother went as Nehru. It was a little hard to explain to the neighbors! I have two books about dogs at
http://msyinglingreads.blogspot.com/2012/04/nonfiction-monday-rescuing-rover.html
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Hi there Ms Yingling, I am sure that your kids must have looked really cute. My ten year old daughter refused to go trick-or-treating last Halloween. She’s growing up too fast.
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Thanks for hosting Nonfiction Monday. Over at The Nonfiction Detectives we have a review of We’ve Got a Job. http://www.nonfictiondetectives.com/2012/04/weve-got-job.html
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Hi there, thanks for sharing with us your link. The book looks great.
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I reviewed a fantastic picture book, The Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont by Victoria Griffith. Thank you for hosting!
http://www.hopeisthewordblog.com/2012/04/30/the-fabulous-flying-machines-of-alberto-santos-dumont-by-victoria-griffith/
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Hello there Amy. This isn’t the first time that I’ve heard of this lovely book. I would be sure to find this one here in our libraries.
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Wendie’s Wanderings discovered an easy reading picture book biography of a child who was on the Titanic.
http://blog.wendieold.com/2012/04/nonfiction-monday-escaping-titanic.html
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Hi there Wendie. Sounds like a fascinating book. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks for hosting! I have another cookbook at Jean Little Library, How Cooking Works http://jeanlittlelibrary.blogspot.com/2012/04/nonfiction-monday-how-cooking-works.html
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Hi there Jennifer. It looks like a real cute book. Thank you for sharing this.
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Thanks for hosting NFMonday – “Lives of Extraordinary Women” looks like a definite must-read. Over at Archimedes Notebook I’m concluding Earth Month with a review of “Waiting for Ice” and interview with author Sandra Markle. http://archimedesnotebook.blogspot.com/2012/04/earth-month-book-waiting-for-ice.html
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Waiting for Ice sounds like a perfect choice to end Earth month. Thank you for sharing.
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Please link up my post on Pompeii Lost and Found
http://books4learning.blogspot.com/2012/04/picture-book-history-pompeii-lost-and.html
Thanks for hosting. Your selection on extraordinary women looks interesting.
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Pompeii Lost and Found sounds like a must-read for budding historians.
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Wow, thanks for the very kind words about my blog 🙂
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It’s my pleasure Zoe. 🙂
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Pingback: Books 4 Learning: Picture Book (History): Pompeii Lost and Found (Osborne)
Thanks for hosting.
My selection is “Basketball belles : how two teams and one scrappy player put women’s hoops on the map” written by Sue Macy with illustrations by Matt Collins.
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Hi Janet, thanks for including sports in our selection this week, and female basketball at that.
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What a nice selection — I haven’t read any of them. Will have to check out a few, But, the “Basketball Belles” really caught my attention!
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Hi Patricia, it does look great, doesn’t it? It caught my eye too. Thanks for dropping by. 🙂
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Thanks for hosting! I’m in today with Witches!: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem. http://www.jenrothschild.com/2012/04/nonfiction-monday-witches.html
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Great selection. Thanks so much for sharing.
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WordPress got weird on me, so I’m not sure if my submission went through or not– please ignore if it already did! http://www.jenrothschild.com/2012/04/nonfiction-monday-witches.html
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Thanks for hosting, Myra! I’m in today with an interview from biographer Susanna Reich about her new book, Minette’s Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat at Booktalking http://wp.me/pa8jB-1pV and Seymour Simon booktalks Butterflies on the Nonfiction Book Blast blog http://wp.me/p1o4au-ga
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Hi Anastasia, thanks for sharing this.
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I read a wonderful picture book about recent devastating floods in Australia. Jackie French’s Flood.
http://astrongbeliefinwicker.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/flood.html
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Hi Louise, thanks for dropping by this week and sharing your link. Flood looks like a really nice book.
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