The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Author: Brian Selznick
Illustrator: Brian Selznick


Comments:
What a captivating masterpiece! The Invention of Hugo Cabret is part picturebook, part novel. As the work is inspired by the film maker, Georges Méliès, the illustrations serve as shots, for action or close-up, which usually require pages of words to fully describe. Selznick's sketches can be as closely analyzed as his prose, and the alternating of illustrations and text gives the book its flow.

Copyright: Scholastic Press, 2007
Age level: 9-12
Format: Chapterbook, Picturebook
Genre: Historical Fiction, Wordless
Multicultural/International: French
Award: 2008 Caldecott Award
Location: Personal Collection
Rating: * * * * *

Bud, Not Buddy

Author: Christopher Paul Curtis

Comments:
Despite his terrible circumstances as an orphan, Bud is an engaging character, especially with all his rules. You get a real feel about the impact of the Great Depression, especially on African Americans. The story also include an example of how African American art seems to thrive during times of difficulty.

Copyright: Random House Children's Books, 2004
Age level: 9-12
Format: Chapter Book
Genre: Historical Fiction
Multicultural/International: African American
Award: Coretta Scott King Award
Location: Peabody Library
Rating: * * * * *

What to Do About Alice?

Author: Barbara Kerley
Illustrator: Edwin Fotheringham

Comments:
We may know about President Teddy Roosevelt, but how much do we know about his daughter, the First Maiden, Alice Roosevelt? This book shows what it's like to be the closest thing to a princess in America. Through the life of Alice, it also shows how expectations for girls and women were beginning to change. What would you want to do if you were the son or daughter of the President of the United States? This question may be especially relevant since the daughters of Barack Obama will be moving into the White House this January.

Copyright: Scholastic Press (March 1, 2008)
Age level: 9-12
Format: Picture Book
Genre: Historical Fiction
Multicultural/International: No
Location: Peabody Library
Rating: * * *

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village

Author: Laura Amy Schultz
Illustrator: Robert Byrd


Comments:
This book of miniature plays include 19 monologues and 2 dialogues for students to perform in a reader's theatre. The dramas are of different lengths and formats so that they can be matched to the reading ability. Schlitz wrote these plays for her students which working as a librarian. The drama is set in an English manor in the year 1255. The characters range from about 10-15 years of age and include nobility and paupers who has similar adolescent experiences but in different contexts. For example, Hugo, the Lord's nephew, must overcome his fear of his harsh uncle during a coming of age challenge. Taggot, the blacksmith's daughter, deals with body image issue and young love.

Copyright: Candlewick, 2008
Age level: 9-12
Format: Picture Book, Drama
Genre: Historical Fiction, Poetry and Verse, Drama
Multicultural/International: No
Awards: The Newbery Award
Location: Peabody Library
Rating: * * * *

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson


Comments:
Weatherford weaves three voices throughout Moses: the narrator, Harriet Tubman, and God. Weatherford used Harriet's own narrative to learn about the kinds of prayers that sustained her throughout her journey along the underground railroad. The change in typeface denotes these changes in voice, and the book can turn into a reader's theatre or choral reading.

Definitely worthy of the Caldecott award, Nelson's illustrations capture the darkness and anguish of the journey north. The sculpted facial expressions of Harriet Tubman speak volumes and conveys the yearning of her spirit.

Copyright: Hyperion Book, 2006
Age level: 4-8
Format: Picture Book
Genre: Poetry and Verse, Historical Fiction, Biography
Multicultural/International: African American
Awards: Caldecott Honor & 2007 Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration; A New York Times Bestseller; NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Children
Location: Peabody Library
Rating: * * * * *

Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrator: Carole Boston Weatherford

Comments:
What began a Weatherford's graduate photo essay has now become a poetic textbook in African American history for children. The more Weatherford researched and discovered photographs and artwork, the more inspired she was to commit that history into poems. The sense of history and culture to be gleans from this collection is so rich! Weatherford's message for her young readers is "Remember!"

"The bridge is men and women,
famous and unknown,
leaving paths of memories,
timeless stephhing stones."

Copyright: Philomel, 2002
Age level: 9-12
Format: Picture Book
Genre: Poetry and Verse, Historical
Multicultural/International: African American
Awards: North Carolina Juvenile Literature Award; Teachers' Choices, International Reading Association; Notable Book, National Council for the Social Studies; Notable Book of the English Language Arts; Bank Street College Best Children's Books of 2003
Location: Personal Collection
Rating: * * * * *

Dear Mr. Rosenwald

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrator: R. Gregory Christie


Comments:
Weatherford learned about Rosenwald schools from her parents who experienced them first hand. Julius Rosenwald, second-generation American and president of Sears, donated millions so African American communities could build their own schools. In a series of poems, from the perspective of the student Ovella, Weatherford shows how the project of building these schools strengthened the community and gave generations young and old a hope for a better tomorrow. Historically, Weatherford communicates well the African American experience during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War and Emancipation. R. Gregory Christie's folk art emphasizes the sense of culture that the poems seek to instill.

Copyright: Scholastic, 2006
Age level: 7-10
Format: Picture Book
Genre: Historical Fiction, Poetry and Verse
Multicultural/International: African American
Awards: SCBWI Golden Kite Honor for Picture Book Text, NAACP Image Award Finalist, IRA Notable Books for a Global Society, Notable Book: National Council for the Social Studies
Location: Personal Collection
Rating: * * * *

Freedom on the Menu

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrator: Jerome Lagarrigue
Comments:
Carole Boston Weatherford recognizes the important impact that picture books about the Jim Crow era can make on new generations. She writes,"Without context for the freedom struggle, young people fail to fathom segregation’s brutality and inhumanity and the incredible sacrifices necessary to win equality. ... Through the lens of historical fiction, recent picture books for middle readers not only expose hatred and inequities but also show how ordinary people persevered and overcame."

This book attempts to relate complicated civil rights issues from a child's perspective. It shows how the average person and the average child is can fight against discrimination and experience social change.

Copyright: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2005
Age level: 9-12
Format: Picture Book
Genre: Historical fiction
Multicultural/International: African American
Awards: North Carolina Juvenile Literature Award, Bank Street College Best Children's Books of 2005, North Carolina Children's Book Award Finalist, Notable Book, National Council for the Social Studies
Location: Peabody Library
Rating: * * * *

The Boy, The Bear, The Baron, The Bard

Author: Gregory Rogers
Illustrator: Gregory Rogers
Comments:
When a boy visits the Globe theatre in London and puts on a special cape, he's transported back in time. Unfortunately, he interrupts one of Shakespeare's performances and the chase ensues and embroils a bear and a baron. This is a wordless book with a graphic novel form. The sequence of events can be scanned quickly or closely analyzed.

Copyright: Roaring Brook Press, 2004
Age level: 4-8
Format: Picture Book
Genre: Historical Fiction / Science Fiction
Multicultural/International: Set in London, England
Awards: Longlisted 2005: Quill Awards (US) in the best Children's Book of the Year Category;
Shortlisted 2005 : Children's Book Council Awards, Younger Readers;
Shortlisted 2005: 53rd APA Book Design Award Best Designed Children's Picture Book A
Location: Lookybook
Rating: * * * * *

Juneteenth Jamboree

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrator: Yvonne Buchanan
Comments:
This is Carole Boston Weatherford's first published children's book. It's one of her few prose pieces. The "Juneteenth Jamboree" is a celebration of the day that Texas slave were finally emancipated, June 19, 1865. The celebration also features a variety of music, activities, food, and clothes specific to the occassion.

Copyright: Lee & Low Books, 1995
Age level: 4-8
Format: Picture Book
Genre: Historical Fiction
Multicultural/International: African American
Location: Peabody Library
Rating: * * *

Birmingham, 1963

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrator: Carole Boston Weatherford


Comments:
Carole Boston Weatherford dedicates this book to "all who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom." Again, she adopts a child perspective to the events of the civil rights era, especially by focusing on the year the main character turns 10 years old and the attack that occurs on her birthday.

Weatherford not only research the church bombing, but she also located photographs from the time that give readers a realistic glimpse into the past. And main poem in the book is followed by four poems, elegies for the four girls who died in the attack. All this helps make the civil rights movement personal to young readers.

Copyright: Wordsong, 2007
Age level: 9-12
Format: Picture Book
Genre: Poetry and Verse, Historical Fiction
Multicultural/International: African American
Awards: Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, Jane Addams Children's Literature Honor, Jefferson Cup
Location: Peabody Library
Rating: * * * *