It’s a non-fiction filled week here on ShelfTalker. We’ve so far done WHO? books, WHAT? books, and WHEN? books. Today is WHERE?, and I invite you to be creative with your answers to this one, as "where" does not, of course, have to be a physical place, nor does it have to be a place on Planet Earth if it is.
One of my (VERY new) favorite books that answers the question "WHERE?" is Brian Floca’s forthcoming Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 (Atheneum, April 2009). The answer to "where?" is obviously space, and Brian Floca really does take you there on these pages, with a lightness and care and human touch that draws readers right into this story, right up in the shuttle, right ONTO the moon. Holy heck do I ever love this book. When my Simon & Schuster spring kit arrived I carried the F&G back and forth from work to home so that I could be prepared to show it to anyone I met in either place who might ask me what I’d been reading and enjoying lately. I’ve read multiple Apollo books coming out this spring, but this one trumps them all. The illustrations, the writing, the remarkable attention to detail in both make this a picture book that will and should receive plenty of awards attention in 2009. (I’m knockin’ on wood, though, JUST in case. Let it never be said that I jinxed this wonderful piece of non-fiction out of its just deserts!)
Another WHERE? book on my list of favorites is The Secret of Priest’s Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story by Peter Lane Taylor and Christos Nicola (Kar-Ben Publishing, 2007). Like Moonshot, this book is a superb blend of science and history. The "WHERE?" in this book is "inside a cave," specifically a cave in Ukraine where 38 Jews hid from the Nazis over the course of what was almost an entire year — earning them the unofficial record for the longest time a human being has spent underground. The account of their survival is fascinating. And the explanation of how their story was discovered in the first place is equally so. Interviews with survivors and photos (both historical and contemporary) bring this story to life for the reader and make this one VERY memorable book.
What "WHEN?" books do you love? Please comment!
The Peter Sis book TIBET THROUGH THE RED BOX recounts the two years Sis’ father was trapped in Tibet. Though a biography of his father, the book is as much about the place. Both the illustrations and text are mysterious and magical.
Stompin’ at the Savoy: The Story of Norma Miller, collected and edited by Alan Govenar. This book could go under “who?” as a biography of Norma Miller, but it also features the Savoy as the place she dreamed about, danced hard and worked hard, and found success.
There are many books that could go under this category, but the first book that sprang to mind was Sally M. Walker’s terrific Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley.
I just discovered this series of posts about nonfiction and am in heaven — what a wonderful topic! Here’s my vote for a “Where” book — the old classic “Paddle to the Sea.” Please don’t break my heart by telling me it’s not a true story — I know (sniff) the Indian boy and Paddle are not real, but the description of the Great Lakes is nonfiction, most enticingly presented.
Where? Inside the human body, for starters (MOSQUITO BITE and SNEEZE!, by Alexandra Siy and Dennis Kunkel); Where else? How about the middle of a migrating caribou herd? (BEING CARIBOU, by Karsten Heuer); Next stop: an 1831 boarding school for young ladies and little misses of color (THE FORBIDDEN SCHOOLHOUSE, by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain); and, finally, a trip to the corners of the earth in search of mythical creatures that may or may not exist (TALES OF THE CRYPTIDS, by Kelly Milner Halls, Rick Spears, and Roxyanne Young). Safe travels all!