Urban Animals

No,  not pigeons, rats, or raccoons.  Urban Animals by Isabel Hill (Star Bright Books, 2009) is about animals in architecture, and it works as an introduction to architectural terms (like keystone, column, and bracket), as well as an I Spy book that might inspire you and your kids to look for the animals in your own built environment (or in a nearby city; author and photographer Isabel Hill found all of these animals in New York).

I like the design details of Urban Animals itself:  Colorful cartoon animals correspond to the mostly monochrome architectural ones, and coordinating accents (photo corners on the detail shots, the hand-printed font used for architectural terms) brighten things up.  The rhyming text (it's all in couplets) is relatively utilitarian.  Here's a typical double-page spread:

There's also an Architectural Glossary at the back of the book, helpfully keyed to a line drawing of a city block; and a list of "Animal Habitats" that gives the NYC street address (as well as the architects and construction dates) of the buildings featured in the book.

It's interesting to think about why a particular animal might have been incorporated into a building's design:  the cow on the Sheffield Farms Milk Plant makes sense, and so does my favorite, the squirrel on the Kings County Savings Bank, but what about the alligator on Liberty Tower?

[Local folks, check out the National Building Museum's Calendar of Events for animal sightings in Washington, DC.  I'll let you know if we spot any more!]

A Boy Named Giotto

We read A Boy Named Giotto by Paolo Guarnieri (illustrated by Bimba Landmann; FSG, 1999) at the National Gallery of Art yesterday, as part of the NGA's summer series Stories in Art (this year's theme is Explore Italy).  Inspired a legend about the artist's childhood, the story tells how the boy Giotto, with materials borrowed from the artist Cimabue, paints a sheep so convincingly that even her missing lamb is fooled and returns to Giotto's father's flock.  When Cimabue sees Giotto's painting of the sheep, he asks Giotto's father to let his son become Cimabue's apprentice, which eventually he does.

Landmann's elegant illustrations are likewise inspired by the work of Giotto, which is a daunting task; but not imitative, which never works anyway.  They evoke the early Renaissance, with its Byzantine grace and modern spirit.  I love the palette Landmann uses here as well, all rusts and ochres and gold.

Unfortunately, A Boy Named Giotto is out of print (my library doesn't even hold it anymore) so we haven't been able to reread it or look closely at the illustrations.  If you can find this one, it's worth it.  In gold (or at least gold leaf).

[Nonfiction Monday is at In need of chocolate this week.  Thanks!]

Life-Size Zoo

Life-Size Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya (Seven Footer Kids, 2009 for English edition) is better than a trip to the zoo.  There, I said it.  At least when it comes to seeing the animals up close, that is.  An "actual-size animal encyclopedia," Life-Size Zoo is beautifully designed (it's a Japanese import) and illustrated with vivid color photographs of 21 zoo animals.

Each animal gets a double-page spread.  Occasionally two animals share a spread that highlights their similarities and differences; prairie dog and meerkat, hedgehog and armadillo.  There are also a couple of gatefolds (giraffe, elephant, rhinoceros) and vertical layouts: it's a very interactive book.  The standard format looks like this (link is to a PDF of the tiny image below):

Here, the right-hand column gives information about the animal in the photograph (including its name! This tiger is called Baito) and more information about what you can see in the picture ("Time for a Close-Up"), as well as facts to keep in mind when you see the animal at a zoo (note: these are often poop-related).

"Time for a Close-up" is my favorite feature of Life-Size Zoo; it encourages careful looking by asking the reader to notice specific details of the photographs such as, in the case of the tiger, four huge fangs; black lips; thick whiskers on his cheeks, and a short mane all around his face.  I also love the Contents, designed to look like a zoo map, and the endpapers, which include full-body snapshots of the animals in their zoo habitats.  My kids like the little cartoons that illustrate the animal facts, too.

If you like lions or prefer penguins, check out More Life-Size Zoo and Life-Size Aquarium (May and September, 2010).  You might also want to compare Actual Size by Steve Jenkins (Houghton Mifflin, 2004), which is illustrated in his trademark cut and torn paper collage (there's a tiger in it, too).  What's the same or different about the books' content, images, and design?

[Nonfiction Monday is at the SimplyScience Blog this week.  Thanks!]

Look out! Nonfiction Monday is here

Books together is back from a blog break just in time to host Nonfiction Monday.  Now with added Barbarians!

[Barbarians include Goths, Huns, Vikings, and Mongols and are courtesy of author Steven Kroll and illustrator Robert Byrd (Dutton, 2009).  Handsome cover barbarian is Alaric, chief of the Goths and responsible for the sacking of Rome on August 24, 410 ad (ce). Look inside for more on Attila et al.!]

Who are your favorite barbarians?  Or are you loyal to Rome?  Let me know in the comments, and leave a link to your Nonfiction Monday post.  I'll add your links to this post throughout the day.

Early morning edition

Our first vote for Vikings!  Zoe at Playing by the book had a lot of fun writing about some pretty barbaric looking Creatures that glow -- a fantastic book by Anita Ganeri, illustrated by Obin, Roger Stewart and Peter Sarson.

Two posts from Redtedart's Blog this week:  Duckie's Rainbow (and rainbow cookies, yum) and three books about post (mail to US folks).  Thanks, Maggy!

Midmorning

Laura Salas put together a handy chart about nonfiction signings at ALA later this month. Authors/illustrators can add their own signing info, and attendees who want to go to some nf signings will be able to use the chart to figure out who's where at what time!

Shelf-employed is featuring award-winning nonfiction author, Jim Murphy.  Murphy is this year's winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for his significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.

Abby the Librarian has a review of If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge by Marc Aronson (and the first vote for the Mongols).  Be sure to check out her lovely new blog layout, too.

The Wild About Nature blog has a review of Little Black Ant on Park Street by Janet Halfmann, from the excellent Smithsonian's Backyard series.

Bookends has two great new dinosaur books this morning: Dinosaur Mountain: Digging Into the Jurassic Age by Deborah Kogan Ray and Born to Be Giants: How Baby Dinosaurs Grew to Rule the World by Lita Judge.  They do look great, and we're overdue for some new dinosaur books around here.

At Lori Calabrese Writes!, Lori reviews National Geographic Kids Almanac 2011. She says it's an amazing book filled to the brim with everything you can think of.

Jennifer is off for another day supervising the sacking of the library by hordes of children, but is in with a quick post on The Hive Detectives at her blog, Jean Little Library.

Brenda posted about a picture book biography of Ted Williams and his .400 season on her blog, proseandkahn.  Speaking of baseball, go Nats!

Jeannine Atkins wrote about the picture book Emma’s Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty by Linda Glaser with paintings by Claire A. Nivola.  It's an insightful analysis, particularly with respect to the representation of 19th century women writers, of a lovely book.

Midafternoon

Shirley wrote about Pika at SimplyScience today.  They're very cute!

Tammy wrote about Black-Canadian history at Apples with Many Seeds.  She recommends three books and is looking for suggestions.

Jeff at NC Teacher Stuff posted about a picture book biography of jazz legend Mary Lou Williams titled The Little Piano Girl, written by Ann Ingalls and Maryann Macdonald and illustrated by [books together favorite] Giselle Potter.  See his comment for a Mongol-related tongue twister that's vintage Calvin and Hobbes, too.

Anna J. chimes in this week with a review of an international picture book/artist at Full of Grace.  I'm always interested in international children's literature, and Sara Fanelli's The Map Book sounds intriguing.

BookMoot issues a "global warning" about Seymour Simon's Global Warming that emphasizes the importance of research, documentation, and sources.

Early evening

At Moms Inspire Learning, Dawn recommends If America Were a Village: A Book about the People of the United States, by David J. Smith. She says, "It's an extremely thought-provoking picture book for the 9-12 age range, and pulls in social studies, science, language arts, and math."

Three Turtles and their Pet Librarian have a "totally cheating but highly enjoyable" review of their favorite comic strip.  Hint:  It stars youth librarians.

Bedtime

Doret of TheHappyNappyBookseller is in with another review of A Little Piano Girl, a biography of jazz artist Mary Lou Williams.  I have a little piano girl of my own and will definitely add this one to our list.

Thanks to everyone who participated in Nonfiction Monday this week!