The Book Search

I got to venture down the non-fiction path this week!  Here are two great new titles. The first one is a biography.  It's called "The Escape of Robert Smalls" by Jehan Jones Radgowski.  It's about Robert Smalls, a slave in South Carolina during Civil War times.  He is a good worker and at 12, he's sent by his owner to find work in Charleston.  He finds work as crew member on a ship and learns all the skills he needs to be an excellent seaman, including navigation.  When the Civil War starts, he continues to work on the ship and then comes up with a daring plan to run to freedom.  His plan is to try to pass as the captain of the ship, and basically sail the Confederate ship into Union waters.  This is a really exciting book to read, with the tension building as the story moves on.  The art work is modern enough to look appealing to students and the color palette adds to the suspense and drama.  It's also a really compelling story about ...

Boy are there some terrific new non fiction titles out there!  Let me tell you about a couple of them. The first one is called "The Great Monkey Rescue" by Sandra Markle.  It's about golden lion tamarins.  The book starts with some background information about the tamarins and then moves into how scientists are trying to reintroduce the tamarins back into the wild.  There are some gorgeous, engaging photographs that are sure to attract readers.  There are also some great text features that will make it a good non-fiction mentor text. The second one is also about animals and it's called "8: An Animal alphabet book".  Each page (and sometimes a full page spread) is one letter.  There are eight of one animal (like ants for A) but then there are also other animals that also start with the letter (which, happily, are listed at the bottom of the page, if like me you are thinking to yourself "What is a seagull doing on the A page?  Oooohhh, it's ...