What the World Eats, photographed by Peter Menzel, written by Faith D'Aluisio

You will learn here what people in many parts of the world eat, but you will learn much more as well. The book is divided into chapters, lavishly illustrated with color photographs, each of which begins with a picture of a family surrounded by a week's worth of groceries. There is a list of the foods and beverages consumed during the week, including the cost. A map showing the country represented in relation to its region,country facts,and a easy-to-read narrative about the family complete the chapter. Some families provided recipes. The text is rich with cultural information. Kids will like the "ick" factor. Pictures of street food show silkworm pupae, pig intestines, and spit-roasted guinea pig, complete with head and legs.A recipe for seal stew is printed opposite a picture of two children dragging home a freshly killed seal. This book will be fun to use with middle school social studies classes. One fact becomes very clear: the richer the country, the more fast food its people consume, meaning more problems with obesity.

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

FOUND by Margaret Peterson Haddix is going to be one of this year's favorites. Adolescents (and adults) will really like the plot to this story. It's intriguing and mysterious. Like Haddix's Shadow Children series, this new series of books, The Missing, is going to be very popular among readers. FOUND is the first book in the series with the next book, Sent, coming out in August. The story begins with a plane that appears literally out of thin air, though this isn't the only mystery...the plane has 36 passengers - all toddlers. There was no pilot and no crew. Interested? I thought so. Once you start, you will not put the book down. It's just that good.

Wangari's Trees of Peace : A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter

For a slightly younger audience than "Planting the Trees of Peace" (previously nominated), this is another picture book about Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.Brightly colored acrylic paintings illustrate the simply worded biographical information. Maathai is a strong female role model and an example of how one person's actions can bring about major change. SLJ starred review. Highly recommended.

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangara Maathai by Claire A. Nivola

This ALA Notable picture book tells the story of Wangara Maathai who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work with the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. The environmentalist changed the fate of Kenya's future by teaching Kenyans of all ages to plant trees on the country's barren land. Over 30 million trees have been planted since Maathai founded the movement. The watercolor pictures beautifully illustrate the story. The Author's Note at the end provides the history of the project and describes Wangari's role as an activitist in her country. A great read aloud for grades K-4, it really could be used with all ages to discuss the environment and the subject of activism.

Note - there is another 2008 picture book on this same subject, Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa that received positive reviews as well.

One Boy by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

This clever picture counting book is a quick read but can become an engaging study of words! Each page has a short phrase and a cut-out, turn the page and the reader is rewarded with a clever play on the original words, adding to the story and offering lots of opportunities for guessing how the next round may go. All the segments seem unconnected until the very end (which could be a good discussion as the story is being read).

Recommended as story-time for PK/TK-1st grade, as book creation motivation for 2nd-5th.

A Song for Cambodia by Michelle Lord

Illustrated by Shino Arihara. The life of Arn Chorn-Pond, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge killing fields, is told in this picture book biography. Chorn-Pond survives a children's work camp through his skill at playing the khim, a traditional Cambodian musical instrument. The foreword and the afterword provide historical perspective as well as describing Chorn-Pond's accomplishments in human rights in Cambodia and the U.S. Because of the tragedy and violence in the story, I would recommend this multicultural title for Grades 4-6. It is a powerful tale of how music helped ease suffering during war. Good for social studies or music units.

Lincoln Shot: A President’s Life Remembered

This book stands tall literally (12x18 inches) as well as in quality. Designed to look like a yellowed memorial issue of the 19th century “National News” one year after the assassination, this account starts with the shooting and recovery of the assassins. Then it follows Lincoln’s life, starting with his youth, and continues with his marriage, his political career, and the Civil War. Bing’s illustrations are sure to engage young readers. They include period-style advertisements, wood-cut engravings and archival photographs. I am currently planning a 4/5th grade book club using some of the materials that we obtained from an ALA We the People Bookshelf grant relating to Lincoln and the theme “All Men are Created Equal.” This volume will add to what their teacher and I hope will be an authentic experience. I must note, however, that I will proceed with caution to help them understand that this realistic memorial should not be taken literally. One of their teacher’s requests for our study is to help his students understand the passage of time from the Civil War to segregation beacuse he feels that they do not yet think linearly. We’ll see what happens!

Finding Home by Sandra Markle

A true story of a momma koala bear that survives a fire in her woods. She and her Joey wander off in search of food, finding a yummy tree in a residential backyard. The neighbors keep a safe distance but spend the next few days observing the momma and her search for food.

This is a charming story of koala love - both the momma and her Joey and humans with these adorable but wild animals. The story could be sensationalized but is told delicately. The illustrations are soft but show lots of emotion.

An author's note shares the details of the original events and shares what has happened to both the animals since.

A very timely tale with the recent Australian wildfires.

Bodies from the Ice : Melting Glaciers and the Recovery of the Past by James M. Deem

Here is gruesome science at its best. This book is certain to attract middle school boys. In recent years melting glaciers have exposed many frozen corpses, from the "iceman" discovered in 1991 in the Italian Alps to children sacrificed by the Incas to the Everest explorer George Mallory. Color photographs, maps, and illustrations are somewhat sensational, but the text calmly explains how archaeologists investigate each discovery. Students will also learn how glaciers move and how quickly they are retreating. There is even a section on how young people can help to slow down the process of global warming. Grades 4-8.

Shooting the Moon by Frances O'Roark Dowell

NC author.
Wonderful historical fiction from the military perspective on VietNam but through the eyes of Jamie whose brother TJ enlists in the Army. The Colonel is in charge of signing orders to send young men to VietNam. His daughter Jamie has never really thought about what that means because she is Army through and through, as is the Colonel, and that means you do things the Army way. Brother TJ sends back letters to the Colonel and his wife but sends Jamie a roll of unexposed film with no explanation. She learns how to develop film down at the base recreation center where she volunteers and discovers that her brother is sending her picture after picture of the moon.
A great work to use for a discussion of symbolism and for point of view. We often hear about how people outside the war protested but not about how the people fighting the war felt. Grades 6-8. Possibly younger.

The Lincolns: a Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary. By Candace Fleming.

Gr 6 Up–
A good bit of research work went into this book. Although I don't really care for the type of layout used, it is true to the scrapbook concept. SLJ says: "Fleming presents side-by-side portraits of the famous first couple, combining telling anecdotes and large and small details to reveal aspects of the Lincolns’ personalities and temperaments. Primary sources and high-quality archival photos and reproductions add significantly..." I think the brown tones may put off some children who expect everything to be in living color and in photograph format. Some fascinating facts can be shared when book-talking this title. For research, I'm not sure how it will work, but I am about to find out as 8th grade begins their research papers for the year.

I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer by Carole Boston Weatherford

This is a beautifully illustrated and well written account of Matthew Henson's life from the age of 13 when he began his first sailing adventure. It is told in the first person. Each page begins with a negative but completes with Henson overcoming that negative. For example; "I did not start as a cabin boy, climb to the ranks of an able-bodied seaman...to drift into humdrum jobs ashore. My dreams had sails." Facts about Henson's accomplishments such as learning to speak Inuit and carrying Peary to safety during during one of the polar attempts are woven into the text and speak to Henson's character. The story is a testament to Henson's determination to overcome prejudice and extreme hardships on his seven sttempts to reach the Notrth Pole. This would be an excellent book to use with character education. It is illustrated by Eric Velasquez and had starred reviews in Booklist, SLJ and Kirkus.

As Good as Anybody: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom by Richard Michelson; illustrated by Raul Colón

There are good read aloud picture books about the American Civil Rights movement and good read aloud picture books about the Holocaust, but this is the first title that I’ve seen that draws a simple but effective comparison between the two events for children.

A two part narrative first tells the story of King’s childhood experience with discrimination and then adulthood determination to challenge it, ending with his call for “…all God’s children” to join the movement. The story then moves to Herschel’s childhood in Europe and experience in Hitler’s Germany and Poland, his move to America and his answering of King’s call. The two marched together from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 and were apparently admirers of each other.

There is also a good lesson on self-esteem to be learned in this title - both men were raised by strong, loving fathers who instilled their sons with self-esteem. I really like the way the men's lives were shown to parallel - one father tells a son to look up instead of down when he walks, another tells his son to walk like a prince, not a peasant. Both end up following in their father's footsteps - King becomes a preacher like his father, Heschel a rabbi like his father.

A short note at the end tells of the events after the march, to King’s assassination and Heschel’s death a few years later. Raul Colón’s illustrations during the first half are warm & earth-toned, the second half cool & blue-toned – the illustrator is quoted in a book review as saying he did so to evoke the old blue-toned black & white newsreels from World War II.

Recommended for grades 2 - 5

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

1- A shape shifting 1000+ year old snake imprisoned in a clay jar far beneath the earth imagining finding her missing daughter when she is released.2- A bitter, scarred man set out to kill a giant alligator.3- A gentle make-shift family of a chained hound dog and a mama cat and her kittens who live carefully underneath the man’s ramshackle house.Three wildly different stories are artfully woven together like a tapestry to tell a gothic Southern tale about what love can do for the human spirit.This is an animal tale at heart that tugs at your heartstrings. The fantasy elements blend in as though your grandmother was exaggerating one of her favorite tales from long ago.In the beginning the chapters of each character are so short it’s difficult to keep the reader interested. However, as the mystery begins to unravel, the reader begins to imagine how each story could possibly be connected. Patience is a virtue while reading this yarn.