In looking back at the bounty of nonfiction for children and young adults in 2016, we have considered the diversity of reading interests in addition to identifying outstanding trade books with curriculum connections.
Ages 4–8
Best in Snow. April Pulley Sayre. 2016. Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster.
The beauty of Sayre’s photographs of a snowstorm is matched by that of her spare, lyrical text. “A freeze. / A breeze. / A cloud. / It snows. / Snowflakes land on a squirrel’s nose.” Stunning double-page spreads take readers through the water cycle of winter, from freezing to mush and slush, until another snowflake lands on a squirrel’s nose in a new storm. An appended “Secrets of Snow” adds notes on the science of snow.
Giant Squid. Candace Fleming. Ill. Eric Rohmann. 2016. Neal Porter/Roaring Brook.
Fleming and Rohmann introduce readers to the giant squid, a mysterious sea creature inhabiting the ocean depths. Double-page spreads of dramatic text and paintings reveal features of the squid’s body and its behavior. Particularly intriguing is a sequence of illustrations showing the squid’s evasion of a barracuda by ejecting a cloud of ink. A note on the search by scientists to answer questions about the giant squid will lead the curious reader to listed resources.
I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark. Debbie Levy. Ill. Elizabeth Baddeley. 2016. Simon & Schuster.
Ruth was born in Brooklyn in 1933 into a strong Jewish family. Poignant illustrations depicting encounters with signs such as “NO DOGS OR JEWS ALLOWED!” posted at hotels, restaurants, and in neighborhoods express the pain of prejudice young Ruth experienced. When older, she faced sexism at college and in her profession. At every turn, she resisted and persisted, eventually becoming a Supreme Court Justice, a position she has held since 1993 and one she uses to fight for equality for all people in the United States.
A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of The Snowy Day. Andrea Davis Pinkney. Ill. Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. 2016. Viking/Penguin.
Pinkney’s expressive narrative: “BROWN-SUGAR BOY in a blanket of white. / Bright as the day you came onto the page. / From the hand of a man who saw you for you” and the mixed-media illustrations, rendered in Keats’s signature collage style, tell the story of Jacob (Jack) Ezra Katz, born in Brooklyn in 1916 to Jewish immigrants from Poland, and the creation of his 1963 Caldecott Medal–winning book.
The Princess and the Warrior: A Tale of Two Volcanoes. Duncan Tonatiuh. 2016. Abrams.
In this origin legend, illustrated with Tonatiuh’s signature Mixtec codices–inspired art, an Emperor agrees to the marriage of Princess Izta to Popoca if the warrior defeats his enemy Jaguar Claw. Amid the battle, Jaguar Claw sends Izta a report of Popoca’s death and a potion to ease her grief that puts her into a deep sleep. Victorious, Popoca returns and keeps his vow to stay by Izta’s side forever. Now, in Mexico there are two adjacent volcanoes: dormant Iztaccíhuatl and active Popocatéptl.
Ages 9–11
Animals by the Numbers: A Book of Animal Infographics. Steve Jenkins. 2016. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Jenkins combines images of animals, created in his signature cut- and torn-paper collage technique, with charts and diagrams to visually present facts and figures about animals in an accessible format. High-interest topics range from the number of species in the different animal groups presented in a pie chart to deadly animals (based on the number of human deaths caused) in a bar graph to the world’s most endangered animals in a double-page chart.
Freedom in Congo Square. Carole Boston Weatherford. Ill. R. Gregory Christie. 2016. Little Bee.
Slaves in New Orleans toiled their way to Sunday afternoons when they were free to sing and dance in Congo Square. As their musical styles melded with those of other enslaved people, the foundation of popular jazz was created. This folk-art, rhyming, days-of-the week historical picture book (“Mondays, there were hogs to slop, / mules to train, and logs to chop. / Slavery was no ways fair. / Six more days to Congo Square.”) includes a foreword with historical background on Congo Square.
Jason and the Argonauts: The First Great Quest in Greek Mythology. Robert Byrd. 2016. Dial/Penguin.
Following an introduction to the tale of Jason and the Argonauts, one of the oldest recorded Greek myths, Robert Byrd uses a series of lavishly illustrated double-page spreads to present key episodes of the quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece by Jason and the Argonauts, who were both helped and hindered by interactions with the gods as they fought epic battles with giants, harpies, and other monsters.
Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Javaka Steptoe. 2016. Little, Brown.
Steptoe’s lyrical text and expressive mixed-media illustrations create a stunning biography of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988). As a child, Jean-Michel dreamed of becoming a famous artist; his artwork was everywhere in his family’s Brooklyn home. Moving to New York City in his teens, he painted on paper during the day and spray-painted walls downtown with poems and drawings at night. Gaining recognition, his artwork began to appear in art galleries. “People describe him as RADIANT, WILD, A GENIUS CHILD.”
Some Writer!: The Story of E.B. White. Melissa Sweet. 2016. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
In Some Writer! the always-creative Melissa Sweet uses a scrapbook-style compilation of letters, journals entries, family photos, manuscript excerpts, quotes, and her original mixed-media collage artwork and a warm narrative to present the story of the life and work of beloved children’s book author E.B. White. Particularly engaging are the chapters devoted to the writing of Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web, which exemplify White’s love of words and his process of crafting them into stories.
Ages 12–14
The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century. Sarah Miller. 2016. Schwartz & Wade/Random House.
Miller takes readers beyond the “Lizzie Borden Took an Axe” verse associated with the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden on August 4, 1892, in Fall River, MA, covering the events leading up to Lizzie’s arrest, her imprisonment, her trial, and what came after her acquittal. The narrative is supplemented with sidebars of sensational newspaper articles that fueled rumors and divided opinions on whether Lizzie was guilty or innocent.
Bubonic Panic: When Plague Invaded America. Gail Jarrow. 2016. Calkins Creek/Highlights.
The third plague pandemic first appeared in San Francisco in 1894. Even after two researchers independently determined that the source, a bacterium, was transmitted by a flea, civic officials around the world continued to focus on quarantining people in communities where plague was found rather than eradicating the flea and its rat carrier. The final chapter of this well-researched book reports on present-day evidence of the plague in the United States.
The Great White Shark Scientist (Scientists in the Field).Sy Montgomery. Ill. Keith Ellenbogen. 2016. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Montgomery introduces readers to the work of biologist Greg Skomal and his research team during one summer as they video record and tag great white sharks in the waters off Cape Cod, MA. In the fall, she gets a close-up look at great white sharks in a dive in a submersible cage in the waters off Guadalupe Island with Mexican biologist Erick Higuera. Captioned photographs taken by Ellenbogen underwater and from research vessels and a small spotter plane add interest.
March: Book Three. John Lewis and Andrew Aydin. Ill. Nate Powell. 2016. Top Shelf.
The final book in the graphic memoir of Congressman John Lewis covers the turbulent period of the Civil Rights movement from the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, to the signing by U.S. President Lyndon Johnson of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This personal account provides a behind-the-scenes look at Lewis’s leadership of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, meetings with other activists and government officials, and conflicts within various civil rights groups.
Vietnam: A History of the War. Russell Freedman. 2016. Holiday House.
Freedman provides readers with a well-researched history of the Vietnam War, including background on the small Asian country’s long history of fighting for independence and events leading up to the protracted 1954–1975 conflict. Drawing from newspaper reports and personal stories from multiple points of view, Freedman gives a balanced account of the combat involvement of the United States in Vietnam and the divisive protest movements at home.
Ages 15+
Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History. Karen Blumenthal. 2016. Feiwel and Friends.
Blumenthal successfully takes on the challenge of writing about a contemporary political figure in this accessible portrait of Hillary Rodham Clinton, from her birth in 1947 and childhood in Park Ridge, IL, to her announcement in April 2015 that she was running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. president. Blumenthal considers the people and experiences that have influenced Clinton’s life choices and the challenges she has faced as a woman in her professional and political life. The book includes photographs and interest-catching editorial cartoons.
Sabotage: The Mission to Destroy Hitler’s Atomic Bomb. Neal Bascomb. 2016. Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.
Bascomb provides a well-researched account of the operations that ended Hitler’s plan to produce an atomic bomb. Heroic saboteurs destroyed the Norsk Hydro Plant in a remote mountainous region of Norway, which was Germany’s source of heavy water, an essential component for constructing an atomic bomb. Bascomb details the failures and successes of plans and the contributions of key individuals in the sabotage activities in addition to the atomic research of both Germany and the Allies.
Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story. Caren Stelson. 2016. Carolrhoda/Lerner.
In 1945, 6-year-old Sachiko Yasui and her family were familiar with the hardships of living in a war-torn country. Then, on the morning of August 9, three days after an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a second atomic bomb exploded just one half mile from the Yasui home. Based on extensive interviews with Sachiko Yasui, Stelson tells Sachiko’s story of survival, ending with how, on the 50th anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing, Sachiko began to share her hibakusha (explosion-affected people) experiences publicly to promote peace.
The Singing Bones: Inspired by Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Shaun Tan. 2016. Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.
This beautifully designed book features 75 small sculptures created by Shaun Tan. A photograph of each sculpture is paired with a short excerpt from a Grimms’ fairy tale. Neil Gaiman’s foreword offers an appreciation of The Singing Tree, and Jack Zipes’s essay on the Grimm Brothers provides a historical context. In an afterword, Tan discusses his personal connection to the Grimms’ tales, influences on his artwork, and the materials and processes he used in creating his sculptures.
Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience During World War II. Albert Marrin. 2016. Calkins Creek/Highlights.
Marrin chronicles the shameful period in U.S. history in which fear, insecurity, and racism led to the uprooting of all people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast to relocation centers following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1947. Through personal stories, he covers life in these internment camps and the rebuilding of lives after the closing of the centers. In the final chapter, “Remembering the Past,” Marrin points out the importance of history as “a reminder of tragedies like the uprooting, and a warning against repeating them.”
Carolyn Angus is former director of the George G. Stone Center for Children's Books, Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, CA. Nancy Brashear is Professor Emeritus of English from Azusa Pacific University, in Azusa, CA.
These reviews are submitted by members of the International Literacy Association's Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group (CL/R SIG) and are published weekly on Literacy Daily.