PLASTIC AHOY: INVESTIGATING THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH by Patricia Newman

PLASTIC AHOY: INVESTIGATING THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH follows the journey of SEAPLEX (the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition) in Summer, 2009. The research team traveled by boat, to an area far out in the Pacific, where plastic seems to collect. They team wanted to know:

• How much plastic was in the garbage patch?
• Were fish eating the plastic, and if so, was it harming them?
• Were the chemicals used to make the plasticpoisoning the water?
• Did plastic impact the food chain

The book focuses on the work of three oceanographers- Miriam studies how plastic affects the tiny organisms that "raft" (hitch rides) on larger  organisms, Darcy Taniguchi studies phytoplankton, tiny one-celled plants, that are the first link in the ocean food chain,  and produce one half to two-thirds of the world's oxygen, and  Chelsea Rochman studies how chemicals from plastics affect the fish. None of the three totally answer their original questions, instead, the book truly demonstrates how imprecise science can be and how much perseverance it takes to be a scientist- the oceanographers' original questions require further study, their original questions raise new questions,  or the original questions prove unanswerable and they have to start over.

Readers will be totally captivated by the full-color photographs that capture everything from the day-to-day life on a research boat (what do you do when the pop machine doesn't work?) to the types of nets and other tools the researchers use, to their portable laboratories.

The book ends with a practical list of ways kids can help, e.g. carry your own take home box to restaurants, and wash and reuse plastic cutlery, and also ways they can be ocean educators for their peers. End matter includes a glossary and list of other resources

FIGHTING FIRE: TEN OF THE DEADLIEST FIRES IN AMERICA AND HOW WE FOUGHT THEM- Michael L. Cooper

FIGHTING FIRE is a book for any wanna-be-fireman. The book, about ten chapters long, traces the history of firefighting in the United States by telling the stories of ten or so very large and famous fires. Chapters include Boston (1760), New York (December, 1835)- where subzero temperatures bitterly cold, water sources frozen eventually led to the construction of the Croton Water System, considered one of the greatest engineering feats of its day. Then there was Chicago (October, 1871)- did you know we celebrate Fire Prevention Week the same week as this famous fire and  Baltimore, where firefigthers discovered the need to standardize firefighting equipment when one department couldn't connect to another city's hydrants and sadly, the mayor of the city, under the tremendous, strain of rebuilding killed himself. There are also chapters about the San Francisco Fire and the San Diego wild fires in 2007.

Cooper also addresses other famous fires.  The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, which led to the modern fire drill, the Coconut Grove Fire brought new rules about the flammability of decorations in public places, and also new ways of treating burn victims, and then a very sad and detailed chapter about the World Trade Center. Cooper integrates a ton of information and interviews, and cites jillions of sources in a way that that is interesting and engaging. For those of us who are working with kids on citing sources, this would be a terrific mentor text! Each chapter is accompanied by a myriad of black and white photographs.

Back matter includes photographs of fire engines through the ages, a list of related websites, fire museums to visit, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index.

ELIZABETH QUEEN OF THE SEAS- Lynne Cox, illustrations by Brian Floca

There was once a lovely elephant seal who lived in the city. Most elephant seals live in the ocean, in salt water. They sleep on rocky coasts and lie along sandy beaches. But this seal was different. She swam in the sweet, shallow waters of the Avon River where it lowed through the heart of Christchurch, New Zealand

So begins the true story of  Elizabeth, an elephant seal that somehow ended up living on the banks of the Avon River in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the 1970's and 80's. Elizabeth loved hauling herself up the bank of the river and laying on the warm road. The people of Christchurch were worried that she would be hit by a car and hauled her away from the city. Three times they took her out to sea,to live in other colonies of elephant seals, but Elizabeth just kept returning to the park she knew as home. Finally the citizens of Christchurch decided to let Elizabeth stay where she was happiest.  Brian Floca's watercolor illustrations are a perfect accompaniment to this engaging story.  End matter includes information about elephant seals.

Mr. Schu Reads interviewed author Lynne Cox, who also happens to be a world champion open water swimmer, here.

CHASING CHEETAHS

Another fantastic offering from the SCIENTISTS IN THE FIELD, this book follows author Sy Montgomery and photographer extraordinaitreNic Bishop as they visit Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of this organization's work, e.g. one chapter describes the cheetah's unique physical features, another explains how CCF trains cheetahs to reintroduce them into the wild, and still another about how Laurie works with the farmers, even giving them enormous Kangal dogs to protect their herds so they won't need to kill cheetahs. Yet another chapter describes how veterinarians provide physical examinations and health care to the cheetahs, and still another describes how scientists use DNA to trace cheetahs. Finally, there's a chapter about the organization works with school children, educating the next generation of cheetah conservationists. And as with most (all?) books in this series there are lots of related inset articles through the book- Fast Facts (did you know the cheetah can go 70 miles per hour, but can only sustain this speed for 400 to 600 yards), Cheetahs in Numbers (the species has dropped from more than 100,000 in 1900 to the current 10,000), how readers can help, etc. 

BEHOLD THE BEAUTIFUL DUNG BEETLE- Cheryl Bardoe

Every once in a while, I read a book where I think, "Where in the world did the author get the idea for this book?" That definitely happened when I read Cheryl Bardoe's latest, BEHOLD THE BEAUTIFUL DUNG BEETLE.

Somewhere in the world, an animal is lightening its load…

Animals take nutrients from the food they eat. Then, after their food is digested,  they push waste out in the form of dung, also called feces or poop. 

Nearby, antennae detect the scent of dung in the breeze. One animal's waste is the dung beetle's treasure…

It turns out,, that there are three different types of dung beetles. Dwellers "dig right in." Rollers "push perfect spheres of dung away from the throng." And tunnelers "hoard their treasures directly below the dung pat."  The book goes on to describe how the beetles eat, compete with each other, reproduce and grow.

End matter includes a section on finding Dung Beetles," fascinating facts, a diagram of the dung beetle's body, and a glossary. And this would be a great book for teaching the Compare/Contrast text structure. 

One of those books where you read with a combination of 'Ewwww!' and amazement.

TINY CREATURES: THE WORLD OF MICROBES- NICOLA DAVIES

 Got any young doctors or scientists hanging around at your house? If so, Nicola Davies, TINY CREATURES: THE WORLD OF MICROBES is sure to delight!

You know about big animals
and you know about small animals…
(picture of a blue whale with men in a rowboat to show scale

but do you know that there are creatures so tiny
that millions could fit onto this ant's antenna?

So tiny that we'd have to make the ant's antenna
as big as a whale to show them to you?

The use of scale in this book is so clever-for example, the picture of a giant ant's antenna on the first page, then on another two page spread- a single drop of water can hold twenty million microbes, that's about the same as a the number of people in New York State  has a picture of apartment buildings with people's heads, or yet another, "a teaspoon of soil can have as many as billion microbes, that's the same as the number of people in the whole of India. I'd love to have the illustration from the India page hanging in my living room!

Davies goes on to explain some of the different jobs microbes play in the universe- how they decompost soil, wear down mountains and build up cliffs turn milk into yogurt, and make people sick and well. Emily Sutton's illustrations are detailed and perfect.

Read the NY Times review here.

SEA TURTLE SCIENTIST- Stephen R. Swinburne

I'm not surprised to discover that the SCIENTISTS IN THE FIELD series has several (at least four, I think) books on the CYBILS nonfiction list. Today's offering, SEA TURTLE SCIENTIST, follows Dr. Kimberly Stewart, the "turtle lady," in her efforts to save the sea turtles of Saint Kitts and Nevis. The reader follows Stewart in her midnight watches of enormous mama turtles crawling up onto the beach to lay eggs, and her digging of nests that have hatched. The book includes chapters on how the turtles hatch and begin their journey, how the community is working to save the turtles and interestingly, a chapter on a native from Saint Kitts, that used to hunt sea turtles, but now works with Stewart on her conservation effort. Swinburne presents the complexities of conservation- the local people depend on sea turtles for food and use the shells to make jewelery, which is a source of income.

The story of Stewart's work is interspersed with numerous (I counted at least ten) related articles, e.g. WIDECAST (a Caribbean organization that works to save sea turtles), sea turtle facts, a history of Saint Kitts, how sea turtles are killed, etc. Back matter includes a glossary, a selection on how to help sea turtles, another on how to adopt sea turtles, and a bibliography of books and websites for further reading. By the time I was finished reading, I had resolved to stop using plastic grocery bags and also to go on an eco-vacation to a turtle preserve.

THE NEXT WAVE- ELIZABETH RUSCH

I love books that talk about how people work. 
And the grit that it takes to make something happen.
And how many "mistakes" have to happen before an invention is successful.

It makes sense, then, that I would love Elizabeth Rusch's newest book, THE NEXT WAVE: THE QUEST TO HARNESS THE POWER OF THE OCEANS, explores the work of three different teams, all working to harness the power of waves to generate energy for homes and businesses.
 First, Rusch takes into the lives of Mike Morrow and Mike Delos-Reyes, two kids who liked to take things apart. The two attended Oregon State University, where they invented a wave device for their senior project. Twenty years later, they dragged out their design and founded M3Wave, a company committed to harnessing the power of the ocean.

Annette von Jouanne is a professor at Oregon State University (she wasn't there when Morrow and Delos-Reyes attended). As an electrical engineer, she is concerned "about our heavy use of nonrenewable resources, how much we burned fossil fuels for energy, and all the pollution that they made). Rusch details Von Jouanne's team as they try, and fail, and adjust, and try again, over, and over and over. Finally, Rusch invites her readers to visit the work of a third company, Ocean Power Technology, which "might be the first in the water to provide real energy to real people."

THE NEXT WAVE is part of the SCIENTISTS IN THE FIELD series. Like other books in the series, the book not only includes terrific information, but it's also beautifully designed. Color photographs enhance the text on pretty much every page. There are numerous side bars and pull out articles, maps and diagrams, to build the readers' understanding of the topic.  End matter includes a glossary, carefully detailed sources and places where the reader can go for more information. 

ANIMAL STORIES: HEART WARMING TRUE TALES FROM THE ANIMAL KINGDOM

Owen and Mzee? Balto? Keiko, the whale who starred in FREE WILLY? Smokey the Bear? Sea Biscuit?

You probably know all of these animals, but what about Binta Jua, the gorilla mom who picked up a little boy who somehow fell into the cage at Brookfield Zoo and carried him to her door, so none of the other gorillas could hurt him?

Or how about Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk that makes his home on Fifth Avenue, in New York City, and has fathered a hundred or more other urban dwellers?

Or what about the Tamworth Two, two hogs that fled the slaughterhouse and escaped into the woods of England in 1998?

These are only a few of the animals that are included in ANIMAL STORIES: NINETEEN TRUE TALES FROM THE ANIMAL KINGDOM by Jane Yolen and her three children, Heidi, Jason, and Adam Stemple. Each of the 19 narrative nonfiction stories included in the book is about a different animals, and is accompanied by a short nonfiction piece about the animal or a related topic. End pages include a brief synopsis of each story, a world map, a timeline, an authors' note, and resources for further reading. Each story also contains several full color illustrations, making the book more accessible to younger readers.

A great gift for an animal lover!

ALICE WATERS AND THE TRIP TO DELICIOUS- JACQUELINE BRIGGS MARTIN

Our second graders do a unit on advocacy each year. I'm always on the lookout, then, for books about people who are advocates, especially in a way that children will understand. ALICE WATERS AND THE TRIP TO DELICIOUS, by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, author of SNOWFLAKE BENTLEY and more recently FARMER WILL ALLEN AND THE GROWING TABLE, definitely fits into that category.

Alice Waters spent part of her young adulthood in Europe, tasting yummy foods, then opened a restaurant, Chez Panisse. At the time most chefs were men. And most restaurants worried about finding good recipes, not good ingredients. Alice Waters changed all of that. She cooked with only the freshest ingredients and her restaurant became hugely popular.   Alice was the first woman to win the James Beard Chef of the year. She cooked for presidents and for the Dalai Lama.

But that wasn't enough for Alice. Every day as she packed her daughter's lunch, and as she drove by schools, she wondered whether children were having opportunities to taste fresh and delicious food. When the principal of a middle school contacted her, she paired with that school and the The Edible Schoolyard Project was born. Now there are Edible Schoolyards across the United States, because

Alice Waters is sure:
Kids who know good food,
who grow, gather, and share good food,
will care about the soil, care about farmers,
care about everyone having enough to eat.

Kids who get to Delicious can change the world. 

This is illustrator Haelin Choi's first picture book, and her playful illustrations capture the essence of the book. Back matter includes an afterword by Alice Waters (advice for kids about growing and eating food), an author's note, a list of resources for further research, and a bibliography.

NEIGHBORHOOD SHARKS- KATHERINE ROY

 "Every September, the great white sharks return to San Francisco. Their hunting grounds, the Farallon Islands, are just thirty miles from the city. 

While their 800,000 human neighbors dine on steak, salad, and sandwiches, the white sharks hunt for their favorite meal."

So begins NEIGHBORHOOD SHARKS, Katherine Roy's debut picture book, which is probably one of the most unique books I've read recently. The first few pages appear to be typical picture book format, with two or three lines of text on a page. About the fifth page, however, that format changes, to more an upper grade nonfiction type book. The first text-heavy spread describes the pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) that live on the Farfallon Islands, and the scientists that study them. The next five two-page spreads are devoted to five unique adaptations that enable sharks to effectively hunt seals. Did you know that sharks pectoral fins provide lift in the water, similar to the wings on a jet plane? Or that they have a complex web of arteries and veins that acts as a heat exchange system, which through swimming, increases their body temperature, and allows them to digest food and move more quickly? Or that their jaws aren't fused to their skulls, but instead can be projected forward, so that they have maximum bite force?

After describing these adaptations, Roy switches back to typical picture book format for a few more pages, before going back to a few more text-heavy spreads that describe the scientists' process for tracking sharks, the great whites' place in the food chain, and their migration process.

Katherine Roy studied under David Macauley at the Rhode Island School of Design, and the water color illustrations in this book are incredible- the way she captures the sharks' movement and attack feels as real as, well, as real as watching the shark attacks in JAWS. Kids are going to love the illustrations. The book also includes lots of beautiful labelled diagrams, which they are going to enjoy just as much.

A terrific book for classrooms and Christmas presents!

Katherine Roy wrote a post for the Nerdy Book Club about a month ago.

And was interviewed by Mr. Schu here. 

And here's a really interesting blog post about the process Katherine Roy used to create SHARKS.

And another link to her sketchbooks.

STAR STUFF- STEPHANIE ROTH SISSON

Carl Sagan seems a pretty complex guy for a picture book, but Stephanie Roth Sisson manages to make his life accessible to kids in her biography, STAR STUFF: CARL SAGAN AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE COSMOS. Sisson traces Sagan's life from his boyhood, growing up in the Bronx and attending the 1939 World's Fair, (I especially loved a page where Sagan goes to the library to get a book about stars and is first given a book of Hollywood stars) to his adulthood fascination with planets and stars, including his work on the Voyager. Throughout the book, Sisson manages to convey Sagan's continual curiosity and wondering. Several vertical and foldout pages emphasize the immensity of the universe and add to the visual appeal. End pages include a note from the author, information on sources, and a bibliography.

IVAN- THE REMARKABLE TRUE STORY OF THE SHOPPING MALL GORILLA

 

  

 In January, 2013, Katherine Applegate won the Newbery for THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN. Now Applegate's back with another Ivan story, only this one is a beautifully written, poetic, take your breath away, picture book. Listen…

In leafy calm,

in gentle arms,

a gorilla's life began…

 Somehow, within the space confines of only a few pages, Applegate manages to capture the injustice of Ivan's life- how he was taken from his family in the jungle, confined in a dark crate, dumped off in Washington, confined at the shopping mall for years, and then finally, released to the Atlanta Zoo, where…

In leafy calm,

in gentle arms,

a gorilla's life began

again. 

G. Brian Karas illustrations are pretty close to perfect. He describes his illustration process here.

Back matter includes two pages, "About Ivan," as well as some words from Jodi Carriage, Ivan's main keeper at Zoo Atlanta, who says, "Ivan loved to paint, which was evident by how quickly he came right over and made delighted sounds when I got the painting supplies out. I would hold out the colors and he would paint to the one he wanted to use-- his favorite color was red."

I'm tucking this one into my bag to take to school today. I can't wait to share it with kids!

EYE TO EYE- STEVE JENKINS

A new Steve Jenkins' book?? Yes sirree, when my all-time favorite nonfiction picture book author releases a new book, I am on it! OK, actually this book was released in April, but who's counting? In EYE TO EYE, Steve Jenkins takes on the topic of animal eyesight. The book begins with several pages of narration about how animals use their eyes to find food, to protect themselves, to attract mates, etc. Jenkins then goes into an explanation of the four different types of eyes- eyespot, pinholes, compound, and camera eyes. From there, each page features information about  a different animal's eyesight, with an enlarged head shot, and then a thumbnail of the entire body. Lots of interesting and bizarre facts, sure to delight even the most reluctant reader:

•  A young halibut has an eye on each side of its body. As it gets older, however, one eye migrates over the top of the fish's head. Eventually, both eyes end up on the same side. The halibut spends most of its adult life lying on its side on the bottom of the ocean, and the arrangement means that both eyes will be directed upward, away from the sea floor. 
• The bullfrog doesn't appear to see things that aren't moving. It eats insects, but face-to face with a motionless fly, it will starve to death.
• The Eurasian buzzard has the sharpest eyesight of any animal. Its vision is eight times more accurate than ours-- keen enough to home in on a rabbit two miles away.

End pages include the evolution of the eye, a page with a few more facts about each featured animal, a bibliography and a glossary.

GRANDFATHER GANDHI- Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus

Author Bethany Turk was a receptionist at One World Financial Center, on 9-11. About a month later, attempting to make sense of that event, she attended a lecture by Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi's lecture included a number of stories during that lecture and Hegedus wondered how these stories might be made into picture books. Shortly after that, she contacted Arun Gandhi, and out of their interactions came the picture book memoir,  GRANDFATHER GANDHI. 

Arun Gandhi was twelve when his family traveled from their home in South Africa to spend two years in India with his famous grandfather. Arun's feelings about his grandfather were mixed-- he was awed by all that he had done and a little jealous of the time his grandfather spent with other people.  Arun despaired of ever being a "Gandhi," or learning to manage the anger that sometimes boiled up inside of him. 

One day, after an eruption on the soccer field, Arun ran to find his very wise grandfather, who told him, 

"…Anger is like electricity. It can strike, like lightning and split a living tree in two…or it can be channeled, transformed, and it can shed light, like a lamp…then anger can illuminate. It can turn the darkness into light.

Grandfather hadn't told me I was wrong and he was right. he had even forced me to choose: lightning or lamp. But I did choose, and I would choose, over and over, from that moment on, like Grandfather… 

I did my best to live my life as light."

Evan Turk's multimedia collage illustrations are fabulous, maybe even good enough to be considered for the Caldecott. When I learned he was from Colorado (although he currently lives in New York City), I had to check out his website. He has his own picture book coming out soon! 

MR. FERRIS AND HIS WHEEL- Kathryn Gibbs Davis

Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's minds. 

Daniel H. Burnham, 

Architect and Construction Chief of the 1893 World's Fair

"It was ten months until the next World's Fair. But everyone was still talking about the star attraction of the last World's Fair. At eighty one stories, France's Eiffel Tower was the world's tallest building. It's pointy iron and air tower soared so high that visitors to the top could see Paris in one breathtaking sweep. 

Now it was America's turn to impress the world at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. But what could outshine the French tower? And who would build it? A nationwide contest was announced… "

A mechanical engineer, George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. and his partner, William Gronau, won the contest with their invention- a tall steel structure that moved. But then they had to build it. In the dead of winter. In Chicago. On a site that had 35 feet of quicksand. And no one wanted to finance it.

MR. FERRIS AND HIS WHEEL is a book about creativity. And perseverance. And collaboration. The book includes a kind of "double text." One text tells the story of Ferris and his invention, the other adds interesting facts about the World's Fair, the construction process, related cultural icons, etc.

From a teacher point of view, I think you could put MR. FERRIS in a study of narrative nonfiction. Or a perseverance theme study. Or do great compare/contrast thinking by pairing it with Megan McCarthy's,  POP: THE INVENTION OF BUBBLE GUM.

A book I know kids are going to love!

TWO BOOKS FOR THE BIRD(ER)S

MAMA BUILT A LITTLE NEST captures the intricacies of "avian architecture." The book contains 15 two-page-spreads, each describing a different kind of bird next. The lefthand page is a four rhyming verse, e.g.

Daddy built a little next--
Now don't gross out-- with spit 
Who would have thought that spit would make
the perfect place to sit?

The right hand page includes one or two sentences about the bird:

The swiftlet makes an edible nest using tube-shaped saliva, which hardens in the air. Swiftlet nests are used in bird's nest soup, a Chinese delicacy

In the author's note, Jennifer Ward explains:

Birds are skilled, inventive, and adaptable builders. Nest design may be minimal (as with a scrape) or mind-boggling intricate (as with a woven). Sizes may be tiny (hummingbird) or huge (eagle). Birds design burrow, cavity, and mound  nests. They sew and craft woven, dome, and hanging nests. They produce nests that float, defy gravity, expand, are camouflaged, and that heat and cool.

Primary grade students are going to fall in love with this book. At the same time, I'm thinking it will be perfect for the animal adaptations unit our fifth graders are starting in early November. And an added bonus- collage illustrations are by one of my all-time favorite picture book artists, Steve Jenkins. 

Melissa Stewart's FEATHERS: NOT JUST FOR FLYING is another terrific new book about animal adaptations. In this picture book, Stewart describes the many different ways that birds use feathers. Two purposes are paired, then compared with common objects in a large font at the top of the page,  then a more detailed paragraph, in a smaller font, gives additional information.

"Feathers can shade out sun like an umbrella… As a hungry tri-colored heron wades through the water in search of food, it raises its wings high over its head. The feathers block out reflections from the sky and shade the water. This makes it easier to spot tasty fish and frogs. 

 Or protect like sunscreen"
On sunny summer afternoons red-tailed hawks spend hours soaring through the sky in search of prey Their thick feathers protect their delicate skin from the sun's harmful rays.

Sarah Brannen's watercolor illustrations are intricate and perfect, and yet feel simple enough that they could provide a great mentor text for any child interested in creating a nature journal.

Great for a lesson on birds, animal adaptations, metaphor, or capturing information on illustrations! Or just plain reading and enjoying!

THE RIGHT WORD- Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet

 Did you know the word thesaurus actually means rich treasure?

I've been thinking a lot that treasure chest this fall.

Academic vocabulary. The power of words. And how to expose kids to words. Maybe most importantly, how to help kids fall in love with words.

In their newest collaboration, THE RIGHT WORD: ROGET AND HIS THESAURUS, Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet explore the life of one of the world's greatest word lovers, Dr. Peter Mark Roget, creator of Roget's thesaurus. Roget started making lists of words when he was eight years old and just never stopped. His original thesaurus was published in 1852 and now 170 years later, people are still drawing on that original work.

Roget's lists provided the inspiration for Melissa Sweet's collage illustrations; in fact,  in her end note, she explains that she decided how she would format the illustrations when she held a copy of the original 1805 thesaurus and saw how he had organized his notes. Each illustration contains similar lists of words. I could see these lists providing some young lovers of words with inspiration to create their own "treasure chest" lists or notebooks.

Fabulous on all levels!

Don't miss two interviews with Melissa Sweet.
Seven Impossible Things before Breakfast
Colby Sharp's 5-4-3-2-1 Interview here.

HE HAS SHOT THE PRESIDENT-Don Brown

If more teachers included the story part of history, I'm pretty sure a lot more kids would be interested in history. That's definitely true with tonight's CYBILS read, HE HAS SHOT THE PRESIDENT by Don Brown. Brown tells the story not only of the day President Lincoln was shot and the subsequent manhunt for John Wilkes Booth. It's the richness of the story that captures the reader's attention.

I know kids all the way through high school are going to love the story of how Lincoln's death was one of three planned assassinations for that evening. They are going to be fascinated by how four soldiers carried Lincoln's long and almost lifeless body across the street to Peterson's Rooming House, then laid it diagonally across a bed. They will love reading about how John Wilkes Booth was locked inside a tobacco barn, which was then set on fire after he refused to come out. And how people filed past Lincoln's coffin in New York City for 25 hours straight, and yet only a small portion of the half million people waiting actually got to see the body. Or of how city leaders tried to stop African Americans from participating in the funeral procession back to the train station, and the Secretary of State had to issue a decree.

So many rich stories. So much history. I love that this book is one in a series of five (so far). I hope there will be lots more!