A Fly on the Wall History Series

     

     


Series: A Fly on the Wall History
Author: Thomas Kingsley Troupe
Illustrator: Jomike Tejido
Publisher: Capstone
Publication Date: January 2017
Age Range: Ages 6 - 7
Lexile Measure: 590 to 610L
Awards: NA

Upcoming titles: January 2018

     

    

This series employs a unique feature. Maggie and Horace are the proverbial "flies on the wall" who are present at several key moments in the history of the United States. The events covered include some that are rarely covered for this age range, such as, Paul Revere's Ride, Birth of the Star-Spangled Banner, and Titanic's Tragic Journey. Each title is richly illustrated  in suitably muted tones. 

The Wright Brothers

Paul Revere

Voyage to America

Each title has 32 pages and  presents the event in a way that is appropriate for the target audience. They do not try to tell the entire story, but rather highlight a specific time during the event. For example, Harriet Tubman's Escape covers only the time from her first attempt to escape with her younger brothers to her actual escape using the Underground Railroad. The last three pages cover her free years, explaining how she got a job and went on to help more than 100 other slaves find freedom.

Each title concludes with a:

• Timeline
• Glossary
• Questions to Think About
• Read More
• Internet Sites
• Index

This series would have been more useful with an Author's Notes section explaining his sources and where he was "creative" in his retelling of these historical events. I think this series would be useful in most libraries that serve younger children. They serve as a great introduction to historical events not usually written about for this young audience.

That said, I know that we are supposed to be reviewing the "best of the best" in children's nonfiction. The "flie on the wall" became a distraction from the story for me. First of all, they were large, cartoon characters.



They carried on a continuous conversation adding additional tidbits among their comic banter, which sometimes took up as much as one-third of the page. Most of the illustrations already included an additional, contributing fact, and the ones offered by the flies were not pertinent to the story being told. 

I also could not find any professional reviews for these books which doesn't always mean that they aren't quality texts, but does cause me to pause and wonder why.

Blog Reviews
http://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-fly-on-wall-shares-4-stories-from.html

Companion Titles:

David A. Adler's Picture Book Biographies such as:

• Harriet Tubman
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Robert E. Lee
• Abraham Lincoln
• Sojourner Truth
• Paul Revere
• Thomas Jefferson
• James and Dolly Madison
• Patrick Henry

The If You Lived...series

• ...If You Sailed on the Mayflower
• If You Lived When There was Slavery in America
• If You Lived at the Time of the Civil War

Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The You Wouldn't Want to...series such as:

• You Wouldn't Want to Sail on the Mayflower
• You Wouldn't want to be an American Colonist
• You Wouldn't Want to be a Civil War Soldier

Jean Fritz's books such as:

• And then What Happened, Paul Revere?
• Can't You Make them Behave, King George?

And for really interested and competent students, there are always the Who Was... and What Was...series.

Interestingly enough, I found two other sets of books that share book series' name. I wouldn't recommend either one:

Greek Hero

Roman Fort

         

Pharaoh's Egypt

Viking Longship

                                 

          

The Street Beneath My Feet

Title: The Street Beneath My Feet
Author: Charlotte Guillain & Yuval Zommer
Publisher: Words & Pictures
Date of Publication: March 2017
Age Range: Ages 6 - 7
Lexile Measure: NA
Awards: NA

A young boy on a London street wonders, "What's going on deep in the ground under your feet?" Join him on an adventure down through the layers of the earth, to its very center, and back out again, this time emerging in the country. Beginning with cables and pipes, he describes the unique characteristics of each layer. 



Covering everything from plant and animal life, 



rock formations, 



and plate tectonics to archaeology, paleontology, mineralogy, and civil engineering this is a great  choice for most libraries. 



Although the pages are sturdy, they fold out, accordion style to a full eight feet to reach the earth's core. 



The trip back up to the country, begins on the reverse side of the 10 panels. Along the way, questions are posed to ponder or research, such as: ‘What’s that loud rumbling noise making the ground shake?' The depth and breadth of information covered make this book accessible to a wide range of readers. Even non-readers will be able to glean a wealth of knowledge while poring over the pages. Best explored one-on-one, I hope this book holds up to repeated check-outs. 

Here is what one GoodReads reviewer had to say about this title, "The format and detailed continuous illustrations make an impact – there’s a lot going on down there! With just enough information to amaze and intrigue, the text doesn’t bog down a young reader. I think it’s a book kids would go back to over and over. In a classroom, it would be great with multiple levels and using Bloom’s taxonomy."

I could see a class project where groups of students would choose one of the 20 panels, decide on five questions that the group has about this level, and then create their own panel that answers these questions. Displayed in the hallway, this would be a wonderful cross-curricular project among the science, language, and art departments. This title could have been more useful in the classroom setting with the inclusion of an author's note, glossary, further reading, or at least links to a page with this information. 

Companion Titles:



Title: Leo Geo and His Miraculous Journey Through the Center of the Earth
Author: Jon Chad
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Date of Publication: March 2012
Age Range: Ages 6 - 7
Lexile Measure: NA
Awards: NA

This graphic novel is considered fiction in my collection, but packs in a plethora of factual information. Four and half inches tall and 13 inches wide, this book is read by turning it 90 degrees, like the previous title. Leo Geo is depicted as a round-headed outline figure and we travel with him on his journey. 






Illustrated in black and white, the dimensions of this book reinforce just how far it is to the center of the earth and back, which requires a flip of 180 degrees to continue the journey. While visually attractive, a non-reader or less confident reader would have more difficulty absorbing information from this title. It requires one-on-one reading because of the physical size and detailed illustrations. 

There is an author's note about the geology in the book. It states that Leo Geo has his facts straight, but that not everything he found inside the earth is supposed to be there nor have all of the creatures Leo comes across been discovered yet. This title will appeal to some youth, but not as many as The Street Beneath My Feet.

TeachingBooks.net includes links to two different interviews with the author as well as a link for his blog. (https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=29301&s=n)



Title: How Cities Work
Author: Jen Feroze
Illustrator: James Gulliver Hancock
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Date of Publication: November 2016
Age Range: Ages 9 - 11
Lexile Measure: 860
Awards: NA

This title will interest the student who enjoyed the first part of The Street Beneath My Feet. Flaps and gatefolds are used to "reveal the secret workings of the city." Beginning with the birth of a city as a small village, 



Feroze describes transportation, dwellings, green spaces, government, city services, night and day, and her vision of cities of the future. 



This title is definitely not a read-aloud candidate. An older or more capable reader could dip in and out of it to read the parts that were of interest to them or read it straight through. The detailed illustrations and text as well as the flaps and foldouts invite many rereadings.



Title: A Rock Can Be...
Author: Laura Purdie Salas
Illustrator: Violeta Dabija
Publisher: Millbrook Press
Date of Publication: March 2015
Age Range: Ages 6 - 7
Lexile Measure: NP
Awards: NA

This informational picture book begins,
"A rock is a rock.
It's sand, pebble, stone.
Each rock tells a story,
a tale all its own."

The poetic two-word text accompanied by full-page, richly colored illustrations, goes on to describe many things that are made up of rocks around the world. The large format, simple text, and appealing illustrations make this a perfect read-aloud choice. It would appeal to a child who enjoyed the information about rocks in The Street Beneath My Feet, and wanted to learn more about them.

"A rock can be...Tall mountain                               Park fountain



volcano flow-er                                                          night glow-er

     

The book follows a loosely seasonal organization, ending with the harvest and winter snow. Back matter describes many of the terms used in the text, such as volcano flow-er, night glow-er, and fire sparker but the words are listed in the order that they are found in the text, making it somewhat difficult to use. The title includes a glossary and further reading.

Although the vocabulary used is fairly sophisticated, the use of two-word phrases and the soft, dreamy illustrations might appeal to ESL students as well as younger or less confident readers. I think it would be fun for the students to do some further research about a chosen pair of words, then create a means to illustrate them. They could use their creativity by penning their own poems or using different mediums for visual representations. 

TeachingBooks.net has links to both the author and illustrator's personal websites as well as Salas' blog. (https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=42039&s=n)



Title: A Rock is Lively
Author: Dianna Hutts Aston
Illustrator: Sylvia Long
Publisher: Chronicle Books Llc
Date of Publication: August 2012
Age Range: Ages 6 - 7
Lexile Measure: 1110L
Awards: NA

Another stunning title from Aston and Long, this title guides the reader from the birth of a rock as molten lava, then leads us to discover how rocks were useful to early man who used them as tools, and so do modern day chimps. 




Rocks were the canvas for paleolithic art 



and used to build one of the Seven Wonders of the World. 



Along the way, Aston shows us that some rocks are surprising - geodes must be cracked open to discover their beauty. 



Once again, Aston uses two sets of text on each double-page spread. This allows the book to be useful for a wider audience range. This and the large format make it a good choice for reading aloud. The addition of author's notes and a glossary would have increased the usefulness of this title. 




TeachingBooks.net has author and illustrator links for websites and blogs and lesson plans: https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=31859

Chronicle Books offers lesson plans for the Aston/Long titles: http://www.chroniclebooks.com/landing-pages/pdfs/DiannaHuttsAston_TeacherGuide3.pdf

I also saw student generated interpretations of the illustrations which would be a great extension for this title.



     

Title: The Early Cretaceous: Notes, Drawings, and Observations from Prehistory
Title: The Late Jurassic: Notes, Drawings, and Observations from Prehistory
Series: Ancient Earth Journal
Authors: Juan Carlos Alonso & Gregory S. Paul
Publisher: Walter Foster Pub.
Date of Publication: September 2015
Age Range: Ages 8 - 9
Lexile Measure: 1100
Awards: Outstanding Science Trade Book for Students K-12 (NSTA-Children's Book Council

Originally published in 2016, these two volumes were both separated into two smaller volumes and republished in August of 2017. 

Written in the style of a naturalist's notebook, these titles will make you feel like you witnessed these amazing creatures firsthand. The highly detailed, realistic illustrations are annotated, offering additional information in notes and observations. The descriptive text is beautifully illustrated and describes both plant and animal life during the period. According to the publisher, the science in these titles "is backed by the research of one of paleontology's most acclaimed theorists, giving the book the most up to date scientific interpretation regarding animal behaviors, interactions, and recreations."

The Table of Contents lists the five groups of dinosaurs covered in the title:

• The Theropods
• The Sauropods
• The Ornithischians
• The Pterosaurs
• The First Birds

Two forewords describe this period and explain the importance of "paleoartists" like Alonso and Paul who "inspire a connection between our world and the countless ecosystems that have come and gone before us." The introduction goes into detail about what the world was like during this period, what was living in which areas, and includes a timeline and map.

In all, 21 dinosaurs and flying reptiles are described. Each group of dinosaurs is introduced thoroughly, with illustrated text. 

     

"Each chosen dino is presented in a two- to four-page gallery of full-body color portraits supplemented with sepia close-ups of claws and maws." (Kiukus)

  

Although this book is suggested for older or more competent readers, younger or even non-readers could still glean much information from the illustrations, notes, and observations scattered throughout. Additional visual aides, such as the scale of man to dinosaur add to the descriptions. 

 

A pronunciation  key is included. This title would have been more useful if author notes had been included to explain how the authors developed their vision of each creature, what information they could not verify, and sources for further reading.

Two other titles  that aren't really companion titles, but would have great applications in the classroom are:

If Rocks Could Sing by Leslie McGuirk



Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family's Journey by Margriet Ruus