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Laurie Ann Thompson

Laurie Thompson

Review: Three Stars in the Night Sky

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Zoo Scientists cover

Three Stars in the Night Sky cover

THREE STARS IN THE NIGHT SKY
by Fern Schumer Chapman
Gussie Rose Press/June 6, 2018
Grades 5–8, 56 pages

Here’s what the pub­lish­er says:

At the age of 12, Ger­da Katz fled Nazi Ger­many and came to Amer­i­ca all by her­self. Decades before the label gained recog­ni­tion, she became what’s now known as an “unac­com­pa­nied minor.” Gerda’s sto­ry of fam­i­ly sep­a­ra­tion reflects the dis­lo­cat­ing trau­ma, cul­ture shock, and excru­ci­at­ing lone­li­ness many unac­com­pa­nied minor immi­grants expe­ri­ence. As Ger­da becomes an Amer­i­can, she nev­er stops long­ing to be reunit­ed with her fam­i­ly. Three Stars in the Night Sky illu­mi­nates the per­son­al dam­age of racism in three coun­tries – Nazi Ger­many, the Domini­can Repub­lic, and the Unit­ed States dur­ing the 1930s and 40s — and the emo­tion­al dev­as­ta­tion of a child com­ing to a new coun­try alone.

And here are my thoughts:
This was an engag­ing, up close and per­son­al look at an his­tor­i­cal event that is sad­ly still rel­e­vant today for many rea­sons, includ­ing under­stand­ing World War II, anti-Semi­tism, refugees, and the very real impacts of immi­gra­tion poli­cies. There is also local rel­e­van­cy here in west­ern Wash­ing­ton state, as Ger­da emi­grat­ed to Seat­tle to escape the per­se­cu­tion of Jews in Ger­many in 1938 and wound up fac­ing the intern­ment of the region’s Japan­ese-Amer­i­can cit­i­zens. I found the sto­ry and accom­pa­ny­ing images to be inter­est­ing as well as infor­ma­tive. The for­mat makes it looks like a pic­ture book, but I would not rec­om­mend it for younger read­ers due to the sen­si­tive top­ics cov­ered and the way in which they are pre­sent­ed here. High­ly rec­om­mend­ed for grades 5 and up, how­ev­er, whether as part of learn­ing more about the World War II era or look­ing at cur­rent events through a his­tor­i­cal lens. Ger­da’s sto­ry will stick with me for some time to come, and I’m thank­ful to have had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to read about it.
For more books by this author, vis­it https://fernschumerchapman.com/.
*** Dis­clo­sure: I received a review copy from the pub­lish­er as part of judg­ing the CYBILS contest. ***
Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

Review: Votes for Women!

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Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

Votes for Women! cover
Votes for Women! Amer­i­can Suf­frag­ists and the Bat­tle for the Ballot
by Winifred Conkling
Algo­nquin Young Read­ers, Feb­ru­ary 13, 2018
Grades 8–12, 320 pages

Here’s what the publisher says about Votes for Women!:

For near­ly 150 years, Amer­i­can women did not have the right to vote. On August 18, 1920, they won that right, when the 19th Amend­ment to the Con­sti­tu­tion was rat­i­fied at last. To achieve that vic­to­ry, some of the fiercest, most pas­sion­ate women in his­to­ry marched, protest­ed, and some­times even broke the law—for more than eight decades.
From Susan B. Antho­ny and Eliz­a­beth Cady Stan­ton, who found­ed the suf­frage move­ment at the 1848 Seneca Falls Con­ven­tion, to Sojourn­er Truth and her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech, to Alice Paul, arrest­ed and force-fed in prison, this is the sto­ry of the Amer­i­can women’s suf­frage move­ment and the pri­vate lives that fueled its lead­ers’ ded­i­ca­tion. Votes for Women! explores suf­frag­ists’ often pow­er­ful, some­times dif­fi­cult rela­tion­ship with the inter­sect­ing tem­per­ance and abo­li­tion cam­paigns, and includes an unflinch­ing look at some of the ugli­er moments in women’s fight for the vote.
By turns illu­mi­nat­ing, har­row­ing, and empow­er­ing, Votes for Women! paints a vibrant pic­ture of the women whose tire­less bat­tle still inspires polit­i­cal, human rights, and social jus­tice activism.

And what the critics say about Votes for Women!:

  • “This is a fas­ci­nat­ing account of the bumpy road to women’s suf­frage in the U.S.… Well-cho­sen black-and-white archival repro­duc­tions and pho­tographs ably sup­port the text, which makes excel­lent use of pri­ma­ry sources, includ­ing excerpts from let­ters and writ­ings to bring key per­son­al­i­ties to life.” —The Horn Book Mag­a­zine (starred review)
  • “From the first Women’s Rights Con­ven­tion in Seneca Falls in 1848 to the rat­i­fi­ca­tion of the 19th Amend­ment in 1920, this is a com­mand­ing and rel­e­vant account of sweep­ing, hard-won social reform and action.” —Pub­lish­ers Week­ly (starred review)
  • “Span­ning mul­ti­ple cen­turies, this work may be the most com­pre­hen­sive account for young read­ers about the founders, lead­ers, orga­niz­ers, and oppo­nents of the Amer­i­can suf­frag­ist move­ment … Con­kling deliv­ers a tour de force.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
  • “Look­ing for a com­pre­hen­sive, well-writ­ten his­to­ry of women’s fight for the right to vote? You’ve found it. Con­kling draws read­ers in  … this is great for research as well as a good read.” —Book­list
  • “The intense dra­ma of the 72-year bat­tle for women’s suf­frage springs vivid­ly to life from the pages of this com­pul­sive­ly read­able account.” —School Library Journal

And here are my thoughts about Votes for Women!:

I lis­tened to this one as an audio­book as part of judg­ing the CYBILS con­test. I also plan to check out the print ver­sion so I can see the images and backmatter.
From the open­ing scene to the final chap­ter, I was com­plete­ly drawn in. I thought I knew a fair bit about the his­to­ry of the wom­en’s suf­frage move­ment, but it turns out I had only super­fi­cial knowl­edge of the peo­ple and events involved. I’m grate­ful to have been enlight­ened, although I’ll admit the expe­ri­ence was­n’t always easy nor pleas­ant. There were times when the injus­tices and insults endured by the women made me sput­ter with out­rage. And there were oth­er times when I was, lit­er­al­ly, reduced to tears by the way they were treat­ed. But most­ly I was grate­ful for the courage and per­sis­tence of these hero­ic female lead­ers and buoyed by it. Con­kling has brought these icons to life and giv­en us a peek inside their dai­ly lives in addi­tion to their well-known accom­plish­ments. I found it thor­ough­ly engaging.
This book should be required read­ing in schools for both girls and boys. It offers impor­tant lessons not only in his­to­ry but also in equal­i­ty and fair­ness, grit and deter­mi­na­tion, group dynam­ics and social inter­ac­tions, and pow­er and process. It also feels quite time­ly in this era of resis­tance, activism, and #MeToo. High­ly recommended.
Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

Review: Capsized! by Patricia Sutton

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Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

Capsized! cover
Cap­sized! The For­got­ten Sto­ry of the SS East­land Disaster
by Patri­cia Sutton
Chica­go Review Press (July 1, 2018)
Grades 5–8, 176 pages

Here’s what the publisher says about Capsized!:

A fas­ci­nat­ing his­tor­i­cal account of courage and tragedy on the Chica­go River
On July 24, 1915, the SS East­land, filled to capac­i­ty with 2,500 pas­sen­gers and crew, cap­sized in the Chica­go Riv­er while still moored to the pier. Hap­py pic­nic-goers head­ed for an employ­ee out­ing across Lake Michi­gan sud­den­ly found them­selves in a strug­gle for their lives. Trapped belowdecks, crushed by the crowds attempt­ing to escape the ris­ing waters, or hurled into the riv­er from the upper deck of the ship, rough­ly one-third of the pas­sen­gers, most­ly women and chil­dren, per­ished that day.
The East­land dis­as­ter took more pas­sen­ger lives than the Titan­ic and stands today as the great­est loss of life on the Great Lakes. Cap­sized! details the events lead­ing up to the fate­ful day and pro­vides a nail-bit­ing, minute-by-minute account of the ship’s cap­siz­ing. From the courage of the sur­vivors to the despair of fam­i­lies who lost loved ones, author Patri­cia Sut­ton brings to light the sto­ries of ordi­nary work­ing peo­ple endur­ing the unthinkable.
Cap­sized! also rais­es crit­i­cal-think­ing ques­tions for young read­ers: Why do we know so much about the Titan­ic’s sink­ing yet so lit­tle about the East­land dis­as­ter? What caus­es a tragedy to be for­got­ten and left out of soci­ety’s col­lec­tive mem­o­ry? And what lessons from this dis­as­ter might we be able to apply today?

And what the critics say about Capsized!:

    • “A true dis­as­ter sto­ry riv­et­ing­ly told.” —Kirkus Reviews
    • “A bad­ly designed ship, a care­less cap­tain, and decks jammed with 2,500 pas­sen­gers are a recipe for dis­as­ter. Patri­cia Sut­ton describes the trag­ic launch­ing of the SS East­land in a dra­mat­ic, riv­et­ing nar­ra­tive filled with the vivid first­hand accounts of those onboard that brings read­ers along on a har­row­ing day trip.” —Jim Mur­phy, author of New­bery Hon­or titles The Great Fire and An Amer­i­can Plague
    • “A riv­et­ing page-turn­er sure to grab read­ers’ atten­tion. Patri­cia Sutton’s well-researched Cap­sized! will leave you shocked, sad­dened, and unable to put it down.” —Kate Han­ni­gan, author of The Detective’s Assistant
    • “Through metic­u­lous research and vivid prose, Sut­ton brings to life the lit­tle-known sto­ry of the East­land ship dis­as­ter. Based on first­hand accounts of pas­sen­gers, ship work­ers and bystanders, read­ers can expe­ri­ence the peo­ple and events that led to the sink­ing of the fastest steamship on the Great Lakes and its trag­ic after­math.” —Claire Rudolf Mur­phy, author of Gold Rush Women and March­ing with Aunt Susan
    • “The nar­ra­tive-dri­ven account, filled with quotes from indi­vid­u­als and news­pa­pers, his­tor­i­cal pho­tos, and tri­al tran­scripts, is engag­ing and accessible…Extensive source notes, which account for every quote, as well as a bib­li­og­ra­phy, round out this infor­ma­tive, engross­ing title.” —Book­list
    • “Cap­sized! is an excel­lent book for his­tor­i­cal research and high­ly rec­om­mend­ed for both mid­dle and high school libraries.” — KidsReads

And here are my thoughts about Capsized!:

I read this one as part of judg­ing the CYBILS, and I could not put it down! I start­ed read­ing it one night in bed, intend­ing to get in a quick chap­ter or two before turn­ing off the light, but I did­n’t stop until I’d read every last page.
I’m shocked, and frankly a lit­tle appalled, that I’d nev­er heard of this event before. Thank­ful­ly, Sut­ton chose to ded­i­cate her­self to telling this lit­tle-known sto­ry, and she tells it very well. The book itself reads with all the sus­pense and dra­ma of a well-paced nov­el, but you can see the research that went into this true sto­ry in the includ­ed source notes and bib­li­og­ra­phy. I par­tic­u­lar­ly appre­ci­at­ed how Sut­ton spelled out the var­i­ous cumu­la­tive rea­sons for the dis­as­ter: there are many impor­tant lessons to be learned from this sto­ry. I also appre­ci­at­ed the very human con­nec­tions Sut­ton built, let­ting us feel like we real­ly get to know many of the pas­sen­gers and their actions on that trag­ic day: there are lessons to be had there as well.
Giv­ing read­ers both the fac­tu­al account of an event and its emo­tion­al res­o­nance from mul­ti­ple view­points is not easy to do. This book pulls it off; an excel­lent exam­ple of nar­ra­tive non­fic­tion and one I expect I’ll be going back to as a men­tor text. High­ly recommended!
Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

Review: EAVESDROPPING ON ELEPHANTS

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Zoo Scientists cover

Eavesdropping on Elephants cover

EAVESDROPPING ON ELEPHANTS
by Patri­cia Newman
Mill­brook Press/August 1, 2018
Grades 4–8, 56 pages

Here’s what the pub­lish­er says:

Can under­stand­ing how for­est ele­phants com­mu­ni­cate help sci­en­tists find ways to pro­tect this vul­ner­a­ble species? Researcher Katy Pane and oth­ers involved with Cor­nell University’s Ele­phant Lis­ten­ing Project believe it can. Patri­cia New­man takes read­ers behind the scenes to see how sci­en­tists are mak­ing new dis­cov­er­ies about ele­phant com­mu­ni­ca­tion and using what they learn to help these majes­tic animals.
Fea­tures: Author/Illustrator biog­ra­phy, Bibliography/further read­ing, Glos­sary, Index, Maps, Page Plus, Pri­ma­ry source quotations/images, and Reviewed

And what the crit­ics say:

  • A Junior Library Guild Selection
  • “An invit­ing intro­duc­tion to biol­o­gists at work.” —Book­list
  • “…this book does an excel­lent job of trans­port­ing read­ers and pro­vid­ing a clear, mul­ti­fac­eted pic­ture of African for­est elephants…“The more you lis­ten to wildlife, the more your mind opens up to new ideas about why the world is a place worth sav­ing.” VERDICT A great pick for mid­dle school non­fic­tion col­lec­tions.” —School Library Journal
  • “Fas­ci­nat­ing for earnest con­ser­va­tion­ists.” —Kirkus Reviews

And here are my thoughts:
Patri­cia New­man does it again, with anoth­er engag­ing piece of nar­ra­tive non­fic­tion! This is a high­ly engag­ing read about the less well-known African for­est ele­phants and sev­er­al of the sci­en­tists who study them. The sci­ence here–bioacoustics–is quite inter­est­ing and the human sto­ries give it a per­son­al touch. I always appre­ci­ate when we get to see how sci­en­tists real­ly work, and it’s espe­cial­ly reward­ing to get a peek at how they col­lab­o­rate with one anoth­er on their sep­a­rate-but-relat­ed research projects. The book also men­tions some of the con­ser­va­tion aspects involved and even how kids can par­tic­i­pate if they’re so inspired. An added bonus is that most of the sci­en­tists in the book hap­pen to be women, which is so impor­tant for show­ing young girls that they can indeed have an impor­tant career in the sciences.
Final­ly, watch the trail­er to see–and hear–some of the ani­mals from the book!

Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

2018 CYBILS Round 1 judge

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2018 Cybils Round 1 Judge logo
2018 CYBILS, here I come! I’m excit­ed to share that I’ll be a CYBILS judge again this year. The CYBILS Awards rec­og­nize authors and illus­tra­tors whose books for chil­dren and young adults com­bine both lit­er­ary mer­it and pop­u­lar appeal. In the past, I’ve always helped with judg­ing the younger non­fic­tion cat­e­go­ry (Non­fic­tion Pic­ture Books in 2011 and 2012, and Elementary/Middle Grade Non­fic­tion in 2014). This time around, how­ev­er, I’ll be a Round 1 Judge in the Junior/Senior High Non­fic­tion cat­e­go­ry, along with the fol­low­ing tal­ent­ed bloggers:

Nom­i­na­tions will open on Octo­ber 1st, and our short­lists will be due in Decem­ber. There are usu­al­ly around 70 entries, so I’ll be doing a LOT of read­ing in the com­ing months. (And hope­ful­ly a lot of blog­ging, too–get ready for those reviews!) Final­ists will be announced in Jan­u­ary, and win­ners are announced in February.
2018 Cybils logo
 

The Histories and Mysteries blog tour roundup

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Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover

Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover
Our lat­est in the Two Truths and a Lie series, His­to­ries and Mys­ter­ies, has been out for a few weeks now, and we were lucky enough to have it hit the web for its offi­cial blog tour right around pub­li­ca­tion day. Now that the dust has start­ed to set­tle a bit, I want­ed to share all of the in-depth reviews, edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als, and bonus con­tent that appeared over the course of the tour.

Many, many thanks to the hard-work­ing blog­gers who help share the book love and get the word out to book buy­ers and read­ers! Also, thank you yet again to the excel­lent folks at Walden Pond Press who put this event togeth­er. xoxo
You can find out more about the book and grab your copy here or here.

Launch party recap for Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries

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Bookstore window display

I want­ed to share some of my favorite pho­tos from the Two Truths and a Lie: His­to­ries and Mys­ter­ies launch par­ty last Sat­ur­day at Brick and Mor­tar Books:

Bookstore window displayThis is the win­dow dis­play that greet­ed us when we arrived at Brick and Mor­tar Books! So nice!!

Bookstore table displayThey had loads of books ready for sale!

book signing The sign­ing line starts to form.

Laurie Ann Thompson signing a bookFun sign­ing books!

signing lineSign­ing line in progress.

Bookstore endcap displayBrick and Mor­tar even had a full end cap display!

What a great day! A huge thank you to Brick and Mor­tar Books for being such an amaz­ing host and to every­one who was able to make it. Brick and Mor­tar Books still has signed copies of all of the books, so feel free to stop in if you need any for your col­lec­tion! =D

Happy book birthday to Histories and Mysteries!

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Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover

Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: HISTORIES AND MYSTERIES is final­ly here! It takes a lot of peo­ple work­ing togeth­er to cre­ate a book, and this book had such an amaz­ing team behind it. Many, many thanks to my co-author, Ammi-Joan Paque­tte; our agent, Erin Mur­phy; our edi­tor, Jor­dan Brown; and all the won­der­ful folks at Walden Pond Press and Harper­Collins. It’s been an hon­or and a joy to work with you all!
So, what’s this book all about? Well…

Did you know that a young girl once saved an entire beach com­mu­ni­ty from a dev­as­tat­ing tsuna­mi thanks to some­thing she learned in her fourth-grade geog­ra­phy les­son? Or that there is a per­son alive today who gen­er­ates her own mag­net­ic field? Or how about the fact that Ben­jamin Franklin once chal­lenged the Roy­al Acad­e­my of Brus­sels to devise a way to make farts smell good?
You know the game: Every sto­ry in this book is strange and astound­ing, but one out of every three is an out­right lie. Some false sto­ries are based on truth, and some of the true sto­ries are just plain unbe­liev­able! Don’t be fooled by the pho­tos that accom­pa­ny each story—it’s going to take all your smarts and some clever research to root out the alter­na­tive facts. Don’t believe every­thing you read! (Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins, June 2018)

Reviews:
“With the phrase ‘fake news’ being tossed around a great deal these days, this col­lec­tion of sto­ries in which one out of every three is a lie is both time­ly and enter­tain­ing…. Read­ers with a taste for triv­ia and the strange-but-true aspects of geog­ra­phy and his­to­ry will find much to enjoy.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Even dyed-in-the-wool skep­tics will be hard put to spot the ringers: foot­prints embed­ded in sand­stone on the roof of Kentucky’s Mam­moth Caves, den­tal fill­ings more than 12,000 years old, or a trove of lead tiles embed­ded with ancient Roman curs­es? Along with sug­ges­tions for side projects and dis­cus­sions, the authors offer fact lists con­tain­ing one false fac­toid as extra chal­lenges to read­ers’ creduli­ty. Hap­pi­ly, the back mat­ter includes expla­na­tions that iden­ti­fy the baloney, as well as a savvy guide to eval­u­at­ing infor­ma­tion sources.” —Book­list

Amazon logo Barnes and Noble logo indiesRed1_161x41_10-26-15 Powell's logo HarperCollins logo

Signed copies are avail­able from Brick and Mor­tar Books! 

GIF of Peanuts celebrating
 

What to read on World Refugee Day

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World Refugee Day poster
PDF avail­able from Library Graph­ics
(click image for info)

Can you imag­ine becom­ing a refugee, need­ing to leave your house sud­den­ly with no plans, lit­tle idea of where to go, and the knowl­edge that you may nev­er return? Every day chil­dren and their fam­i­lies are being forced to flee their homes, com­mu­ni­ties, and coun­tries around the world just to stay alive. Today, June 20th, is World Refugee Day, held by the Unit­ed Nations every year to com­mem­o­rate the strength, courage, and per­se­ver­ance of mil­lions of refugees. How can we talk about this real­i­ty with chil­dren? Here are a few help­ful resources:
RefugeeOne headerRefugeeOne has put togeth­er a fan­tas­tic down­load­able PDF enti­tled Lit­er­a­ture for Chil­dren and Ado­les­cents about the Refugee and Immi­grant Expe­ri­ence. It’s sort­ed by age groups, main­ly accord­ing to read­ing level.
BRYCS logoBridg­ing Refugee Youth and Chil­dren’s Ser­vices (BRYCS) has curat­ed an exten­sive list of Chil­dren’s Books about the Refugee/Immigrant Expe­ri­ence.
Brightly logoAuthor Olugbe­miso­la Rhu­day-Perkovich has com­piled a list of Books to Help Kids Under­stand What It’s Like to Be a Refugee for Brightly.
SPL logoThe Seat­tle Kids Librar­i­ans at The Seat­tle Pub­lic Library have com­piled a list called The Immi­grant and Refugee Expe­ri­ence in Chil­dren’s Books.
IHE logoThe Insti­tute for Humane Edu­ca­tion has put togeth­er this list of 16 Children’s Pic­ture Books About Refugees.
Goodreads logoAnd, last but not least, Goodreads has a HUGE list of Pop­u­lar Refugee Books.
 
We would want some­one to help us if we were in a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion, so let’s do the same for them and respond to refugees with sol­i­dar­i­ty, com­pas­sion, and action. Books can be a great place to start.
Refugees Welcome sign
Image avail­able as a stick­er or down­load­able PDF (click for info)

Launch party for Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries

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Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover
Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover

Please join me for the West Coast Launch Party for

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE:
HISTORIES AND MYSTERIES

Saturday, June 30th, 2 PM **

A trivia-style game-show challenge… with prizes!

Q&A, exclusive behind-the-scenes gossip, and outtakes!

Book swag!

Charitable giving!

Free snacks and drinks!

Books, books, and more books!

Brick & Mortar Books
7430 164th Avenue Northeast
Redmond, WA 98052

To RSVP, please visit the event invitation here. Thanks!

** Come ear­ly to enjoy the fab­u­lous Red­mond Sat­ur­day Mar­ket before the event!

And, if you can’t make the par­ty but would like to order a signed copy, please call Brick and Mor­tar Books at 425–869-0606.

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