Cybil Challenge

Life-Size Zoo is a fun children’s non-fiction book. Each animal image is displayed full sized which means kids get a really good idea of just how big a giraffe’s tongue really is. It’s really brilliant. The only problem is that because some animals are so large, they can take up to four full pages to display – which makes refolding the pages of the book difficult. My copy came from the library and the pages were all folded incorrectly. And at one point. I had a tough time figuring out just how the pages were intended to be folded. I mean I could put the pictures of the elephant together properly but to refold them back into the book, in a way that properly displays the animals before and after… well that was tough. This is a book that some kids will be frustrated by, for that very reason. It’s also a book that other children will love figuring out – tearing could be a problem for the frustrated child.

Otherwise – I loved it. And not just because there’s a cute photo of a prairie dog – though there is a cute photo of a prairie dog.

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I went on a Cybil’s binge last night. It’s easy when my binge comes from the children’s category. Quick, easy reads that are usually a lot of fun or pretty interesting. Last night, they were more interesting than fun.

The last two books from the Children’s Non-Fiction short list were The Frog Scientist and Marching For Freedom.

The Frog Scientist was interesting but I can’t see any of my kids reading this one for fun – or just because they were interested in frogs. It’s more like a resource for a paper about frogs or environmental issues. And as a resource for such a paper, it’s a great one. The photos are good. The description of the experiment taking place was excellent. Any kid who needs a research topic ought to consider the plight of the frog and the effects of pesticides on frogs. Fascinating, really.  (And way to go Tyrone! A fellow South Carolinian! Nice to see an African American scientist with a really diverse group of research assistants. For that alone, this book ought to be handed to every kid to peruse.)

I wasn’t prepared to really enjoy Marching for Freedom. I’ve read a whole slew of books about African Americans and their fight for the vote, Rosa Parks, MLK, etc…. this one was completely different. OK not completely different but because it really focused on the children and teenagers who played a huge role in the fight for the right to vote, it was a different story. Selma and the march to Montgomery – completely different look when you’re thinking about just how many children CHOSE to march. That’s a story that just hasn’t been told before – and one that we should be telling our kids about. Kids can do great things and make huge contributions – and they should. It’s a scary story – 10 year olds and 12 year olds and 14 year olds being jailed and beaten, but it’s important.  Those kids knew that this was something worth standing up for.  

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