Cybils Shortlist: Five Children’s Non-Fiction Books

In no particular order, here’s what I thought of five of the children’s non-fiction books from the Cybils shortlist:

Faith – nice picture book for those who want to introduce young children to a variety of religions and cultures. Beautiful photos of children participating in faith based activities. TW leaned over while I was reading it and said, “Is that a UU book?” – which made me laugh. It would certainly be UU approved.

Down, Down, Down – interesting but a wee bit boring. The pictures were nice enough but considering just how crazy some deep sea creatures really look, it was a bit of a let down.

I think I liked Moonshot more than any of my kids would have. Apollo 11 just doesn’t seem all that interesting to little kids today. It happened too long ago and a world without Velcro is just not something they can comprehend at the age that this book is geared to. And if we want the older child to learn about Apollo 11’s history, then we can do better than this – it’s just too young for the school aged child and too old for a toddler. It’s fun for you if you sit down and look closely at the artwork – and then compare the real photos with the drawings…

14 Cows for America is a super nice, feel good story about 9/11 without really talking about 9/11. I liked it. I liked the art. I liked the softly told story. I liked the feel good message. I just liked it.

Mermaid Queen was my favorite. As much as I have griped about attending synchronized swimming meets with RJ (and then Liz), I do have a fondness for water ballet and I’ve been a big Esther Williams fan all of my life. Annette Kellerman should be better known than she is. I really loved this book. I should buy it – for the girls, of course.

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