Breaking Stalin's Nose Review

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Yelchin, Eugene. Breaking Stalin's Nose. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2011. ISBN 9781250034106

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
His mother is dead, and they came to arrest his father in the night. So, 10-year-old Sasha Zaichik suddenly finds himself alone and homeless the night before he his supposed to be inducted into the Young Soviet Pioneers and be the proudest boy in Stalin's Soviet Union. Instead of panicking, he goes where he thinks he should be — school, and finds that no one and nowhere is safe in the only country he has ever known.

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Author Eugene Yelchin grew up in Communist Soviet Union in the 1960s before he immigrated to the United States, but his father lived in the Soviet Union during Stalin's rule and Yelchin dedicated this book to his survival. Yelchin's experiences and the experiences of his father shaped the setting, storyline and highly emotional reality of his main character, 10-year-old Sasha Zaichik, in Breaking Stalin's Nose.

Sasha and his father live in a communal apartment in Moscow. His father works for the government and Sasha attends school. When his father is arrested for being a traitor, Sasha believes there must be a mistake. As far as he knew, his father held a position of power and respect with Stalin's government, and Sasha is convinced if he approached Stalin, he would free his father. After his father is taken, another family kicks Sasha out of his room in the apartment. He runs to find comfort in his family, but Sasha's aunt and uncle are afraid that the government will arrest them if they take him in, and so Sasha is forced to sleep in the basement of his aunt's apartment building.

In the morning, he heads to school hoping that his father will have been released and will preside, as planned, over his induction into the Young Soviet Pioneers. A series of unfortunate events teach Sasha how naive he is about the state of his country, how no line exists between right and wrong, and that teachers, principals, government representatives and even children are all operating in a state of fear and paranoia that will imprison or kill a number of Soviet people during Stalin's rule. Sasha learns early that survival is paramount.

Yelchin takes readers on a two-day tour of hopelessness as Sasha's situation goes from bad to worse. His black drawings illustrate the cold unfairness of his situation. The sadness and progression into utter despair by Sasha and two of his peers may be hard for young readers to absorb, but does open the door for readers to consider what freedom really is and form a more considerate view of the perils children face all over the world due to corrupt governments and unstable political climates.

Yelchin offers the reader a number of access points including an author's note, photos and explanatory captions, as well as a question and answer section with the author.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) and AWARDS
Newbery Medal Honor Book
Junior Library Guild Selection
Best Children's Book of 2011 by Horn Book Magazine
Best Children's Book of 2011 by The Washington Post
Top Ten Historical Fiction for Youth by Booklist, 2012
Finalist for California Book Awards, 2012
Editor's Choice by Historical Novel Society, 2011

From Publishers Weekly
"Through Sasha's fresh and optimistic voice, Yelchin powerfully renders an atmosphere of fear that forces false confessions, even among schoolchildren, and encourages neighbors and family members to betray one another without evidence. Readers will quickly pick up on the dichotomy between Sasha's ardent beliefs and the reality of life under Stalinism, and be glad for his ultimate disillusion, even as they worry for his future." 

From Wall Street Journal
"Mr. Yelchin has compressed into two days of events an entire epoch, giving young readers a glimpse of the precariousness of life in a capricious yet ever-watchful totalitarian state." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Other books by Eugene Yelchin: 

• Arcady's Goal. ISBN 9780805098440
• The Haunting of Falcon House. ISBN 9780805098457

Additional background material on Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union:

• Archer, Jules. Man of Steel: Joseph Stalin: Russia's Ruthless Ruler. ISBN 9781634501774
• Hagen, Brenda. Joseph Stalin: Dictator of the Soviet Union. ISBN 9780756515973
• Morrell, Kathleen Berton. Russia. ISBN 9780679891185

Winston Churchill said, "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Children may recognize the tactics Stalin's Soviet Union uses to give the illusion of choice for its people. This illusion is to choose to be with us or choose to be against us, which isn't much of a choice at all, but if you've grown up in the land of the free and the home of the brave, you may not have a firm understanding of what a dictatorship is.

By further studying the history of the Soviet Union and Russia and biographies about Stalin, children can build an understanding of warning signs and concerns related to authoritarian rule. Having students debate between democracy and dictatorship, so they can understand why both exist in the world will require further research and engagement from the whole class. It will also introduce concepts like checks and balances, the First Amendment, and the power of Nationalism.

Review of One Crazy Summer

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Williams-Garcia, Rita. One Crazy Summer. New York: Amistad, 2010. ISBN 9780060760885

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Three sisters travel from New York City to Oakland, California, to visit their estranged mother in 1968. The girls must learn how to navigate a new city without the help of their seemingly distant and unreliable parent, whose connections to the Black Panther party and life as a revolutionary poet during the Civil Rights Movement end up being the lifeline that tethers them to their mother. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In 1968, three sisters, Delphine, in fifth grade, Fern, in fourth grade, and Vonetta, in second grade, are sent from the only home they've ever known with their father and grandmother in New York City to spend the summer with their mother, Cecile, in Oakland, California.

Cecile is not a warm person. She doesn't cook. She doesn't hug. And she makes it clear that she doesn't want the girls there: "I didn't send for you. Didn't want you in the first place. Should have gone to Mexico to get rid of you when I had the chance" (26-27).

Not only was it an unwelcoming greeting to the girls, who don't really remember their mother, but it was a vital introduction that Williams-Garcia gives the reader into the realities of American life in the late 1960s with harsh reality that to end a pregnancy women had to travel to Mexico pre-Roe v. Wade to get a medical procedure.

Cecile lives in a house down the street from a Black Panther center, where the girls are able to get a free breakfast every morning and learn about social justice in a Black Panther program that was run like a day camp. The girls were taught by Sister Mukumbu about how the goal of living was to improve the situation for all subjugated people. "Revolving. Revolution. Revolutionary. Constant Turning. Making things change," she tells the class (72). Historical figures like Huey Newton and Che Guevara are taught. Williams-Garcia also makes references to other important civil rights leaders including, Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Bobby Hutton, Cassius Clay, and the Kennedys.

Oakland is a strange new world for the girls. Cecile gives them money for Chinese food every night, and Delphine grows up fast realizing that without a stable parent in place, she will need to take on the role of mother. The kids fend for themselves in the neighborhood against bullies, who don't like that little Vonetta carries a white-colored doll in their predominantly black neighborhood. Delphine's innate ability as a caretaker shines through as an affront to her mother's revolutionary lifestyle. "She probably hated my father's plain face on me. That the plain way about him was the plain way about me. I didn't know about blowing dust and clearing paths. I knew about hot-combing thick heads of hair and ironing pleated wool skirts for school" (76).

Delphine rises for the sake of her sisters, and in doing so learns from the Black Panther camp the benefits of activism, the strength of her blackness, and how to reach her mother's heart through recognizing her sacrifice and struggles with being "woke" in a time when white people in San Francisco took pictures of the three little black girls like they were animals in a zoo.

Williams-Garcia poured a lot of historical framework into One Crazy Summer, but it's the highly tenuous and authentic relationship between the girls and their mother that ties the book together. Williams-Garcia acknowledges many of her influences and role models when she wrote the book, including, Nikki Giovanni, Gwendolyn Brooks, and the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service, etc.

Children today may also realize how much less responsibility and freedom they have to wander than children growing up in earlier generations had at a much younger age. Cecile's history of homelessness and poverty shine a light on the social inequity and racism upon which America was founded and that bigotry and racial oppression that continues to thrive in our country generation after generation.

Williams-Garcia made me loves these girls. Their ability to endure discomfort and uncertainty and stand up for family and community makes One Crazy Summer a noble and thoughtful read about a critical time in American history that still resonates today with the efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement and the social justice action of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union. I am excited that she wrote two sequels to the book and that the girls' stories live on.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) and AWARDS
Newbery Medal Honor Book
National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature
Coretta Scott King Award Winner, 2011
Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction

From School Library Journal
"Emotionally challenging and beautifully written, this book immerses readers in a time and place and raises difficult questions of cultural and ethnic identity and personal responsibility." 

From Kirkus Reviews
"The depiction of the time is well done, and while the girls are caught up in the difficulties of adults, their resilience is celebrated and energetically told with writing that snaps off the page." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Other books featuring Delphine and her family by Rita Williams-Garcia

• P.S. Be Eleven. ISBN 9780061938641
• Gone Crazy in Alabama. ISBN 9780062215895

Other historical fiction chapter books about African American life in the United States:

• Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963. ISBN 9780385382946
• Draper, Sharon M. Stella by Starlight. ISBN 9781442494985
• Taylor, Mildred D. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. ISBN 9780142401125

In the book, Cecile is a powerful poet. Her emotional connection to her art teaches her children that words have meaning, particularly through poetry. Reread Cecile's poem at the end of the book, and have children try their hand writing a poem about their lives. What important words do your students have to say about their own histories and things they see going on in the world that effect them?

For additional resources and historical information on black history in the United States, be sure to explore museums in your area. Museums are a great place to see about forming connections related to historical exhibits. For example, in Austin, where I live, we are home to the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library, which has many exhibits and additional information on the Civil Rights movement. In addition, the Smithsonian and the U.S. Library of Congress have a number of materials and exhibits online, if field trips are not an affordable option for your school or library program budgets.

Review of Lily's Crossing

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Giff, Patricia Reilly. Lily's Crossing. New York: Delacorte Press, 1997. ISBN 0385321422

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Lily and her grandmother travel to their summer cottage while Lily's father, an engineer, is headed overseas to help the Allies in World War II. Lily spends her holiday in what feels like the same quiet summer town she has always known while the rest of the world is in utter turmoil. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The year is 1944 and Lily is in fifth grade. She feels stifled by her traditional Catholic school upbringing and cannot wait until summer arrives. Every summer her family heads to Rockaway Beach on the Atlantic to her grandmother's summer home to enjoy ocean breezes, fishing and swimming. But this year is decidedly different for Lily. World War II has made her best friend's family relocate from Rockaway Beach to a war town. Her father, an engineer, is headed overseas to help the war effort, and Albert, a young refugee boy from Europe, moves in with her neighbors.

Giff says in her "Dear Reader" letter at the end of the book that Lily's summer town of Rockaway Beach was inspired by her own summers on the Atlantic. She captures the emotional effect of the war on the small town community, as people pull down blackout shades at night in case German pilots cross the Atlantic and attack America, the bakery hangs "Loose Lips Sink Ships" signs to discourage talking about possible tactical maneuvers, and even Lily feels the need to scold her mailman when he engages her in conversation about what her father might be working on overseas with the military.

With her father absent, and her mother deceased, Lily lives with her grandmother, who she has a love/hate relationship with. Lily has a hard time seeing her Gram as anything other than a disciplinarian. "Lily couldn't picture it, couldn't picture Gram skinny, and swimming all the way across Jamaica Bay... she had a braid to her waist, and she was a seal in the water" (47).

In the true tradition of the time, Lily focuses on simpler things in life. She plays outside all day, visits the library, sneaks into picture shows, and listens to the radio with her Grandmother. Giff portrays Lily accurately as a pre-teen girl, with her purse and lipstick, who hates to practice the piano, returns library books late, and buys day-old cookies at the bakery out of politeness to appease the owner's desperation over the lack of supplies, like butter and sugar, during war time to run her business.

But Lily also has a problem with lying. She recognizes it as a personality flaw, and also part of her affection for creative writing, but she cannot seem to keep her stories contained. Her lies to Albert about someday sneaking onto a boat headed to Europe to find her father inspire him to attempt to return to Europe to find the family he was forced to leave behind. After all, if Lily could do it, couldn't he? Her lies compel the story's climax and risks the life of her only friend, who has already lost so much.

Lily is a highly relatable little girl. Giff portrays her as being very self-aware of her flaws and, therefore, she is very easy for readers to identify with. Stuck between childhood and impending adolescence, Lily is looking for her place in a world that is ripping itself apart. Giff handles the hometown concerns of war with care and tenderness and without being too scary for middle grade readers.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) and AWARDS
Newbery Honor Award, 1998
ALA Notable Children's Book, 1998
Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book

From School Library Journal
"History is brought to life through Giff's well-chosen details and descriptions...Giff's well-drawn believable characters and vivid prose style make this an excellent choice." 

From Publishers Weekly
"Exceptional characterizations and a robust story line turn this WWII homefront novel into far more than a period piece." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Other historical fiction books by Patricia Reilly Giff:

• Maggie's Door. ISBN 9780440415817
• Nora Ryan's Song. ISBN 9780440418290
• Water Street. ISBN 9780440419211

Other historical fiction books about World War II for children ages 10+:

• Farrell, Mary Cronk. Irena's Children: A Young Reader's Edition. ISBN 9781481449915
• Park, Linda Sue. When My Name Was Keoko. ISBN 9780547722399
• Wolk, Lauren. Wolf Hollow. ISBN 9781101994825

Oftentimes American children focus on their own country's influence on World War II, forgetting that it is a world war and that it affected children globally. Reading historical fiction can create a bridge based on empathy for children of other cultures who were also impacted by the war. In addition, helping children to see a scope of emotions outside of their own time can inspire thoughtfulness about where the world is headed and what kind of caring adult they may want to grow up to become. Though adults might not want to admit it, between age 10 and 12, children often get a real sense of how unsafe their world actually is. Fiction books about anxiety, fear, loss and personal growth can help children cope with those emotions as they are undoubtably what makes us human. How does one continue with life after they survive a Concentration Camp? How does one deal with being an orphan? How did all of this pain and separation of families start with hate for those who are different from ourselves, and what can be done to prevent such atrocity in the future? How can these stories be related to current world events?

The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus Review by Dana G. Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bryant, Jen. The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus. Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans Books for Young People, 2014. ISBN 9780802853851

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
An informational picture book on the extraordinary life of Peter Mark Roget who had the spirit of a scientific explorer and loved to classify the words he learned from his life experiences into an organized thesaurus for all.  

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Author Jen Bryant's collaboration with illustrator Melissa Sweet is a beautiful picture book on the life of and important contributions that Peter Mark Roget made in science, medicine, and informational organization. The book is a chronological account of Roget's life, and Bryant's clear and fluid writing makes it perfect for younger elementary aged students. Not only that but Roget's lifelong love of learning presents as a wonderful role model for children and adults alike. Bryant's research into his life reveals a smart, loving man with a desire to find "the right word."

Sweet's use of illustrations feel like a scrapbook and welcome young readers into Roget's life almost as an image-based timeline. Her artistry makes his classification system, extraordinary life experiences, and love for words stand out.

I have to admit that I never gave much thought to how the thesaurus came to be, and I've been using one since fourth grade. But I was surprised to learn how Roget's Thesaurus wasn't his great life achievement, instead it was a book created as a the result of his lifelong commitment to education and his accolades and successes in the fields of science and medicine. For example, Bryant's timeline of important dates and happenings in Roget's life is presented with other important world events. Her extra notes and sources teach readers how Roget wrote for Encyclopedia Brittanica and also wrote the first scientific paper on optical illusion. The extra access points will appeal to readers who want to know more than what the prose conveys. The bibliography, suggested readings, and sources back up Bryant's research, while the notes by the author and illustrator give important background into how and why the artists created this award-winning book.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) and AWARDS
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal
Caldecott Honor Book 2015
CLSC Young Reader's Selection for 2015
Kirkus Prize Finalist 2014
NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book 2015
School Library Journal Best Books 2014
Texas Bluebonnet Master List 2015-2016
ABC Best Books Catalog
Horn Book Magazine Best Books of 2014
Junior Library Guild Selection
SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Illustration

From Horn Book
"Bryant's linear telling follows Peter closely, expressing his curiosity, sensitivity, and populist spirit in language that is both decorous and warm." 

From Kirkus Review
"Bryant's prose is bright and well-tuned for young readers. She goes gently, omitting Roget's darkest traumas...Exemplary back matter includes chronology, author's and illustrator's notes, selected bibliography, suggested reading, quotation sources, and a photograph of one of Roget's manuscript pages." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Other books by Jen Bryant:

• A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams. ISBN 9780802853028
• Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille. ISBN 9780449813379
• A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippen. ISBN 9780375867125

Other books for early elementary school students to discover the power of lists and organizing information:

• Ash, Russell. Fantastic Book of 1001 Lists. ISBN 9780789434128
• Foresman, Scott. Roget's Children's Thesaurus. ISBN 9780673651372
• Thermes, Jennifer. Charles Darwin's Around-the-World Adventure. ISBN 9781419721205

By kindergarten, children start to learn that written words have power whether it's writing grocery lists or hall passes or birthday wish lists. In the case of Roget, he used his lists to collect and organize words because he loved them. In Darwin's case, he needs to record the scientific information he collected and his observations while traveling the world.

With younger elementary students creating a class list of favorite foods, chores to do, and books that they've read can show them how to create and organize mini databases on paper. In addition, older students who are independent writers might be interested in creating their own book of lists or putting together a vocabulary journal based on words they learn at school, in their every day lives, or from the books they are reading.

Review of The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion and the Fall of Imperial Russia by Dana G. Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fleming, Candace. The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion and the Fall of Imperial Russia. New York: Schwartz, 2014. ISBN 9780375867828

2.  SUMMARY
An engaging social history about the last tsar of Russia — Nicholas II and his family. Author Candace Fleming covers everything from his childhood to the deterioration of his rule, and ultimately his family's cruel execution at the hands of the new Russian government in the early twentieth century. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Often when reading about the history of other cultures, readers get caught up in the "otherness." The different foreign norms, languages, and social expectations which allow readers to separate from the material they are consuming. In The Family Romanov, Candace Fleming weaves the history of Russia's last royal family like a Grimm fairy tale beginning chronologically with Tsar Nicholas' childhood until his death in 1918.

The Family Romanov reads a bit like a well-thought out dramatic soap opera — except it is very, very real. The wealthy 1% of the Russian people live completely oblivious to the hardships of the farm peasants and workers who are the backbone of the Russian economy at the turn of the century. The upperclass' reality is filled with fancy parties, multiple homes, and education. They gossip and turn on each other and the Russian Orthodox Church, which might be the leading force for creating societal norms among them, perpetuates beliefs in many mystical totems that put logic and reason outside of the family's grasp, particularly for Alexandra, Nicholas' wife.

According to the family tree in the front of the text, the Romanov family ruled Russia for over 100 years, but what Fleming makes clear is that there were no heroes during the last 20 years of the family's rule. No one in this story is "good" but they all believe themselves to be well-intentioned and working toward a better Russia. The influence of many controversial figures, like Gregory Rasputin and Vladimir Lenin, lead to many missteps and severe consequences for the Romanovs, and ultimately, for Russia, but Fleming has done her job as researcher. Her writing makes a long and complex history, full of ugly betrayal and ignorance, approachable to teen audiences.

Fleming lists a long bibliography and several pages of notes accounting for every fact in her story. The book provides two "photo breaks" for readers to peer into the eyes and daily lives of the Russian people. What she presents to readers is a history of failed leadership in a country where the people were crying out for democracy and change. Teen readers might associate the marches and protests in Russia with the current political climate regarding the growing socio economic divide in the United States.

What I like most about this book is that Fleming uses facts to separate the cruelty and cluelessness of those in power from the stark reality of those they rule and the undeniable fortitude of the Russian people. It's almost as if she is giving readers mirrors to peek around the corner in order to anticipate decisions and their consequences for the royal family and Russia.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) and AWARDS
Robert F. Sibert Award — Honor
Boston Globe Horn Book Award for Nonfiction
YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist
ALSC Notable Children's Books, Older Readers, 2015
Booklist Editor's Choice 2014
Booklist Editors Top of the List for Youth Nonfiction, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book 2014
NYPL Best Book for Teens 2014
School Library Journal Best Book 2014
Winner of The Los Angeles Times Book Prize 

From The Horn Book
"Fleming has outdone herself with this riveting work of narrative nonfiction that appeals to the imagination as much as the intellect." 

From Kirkus Reviews
"It's an astounding and complex story, and Fleming lays it neatly out for readers unfamiliar with the context...It is full of rich details about the Romanovs, insights into figures such as Vladimir Lenin, and firsthand accounts from ordinary Russians affected by tumultuous events." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Other informational books by Candace Fleming:

• Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart. ISBN 9780375841989
• The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum. ISBN 9780375841972
• The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary. ISBN 9780375836183

Other informational books about Russian history and culture for older children and teens:

• Anderson, M.T.. Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad. ISBN 9780763691004
• Dando, William A. Russia. ISBN 9780791092484
• Shields, Charles J. and Brenda Lange. Vladimir Putin. ISBN 9780791092156
• Turner, Daniel. Simple History: The Cold War. ISBN 9781537036199

Russia is a hot topic in the news right now due to connections that are being drawn between people working for the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government and Russian influences on our last presidential election, but very few teens might know much about Russia or its history. Reading informational books and creating visual displays about different eras in Russian history would help older children begin to grasp the complexities of our country's relationship with Russia since 1900  and gain a basic understanding about Russia.

Students could present murals, collages or "Did you know?" boards about the areas of Russian history and culture that they studied. The suggested books above may be helpful. More tech savvy programs may want students to create their own book trailers. Fleming even offers a trailer for The Family Romanov on her website.

Review of Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring by Dana G. Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Greenberg, Jan and Sandra Jordan. Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring. New York: Roaring Book Press, 2010. ISBN 9781596433380

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Authors Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan use their informational picture book prowess to capture the creative processes of Martha Graham as she created and produced her ballet Appalachian Spring with collaborators composer Aaron Copland and set designer Isamu Noguchi. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan specialize in writing informational children's books about art and artists. They are multiple award winners, as is the illustrator for Ballet for Martha, Brian Floca. Before reading Ballet for Martha, I had never read one of Greenberg or Jordan's collaborative efforts. With their expert backgrounds as non-fiction writers for children, it's not a surprise that Ballet for Martha is exceptionally thorough in its research and story telling. What impressed me the most was how much I loved their breakdown of Martha Graham's creative process. Their commitment to detail was impressive, especially when I decided to view a performance of Appalachian Spring on YouTube.

Floca's illustrations captured so much of the dancers' movements in still watercolors. And the writers defined every part of the process down to each of the instruments used in the orchestra to create the music. Greenberg and Jordan use very simple, descriptive imagery throughout the book and are honest about the frustrating parts of Graham's process. On page 17, they write, "She has a tantrum. She screams. She yells. She throws a shoe. The dancers wait. Martha always figures it out." The illustration on that page is of two dancers wearing frustrated looks on their faces with a solitary shoe in the middle of the dance floor. Graham's fit reads like a dancer's poetic memory.

Similarly, outside of the extensive research needed to tell how Graham worked with composer Aaron Copland and set designer Isamu Noguchi, the authors have to write and describe Graham's exotic dance movement. "Slowly the Bride glides in, then runs to the Groom. The preacher's four Followers file in. The music turns lively and playful as the young girls dance in pairs, then form circles, fluttering, skittering, reaching up to the sky" (28-29). As a reader, you can close your eyes and picture the dance accurately from their writing.

Greenberg and Jordan cite 17 sources in the back of their book. They source every piece of dialogue or action they use in the picture book. They also give short bios on all three artists who were born at the turn of the twentieth century. Graham, a woman who went to New York and started her own dance company; Copland, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, who studied music in France and won the Presidential Medal for Freedom and a Pulitzer Prize for "Appalachian Spring" in 1944; and Noguchi, who was born in the United States, but lived in Japan as a child, and later lived in a Japanese internment camp in the United States during World War II (44-45). Capturing the historical work of one artist is hard enough, but Ballet for Martha does a wonderful job of telling the story of all three artists and their individual influences on this particular dance performance.

Greenberg and Jordan also thank every interviewee, archivist, and librarian who helped them on their journey to author this book. I almost wish they could write an autobiographical picture book with Floca about their own creative processes as three artists collaborating on children's informational literature.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) and AWARDS
Robert F. Sibert Award — Honor
ALA Notable Children's Book
Winner of the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding NYPL Book for Reading and Sharing
CCBC Choice (University of Wisconsin)
Ibby Honor Books
School Library Journal Best Books 2010
Washington Post Best Books 2010
Kirkus Best Books 2010
Booklist Editor's Choice 2010

From School Library Journal
"If Martha Graham's choreography for 'Appalachian Spring' was a 'valentine' to the world, as critics wrote in 1944, then this book is a love letter in return." 

From Booklist
"Matching the mood of Graham's moves, the writing is pared down but full of possibilities. Floca's ink-and-watercolor artwork nimbly shifts from the prosaic to the visionary to the several-spread finale of the ballet itself. The book as a whole beautifully captures the process of artistic creation." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Other informational books by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan:

• Action Jackson. ISBN 9780312367510
• Chuck Close: Up Close. ISBN 9780789424860
• The Mad Potter: George E. Ohr, Eccentric Genius. ISBN 9781596438101

Other informational stories about dance for elementary school-aged readers:

• Copeland, Misty. Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina. ISBN 9781481479790
• Reich, Susanna. José: Born to Dance. ISBN 9780689865763
• Stringer, Lauren. When Stravinsky Met Ninjinsky: Two Artists, Their Ballet, and One Extraordinary Riot. ISBN 9780547907253

By elementary school, children have often been taught or have picked up on gender bias in American social constructs. A child may categorize activities as being "for a girl" or "for a boy." Often times, art like dance, falls squarely in the "for a girl" category. By creating an informational library that represents dancers of different genders and from different cultures, teachers and librarians can help show children how art constantly challenges what people might consider the cultural norm when it comes to dance.

In addition to learning about the histories of dance, dancers and choreographers, books like Ballet for Martha, can teach children three valuable c's (communication, collaboration, and creativity) without feeling like they've been shoved down their throats. A study in music, dance and theater is more than just an in-class assignment, it is an introduction to self-expression and the power of art, as well as a way to allow movement and music into an elementary classroom outside of the typical scheduled P.E. or music time.