November 2021
Every month, I check out 31 recently published picture books and share their first lines.
This month is all non fiction. I include the first line, but instead of analyzing it, I also note the structure/hook of the book.
Fave Five Titles This Month
Twenty-One STEPS: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
The Last Straw: Kids vs Plastics
Flight for Freedom: The Wetzel Family's Daring Escape from East Germany
If the World Were 100 People
So You Want to Be an Owl
I Am Frida Kahlo
by Brad Meltzer, art by Christopher Eliopoulos
2021
First line: I am Frida Kahlo.
Structure: first person chronology of Frida Kahlo's life.
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How to Apologize
by David LaRochelle, art by Mike Wohnoutka
2021
First line: Everyone makes mistakes.
Structure: Examples of mistakes and examples of insincere and sincere apologies.
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A Life Electric: the story of Nikola Tesla
by Azadeh Westergaard, art by Julia Sarda
2021
First line: At the stroke of midnight on July 10, 1856, thunder clapped.
Structure: the chronological story of Nikola's life.
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If the World Were 100 People
2021
by Jackie McCann, art by Aaron Cushley
First line: How many people are there in the world?
Structure: breakdown of who we are as humans if there were only 100 people. For example, 50 would be male; 50 would be female.
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NANO: The Spectacular Science of the Very (Very) Small
by Dr. Jess Wade, art by Melissa Castrillon
2021
First two lines: Look around your home. Everything is made of something.
Structure: an accessible intro to atoms and elements and a look at how very (very) small materials are being used in nanotechnology.
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Our Subway Baby: The true story of how one baby found his home
by Peter Mercurio, art by Leo Espinosa
2020
First line: Some babies are born into their families.
Structure: chronological story, talking to the baby, of how one man found a baby in the subway and adopted him with his male partner.
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Beautiful Shades of Brown: the art of Laura Wheeler Waring
by Nancy Churnin, art by Felicia Marshall
2020
First line: Laura loved the color brown.
Structure: story chronicling Laura Wheeler's journey to a career as an artist famous for painting portraits of Black people, starting by spotlighting her childhood fascination with the color brown.
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Bunheads
by Misty Copeland, art by Setor Fiadzigbey
2020
First line: When Miss Bradley announced they'd be performing the ballet Coppelia for the recital, everyone in Misty's class shouted excitedly and gathered around to hear their teacher tell the story of Coppelia.
Structure: Misty Copeland was the first black woman promoted to principal dancer at American Ballet Theater. This story is about her very first recital, performing Coppelia.
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Alice Across America: The Story of the First Women's Cross-Country Road Trip
by Sarah Glenn Marsh, art by Gilbert Ford
2020
First line: When Alice Ramsey was little, she loved to ride horses.
Structure: third-person story of the first women's cross-country road trip, which was a marketing ploy to demonstrate that the newly released car was safe enough for a lady to drive.
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So You Want to Be an OWL
by Jane Porter, art by Maddie Frost
2020
First line: Welcome to Owl School!
Structure: An owl professor questions whether the reader is eligible for Team Owl by going through all the skills and characteristics of owls.
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Just You And Me: Remarkable Relationships in the Wild
by Jennifer Ward, art by Alexander Vidal
2021
First line: Just you and me.
Structure: series of four-line AABB rhymes about partnerships in the wild, each rhyme followed by a paragraph in prose naming the animals from the rhyme and offering more detail about the relationship.
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All the Way to the Top: How One Girl's Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything
by Annette Bay Pimentel, art by Nabi H. Ali
2020
First line: Jennifer Keelan may be small, but her voice is mighty.
Structure: after describing Jennifer's struggles as a kid in a wheelchair, the story tells of her involvement in rallies for Disability rights and how she made the news--and ultimately history--by literally pulling herself up the steps of Congress, in order to persuade Members to pass the ADA.
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Jump at the Sun: the true life tale of unstoppable storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston
by Alicia D. Williams, art by Jacqueline Alcantara
2021
First line: In a town called Eatonville--a place where magnolias smelled even prettier than they looked, oranges were as sweet as they were plump, and the people just plain ol' got along--lived a girl who was attracted to tales like mosquitoes to skin.
Structure: conversational chronological narrative of Zora's experience with stories as a child and her journey to becoming a famous author.
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We Move the World
by Kari Lavelle, art by Nabi H. Ali
2021
First line: First words and first steps--we stretch; we grow.
Structure: Each page has a line describing a universal action, a line about a general human accomplishment, and a line about something a specific person or group achieved that fits the theme established in the first two lines.
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The Last Straw: Kids vs Plastics
by Susan Hood, art by Christiane Engel
2021
First line: Is plastic fantastic?
Structure: each page shares in a different poetic format something important to know about plastic and its effect on our world.
Twenty-One STEPS: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
by Jeff Gottesfeld, art by Matt Tavares
2021
First line: I am an Unknown.
Structure: lyrical history of the guarding of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, from when an Unknown Soldier was first entombed in 1921 to represent all Unknown Soldiers, to the first guard assignment, including the requirements of being a guard, all from the perspective of the entombed soldier.
A Peek at Beaks: Tools Birds Use
by Sara Levine, art by Kate Slater
2021
First line: Have you ever imagined you were a bird?
Structure: a silhouette of a specific type of bird followed by a description of that type of bird's beak.
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Sakamoto's Swim Club: How a Teacher Led an Unlikely Team to Victory
by Julie Abery and Chris Sasaki
2021
First stanza: Valley Isle. Lush terrain. Migrant workers cutting cane.
Structure: a rhyming poem with short phrases telling the chronological story of a science teacher who started a swim club of children he saw swimming in the irrigation ditches of Hawaii's sugar plantations.
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Good Night, Oppy
by James McGowan, art by Graham Carter
2021
First two lines: Opportunity loved her job. She was one of two lucky rovers exploring planet Mars to help humans understand it better.
Structure: story of Opportunity's time on Mars from the perspective of the rover.
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Dr. FAUCI: How a boy from Brooklyn became America's Doctor
by Kate Messner, art by Alexandra Bye
2021
First line: Anthony Fauci was always asking questions, wondering about the world.
Structure: chronological third-person narrative of Fauci's life, spotlighting all the life lessons that prepared him for his job as America's doctor.
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Flight for Freedom: The Wetzel Family's Daring Escape from East Germany
by Kristen Fulton, art by Torben Kuhlmann
2020
First line: In the days when Germany was divided by a wall, life was very different.
Structure: story tells how the family made the hot air balloon and then used it to escape East Germany.
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The Metric System
by David A. Adler, art by Edward Miller
2020
First line: Here are Jennifer and Robert.
Structure: a breakdown of the metric system compared to the English system, starting with linear measurements and continuing through weight and volume.
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She Caught the Light: Williamina Stevens Fleming: Astronomer
by Kathryn Lasky, art by Julianna Swaney
2021
First line: More than one hundred years ago in the city of Dundee, Scotland, a very smart baby girl was born.
Structure: chronological narrative of Williamina's life, spotlighting her interest and experience in astronomy.
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What's in Your Pocket? Collecting Nature's Treasures
by Heather L. Montgomery, art by Maribel Lechuga
2021
First line: When you explore the great outdoors and find something strange and wonderful, do you put it in your pocket?
Structure: Series of anecdotes spotlighting a famous scientist as a kid collecting something before describing what they are known for.
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From A Small Seed: the story of Eliza Hamilton
by Camille Andros, art by Tessa Blackham
2019
First line: Eliza grew up in a big brick house surrounded by a grove of tall, tall trees with branches strong for swinging.
Structure: chronological narrative of Eliza's life, comparing her strength to that of a tree and highlighting examples of her compassion for orphans.
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111 Trees: How One Village Celebrates the Birth of Every Girl
by Rina Singh and Marianne Ferrer
2020
First line: Sundar watches how his mother balances the water pot on her head.
Structure: story of how one man, after losing his mother as a young boy, and his daughter as a young man, become the head of his village in India and convinced his village to plant 111 trees for every girl born in the village.
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MARS! Earthlings Welcome
by Stacy McAnulty, art by Stevie Lewis
2021
First line: You're Invited! Mission to Mars
Structure: Mars tells readers about himself, in the context of inviting them to a party, pointing out how he's better or more interesting than earth and the other planets.
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The Ups and Downs of GRAVITY
by David A. Adler, art by Anna Raff
2020
First line: What happens to a ball when it falls off a table?
Structure: examples of how gravity works in everyday life and in space interspersed with info about Isaac Newton and how he helped us understand gravity.
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Sounds All Around: the science of how sound works
by Susan Hughes and Ellen Rooney
2021
First line: Summer, sunlight, a gentle breeze blowing the clouds.
Structure: explains how sounds happen, what they communicate, and how we hear.
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The Gravity Tree: the true story of a tree that inspired the world
by Anna Crowley Redding, art by Yas Imamura
2021
First line: A tree may seem like a rather ordinary thing.
Structure: the story of the tree that inspired the discovery of gravity, starting with it growing from a small seed and continuing through Isaac Newton sitting under it and everyone else who came to visit--famous and not famous-- and where it ended up.
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MASTERS of DISGUISE: Camouflaging Creatures & Magnificent Mimics
by Marc Martin
2021
Structure: alternating spreads of explanations of a camouflaging species and an I Spy-style scene readers can look at to spot the camouflaging animals.