Review Thursday: Children's Nonfiction

Home on the Range: John A. Lomax and His Cowboy Songs by Deborah Hopkinson (2009)

As a young boy John Lomax sang songs to make doing his chores easier. In his head and, later, on scraps of paper, he collected work songs, ballads and, in particular, the soothing songs that cowboys sang to quiet restless cattle. When he grew up, he went around the country recording the cowboy songs he remembered from his childhood. His tapes eventually formed the basis of the American Folklife collection of the Library of Congress. This is an engaging book with charming pictures and, let’s face it, inspirational tales for children about folklorists are few and far between. Recommended for young readers interested in the American West, vernacular music, or folkways.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be Sick in the 16th Century! Diseases You’d Rather Not Catch by
Kathryn Senior (2002)

Next time you have to go to the doctor, be grateful you live here and now. Before there was aspirin, there was trepanning, or drilling a hole in the skull to release evil spirits. This installment of the You Wouldn’t Want To series examines the world of one Nicholas Knight, a fictional barber surgeon in Tudor England. A frightening glimpse at the infancy of scientific medicine, this book shows how, from a medical standpoint, at least, Merrie Olde England wasn’t so merry. Some of the ideas and practices detailed here, such as the theory of humors, are amusingly absurd, while others, such as the use of medical leeches, are enjoying a new day in the sun.

How Many Ways Can You Catch a Fly? by Steve Jenkins (2008)

If you’re a Jackson’s chameleon, you catch a fly with your tongue, which, as it happens, is half again as long as your body. Dazzling collages illustrate the various ways that animals solve survival problems like getting food, finding shelter, reproducing and caring for young. This is a thoughtful examination, in clear, simple language, of the concept of ecological niches. The science is solid but not dry and the illustrations, as always in a Jenkins book, are breathtaking.