September 2023 KiddyCAT: History and Biography

September's KiddyCAT is one with all sorts of options. We're focusing on children's books in the categories of history or biography.

A few histories:

           

           

           

A few biographies:

               

           

           

There are lots more historical topics and persons to explore.

What will you read this month?

Don't forget to post to the Wiki! - https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2023_KiddyCAT

Oh, I really liked Good Masters, Sweet Ladies when I read it a number of years back! I'd recommend that one!

>1 thornton37814: not sure yet. I have the Newbery winner The Trumpeter of Krakow on my shelves, unread. Might be a good time to read it, and tackle two challenges at the same time.

These are excellent and varied suggestions. I like the book covers a lot! Thank you!

>2 LibraryCin: Glad to know that one is good!

>3 fuzzi: Newbery & Caldecotts are always excellent options.

>4 LadyoftheLodge: I couldn't even begin to post all the possibilities. I tried to post some that covered not only America but other parts of the world.

I can recommend The Panama Canal and Lincoln: A Photobiography; have read both in the past and enjoyed them.

I can also recommend Hamilton and Peggy!: A Revolutionary Friendship and Victor Dowd and the World War II Ghost Army: A Spy on History Book.

For this challenge I will read whatever my library can get to me! I will begin withGood Masters, Sweet Ladies!

I'm planning to browse the children's section at the public library and see what calls to me. Now that I'm there on most Tuesday early evenings for a stitching group, it's a little easier to use the public library.

Another series I like is the Little People, Big Dreams series of books. This series also covers authors from many different backgrounds and cultures.

I have a lot of reading planned for this month, but if time permits, I might reread (after over 50 years) Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes.

>9 sallylou61: Sounds good!

I read Agatha Christie from the Little People, Big Dreams series of biographies for kids. It was a gift from my sister.

Ah, I jumped on two options (based on a tagmash) where I am reading the books for other challenges, anyway, then realized they are both fiction!

So, I'm rethinking. I have a couple of options, but are they really YA or children's? Not sure, but I'm aiming to read:
The Discovery of the Titanic / Robert Ballard

I'm hoping I have time to grab something while I'm at the public library tomorrow. I didn't have time when I was there Tuesday afternoon. (You know how cross stitchers get to chatting and lose track of time.)

Re >12 LibraryCin: I'm now reading the nonfiction one I picked out (also based on tag mashes), but also not convinced it's YA... Sigh. I might just "use" the fiction one. I'm not sure anything specified it needed to be nonfiction, I just sort of assumed that, given the topics. The fiction one is very much biographical fiction and I would consider it YA.

>14 LibraryCin: There's a blurry line between children's and YA for middle grades. That's for sure.

I read Shark Lady by Ann McGovern.
The Scholastic biography series from the 70s and 80s are truly wonderful and I am glad they are being reprinted. Providing just enough information to pique interest but not too much to overwhelm, this series has been invaluable in reaching out to children and teaching history, science, etc. through biographies of interesting people. So happy they have retained the illustrations from the 1978 original as well.
Eugenie Clark was a fascinating and extremely driven woman, who advanced the acceptance of women in science as well as dispelling many of the myths of sharks as vicious killers.
Reading this has certainly made me keen to pick up her two books, Lady With A Spear and The Lady and the Sharks, and learn more about her studies and life.
I do wish I had the original 1978 cover though! :)

The book I'm reading for ClassicsCAT certainly fits here: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

My apologies if you see this more than once. I've had two posts lost today, one of them from here. Don't know if I did something to cause that or if there is something else going on...

I have read DKfindout! Coding by James Floyd Kelly. Although this is a children's book I think most adults could learn something from it. There are two timelines that give this history of coding, beginning with the binary system in 1679, and the history of computers, beginning in 500 BCE with the abacus.

Information on each page is given in several short pieces with colorful illustrations or photographs making it very easy to read. I was glad to see the contributions of many women to digital progress beginning with Ada Lovelace in 1842. There is also a helpful glossary.

I recommend this to anyone of any age who would like to have a simple explanation of how the digital age got here. This is so well done I'm going to take a look at the other books my library has in the DKfindout! series.

By the way, if you were working in the eighties, you'll see important but forgotten words you knew then. Remember Fortran?

>18 clue: Oh yeah! Cobol anyone?

I read Who Was Alex Trebek by Pam Pollack .

   

I read two books that are "history":
1. A Historical Album of Ohio by Charles A. Willis
2. September 11, 2001 (Cornerstones of Freedom, series 2) by Andrew Santella

I started the first one on September 10 and finished it the 11th. I read the one on 9/11 on the 22nd anniversary of the event as a memorial.

I have 5 biographies I plan to read over the next few days so I can return them when I go to the public library on Tuesday for my stitching group.

Sorry for being slightly late, October is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/353700#

I have finished a Victorian tale of Roman Britain, Beric the Briton which has not aged all that well.

I found one that legitimately fits!

Plague! Epidemics and Scourges Through the Ages / John Farndon
3.5 stars

This is a very short picture book aimed at kids. It discusses various major fatal diseases and epidemics throughout history, including the “Black Death”, various plagues, cholera, yellow fever, Spanish flu, smallpox, typhus, and more.

The colour illustrations are done very well and the information is provided (it’s meant for a young audience) is short tidbits. It’s a very fast read. One interesting thing I learned why doctors used those scary looking bird masks when dealing with the plague. I mean, I “get” why a mask, but why with long beaks…? Now I know.