Bibliofile and Nonfiction Mondays
One of the blogs I follow that posts a little less frequently
than the others is Bibliofile, which specializes in
reviewing young adult literature. A feature I appreciate is that blogger Jenny
Rothschild declares the first day of the workweek “Nonfiction Monday” and
dedicates her daily post to a new nonfiction young adult piece. Because of my
personal reading preferences (I lean heavily toward fiction), I find it difficult to
recommend nonfiction books, especially those that are engaging and not just
“reference-y”. This blog helps immensely in that regard. I chose to catch up
on the last three Nonfiction Mondays in which Rothschild reviewed The
Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and
Opportunity Elizabeth Rusch, Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending
Search for a Cure by Jim Murphy and Alison Blank, and Haunted Histories: Creepy Castles, Dark Dungeons, and
Powerful Palaces by JH Everett, illustrated by Marilyn
Scott-Waters.
Summary
For each text, Rothschild gives a brief summary of the concept,
explains which audience age-range would find this most appropriate, and notes
any positives or flaws she found. For example, in regards to The Mighty Mars Rovers, she
notes, “It also does a great job of explaining why this type of exploration is
important and why we're so obsessed with studying Mars.” Rothschild also gives
credit to the people who provided the book (usually publishers, and sometimes
her local library). Other than Haunted Histories, the books she’s focusing on
reviewing currently made it on this year's YALSA Award for
Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults.
Source
I continue to find that going to the blogs actual site rather
than just looking at it on Google Reader is preferable if I have the time
because the formatting is more interesting, and in this case I can also read
Rothschild’s followers’ comments and the links she provides in her sidebar. The
source itself is well-organized and easy to read. I like that her blog posts
are all the titles of the books she reviews, and in the case of Mondays,
“Nonfiction” is added to help me decide which posts I want to read. She seems
to read a wide variety of texts, and focuses on those that make honors lists,
both traits that are helpful to me as an inexperienced proto-librarian.
Content
Unfortunately I haven’t read enough of
the texts myself to know how accurate or unbiased her reviews are, but her
followers, many of whom are librarians and teachers, seem to agree with most of
her picks (but then they are her followers, aren’t they… J). I do
like how she notes how students might perceive the books, and for what purposes
those books would be best used. For example, she notes that Haunted Histories is funny
and informational, but probably too lighthearted for any student to use in a
formal research paper. Not only is this source a great help in student reader
advisory, I can see it as a tool for purchasing decisions, as well as a resource
for me to use to help teachers find content-related nonfiction that is still
as engaging as a fiction novel—especially with that 70% nonfiction focus in
Common Core! Her review of Invincible Microbe was persuasive enough to make even
the fiction-lover in me want to pick up a copy because she explained how the
book tells the stories of the disease and the people it affects.
Side note:
When I logged in to my Google Reader account recently, I was
horrified—well, maybe not horrified, but at least dismayed—to read the curt
announcement that GR will retire this summer! The “Learn More” link informed me
that Google Reader can send me a file of my subscription data, which I can then
use to subscribe through “another product”. I was surprised to see that the
folks at Google would do this without providing another Google product. I’ve
only ever used GR, so I guess I’ll have to find another aggregator.
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