Nonfiction Monday

Nonfiction Monday was started by Anastasia Suen. The Round Up today is at Capstone Connect. It's also Middle Grade Monday over at Ramblings of a Wannabe Scribe. I'm going to save In My Mailbox Monday (hosted by The Story Siren) for tomorrow. Whew. Too many things for this early in the week!




Shepard, Alan and Slayton, Deke with Barbree, Jay. Moon Shot. (1994)
Enhanced iPad version sent by Open Road Media

Since I barely remember the first man walking on the moon (I was allowed to stay up past my bedtime-- I was four!), this was an interesting look into the minutiae of planning and executing this land mark feat. Even more interesting to me was learning that Barbree had been a news correspondent covering NASA for 53 years! That's some dedication! Barbree was no doubt the main writer on this, with information provided by the two astronauts. The enhanced iPad version has short (minute and a half) video clips interspersed throughout, which is a nice touch.
Strengths: This reads more like a novel than a nonfiction book, so it might be easier to get kids pulled in. There are a few mild swear words, but nothing too bad. I fear that this may be out of print in "dead tree version". I have no way to circulate an enhanced version.
Weaknesses: An enhanced version could have been so much more. A nonfiction book with more pictures and side bars would have lent itself more readily to this platform. Since this read more like a novel, the videos, while interesting, seemed like more of an interpolation.


Latimer, Clay. VIP Pass to a Pro Basketball Game Day.
This is part of a Capstone series that includes baseball, hockey and football. These short (32 pages), well-illustrated books offer an interesting peak behind the scenes at how the players spend their time while not visible to the public as well as information about others such as trainers and organizers at different venues. Who knew that basketball players had such nice airplanes to travel in?
Strengths: Well laid out, with sidebars, a glossary, and an index. This will not take long for my students to read, but they will be picked up frequently.
Weaknesses: I would have liked a longer version with more information.