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Sunday, October 02, 2011

Nonfiction Monday-- Tanya Lloyd Kyi

Kyi, Tanya Lloyd. The Lowdown on Denim.
E-ARC from Netgalley.
This is a reworking of much of the material in The Blue Jean Book by this same author, but it will appeal to many more students because of the addition of a large number of cartoon illustrations of various points of history. This does cover the history of fashion a bit more completely than the other book. I was especially amused by the story of Bing Crosby's

Strengths
: I had conversations about pictures in books with several students this week, and the opinion was that pictures just make any book better. Hence the love of graphic novels, etc. If the pictures get children to read history books, all the better. Denim tuxedo, even though this incident could be considered the start of the fall of modern society.
Weaknesses: Cartoons are great, but to mention Bing's denim tuxedo and not show a picture of it-- that's criminal! Maybe Ms. Kyi will write a third book about the history of denim and include all the catalog photographs of different styles that I would like to see!

Kyi, Tanya Lloyd. 50 Underwear Questions: A Bare-all History.
The E-ARC for this wouldn't load, so I will have to see if the public library has a copy. It looks good, since the 2007 Kathy Shaskan book, How Underwear Got Under There: A Brief History is one of the most popular choices for the 8th grade nonfiction unit.


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