This week, for Nonfiction Monday, I read about Mary Kingsley in Uncommon Traveler, written and illustrated by Don Brown.

This is a wonderful book full of moody pictures and poetic text.

[wikipop]Mary Kingsley[/wikipop] (1862-1900) had a hard life. She grew up taking care of her mother, who was ill, and never was able to go to school.  But she had a library full of books to read. When her parents both died she was thirty and ready to explore the world. She chose to go to Africa.

She was a smart and witty woman, apparently. And Mr. Brown made a point of reporting on Mary’s funnier moments in Africa.

The text that goes with the cover illustration above reads:

In a swamp, an eight-foot-long crocodile “chose to get his front paws over the stern of my canoe,” said Mary. “I had to retire to the bow, to keep the balance and fetch him a clip on the snout with a paddle. This was only a pushing young creature, who had not learnt manners.”

Mary also made the acquaintance of hippos, giant bugs, river rapids, and native tribes. She loved Africa.

And I loved this book about her. People who love something are usually interesting. They will go to great lengths to achieve their goals, and they speak with passion about the things they love. That makes them fun to listen to and read about, I think.

For more nonfiction reviews, check out the links at Shelf-employed.

Today I read a delightful picture book about William Bentley.

Snowflake Bentley, written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, and illustrated by Mary Azarian, was published by Houghton Mifflin and it won [wikipop]Caldecott Medal[/wikipop] in 1999.

And the pictures are very good. I’m not surprised it won the Caldecott. The pictures—the cover and the way the pictures inside were framed—are what drew me in and made me pick up the book.

But the writing is the thing I loved best once I actually dove into the book.

I liked the way it was written…

From the first page:

In the days when farmers worked with ox and sled and cut the dark with lantern light, there lived a boy who loved snow more than anything else in the world.

But I also liked what the book said about so many things…

About children pursuing their dreams when other think they’re a little…well, let’s just say, strange. About parents sacrificing to encourage their children and help them succeed. About a love for nature and art that overrides worries over what your neighbors think of you. And about a love of beauty and a longing to share it.

Considering we just had huge flakes falling a week ago—yes, all the way down here in Atlanta we had snow in March!—I thought this was a great book to look at. Give it a gander, it’s well worth the time.

For more great nonfiction books, head over to Lost Between the Pages.

I remember visiting the desert for the first time when I was ten and finding that it was full of life and color. It was delightful to see the plants and animals that grew in the barren regions.

Today, Nancy Bo Flood took me on a journey to discover a different kind of life in the sandstone of the Desert Southwest.

In Sand to Stone and Back Again, Nancy is not highlighting life, but the changes in the stone.

Did you know that sandstone has a life cycle? It starts as grains of sand which are compressed to make stone. Then wind and water wear it away until it is, once again, broken up into thousands of grains of sand.

The pictures in this book are wonderful. Texture and color will wow you. Oceans full of sand-dune waves and curtains of rock will surprise and delight readers of all ages.

This is one you’ll want to look at over and over.

For more great Nonfiction Monday posts, check out other entries today at Wendie Old’s blog.

Who would think that Stephen Hawking could ever explain things in ways children could grasp? I’d think this is a great idea that NewScientist reports on–put science into children’s books. As a science challenged adult, I’d love to have more science put into words I might be able to understand.

One question and answer in the interview made me sad:

What kind of books did your father read to you when you were small?

LH: The other day, Dad suddenly quoted from the Bible and we were all taken aback because it was so unexpected. We were discussing the slogan on a tin of golden syrup, asking why it said “out of the strong came forth sweetness”. Dad said it came from the Bible, and gave us the correct chapter and verse. He said that his father used to read him stories from the Bible when he was young. I said “I’m glad you read us Paddington Bear instead.”

Nothing against Paddington, but it’s too bad Lucy didn’t get both Paddington and the Bible.

And then Stephen answers another question with:

Science is increasingly answering questions that used to be the province of religion. The one remaining area that religion can still lay a claim to is the origin of the universe, but even here science is making progress, and should soon provide a definitive answer to how the universe began.

I think he has different questions that some of us have. I always thought the big question was, “What is my purpose in life?” Science will never answer that. Only a creator can tell you what you’ve been created for.