Sibert (nonfiction) Roundup: The People’s Painter, The Great Stink, We Are Still Here, Summertime Sleepers

The Robert F. Sibert Award, announced by the American Library Association every January, names one to six outstanding nonfiction titles written for upper elementary and middle-graders. Two of the honor titles we’ve already reviewed (see below). The winner is a picture book about an activist artist. Read on:

The People’s Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art by Cynthia Levinson, illustrated by Evan Turk. Abrams, 2021, 44 pages, including timeline, bibliography, and author/illustrator notes.

Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 4-8

Recommended for: ages 6-10

The little boy growing up in Lithuania learned to draw by tracing Hebrew letters with a finger. He learned to care about justice when his father was exiled to Siberia after agitating for worker’s rights. After his father escaped and found his way to America, the family followed. Life wasn’t easy there, but with the encouragement of sympathetic teachers Ben was able to develop his artistic skills. He was a little too rough around the edges to follow a traditional path to painting, though. Not until the turbulent 1920s, when a controversial murder trial inspired a series of paintings, did his lively style reach a wide audience. The illustrations of this biography are as blunt, colorful, and vivid as Shahn’s own work.

The man who emerges from the text is a warm, if slightly cranky, grandpa figure, and so he may have been. But he was also a socialist. The Saccho-Vanzetti murder trial that made him famous is still controversial. That said, we can have our own opinions about Shahn’s politics, while appreciating his bold and passionate style.

• Worldview/moral Value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4.5

Awards: Sibert Medal; Association of Jewish Libraries Notable Picture Book

The Great Stink: How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London’s Poop Pollution Problem by Colleen Paeff, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. Margaret McElderry (Simon & Shuster), 2011, 36 pages.

Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 4-8

Recommended for: ages 6-10

Our story begins in the summer of 1856, when high temperatures and humidity combined with overflowing sewers emptying into the Thames. This unfortunate pairing created “the great stink.” It was no laughing matter—those who could not flee were subjected to deadly diseased like cholera and typhoid. The city’s piecemeal sewer system, begun in the 1500’s, had long outlived its usefulness. But Joseph Bazalgette, born in 1819, and luckily surviving his London upbringing, was just the man to bring it up to date and solve an increasingly unlivable problem.

One thing this story should do is give kids an appreciation for what’s under their feet, whether sceptic tank or sewer system. Joseph emerges as an admirable, upbeat character with the engineering smarts and vision to carry out an extended project. The appendix brings us up to date on current systems and what engineers as well as citizens are doing to maintain them. A detailed time line and selective bibliography points young readers who want to know more in the right direction. Illustrations are almost too comic, but fun and compatible with the chuckles this subject almost always inspires.

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4

Award: Sibert Honor

We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Frané Lessac. Charlesbridge, 2021, 39 pages, including glossary, timeline and author/illustrator notes.

Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 8-10

Recommended for: Ages 8-12

Three years ago, The team of Sorell and Lessac won Sibert honors for their book We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga, an exploration of the Cherokee tradition of giving thanks throughout the year. We Are Still Here!, by the same team, addresses U.S. Indian policy since the Indian Wars came to an end in the late 19^th century. Some of these policies were well-intentioned but harmful, others not well-intentioned at all, and still others undid, or tried to undo, the harm done by earlier laws. The material is presented as a series of reports by students at a Native Nations Community School, each explaining such policies as Assimilation, Relocation, Self-Determination, and Indian Child Welfare. In spite of efforts to corral, subdue, and sometimes even exterminate them, “We are still here.”

There’s not a lot of detail or context, but additional material and a timeline in the appendix help establish order to the confusing and complicated history of U.S.-Indian relations. “Complicated” doesn’t excuse the historically unfair treatment of Native tribes, and a deep dive into cultural problems on the reservation (such as high rates of alcoholism) wouldn’t be appropriate in a book for 4^th-graders. We Are Still Here doesn’t tell a complete story, but may be a way to open conversation.

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4

Awards: Sibert Honor, ALA American Indian Youth Award Honor Picture Book

Summertime Sleepers: Animals that Hibernate Estivate by Melissa Stewart, illustrated by Sarah S. Brannen. Charlesbridge, 2021, 34 pages.

Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 4-8

Recommended for: ages 6-10

Every 3^rd-grader knows about hibernation, but estivation is a phenomenon just now coming into its own as a subject of study. That is, warm-weather sleeping among certain species. Whether months, weeks, or days, by the calendar or by the thermometer, these creatures sleep to preserve resources or stay moist or simply to escape the heat. Each double-page spread features a colorful illustration, a notebook-style sketch noting dimensions and habitat, and a paragraph explaining how and why. The solutions to threatening heat are varied and ingenius. Mangrove killifish, for example, flip themselves head over tail into hollow logs when their cypress swamp dries up. Lungfish  burrow into the mud and breathe air until the rains come again, and pixie frogs construct cocoons.

The text is friendly, clear, and informative and the pictures engage interest right away (some of these critters are so cute!). Again the variety and ingeniousness of Creation should call forth praise from the lips of children and infants (Ps. 8).  

• Worldview/moral value: 4
• Artistic/literary value: 5

Award: Sibert Honor

Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown by Steve Sheinkin.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 10-up

Sheinkin’s nonfiction page-turner of the events leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis is one of his best yet. Reviewed here.

Awards: Sibert Honor, Orbis Honor

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper.

Unspeakable swept the ALA awards this year, and deservedly so. See our review.

Awards: Sibert Honor, Caldecott Honor, Coretta Scott King Illustrator Medal

Are you on board with the ALA’s picks? What nonfiction books earned your seal of approval last year?

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