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ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://christinevanzandt.com
CITY: Los Angeles
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Children: yes.
EDUCATION:Earned degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Freelance literary editor and children’s book writer.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Christine Van Zandt is a freelance literary editor and children’s book writer. She studied English literature as a graduate student, where she took a few classes in children’s literature. This helped Van Zandt better understand the importance that children’s books play in the lives of young readers. After becoming a mother herself, Van Zandt decided that she wanted to add her own voice to those of children’s authors who were able to positively impact young readers.
A Brief History of Underpants includes illustrations by Harry Briggs to outline how underwear has changed throughout the past several millennia. The book covers a wide range of underwear types from around the world, including Japanese sumo wrestlers’ mawashi to Maori maro. Discussions about the underwear are also linked to those surrounding hygiene per culture and time period. Van Zandt gives mention to underwear-like articles of clothing, such as Indian dhoti and Ancient Egyptian schenti. However, the text does not include mention of bras, corsets, or lingerie.
In an interview in Quatro, Van Zandt shared what she hoped young readers would take away from reading A Brief History of Underpants. She admitted: “By combining facts with humor, I hope my book makes history accessible to young kids, and those who may not already appreciate nonfiction. Kids will remember the crazy stuff.” However, Van Zandt also insisted that readers will “also gain an understanding of how people throughout time have had similar needs and solved the problem of how to protect their privates in similar manners.”
Writing in School Library Journal, Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst remarked that “humorous illustrations and bouncy text keep the pages turning quickly in this lightweight history.” However, Whitehurst cautioned that “selectors should be aware of … stereotypical language” in the text. Booklist contributor John Peters pointed out that, “for readers who really want to get to the bottom of the subject,” the author includes “a first-rate reading list of more detailed sources.”
With Milkweed for Monarchs, Van Zandt teams up with illustrator Alejandra Barajas to details the life cycle and migration of monarch butterflies. The text is a mix of lyrical quatrains and exposition to show how the eggs become caterpillars and later chrysalis before flying across continents as one of the largest species of butterfly in the world. The book also looks at the unique relationship between milkweed and the monarch butterfly. Van Zandt reveals her person connection and interest in studying the monarch, as well as other information about what is endangering them and how young readers can get involved in protecting them.
Reviewing the book in School Library Journal, Sue Morgan found it to be “a strong addition to a library’s collection of butterfly books, especially in areas where monarch migration takes place.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted that “this is familiar ground in picture books as well as early science education, but it’s an engaging introduction nonetheless.” The same reader labeled the account “informative.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 15, 2021, John Peters, review of A Brief History of Underpants, p. 42.
Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2023, review of Milkweed for Monarchs.
School Library Journal, May 1, 2021, Lucinda Snyder, review of A Brief History of Underpants, p. 99; January 1, 2024, Sue Morgan, review of Milkweed for Monarchs, p. 66.
ONLINE
Christine Van Zandt website, https://christinevanzandt.com (July 8, 2024).
KidLit 411, https://www.kidlit411.com/ (December 17, 2021), author interview.
Quarto, https://www.quartoknows.com/ (March 23, 2021), author interview.
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators website, https://www.scbwi.org/ (July 8, 2024), author profile.
12 x 12, https://www.12x12challenge.com/ (June 21, 2022), “Christine Van Zandt – How I Got My Agent.”
Voyage LA, https://voyagela.com/ (November 18, 2022), “Meet Christine Van Zandt.”
Writing for Kids (While Raising Them), https://taralazar.com/ (August 31, 2023), Christine Van Zandt, “Cover Reveal!.”
Why writing and not, for example, underwater welding?
Because I've been writing for as long as I can remember starting with diaries and journals as a kid;
since Underwater Welding wasn't offered as an elective I ended up in Creative Writing.
(Though I use a computer, I love old typewriters.)
Where in the world?
Yup. Me, my family, about four million other people, plus tourists.
A few of my favorite things
Books (of course), green tea, and hounds--just don't tell the cats!
AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT
Dec. 17, 2021
We are excited to feature Christine Van Zandt and her debut picture book, A BRIEF HISTORY OF UNDERPANTS illustrated by Harry Briggs (Quarto Kids 2021). Enter to win a copy!
Tell us about yourself and how you came to write for children.
While in college studying for my master’s degree in English literature, I took a series of kid’s lit courses. Those classes covered multicultural books from picture book through young adult. As an avid reader since childhood, I was thrilled to analyze classics as well as modern stories. It made me realize what an impact kid’s book writers have on children. Until then my writing had been focused on the adult marketplace. I finally started writing kid’s books in earnest once I became a mom and was immersed in them daily.
Congrats on your book, A Brief History of Underpants! What a fun subject. Tell us about the book and what inspired you to write it.
This 48-page nonfiction picture book is a funny, easy-to-read history of underpants, from the first fossilized pair until today. The comic-style illustrations by Harry Briggs add another level of humor. There’s an interactive wheel on the front that turns to reveal different styles of underwear.
The inspiration for this book came while I was volunteering at our elementary school’s annual Book Fair. I listened to one kid after another complain that nonfiction books were boring—as their parents tried to steer them toward that section! This negative perception motivated me to write something educational but also entertaining.
My daughter (who was in third grade then) came up with the idea of underwear. When I looked into what had already published, I was surprised to find few kid’s books about the history of underpants and none quite like my idea for one. So I researched, wrote, and hoped my puns about buns would crack people up.
Was your road to publication long and winding, short and sweet, or something in between?
Short and sweet! I was lucky because it was only 235 days from my first draft until I connected with a publisher via #PitMad. (I was unagented at the time, but have since found representation.) In those 235 days, I went through at least 20 drafts and workshopped my manuscript with my critique partners several times.
What projects are you working on now?
I’m working on fiction and nonfiction picture books. I’m passionate about trying to keep the western monarch butterfly from extinction (their numbers are down 99.9%) and have a lyrical narrative nonfiction picture book. This soothing bedtime read provides new perspectives on monarch life cycles and migration. It also has an underlying call to action. For example, we can help these amazing creatures by not using pesticides or by planting flowers and milkweed; this benefits other pollinators as well.
What advice would you give to writers working on nonfiction picture books?
Use only reputable reference sources, remember to keep track of them down as you go along, and try to be patient because finding the right facts can be a slow process. When researching my underwear book, I really had to dig to uncover great facts—I guess that’s why underwear is called “unmentionables”!
As with fiction, when writing nonfiction picture books, find multiple ways to engage your audience. My book has humor but it also connects with the STEM curriculum by including the Industrial Revolution, inventions, innovations, technology, and archaeology.
Nonfiction has come so far. Melissa Stewart’s 5 Kinds of Nonfiction (2021, Stenhouse) has an abundance of information for anyone interested learning more about today’s nonfiction children’s books.
What is one thing most people don’t know about you?
As a literary editor, people presume I spend my free time reading The New Yorker (which I do!) but I also have Stephen King’s latest novel in my library queue—he did name a book after me, you know 😉.
Where can people find you online?
I’m at christinevanzandt.com, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Christine Van Zandt hasn’t found fossilized underwear (yet!), but loves digging up ideas that make great books for kids such as her funny nonfiction picture book A Brief History of Underpants (becker&mayer! kids, 2021). She’s a literary editor and lives in Los Angeles, California, with her family and a monarch butterfly sanctuary.
Quarto Kids | 23 Mar, 2021
Meet the Author: Christine Van Zandt
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Christine Van Zandt, the author of A Brief History of Underpants, talks about her inspiration and research process!
Where did the idea for A Brief History of Underpants come from?
This idea arose in 2018 after volunteering at our elementary school’s week-long annual book fair where nonfiction books were prominently displayed. Our (then) third-grader came up with the idea of writing about underpants. Yes!
Underwear cracks kids up—Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants books are a worldwide success. I love that series, however, the nonfiction element interested me. What were ancient undergarments made from, and how do we know this?
Once I started digging up underwear facts, I got hooked reading about things like frozen 5,300-year-old underwear discovered in the Alps, the interesting materials and textiles that have covered our buns, and how inventions propelled underwear and clothing production forward.
When I researched books that had been published with ideas similar to mine, I found there was a need for a more concise, quick-paced book that would make kids laugh while they learned, full of cheeky facts to even engage reluctant readers.
What is your research process like for this book? What challenges did you encounter? What surprised you most?
I tried to be as thorough as possible, including facts from every continent, back to the earliest known undergarments. Surprisingly, many books contained very little underwear-specific information—now I know why they’re called “unmentionables”!
Researching became challenging when the pandemic closed down libraries and bookstores. I bought dozens of reference books with historical underwear facts. Online encyclopedic and historical reference sites helped but weren’t enough. I now have a seemingly bottomless collection of underwear books!
Another pandemic-inducing challenge was adding at-home Zoom-school to our already full schedules. It’s been over a year now with twenty-five hours a week of online instruction in the background, along with cries of “I need my cord!” and “Can you bring me a snack?”
What do you hope kids will take away from your book? Why do you think a title like this is valuable for young children?
By combining facts with humor, I hope my book makes history accessible to young kids, and those who may not already appreciate nonfiction. Kids will remember the crazy stuff like the American endurance athlete who accidentally pooped in his only pair of underpants while crossing Antarctica but they’ll also gain an understanding of how people throughout time have had similar needs and solved the problem of how to protect their privates in similar manners.
Since kids tend to know about dinosaurs, my book shows that scientists discover evidence of old undies the same way they dig up dinosaur fossils and that new finds are unearthed all the time, demonstrating history’s fluidity.
What is your process like for paring down so much information into bite-sized pieces for young readers?
When your 48-page book starts at ~20,000 BCE and ends with today’s styles, there’s limited space to uncover all the interesting facts. My focus was on undergarments kids could wear. For example, corsets and bras are not included.
The low word count (~1,500 words) meant there were only 40 or so words per page. Harry Briggs’s hilarious illustrations enabled words to be cut because the art takes the scenes beyond what I could state in the text.
What do you do when you’re not writing?
When I’m not writing, I’m . . . writing! I’m a freelance literary editor which requires providing written feedback, suggestions, and, sometimes taking on ghostwriting projects. I also review children’s books for a popular blog so, you guessed it, more writing.
During this still mostly closed-down world, when I’m really NOT writing, I enjoy spending time with my family in the yard or in the kitchen, which includes trying to find ways to minimize our footprint on the planet—though, actually, I write about that too!
About the author:
Christine Van Zandt is an author, editor, and book reviewer who lives in California with her family.
Christine Van Zandt – How I Got My Agent
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June 21, 2022
How I Got My Agent
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We’re thrilled to bring you Christine Van Zandt’s How I Got My Agent story! As a long time 12 x 12 member, we’ve been watching her work and put in the effort to be successful. We especially love how Christine trusted her gut in her agent search. We can’t express enough that it’s better to have no agent than to have the wrong agent. Congratulations, Christine! We can’t wait to hear about your next picture book!
Christine Van Zandt with her book, A BRIEF HISTORY OF UNDERPANTS
How long had you been writing before seeking an agent, and what made you decide it was time to look for one?
I queried for about three years. I realized that an unrepresented writer can only get so far—many of the bigger publishers work primarily with agents.
What kind of research did you do before submitting?
I looked at the agency’s website and also searched out any information I could find on agents such as their social media posts, interviews, and their wish list (if they had one).
The dreaded questions: How many queries? How many rejections?
Around 50 queries. Most were rejected, some went unanswered, and a few gave feedback which was very much appreciated.
While querying agents, I sold my first manuscript, A Brief History of Underpants, to a mid-size, international publisher (via a Twitter pitch event). I worked hard to promote it—and am still doing so.
Pre-Underpants, I had four agents contact me asking for more manuscripts and to connect (via phone or Zoom). During that stage, one agent passed on me, with two there wasn’t that “click” so those were mutual passes, and one offered representation but I went with my gut and declined. I’ve heard so much about authors who accept their first offer even though it doesn’t feel like the best fit, then, later, they part ways and start again seeking a new agent. This advice from more experienced writers made me careful and I tried to be as sure as possible before I signed with someone.
Was it difficult to find an agent who wanted to represent an author focusing on picture books?
No. I only queried agents who representing PB authors.
Who is your new agent? Tell us about getting the news.
I’m thrilled to be represented by Liza Fleissig of the Liza Royce Agency. Liza was the August 2021 agent of the month on Children’s Book Insider (CBI). (This meant she was open to “Above the Slushpile” submission opportunities for CBI subscribers.) After I queried Liza, she emailed me back to connect by phone. When we spoke, she offered representation! She then took time to explain how they work; I could tell from the conversation that we were a great fit. Plus, since I was aware of LRA’s reputation and knew some of their clients, I officially accepted later that day!
How did you know your agent was “the one”?
After all the back-and-forth I’d had with other agents, when I talked to Liza, there were no red flags. I guess it’s true what they say about having to kiss a few frogs first! Liza is energetic, driven, and upfront with her expectations. We were on the same page. She’s a smart, experienced businesswoman who sees the long game. Two other plusses for me: she’s an attorney and her agency represents a full range of kid’s books and adult books. That mattered because my writing extends beyond PB.
If 12 x 12 helped you in any way during your agent search/development of craft, can you tell us how? (It is TOTALLY okay if the answer is no. I am not trying to “lead” you.)
Being a member of 12 x 12 motivates me to write a draft a month because of the monthly check-in accountability. I am also an active member of four workshop/critique groups so I’m always revising something. Deadlines inspire me. I also appreciate the 12 x 12 community because it provides instant access, a wealth of information, and camaraderie. I enjoy seeing the success of others and being part of a large group of other PB writers.
Has your writing process changed at all since signing with an agent?
Yes, my process has changed because my agent provides insightful feedback and helps me strategize my manuscripts to best move my career forward.
What advice would you give to picture book writers looking for agents today?
My top three tips are:
Have five polished PB manuscripts before you start querying because the agents who contacted me wanted to see a wider scope of my work.
Participate in at least one critique group; workshop regularly. The feedback and support of others is so important.
Read recent and read wide to stay engaged with picture book publications.
Do you think your platform (blog, social media) helped you find your agent?
Yes, because authors today are expected to help sell their products. Having a relevant platform and engaging in social media shows that you are active in the writing community. You want to be out there interacting and supporting other writers so that when it’s your turn to announce your good news, people will know you and support you.
Tell us something that is on your “bucket list.” Something you’ve dreamed of doing all your life but have yet to accomplish (besides publishing a book, which is inevitable at this point).
I want to help save the Western monarch butterfly from extinction. I grew up seeing millions of these amazing creatures migrating along the California coast and was shocked to learn their numbers were down more than 99.9%; fewer than 2,000 butterflies were counted in 2020. I’ve been involved, volunteering, growing plants, and spreading the word that we need to plant milkweed (the only plant the caterpillars can eat). Insects around the world are in decline because of habitat destruction, soil degradation, and the spraying of harmful chemicals. I hope that we learn to appreciate and sustain nature.
What’s up next/what are you working on now?
Within a few months of being represented by Liza, she sold my second PB manuscript! It hasn’t been announced yet but 12 x 12 will be among the first to know.
Meanwhile, I’m still actively promoting A Brief History of Underpants. In April, it won an Honorable Mention award at the Los Angeles Book Festival. In May, I was thrilled to be chosen to do an individual presentation at the hugely popular Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley, California; my book demonstrated how nonfiction can be funny and engaging for kids but also relevant as a STEM teaching device in the classroom.
Beyond that, I’m always writing, reading, and workshopping with my critique partners.
NOVEMBER 18, 2022Meet Christine Van Zandt
Avatar photoLOCAL STORIES
SHARETWEETPIN
Today we’d like to introduce you to Christine Van Zandt.
Hi Christine, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi! I’m an editor and writer, working on books for adults and kids. I launched my business, Write for Success Editing Services, when I moved to Hollywood about 12 years ago.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It took a while to build my business because we also had a baby around the same time so there was a long sleep-deprived while there! Business climbed steadily until the pandemic when people spent lots of time writing but with less income coming in, writers weren’t looking to spend money hiring editors like me to help them. The silver lining was that I got to focus on my own writing more and had my first children’s book published mid-pandemic: A Brief History of Underpants (becker&mayer! kids, 2021).
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I spend most of my days helping other people write their books but also am a traditionally published and agented writer with my second kid’s books launching in spring 2024 called Butterfly Dreams. This lyrical, nonfiction picture book is about a monarch butterfly’s trek back from overwintering in Mexico. These butterflies are an endangered species and faced near-extinction just a couple of years ago because of pesticide use on plants and habitat destruction.
What’s next?
I plan to keep editing and writing. In addition to books, I have some short stories and poems for kids scheduled for publication in 2023 and hope to keep selling more.
Contact Info:
Website: https://christinevanzandt.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinevanzandt9/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christine.vanzandt.9/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/christinevz
Other: https://writeforsuccessediting.com/
Christine Van Zandt
Author, Editor
christinevanzandtauthor@gmail.com
PAL MEMBER
About
I am the author of the nonfiction picture books A BRIEF HISTORY OF UNDERPANTS (becker&mayer! kids, 2021) and MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS (Beaming, 2024). Both have multicultural and STEM elements. I am available for in-person or virtual presentations for reading, discussion, or activities. Teachers may contact me for a free classroom guide. My children's writing has won awards, been published in HIGH FIVE and HIGHLIGHTS magazines.
I am also a freelance developmental editor and writing mentor. I listen to an author’s goals and provide specific guidance to move the manuscript forward to publication.
christinevanzandt.com/
Cover Reveal! MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS by Christine Van Zandt (plus a giveaway)
August 31, 2023 in Picture Books | Tags: Alejandra Barajas, Christine Van Zandt, MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS | 77 comments
by Christine Van Zandt
Those early, shut-in days of the pandemic fostered my upcoming picture book, MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS (Beaming Books, 2024). With everyone at home, we escaped to—I mean, we appreciated—our garden a bit more. Flowers and foliage. Bugs and birds. Bare patches calling out for some attention. So, off to the garden center where an “attracts butterflies” sign led us to buy our first milkweed plant. Why not?
Days later, we noticed our milkweed had critters crawling on it. Twenty-seven to be exact. Little caterpillars that would grow into monarch butterflies. We watched as they devoured leaves, buds, even stems. Their escapades, a fun distraction. Counting caterpillars became part of our daily routine.
Then, one morning, all were gone!
I Googled and discovered this wasn’t supposed to happen. Toxins in the milkweed plant made the caterpillars taste bad and their bold stripes warned-off predators. (Apparently no one told our local birds and raccoons.)
Without the constant crunching, the milkweed leafed out, bloomed, and a female monarch butterfly found it. The baby-factory was back in business! We learned that monarchs need milkweed—it’s the only plant their caterpillars can eat.
Once our eggs hatched, there were a lot of very hungry caterpillars. (Eric Carle knew what he was talking about.) Back to the garden center for more milkweed. Before long, some caterpillars made chrysalises, then, weeks later, launched into gorgeous butterflies reminding me of my childhood.
Growing up in northern California, winters brought magical moments of seeing coastal trees blanketed with western monarch butterflies. While the eastern monarch population that overwinters mainly in Mexico has suffered declines, the western monarch has been classified as an endangered species. In 2021, fewer than 2,000 of these butterflies were counted overwintering in California. Their numbers were once in the millions.
At-home pesticide use is a major factor. Gardeners want big blooms and perfect greenery, but spraying or applying systemic pesticides means we’re killing all kinds of insects and disrupting the food chain. Habitat destruction and climate change also take a toll.
While I watched the butterfly life cycle, I wrote about it, workshopping my manuscript with critique partners. My writing was trial and error: fiction, nonfiction, prose, verse. I read every book I could find about butterflies, and began volunteering for Xerces to gain insight into insects. Then back to revisions.
The manuscript that fluttered to the top was a rhyming poem supported by facts. Spare, lyrical text shows a mama monarch returning from overwintering. We follow one egg on its journey to becoming a butterfly. This engaging read-aloud also has STEM information and fun interactive questions to support classroom or at-home learning.
My first nonfiction picture book, A BRIEF HISTORY OF UNDERPANTS, sold to Quarto Kids unagented (via a Twitter pitch party) and published around the same time that the manuscript for MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS won several top awards through SCBWI. Soon after, I received an offer for representation from the amazing Liza Fleissig at the Liza Royce Agency.
In a whirlwind, Liza sold my manuscript to Beaming Books. Working with their Senior Acquisitions Editor, Andrea Hall, has been a dream. She understood my concern but also my hopefulness and she created a beautiful book. Here’s a first look at the gorgeous cover created by illustrator extraordinaire, Alejandra Barajas!
MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS is now available for preorder, for a February 6, 2024 release.
In closing, I’d like to give a big thank-you shout-out to Tara! I appreciate all Tara does for our industry and how her successful books have shown the world that funny female kid’s lit writers really do exist.
Images provided by Christine Van Zandt and Beaming Books.
Christine is giving away a 60-minute manuscript critique of the first 750 words of your book (adult or kid’s, fiction or nonfiction, prose or verse) or a picture book with 750 words or fewer. (No art please.)
Leave one comment below to enter. A random winner will be selected in September!
Good luck!
Christine Van Zandt is a freelance editor who loves helping other writers realize their dreams of getting their books published. A small-business owner, she founded her company, Write for Success Editing Services, in 2009.
MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS is Christine’s second nonfiction picture book. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and pets. Find out more at ChristineVanZandt.com.
Van Zandt, Christine MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS Beaming Books (Children's None) $18.99 2, 6 ISBN: 9781506489308
Migrating monarch butterflies must have milkweed.
This colorful title presents the development of monarch butterflies, from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to flight and migration. Van Zandt uses a dual text--lyrical quatrains supplemented by exposition in a smaller typeface--set on bright, animation-style illustrations. A female monarch returns from a southern winter to seek out a place to lay her eggs. The author emphasizes the butterfly's need for milkweed to provide for the next generation. What stands out are the in-depth, step-by-step descriptions and illustrations of the stages of the monarch's development. Notably, Van Zandt mentions the ways milkweed defends itself against monarch caterpillars. Beginning with a panorama of monarchs leaving, presumably, Mexico or California, Barajas then uses close-up angles to show details of the egg laying and hatching, the changing caterpillar and chrysalis colors, and a newly hatched butterfly's crumpled wings, ending with a smaller group of monarchs flying away. Early on, Van Zandt makes clear that monarch migration extends over four generations. She ends with a note describing her own developing interest in monarchs, the threats they face (including habitat loss, which makes finding milkweed more challenging), ways young readers can help, and fun facts about butterfly senses. This is familiar ground in picture books as well as early science education, but it's an engaging introduction nonetheless.
Informative in both pictures and words. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 4-8.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Van Zandt, Christine: MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A776005450/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1146dfdf. Accessed 11 Apr. 2024.
VAN ZANDT, Christine. Milkweed for Monarchs. illus. by Alejandra Barajas. 40p. Beaming. Feb. 2024. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781506489308.
PreS-Gr 3--While many books about monarchs focus on their great migration, this one stresses the importance of the milkweed plant to the butterflies' survival, while also presenting a detailed description of their life cycle. The text on each page is in two parts: the top lines are written in simple rhymes, while the bottom lines explain the science in greater detail, making the book accessible to a wide range of readers. Detailed illustrations accompany the text, the best of which depict close-up views of a single egg, various stages of caterpillar growth, and the dreamy blue-green of the chrysalis. Though the larger issues, e.g., how pesticide use and deforestation affect the butterflies' food source, may be lost on younger readers--addressed on the second spread of the book--the vivid illustrations and expressive words make the book a worthwhile purchase. Back matter includes an author's note, fun facts, ways readers can help (by planting milkweed in their garden, for example) and a brief bibliography. VERDICT A strong addition to a library's collection of butterfly books, especially in areas where monarch migration takes place.--Sue Morgan
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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Morgan, Sue. "VAN ZANDT, Christine. Milkweed for Monarchs." School Library Journal, vol. 70, no. 1, Jan. 2024, p. 66. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A778646601/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=4280ad02. Accessed 11 Apr. 2024.
A Brief History of Underpants. By Christine Van Zandt. Illus. by Harry Briggs. 2021.48p. Quarto/becker&mayer! kids, paper, $9.99 (9780760370605). Gr. 1-4.391.4.
Leaving no double entendre unturned, Van Zandt chronicles tushie-wear from the "beginning of buns" onward, pulling up garments such as the Maori maro and the sumo wrestlers' mawashi for closer examination as she sniffs at medieval and modern European undergarments and sanitary practices up to the modern (1935) Y-front undy. Bras go unmentioned, as do chastity belts, codpieces, corsets, lingerie, or, for that matter, diapers. But she expands her brief to include underwear-ish outerwear, like the ancient Egyptian schenti and Indian dhoti, and adds snappy notes on such significant innovations as buttons, elastic, and the automatic washing machine. After making a flap about National Underwear Day (August 5) she reaches the "The Ends" with riddles, a craft project, and, for readers who really want to get to the bottom of the subject, a first-rate reading list of more detailed sources. Briggs doesn't take the topic too seriously in his line-drawn cartoon caricatures, though he does deposit recognizably depicted skivvies from several world cultures amid the author's breezy claims and observations.--John Peters
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Peters, John. "A Brief History of Underpants." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 18, 15 May 2021, p. 42. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A663199024/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=64ab67a2. Accessed 11 Apr. 2024.
VAN ZANDT, Christine. A Brief History of Underpants. illus. by Harry Briggs. 48p. Quarto/ Becker & Mayer. Apr. 2021. pap. $9.99. ISBN 9780760370605.
Gr 2-5--While just the idea of underwear will produce giggles in some story time crowds, this book is playing for laughs while conveying historical facts. The silly tone is established immediately with questions such as "Who started the HOLE thing?" and "What's BEHIND today's styles?" The first chapter covers general topics about why people wear underpants and some early examples. Next, an "Underpants Around the World" section explores many unique styles and fabrics. Small map graphics with locations starred and dates help convey the time period and worldwide customs. Societal norms influenced who wore certain undergarments, such as the mawashi from Japan and the Central and South American maxtlatl. The majority of the cartoon illustrations depict men, and when women are included it is not always in a positive manner. The Europe 1000-1500 section contains stereotypical language, describing the undergarments worn by "women, including damsels in distress," and saying how women did not need the same type of clothing as knights because "a woman's biggest battle was fought once or twice a year on wash day." Evidenced by the popularity of titles such as Creepy Pair of Underwear! by Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown, there is an audience for the topic. No specific sources are listed, but there are suggestions for further reading. VERDICT Humorous illustrations and bouncy text keep the pages turning quickly in this lightweight history, but selectors should be aware of the abovementioned stereotypical language.--Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's Sch., Richmond, VA
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Snyder, Lucinda. "VAN ZANDT, Christine. A Brief History of Underpants." School Library Journal, vol. 67, no. 5, May 2021, p. 99. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A661255359/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=22eef15e. Accessed 11 Apr. 2024.