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Invite a Nonfiction Author to Your School

11/25/2017

Are you starting to notice the difference in the voices of the authors of the Nonfiction Minutes? Are you getting the idea that we are a passionate bunch of people with wide interests? Do you think you could recognize an author even if you didn't know who wrote a Minute?

How about bringing your favorite author to your school to answer questions about his or her MInutes? You can find out how through the Center of Interactive Learning and Collaboration. If you're a teacher it costs nothing to join and there are lots of other content providers listed whom you may find interesting. If you look at the drop-down list of providers, you'll see us under Authors on Call/iNK Think Tank. But here's the link for you to bring us to your school and talk to many classrooms in one visit through our fabulous Zoom Room. All you need is WiFi and a white board or projector and screen.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

11/23/2017

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Our Nonfiction Minute authors wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

We will not be posting Minutes for the rest of the week, but will return on Saturday morning with a post for the week of November 27. If you want to find some Minutes you might have missed or are looking for some interesting family dinner conversation, try browsing through our archives. You can access them by topic or author from the list on the right, or by month by scrolling all the way down to the bottom of the Topics and Authors list.

Also, you might want to take a look at the Transfer to Teaching pages (T2T). Karen Sterling, Media Specialist, creator of the Pennridge eLibrary and K-12 District Library Coordinator for the Pennridge School District has been having a ball creating T2T pages. She offers some really good and practical ideas about how to use the Nonfiction Minutes as teaching tools. You can reach her at: ksterlin@pennridge.org.

Thank you for bringing us into your classroom.

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True Stories that will Knock your Socks Off: An Author Shares How Nonfiction Books are Written

11/18/2017

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We're collaborating with the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration to produce a LIVE STREAMING EVENT:

Nonfiction author Carla Killough McClafferty has written books on a wide variety of topics and each one has a back story of how it came to be. Your students can join McClafferty as she shares with them the details only authors know. Hear about visiting the Radium Institute in Paris to research Marie Curie, how she came to know people who were rescued from the Nazi’s by an American Holocaust rescuer, how George Washington came to life for her while staying on the grounds of Mount Vernon, and how she interviewed the world’s experts on the topic of concussions. This live streaming event is a chance for students to learn stories not found on shelves.

Date: December 14, 2017, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST (adjust for your time zone). (Registration Deadline: 12/14/2017)
This is a live streaming event. A link will be sent to teachers as the event approaches. There is a chat function that you and your students will be able to use to ask questions.

To find out more and how to register go to: www.CILC.org

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Invite a Nonfiction Author to Your School

11/11/2017

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Let's Blow Up the King!

11/6/2017

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Jim Whiting
Nonfiction is the new black

Guy Fawkes

During much of the sixteenth century, England was wracked by violence between Catholics and Protestants. Hundreds of Protestants were executed during the reign of Queen Mary (1553–1558), earning her the nickname of “Bloody Mary.” Her Protestant successor, Queen Elizabeth (1558–1603) returned the favor by persecuting and killing Catholics. She was followed by James I, whose Catholic mother had been executed. James’s wife had recently converted to Catholicism.

English Catholics therefore hoped he would be more tolerant than Elizabeth. While the number of executions dropped off, James ordered Catholic priests to leave England and said that Protestantism was the one true faith. Despairing Catholics decided on a desperate measure. They would assassinate James and install his nine-old-daughter Elizabeth as a Catholic monarch.

The plotters secreted three dozen barrels of gunpowder in the basement beneath the House of Lords a few days before the opening of Parliament on November 5, 1605. Guy Fawkes, one of the plotters, planned to ignite a fuse when King James entered the chamber and then scurry to safety. With most members of Parliament and other high officials dead in the explosion, the resulting chaos would make it easier for the schemers to seize control of the government.

However, some of the conspirators realized that this plan would kill a lot of innocent people, including Catholics. So in late October, one of them sent an anonymous warning letter to a Catholic Member of Parliament. He passed along the message to the king’s guardians. Shortly after midnight on November 5, a search party discovered Fawkes and the concealed gunpowder. He was tortured for several days to reveal the names of the other conspirators and then executed. His body was hacked into several pieces. The grisly chunks were displayed in several parts of England as a warning to would-be traitors.

In celebration of the king’s salvation, many people lit bonfires on the night of the discovery. That began a tradition that continues to this day in what is known as Bonfire Night. Tonight in nations of the British Empire, revelers, many wearing Guy Fawkes apparel, are shooting off fireworks and building huge bonfires to burn effigies of the man regarded as England’s most notorious traitor.

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

Guy Fawkes is Amazon.com's best selling mask. It's popularity stems from the graphic novel and film "V for Vendetta," which centers on a vigilante's efforts to destroy an authoritarian government

A 1606 etching by Claes (Nicolaes) Jansz Visscher, depicting Fawkes's execution

George Cruikshank's illustration , published in William Harrison Ainsworth's 1840 novel GuyFawkes.

Protesters around the world use Guy Fawkes masks to express their unhappiness with the establishment as well as to protect their identity.

Jim Whiting has written more than a hundred books on many subjects. His is a very interesting person. Check out his website on Amazon.

MLA 8 Citation
Whiting, Jim. "Let's Blow Up the King!" Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 6 Nov. 2017, http://www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/lets-blow-up-the-king.

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Invite a Nonfiction Author to Your School

Happy Thanksgiving!

True Stories that will Knock your Socks Off: An Author Shares How Nonfiction Books are Written

Invite a Nonfiction Author to Your School

Let's Blow Up the King!

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