My June Quick Tips: Focus on STEM column, Testing, Testing: Summer Science Experiments has 6 new books for children and teens to use this summer!
Have you read these three?
Explore Natural Resources! With 25 Great Projects.
by Anita Yasuda
Plastic, Ahoy!: Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
by Patricia Newman
Genetics: Breaking the Code of Your DNA
by Carla Mooney
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2014 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
If It Rains Pancakes: Haiku and Lantern Poems (Poetry Adventures)
by Brian P. Cleary (Author) and Andy Rowland (Illustrator)
Booktalk: What is a haiku? It sounds like a sneeze. And isn’t a lantern a light source? Actually, they are two types of ancient Japanese poetry. See how each form works– and how these little poems can contain big surprises! (And when you’ve finished reading, you can try your hand at writing your own haiku and lanterns!) Here is a lantern poem…
Snippet:
Slush—
gulping
icy treat.
Getting brain freeze.
Whoa.
This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by Buffy’s Blog.
Copyright © 2014 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Quinny & Hopper
by Adriana Brad Schanen (Author) and Greg Swearingen (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Quinny has a lot to say. Hopper gets to the point.
Quinny has one speed: very, very, extra-very fast. Hopper proceeds with caution.
Quinny has big ideas. Hopper has smart solutions.
Quinny and Hopper couldn’t be more different. They are an unstoppable team.
But when summer ends, things suddenly aren’t the same.
Snippet: “Quinny Bumble, get down from there!” calls Mom from the sidewalk.
The good news is, in eight years I’ll be old enough to drive this thing.
The grumpy news is, today we’re moving.
We = me + Mom + Dad + Pee-U Piper + icky-sticky-screamy Cleo + 147 boxes of all our stuff.
Good-bye New York City. Hello, some other place in the middle of nowhere that we have to go live for Mom’s new job.
Copyright © 2014 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Splash, Anna Hibiscus!
by Atinuke (Author) and Lauren Tobia (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Anna Hibiscus is at the beach and all she wants to do is SPLASH! But everyone, including Grandmother and Grandfather, Chocolate, Benz, Wonderful, Joy, Clarity and Common Sense, is much too busy to wave-jump!
Snippet:
Anna Hibiscus looks around.
There is nobody left to ask.
See and hear the book!
Copyright © 2014 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
A Hitch at the Fairmont
by Jim Averbeck (Author) and Nick Bertozzi (Illustrator)
Booktalk: After the mysterious death of his mother, eleven-year-old Jack Fair is whisked away to San Francisco’s swanky Fairmont Hotel by his wicked Aunt Edith. There, he seems doomed to a life of fetching chocolates for his aunt and her pet chinchilla. Until one night, when Aunt Edith disappears, and the only clue is a ransom note written…in chocolate?
Suddenly, Jack finds himself all alone on a quest to discover who kidnapped Aunt Edith and what happened to his mother. Alone, that is, until he meets an unlikely accomplice—Alfred Hitchcock himself!
Snippet: Hitchcock was still shaken but seemed to calm down as he mopped his sodden brow. He folded his damp handkerchief in half four times. When he stuffed it in his pocket he was fully composed.
“I suppose you thought that was clever,” he said. “That woman wanted to help you.”
“Into an orphanage,” said Jack. “Who would find Aunt Edith then?”
Hitchcock shrugged. “The police–”
Copyright © 2014 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
The Kingfisher Soccer Encyclopedia Revised Edition
by Clive Gifford (Author)
Booktalk: Freshly revised and updated, this is a world soccer book for the 2014 World Cup and beyond. As well as offering practical advice, this informative book also provides an insider’s view of the history of the game, profiles of the great clubs, and facts about women’s soccer teams and players. (Includes free World Cup poster for readers to fill in as the tournament progresses.)
Snippet:
ATTACKING
As soon as a team gains possession of the ball, with time and in space, its players’ thoughts turn to attacking. There are many ways in which a team can launch an attack, from a fast drive into space by a player who is sprinting forward and pushing the ball ahead, to a slow probing attack in which many players keep the ball securely in possession and look for an opening.
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2014 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Indivisible: Poems for Social Justice
by Gail Bush and Randy Meyer (Editors)
Booktalk: America is not easy. It’s a land of high ideals and stirring icons, but it is also a land of harsh realities. We celebrate the incredible achievements of individuals as we turn our gaze from hunger and homelessness in the streets. We have a difficult time matching our words with our deeds. This is where poetry comes in. A poem has the ability to personalize the ideal, to make it tangible in a way that a speech or news report cannot. It can widen the angle through which we view society. It can move us to action. The poems in this anthology do just that: confront, challenge, and inspire. They take us on a journey toward social justice, starting in the shadows and slowly working our way home.
Snippet:
The News You Don’t Get at Home
Luis J. Rodriguez
The news you don’t get at home
is in the dangling flesh pf peasants and workers,
in the silenced tongues of poets and journalists,
in the machine-gunned remains of women and children.
This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by Check it Out.
Copyright © 2014 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Don’t Spill the Milk!
by Stephen Davies (Author) and Christopher Corr (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Over the uppy downy dunes, across the dark, wide river and up the steep, steep mountain, Penda lovingly carries a bowl of milk to her father in the grasslands. But will she manage to get it there without spilling a single drop?
Snippet: Penda lived in a tiny village in Africa with her mum and her aunties. It was rainy season, so Penda’s dad was up in the grasslands looking after the sheep.
Copyright © 2014 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
A Little Bit of Oomph!
by Barney Saltzberg (Author, Illustrator)
Booktalk: An inspiring and playful lift-the-flap book about creativity for children and adults.
Snippet:
Help little seeds GROW
[lift the flap]
into beautiful flowers.
See the book trailer!
Copyright © 2014 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Steering Toward Normal
by Rebecca Petruck (Author)
Booktalk: Eighth grade is set to be a good year for Diggy Lawson: He’s chosen a great calf to compete at the Minnesota State Fair, he’ll see a lot of July, the girl he secretly likes at 4-H, and he and his dad Pop have big plans for April Fool’s Day. But everything changes when classmate Wayne Graf’s mother dies, which brings to light the secret that Pop is Wayne’s father, too. Suddenly, Diggy has a half brother, who moves in and messes up his life. Wayne threatens Diggy’s chances at the State Fair, horns in on his girl, and rattles his easy relationship with Pop.
What started out great quickly turns into the worst year ever…
Snippet: The dust settled to reveal a man stumbling around the truck bed. He heaved a suitcase onto the ground, and it popped open like one of those 3-D party decorations. He lunged for the passenger door, jerking it so hard it squeaked, then reached into the cab with two hands and hauled a boy out, tossing him onto the jumbled mound of spilled clothing. The door hung open. Momentum slammed it shut when the man gunned the truck and sped away. Gravel and dust spewed over the unmoving heap of clothes and boy.
Copyright © 2014 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.