The LEGO Neighborhood Book: Build Your Own Town!
by Brian Lyles (Author) and Jason Lyles (Author)
Booktalk: Snap together a few houses, shops, and apartment buildings to create your own neighborhood! (Complete, step-by-step instructions for four multistory buildings and dozens of inspiring ideas to use in your own models!)
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Find Spot!
by Stacey Previn (Author, Illustrator)
Booktalk: Can you spot the spots hidden in this die-cut picture book?
Snippet:
Spot crows.
Spot wakes.
Spot fries.
Spot bakes.
This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by These 4 Corners.
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Did You Know That I Love You?
by Christa Pierce (Author, Illustrator)
Booktalk: Bird sweetly expresses her love to Fox…
Snippet:
Did you know that I love you?
Who me?
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Pink & Green Is the New Black
by Lisa Greenwald (Author)
Booktalk: Lucy Desberg is in eighth grade, and she’s determined to make this year perfect. Over the course of the year, though, her talents for makeup and problem-solving will be put to the test.
Snippet: My homework is done so I go upstairs to check my e-mail.
But as soon as I sign in, I see I there’s nothing new. I had hoped that Yamir would get in touch, but both my phone and e-mail are as I left them this morning.
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Football (Fantastic Sports Facts)
by Michael Hurley (Author)
Booktalk: Discover some of the most fascinating and unusual facts about the sport.
Snippet:
Fun Fact
The Super Bowl was nearly named “The Big One.”
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Rain Forest Colors
by Janet Lawler (Author) and Tim Laman (Photographer)
Booktalk: Yellow spiders! Blue butterflies! Green lizards! See creatures of the rain forest in 10 basic colors.
Snippet: Did you know? A tree kangaroo can safely jump down from more than fifty feet (15m) up in a tree?
Brown tree kangaroo photograph by Tim Laman
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Larry Gets Lost in Washington, DC
by John Skewes (Author, Illustrator), Andrew Fox (Author)
Booktalk: When Larry gets separated from the family by the scent of a yummy treat, he searches DC for his owner Pete. Along the way, Larry discovers the city’s greatest landmarks and learns about the city’s—and the nation’s—history. Larry makes friends along the way, but will he find Pete and be reunited with the family?
Snippet:
Such a big, fancy yard,
With a house painted white.
Would he find his friend here?
Larry hoped that he might.
This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by A Teaching Life .
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
I Wish I Had. . .
by Giovanna Zoboli (Author), Simona Mulazzani (Illustrator)
Booktalk: In this lyrical book, a child describes the skill and the beauty possessed by various animals…
Snippet:
I wish I had the eyes of a blackbird
to see every blade of grass
growing in the meadow.
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
The Reluctant Time Traveller
by Janis MacKay (Author)
Booktalk: If Saul and Agnes don’t do something their den will be destroyed. But the title deeds that could save it were lost in 1914. Good job they know the secret of time travel! Still, is travelling back in time to a world on the verge of war really a good idea? When Agnes disappears Saul has no choice — he can’t let her go to the past on her own. 100 years before their own time, Saul and Agnes meet a brother and sister, servants at a big house where a sinister visitor is expected. Together the new friends try to uncover the mystery but Saul and Agnes know time is running out.
Snippet: I had been here before — in the future. Playing hide and seek. It had only been yesterday for me, I think, but already time was feeling too messy to be sure. I shuddered, thinking how the house was ruin then, with craggy bits still standing — like this room. Different time, same place.
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
From Butterfly Wings to…Display Technology
(21st Century Skills Innovation Library: Innovations from Nature)
by Josh Gregory (Author)
Booktalk: Have you ever noticed that is it more difficult to read an electronic display screen when you are in bright sunlight? Find out how butterfly wings inspired the invention of new digital display technology that solves this problem.
Snippet: The development of this remarkable new technology began when an engineer named Mark Miles read an article about the way butterfly wings reflect the sunlight in a special way. This reflection is what creates the wings’ bright colors as the insect flutters through the air on a sunny day. Miles realized that this process could provide important clues that might help him create a better kind of display technology. He knew he would need to not only re-create the butterfly’s wing structure using available materials but also find a way to make his invention change colors on demand.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.