Welcome to Anastasia Suen’s Booktalking #kidlit blog archives. This site has blog posts from 2011-2015. Use the search box, the archives menu, or the categories menu to find a post. The July 9, 2015 Teach Stem Now webcast links are also archived on this site.
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Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Fab Four Friends: The Boys Who Became the Beatles
by Susanna Reich (Author) and Adam Gustavson (Illustrator)
Booktalk: In 1957 in Liverpool, England, a young lad named John Lennon and his band played music at a local church fair. In the audience was Paul McCartney, who liked what he heard and soon joined the group. Paul’s friend George Harrison kept showing up at rehearsals until the older boys finally let him in. Eventually they found the perfect drummer, Ringo Starr, and the perfect name: The Beatles. Four ordinary boys growing up amid the rubble of postwar England found music to be a powerful, even life-saving, force and became the bestselling band in history.
Snippet: John attacked the guitar, strumming as fast as he could. He didn’t give a fig about wrong notes. With some of his mates, he organized a skiffle group called the Quarrymen, pounding out souped-up folk songs and some rock and ‘n’ roll. They had no idea how to play, but they loved making noise–lots of noise! Rehearsing in Mum’s bathroom, the sound bounced off the tiles. Bam, BOOM, bam, BOOM!
Listen to the The Quarrymen sing Buddy Holly’s song, “That’ll Be The Day” on July 14th, 1958.
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Blog Tour for Fab Four Friends: The Boys Who Became the Beatles
Monday, August 17 Booktalking
Tuesday, August 18 Shelf-Employed
Wednesday, August 19 UnleashingReaders.com
Thursday, August 20 Elizabeth Dulemba
Friday, August 21 Maurice on Books
Tuesday, August 25 Kidsbiographer’s Blog
Wednesday, August 26 Gail Gauthier
Thursday, August 27 Tales from the Rushmore Kid
Friday, August 28 Alphabet Soup
Visit each blog tour stop!
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Indy Cars
by Kate Riggs (Author)
Booktalk: A kindergarten-level introduction to Indy cars, covering their speed, drivers, role in racing sports, and such defining features as their wings.
Snippet: Indy cars are fast cars.
They race on oval tracks. They race on roads.
Play the Hot Wheels Pit Race Off Take game online.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Get Drawing! (Dream It, Do It!)
by Charlotte Guillain (Author)
Booktalk: Stop dreaming about becoming an artist—and take steps to make your dream come true! These helpful tips for finding inspiration, keeping a sketchbook, and always thinking creatively will help you open your own gallery in no time!
Snippet: Ideas come when you don’t expect them. Carry a sketchpad with you and keep all of your drawing and doodles. You could also cut out any pictures that you like in magazines and stick them in your sketchbook.
Use the tips at the end of the book to stage your own gallery show!
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Understanding Credit (Searchlight Books–How Do We Use Money?)
by Carla Mooney (Author)
Booktalk: It is easy to spend money when you have a credit card or a loan. But it is also easy to spend or borrow more than you can afford. How can you use credit responsibly? How can you avoid going into debt? Read this book to understand how credit works.
Snippet: A credit card lets you use debt to pay for something. When you use a credit card, you borrow money from a credit card company. You must pay back this money. Credit card companies also charge interest. Interest increases over time. The longer you take to pay back the money, the more you must pay.
It’s back to school shopping time–a teachable moment for a lesson on spending and credit! Try the Take the Spending Challenge and play a game to see how paying with cash or credit affects how much you owe.
Carla is one of my former students!
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Ed Emberley
by Todd Oldham (Author), Caleb Neelon (Author), and Ed Emberley (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Ed Emberley is a Caldecott award-winning children’s book illustrator and writer who has been creating original books since the 1960s. He has written and illustrated more than 100 books. Contemporary working artists today often cite Ed Emberley as a beloved early inspiration in their development as artists. By encouraging kids to draw using just a few simple shapes, Emberley has made drawing and creating accessible to everyone.
Snippet:
Early Work
As Ed Emberley began his children’s bookmaking career in the 1960s, he had a young family and a new home to support. He found that working in several different styles of drawing (and soon after, printmaking) would allow him the freedom to work on enough book projects to make ends meet. He quickly realized that this variety of style was a key part of who he was as an artist and not simply an approach to launching a career.
Try it yourself! Make art in these different styles…
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Whoosh!: A Watery World of Wonderful Creatures
by Marilyn Baillie (Author) and Susan Mitchell (Illustrator)
Booktalk: A wonderful, whimsical exploration of various animals in the water and the ways in which children can, and do, mimic them! Each spread features an animal in a watery scene opposite a child mimicking the animal’s activity in some way. From splashing like a dolphin to fishing like a heron, from snoozing like an alligator to hiding like a clownfish, the echoing images bring to life the real ways that animals behave — and reveal how there’s a little bit of animal in all of us. The book closes with a “Guess What?” section that provides brief and quirky facts about the animals featured throughout.
Snippet:
I’m a river otter pup. My mom pulls me into the chilly water for my first swimming lesson. Patiently, she teaches me to paddle and dive. Look at me float!
Jump in the WATER and Join the Fun!
Read the rebus at the back of the book and try all of the ways to get up and move, such as scuttling like a crab or waddling like a penguin.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Aerospace Engineer Aprille Ericsson (STEM Trailblazer Bios)
by Laura Hamilton Waxman (Author)
Booktalk: Have you ever built a cool science project? In middle school, Aprille Ericsson won second place in a science fair. She knew she wanted to keep creating amazing science projects. As an adult, she became an engineer and works at NASA building spacecraft.
Ericsson was one of the few girls in her middle school who loved math and science. Years later, she became the first woman to receive a PhD in mechanical engineering from Howard University. At NASA, she’s helped build spacecraft that can map the moon, monitor climate change, or even bring soil and rocks back from Mars. Learn how Ericsson’s passion for science has helped her pave the way for future engineers.
Snippet: One of Ericsson’s most recent projects will help scientists study the Earth’s polar caps. Greenhouse gasses are warming the North and South poles. The warmer temperatures are causing the ice caps to melt slowly. Scientists will soon be able to find out more with the new Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-2). Ericsson was one of the managers in charge of creating a large instrument for ICESat-2 called ATLAS (Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System). The device wil be attached to ICESat-2 and will use lasers to measure the size of the ice caps. ICESat-2 is scheduled to launch in 2016.
See how the lasers will measure the size of the ice caps for ICESat-2 at Goddard Space Flight Center’s ICESat-2 page Goddard Space Flight Center page.
We’re all fired up! The ATLAS team turned on Laser 1 yesterday, the 1st time since it’s installation @NASAGoddard pic.twitter.com/Qz4Ye9XgoY
— ICESat-2 (@NASA_ICESat2) July 23, 2015
See more photos at @NASA_ICESat2
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
LEGO Space: Building the Future
by Peter Reid (Author) and Tim Goddard (Author)
Booktalk: Spaceships, orbital outposts, and new worlds come to life in this unique vision of the future, built completely from LEGO bricks.
A selection of step-by-step building instructions will have you constructing your own cosmic creations to play with at home. Marvel at interstellar battlecruisers, space pirates, charming robots, and other stunning builds from an amazing future!
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Moví la mano / I Moved My Hand
by Jorge Luján (Author), Mandana Sadat (Illustrator), and Elisa Amado (Translator)
Booktalk: When a little girl moves her hand, she changes the world as she discovers it. As she moves her known world she discovers her own power and creates everything anew.
Snippet:
Moví la mano y encontré un coco.
I moved my hand and I found a coconut.
Agité el coco y encontré un lago.
I shook the coconut and I found a lake.
STEAM DIY Activity
Make a Moon Painting.
This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by Reflections on the Teche.
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.