booktalk Archives - Anastasia Suen

Up! Up! Up! Skyscraper
by Anastasia Suen (Author) and Ryan O’Rourke (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Snappy rhymes invite young readers to watch workers dig, pour, pound, and bolt a skyscraper into existence. Simple yet satisfying sidebars provide further information about each step in the construction process. Perfect for preschoolers and all those who dig diggers.

When my “building a house” small poem became the Raise the Roof picture book, I thought I was done with construction books, but my architect husband was working on a skyscraper and that made me curious! How did they make tall buildings stand up straight? (The Tower of Pisa is leaning to one side!)

This question led to more and with his expert advice, a new small poem became the picture book Up! Up! Up! Skyscraper! My clever editor wanted the last page of the book to fold up into a completed skyscraper, so the facts aren’t in the back after the poem like so many other books. As you can see, the facts (and lots of labels) written in prose accompany the poem page by page.

I’m very happy to say that this book won the 2017 Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Book Award.

Eureka

It’s #ThrowbackThursday!
Copyright © 2026 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved. (*bookstore affiliate)

The GiRaft: A Real-Life Giraffe Rescue
by Laurel Neme (Author) and Elisa Paganelli (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: Poor Asiwa—time is running out! She and seven other rare Nubian giraffes have peacefully lived on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Baringo in Kenya. But now relentless rain and rising floodwaters have turned their home into an island. Food is running out. It’s especially desperate for Asiwa as the water has stranded her away from the other giraffes. She is alone and frightened. If the giraffes aren’t rescued, this endangered breed will be one step closer to extinction.

But how does one transport an almost 20-foot-tall wild animal? With a GiRaft, of course! An alliance of wildlife rangers, conservancies, and local community members work to create a flotational craft specifically to ferry the giraffes to a new home. Will Asiwa and her herd get on board?

Snippet: