middle grade Archives - Page 2 of 336

The Frindle Files
by Andrew Clements (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: Josh Willet is a techie, a serious gamer. Which is why Josh and his friends can’t stand Mr. N’s ELA class; it’s a strict no-tech zone. Mr. N makes them write everything out by hand, he won’t use a Smartboard, and he’s obsessed with some hundred-year-old grammar book. Then Josh discovers a secret; turns out Mr. N’s been keeping a lot more than technology from his students! Together with his best friend Vanessa, and using all the computer skills they’ve got, Josh is determined to solve the mystery of Mr. N’s past. And maybe get some screentime back, too?

Snippet: The only thing Josh Willett liked about homework was how quickly he could access his assignments. All he had to do was turn on his laptop, then click the SIXTH-GRADE HOMEWORK portal he’d bookmarked on his browser at the start of the school year. This system let Josh zoom through his homework so he could get back to the things he cared about most–like a new coding problem, or a new digital animation project, or a new action sequence for the online game he wanted to build. Because Josh always had something new to work on, a plan he was hatching. And usually, it involved his computer.

On this Monday evening in mid-September, without taking his fingers off the keyboard or his eyes off the screen, Josh sat at the kitchen table and crushed his homework for math, science, and social studies in less than twenty minutes–including the time it took to post each finished assignment.

Then he clicked the link for his ELA class.

Genius Ears: A Curious Animal Compendium
by Lena Anlauf (Author), Vitali Konstantinov (Illustrator), Marshall Yarbrough (Translator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: Ears can do much more than just pick up sound waves. In the animal kingdom, ears are sometimes an animal’s strongest asset! For example, a fleeing black-tailed jackrabbit uses the position of its ears to help it confuse its pursuers and get away from danger. Some animals can close their ears to protect their bodies or use them to cool down or stay warm. Whether long, tuft, or goblin, ears can tell a lot about animals and their habits and habitats.

Which animal has the longest ears relative to its size? Which animal communicates through surprisingly high-pitched chirping sounds? And which animal can pinpoint the location of its prey using only its ears? Readers will find out all this and much more in this middle grade book filled with unique and unusual facts.

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It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)