middle grade Archives - Page 353 of 363

The Slowest Book Ever
by April Pulley Sayre (Author) and Kelly Murphy (Illustrator)

A book about some of the slow things in life. Did you know that there’s a bird that flies so slowly it falls from the sky? (page 40) And that a saguaro cactus takes fifteen years to grow its first inch? (page 66)

#kidlit Writing Lesson: the small details

HOW SLOW CAN YOU GROW SAGUARO?

Saguaro cacti start slowly and grow slowly. It takes about fifteen years before they grow 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) high. It is forty or fifty years before they reach 10 feet (about 3 meters) tall and flower for the first time. At seventy-five to one hundred years old, saguaro cacti grow their distinctive side arms. These plants live to be more than 150 years old.

The big idea is stated first.

Saguaro cacti start slowly and grow slowly.

Specific details follow –in chronological order. Readers see the first inch:

It takes about fifteen years before they grow 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) high.

. . . and the first flower:

It is forty or fifty years before they reach 10 feet (about 3 meters) tall and flower for the first time.

. . . and the side arms:

At seventy-five to one hundred years old, saguaro cacti grow their distinctive side arms.

The final sentence shows the lifespan of this v-e-r-y S-L-O-W plant:

These plants live to be more than 150 years old.

BONUS! Talk about S-L-O-W! The last Square Root Day was 3/3/9. Look at the calendar–today is another Square Root Day! It’s 4/4/16. (There are only 9 Square Root Days in a century. The next one won’t occur until 5/5/25!) Enjoy!

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Once Was a Time
by Leila Sales (Author)

Booktalk: The BIG Picture

In the war-ravaged England of 1940, Charlotte Bromley is sure of only one thing: Kitty McLaughlin is her best friend in the whole world. But when Charlotte’s scientist father makes an astonishing discovery that the Germans will covet for themselves, Charlotte is faced with an impossible choice between danger and safety. Should she remain with her friend or journey to another time and place? Her split-second decision has huge consequences, and when she finds herself alone in the world, unsure of Kitty’s fate, she knows that somehow, some way, she must find her way back to her friend.

#kidlit Writing Lesson: the small details

It felt like my intestines were going to come spewing out of my mouth. Dad hadn’t warned me about this part of time travel.

Because Dad has never done it. So he didn’t know.

When my retching finally slowed down, I inhaled a deep breath. Air. So I wasn’t in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

That was something at least.

I opened my eyes. I was lying on grass. It was hot.

That was as much as I could get right now.

After all of her father’s time travel talk, Charlotte realizes that she is the first one in her family to actually experience it.

It felt like my intestines were going to come spewing out of my mouth. Dad hadn’t warned me about this part of time travel.

Because Dad has never done it. So he didn’t know.

As her travel sickness subsides, Charlotte’s focus slowly moves outward.

When my retching finally slowed down, I inhaled a deep breath. Air. So I wasn’t in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

That was something at least.

I opened my eyes. I was lying on grass. It was hot.

That was as much as I could get right now.

The main character’s time travel experience begins with her physical reaction. Only then does it move outward and begin to describe her new world.