Category: nonfiction

When Amelia Earhart Built a Roller Coaster
by Mark Weakland (Author) and Oksana Grivina (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Amelia Earhart was one of America’s most famous aviators. But do you know what she was like as a child? From running on the river bluffs and playing football to building a roller coaster, Amelia Earhart was an active and confident child.

Snippet: Amelia loved mechanical things. Her most famous creation was a roller coaster. The track was made of boards greased with lard. The car was an empty wooden crate.

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

Copyright © 2016 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk
by Jan Thornhill (Author / Illustrator)

Booktalk: For hundreds of thousands of years Great Auks thrived in the icy seas of the North Atlantic, bobbing on the waves, diving for fish and struggling up onto rocky shores to mate and hatch their fluffy chicks. But by 1844, not a single one of these magnificent birds was alive.

Great Auks were pursued first by Vikings, then by Inuit, Beothuk and finally European hunters. Their numbers rapidly dwindled. They became collectors’ items — their skins were stuffed for museums, to be displayed along with their beautiful eggs.

Although undeniably tragic, the final demise of the Great Auk led to the birth of the conservation movement. Laws were eventually passed to prevent the killing of birds during the nesting season, and similar laws were later extended to other wildlife species.

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It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Copyright © 2016 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.