Anastasia Suen

April 27, 2026April 28, 2026

Christina Hammock Koch: Artemis Astronaut

Christina Hammock Koch: Artemis Astronaut
by Carla Mooney (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: Discover the life story of NASA astronaut Christina Hammock Koch.

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and raised in North Carolina, Christina Hammock Koch dreamed about traveling to space since childhood. She visited NASA’s space camp throughout her high school years, which furthered her conviction. In college she studied electrical engineering and physics and then made her way to NASA as an engineer. But she wanted a more varied experience. She joined the Antarctic Research program, a challenge that expanded her horizons.

She went back to NASA as an engineer and spent time in Maryland, Greenland, and Alaska before applying to the space program in 2012. She was admitted, and in 2019 she achieved her dream of traveling to space. She made history by being part of the first all-women spacewalk. Her next goal: Going to the moon . . . and we just saw it happen!

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The author, Carla Mooney, is one of my former students.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

March 23, 2026

Extreme Birdwatching

Extreme Birdwatching: Measuring Change on a Galápagos Island
by Loree Griffin Burns (Author) and Jamie Green (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: Daphne is an island. Not one you’d choose for a vacation. There are no sandy beaches, resorts, hotels, or houses. No tall trees to make shade. The steep, rocky sides of a volcanic Galápagos island are not inviting, and most who visit this part of the world sail right past. But Peter and Rosemary Grant are not most people. A husband-and-wife team, the Grants came to this singular place with a singular goal: to study two species of wild finch. For decades, the scientists and their students counted, cataloged, and observed finches on a remote mile-wide island. Through teamwork, painstaking observation—extreme bird-watching, extreme plant study, extreme seed counting—and careful beak measurements, the group of committed scientists proved step-by-step, over forty years, how finch beaks change in response to their environment.

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Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

The author, Loree Griffin Burns, is one of my former students.
Copyright © 2026 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved. (*bookstore affiliate)

February 23, 2026February 20, 2026

Apollo 11 and Artemis II Activities for Classrooms and Libraries

Printable Man on the Moon activities are in a Beacon Library app in the cloud.

Click here and a new screen will open the Beacon Library app.
Enter your contact info and the Beacon Library app will email you a download link.
Print the activities on 8.5×11″ paper in full-color or gray-scale (black ink only).
Clicking each underlined NASA on “Then and Now” PDF will take you to each multimedia site.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

February 9, 2026March 9, 2026

Twice Enslaved: Liberty and Justice for Henrietta Wood

by Selene Castrovilla (Author) and Erin K. Robinson (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: Henrietta Wood was born enslaved. As a teen she was ripped from her family and sold. Years later, a miracle happened, and she was given freedom papers. But Henrietta’s freedom was short-lived. She was tricked back into enslavement and sent to a Mississippi cotton plantation.

On June 19, 1865—Juneteenth—she was emancipated. Finally free for good, Henrietta Wood sued the man who had kidnapped her back into enslavement—and she won! Henrietta was one of the few people in United States history to ever receive a reparation payment for slavery.

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The author, Selene Castrovilla, is one of my former students.
Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

January 12, 2026March 2, 2026

Prince: A Little Golden Book Biography

Prince: A Little Golden Book Biography
by Nikki Shannon Smith (Author) and Don Tate (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: Happy book birthday to a 24-page picture book biography that celebrates Prince’s boundary-breaking artistry, his fearless self-expression, and his enduring influence on music, fashion, and culture.

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The author and the illustrator are both former students.
Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

May 19, 2025May 16, 2025

New Wildfire Books

My new Focus on STEM column, Wildfires, is in the May Quick Tips for Schools and Libraries newsletter from Booklist.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

May 12, 2025May 9, 2025

The Glass Pyramid

The Glass Pyramid: A Story of the Louvre Museum and Architect I. M. Pei
by Jeanne Walker Harvey (Author) and Khoa Le (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: In 1981, I. M. Pei was on a mission. A successful architect known for his modern designs, Pei was asked by the French president to redesign the Louvre Museum in Paris, home to the Mona Lisa and now famous for the glass pyramid at its center. At the time, the Louvre had many problems and no pyramid.

Pei faced many obstacles, including discrimination because he was Chinese American. Determined to succeed and make the Louvre a welcome place for all, Pei worked hard—and sometimes in secret. This is the story of a visionary who worked patiently and persistently to solve problems and achieve his goals: to plant and grow a glass pyramid.

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Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

May 5, 2025May 2, 2025

Here Is a Book

Here Is a Book
by Elisha Cooper (Author / Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: A love letter to books, showing how many elements and people contribute to making something beautiful, published just in time to share on the first day of Childrens Book Week.

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Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

April 28, 2025April 27, 2025

We Sing From the Heart

We Sing From the Heart: How The Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court
by Mia Wenjen (Author) and Victor Bizar Gómez (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: Music is a way to transcend cultures and divides. Simon Tam used his band’s name, The Slants®, to make a powerful statement that racist insults could no longer be hurtful to Asian Americans. But then the U.S. Trade and Patent Office tries to stop him. In his eight-year battle to win trademark protection, Simon would go all the way to the Supreme Court in a landmark case to rout out structural racism in our government systems.

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