Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Books
Summer Green to Autumn Gold: Uncovering Leaves’ Hidden Colors
by Mia Posada (Author / Illustrator)
Booktalk: Find out why leaves change color in autumn. Back matter offers additional scientific details as well as suggested further reading and links to hands-on activities.
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Two recent books use pop-ups to invite young children into their habitats. They are written by Libby Walden and illustrated by Clover Robin, with paper engineering credits to Martin Tyler. Originally published in England, Kane Miller released them in US this past spring (2019).
Across the Savannah
In the early morning haze / The noble lion loves to laze.
Pop-up pages introduce readers to six different savannah animals: lion, giraffe, hippo, meerkat, and elephant.
On the Mountain
In the whispering mountain breeze / Two wolf cubs run between the trees.
In this book each pop-up page introduces the reader to an animal you might find when hiking on a mountain: wolf, trout, bighorn sheep, black bear, and bald eagle.
What I like about these books: Simple, rhyming text describes where each animal lives – beneath the rippling surface of a mountain lake, a muddy watering hole, in deep burrows, or on a jagged rocky slope.
Sidebars contain fun facts and additional information about each animal and the habitat. And the pop-ups provide an abundance of details that will have kids searching for more.
Beyond the Books:
Try your hand at making a pop-up book about animals in your back yard.
Review copies provided by the publisher.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2019 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.
Let’s take a look at the natural history comic book and leveled reader for kids, We Dig Worms by Kevin McCloskey.
Kevin McCloskey’s book allows young readers to explore earthworms inside and out in a fun way. He shows the anatomy and life cycle of earthworms, emphasizes the importance of earthworms in their natural habitat — as food for other animals, for their role in the decomposition of plant waste, and as aerators of the soil — and includes discussions of earthworm behavior.
As if that weren’t enough, in the back matter are tips and suggestions for parents and teachers on how to read comics with kids, with emphasis on going “for the shared pleasure.” Wonderful!
We Dig Worms is a resource that young readers will want to return to again and again. Pick up and enjoy a copy today!
Be sure to visit Growing with Science blog for an inside look at the book and for related activity suggestions.
Copyright © 2019 Roberta Gibson All Rights Reserved.
Migration: Incredible Animal Journeys
by Mike Unwin (Author) and Jenni Desmond (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Animals of all shapes and sizes make epic journeys across our planet, through harsh weather, avoiding hungry predators, in their efforts to survive. Travel around the globe with some of the world’s most incredible animals and discover their unique migration stories.
Follow the emperor penguin through snow, ice and bitter temperatures; watch as the great white shark swims 10,000 km in search of seals; track huge herds of elephants, on their yearly hunt for water and be amazed at the millions of red crabs, migrating across Christmas Island.
Snippet:
POLE TO POLE
The Arctic tern travels farther than any other–all the way down the Atlantic Ocean to the Antarctic. While it’s winter in the Arctic, it’s summer in the Antarctic. So with twenty-four hours of daylight there, the tern can keep fishing as long as it likes.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Wait, Rest, Pause: Dormancy in Nature
by Marcie Flinchum Atkins
32 pages; ages 4-8
Millbrook Press, 2020 (released fall 2019)
If you were dormant, you would pause—
waiting,
resting,
huddling,
curling,
napping.
When conditions get tough, some animals head elsewhere. But others – they tough it out by going into a dormant stage: estivation, hibernation, diapause, torpor. Plants go dormant as well. You’ve watched deciduous trees lose their leaves when days grow shorter and colder. The trees hunker down for the winter, waiting for the right condition to break dormancy and produce flowers and leaves.
What I like love about this book: I love the lyrical language that Marcie Atkins uses to show plants and animals going dormant – and then reawakening. The pages are filled with verbs that kids can act out. They are filled with engaging photos of buds and bugs, worms and wildlife. And there is awesome back matter: descriptions of different kinds of dormancy, suggestions for further reading, and websites to explore. If I gave stars, I’d give ‘em all to this book!
Check out “beyond the book” activities over at Archimedes Notebook. Review copy provided by the publisher.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2019 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.
My new Focus on STEM column: More Summer Travel is in the August Quick Tips for Schools and Libraries newsletter.
Booktalk: Celebrate two historic travel achievements with a summer travel book display and activity center.
Snippet: This past July, we celebrated the first moon landing that happened fifty years ago. Fifty years prior to that, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown flew an airplane with an open cockpit through fog and ice from Newfoundland to Ireland in the first nonstop, transatlantic flight. And it has now been five hundred summers since Ferdinand Magellan and his crew of 270 left Spain in five ships on their quest to circumnavigate the globe.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
My Happy Year by E.Bluebird (A Nature Diary)
by Paul Meisel
40 pages; ages 4 – 8
Holiday House, 2019
Today is my birthday! I can’t see yet. When I stick my head up and open my beak, Mom and Dad feed me.
E. Bluebird has a good life: loving parents who feed her beetles and crickets, a cozy nest, and fancy new feathers on her wings. Even when her parents want E to leave the nest (she’s afraid of heights…) they still feed her. But when E. does take that leap out of the nest, she discovers flight.
What I like about this book: It’s fun to read. Plus, who knew that bluebirds keep journals? For example:
July 4 ~ Flight is amazing! … Everything is so beautiful from up here. (Apparently she didn’t notice the owl watching her.) Plus we get to tag along on her migration flight there and back and watch her get on with bluebird life.
I also like the creative use of end pages. That’s where Paul Meisel puts the sort of things that one might usually find in back matter: a range map; information about bluebirds in the wild; links for how to build a bluebird house; lyrics to their songs; and a short glossary.
A couple years ago Meisel wrote another book from the point of view of a praying mantis. you can find my review of My Awesome Summer, by P. Mantis here.
Head over to Archimedes Notebook for some Beyond the Book activities.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2019 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.
Is 2 a Lot?: An Adventure With Numbers
by Annie Watson (Author) and Rebecca Evans (Illustrator)
Booktalk: While Joey’s mom explains the context of numbers in vivid ways, Joey’s imagination transforms their ordinary car ride into a magical odyssey through a land of make-believe.
Snippet:
One day Joey had a very important question.
“Is 2 a lot?” he asked his mommy.
His mommy thought for a moment. Then she said,
“Well, TWO is not a lot of pennies . . .”
[TURN THE PAGE]
“but TWO is a lot of smelly skunks.”
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
About Habitats: Rivers and Streams
By Cathryn Sill; illus by John Sill
48 pages; ages 2-6
Peachtree publishers, 2019
Rivers and streams are places where fresh water flows across the land
From babbling brooks and mountain springs to the mighty Amazon river, this book offers a glimpse into river habitats. We see how rivers form, how they shape the land – and are shaped by it, and the diversity of wildlife and plants that live along and in these waterways. Author Cathryn Sills also emphasizes the importance of conservation, because people depend on healthy rivers too.
What I like about this book: Informative text is paired with engaging illustrations. While some are scenic, others are filled with details that will have kids spending time on the page. For example, one page introduces the concept that rivers provide food and shelter to animals – and the caption lists some animals for the reader to find in the illustration.
There is back matter! As with other books in the About Habitats series, this one has six pages of more detailed information about each river illustration. There is also a glossary and a list of books and websites for further discovery. And there is Front Matter: a labeled diagram showing parts of a river basin, with simple definitions.
Head over to Archimedes Notebook for Beyond the Book activities and another book about river rescues.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2019 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.
If You Love Dolphins, You Could Be…
by May Nakamura (Author) and Natalie Kwee (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Do you love dolphins and the ocean? Then you could be a marine biologist, an aquatic veterinarian, or an underwater filmmaker! Learn about these careers and more in this Level 2 beginning reader!
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.