Anastasia Suen

April 23, 2021April 22, 2021

Palm Trees at the North Pole

Palm Trees at the North Pole: The Hot Truth About Climate Change
by Marc ter Horst (Author), Wendy Panders (Illustrator), and Laura Watkinson (Translator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: With facts about farting cows and cracking icebergs, tall windmills and fast electric cars, burly polar bears and cute little pikas, this guide for readers ages 8-12 covers the history of our climate–starting with exploding volcanoes and extinct mammoths–and explains humans’ role in climate change. It also shares information about environmental movements throughout history.

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

April 16, 2021April 15, 2021

How to Build an Insect

How to Build an Insect
by Roberta Gibson (Author) and Anne Lambelet (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Let’s build an insect! In the pages of this book, you’ll find a workshop filled with everything you need, including a head, a thorax, an abdomen, and much more. Try it yourself with the activity in the back of the book!

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

April 9, 2021April 8, 2021

Nature Did It First

Nature Did It First: Engineering Through Biomimicry
by Karen Ansberry (Author) and Jennifer DiRubbio (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Explore the ways we have looked to nature for brilliant new designs and innovations to solve our own conundrums. Each example in nature is paired with a rhyming description, an example of how it has been used by us, and a question to the reader–“what other problems can be solved?”

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

April 2, 2021April 1, 2021

Cougar Crossing

Cougar Crossing: How Hollywood’s Celebrity Cougar Helped Build a Bridge for City Wildlife
by Meeg Pincus (Author) and Alexander Vidal (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: P-22, the famed “Hollywood Cougar,” was born in a national park near Los Angeles, California. When it was time for him to leave home and stake a claim to his own territory, he embarked on a perilous journey–somehow crossing twenty lanes of the world’s worst traffic–to make his home in LA’s Griffith Park, overlooking the famed Hollywood sign. But Griffith Park is a tiny territory for a mountain lion, and P-22’s life has been filled with struggles.

Residents of Los Angeles have embraced this brave cougar as their own and, along with the scientists monitoring P-22, raised money to build a wildlife bridge across Highway 101 to help cougars and other wildlife safely expand their territories and build new homes–ensuring their survival for years to come.

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

March 26, 2021March 25, 2021

Jumping Spiders: An Augmented Reality Experience

Jumping Spiders: An Augmented Reality Experience
by Sandra Markle (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: A jumping spider soars and sinks its fangs into prey. The spider injects venom, paralyzing its target. Learn about the jumping spider life cycle with augmented reality experiences and lots of creepy details.

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

March 19, 2021March 18, 2021

Hack Your Kitchen

Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Hack Your Kitchen: Discover a World of Food Fun with Science Buddies
by Niki Ahrens (Author, Photographer)

Booktalk: Young scientists will learn all about many different scientific principles and properties using everyday tools and ingredients from their own kitchens! Make a lemon volcano, flour craters, edible paper, and more with these hands-on science projects.

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

March 12, 2021March 11, 2021

Stay Healthy with Sesame Street ®: Understanding Coronavirus

Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Stay Healthy with Sesame Street ®: Understanding Coronavirus
by Mary Lindeen (Author)

Booktalk: Familiar characters from Sesame Street answer questions about coronavirus, COVID-19, and quarantine for young children.

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

March 5, 2021March 4, 2021

Women’s History Month

My new Focus on STEM column: Women’s History Month is in the March Quick Tips for Schools and Libraries newsletter.

Snippet: Fill your bookshelves with these new STEM biographies for Women’s History Month and discover the contributions that women in STEM fields have made in the past — and are still making today. Then invite your tweens and teens to play the free online game Foldit and help scientists design a brand-new protein that will attach to the COVID-19 coronavirus.

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

February 26, 2021February 25, 2021

Plasticus Maritimus: An Invasive Species

Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Plasticus Maritimus: An Invasive Species
by Ana Pego (Author), Isabel Minhós Martins (Author), and Bernado P. Carvalho (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Inspired by biologist Ana Pêgo’s life’s work, this book for ages 10-16 looks at plastic pollution in the ocean and explains why it is such an urgent contemporary issue.

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

February 19, 2021February 18, 2021

Explore Mars

Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Explore Mars
by Jackie Golusky (Author)

Booktalk: After Earth, Mars is the most explored planet in our solar system. Rovers travel across its surface to find out answers to scientists’ questions. What is Mars like? Did it ever have life? Learn all about this strange world next door! Access a downloadable 3D printer model from NASA via Page Plus QR codes.

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See NASA’s Mars Rover Perseverance land on February 18, 2021.

For touchdown, fast forward to 1:39

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