Anastasia Suen

January 24, 2020January 23, 2020

Snowy Owls

Snowy Owls (Spot Arctic Animals)
by Anastasia Suen (Author)

Booktalk: Bundle up! It’s time to discover the unique animals that live at the top of the world. This search-and-find book invites young readers to look for new vocabulary words and pictures while giving simple facts about a snowy owl’s arctic habitat, body parts, and behaviors. Find out how their bodies are adapted to the frigid climate and what they do to survive.

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

January 17, 2020January 16, 2020

Extinct: An Illustrated Exploration of Animals That Have Disappeared

Extinct: An Illustrated Exploration of Animals That Have Disappeared
by Lucas Riera (Author) and Jack Tite (Illustrator)

Booktalk: This exploration of over 90 animals that we have lost over the past century, from the California grizzly to the Persian tiger, aims to create awareness and inspire children to act responsibly toward their environment. How each of these animals came to extinction is told in short snippets of text. Further scientific resources and profiles of animals that have been rediscovered or successfully reintroduced into the wild are also included in this over-sized volume.

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

January 17, 2020January 16, 2020

Loony Little: The Ice Cap Is Melting

Loony Little: The Ice Cap Is Melting
by Dianna Hutts Aston (Author) and Kelly Murphy (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day with this climate-focused twist on the classic “Chicken Little” story.

Loony Little and her friends set off to tell the Polar Bear Queen that the polar ice cap is melting. Sly Foxy Loxy attempts to lead the animals to his lair to eat them, but Loony Little saves the day, tricking the fox into being devoured by the Polar Bear Queen. Includes information about climate change and the animal species in the book.

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

January 10, 2020January 9, 2020

How to Win a Nobel Prize

How to Win a Nobel Prize
by Barry Marshall (Author), Lorna Hendry (Author), and Bernard Caleo (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Mary has always wanted to win a Nobel Prize. She loves running her own science experiments at home. But how can she become a real scientist and win the greatest prize of all?

One day, Mary stumbles on a secret meeting of Nobel Prize winners. Dr. Barry Marshall agrees to travel with her through time to learn the secrets behind some of the most fascinating and important scientific discoveries. They talk time and space with Albert Einstein, radiation with Marie Curie, DNA with Crick, Watson and Wilkins – and much more.

Includes experiments that young scientists can do themselves at home.

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

January 3, 2020January 2, 2020

Life Under Ice

Life Under Ice: Exploring Antarctic Seas (2nd edition)
by Mary M. Cerullo (Author) and Bill Curtsinger (Photographer)

Booktalk: The organisms that live year-round under the ice of the Antarctic Ocean are truly amazing. Enormous jellyfish and fish with blood like antifreeze are just a few of the creatures captured in their unique habitat by underwater photographer Bill Curtsinger. This new edition is fully updated and traces the impacts of climate change and ice-shelf melt on the abundant life in the waters beneath a frozen desert.

Snippet: By New Year’s Day, when the sun is overhead twenty-four hours a day, billions of microscopic single-celled floating plants called phytoplankton will be in full bloom, forming a thick sea soup and making underwater photography impossible.

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

December 13, 2019December 10, 2019

Boom! Bellow! Bleat!

Boom! Bellow! Bleat!: Animal Poems for Two or More Voices
by Georgia Heard (Author) and Aaron DeWitt (Illustrator)

Booktalk: A collection of poems–peppered with an astounding variety of animal sounds–is meant to be read aloud together. The poems cover all major classes of animals: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects, even a crustacean! End notes provide more information on the animals and how and why they make the sounds they do.

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A 2019 Cybils Poetry nominee

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

December 6, 2019December 5, 2019

Superlative Birds

Superlative Birds
by Leslie Bulion (Author) and Robert Meganck (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Explore the fascinating world of superlative birds–from the bee hummingbird, the tiniest bird in the world, to the peregrine falcon, the fastest creature on Earth. The back of the book includes a science glossary, notes on poetry forms, and resources for more information about these birds.

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Superlative Birds:
Which bird can do what birds do, best?
Which put world records to the test?
Which birds are beaks above the rest?
Superlative birds! Come see!

A 2019 Cybils Poetry nominee

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

November 29, 2019November 26, 2019

The Day the Universe Exploded My Head

The Day the Universe Exploded My Head: Poems to Take You into Space and Back Again
by Allan Wolf (Author) and Anna Raff (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Ever wonder what the sun has to say about being the closest star to Earth? Or what Pluto has gotten up to since being demoted to a dwarf planet? Or where rocket ships go when they retire? Listen closely, because maybe, just maybe, your head will explode, too. With poetry that is both accurate and entertaining — this book will enthrall amateur stargazers and budding astrophysicists as it reveals many of the wonders our universe holds. Space travelers in search of more information will find notes about the poems, a glossary, and a list of resources at the end.

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

November 22, 2019November 21, 2019

Adventures on Earth

Adventures on Earth
by Simon Tyler (Author / Illustrator)

Booktalk: Follow in the footsteps of the world’s most famous explorers and travel to the extremes of our environment on Earth–learn about the highest and deepest, hottest and coldest places on Earth. Discover the world’s most wild terrain–deserts, mountains, volcanoes, rivers, jungles, oceans, the polar regions and more and learn about how they were discovered and explored by human adventurers. Find out how these regions are under threat from global warming and other issues, and learn what we can do to conserve them.

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

November 15, 2019November 14, 2019

Pluto Gets the Call

Pluto Gets the Call
by Adam Rex (Author) and Laurie Keller (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Pluto loves being a planet. That is, until the day he gets a call from some Earth scientists telling him he isn’t a planet anymore! You probably wanted to meet a real planet, huh? Join Pluto as he takes you on a journey through the solar system to introduce the other planets (who commiserate about his situation).

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FYI: “‘I am here to tell you, as the NASA administrator, I believe Pluto is a planet,’ said Bridenstine during a keynote on the final day of the International Astronautical Congress in Washington, D.C. on October 25.”

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