Anastasia Suen

March 8, 2019March 6, 2019

Solve This!

Solve This!: Wild and Wacky Challenges for the Genius Engineer in You
by Joan Marie Galat (Author)

Booktalk: From the first wheel to the International Space Station, the miracles of engineering are all around us. Think cars, bridges, skyscrapers, and yes — even bubble wrap! Engineers dream up new ideas and bring them to life while figuring out creative solutions to problems they encounter along the way. But how do they do it? Find out as YOU take the challenges in this book! Then see how different National Geographic explorers tackled the challenge. (Psst! There’s often more than one solution!)

Snippet:
The Situation:
Your friend left a library book at your house, but you can’t return it because you’re quarantined with the flu. Fortunately, you live next door to one another and your bedroom windows are across a mere 15-foot (5-m) expanse. How can you deliver the goods without leaving your room?

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

March 1, 2019

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
by Valerie Bodden (Author)

Booktalk: A historical account–including eyewitness quotes–of the devastating 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the resulting oil spill’s harmful environmental impact, ending with how the disaster’s victims are memorialized today.

Snippet:

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

February 22, 2019February 21, 2019

The Squirrel Manifesto

The Squirrel Manifesto
by Ric Edelman (Author), Jean Edelman (Author), and Dave Zaboski (Illustrator)

Booktalk: A modern-day fable in the spirit of The Ant and the Grasshopper that teaches kids–and their parents–the value of spending money, saving for the future, and giving to charity.

Snippet:
If we save just a little
a couple nuts at a time,

it leads to what matters:
Squirrel Peace of Mind.

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

February 15, 2019February 9, 2019

Sea Bear

Sea Bear: A Journey for Survival
by Lindsay Moore (Author / Illustrator)

Booktalk: A solitary polar bear travels across the sea ice in pursuit of food. As the ice melts and food becomes scarce, she is forced to swim for days. Finally, storm-tossed and exhausted, she finds shelter on land, where she gives birth to cubs and waits for the sea to freeze again. Includes backmatter about Arctic animals, climate change, and sea ice.

Snippet:
Polar bears are patient beasts,
as patient as glaciers.
We know how to hope and how to wait.
I learned to be patient long ago
from my polar bear mother–

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

February 8, 2019February 7, 2019

Math Magic

My new Focus on STEM column: Math Magic is in the February Quick Tips for Schools and Libraries newsletter.

Booktalk: Make math fun and approachable with these pattern- and comparison-based projects.

Snippet: With only 28 days, February is the shortest month of the year–and halfway through it comes Valentine’s Day. After you teach the littlest ones to fold that red paper in half (using symmetry and scissors) to make a valentine, add a few more mathematics tricks to your repertoire. With these new books, activities, and tricks, mathematics can also be math-magic!?

Click here to see the six #kidlit math books and ten mathematics tricks in Math Magic.

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

February 1, 2019January 31, 2019

The Lost Words

The Lost Words
by Robert Macfarlane (Author) and Jackie Morris (Illustrator)

Booktalk: In 2007, when a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary — widely used in schools around the world — was published, a sharp-eyed reader soon noticed that around forty common words concerning nature had been dropped. Apparently they were no longer being used enough by children to merit their place in the dictionary. The list of these “lost words” included acorn, adder, bluebell, dandelion, fern, heron, kingfisher, newt, otter, and willow. Among the words taking their place were attachment, blog, broadband, bullet-point, cut-and-paste, and voice-mail. The news of these substitutions — the outdoor and natural being displaced by the indoor and virtual — became seen by many as a powerful sign of the growing gulf between childhood and the natural world.

Ten years later, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris set out to make a “spell book” that will conjure back twenty of these lost words, and the beings they name, from acorn to wren. By the magic of word and paint, they sought to summon these words again into the voices, stories, and dreams of children and adults alike, and to celebrate the wonder and importance of everyday nature.

Snippet:
fern

Fern’s first form is furled,
Each frond fast as a fiddle-head.
Reach, roll, and unfold follows.
Fern flares.
Now fern is fully fanned.

BONUS! Download the Explorer’s Guide

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

January 25, 2019January 24, 2019

This Little Scientist

This Little Scientist: A Discovery Primer
by Joan Holub (Author) and Daniel Roode (Illustrator)

Booktalk: A rhyming board book looks at famous scientists. The facing page has a fact written in prose.

Snippet:
ISAAC NEWTON
This little scientist
said we walk on the ground
because gravity stops us
from floating around.

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

January 18, 2019January 17, 2019

So Many Sounds

So Many Sounds
by Tim McCanna (Author) and Andy J. Miller (Illustrator)

Booktalk: A rhyming read-aloud of everyday sounds invites readers to pay more attention to the world around them.

Snippet:

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

January 11, 2019January 11, 2019

Chef Academy

Chef Academy
by Steve Martin (Author) and Hannah Bone (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Enroll at Chef Academy to learn a number of skills needed to become a world-class chef; discover how to make food look and taste delicious, what it takes to be a successful leader, and much more. You’ll also find a poster, a game, stickers, and even instructions for creating a chef’s hat of your own!

Snippet:

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

January 4, 2019January 3, 2019

Food Fight!

Food Fight!: A Mouthwatering History of Who Ate What and Why Through the Ages
by Tanya Steel (Author)

Booktalk: Did you know that Christopher Columbus set out on his most famous voyage in search not of the new world, but cinnamon? Or that rich people in the Middle Ages served flaming peacocks and spun sugar castles to their lucky dinner party guests? Did you ever wonder why M&Ms were invented? (Hint: That candy coating isn’t just for decoration!) The quest for food has inspired all kinds of adventures and misadventures around the world, and this book explores the wildest and wackiest of them all, from prehistoric times through modern day. Stats and fast food facts are featured throughout, along with 30 original recipes, each specific to a particular time and place.

Snippet:

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