Author: Sue Heavenrich

Keeping warm in winter is tough for those of us living in the colder parts of the world. I keep warm by pulling on an extra sweater, wearing fuzzy slippers, and drinking hot cocoa. So when I saw the cover of this book, I knew I had to review it! Because… hot chocolate and frogs! And because the cover is so inviting!

Do Frogs Drink Hot Chocolate?
By Etta Kaner ; illus. by John Martz
32 pages; ages 4-8
Owlkids, 2018

When it gets cold out, do animals turn up the heat?
No!

Using a question-answer format, this book explores how animals survive chilly – and downright frigid – weather. Thankfully, the hot chocolate question gets answered right away. I’ll save you the suspense: Frogs do not drink hot cocoa. They don’t even try to keep warm. In fact, some of them turn into frogsicles during winter. Brrrrr!

What I like about this book: I love the diversity of strategies that are presented for keeping warm. Penguins snuggle, butterflies sunbathe, and some animals build snow dens (snow is a great insulator!). Things animals don’t do: jump up and down, wear ear muffs, drink hot chocolate. Well, wild animals may not do those things, but I can think of one animal that does all three: humans.

Keep warm with some Beyond-the-Book activities over at Archimedes Notebook.

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

Copyright © 2019 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.

I’m a sucker for field guides. The more, the merrier. This one is a bit different than the others, though. For one thing, this field guide focuses on only one animal – and a mammal, at that. Plus, it highlights superpowers.

Who knew beavers have superpowers? Obviously Rachel Poloquin – and she gets right to them early in the book For example, beavers have chainsaw teeth! They have the incredible scuba head. They have paws of power. These powers – and more – make beavers true Wetlands Warriors!

But first: an announcement from our sponsor, the rodent family. Beavers, it turns out, have lots of relatives – from mice to porcupines. One thing they all have in common: ever-growing teeth. Beaver’s teeth are three inches long!. That’s what makes them super. And powerful.

For each superpower, Rachel gives us the low-down. For example, the super unstoppable fur. It might not stop a speeding bullet, but it can stop rain, snow, sleet… if it stopped dark of night, beavers would make perfect mail-deliverers. If you count the number of hairs in a square inch (and apparently scientists have done this), beavers have 100,000 hairs. You have only 1,000 hairs per square inch on your head.

Beavers are amazing architects, building dams and lodges that withstand the test of time. If you want to learn how to build a dam, Rachel offers step-by-step directions. Also instructions for how to build your own underwater lodge. All you need are teeth like chainsaws, paws of power, and a place to build.

There are tons of fun sidebars, facts and maps, and the occasional quiz (with answers, of course). Plus a final section highlighting how beavers help create wetlands. In fact, scientists are thinking of putting beavers to work as a watershed management tool, restoring wetlands in dry areas.

Head over to Archimedes Notebook for some cool links to how beavers are used in watershed management, and also another animal book review.

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

Copyright © 2019 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.

Maggie, Alaska’s Last Elephant
by Jennifer Keats Curtis; illus. by Phyllis Saroff
32 pages; ages 4-9
Arbordale, 2018

Like us, elephants need family and friends. Otherwise they grow lonely. This award-winning book opens with Annabelle, and Asian elephant and Maggie, an African elephant who lived in a zoo in Alaska. They were good friends. When Annabelle died, Maggie seemed lost. She was so lonely that she adopted a tire. The keepers tried everything to keep her active and engaged, but Maggie seemed to fade. Eventually, they decided she needed to go somewhere else, where she could live with other elephants.

What I like about this book: Author Jennifer Keats Curtis is a wonderful storyteller. She weaves in a lot of elephant behavior as she introduces Maggie and her story. She shows zookeepers creating enrichment opportunities for Maggie, in an effort to keep her brain and senses engaged throughout her day. And when they realize it’s time for her to go, they have another problem to solve: how do you move an 8,000-pound animal thousands of miles?

I also like the back matter, which includes more information about elephant herds, how zoos keep elephants healthy and happy, and a fun Q&A with a keeper.

Head over to Archimedes Notebook for another elephant book and some Beyond-the-Book activities.

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

Copyright © 2019 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.

Just Like Us! Fish
by Bridget Heos; illus. by David Clark
32 pages; ages 4-7
HMH Books for Young Readers, 2018

People walk on land and need air to breathe. Fish, on the other hand, have fins and spend their whole lives underwater. So how could we be anything alike?

Bridget Heos gives us the inside scoop. She reveals secrets of breathing underwater, and tricks of hunting for food. We learn how to hide from predators and how to make friends with fierce fish.

What I like about this book: It’s fun! Between Bridget’s zany section headings (Peanut Butter and Jellyfish) and David Clark’s cartoony illustrations, we learn lots of stuff about fish and their underwater neighbors. We meet clown fish, sunfish, and cleaner wrasses. What I like about David’s illustrations is the way he combines his cartoon fish with photos of real fish. And of course there’s Back Matter – a glossary, and some web articles and books for curious icthyologists-in-training.

Head over to Archimedes Notebook to check out a book on sharks, and some Beyond-the-Book activities.

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

Copyright © 2018 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.

by Lisa J. Amstutz; illus. by Maria Luisa Di Gravio

32 pages; ages 5-7. Albert Whitman & Company, 2018

Mom and I slip silently out the door. Today we’re going to count birds.

It’s just Jay and his mom this year, because Gramps has “flown south” for the winter. They’ve got everything they need: woolly caps, bird guides, binoculars, and a clipboard.

What I like about this book: Lisa Amstutz plunks us right into a bird count. You can almost hear the snow crunching underfoot, the calls of chickadees and jays, the rat-tat-tat of woodpeckers drumming on a tree.  You can almost see that flash of yellow (kinglet) and a tufted titmouse “all dressed up in his suit and top hat.” You can feel your toes freeze and, at the end, the warmth of a mug of hot cocoa.

I like how she sneaks in one brief sentence connecting Jay and mom’s activities with how scientists will use the data.  Most of that info is at the back where there is plenty of Back Matter! There is more information about the Christmas Bird Count, and how to join plus a bird count check list you can copy and take outside when you do your own bird walks.

And there is the search for the dove.

Head over to Archimedes Notebook for some Beyond-the-Book activities and another book about Counting Birds.

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

Copyright © 2018 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.

Octopus Escapes! by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer; illus. by Frank W. Dormer

32 pages; ages 2-5. Charlesbridge 2018

Octopus waits. Guard closes gates.

What happens at the aquarium after everyone leaves for the day? In this story, octopus escapes. He slips and slides down hallways, turns and hides from the security guard.

What I like about this book: I am a big fan of “night at the museum” stories… and of octopuses. They are clever mollusks, able to open jar lids and squeeze through tight spaces. This midnight romp through the aquarium features fun-to-read-aloud rhyming couplets. The back matter (you knew I was gonna mention back matter!) is all about the amazing behavior of octopuses. They are brilliant problem-solvers and, YES, there are documented cases of octopuses escaping their tanks and cruising through aquaria since the 1870s. Though I don’t think any of them went bowling… The simple, cartoonish illustrations add to the charm.

Check out Beyond the Book activities and another review of animals at Archimedes Notebook today.

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

Copyright © 2018 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.

Nomad Press has a fun new series out called Renaissance for Kids. The books in this series invite readers to dive into the Renaissance period and learn about inventors, thinkers, explorers, and artists. The series includes plenty of hands-on STEAM activities… Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math.

Titles include: The Renaissance Artists, The Renaissance Explorers, The Renaissance Inventors, The Renaissance Thinkers. Written for young people ages 10-15.

Included in the volume on “thinkers” are Nicolaus Copernicus and Francis Bacon. “Being a scientist during the Renaissance could be a lonely business,” writes author Diane Taylor. “There were no graduate students to hang out with, no research institutes to work at, and no conferences to attend.”

Copernicus watched the night sky. He was an astronomer and noticed that not everything circled the earth once a day. Planets, for example, seemed to wander back and forth. He also suggested that the earth orbited the sun – a break with what people thought, that the sun went around the earth.

Francis Bacon is often called the “father of science”. Born in 1561, he was a gifted and prolific writer. He was passionate about science, and thought deeply about how scientists can know when they have discovered the truth of something. He developed a scientific method:

• make an observation
• ask a question
• form a hypothesis
• conduct an experiment
• analyze the results

Sounds familiar to anyone who’s taken a science class. But in the 1600s scientists didn’t follow any sort of rigor that would lead to reliable results. So Bacon’s ideas were novel.

STEAM projects in this book include drawing with linear perspective, building a supportive arch, and creating your own Utopia.

The “inventors” include Johannes Gutenberg (printing press), Leonardo da Vinci (artist and engineer), Gerardus Mercator (mapping the world), and Galileo Galilei (astronomy and math). These inventors opened up the world for exploration and sharing information.

Prior to a printing press, books were transcribed by hand, and few people had access to them. Once people could mass produce words there were bibles, flyers, news broadsides, and eventually pamphlets in which scientists could share their findings.

da Vinci’s sketchbook contains designs for helicopters and submarines, airplanes and cars. Pretty cool, considering he died in 1519!

STEAM projects in this book include building a parachute, making a pendulum, making a map, printing, and playing around with mirror writing.

“Renaissance artists” introduces readers to Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli and more, and invites kids to make their own paint using eggs.

“Renaissance explorers” include Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, and others. Kids can make a working compass, build a beacon, create and hourglass, and invent a travel board game.

What I like about these books: They include timelines for each person, provide great biographical details, and mention other scientists, inventors, artists, and explorers living at the same time. Sidebars present quick facts, additional information about the culture, and raise questions for curious readers.

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

Copyright © 2018 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.

Path to the Stars, My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist
by Sylvia Acevedo
320 pages; ages 10 & up
Clarion Books, 2018

Rocket science is cool. It’s not all about igniting rockets in your back yard – though that is what Sylvia Acevedo did. A lot of rocket science is math. OK, most of it’s all about the math.

Her love of math is what led Sylvia to science. Her experiences as a Girl Scout provided the platform for her to build upon. Scouting taught her to create opportunities for herself. Scouting helped her plan for the future. It helped her develop entrepreneurial skills (so that’s what cookie sales were for. I thought it was all about the Thin Mints!) and nurtured her self confidence.

What I like love about this book: I loved the scene where Sylvia wove fabric strips and newspapers into a sit-upon. I remember how, in Brownies, we made sit-upons to take to day camp. And net bags for dunking our dishes into steaming water. And how we carried something in our pocket…

Sylvia talks about working for badges, and wanting to do science. Back then, there weren’t so many STEM badges, but she describes her experiments with plants and rockets to earn a science badge. Now girls can choose to explore plants, animals engineering, cyber-security, programming, robotics, and more. She tells a wonderful story about learning how to do regular car maintenance – things like changing oil, checking tire pressure, and replacing worn fan belts. Badges and scouting experiences taught her that she could take control of situations and be prepared for the unexpected.

The other thing she learned: aim high. Sylvia aimed toward space. She worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an engineer, testing equipment for a solar probe that launched this summer (it takes a long time to build a probe for such a mission!). She also worked on the Voyager 2 flyby of Jupiter.

In an epilogue, Sylvia writes about the heroes who inspired her: Clara Barton, Florence Nightingale, Helen Keller. Although Sylvia isn’t working on space projects at this time, she’s still aiming high. As CEO for Girl Scouts of the USA, she is helping girls all across the country aim for the stars.

Head over to Archimedes Notebook for an interview with Sylvia.

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

Copyright © 2018 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.

Bugs Don’t Hug, Six-legged parents and their kids, by Heather L. Montgomery; illus. by Stephen Stone

32 pages; ages 3-7; Charlesbridge, 2018

Mommy and daddy bugs don’t give good-morning kisses. They don’t tie shoes or untangle hair. And bugs don’t hug.

Open the pages and you find that there are things parent bugs simply “don’t do”. They don’t serve eggs and toast. They don’t play peekaboo. But when you turn the page you discover …

Yes! Bug parents are just like human parents. I like the way author Heather Montgomery uses compare-and-contrast to show the similarities and differences in parents. Maybe bugs don’t bake birthday cakes, but they do make a cake for their babies. It’s fun and best of all – surprising! The illustrations are cartoony and fun. And I LOVE the back matter (of course) – more about each of the insects featured in the book plus a note on scientific language. And a list of books to read for the naturally curious kids.

Head over to Archimedes Notebook for another book about animal parenting and some Beyond-the-Book activities.

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

Copyright © 2018 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.

Animal Zombies, by Chana Steifel

96 pages; ages 8-12. National Geographic Children’s Books, 2018

I love a scary book that opens with a warning. And this one does: “Beware! You are about to enter the darkest, creepiest corners of our world. You’ll collide with creatures that invade brains, drink blood, and even devour their own moms!”

If you’re brave enough to turn the page you enter the Zombie Zone… you’ll meet harmless ladybugs turned into monsters by parasitic wasps, zombie cockroaches and crickets and ants. Chana Steifel brings readers up close and personal to leeches and lampreys, aliens, body invaders, and the kraken!

But wait! There’s more! We get to meet “mad scientists” who study bloodsuckers and body snatchers. Steifel includes profiles of  a nature photographer who has clicked photos of zombie spiders and infected insects. We also meed “bat man”, a shark scientist, wolf man, and a bug scientist who loves book lice (and other really creepy crawlies).

Don’t worry. Steifel has also included a handy list of items you’ll need in your Zombie Emergency Kit. Pack your go-bag and you’ll be ready for the zombie apocalypse – or the next hurricane, blizard, or wildfire.

And if you’re lucky, you’ll reach the last page alive and ready to head out and look for zombies in the real world.

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

Copyright © 2018 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.