Wheels! All About Transport
by Moira Butterfield (Author) and Bryony Clarkson (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Come and hitch a ride in vehicles of every shape and size –from family cars to double-decker buses, chugging tractors to speedy supercars, and gigantic monster trucks to noisy fire engines.
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2022 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
MEGA-COOL MEGAFAUNA series
by Anastasia Suen (Author)
Booktalk: My MEGA-COOL MEGAFAUNA series came out during the pandemic and now all four books are online as e-books. Hooray! Click the links under each title to find them at your library.
@ Hoopla | Overdrive | WorldCat
@ Hoopla | Overdrive | WorldCat
@ Hoopla | Overdrive | WorldCat
@ Hoopla | Overdrive | WorldCat
These middle grade expository books are written in prose, but I’ve been writing STEM poetry for years, so that’s what I did for this author visit mini-comic.
In the What is your favorite BIG animal? mini-comic, I’ve written two pocket poems about two of the creatures in the MEGA-COOL MEGAFAUNA Creatures of Today book. Each pocket poem is based on two facts from the book.
What will the third poem be? That’s up to you–and your students! Write two facts about your favorite BIG animal on page 6 and write a pocket poem using those facts on page 7. Then draw your animal on page 8.
Sylvia and Janet are hosting Poetry Friday at Poetry for Children
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2022 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
We all know middle grade readers who can be a little jaded and hard to please. That’s why you should make sure you have Sneed B. Collard III’s newest, Little Killers: The Ferocious Lives of Puny Predators, in your arsenal.
With just enough humor sprinkled in, Collard introduces us to some lesser-known predators that have a big impact regardless of their size.
Take the pteropods. More commonly known as sea angels or sea butterflies, he calls them the “potato chips of the sea” –isn’t that great imagery?– because so many critters eat them. But it turns out at least some of these “potato chips” have a bite. The sea angels turn on their mostly vegetarian cousins the sea butterflies and eat them!
After revealing the killer instincts of invertebrates from flatworms to driver ants, the final chapter is a call to action to protect these creatures that we often don’t see or notice, but which serve such important roles in ecosystems.
Little Killers will grab the attention of both budding biologists and reluctant readers. Get your claws on a copy today!
Visit Growing With Science blog for the full review and activity suggestions.
Copyright © 2022 Roberta Gibson All Rights Reserved.
Bones Unearthed!
by Kerrie Logan Hollihan (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Booktalk: Combining history with science, the third book of the Creepy and True series unearths the truth about famous bones by exploring forensic evidence, archaeology, anthropology, medicine, and folklore. Chapter by chapter, these cryptic tales of murder and mayhem span across cultures and millennia, covering everything from Aztec skull racks, the cannibals of Jamestown, and Benjamin Franklin’s basement boneyard, to frozen sailors in the Arctic and the centuries-long search for the body of King Richard III.
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2022 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Busy, Busy Birds
by Geraldo Valério (Author / Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Booktalk: This board book introduces young ones to a colorful collection of very busy birds.
Snippet:
Some birds sing.
Red-winged Blackbird
Other birds hum.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2022 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Air Show
by Anastasia Suen (Author) and and Cecco Mariniello (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Overdrive e-book | WorldCat
Booktalk: Cougars, Panthers, Camels, and Mosquitos. What do these animals have in common? Their names identify the historic airplanes that take flight at this spectacular air show event.
Snippet:
This week’s author visit mini-comic, What would you name a new airplane?, answers questions about why I wrote about airplanes at an air show.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2022 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Do you enjoy themed collections of hands-on experiments and activities that can be done with little preparation time using stuff from around the house? Then check out the newest in the Junk Drawer Science series, Junk Drawer Ecology: 50 Awesome Experiments That Don’t Cost a Thing by Bobby Mercer.
High school Physics teacher Bobby Mercer has organized instructions for 50 activities into 4 general categories: “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle”, “Animals and Plants”, “Water and Land”, and “Air.” Each activity has a brief summary of the project and the ecology concepts it covers. Next is a list of the materials needed “From the Junk Drawer.” Once you have gathered the materials, the instructions are given step by step, illustrated with black and white photographs.
Included with each activity is a discussion of “The Science Behind It” and ends with “Science for the Ages”, a description of the age requirements for that particular project — based on safety concerns — plus ways to extend learning. Although the reading age is listed as 9-12, most of the experiments and activities could be used as is or modified for a broader age range.
Many of the activities in Junk Drawer Ecology could also be extended and expanded to follow a child’s interests. Using inexpensive household items to do hands-on science that has potential to grow with the child? It doesn’t get any better than this.
Check Growing with Science blog for the full review and related activity suggestions.
Copyright © 2022 Roberta Gibson All Rights Reserved.
Roto and Roy: Helicopter Heroes
by Sherri Duskey Rinker (Author) and Don Tate (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Booktalk: When a dangerous forest fire burns out of control, helicopter Roto and pilot Roy are ready to fly to the rescue! They’re braver than brave, tougher than tough, and nothing will stop this firefighting crew from completing their mission.
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
The illustrator, Don Tate, is one of my former students.
Copyright © 2022 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Marie Curious, Girl Genius Saves the World
by Chris Edison (Author)
Booktalk: Young inventor Marie can’t believe her luck when she earns a place at a high-tech summer camp in California owned by tech guru and multi-millionaire Sterling Vance. It’s nothing short of a dream come true. She and the other super-clever campers get to build robots, do supercool science experiments and test out awesome gadgets. But not everyone is a happy camper . . . Someone is sabotaging their robots, so Marie and her new friends team up to catch the culprit. Can Marie outsmart an evil engineer intent on causing a global disaster?
Snippet:
Copyright © 2022 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2022 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Penguin Journey
by Angela Burke Kunkel (Author) and Catherine Odell (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Booktalk: A rhyming picture book about the incredible lengths to which emperor penguins go for their young ones.
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2022 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
