COVID-19: The Coronavirus Disease
by Jackie Golusky (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Booktalk: Scientists and health-care workers around the world are battling COVID-19. Find out how the disease attacks the human body and see how people are fighting back in this middle grade book written at first grade reading level.
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Over at Growing with Science blog, we are featuring the new picture book Night Becomes Day: Changes in Nature by Cynthia Argentine.
The premise of Night Becomes Day isn’t easy to explain, but simply amazing. It is an introduction to periodic scientific processes such as life cycles, the water cycle, and the rock cycle. However, no topic is treated separately. Argentine overlaps the concepts, comparing and contrasting, to show the general qualities of transformations.
To help clarify, let’s look at an example. the author compares the ancient process of forming a diamond crystal deep in the Earth (part of the rock cycle) to the brief, fragile formation of a snowflake (part of the water cycle). These complex processes are revealed using age-appropriate text matched with high quality stock photos. She pairs words like quick – slow, hot – cold, dull-brighten to show the contrasts.
The back matter will knock you over. Argentine’s author’s note explains how changes occur in both living and nonliving things, how connections are made, and how the science of making connections is Ecology. In the next section, “A Closer Look At The Science of Change,” is actually a zoomed out view of the text, explaining the big picture. In the diamond versus snowflake spread, for example, she explains how chemistry, geology, and physics are all involved in the process of forming crystals.
Night Becomes Day: Changes in Nature helps young readers see how natural processes relate to one another. Reading it might just transform them!
If you’d like to read more, visit Growing with Science for the complete review and activity suggestions.
Copyright © 2021 Roberta Gibson All Rights Reserved.
Let’s Explore Migration
by Emma Carlson-Berne (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Booktalk: Each year, butterflies, whales, and many other animals travel long distances in search of better food, weather, and more. Then they return to repeat the pattern. Learn all about migration, one of nature’s amazing cycles, in this beginning reader.
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Right in time for Halloween, we are featuring a newly emerged informational picture book, Scurry! The Truth About Spiders by Annette Whipple and illustrated by Juanbjuan Oliver and Franco Rivolli at Growing With Science blog.
Have you ever wondered how spiders make silk, why they are so hairy, or what they eat? Scurry! has all the answers. After explaining what characteristics a spider has and introducing a few common types, Annette Whipple delves into their life cycles and behavior.
The books in Reycraft’s Truth About … series are illustrated with high-quality stock photographs. As you can see above, this title has an added feature of a cartoon sidebar on the right of each spread with additional tips and information. Fun!
In the back is a hands-on challenge to create a spider web, a longer list of different types of spiders, and a glossary.
Scurry! is a delightful introduction to the world of spiders. You will want to add a copy to your favorite young reader’s Halloween treat bag!
_____
If you have a moment, pop over the Growing with Science blog for more information and loads of activity suggestions.
Copyright © 2021 Roberta Gibson All Rights Reserved.
It Takes Guts: How Your Body Turns Food Into Fuel (and Poop)
by Dr. Jennifer Gardy (Author) and Belle Wuthrich (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Booktalk: A science-based resource for classroom learning and home-schooling for kids age 9 to 13, with information about:
Snippet: Microbes can even influence our mood! We’ve already seen how our gut talks to our brain through nerves and hormones, and it turns out that these conversations can be influenced by our resident microbes. In one study, researchers gave one group of healthy volunteers milk or yogurt enriched with friendly Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus bacteria every day for 30 days. The other group was given a placebo–a pill that did nothing. At the end of the month, the group that took the bacterial pill reported fewer bad moods and stressful moments, and they were producing less cortisol–a hormone produced when you’re under stress–than they were at the start of the experiment.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Sight: Glimmer, Glow, SPARK, FLASH!
by Romana Romanyshyn (Author) and Andriy Lesiv (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Booktalk: A multi-faceted visual exploration of one of our critical senses–sight!
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Seasons
by Hannah Pang (Author) and Clover Robin (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Booktalk: Watch six landscapes from around the world transform as you turn the pages (of different widths) to travel through the seasons in each location. Discover simple facts about the creatures and plants that are found in each location during the different seasons.
Snippet:
A WILD LAND
Alaska is bigger and colder than you could ever imagine. It rests high above the sea, where mountains decorate the distance and rivers flow with fish. Stand at the water’s edge and watch the seasons change before your eyes.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Marvelous Machines: A Magic Lens Book
by Jane Wilsher (Author) and Andrés Lozano (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Booktalk: Using the see-through magic lens that you pop out of the book cover, you can learn about mathematics, physics, chemistry, and engineering by exploring the inner workings of machines. The see-through magic lens will reveal how all these machines work, showing all the elements hidden within them — from wires and pipes, to magnetic and gravitational forces.
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
I Like Space . . . what jobs are there?
by Steve Martin (Author) and Tom Woolley (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Explore a day in the life of 25 people whose jobs involve working with space. While it takes all kinds of jobs to put an astronaut in space, there are also space lawyers and space weather forecasters! Learn how to turn your fascination with space into a career.
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Ocean Soup: A Recipe for You, Me, and a Cleaner Sea
by Meeg Pincus (Author) and Lucy Semple (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Booktalk: From the shore, the ocean looks like clear, sparkling blue but look closely at a small scoop and you’ll find the ocean looks more like soup! Our oceans are filled with plastics, from water bottles and take-out containers to the teeny tiny plastic particles you need a microscope to see. But who exactly cooked up this stinky soup? And, more importantly, what is the recipe for getting (and keeping) our oceans clean?
Snippet:
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
