STEM Friday

My Happy Year by E.Bluebird (A Nature Diary)
by Paul Meisel
40 pages; ages 4 – 8
Holiday House, 2019

Today is my birthday! I can’t see yet. When I stick my head up and open my beak, Mom and Dad feed me.

E. Bluebird has a good life: loving parents who feed her beetles and crickets, a cozy nest, and fancy new feathers on her wings. Even when her parents want E to leave the nest (she’s afraid of heights…) they still feed her. But when E. does take that leap out of the nest, she discovers flight.

What I like about this book: It’s fun to read. Plus, who knew that bluebirds keep journals? For example:
July 4 ~ Flight is amazing! … Everything is so beautiful from up here. (Apparently she didn’t notice the owl watching her.) Plus we get to tag along on her migration flight there and back and watch her get on with bluebird life.

I also like the creative use of end pages. That’s where Paul Meisel puts the sort of things that one might usually find in back matter: a range map; information about bluebirds in the wild; links for how to build a bluebird house; lyrics to their songs; and a short glossary.

A couple years ago Meisel wrote another book from the point of view of a praying mantis. you can find my review of My Awesome Summer, by P. Mantis here.

Head over to Archimedes Notebook for some Beyond the Book activities.

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

Copyright © 2019 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.

Is 2 a Lot?: An Adventure With Numbers
by Annie Watson (Author) and Rebecca Evans (Illustrator)

Booktalk: While Joey’s mom explains the context of numbers in vivid ways, Joey’s imagination transforms their ordinary car ride into a magical odyssey through a land of make-believe.

Snippet:
One day Joey had a very important question.

“Is 2 a lot?” he asked his mommy.

His mommy thought for a moment. Then she said,

“Well, TWO is not a lot of pennies . . .”

[TURN THE PAGE]

“but TWO is a lot of smelly skunks.”

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

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

About Habitats: Rivers and Streams
By Cathryn Sill; illus by John Sill
48 pages; ages 2-6
Peachtree publishers, 2019

Rivers and streams are places where fresh water flows across the land

From babbling brooks and mountain springs to the mighty Amazon river, this book offers a glimpse into river habitats. We see how rivers form, how they shape the land – and are shaped by it, and the diversity of wildlife and plants that live along and in these waterways. Author Cathryn Sills also emphasizes the importance of conservation, because people depend on healthy rivers too.

What I like about this book: Informative text is paired with engaging illustrations. While some are scenic, others are filled with details that will have kids spending time on the page. For example, one page introduces the concept that rivers provide food and shelter to animals – and the caption lists some animals for the reader to find in the illustration.

There is back matter! As with other books in the About Habitats series, this one has six pages of more detailed information about each river illustration. There is also a glossary and a list of books and websites for further discovery. And there is Front Matter: a labeled diagram showing parts of a river basin, with simple definitions.

Head over to Archimedes Notebook for Beyond the Book activities and another book about river rescues.

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

Copyright © 2019 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.

If You Love Dolphins, You Could Be…
by May Nakamura (Author) and Natalie Kwee (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Do you love dolphins and the ocean? Then you could be a marine biologist, an aquatic veterinarian, or an underwater filmmaker! Learn about these careers and more in this Level 2 beginning reader!

Snippet:

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

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

The Apollo Missions for Kids: The People and Engineering Behind the Race to the Moon, with 21 Activities
By Jerome Pohlen
160 pages; ages 9 and up
Chicago Review Press,  2019

This was the summer of SPACE – celebrating the historic spaceflight that landed the first two people on the moon (July 20, 1969). Getting people to the moon took money and man-power. It took teamwork! More than 400,000 people worked on the Apollo project, in factories and offices spread over 46 states, writes Jerome Pohlen.

Mostly, it took vision – the vision of President John F. Kennedy who, in 1961 declared the goal of landing a man on the moon within the span of a decade. At the time, the US space program was in its infancy; just 20 days earlier the first astronaut had been launched – a 15-minute flight up and back without even time to orbit the earth. Landing a human on the moon would be a challenge.

This book takes us into Mission Control and into space with the Gemini and Apollo projects. We get a close-up view of astronaut training, engineering problems, and the test of human endurance that early missions demanded. There were tragedies – the Apollo One crew was killed in a fire on the Launchpad during a test – and triumphs as the scientists, engineers, and astronauts worked toward their goal of safely landing on the moon and returning to Earth.

What I like about this book: The writing is engaging, like reading a story well told, and supported by plenty of sidebars. The book opens with a timeline that begins with 1926 – when Robert Goddard launched his first liquid-fueled rocket – to 1979 when Skylab fell to Earth. Sidebars provide additional details about the Saturn V rocket, how capsules “surf” through the atmosphere, moonsuit details, as well as offer short bios of software engineer Margaret Hamilton and “computer” Katherine Johnson (who calculated flight trajectories).

Twenty-one activities range from designing your own mission patch to figuring out your moon-weight, orbital mechanics, making “space food”, and more.

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

Copyright © 2019 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.

Ocean: Secrets of the Deep
by Sabrina Weiss (Author) and Giulia De Amicis (Illustrator)

Booktalk: From clown fish to killer whales and sunlit coral reefs to smoking deep sea vents, welcome to our great global ocean! Discover menacing sharks, playful dolphins, clownfish, penguins, turtles, whales, shimmering jellyfish, gargantuan giant squid, and more . . .

Snippet:

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

Mathematics)

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11
by Brian Floca (Author / Illustrator)

Booktalk: Now with eight additional pages of brand-new art and more in-depth information about the historic moon landing, here is the flight of Apollo 11 . . .

Snippet:

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

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Trees: A Rooted History
by Piotr Socha (Author / Illustrator), Wojciech Grajkowski (Author), and Anna Burgess (Translator)

Booktalk: Go beyond the basics and explore the important roles trees play in our ecosystem, take an up-close-and-personal look at the parts of trees (from roots to leaves), and unpack the cultural impact of trees from classification systems (like family trees) to art forms (like bonsai trees). Part botany, part history, part cultural anthropology!

Snippet:

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

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Marty’s Mission: An Apollo 11 Story
by Judy Young (Author) and David Miles (Illustrator)

Booktalk: It’s 1969 and Marty’s family lives on the U.S. island of Guam, where his father manages the NASA tracking station. It’s important work and never more so than during the Apollo 11 space mission, where the tracking station relays signals back and forth between the astronauts and Mission Control in Houston, Texas. Along with the rest of the world, Marty listens to every mission update, including the historic landing on the moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong’s first steps. But during Apollo 11’s return to Earth, something goes wrong. There is a problem with the tracking station’s antenna during the final hours of the mission. The problem must be resolved–the antenna is the only way Mission Control can communicate with the astronauts before Apollo 11 splashes down. Marty finds himself playing a key role in helping bring the craft safely back to Earth. Based on actual events

Snippet: “Why do you need me?” Marty asked.

“We think it’s a bearing, but we don’t have time to take the antenna apart and replace it,” Dad said.

“What’s a bearing?” Marty asked.

“A ring with metal balls encased inside, like this.” Dad took a bearing from a box and showed it to Marty. “The balls have to roll for the antenna to move, but they’re stuck. We hope if we pack the bearing with grease, it will work again. Trouble is, our arms are too big to reach inside. Do you think you can do it?”

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

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.