STEM Friday

In Focus: Forests
by Libby Walden (Author) and 10 Illustrators

Booktalk: Ten illustrators delve into the woodlands to explore the creatures, culture, and conservation of our forested areas. Each spread of this over-sized book opens in the middle with a gatefold on both the left and the right giving each topic 6 pages of content. See all four parts of the rain forest, wind your way through the fir trees, and dive to the depths of the kelp forest to uncover the fascinating facts of these unique ecosystems.

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

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

The Moonflower is back in print, newly revised, and as gorgeous as ever.

by Peter Loewer; illus. by Jean Loewer
32 pages; ages 6-10
Peachtree, 2019

theme: flower, nature, night

When the sun has set in the West…

The Moonflower is a lyrical and accurate account of nature at night. Beginning with sunset, we meet the crickets, moths, bats, and owls that populate the night. Eventually the moonflower opens and we get an up-close look at pollination.

I grabbed a copy of the original from the library to see how the new version compares. The title page has been updated, and the pages have a crisper look to them. Sidebar material is easier to read. And new information is included. There is more information about bumble bee nests and how bees see the world around them. The original book tells how to translate cricket chirps into temperature; this new printing includes calculations for degrees Celsius. Bats get more press in this updated version, as do moths. Overall, the sidebars and back matter have more connections to math and science.

What I like about this book: I have always liked it for its language. Bats don’t just fly, they swoop and glide. The moonflowers open “like a movie in slow motion” and hawkmoth wings beat so fast they are blurred with speed.

The back matter is still there. As before, there are directions for planting and growing your own moonflower. The glossary has grown, over the years, to reflect the additional information in sidebars.

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.

A Brief History of Life on Earth
by Clémence Dupont (Author / Illustrator)

Booktalk: The story of life on earth unfolds era by era in this concertina book that takes readers from 4.6 billion years ago to the present day. When the book is fully open, the timeline is as long as a triceratops! (That’s 26 feet / 8 meters.)

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

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

The Crab Alphabet Book
by Jerry Pallotta; illus by Tom Leonard
32 pages; ages 3-7
Charlesbridge, 2019

themes: alphabet, arthropods, diversity

A is for Arrow Crab. This skinny creature with the arrow-shaped head and body is an ocean crab.

This book is filled with crabs: skinny crabs and fat crabs, red crabs and blue crabs. Some crabs are huge – measuring 13 feet from toe to toe – and others are tiny. There are fiddler crabs that don’t play the fiddle, and crabs that look like they’re  wearing mittens.

They may look very different from each other, but all crabs have ten legs – even though the front two end in claws.

What I like love about this book: I like the note from the crabs at the beginning of the book: “We crabs are tired of books about cute penguins, proud tigers, colorful butterflies, and other favorite animals…”

I like the note from the crabs at the end of the book which explains that the horseshoe crab may have “crab” in its name, but it’s not a crab! “We didn’t want our own book because we’re selfish,” the crabs write. “We’re shellfish!”

And I really like the notes the crabs write throughout the book – tidbits of information about regeneration of lost limbs, molting, and blood color. Bluish-green, if you must know. Great illustrations paired with fun and breezy text makes you want to linger over each page.

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.

Otters, Snails and Tadpole Tails: Poems from the Wetlands
by Eric Ode (Author) and Ruth Harper (Illustrator)

Booktalk: An homage to all things wetland. From raccoons to muskrats, frogs to heron, it’s a celebration of biodiversity, art, poetry, and healthy ecosystems.

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

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Seashells: More Than A Home
by Melissa Stewart; illustrated by Sarah S. Brannen
32 pages; ages 6-9
Charlesbridge, 2019

Every day, seashells wash up on beaches all over Earth, like treasures from a secret world beneath the waves.

They come in all sizes, colors, and shapes. That’s because they have so many different jobs to do. In this book Melissa Stewart explains how some shells function to allow the mollusk to dive deeper into the water, or tunnel into the seabed to hide from a predator. Some shells blend in with their background, while others light up.

What I like LOVE about this book: I always learn something new when I read one of Melissa’s books. This time I learned about a clusterwink snail that produces light! I also like that the text is written for two reading levels. For example, large text on the second spread reads, “Seashells can rise and sink like a submarine…” The smaller text adds details to how the nautilus pumps water into the shell to sink.

I love Sarah Brannen’s watercolors. Not only does she show amazing details about the shells, but she includes children drawing shells, and journal sketches with notes. And the colors are so warm and soft I just want to take off my shoes and socks and stick my feet in a sandbox.

I love the end pages that show the mollusk habitats and ranges. And the wonderful spread at the back where you can learn more about the five largest groups of mollusks. One thing Sarah writes in her illustrator’s note sticks with me: “You never see something as clearly as when you try to draw it.” That’s why I try to sketch things I see when I head outside. Drawing what you see in nature makes you slow down and look more closely at the details.

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.

Soar High, Dragonfly
by Sheri M. Bestor (Author) and Jonny Lambert (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Dragonflies are some the world’s most beautiful (and fascinating!) insects — and one many children can find right in their backyards! This scientific look at a dragonfly’s life-cycle includes informative sidebars that let children learn even more about these amazing insects.

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

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

I love frogs almost as much as I love bugs. One time I even tried to learn the languages of our local frogs. Peeper, American toad, Wood frog – I got the basics. But never enough to ask them the important questions. So I had to get my hands on Steve and Robin’s newest book – which will be released Feb. 26th.

The Frog Book
by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page
40 pages; ages 6-9
HMH, 2019

Frogs are creatures of two worlds – they spend part of their lives in the water and part on land.

Spread by spread we meet frogs that hop, frogs that fly, frogs bigger than your hand, and frogs smaller than your thumb. Frogs have lived on earth for millions of year. “In fact,” the authors write,” a frog could have been stepped on by one of the first dinosaurs.”

What I like love about this book: I love that each page features a particular froggy feature, from “what is a frog?” to frog adaptations. We discover what frogs eat (and it’s not all flies), frog defenses, and life in the trees. Unfortunately, one-third of all frog species are in danger of extinction due to habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and disease. Back matter includes quick facts about every frog featured in the book: size, diet, home range.

I also love the torn- and cut-paper illustrations. The detail is amazing! And I really love the end papers! They are a luscious mix of bubbly pond shades of blues and greens. If you can’t wait for spring to bring frogs, this book may tide you over the next few weeks.

Head over to Archimedes Notebook for more books that include frogs, and some froggy Beyond-the-Book activities.

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

Copyright © 2019 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.

The Everyday Journeys of Ordinary Things
by Libby Deutsch (Author) and Valpuri Kerttula (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Young children are full of questions about how the world works; the processes and machinations behind the scenes. Why does a light come on when you flick a switch? How can cheese from the supermarket have come out of a cow? What happens when you send a text? Where does your poo go when you flush?(!) All very good questions, and all explained–along with many more–with flowing illustrations and chunks of text from the early beginnings to the very end.

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See the book trailer.

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

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Too many people, including some elected leaders, seem not to understand the difference between weather and climate. So I am relieved to find books for kids that are grounded in climate science. Searchlight Books (Lerner) recently published a series on climate change. The books are each 32 pages long, and aimed for students in 3rd -5th grade.

Climate Change and Energy Technology, written by Rebecca E. Hirsch, is divided into four chapters. In the first she clarifies what climate change is. It is not the weather, which changes from day to day. Climate is the “usual weather for a place”, but as we have been learning, what is “usual” has been changing over the past decade. And the warming climate has contributes to more extreme storms, including blizzards.

Hirsch devotes a chapter to energy: fossil fuels, wind, sun, geothermal, and hydro. She examines inventions that increase energy efficiency as well as create new ways to capture, store, and use energy. Think about the increasing number of electric vehicles on the road and the emerging need for quick-charging stations.

Her last chapter explores how we will energize out future. How can we build better batteries? Are there untapped renewable energy sources that we could harness?

“STEM in Depth” sidebars explain how solar panels work and how tidal power is captured. The book ends with four things anyone of any age can do to help reduce their carbon footprint. There’s also a glossary and resources for further investigation.

There are five more books in the series:
Climate Change and Air Quality
Climate Change and Extreme Storms
Climate Change and Life on Earth
Climate Change and Rising Sea Levels
Climate Change and Rising Temperatures

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

Copyright © 2019 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.