Nonfiction Picture Book Cybils Winner!

We have a winner for the nonfiction picture book Cybils award! I was on the committe for nonfiction picture books and we all  agreed that Mrs. Harkness and the Panda was our favorite. Take a look at the book and the other winners here. I loved this book and think you will, too.

Nonfiction Picture Books

Mrs. Harkness and the Panda By Alicia Potter, illustrated by Melissa Sweet Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers Nominated by: Cathy Potter

Who could forget the endearing face of a panda bear like the one on the cover of Mrs. Harkness and the Panda? It is more difficult to remember, however, who brought the first panda  bear to America. In 1934, when the story starts, only a few people even  knew pandas existed. Mrs. Harkness, a young New York dress designer,  seemed to be the least-likely person to go to far-off China to look for  one. Yet when her husband dies during an attempt to find a panda, off  she goes on the adventure of a lifetime to fulfill his quest.

Reading this book is an adventure of its own. It delves into China with rich  colors, using actual Chinese writing on the paper in the background of  the illustrations, photographs of Chinese coins, and even including some well-placed Chinese words. Each page and each reading reveals new  discoveries.

The story of a young woman heading off into the unknown is one of bravery  and perseverance that is sure to appeal to a wide range of readers. Mrs. Harkness would be perfect to introduce a geography or history lesson about China.  Although it is a biography, this book is also likely to stimulate  conversations about animal conservation, particularly discussions about  endangered animals and how our views of how to care for rare animals  have changed. It is truly a memorable and inspiring book.

See a complete review at Wrapped in Foil.

 

 

Environmental Disasters

Environmental Disasters

By Shirley Duke

Rourke, 2012 (available now)

ISBN #978-1-61741-784-9

Grades 4-6

Nonfiction

“In 2010 an explosion shattered a quiet April evening in theGulf of Mexico. Flames roared into the air on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil platform. Startled workers scrambled to escape. Most of them reached safety. Millions of gallons of light crude oil gushed from the site.”

After writing a report on fires in 7^th grade, my interest in disasters grew, along with learning the science of them. It’s interesting that I ended up writing this book. It followed Enterprise STEM and Forces and Motion at Work, and it was fascinating to research. I learned much more about our environment and the charge we have to keep it healthy. The most interesting part of writing this book was revisiting the history of some disasters that had happened in my younger days.

Each section in Environmental Disasters relates the situation about how the disaster happened, explains the consequences, and tells what may prevent it in the future. The book opens with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It goes on to discuss solid wastes like those at Love Canal and the problems with plastics and electronic wastes, nuclear meltdowns here, in Chernobyl, and Japan, acid rain, and the ozone. It includes a chart of small changes children can make to get involved in making the Earth safer. Each chapter includes diagrams that illustrate new vocabulary and more details about the processes involved.

The book has bright photographs with captions containing pertinent information not included in the text. It has a glossary, websites, and index, and an about the author section.

Activity 1

Look up information about the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, the Three Mile Island disaster, and the more recent Japanese reactor problems following the tsunami. Use a graphic organizer or develop your own  to contrast and compare two of those disasters and their results.

Three Mile Island

Chernobyl

Japan

Activity 2 (easier)

Make a timeline of disasters and display it. Use the book’s information to begin and find others to include.

Find more disasters at this site.

National Science Standards: matter and its interactions; human impacts on Earth systems

CCSS: I.5.3:

3. Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or

concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.

Desert Baths

Darcy Pattison is a guest blogger for today’s book, Desert Baths. Read on to to discover the fascinating way this fun nonfiction book about ways desert animals stay cleam came about.

Desert Baths started when I read an article about anting. Anting is when birds walk onto an ant mound and spread their wings, allowing the ants to crawl over their wings and clean off parasites. Alternately, some birds will pick up an ant in their beaks, crush the ant and then use the ant like a washcloth to brush parasites off their wings. Scientists believe the formic acid from the ant functions as an antiseptic.

After reading about this remarkable method of hygiene, I started searching for other ways that animals take a bath, however odd: spit, rolling in something like dirt or grass, and using dew or mud wallows. The Western Gecko, with its long tongue darting out to lick its eyeball, was just the sort of odd fact that turned up. Slowly, I started to focus on desert animals because the contrast between deserts with no water and the expectation of a water bath was funny.

One problem I faced in writing this was balancing the types of animals. Mammals and birds used a variety of ways to bathe, but reptiles, amphibians and arachnids rarely do what we would call a bath because their skin doesn’t need the same sort of regular hygiene. I wanted to include a tarantula in the book, but they just molt their exoskeleton—not exactly a bath. Instead, the illustrator Kathleen Rietz  kindly included this desert dweller in the illustrations. I squeezed in a diamondback rattler shedding his skin and a desert tortoise looking at a sky empty of cloud. But mostly, the animals had to be mammals and birds.

I also needed to find a variety of animals, from nocturnal to diurnal, or those awake at night and those awake during the day. That would allow me to use a 24-hour day to structure the story.

After I decided to balance nocturnal – diurnal and mammal/bird/reptile/amphibian, it was simply a matter of research, looking for the best possible combination of desert animals. I talked to scientists and studied scientific journals. Finally, I wrote, this time, paying attention to the sounds of the words, to the literary aspects of the story. I always work hard to create stories that are easy to read-aloud.

Desert Baths is a companion book to last year’s Prairie Storms, a book about how prairie animals survive a year of storms. Sylvan Dell Publishing has 50+ page teacher/parent guides available as an pdf download on its site for Desert Baths and Prairie Storms. Desert Baths is also available in Spanish, Las duchas en el desierto.

See all Darcy Pattison’s books here.

Activity 1

Do one of the activities in the book. Compare your answers with a friend.

Activity 2

Do the “Food For Thought” activity. Write a paragraph to demonstrate your knowledge.

National Science Standard: organisms and their environment

Book provided by author.

I, Galileo

Nonfiction Monday is at Shelf-employed.

I, Galileo

By Bonnie Christensen

Illustrated by author

Alfred A. Knopf, 2012

ISBN #078037586753

Grades 3-5

Nonfiction picture book

“Imagine a world with no clocks, thermometers, or telescopes. A world where everyone believes the earth stands still as the enormous sun travels around it once each day.”

Written in the voice of Galileo Galilei, the famous “father of modern science,” I, Galileo shows the brilliant yet human side of this radical thinker who was considered a heretic and imprisoned at the end of his life. The book traces Galileo’s work with his father to his interest in mathematics rather than medicine, as his father wished, to his studies that revolutionized astronomy.

Over time, people began to distrust Galileo and he went before the Inquisition, well-handled for young readers by Christensen in the lovely narrative text. Initially I was concerned at using first person to tell this story, but Christensen’s voice as Galileo’s manages to convey the information while keeping it authentic but readable for this age.

Back matter includes an afterward, chronology, Galileo’s experiments, inventions, and discoveries, along with a glossary, bibliography, and websites.

This is a wonderful book toread to introduce science to elementary aged readers and provides an insight into a world long past. It would be a good way to introduce standing up for your beliefs as well as promoting interest in science. This book is one that should be in every library.

Activity 1

Choose an invention or experiment and look it up to learn more about that invention. You may have to look up the individual inventions as you research.

Activity 2

Read about the phases of the moon and draw and label each phase.

This site has good information and diagrams.

This site gives some general information about Galileo.

This site has background on Galileo.

National science standards: forces and motion; influence of engineering, technology, and science on society and the natural world

Book provided by publisher for Librarians’ Choices Committee

ANIMALS a visual encyclopedia

ANIMALS  a visual encyclopedia

Edited by Carrie Lowe and Caroline Stamps

Dorling Kindersley, 2008

ISBN #9780756640279

Ages 5 – 9 years

Nonfiction

“What is an Animal?

The animal kingdom is a vast collection of weird and wonderful creatures. Members of this group come in many different shapes and sizes, but they are all made up of cells, and they all have nerves and muscles to move and respond to the world around them. Most important, all animals eat food to make energy.”

This visual encyclopedia first defines animals and then begins with a chart showing the relationship of life as it is divided into various categories. From this introduction, filled with charts, photos, and sidebars explaining animal relationships, the book continues with information about behavior, life cycles, habitats, and endangered animals.

Following this introduction, each group of animals is defined and detailed in sections about vertebrates and invertebrates. The information is excellent and a good way to introduce any study of animals and how they interact. Bold and large photographs make the wide range of text narrative appealing and will draw in the reader. The representative animals are both familiar and unfamiliar. For example, the water bird heading in the bird section includes the Black swan, the Mallard, and the Muscovy duck.

I can see readers picking up the book to browse or using it for the information. It does not read like a typical encyclopedia and invites children to read and explore the world of animals. This book is perfect for the library, classroom, or home and it would be a wonderful gift for any child.

Activity 1

Choose an animal and read about its habitat. Identify why it lives in that particular habitat. Look up more information about the animal and read about it. Make a list of adaptations the animal has that allows it to live and thrive. Illustrate the adaptations or write an explanation of those adaptations.

Activity 2

Choose an animal from the book. Read about its life cycle. Then create your own chart to illustrate the life cycle. Don’t overlook the wide number of interesting invertebrates!

Find animal information at National Geographic Kids.

The San Diego Zoo has good animal information.

See more animal information here.

National Science Standard: growth and development of organisms; interdependent relationships in ecosystems; adaptation

Book provided by publisher

Flip, Float, Fly

 

I’m revisiting this book (one of my favorites) while I’m working this week on a Quality Review Panel. You can learn more about this organization at Creating Quality. This book was featured on The Reading Rainbow App Trailer.

Flip, Float, Fly: Seeds on the Move

By JoAnn Early Macken

Illustrated by Pam Paparone

Holiday House, 2008

ISBN# 0-8234-2043-4

Nonfiction picture book

 Vivid illustrations add depth to this book that traces the wide variety of ways seeds move about. In simple, sparkling language, the movements by seeds as they spread are shown and explained as they complete their life cycle. Back matter includes more seed and plant facts and a final page adds notes about why seeds must move.

 Tumbleweed plants grow as round as globes. In autumn their stems snap off. On the flat, open prairie, they ROLL, ROLL, ROLL, sprinking their seeds as they tumble.

 Activity 1

Use this book to start a seed experiment. Choose one variable to test (amount of water, light and dark, planting depth, or seed type). Give each student two small paper cups and fill with soil. One is the control and the other is the variable. Use 2-3 seeds for each cup. I recommend bean seeds, because the plant grows well and relatively fast.

Set up the experiment and plant the control seeds normally. Then set up the second cup according to your choice of variable. From now on, keep everything other than the variable equal. Fill out the scientific method form as you plan and perform the experiment and watch the seeds grow.

Activity 2

Use a metric ruler and measure the growth of the two sets of bean plants in millimeters. Record the results each day. Use the results to make a line graph of both and make your conclusions.

National Science Standard: understanding about scientific inquiry, life cycles of organisms

See a review of Flip, Float, Fly.

Gone Fishing!

I’m on a fishing trip to Lake Navajo–really!–and will get a new post up as soon as I can.

Update on the fishing: I caught an undersized smallmouth bass and a northern pike, which slipped off the hook at the last minute. My husband caught a keeper bass, but it wasn’t enough to feed four so we let him go. It was a great time at a beautiful lake anyway.

About Hummingbirds

Visit STEM Friday and see the excellent recommendations today.

About Hummingbirds

by Cathryn Sill

Illustrated by John Sill

Peachtree, 2011

ISBN: 978-1-56145-588-1

Grades K-3

Nonfiction picture book

The hummingbirds have returned to New Mexico, so I thought this would be a good book to preview. Our feeders are out and almost empty already.

“Hummingbirds are small birds that get food from flowers.”

About Hummingbirds, in the Peachtree About… series, shows the life and habits of hummingbirds of different species. Short, lyrical sentences deliver the facts on the left side of the spread, while the right side shows in vivid, lush color the image from the text opposite it.

The subject matter covers food, adaptations, behaviors, flight, perching, size, coloration, and breeding in language easily understood by the younger learners. The pictures show specific species and are just gorgeous.

Back matter includes further information about hummingbirds, a glossary, further reading, and websites. This is a lovely Peachtree book and will be a hit with any young birder.

Activity

Look up information about five different birds. Choose a measurable fact and record it for each bird under the birds’ names. Then make a bar graph that will compare the different birds. You might want to use bill length, wingspan, weight, or any other statistic you like. Discuss your results. You can order them from increasing sizes or decreasing sizes.

Here is a place to get a graph page.

Find lots of bird choices here.

For older readers, you may want to read Hummingbirds by Jeanette Larson  and Adrienne Yorinks. Here’s my blog post on that book with more sites and activities.

National science standard: Characteristics of  organisms; life cycle

Book provided by publisher

Cool Engineering Activities for Girls

Nonfiction Monday is at Apples With Many Seeds.

Need a great engineering book for your STEM reading or collection? This is the book for you. I managed to get my deadline met and still post today! Take a look at this book.

Cool Engineering Activities for Girls

By Heather E. Schwartz

Capstone, Snap Books, 2012

ISBN #9781429676779

Grades 3-9

Nonfiction

“Have you ever wanted something that hasn’t been invented yet? A machine that loads the dishwasher? Or a cookie so packed with nutrients it counts as a vegetable? Some might call these dreams wishful thinking. But daydreaming is the first step in engineering. Throughout history engineers have come up with some amazing innovations. They’re behind inventions such as the bionic arm, roller coasters, and even wireless phones.”

Following a brief introduction that explains engineering and its purpose, this book provides ten activities that can be done with simple supplies.  Girls and boys can make paper table, a water filter, jewelry from CDs, or s’mores from the Sun, along with a variety of other projects. Each activity gives detailed directions and a list of materials. The activities show science principles, vocabulary, and an explanation of the science behind the engineering project.

Back matter includes a glossary, Read More section, internet sites, and an index. With the summer break looming, this is the perfect book to trigger an interest in engineering at an early age and provide fun activities to do alongside reading. The consultant was the director of Membership Initiatives in the Society of Women Engineers.

Activity

Choose one of the activities from the book. Try it out with a group of friends. When you’ve finished, discuss the problems and successes you had.

Then brainstorm solutions for a current problem you have that might be solved through engineering. Write down the problem and make a list of possible solutions. You might find one that works—so try it out!

This fun website has 100 great activities for kids grouped by topics that relate to engineering.

This interactive website explains how some common objects are made through questions and video answers.

This website has lots of fun information and animation to answer a range of materials questions.

National Science Standard: developing possible solutions; optimizing the design solution; interdependence of science, engineering, and technology

Book provided by publisher from Capstone’s Snap series.

A Leaf Can Be…

I’ll be away from my blog for a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, this  is one of my favorite books so far this year. Take a look at the original post here.

SimplyScience on January 25.