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Tag: Nonfiction Monday (Page 3 of 8)

Night Creatures #kidlit Soars and Slinks

September 13, 2021 / / 2 Comments

Today we are featuring the first in a series of fabulous STEAM picture books that are coming out this month, Night Creatures: Animals That Swoop, Crawl, and Creep While You Sleep by Rebecca E. Hirsch and illustrated by Sonia Possentini.

Even though we don’t see them as often, about half of the animals on the planet are nocturnal (active after dark). This book is a wonderful introduction.

The book starts in a soft, lyrical settling-down-to-bedtime voice.

A cool night breeze
blows softly on your face
As night creatures wake…

Soon, your heart begins to race as bobcats leap, owls pounce, and rabbits run away.  No worries, however, because the quiet descends again as night turns into day.

Young readers will enjoy Sonia Possentini’s marvelous illustrations. Possentini uses a pallet of blues, greens and black tree silhouettes to reflect nighttime, but also capture the warm hues of a bobcat’s coat or an owl’s feathers.

In the concise and informative back matter, learn more details about the featured animals.

Night Creatures is a celebration of animals that are active when many people are sleeping. Slip into a copy and discover what you have been missing.

Related Science Activities:

Check out the incredible free activity guide to download. Seriously! Perfect for any unit on nocturnal animals. Rebecca has instructions for taking a night hike, as well as activities that reflect how your senses change in the dark. What might you touch and feel? How might your color vision change? What might you hear? What might you smell?

In this video, listen to some of the sounds you might expect to hear at night. Note:  The video is silent except for the parts with the animal sound recordings.

 

Consider having a moth ball, which is a nighttime moth watching party (previous post).

See our growing list of children’s books about nocturnal animals at Science Books for Kids.

Reading age ‏ : ‎ 5 – 10 years
Publisher:  ‎ Millbrook Press ™ (September 7, 2021)
ISBN-10 : ‎ 1541581296
ISBN-13 : ‎ 978-1541581296

Disclosure: This book was provided electronically by the publisher for review purposes. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission, at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

 


Looking for more children’s nonfiction books? Try the Nonfiction Monday blog.

#Nonfiction Monday #kidlit: Spi-ku for #NationalPoetryMonth

March 29, 2021 / / 0 Comments

 

Right in time for National Poetry Month (April), we have Spi-ku: A Clutter of Short Verse on Eight Legs by Leslie Bulion and illustrated by Robert Meganck.

Author Leslie Bulion has a subtly playful approach to spiders.

All spiders are arachnids
But some arachnids
mite not be spiders.

If you like that kind of word play, you are in for a real treat.

Illustrator Robert Meganck also has a subtle sense of humor. For example, in the front endpapers he shows a fly near a spider web. The back endpapers shows the same spider with a small webbed up package. He leaves it up to the reader to figure out what happened to the fly.

Intermingled between poems of different forms — in spite of the title, not all are haiku — is detailed information about spiders, from what they eat to how they build webs.

If the text isn’t enough, there’s extensive back matter as well:

  • Glossary
  • A Few Notes on Poetic Form
  • Spider Identification (scientific names of the spiders in the book)
  • A “Spider Hunt” activity suggestion
  • For Further Study (Books and websites)
  • A cool info-graphic of the relative sizes of all the spiders
  • Identification of the spiders on the cover.

Readers are likely to find something new every time they read the book.

Spi-ku is perfect for budding arachnologists and poets alike. Investigate a copy today!

Related Activity Suggestions:

  1. Visit Leslie Bulion’s website to download an awesome teachers guide and folding spider booklet activity.
  2. Read and discuss “Allowables” by Nikki Giovanni (MSU Poetry websitefor example).
  3. Reading Rockets has whole page about National Poetry Month, including interviews with poets and activity suggestions.
  4. Write a spider poem.
  5. See our beginners guide to identifying spiders (previous post)
  6. Check out more children’s books about spiders at Science Books for Kids.

Reading age : 8 – 12 years
Publisher : Peachtree Publishing Company; Illustrated edition (March 1, 2021)
ISBN-10 : 1682631923
ISBN-13 : 978-1682631928

Disclosure: This book is my personal copy. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission, at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

 


Looking for more children’s nonfiction books? Try the Nonfiction Monday blog.

#Nonfiction Monday #kidlit: The Stuff Between the Stars with a Giveaway

March 1, 2021 / / 2 Comments

Right in time to celebrate Women’s History Month we have two brand new picture book biographies of women pioneers in STEM. For Nonfiction Monday, let’s start with The Stuff Between the Stars: How Vera Rubin Discovered Most of the Universe by Sandra Nickel and illustrated by Aimée Sicuro. We liked this one so much, we’re offering a giveaway in the Rafflecopter window below.

About the Book:

Vera Rubin was an astronomer who discovered some cool and important “stuff”.

From a young age, she was captivated by stargazing.

As she got older, she began to investigate swirling clusters of stars, gases, and dust known as galaxies.

Public domain image of a galaxy from Wikimedia.

She studied where galaxies were found in space and how they moved relative to each other. When she saw the stars within galaxies move at different speeds than she thought they should, she demonstrated there was something in between the stars that we can’t see or detect, something pulling the stars. That “something” had been previously named dark matter and there is a lot of it!

Discussion:

In addition to revealing groundbreaking science, author Sandra Nickel also celebrates Vera Rubin’s passion for her work and how she kept going in spite of numerous obstacles, including others not understanding her work.

It is not easy to explain big concepts like galaxies and dark matter for young readers. Sandra Nickel has nailed it.

Aimée Sicuro’s illustrations are out of this world. They vacillate between concrete and abstract, contrasting how grounded Vera was even when her thoughts were in the galaxies. You can see what I mean in the page spread below.

If you are a regular reader, you know how we love back matter and this book does not disappoint. It includes an Author’s Note, which puts Vera’s discoveries in context, a Timeline of Vera Rubin’s Life, Notes about quotes used, and a Selected Bibliography for young scholars who want to delve more deeply.

The Stuff Between the Stars is sure to thrill budding astronomers. It would be perfect to accompany a trip to a planetarium, as well as for Women’s History Month discussions. Gaze into a copy today!

Activity Suggestions:

    1. NASA Space place as a fun Galaxy Pinwheel to print out and make, as well as more information about what a galaxy is and more about dark matter.
    2. Galaxy jar craft:  Sandra Nickel describes the movement of stars in a galaxy as “like glitter caught in an invisible halo.” Check the internet for instructions for a galaxy jar craft that involves swirling glitter in a paint-filled bottle or jar. One example at Crafty Morning.
    3. Find more biographies of Women in STEM at Science Books for Kids.

    About the Creators:

    Sandra Nickel says that story ideas are everywhere; you just have to reach out and grab them.  She holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her first book, Nacho’s Nachos: The Story Behind the World’s Favorite Snack, was a Golden Kite Award finalist. Sandra lives in Chexbres, Switzerland, where she blogs about children’s book writers and illustrators at whatwason.com. To learn more, visit Sandra’s website.

    Twitter:  @senickel
    Facebook: @sandranickelbooks
    Instagram: @sandranickelbooks

    Aimée Sicuro is an illustrator, picture book maker, and surface pattern designer who received a BFA in Illustration from Columbus College of Art and Design. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and young sons. Visit her website to learn more.

    Twitter: @aimeesicuro
    Instagram: @aimeesicuro

    Book Trailer

    Reading age : 6 – 9 years
    Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers (March 2, 2021)
    ISBN-10 : 1419736264
    ISBN-13: 9781419736261

    A giveaway!
    One lucky winner will receive a copy of The Stuff Between the Stars courtesy of Abrams Books for Young Readers (U.S. addresses).

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

    Disclosure: This book was provided by Blue Slip Media for review purposes. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission, at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

     


    Looking for more children’s nonfiction books? Try the Nonfiction Monday blog.

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