Science – Page 22 – Unleashing Readers

Flight of the Honey Bee by Raymond Huber

June 17, 2015June 17, 2015 by Kellee

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and was started to help promote the reading of nonfiction texts. Most Wednesdays, we will be participating and will review a nonfiction text (though it may not always be a picture book).
Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what other nonfiction books are shared this week!

Flight of the Honey Bee
Author: Raymond Huber
Illustrator: Brian Lovelock
Published September 10th, 2013 by Candlewick Press

Goodreads Summary: Follow the flight of a honey bee as she searches for nectar to sustain her hive and, along the way, pollinates flowers to produce seeds and fruits.

A tiny honey bee emerges from the hive for the first time. Using sunlight, landmarks, and scents to remember the path, she goes in search of pollen and nectar to share with the thousands of other bees in her hive. She uses her powerful sense of smell to locate the flowers that sustain her, avoids birds that might eat her, and returns home to share her finds with her many sisters. Nature lovers and scientists-to-be are invited to explore the fascinating life of a honey bee.

Kellee’s Review and Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: I love books that mix narrative and information nonfiction within one book. This text introduces Scout as she exits the hive and goes about her bee-siness (hehe!). This part of the story is told as a story. Then on each page, there is information about bees in general to help the reader understand Scout’s journey. This unique text structure mixed with the realistic yet artistic illustrations really makes Flight compelling to read. In addition to learning about bees and the vocabulary included in the book, this book could be a great addition to a lit circle inquiry group about insects or as a mentor text to create student narrative and informational mixed writing about a animal after researching.

Ricki’s Review and Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: I read this book aloud to my son while he was eating breakfast, and he was captivated by the illustrations and story. I immediately texted Kellee and told her we had to schedule a day to review it! I had a lot of fun following Scout on her adventure, and I know kids will become so engaged in this story that they will forget they are learning. I thought I knew a lot about bees, but I was surprised by how much information is packed into this text. Readers will cheer for Scout as she encounters obstacles. I try to integrate nonfiction into every unit, and this would be a great book to show students just how accessible nonfiction can be. Then, they could pick a creature or object in nature, conduct research, and write their own narrative nonfiction texts.

Discussion Questions: How do bees help the environment and humans?; How can we help save the bees?; What are the different types of bees? Why are they all important?

Flight of the Honey Bee Teacher Guide from Candlewick

We Flagged:

flight of the honey page — (c) 2013 Raymond Huber http://www.raymondhuber.co.nz/

Read This If You Loved: Lifetime by Lola M. Schaefer, Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold by Joyce Sidman, The Alphabet of Bugs by Valerie Gates

Recommended For:

and

**Thank you to Candlewick for providing copies of the text for review!!**

Faraway Friends by Russ Cox

June 10, 2015 by Kellee

Faraway Friends
Author and Illustrator: Russ Cox
Published May 5th, 2015 by Sky Pony Press

Goodreads Summary: This is the story of the adventure of a little boy named Sheldon and his dog, Jet. When Sheldon’s best friend moves away, Sheldon spies the word “Jupiter” painted on the side of the moving truck. Sheldon feels sad at first, but realizes that this is a sign—what he needs is a rocket ship! So Sheldon and Jet do some sketching and some scrounging, and, with a wagon full of equipment and supplies, the two future astronauts head to the backyard. With a glop and a wham, piece by piece the ship begins to take form, and soon it’s Commander Sheldon A. Flyer and Space Cadet Jet ready for takeoff! The duo jets around satellites, zooms by planets, speeds through space storms, and zips past other flying saucers . . . untilplop, they’ve arrived, somewhere with a green, alien life-form and a furry black blob.

This book encourages children to channel loneliness and boredom with creativity and imagination, and ultimately it is a story of new friendship. Featuring vibrant illustrations by debut author and illustrator Russ Cox, this action-packed story is sure to appeal to young readers in search of something that is out of this world!

My Review: I loved this story! It promotes imagination, has science elements, and is about the tough subject of friends moving away. When Sheldon’s best friend moves away, he believes he has moved to Jupiter so the only solution is to build a spaceship for himself and his dog, Jet, to go to Jupiter to see his friend. I adored that Sheldon went through a planning and sketching phase before building and “blasting off” with Jet. They then fly through outer space until a ship malfunction and a visiting alien change their plans. Children will love the colorful illustrations, fun adventure, and comic relief of Jet all while exploring themes of friendship, loss, and imagination.

P.S. The cover glows in the dark!!!!

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Like I shared above, there are some deep themes that can be addressed while/after reading this book. I also think it will promote a want to build a space ship, and it would be great to have students plan and build a spaceship (maybe not life size, but for an egg or pipe cleaner person?). The book also has onomatopoeias throughout which always makes me happy as they may be my favorite type of figurative language, and there is also great vocabulary words throughout to learn about.

Discussion Questions: Before reading, look at the cover and predict what you think the book is about. After reading, look back at the cover. What did you predict correctly and incorrectly based on the cover?; Has a friend of yours ever moved away? How did it make you feel? What did you do to help deal with the loss?; If you could build a spaceship and visit anywhere, where would you go?; When Sheldon and Jet blasted off into space, did you catch the clue for the ending in the background?

We Flagged:

faraway-friends-sample 2 — (c) Russ Cox 2014

“BLAST OFF! In a spectacular plume of smoke Sheldon and Jet roared into space.”

Read This If You Loved: The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires, Journey by Aaron Becker

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Sara at Skyhorse Publishing for providing a copy for review!**

Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary by Gail Jarrow

May 28, 2015 by Ricki

Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary
Author: Gail Jarrow
Published: March 10, 2015 by Calkins Creek

GoodReads Summary: In March 1907, the lives of three remarkable people collided at a New York City brownstone where Mary Mallon worked as a cook. They were brought together by typhoid fever, a dreaded scourge that killed tens of thousands of Americans each year. Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary is the first middle-grade trade book that tells the true story of the woman who unwittingly spread deadly bacteria, the epidemiologist who discovered her trail of infection, and the health department that decided her fate. This gripping story follows this tragic disease as it shatters lives from the early twentieth century to today. It will keep readers on the edges of the seats wondering what happened to Mary and the innocent typhoid victims. With glossary, timeline, list of well-known typhoid sufferers and victims, further resource section, author’s note, and source notes.

Review: This narrative nonfiction essentially begins with in media res—Typhoid Mary is running from people who want to catch her and take her blood. By chapter two, the text shifts back to the history of typhoid fever and gives readers a no-nonsense look at the gory realities of this horrid disease. My father and brother are doctors and my mom was a nurse, and I was finally able to take part in medical conversations at a family gathering! It would have been easy for the author to slip into the extreme technical details of this disease, but she does an excellent job balancing science, history, and story. I was engaged in the book from beginning to end. I never thought I would find the sanitation systems in the early 1900s to be so fascinating!

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Students will read this book and want to learn more about other deadly epidemics in history. They would likely be interested in the ways this disease still impacts countries today. I found Typhoid Mary’s story to be very interesting, and I wanted to learn more about medical scapegoats in history. All in all, this book inspires readers to want to learn more about medical topics. I imagine this book would be a good choice for students interested in medical professions, but it will also captivate students who are interested in science and history. This makes it a true interdisciplinary text.

Discussion Questions: How was Typhoid Mary treated by the community? Why? Do you think she deserved her treatment at the end of her life?; What other diseases have impacted history? How do they compare to typhoid fever?

We Flagged: “She didn’t know it, but she wasn’t alone in that cramped, cold closet. Deep insider her body, billions of deadly microorganisms were hiding, too.”

Read This If You Loved: Red Madness: How a Medical Mystery Changed What We Eat by Gail Jarrow; Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure by Jim Murphy and Alison Blank

Recommended For:

*Thank you to Kerry at Boyds Mills Press for sending this book for review!*

Meet Bacteria by Rebecca Bielawski

July 27, 2015March 25, 2015 by Kellee

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Mummy Nature Book 1: Meet Bacteria!
Author and Illustrator: Rebecca Bielawski
Published October 8, 2014 by Rebecca Bielawski

Goodreads Summary: Peak through the microscope and down into a fantastic world of teeny tiny shapes, amazing colours and little friends who want to say – Hello. Who are these bacteria? Where do they live and what do they do all day? Meet Bacteria! is for little kids brimming with curiosity. It gives them their first basic notions of bacteria; a very interesting topic for children, seldom dealt within children’s books at this level.

Each book in the series is one mini nature lesson wrapped up in colour and rhyme. These books are intended for very young children including toddlers and will give them just a glimpse into some of the wonders of the natural world. Illustrated for maximum vibrancy and visual impact, using rhyme to engage young minds and encourage participation. Read the rhymes to your children and soon they will be reading them to you!

What We Can Learn:
The idea of the microscope
Why we should wash our hands

Concepts:
Basic bacteria shapes
Some bacteria habitats

New Words:
Bacteria, Microscope, Rod, Chain, Bunch, Multiply

Kellee’s Review and Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: This book is a great introduction to scientific exploration and then to bacteria itself. I love that the protagonist is a young girl who is exploring the world around her. I think students will see themselves in her, and that along with the interesting, rhyming information about the different types of bacteria will really persuade kids to want to explore.

I do think that this is just an introduction though. Each bacteria is briefly mentioned along with a fun illustration. I would love to see this book be a jumping off point to an inquiry unit about bacteria.

Discussion Questions: Why does bacteria have a bad reputation? Which bacteria cause this? Which bacteria are actually good?; How can you prevent the bad bacteria from making us sick?; Bacteria make some foods. How does this work?

We Flagged:

Images from https://www.pinterest.com/booksbeck/childrens-picture-books/
© Rebecca Bielawski

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Rebecca Bielawski for providing a copy for review!**

It’s All True! Series by High Noon Books

December 31, 2014 by Ricki

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

About the Series: These 15 books focus on grades 4 through 8 content but are focused on students with lower reading levels. They contain high-interest nonfiction topics like Earth and Space, Living Things, History, Technology, and Careers, and highlight content areas outside of English/language arts.

Ricki’s Review and Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: As a former high school teacher, I know the struggle to match kids with great books. Oftentimes, struggling readers cannot find books that match their reading abilities and interests. For instance, a student may find books with grade-level topics to be interesting, but the texts are simply too challenging. This series is great because the books contain middle school topics but are written at lower elementary school reading levels. They are carefully crafted with attention to vocabulary and sentence structure to support readers.

I enjoyed We Made It by Lisa Benjamin. It was composed of five chapters about manmade structures: the International Space Station, the Great Pyramid, the Lincoln Cathedral, Skyscrapers, the Three Gorges Dam, and the Eden Project. I learned a lot, and I suspect future engineers will enjoy learning about these structures. Teachers could explore interdisciplinary connections by integrating other content areas, like science and social studies. High Noon Books rates this book one star, which means it is designed to be at a first grade reading level.

Robots by Allison Lassieur was at a higher reading level, ranked grade three (three stars) by High Noon Books. I immediately noticed a difference from We Made It. While both books are the same number of pages, the sentences in Robots were closer together, and the book was longer. Additionally, the book contained complex sentence structures. Robots explores a lot of interesting aspects about…you guessed it, robots! Dancing robots, robots that keep us safe, firefighting robots, ancient robots, and robots of the future are just a few of the topics of this text. I am saving this book because if my son enjoys robotics when he is a bit older, he will definitely love this overview. I think teachers could have a guest speaker come in and discuss real-life applications of robots. Or, students could research robots that are used in their community.

Kellee’s Review and Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: I am the reading coach at my school and have worked with struggling readers for for the last few years. One of the struggles that struggling readers have, as Ricki stated, is finding a book that is at their interest level but also at their reading level. It’s All True! is trying to remedy that by having informational nonfiction texts at a middle grade interest level, but at a reading level that these students can reach. It reminds me of fiction series like Bluford, but with specific purposes for instruction. I could see these texts being used in a small group setting when teachers differentiating for their students.

I read two different books in the “Living Things” series: This is Huge by Lisa Benjamin (1 star) and Healers and Killers by Allison Lassieur (3 stars). Both included very specific information about the topics they were focusing on: This is Huge was about large animals over time; Healers and Killers was about plants and animals that can kill or heal us. The information in both seemed to be on grade level (middle school); however, the “three star” book had more text per page, tougher vocabulary, and more complex sentence structures.

Teacher Materials for Each Level:

http://www.highnoonbooks.com/pdfs/Its_All_True_TG_Level1_v4.pdf
http://www.highnoonbooks.com/pdfs/Its_All_True_TG_Level2_v4.pdf
http://www.highnoonbooks.com/pdfs/ItsAllTrueTGLevel3_V5c.pdf

More Information

http://www.HighNoonBooks.com
http://www.highnoonbooks.com/HNB/realnonfiction-hnb.tpl

Sample Chapter:

Weird Science, Chapter One
(2 star text)

Read This If You Love: How it Works series by various, Informational nonfiction by Jen Green, Informational nonfiction by Seymour Simon

Recommended For:

and

**Thank you to Steve at High Noon Books for providing these books for review**

Review and Teaching Guide!: Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor by Jon Scieszka, Illustrated by Brian Biggs

August 13, 2023August 20, 2014 by Kellee

Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor
Author: Jon Sciezska
Illustrator: Brian Biggs
Published August 19, 2014 by Amulet Books

Goodreads Summary: Frank Einstein loves figuring out how the world works by creating household contraptions that are part science, part imagination, and definitely unusual. After an uneventful experiment in his garage-lab, a lightning storm and flash of electricity bring Frank’s inventions—the robots Klink and Klank—to life! Not exactly the ideal lab partners, the wisecracking Klink and the overly expressive Klank nonetheless help Frank attempt to perfect his Antimatter Motor . . . until Frank’s archnemesis, T. Edison, steals Klink and Klank for his evil doomsday plan! Using real science, Jon Scieszka has created a unique world of adventure and science fiction—an irresistible chemical reaction for middle-grade readers.

My Review: In the world of illustrated novels, we have many a class clown: Greg, Nate, George & Harold. But now we have our very own genius, and he is a genius that kids are going to love! This book combines the humor and fun plot that Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, and Captain Underpants have, but adds in science (though the kids reading it will be none the wiser). The way that Sciezska combines humor, adventure, twists & turns, and science is perfection that will have a whole slew of readers waiting for the next Frank Einstein book.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: This book has so much that a teacher could touch on while reading it. It would be a perfect book for a read aloud in reading with cross-curricular activities based on the book in science. I was very lucky to once again be able to write a teaching guide, this time for Frank Einstein. To see more specific class activities and discussion questions, view my teaching guide at the Abrams website. (I also wrote the teaching guide for Frank Einstein and the Electro-Finger!)

Discussion Questions:

Frank has a double helix DNA slide. What would this look like?; Grandpa Al uses the phrase “Blow this pop stand” (p. 112). This is an idiom meaning “Let’s get out of here.”
What are idioms? What are some idioms you use in your daily life?
Frank’s parents are in Antarctica, where the ozone is getting a hole in it (p. 110). What is causing this hole? Frank mentions CFCs. What are they? How do they affect the ozone?
In Fig 1.1, Frank shows us that every second between light and sound equals 1/5 of a mile, because of the difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound. So, if there are 5 seconds between thunder and lightning, that means the storm is 1 mile away. What if there are 10 seconds between? 15 seconds? 12 seconds? 100 seconds?; On page 109, we learn that corn flakes were an accidental invention. Are there other accidental inventions?

We Flagged: “Night. Darkness. Flash! A bright bolt of lightning splits the dark and flickers over the skylight. Frank Einstein looks up from his work. He counts out loud, “One thousand one. One thousand two. One thousand three. One thousand four. One thousand five–” Craack boom! The sound-wave vibration of the thunder rattles the old iron-framed windows of Frank’s workshop and science laboratory. “Five seconds between light and sound for every mile. . . One mile away,” Frank calculates, using the difference between the almost-instant speed of light and the much slower speed of sound. “Right on time.”

Read This If You Loved: Series: Frankie Pickle by Eric Wight, Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey, Big Nate by Lincoln Peirce

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Abrams Books for providing a copy for review**

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

July 27, 2015June 19, 2014 by Ricki

The Here and Now
Author: Ann Brashares
Published: April 8, 2014 by Delacorte Press

Summary: An unforgettable epic romantic thriller about a girl from the future who might be able to save the world… if she lets go of the one thing she’s found to hold on to.

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth. But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves.

Review: I particularly loved the first half of this book. While time travel is at the heart of this text, I think it would be a great book to give to readers who love dystopian fiction. Prenna’s memory of her futuristic world was fascinating to me. At times, I found Brashares to be a bit didactic, but overall, the book is very well-written and will entice readers from the first page. I always enjoy reading books about time travel because my mind spins as I try to grapple with the paradox time travel provides. If we change the past, will we exist in the future? And how can this work, if we are living in this previous time? Ah! My brain hurts. I enjoyed this book because it made me think.

Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: Similar to my review of All Our Yesterdays, I think students would have a lot of fun selecting a time period to travel to, and perhaps, picking one event in history they would change and how it might impact the future. This could develop into a research project, and I can imagine there would be fantastic interdisciplinary connections with the subject of history. Alternatively (or additionally), teachers could link this text with the subject of science–where students research ways we are destroying our planet.

Discussion Questions: How are we destroying our planet? Do you think Ann Brashares’ prediction of the future is accurate? What is Brashares’ tone in this text?; If you could travel in time, what is one event in history that you would change and why? How might it change events in the future?

We Flagged: “People here act like the great things have already been lost, but they are wrong. They have so much still to lose” (Chapter Three).

“I guess memory is a deep well, and you don’t know what’s down there until you lower the bucket and start hauling it up” (Chapter Fifteen).

Please note: The above quotes are from the advanced reader copy. The quotes may have changed with publication.

Read This If You Loved: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Legend by Marie Lu, Divergent by Veronica Roth

Recommended For: