Category: Non-Fiction

Posted in Intermediate, Non-Fiction, picture books

New in the Nature Book series: A Shell is Cozy

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

A Shell is Cozy, by Dianna Hutts Aston/Illustrated by Sylvia Long, (May 2023, Chronicle Books), $18.99, ISBN: 9781797212470

Ages 5-8

Enjoy a study on the world of shells in the newest entry in Aston and Long’s Nature Books series. Ink and watercolor illustrations bring the many types of shells to life; Aston moves between brief and meaningful observations – “A shell is cozy”; “A shell is everywhere”; “A shell is athletic” – and more informative explanations to explain her observations. Cursive font poses the initial observations; smaller, print text the explanations. Each shell is labeled, helping facilitate understanding and knowledge. Aston writes to educate and to delight, including facts like jazz musician Steve Turre using “the same shell instrument… as his Aztec ancestors did…”, or that sea scallops “clap” their shells to swim away from predators. A great addition to a long-standing, popular natural world series.

Create an activity pack with a seek and find sheet from Education.com, a set of seashell identification cards from Cara Ratner on TeachersPayTeachers, and this field journal from the American Museum of Natural History.

 

 

A Beetle is Shy, by Dianna Hutts Aston/Illustrated by Sylvia Long, (May 2023, Chronicle Books), $7.99, ISBN: 9781797215877

Ages 5-8

The softcover edition of the 2016 book, A Beetle is Shy, hits shelves this week and is a good choice for libraries that need a backup or whose budgets are facing some challenges. Here, Aston and Long introduce readers to the many types of beetles: their life cycles, their sizes, where and how they live. They touch on the beetle’s prehistoric origins, with a beautiful rendering of beetles preserved in amber, and discuss the many areas of the world where beetles are on the menu! The ink and watercolor art is breathtaking, with vibrant colors truly showing off beetle’s jewel-like appearances. Scripted verse observations, like “A beetle is tasty”; “A beetle is prehistoric”; “A beetle is a digger… a runner… a hopper… or a swimmer” lead to brief informational text to explain. A great addition to your nature, STEM, and insect collection.

Do you have bug fans, or want to do a program on insects? You can put together a fun learning activity pack with this Beetle Mania activity from Education.com, a beetle coloring sheet, also from Education.com, a Build a Stag Beetle activity from Teaching Resources by AJ, and a beetle lifecycle activity sheet from itsMamaMiller, both from TeachersPayTeachers. DK has a good Beetle Facts for Kids webpage, and NatGeo Kids has fact pages on both the stag beetle and the dung beetle.

Posted in Intermediate, Non-Fiction, picture books

What About…? Great series for developing minds

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Twirl Books has been great for producing high-quality, fun, and educational board books for the littlest learners. Their What About… series, originally published in France, skews slightly older and are “Illustrated Q&A Book[s] for Kids”.

What About: The Universe, by Bertrand Fichou/Illustrated by Pascal Lemaître, (Nov. 2022, Twirl Books), $16.99, ISBN: 9791036345159

Ages 7-11

If you’ve been around kids, you’ve heard the questions: “Why don’t people on the other side of Earth fall into space?” “Is it cold in space?” “What’s in our solar system?” These questions, and many more, get answered thoughtfully and visually in What About the Universe, which begins with a glossary. I love this: get the vocabulary up front, preparing kids for words they’re going to see along the way! Answers are broken up into bite-sized, step-by-step responses, hopefully answering additional questions that pop up along the way. For instance, the answer to “How are stars born?” goes through a 5-step answer: “1) a nebula drifts through space; 2) the nebula shrinks, 3) everything starts to heat up; 4) the star ignites, and 5) planets form around the star”. Visuals make each concept easier to comprehend, and additional fun facts provide deeper context. Colorful cartoon artwork makes learning fun. An index makes searching for specific information easier, and a Table of Contents at the beginning helps readers locate their big questions with no fuss. A very good choice for reference and STEM collections.

I’m enjoying putting together activity packs these days; if you are, too, consider a few NASA coloring pages, a planets wordsearch from Ana DeSousa on TeachersPayTeachers, and this planet order worksheet from abunchofbrinsons on TeachersPayTeachers.  Have them available for any of your space fans!

 

What About: Philosophy, by Gwénaëlle Boulet & Anne-Sophie Chilard/Illustrated by Pascal Lemaître, (May 2023, Twirl Books), $16.99, ISBN: 9791036353086

Ages 7-11

Kids are like mini-philosophers. Think of the big things they think about: “Why are there wars?” “What’s is fair or unfair?” “Why do I have to go to school?” There are 16 big questions in this book, all illustrated and considered with respect to the reader. Beginning with the biggie: “Why do humans exist?”, the book goes through age-appropriate explanations that consider existential theories and being self-aware. The authors explore concepts like being in love, being brave, and being free; what money is and why we use it, and abstract concepts like time.  Explanations are factual, non-judgmental, and age-appropriate, so younger learners will more easily be able to follow along and gain deeper understanding of emotions like anger or jealousy and how it makes a person feel. Overall, a good addition to the series and a good attempt at putting some big questions into context for younger readers. There is a table of contents, but no index in this volume.

PLATO (Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization) is an organization that offers philosophy and ethics programming to students, educators, and families. Their philosophy toolkit offers free, downloadable lesson plans, organized by grade level, that you can share with your families and school partners.

Posted in Intermediate, Non-Fiction, picture books

Picture book biography: The Snail by Emily Hughes

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Snail, by Emily Hughes, (Nov. 2022, Chronicle Books), $18.99, ISBN: 9781797204673

Ages 7-10

Themes of contrast and duality frame this picture book biography about Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi, whose life is told in shifting perspectives from past to present, beginning with his invitation to present his artwork in an exhibition. Born the child of a Japanese father and an American mother, raised in Japan, he never felt that he belonged to either country. He referred to himself as a snail, pulling into himself, creating a creative shell around himself where he could “create wonders”. Hughes explores the contrasts in Noguchi’s life with evocative, moving storytelling and beautiful graphite and digital art, making use of gentle color and shades of black, white, and gray to tell Noguchi’s story. Hughes makes wonderful use of warmth for Noguchi’s akari (paper lanterns) display, imbuing the lanterns with internal warmth that radiate from the page. An author’s note on Noguchi’s life provides deeper context into the misunderstood artist; a bibliography provides more resources. A very good choice for picture book biographies.

The Snail has a starred review from Booklist.

Posted in Non-Fiction, picture books

Blog Tour: LOVE IS LOUD: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Diane Nash is a civil rights leader who was a Freedom Rider; a lunch counter protestor, and a 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. Sandra Neil Wallace and four-time Caldecott Honor recipient Bryan Collier bring her story to vibrant life in Love is Loud.

Love is Loud, by Sandra Neil Wallace/Illustrated by Bryan Collier,
(Jan. 2023, Simon & Schuster), $18.99, ISBN: 9781534451032
Ages 4-8

 

Born in 1938 in Chicago’s South Side, Diane Nash was a child of the diaspora; her parents refusing to raise a family in the segregated South. Enveloped in love and surrounded by diversity, she experienced Jim Crow laws once she moved to Tennessee to attend college. Angry and humiliated, she refused friends’ attempts to tell her “it’s always been this way” and “go along to get along”, and took action, enduring abuse at Nashville’s lunch counters and joining the Freedom Riders to protest segregated bus terminals. Wallace writes a tribute to Nash’s accomplishments, with key words and phrases bolded and capitalized to invoke strength and power in readers: “ELATION, INVIGORATION”; “NO HIDING. NO FIGHTING BACK”; “LEADING, PROCEEDING”. Bryan Collier’s watercolor and collage illustrations bring texture and realism to spreads, creating both warm and dramatic moments in Nash’s life. Back matter includes notes from the author and illustrator, a timeline of Nash’s life, and resources for further reading.

 

An inspiring picture book biography that shouldn’t be missed, Love is Loud is an essential addition to picture book biography collections. Put this one front and center in your Black History Month displays and booklists.

Love is Loud has starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and The Horn Book.

Sandra Neil Wallace writes about people who break barriers and change the world. She is the author of several award-winning books for children, including Between the Lines: How Ernie Barnes Went from the Football Field to the Art Gallery, illustrated by Bryan Collier, which received the Orbis Pictus Book Award and was an ALA Notable Book. A former ESPN reporter and the first woman to host an NHL broadcast, she is the recipient of the Outstanding Women of New Hampshire Award and creates change as cofounder of The Daily Good, a nonprofit bringing twenty thousand free, culturally diverse foods to college students each year through its Global Foods Pantries. Visit Sandra at SandraNeilWallace.com.
Bryan Collier is a beloved illustrator known for his unique style combining watercolor and detailed collage. He is a four-time Caldecott Honor recipient for Trombone Shorty, Dave the Potter, Martin’s Big Words, and Rosa. His books have won many other awards as well, including six Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards. His recent books include By and By,Thurgood, The Five O’Clock Band, and Between the Lines. He lives in New York with his family.
*”A poignant and powerful portrayal of the life and work of an unsung civil rights activist….Wallace’s text lends buoyancy to the narrative, making it a memorable read-aloud.”

— Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

*”Wallace’s emotive second-person text condenses Nash’s extensive activism into an inspiring meditation on love as the heart of justice, while Collier’s watercolor and collage illustrations bring artful dimension to Nash’s nonviolent resistance.”
— Pubishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

*“During the 1960s, Diane Nash was one of the most influential and effective leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, yet most people don’t know who she is.” Wallace’s latest picture-book collaboration with Collier seeks to correct that ….the book opens with images of Nash’s parents cradling her as a baby and then of Nash, as a small child, being hugged by her grandmother, highlighting the love that encouraged her activism.
— The Horn Book — STARRED REVIEW

Posted in Intermediate, Non-Fiction, picture books

Reading for Indigenous People’s Day? Add these to your list.

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

October 10th is designated as Indigenous People’s Day, when we honor Native American history and culture. It is a holiday that has been a long time coming; consider spending the day learning from the best resources.

Dr. Debbie Reese’s American Indians in Children’s Literature website is an excellent resource, with analyses on books and resources on indigenous people in literature: Dr. Reese provides insight on the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

If you are interested in research the indigenous land you occupy, and you are in the United States, you can text your zip code or your city and state to a number that will respond with the names of the Native lands that correspond to your region. I live and work on land taken from the Canarsie, Munsee Lenape, and Matinecock nations. Thanks to Code for Anchorage and Native Land for this service.

Support Indigenous presses. Highwater Press was kind enough to send me two beautiful picture books from their Sk’ad’a Stories Series, which I’ll be talking about below. Highwater is an imprint of Portage & Main Press and they publish stories by Indigenous writers and illustrators.
Returning to the Yakoun River, by Sara Florence Davidson & Robert Davidson/Illustrated by Janine Gibbons, (Sept. 2022, Highwater Press), $21.95, ISBN: 9781774920213

Ages 6-8

Returning to the Yakoun River is based on author Sara Florence Davidson’s childhood memories of a Haida fish camp. Seen through the eyes of a young girl, a family travels to the Yakoun River to fish for salmon and spend time with their Tsinii (grandfather). The artwork unfolds like a dream; the art appears to be oil painting; Haida artist Janine Gibbons draws from nature for her palette, with early morning blues and grays moving into cool weather steel blues and and greens; food and cheerful faces warm up the spreads. Endpapers show a calm river scene in the early morning. Sara Florence Davidson, a Haida/Settler Assistant Professor in Indigenous Education, draws heavily on themes of family and connection to the ancestors in her work. Her father, co-author Robert Davidson, is of Haida descent and is one of the most respected and important contemporary artists in Canada. The story is a peaceful meditation on intergenerational relationships and family and on recognizing the importance of ritual and connection. A gorgeous book for collections and an excellent purchase.

 

 

Dancing With Our Ancestors, by Sara Florence Davidson & Robert Davidson/Illustrated by Janine Gibbons, (Sept. 2022, Highwater Press), $21.95, ISBN: 9781774920244

Ages 6-8

A potlatch is an important ceremony to First Nations in the Northwest and parts of Canada. In Dancing With Our Ancestors, Sara Florence Davidson remembers the last time she danced with her late brother, all the while bringing the importance, excitement, and joy of a potlatch to younger readers. What most stands out in the narrative is the determination to continue tradition in the face of adversity: “Unlike our father, we were born after the laws that outlawed our culture practices were changed. The potlatch ban did not exist during our time, so we grew up dancing and singing side by side”; “They wanted us to stop being Haida”; “Today we dance with our children so our culture cannot be stolen again”. Joy and pain live side by side in the storytelling. Davidson beautifully describes the excitement and anticipation, with attendees arriving by boat, plane, and cars and RVs; the community makes “mountains of food” and set up the gym where the event is being held. Janine Gibbons’s illustrations show a crowd that spans generations, with bold, vibrant regalia and a sense of wonder that comes through. Endpapers show bold, colorful crests and masks, proudly displayed during the potlatch. An author’s note provides context to the story and a note on Ben Davidson, the author’s brother, is a lovely tribute. An absolutely essential purchase.

 

For the complete Sk’ad’a Stories Series list, visit Highwater’s page. Highwater also sells a Teacher’s Guide available for working with the Sk’ad’a Stories on their website.

Posted in Intermediate, Middle Grade, Non-fiction, Non-Fiction

Raising Don: Meet your newest favorite animal

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Raising Don: The True Story of a Spunky Baby Tapir, by Georgeanne Irvine with The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Press, (Oct. 2022, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Press), $14.99, ISBN: 9781943198146

Ages 6-10

The San Diego Zoo was thrilled when Don the tapir was born in 2018: he was the first baby tapir born at the Zoo in more than 30 years! But Luna, Don’s mother, wanted no part of her calf, so it was up to the Zoo staff to raise little Don. Don was bottle-fed and belly-rubbed by wildlife care specialists, bullied by some animals, and befriended by others, including a capybara named Bristle, who became Don’s best friend while at the San Diego Zoo. A true story, captured in full-color photographs and lively, upbeat, informative storytelling. Back matter includes a section on fun facts about tapirs, where tapirs live in the world, and threats to wild tapirs. Endpapers feature Don’s footprints! An adorable add to animal collections.

Raising Don is the newest nonfiction title from San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Press; books published spotlight different animals from the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Posted in Intermediate, Non-Fiction, picture books

Hope is an Arrow introduces children to Khalil Gibran

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Hope Is an Arrow : The Story of Lebanese-American Poet Khalil Gibran, by Cory McCarthy/Illustrated by Ekua Holmes, (July 2022, Candlewick Press), $18.99, ISBN: 9781536200324

Ages 6-9

Many adult readers discovered Khalil Gibran through his work, The Prophet (1923). Hope is an Arrow seeks to expand Gibran’s reach and introduce young readers to the poet through this evocative picture book biography, with his poetry sprinkled throughout his story. Gibran began life in Lebanon, a country experiencing religious conflict; his family left Lebanon and settled in Boston, where they experienced prejudice, leading the young poet to begin expressing himself through art. As he travels between Boston and Lebanon, his desire to unite people, born out of the conflict he experienced in both his home country and his adopted one, led him to find his voice in poetry. Hope is an Arrow reads like poetry, with phrases like “…they sailed the deeper, darker Atlantic Ocean, which murmured like a giant in its sleep” describing the Gibran family’s journey to the United States, and “…his words still fly across the world, in more than forty different languages and through many crashing winds, to bring all who read them straight to the heart of hope”. Ekua Holmes’s collage and acrylic artwork create dynamic spreads. Comprehensive back matter includes source notes, additional information on Khalil Gibran’s life, and a bibliography. A gorgeous biography for collections and an excellent starting point to discuss social and religious conflict.

Hope is an Arrow has starred reviews from School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and The Horn Book.

Posted in Intermediate, Non-Fiction

NatGeo Kids adds some Bling to our collections

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Bling! 100 Fun Facts About Rocks and Gems, by Emma Carlson Berne, (Jan. 2022, National Geographic Kids), $4.99, ISBN: 9781426338908

Ages 7-9

Bling!, Nat Geo’s Level 3 Reader on rocks and gems is chock-full of fun facts and incredible photos. The 100 Fun Facts series is another one of those NatGeo Kids home runs for my library shelves; the Easy Reader format is familiar to kids, and the layout that pairs photos with quick, easy-to-digest information attracts my library kids to these books. These are great for booktalking trivia, too: Did you know that silver is used in medical bandages to prevent infection? Or that you could buy a jelly bean-sized bar of gold for about $50? Little facts like that while I’m booktalking grab kids’ attention, and NatGeo Kids makes it easy for me to grab those fast facts. Bling! makes the STEM connection with facts about the Egyptian pyramids, erosion and rock formations, and a section on plate tectonics. Phonetic spelling throughout helps readers with new vocabulary words. All 100 facts get a roundup at the end of the book, and there is an index. Display this with NatGeo’s The Book of Bling (2019) and some callout facts for an eye-catching display.

Posted in Intermediate, Non-Fiction, picture books

I’m a Neutrino – great for science storytimes

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

I’m a Neutrino: Tiny Particles in a Big Universe, by Dr. Eve M. Vavagiakis/Illustrated by Ilze Lemesis, (March 2022, MIT Kids Press), $18.99, ISBN: 9781536222074

Ages 7-9

If you enjoy Chris Ferrie’s Baby University books, and Ruth Spiro and Irene Chan’s Baby Loves Science board books, you’re going to flip for I’m a Neutrino, a rhyming science tale by a Cornell physicist and her illustrator mother. I’m a Neutrino  introduces burgeoning young scientists to the neutrino: “I am a particle, like electrons and light / I can pass through you without stopping my flight!” The neutrinos, depicted as bright, colorful, spiky-headed little beings, adventure throughout the story, dancing and playing across the cosmos as a diverse group of kids and adults try to unlock their mysteries. The rhyming text informs with a playful tone, and the accompanying illustrations make science exciting and fun while adding new science terms to readers’ vocabularies. A “Know Your Neutrinos” section in the back matter identifies and gives a little more factual information about the neutrinos we encounter in the story.

There isn’t a glossary of new words in this volume, so consider making some flash cards to hand out, to help readers navigate these new words. You can find more about neutrinos at Kiddle and Academic Kids.

This is the first collaboration between Dr. Vavagiakis and MIT Kids and a natural progression for readers who started reading science board books like Chris Ferrie’s and Ruth Spiro and Irene Chan’s series as toddlers and preschoolers. Great for a science storytime, Junior Discovery Club, or STEM class.

Visit Eve Vavagiakis’s webpage for more about her research and mentoring.

Posted in Intermediate, Middle Grade, Non-fiction, Non-Fiction, Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads

Animals, Animals, Animals! Books for everyone!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

I’ve got a bunch of great animal books, courtesy of NatGeo Kids, to talk up today, so sit back and start your program and collection planning!

Can’t Get Enough Shark Stuff: Fun Facts, Awesome Info, Cool Games, Silly Jokes, and More!, by National Geographic Kids, (May 2022, National Geographic Kids), $14.99, ISBN: 9781426372582

Ages 7-10

The latest NatGeo Kids offering fits perfectly with the CSLP “Oceans of Possibilities” Summer Reading theme, and it’s a good add to your collections and programming. Filled with fun spreads and facts, quizzes, and experiments, this is part workbook (remind kids that we don’t write in library books!), part STEM/Discovery Club handbook, and part primer on sharks for shark fans. A glossary “Catch and Match” game challenges readers to match terms with their definitions and a “Find Out More” section offers resources for further reading and a list of scientists and researchers who contributed to this volume. Over 250 color photographs show a variety of sharks, many labeled with names. A great resource to create shark-related scavenger hunts, trivia programs, and science projects for the summer and beyond.
Don’t forget that Shark Week starts on July 24th! STEAMsational has some great Shark Week activities that I want to try out with my Queens Kids (my affectionate term for my library kiddos); TeachersPayTeachers has some great freebies, too, including these coloring sheets courtesy of The WOLFe Pack; these Facts vs. Opinion cards from A Classroom for All Seasons would make for fun trivia or debate programs, and Simply Learning Life’s Feed the Shark Counting Game is a quick and fun printable for busy bags.

Critter Chat, by National Geographic Kids, (May 2022, National Geographic Kids), $9.99, ISBN: 9781426371707

Ages 8-12

If animals used social media, it would probably look like this amusing digest from NatGeo Kids. Using imagined screenshots, webpages, and social media accounts like “Llamazon”, “Dolphinstagram”, and “Yowl”, Desert_long-eared_bat reviews the Algerian Desert (5 stars – “…everything I could ever want in a dining establishment! It’s hot, it’s dry, it’s sandy, and it’s packed with scorpions”) and Upside_down_jellyfish posts selfies from the Caribbean Sea. Animals chat to one another via “Critter Chat”, and Animal Influencers spotlight famous animals like Fiona the Hippo, Punxsutawney Phil, and Brigadier Sir Nils Olav, the only penguin who’s also a knight. Hashtags and selfies communicate fun facts about animals, habitats, and more. It’s a fun way to learn little tidbits about animals, and perfect for middle graders to relax with and enjoy. Great for trivia and a side project – ask readers what they think animals would post to social media!

TeachersPayTeachers has fun social media templates that your kids can customize to make their own Critter Chats: here’s one from ZippaDeeZazz, and The Cute Teacher has phone screen layouts.

 

 

Little Kids First Nature Guide: Bugs, by National Geographic Kids, (May 2022, National Geographic Kids), $9.99, ISBN: 9781426371493

Ages 4-8

Great for younger nature fans, the Little Kids First Nature Guide: Bugs introduces little learners to all sorts of bugs. Full-color photos are labeled and accompanied by easy-to-read and understand facts, scientific terms, and diagrams. Spreads on insect life cycles of demonstrate a photo-by-photo, step-by-step explanation, using photos of different bugs. Profiles on ants, bees, beetles, and other bugs give readers a close-up look at different insects, with facts and related (but not the same!) bugs. Fun activities like Hide-and-Seek and Move Like a Bug! encourage readers with extension activities, and a glossary of terms keeps all that new vocabulary on hand. The flexible binding is made of sturdy cardboard and will hold up to many, many nature walks. Fully indexed for easy reference. A fun, informative guide for preschoolers and early school-age kids.

Education.com has fantastic butterfly activities you can download and print for free; ditto for sheets on bugs in general. There are some adorable activities on Pocket of Preschool that you can do on a budget.

 

 

Little Kids First Big Book of Baby Animals, by National Geographic Kids, (March 2022, National Geographic Kids), $14.99, ISBN: 9781426371462

Ages 4-8

The Little Kids NatGeo Kids books are adorable, aren’t they? I’ve got a bunch here at my library, and my now 10-year-old loved them when he was in Pre-K and Kindergarten. (As he’s 10, he is no longer a “little kid”, as he tells me. Often.) The Little Kids First Big Book of Baby Animals contains over 120 pages of squeal-worthy color photos of baby animals with their families. You pull this out and show it to your kids – library or otherwise – and you will have a roomful of little ones in the palm of your hand. And when you tell them things like a panda cub’s cry sounds like a human baby’s cry? Or that a hippo can’t swim yet, so it gallops underwater? They will tell you ALL about their favorite animals, and the cute things that the animals in their lives do, so get ready to have the best, cutest conversations about baby animals. Fun facts and thought-provoking questions run throughout the book, and text is larger in size, making it easier and less dense for younger kids and emerging readers. A map of the world at the end of the book is color coded to show where animals referenced in the book live, and parent tips help caregivers extend the knowledge from the book into the real world. There is a glossary of terms, a list of additional resources, and a full index. Add this book to your animals collections.

123Homeschool4me has some free printables where kids can match baby and adult animals and learn the terms for different baby animals.

 

 

Little Kids First Board Book: Birds, by National Geographic Kids, (March 2022, National Geographic Kids), $7.99, ISBN: 9781426371448

Ages 0-3

I love NatGeo Kids’s First Board books! They’re so bright and cheery, and the photos and activities are perfect for engaging littles during a lapsit storytime. The latest is Birds, and contains 12 spreads with color photos of different birds. Each spread has a simple, one-sentence factual statement and a colorful callout fact about birds, and each picture is labeled with the name of the bird in a colorful box with bold black lettering. Names of birds and key phrases get a nice, colorful font that sets them off from the rest of the text. A final spread invites readers to try different activities to identify six featured birds: “Tap the toucan’s beak. / Flap your arms like the eagle.”

This is the seventh Little Kids First Board Book. It’s a great series for beginning learners, with sturdy cardboard to hold up to many circs and readings. NatGeo Kids has a birds website where learners can watch videos, see maps, and learn facts about 24 different birds, presented in alphabetical order. Also check out their Strange Birds website for photos of more feathered friends.

Happy Hooligans has a great list of 25 bird crafts for little ones that are easy on easily done on a budget.

 

National Geographic Readers: Mythical Beasts: 100 Fun Facts About Real Animals and the Myths They Inspire, by National Geographic Kids, (Jan. 2022, National Geographics Kids), $4.99, ISBN: 9781426338939

Ages 7-10

Unicorns, dragons, and krakens all have one thing in common: they’re mythical creatures with origins in very real history. NatGeo Kids’s Mythical Beasts is a Level 3 Reader, good for most readers ages 7-10, that provides 100 facts on real animals and the myths they’ve inspired or are named for. A helpful key to NatGeoKids’s leveling system is right on the back cover, and I like using the 5-finger rule for choosing a book when I do my Readers Advisory. The book is organized into 3 chapters and two 25 Facts spreads that give readers the roundup on history’s mysteries: mermaids were most likely manatees, who have fishy tales but can turn their heads from side to side like humans; the giant Kraken was most likely a giant squid. Using research and the fossil record, color photos and illustrations, NatGeo Kids author Stephanie Warren Drimmer takes kids through the process of figuring out why ancient people mistook a distant ancestor of the elephant was mistaken for a cyclops, and how dinosaur fossils led folks to believe that they discovered proof of dragons. We get some modern-day mythical behavior, too: the basilisk lizard can run across water, and adult jellyfish can age in reverse and regrow into adults again, like the phoenix’s power to be reborn (sans ashes, though). The back matter rounds up all 100 facts across a spread (and makes for great trivia questions).

Fun for a STEM/Discovery Club, fun for collections. And you can extend the activity with mythical creature-inspired crafts. Give kids a manatee coloring page and let them create mermaid friends. They can create a giant squid of their own, or try their hands at this fun paper roll squid craft. Make a handprint unicorn and give it a narwhal friend.