Tag: Melissa Stewart

Posted in Non-Fiction, picture books

THREE gorgeous books for Earth Month!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Happy Earth Month, everyone! Enjoy two beautiful nonfiction picture books to share with your readers.

Monarch and Mourning Cloak: A Butterfly Journal, by Melissa Stewart & Sarah S. Brannen, (March 2026, Beach Lane Books), $19.99, ISBN: 9781665962711

Ages 4-8

Sibert Honor recipients Stewart and Brannen combine poetry, art, and facts to create a beautiful book about two types of butterflies: the monarch and the mourning cloak. Just looking at the two, they look similar – they’re butterflies, right? – but their differences make them as fascinating as their different colors. They live in different habitats, eat different foods, have different ways to ward off predators, and hibernate differently. Lovely, evocative poetry over watercolor, pen, and pencil illustration brings readers to the butterflies’ world. Using palette samples to show readers the consideration going into the colors used, we get a view of the artist’s and author’s journals, featuring a coffee stain here; a taped-down poem there; a drawing of a tree that takes life across the page. Stewart and Brannen explore the life cycles of each butterfly, accompanied by verses full of wonder and contrast: “Packed tight, / in plain sight, / monarchs hibernate”, and “Tucked tight, / out of sight, / a mourning cloak hibernates. / Shhhh”.

Back matter includes notes on creating a journal and sketchbook and notes on butterflies. Endpapers each sneak a peek at the butterflies’ life cycles and where they live. Get this book on a display and watch your readers flock to it, and for everyone thinking of summer reading programs, a nature journal sounds tailor-made for this book! Monarch and Mourning Cloak has a starred review from Kirkus.

 

The Secrets of the Jellies: Amazing Jellyfish and Their Surprising Talents, by Karen Jameson/Illustrated by Marie Hermansson, (April 2026, Chronicle Books), $19.99, ISBN: 9781797221977

Ages 5-8

Think you know jellyfish? This rhyming romp through the ocean is filled with fun facts about jellies that will astound and amazed. Paired with vibrant digital illustrations that bring action and movement to each spread, this is a book made for an ocean storytime: “See-through jellies, / bright ones, too- / colors in each shade and hue! / And in the darkness, down below, / they radiate a blue-green/ GLOW!” The fonts grow large to emphasize exclamations that punctuate each spread and readers will love seeing these colorful jellyfish dash across the pages, evading predators or travel with fish in their wake. Back matter includes fun jellyfish facts and identifies each jellie featured in the book. Endpapers show a diverse group of families marveling at tanks of jellies at a lively aquarium. Great for a STEM storytime or a fun summer storytime!

 

 

Awe!, by Chana Stiefel/Illustrated by Susan Gal, (March 2026, Scholastic Press), $19.99, ISBN: 9781546150350

Ages 4-8

Okay, this isn’t SOLELY Earth-related, but it fits because it’s all about AWE – not ‘awwww’, like when you see an adorable kitten, as author Chana Stiefel so deftly points out, but AWE: that incredible feeling you get when you witness something incredible that leaves you speechless and filled with emotion. Or, as Stiefel puts it, “… an Awesome / Wondrous / Empowering emotion”! Gal uses pencil, ink, and watercolor to create awe-inspiring illustrations of a whale breaching, the Northern Lights, and a giant city. But awe doesn’t mean the things we witness are huge – the emotions are, but we can be awestruck by seeing baby turtles run for the water and by a religious ceremony, or by helping others. Awe is all around us, waiting to be discovered; it’s up to us to find it, and that is the message at the heart of this story: “welcome those chills traveling down your spine, / welcome those sudden tears in your eyes”. A perfect read-aloud that celebrates the large and small moments around us. If you haven’t purchased this for your collection yet, buy two. They’ll move, especially with a gorgeous gatefold spread showing the beauty of the Grand Canyon.

Awe! has a starred review from Kirkus.

Posted in Middle Grade, Non-Fiction, Non-fiction, Teen, Tween Reads

#HomesCool: Career Day, Playing with Words, Women’s History, and ICK!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

More #HomesCool fun as I catch up on my Summer Reading TBR! Here’s what’s good this week:

Incredible Jobs You’ve (Probably) Never Heard Of, by Natalie Labarre, (Apr. 2020, Nosy Crow), $19.99, ISBN: 9781536212198

Ages 9-12

Welcome to Career Day! What do you want to be when you grow up: a librarian? Teacher or doctor? How about… a Train Pusher, or a Pet Preservationist? If the usual Career Day job list is leaving you with a case of the blahs, Incredible Jobs You’ve (Probably) Never Heard Of is the book for you and your kiddos. Oversized and illustrated in full color, this book spotlights jobs that are off the beaten path: sure, kids may have heard of an Egyptologist, but do they know that a Body Farmer uses the bodies of folks who’ve donated their bodies to science to recreate crime scenes or do scientific research? Or that a Chief Sniffer smell-checks anything going on a spacecraft launch? How about creating works of art from cheese, like a Cheese Sculptor? There are so many great jobs in here, kids will never look at Career Day the same way again. Illustrated with upbeat, fun artwork, and bright blue endpapers that give nods to all sorts of careers waiting inside, this is way too much fun, and a brand new take on the question, “So… what do you want to be when you grow up?”.

 

Alphamaniacs: Builders of the 26 Wonders of the Word, by Paul Fleischman/Illustrated by Melissa Sweet, (Apr. 2020, Candlewick Studio), $19.99, ISBN: 9780763690663

Ages 12+

Looking like an artist’s journal, filled with colorful, mixed media illustrations in bold, wild colors, Alphamaniacs is a book for those of us who love words and language. Twenty-six profiles fill this book, but they’re not the kind of wordsmiths you may think of: Simon Vostre, the 15-century publisher of religious books who wrote book curses to protect his works from careless readers and handlers: “Whoever steals this Book of Prayer / May he be ripped apart by swine, / His heart be splintered, this I swear, / And his body dragged along the Rhine”; Corín Tellado, the prolific author whose writing career left us with over 4,000 novels; and Daniel Nussbaum, the creator of “PL8SPK” – vanity license plates that retell the classics – are all here, as are other word artists and lovers. The book is perfect for tweens and teens who love a good word-related joke, and can be used in ELA classes to show how much fun it is to play with language. Any language!

Alphamaniacs has starred reviews from Kirkus and the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.

 

Noise Makers: 25 Women Who Raised Their Voices & Changed the World, by Kazoo Magazine, Edited by Erin Bried, (Jan. 2020, Alfred A. Knopf), $25.99, ISBN: 9780525580171

Ages 9-14

This book is AMAZING. It’s a graphic novel look at 25 women who made history, written and drawn by some of the most outstanding names in comics and graphic novels today, including Lucy Knisley, Maris Wicks, and Kat Leyh. Collected by the editors at Kazoo Magazine, every woman profiled here gets star treatment: a biographical spread with a picture, summary paragraph, and bullets points, inviting readers to see what they have in common with these women (talk about inspiring!), and a short graphic novel story from the woman’s life. Eugenie Clark, the “Shark Whisperer” (and Shark Lady, according to Jess Keating), is here; Wangari Maathai, who planted trees in Kenya, is here, too. Junko Tabei, the first woman to reach the peak of Mount Everest; artist Frida Kahlo, and musician and spy Josephine Baker are all here, too. Their stories are beautifully told and in a way that links reader, writer, and subject. Noise Makers organizes profiles under six areas: Grow (women who worked with nature); Tinker (entrepreneurs and inventors); Play (those with more physical accomplishments); Create (artists and creators); Rally (advocates and activists); and Explore (pioneers and explorers). This is essential, joyful, reading. Each contributing artist has a profile in the back matter. Put a copy on your Biography shelves and a copy on your Graphic Novels shelves.

 

 

Ick! Delightfully Disgusting Animal Dinners, Dwellings, and Defenses, by Melissa Stewart, (June 2020, National Geographic Kids), $14.99, ISBN: 9781426337468

Ages 7-13

You have got to love NatGeo Kids for having their finger on the pulse of what kids like. Ick! celebrates the grossest stuff in the animal world: caterpillars that camouflage themselves to look like dung, birds who build their nests with spit, a wasp who builds her nest inside her prey; it’s all here, with full-color photos that will make readers squeal with macabre delight. Organized into sections on Disgusting Dinners, Disgusting Dwellings, and Disgusting Defenses, readers learn all about the ways animals live, eat, and protect themselves. Callout facts and stats feature throughout the book, as do “Extra Ick!” sections with even grosser facts! Birds, bugs, mammals, fish, lizards, every type of animal can be found here: 45 of them, to be precise. A glossary, selected sources, and index round out the back matter.

Pair this with NatGeo Kids’ and Anna Claybourne’s Don’t Read This Book Before Dinner for an all-out squeal fest. And check out the Ick! section of author Melissa Stewart’s webpage, which includes a great interactive teaching presentation!

 

Posted in Early Reader, Intermediate, Non-Fiction, Non-Fiction, picture books

Seashells: More Than a Home, more than decoration

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Seashells: More Than a Home, by Melissa Stewart/Illustrated by Sarah S. Brannen, (Apr. 2019, Charlesbridge), $16.99, ISBN: 9781580898102

Ages 6-9

Kids love seashells. They’re the ultimate summer souvenir, coming in all shapes and sizes, with beautiful patterns and colors. Seashells: More Than a Home looks at 13 different seashells and lets readers in on their little world: their colors, patterns, and functions in protecting the marine life that live within them, keeping them safe and fed. For instance, a nautilus’s design allows it to sink and float like a submarine, while the screw-shaped burribella can anchor itself into the sand, allowing its sea snail to stay in place. Watercolor illustrations and soothing earth and sea colors make this a beautiful book to look at and learn from. Endpapers illustrate shells and a map, highlighting their locations, and back matter includes author and illustrator notes, and additional resources.

Seashells: More Than a Home is a companion to Melissa Stewart and Sarah Brannen’s book, Feathers: Not Just for Flying (2014) and a nice addition to nonfiction shelves and STEM storytimes. Get some seashells and pass them around; invite the kids to talk about what they see and feel. Melissa Stewart’s author website has free, downloadable educator activities, readers’ theatre scripts, and curriculum guides.