Published by Greenwillow Books

Summary:  A polar bear explains how she uses the sea ice to travel and to hunt.  As summer ends, the ice has thinned, and she spends more time swimming.  For much of the story, she is trying to reach land, which entails a long swim past other Arctic creatures like narwhals, walruses, and a whale.  Finally, after an exhausting three-day swim, she reaches land, where she will eat kelp and wait for the ice to thicken again so she can hunt seals.  Includes a page of information on sea ice, polar bears, and the implications of global warming; as well as a page describing some of the other animals shown in the book.  48 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  The lovely watercolor and ink illustrations perfectly capture the blues and whites of the Arctic, and the spare text introduces a lot of information about the polar bear.

Cons:  The global warming aspect makes it a sad story.

If you would like to buy this book on Amazon, click here.

 

Published by Roaring Brook Press

Summary:  Are we alone in the universe?  Going back to ancient astronomers, this book quickly traces the history of what humans have learned about the place of Earth in the galaxy.  It then details how scientists are looking for a “just right” planet–not too big, not too small, not too hot, not too cold–that might support life.  Huge telescopes sitting on mountaintops or floating through space gather information on stars and the exoplanets around them. The illustrations show a girl and her family visiting a planetarium, then getting her her own telescope as she learns about the universe.  The last several pages speculate on what life on other planets might be like, and how we might communicate with those life forms. Includes a page of additional information; a bibliography; books and websites with additional information; and a timeline of space exploration on the front and back endpapers.  48 pages; grades 2-5.

Pros:  Packed with scientific information, the author does a great job of making a complicated topic accessible to elementary kids; the illustrations of the girl and her family help make it kid-friendly as well.

Cons:  Some of the information was a bit over my head…but readers will still find something interesting, even if they don’t understand it all.

If you would like to buy this book on Amazon, click here.

Published by Enchanted Lion Books

Summary:  When a child takes a book off the shelf and begins to read, he learns a lot about elephants.  Much of the book is nonfiction, giving facts and information about elephants, including the different species, their size, what they eat, their habitat, and why they are endangered.  The child appears in some of the illustrations, and there are connections to his world, like the picture that shows four cars piled on top of each other that are equal in weight to a male elephant.  Although elephants sleep a lot less than most other mammals, the same is not true for the reader, and the final page shows him asleep in his dark house, his head pillowed by the elephant book. 48 pages; grades K-4.

Pros:  An appealing nonfiction book, with the whimsical illustrations adding some humor, but also informing (the car picture, the one above that shows the length of an elephant’s trunk with two children lying on it toe-to-toe).  Jenni Desmond has written similar books on polar bears and blue whales, which I am now looking to add to my libraries.

Cons:  There is no back matter–some additional resources would have been useful.

If you would like to buy this book on Amazon, click here.

Published by Owlkids

Summary:  1968 was a year of war, unrest, and marches that demanded peace and justice.  At the end of the year, three astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, flew into space as the Apollo 8 mission.  They traveled further than any humans had gone before, going all the way to the Moon to figure out the best place for future missions to land.  On their fourth orbit around the Moon, they saw the Earth rising above the moon, and snapped a color photo of it from their window.  That photo became famous, showing the Earth as a peaceful planet with no national borders, home to all people.  Includes a brief note with additional information about Apollo 8 and the Earthrise photo.  32 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  A perfect introduction to the space program for young kids with a nice message about a photo that inspired people to see Earth in a different way.

Cons:  It’s a pretty brief introduction with no resources for further research.  Also, I wound up with Bette Midler’s “From A Distance” stuck in my head for hours after reading this.

If you would like to buy this book on Amazon, click here.