Science

Bee Dance by Rick Chrustowski

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Published by Henry Holt and Company

Summary: Told in the second person (“When sunlight warms your honeybee wings, off you go on flower patrol!”), Bee Dance recounts a day in the life of a bee. He sets off to find nectar, and discovers a whole field of flowers. Returning to the beeswax comb, he communicates through a dance so that the other bees can join him in collecting nectar and pollen. At sunset, the bees return, weighted down with their treasure, and enjoy a restful night before waking to begin the process all over again. An author’s note explains more about the bee’s dance and the role it plays in honey making. Ages 3-6.

Pros: Brief text in a large font and beautiful cut-paper illustrations make this a good choice for an informational read-aloud.

Cons: It’s a pretty brief introduction to bees and honey.

Daylight Starlight Wildlife by Wendell Minor

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Published by Nancy Paulsen Books

Summary: What animals come out at day? How about at night? Each two-page spread in this book looks at two similar animals, one diurnal and one nocturnal. For instance a mother woodchuck leads her babies through the same fields by day as the mother skunk and her offspring by night. The final pages provide a thumbnail painting and description of all the animals shown in the book; I learned a new word from these pages, crepuscular, which refers to animals that come out at twilight or dawn. Ages 3-8.

Pros: The book will encourage young children to observe nature in their own backyards at different times of day and night. The paintings are beautiful.

Cons: The text doesn’t quite reach the same soaring heights as the illustrations.

Mad Scientist Academy: The Dinosaur Disaster by Matthew McElligott

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Published by Crown Books for Young Readers 

Summary: It’s the first day of the Mad Scientist Academy for Ken the Frankenstein Monster, Thora the Insect, Tad the Tadpole, Scarlet the Vampire, Wolfgang the Werewolf, and Nicole the Robot. Their teacher Dr. Cosmic greets them with the news that their school pet is a dinosaur, then leads them on a Jurassic Park-style tour of the school’s dinosaur exhibit. The dinosaur models are all quite lifelike, but harmless unless someone activates them, which, of course, someone does. The kids use their cool school handbooks to acquire the dinosaur knowledge they need to safely navigate their way to the off switch. At the end they meet their class pet, Oscar the ostrich, and learn why Dr. Cosmic called him a dinosaur. These kids are sure to be back for another lesson in science. Grades K-3.

Pros: Dinosaur information presented comic-book style with a school full of monsters=a sure-fire hit.

Cons: Still trying to figure out if this book should be shelved with picture books, nonfiction, or graphic novels.

How to Spy on a Shark by Leslie Haskins Houran, illustrated by Francisca Marquez

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Published by Albert Whitman and Co.

Summary: In brief rhyming text, this little book describes how scientists use robots to track mako sharks (“The mako twists! The robot turns! They dart and dip and dive/The robot shoots a video and sends it to you live!”). The last two pages give a more complete, but still very simple, explanation of how the scientists study these sharks.  Ages 3-7.

Pros: Even very young children will enjoy learning about the work these scientists do. The illustrations do a nice job of portraying people who may not fit the stereotype of “scientist”. Look for two other books in this series, about space and dinosaurs.

Cons: Those looking for a more “Jaws”-like book about sharks will be disappointed.

The Most Amazing Creature in the Sea by Brenda Z. Guiberson, illustrated by Gennady Spirin.

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Published by Henry Holt and Company

Summary: Who is the most amazing creature in the sea? Is it the ocean sunfish who can hold up to 300 million eggs in its body? The blue whale with its tongue that weighs as much as an elephant? Or the box jellyfish with its 24 eyes and deadly venom? Every animal makes a brief case for why it is the most amazing. Each two-page spread is beautifully illustrated with life-like paintings. Grades K-4.

Pros: Readers will love reading about the bizarre features and behaviors of these diverse sea creatures. The pictures will amaze and delight, as well.

Cons: This book is so perfect to use for researching sea creatures that I’m afraid the third grade teachers in my school will grab it before I have a chance to use it with their classes.

The Octopus Scientists by Sy Montgomery, photographs by Keith Ellenbogen

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Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers

Summary: Sy Montgomery travels to the island of Moorea, near Tahiti, to work with a group of scientists who are seeking to learn more about octopuses (in case you’re wondering, this is the correct plural form of octopus. Octopod is also acceptable, but not octopi). Diving from numerous locations around the island, the team hunts for the elusive octopus, which can change into more colors than a chameleon and move its boneless body through tiny holes to hide. They’re looking to learn more about both the behavior and the psychology of the octopus, which has been shown in recent years to be remarkably intelligent. Interspersed with the story of the expedition are two-page spreads that give more information about octopuses, the scientists, and their research facility. A brief bibliography and index are included at the end. Grades 5-8.

Pros: Part of the excellent Scientists in the Field series (“Where science meets adventure”), this book continues that series’ tradition of portraying science as an exciting adventure. Some days pass without a single octopus sighting, but this makes discoveries all the more rewarding. Readers will definitely want to make the acquaintance of an octopus when they finish this book.

Cons: Maybe I am just getting older, but this book’s font seemed unnecessarily small.

Wednesday Wrap-Up: Science Picture Books

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In a previous life, I was the librarian at the Museum of Science in Boston, so I kind of have a thing for children’s science books.  Happily, there are lots of good ones so far this year.  The great thing about science picture books is that they’re for everyone.  Adults may find them just right to get a good introduction to a difficult topic.

A Nest is Noisy by Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long.  Published by Chronicle Books.

This author-illustrator team has produced another work of art about nature.  Packed with fascinating facts about all kinds of animals’ nests and gorgeously illustrated, plan on spending a lot of time poring over this book.

Egg: Nature’s Perfect Package by Robin Page, illustrated by Steve Jenkins.  Published by HMH Books for Young Readers.

Just in case you’re wondering about what goes inside all those nests.  Another winning author-illustrator team, with phenomenally detailed cut paper illustrations and lots of amazing facts about all different kinds of eggs.

A Chicken Followed Me Home! : Questions and Answers About a Familiar Fowl by Robin Page.  Published by Beach Lane Books.

Apparently, Robin Page spent some time recently contemplating the whole chicken/egg question, because two months after Eggs was published, this book about chickens came out.  A book about chickens sounds like it would be kind of dull.  It’s not.

Water Is Water: A Book About the Water Cycle by Miranda Paul, illustrated by Jason Chin.  Published by Roaring Brook Press.

Here’s the perfect example of a book that explains a scientific concept in the simplest terms.  The illustrations by Jason Chin are lovely, and portray children in everyday situations interacting with water in all its various forms.

Raindrops Roll by April Pulley Sayre.  Published by Beach Lane Books

And speaking of the water cycle….  The amazing photographs in this book of things you might find in your backyard (flowers, birds, trees) will encourage readers to slow down and observe the world around them.

High Tide for Horseshoe Crabs by Lisa Kahn Schnell, illustrated by Alan Marks

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Published by Charlesbridge

Summary: Every spring, millions of horseshoe crabs flock to the shores of the Delaware Bay. As they have done since before the time of the dinosaurs, the crabs lay their eggs in the sand. Meanwhile, flocks of different types of birds make their way to these same shores as they migrate to the Arctic. They are hungry and weak on their arrival, and the horseshoe crab eggs are packed with fat and protein. They feast on the eggs, sometimes doubling their body size in just a few weeks. Many eggs remain, though, buried in the sand until the birds have continued on their way. Then, tiny crabs the size of ladybugs hatch and swim into the sea. People come from all over to watch and study this chapter in the lives of the horseshoe crabs and the birds. Grades K-4.

Pros: Having spent many summers in Cape May, New Jersey, I can remember finding the remains of horseshoe crabs on the beach. I never suspected the fascinating story behind these ancient looking creatures. This book makes science accessible to even the youngest students. The story is clearly written and beautifully illustrated, and the end material gives more interesting information. Readers will want to study the labeled drawings on the end papers.

Cons: I didn’t really understand the page that simply said, “It’s happening!” which seemed to connote an exciting event that wasn’t quite clear to me.

Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall by Anita Silvey, foreword by Jane Goodall

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Published by National Geographic Children’s Books

 

Summary:  Many may be familiar with Jane Goodall, who is said to be the most recognized living scientist in the western world.  But her familiar story will still appeal to young readers, and it is particularly well told in this book.  It begins with her childhood in England, then covers her move to Kenya as a young woman, and her groundbreaking studies of chimpanzees.  As she grew older, she became passionate about the conservation of chimpanzees and other animals around the globe.  Her organization, Roots and Shoots, provides opportunities for kids to get involved in the issues she is working on.  The final few pages offer facts about chimpanzees, a timeline of Goodall’s life, a family scrapbook of the chimps she studied, maps, and additional resources.

Pros:  The writing is engaging, the story fascinating, and photos of top National Geographic quality.

Cons:  The font is small throughout the text, and even smaller for photo captions.  The captions written in tiny lime green print on a white page are just ridiculous.

Small Wonders: Jean-Henri Fabre & His World of Insects by Matthew Clark Smith, illustrated by Giuliano Ferri

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Published by Two Lions

Summary:  Back in the early 1900’s, an eccentric old man lived in a village in France.  His neighbors observed him squatting in the sun for hours to watch beetles, and marveled that he would pay children to gather dead moles and lizards to attract flies.  Imagine their surprise when a procession of cars arrived at their quiet village one day, and out of one of them stepped the President of France!  Turns out the old man was Jean-Henri Fabre, a scientist whose lifelong passion was studying insects.  Other scientists had written about dead insects from faraway places, but Fabre was more interested in the bugs he saw in the fields and woods around him.  He liked to study the live ones to learn about their behavior.  Then he wrote about them in books so beautiful that the President of France came to his house to let him know he had been nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature.  While Fabre is little known today outside of France, his work influenced Darwin and inspired generations of naturalists.  Grades 2-5.

Pros:  This is an engaging biography of a little-known scientist, which includes a lot of interesting information about insects.  The illustrations capture the amazing creatures Fabre loved as well as his wide-eyed wonder of them throughout the nine decades of life.

Cons:  This is long for a picture book; probably best suited to older elementary students.