Science

Hippos Are Huge! By Jonathan London, illustrated by Matthew Trueman

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Published by Candlewick

Summary:  What is the most dangerous animal in Africa?  A lion? A crocodile?  No, it’s that adorable hippopotamus innocently wallowing in the mud.  Did you know a hippo can bite a crocodile in half, and run 25 miles per hour?  This book is packed with fascinating information about how hippos eat, fight, move, and reproduce.

Pros:  Kids of all ages will enjoy this excellent nonfiction book.  The brief, engaging text and large colorful illustrations make it appropriate to read aloud to preschoolers.  (They’d especially enjoy the double-page picture of males swatting balls of dung at each other with their tails.)  At the same time, there’s enough information here to write a pretty complete report.  There’s even a brief index with a note on how to use it. 

Cons:  The book starts off as a general introduction, then on page 12 introduces a specific hippo whom we follow through the rest of the book.  I didn’t quite catch on to this until the end of the book, which made for a little confusion.  I think the problem was the hippo’s name…Hippo.

Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary by Gail Jarrow

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Published by Calkins Creek

Summary:  Everyone’s heard of Typhoid Mary, but who was she really?  Uncovering her identity was a medical mystery that began in the summer of 1906.  The detective was Dr. George Soper, a sanitation engineer who helped control a typhoid epidemic that swept through the town of Ithaca and Cornell University.  When a wealthy family on Long Island was sickened with typhoid, they hired Soper to figure out what had caused the outbreak.  He eventually tracked it to Mary Mellon, their former cook.  Not only that, but he was able to trace several other outbreaks to her.  The book chronicles her capture and confinement on an island off of Manhattan for most of the rest of her life. The reader will also learn about typhoid, its role in history, and how it has gradually been eliminated from most of the western world.

Pros:  I had heard of typhoid and Typhoid Mary but knew nothing about it.  The lack of sanitation in the U.S. less than a century ago was pretty appalling.  Celebrities like Abigail Adams, Wilbur Wright, and Stephen Douglas all died of typhoid.  Although this book is nonfiction, it reads like a novel.

Cons:  You may find yourself looking askance at your tap water.  And you will surely nag your children more to wash their hands.

Raindrops Roll by April Pulley Sayre

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Published by Beach Lane Books

Summary:  Gorgeous photographs illustrate simple text about the rain.  First a storm is brewing and tiny animals take cover.  Then the rain begins (“Rain plops/It drops/It patters/It spatters), and finally, it stops.  But even after the rain storm is over, the drops remain, magnifying, reflecting, revealing, until slowly they dry up in the sun.  The last two pages offer “A Splash of Science”, explaining more about some of the photographs.

Pros:  This is a fabulous introduction to rain and water.  It’s also a book that encourages the reader to slow down and observe the natural world.

Cons:  Keep a towel and umbrella handy while reading.