Water: Discovering the Precious Resource All Around Us by Olga Fadeeva, translated from Russian by Lena Traer (Eerdman’s Books for Young Readers, 56 pages, grades 2-5). Each spread in this book asks a question about water, covering a wide range of topics from weather to oceans to pollution. How much water is there on Earth? How do rivers form? How are seas and oceans different? How powerful is water? Each question is answered with a few straightforward, engaging paragraphs and illustrated with acrylics that emphasize the blues and browns of water. This is a fun book to browse and would make an excellent addition to any elementary unit on water, although there was a sad lack of additional resources at the end.

Dive! The Story of Breathing Underwater by Chris Gall (Roaring Brook Press, 48 pages, grades 1-5). As we learned in the first book, two-thirds of the Earth is covered in water, so it’s only natural that humans would seek out ways to explore the oceans. Beginning with the ancient Greeks who used hollow reeds that allowed them to breathe while harvesting undersea sponges, Chris Gall moves on to diving bells, the bathysphere, the Aqua-Lung, and robot-controlled submersibles. He also explains what happens when humans travel deep into the ocean, and the catastrophic effects returning to the surface too quickly can have. The narrative is told through a lens of problem-solving, as various inventors sought to overcome obstacles to allow divers to go deeper and explore longer. There’s more information at the end about the oceans, how to become a diver, and the author’s personal experience with diving, as well as a glossary and additional resources. Although this has the look of a picture book and is recommended by some reviewers for kids as young as 4, there’s a lot of somewhat technical information that would most likely be more interesting for older readers.

One Day This Tree Will Fall by Leslie Bernard Booth, illustrated by Stephanie Fizer Coleman (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 40 pages, grades K-4). “Wounded, worn, twisted, torn. One day this tree will fall and this story will end. Won’t it?” To learn the answer to this question posed on page 1, the narrative goes back to the beginning when a seed survives its journey to become a seedling. Its story could have ended before it began, and it could have also been ended by wind, ice, drought, and fire. But the tree survives, becoming a home to many creatures. Eventually, the tree does fall, but even when it’s lying on the forest floor, it provides food and homes to animals. Finally, it becomes part of the soil that supports a new tree seed. Includes additional information about trees and the interactions between trees and people, as well as a glossary and selected sources.

This Book Is Full of Holes: From Underground to Outer Space and Everywhere In Between by Nora Nickum, illustrated by Robert Meganck (Peachtree, 40 pages, grades 1-4). Maybe you haven’t thought a lot about holes, but you’ll start to notice them after reading this book. Whether tiny (a bleed hole in an airplane window) or enormous (the Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah), forming slowly (potholes) or quickly (sinkholes), mysterious (a wormhole) or annoyingly familiar (a hole in your sock), holes generally have interesting stories, many of which are told here. The last few pages cover English idioms that use the word hole (loophole, pigeonhole, a square peg in a round hole) and describe one last hole that’s not really a hole–a black hole. Includes a list for further reading.

Here are two STEM related titles for elementary readers to enjoy. This Book Is Full of Holes has a more unique premise, but I think I’d be less likely to use it as a read-aloud than the beautifully illustrated One Day This Tree Will Fall, which tells a fascinating story in a way that’s simple enough for kindergarteners and first graders to understand. This Book Is Full of Holes is a bit text-heavier and may lend itself better to reading on one’s own.

Brave Baby Hummingbird by Sy Montgomery, illustrated by Tiffany Bozic (Simon and Schuster, 48 pages, ages 4-8). A hummingbird tells his story, beginning with his birth when he and his sister hatch from eggs the size of navy beans. They’re fed every twenty minutes until the day their mother doesn’t return to the nest. Fortunately, they’re rescued and taken to a place where a human, known only as the Voice, takes care of them until they are old enough to survive on their own. Woven into the story are facts about hummingbirds’ food, flight, bodies, and migrations, and more information is given at the end, including the author’s experience with a hummingbird rescue and ways that readers can help these birds. This lovely book provides plenty of information about hummingbirds, illuminated with beautiful illustrations of the birds at every stage of their lives and the colorful landscapes they inhabit.

The Iguanadon’s Horn: How Artists and Scientists Put a Dinosaur Back Together Again and Again…and Again! by Sean Rubin (Clarion Books, 48 pages, grades K-4). Ever since humans first realized that dinosaurs once existed, they’ve been trying to imagine what these creatures looked like. Using the dinosaurs’ fossilized remains, artists have painted and sculpted prehistoric depictions…and generally gotten things completely wrong. A case in point is the iguanodon’s horn, which turned out to be (we think) a thumb spike. Sean Rubin goes through the evolution of ideas about the iguanodon, showing how increased scientific knowledge changed perceptions about what the animal looks like. He speculates on what the next ideas may be, emphasizing the fact that, barring time travel, we will never know for sure. The endnotes give additional information about each two-page spread.

Dinosaur fanatics will love this book, both the fascinating story of how science works and the illustrations, which are at once informative and funny (I liked the cartoon bubbles showing the comments of the various wrong iguanodon models: “I DO look pretty terrible here,” “Seriously. This is embarrassing.” I felt a little bogged down reading the repeated wrong guesses, but I suspect a true paleo fan will find them captivating.

Published by Sourcebooks

Summary:  This guessing game style book shows a close-up photo of part of an animal, asking the reader: is it the animal’s butt or face?  Turn the page to find out the answer, see a full photograph of the animal, and learn some interesting facts and where in the world it lives.  The author’s note tells how she was inspired by an article she read about farmers in Botswana who painted eyes on the rear ends of their cattle to scare away predators.  Includes a map showing where each animal lives and a chart telling where each one rests its butt and what food goes in its face.  40 pages; grades K-3.

Pros:  I wasn’t sure how this book would be received by exhausted teachers the week before vacation, but so far, they have enjoyed it as much as the kids–which is a lot.  It’s an amazing introduction to animal adaptations.  Look for book 2 in the spring.

Cons:  The photos are pretty hard to figure out, and many of the animals aren’t well known.

Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers

Summary:  For the first part of this book, the rhyming text builds like The House That Jack Built, with the sun shining down on a cricket munching grass that’s eaten by a mouse, who’s swallowed by a snake, which is scooped up by a hawk, who gets trapped by a fox that gets chased by a bear.  But on some days things are different, and the story takes a twist as each animal escapes its predator, leaving the bear to munch on “flowers and seeds…all that she needs.”  Includes an illustrated glossary that gives more information about each of the animals.  48 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  A fun and clever introduction to food chains, with the second version of the story perhaps makes the case for vegetarianism.  

Cons:  Some of the main characters meet a gory end in the first version.