A Book FULL of Fright

A copy of this arrived in the mail just in time for me to post a Halloween review!

Frightlopedia: An encyclopedia of Everything Scary, Creepy, and Spine-Chilling, from Arachnids to Zombies
by Julie Winterbottom; illus. by Stephano Tambellini
224 pages; ages 8 & up
Workman Publishing, 2016

There's so much in this book - from history to mystery to fantasy - but there's a whole lot of stuff about "scary critters" too.

In fact, the very first entry is all about arachnids. Spiders. With eight hairy legs. What makes spiders so creepy? Maybe it's their eyes - they have eight of 'em - or how fast they dart about. Or the fact that they make sticky webs that cling to your arms.... The author introduces a few spiders, including Black widows, and even provides instructions for a Halloween prank.

Tucked among ghost stories, witches, vampires, and haunted houses are lots of short chapters about creepy crawly critters: slithery snakes, killer bees, Komodo dragons, rats, sharks, stonefish, and vampire bats. There's even a chapter about how to be an "evil scientist"...

There's a "fright meter" at the beginning of each chapter - a trigger warning to let you know just how scary the stuff on the pages will be. There are lots of hands-on activities, and facts you may not have known. A fun read for the season.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Wild Outdoor Wednesday

It's getting close to Halloween, so today's challenge is to find orange things. Record what you find in images, colors, and words.

Remember to take your sketchbook or journal with unlined pages, something to draw and write with, and something to add color ~ watercolors, colored pencils, crayons, or markers.

Animal Books for Early Readers

National Geographic Kids, 2016

National Geographic Kids has a series of readers that range from pre-reader to fluent reader. Here's a trio of titles that my kids would have loved when they were beginning to read
Peek Otter, by Shira Evans is full of active language: "Peek, otter!", "Run to the river," and "Jump!".

Each page or spread is a photo, with simple sentences in large type. Granted, some of the words are above pre-reader level. But once the child hears the story a couple of times, she/he will be able to read some words and fill in the rest of the story. And that's what pre-reading is all about, right?

National Geographic Kids, 2016

Evans also wrote Dive, Dolphin! another pre-reader. Like Otters, it is filled with action words. Both books relay information about how the animals hunt, what sort of food they eat, and their family life.

At the beginning of each book there's a "Vocabulary Tree" with categories of words. For example: where they live (ocean); what they have (flipper, tail); and my favorite, what they do (active verbs). So an early reader could learn words like dive, jump, play, leap, flip, peek ... and then act them out.

At the back of each book is an activity - a matching game or story sequencing challenge.

National Geographic Kids, 2016

Bears, by Elizabeth Carney is written for "fluent readers", children who are reading on their own and are ready for "more challenging vocabulary and varied sentence structures".  Each page features awesome photos, but this level has twice as many pages as the pre-readers - 48 instead of 24. And there are many more words on the page.

The format is more structured as well, with a table of contents, material divided into brief chapters, photographs with captions, and sidebars. There's also a glossary and an index. Like the other readers, Bears ends with an activity - though in this case it's a quiz.

While there's tons of great information about bears, my favorite section was about animals that have "bear" in their name but aren't bears. For example, Tardigrades, called "water bears" and "Bearcats" which are neither bear nor cat.

Today's review is part of the STEM Friday roundup. Drop by STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. Review copy provided by publisher

Wild Outdoor Wednesday

Tonight is a good night for sky-watching. There should be meteors. What else do you see? Hear? Are any geese migrating yet?

Remember to take your sketchbook or journal with unlined pages, something to draw and write with, and something to add color ~ watercolors, colored pencils, crayons, or markers.

Dining with Dinosaurs

Dining with Dinosaurs: a tasty guide to Mesozoic munching
by Hannah Bonner
48 pages; ages 7-10
National Geographic Kids, 2016

If you are starving for dinosaur knowledge, this book serves up a full-course meal of mouthwatering Mesozoic food facts. Starting with who ate who. Or whom. It's a basic intro to the "vores" - carnivores eating herbivores who are eating plants which are gobbling down photons at an alarming rate.

We meet the meat eaters - carnivores of all sizes from mega-huge to eagle-sized. There are omnivores that eat anything they can get their hands on, insectivores who eat bugs, and fish-chomping piscivores. There were even dinovores -  dinos that ate dinos - and scavengers that ate anything dead, including dinos past their expiration date.

Then we meet the herbivores, plant-eaters of all sizes, makes and models from tiny crickets with huge appetites to the extra-large Diplodocus who nibbled leaves from the tops of the trees.

Along the way, Hannah (she's the author) and her Microraptor paleo pal introduce us to scientists who explain tough questions about dinosaur poop, teeth, and more. They even interview a Mesozoic plant about its diet.

When Hannah was in high school, her father wrote a book about the plants of Mallorca. She drew the pen-and-ink illustrations to go with it. You can find out more about Hannah at her website, and read my review of an earlier book here.

And if you're up for a challenge, you can download the game "Evolve or Perish" that Hannah developed for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

  
Today's review is part of the STEM Friday roundup. Drop by STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. Review copy provided by publisher

Wild Outdoor Wednesday

Find seeds that fly. How do they stay aloft? How far do they go? Capture their shapes and colors.

Remember to take your sketchbook or journal with unlined pages, something to draw and write with, and something to add color ~ watercolors, colored pencils, crayons, or markers.

Two books for animal-lovers

My kids loved frogs. And otters, crickets, turtles ... they always wanted to know what made animals work. Here are two books that help answer some of those questions.

theme: nature, nonfiction

See-Thru Frogs (see-thru books series)
by Sherry Gerstein
28 pages; ages 7-10
Millbrook Press, 2016

The cool thing about frogs is that you find them anywhere: in ponds, in the wooded areas behind a park, even in sewers under city streets. In this book, kids learn how frogs breathe, swim, and leap.

What I like about this book: The "see-thru" pages help illustrate the insides of frogs - their skeleton and internal organs. You can see that we share similar bones with frogs (backbone, humerus) - but their food bones are much longer and they don't have neck bones so they can't turn their heads like we can.

There are tips on distinguishing frogs from toads, an overview of the class Amphibia, and a spread celebrating the diversity of frogs.

 Animal Legs
by Mary Holland
32 pages; ages 4-8
Arbordale Publishing, 2016

Legs and feet come in many shapes, numbers, and sizes. They are used to paddle, jump, cling, dig, warn others, catch food and even taste food! The way an animal's legs and feet look can tell you a lot about how it lives.

Mary Holland is a naturalist who observes animals closely and takes wonderful photographs. In this book she focuses her attention on legs.

What I like about this book: The close-up photos of caterpillar legs, spiny mantid legs, butterfly and frog feet, grouse and mole toes. Every page is packed with details about webbing, spines, flaps, toenails. Some animals walk on their toes; others walk on their toenails. We walk on our whole foot.

I also like the back-matter: extra information for curious minds and a matching game. 

Beyond the books

Listen for frogs. Last week we were still hearing wood frogs, but with cold weather the frogs may be going into hiding. You can check out frog calls here.

What can you do with your legs and feet? Jump? Walk? Run? Can you pick up a pencil with your toes? What else can you do?

What kinds of legs do you find in your neighborhood? Check out the birds and bugs, reptiles and amphibians and mammals you see. Look at tracks they leave in the mud and snow. What do you notice? Are they furry or scaly? Do they have 2 legs or more? How many toes? Do they hop or run?

Today's review is part of the STEM Friday roundup. Drop by STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. We're also joining PPBF (perfect picture book Friday), an event in which bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's site. She keeps an ever-growing list of Perfect Picture Books.  Review copy from publisher.

Wild Outdoor Wednesday

Today, capture the colors of the leaves you see.

Remember to take your sketchbook or journal with unlined pages, something to draw and write with, and something to add color ~ watercolors, colored pencils, crayons, or markers.