Books to Celebrate Dinosaur Month

 October is National Dinosaur Month and I’ve got three great books that are perfect for young paleontologists!

Themes: dinosaurs, nonfiction, biography

Dinosaurs Can Be Small 

by Darrin Lunde; illus. by Ariel Landy 

32 pages; ages 3-7

Charlesbridge, 2024

 A Brontosaurus raises its head above a ginkgo tree. It is a long-necked dinosaur. But not all long-necked dinosaurs are big.

Many dinosaurs, it turns out, were small. Some as tall as you, others no taller than a Barbie doll. And that’s okay, because sometimes smaller is better. Smaller dinos needed less food to fill their bellies. They could survive eating insects. They could climb trees. And when the large dinosaurs were wiped out by a giant meteor, it was the small dinos that survive.

What I like about this book: I like the compare and contrast structure. On one spread Darrin Lunde introduces a large dinosaur – Tyrannosaurus, Tricerotops, Pterodactyl (not really a dinosaur but a close relative). The next spread highlights a tiny dino-relative. Back matter shows each dino with an explanation about their name.

She Sells Seashells: Mary Anning, an Unlikely Paleontologist 

by Heidi E. Y. Stemple; illus. by Emily Paik 

40 pages; ages 5-9

Charlesbridge, 2024

Mary Anning was an unlikely paleontologist. Especially unlikely for England in the early 1800s.

Because she wasn’t really a paleontologist at all. She was just a girl who collected fossilized seashells to sell in her family’s seaside shop. Back then, girls could collect things – they just couldn’t study them. Girls didn’t go to school, and they certainly didn’t become scientists. But Mary did.

What I like about this book: I like how Heidi Stemple shows the patience and persistence of Mary Anning as she chipped and dug fossils and bones from cliffs and stones. I like the use of repetition of some phrases such as, “Chip! Scrape! Chip!” I particularly like how she portrays Mary: unconcerned about those “rich boys” and “educated men” because she had fossils to find, and was too busy educating herself. Back matter dives a bit deeper into Mary’s life and the fossils she discovered. Plus, we learn about another Mary who lived just 150 miles away who was also digging up fossils! (And who, like Mary Anning, never got the credit for her discoveries.)

Mary Anning and Paleontology for Kids: Her Life and Discoveries, with 21 Activities 

by Stephanie Bearce 

134 pages; ages 8-12

‎Chicago Review Press, 2024

It is only fitting that Stephanie Bearce, a fossil-collecting, award-winning author, write about a girl who loved fossils. She begins with Mary Anning’s early life, fossil-hunting with her father, to Mary’s discovery of her first skeleton. Stephanie shows hoe Mary painstakingly removed the fossilized bones from the shale and how those bones, bought by a wealthy man, wound up in a museum. Mary did more than dig up bones, though. She cleaned them, figured out how to put them together in a complete skeleton, and creates detailed scientific illustrations about her finds. 

What I like about this book: Scattered throughout the book are sidebars that dive into details about aspects of life in the 1800s as well as the hands-on activities. Young readers can try their hand at making a fossil imprint, creating their own scientific illustration, and doing their own fossil extraction. I especially like that there’s an entire chapter devoted to female fossil finders and one on modern paleontology. 

Beyond the Books:

Make some dinosaur footprint cookies. You’ll need a plastic dinosaur or two… here’s the recipe.

Make a paper bag dinosaur puppet. All you need is a paper lunch bag, some construction paper, scissors, glue, and imagination. But here’s how one person made their puppets.

What kind of dinosaur are you? Gentle giant or fierce meat-eater? Here’s a quiz from the London Museum of Natural History that will reveal your true dino-heart.

Check out TrowelBlazers, a site that highlights the contributions of women in the ‘digging’ sciences: archaeology, geology, and palaeontology. 

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. 

On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading.

Review copies provided by the publishers.

Explore Outdoors ~ Asters and Goldenrod

 

Fall is a season of colors. Leaves turning red, orange, gold... even the wildflowers are getting in on the act. You can tell it's fall in the northeast by the yellows and purples of goldenrod and asters growing in fields and along roadsides. Their beauty is eye-catching, both for people and the pollinators collecting nectar and pollen before winter settles in. 

Goldenrod and asters create a community, says Rhonda Fleming Haye. "Beyond the bees and butterflies you’ll find syrphid flies, beetles and many other insects. Goldfinches, tree sparrows, prairie chickens and wild turkeys eat the seeds, while rabbits and deer will browse the foliage," she writes for Northern Gardener.

If you can, find a patch of asters and goldenrod to watch!

Sounds of the Night

I love to leave my window open at night – even if just a tiny bit – to let the night sounds in. Some nights I hear owls hooting and coyotes singing. Some nights I hear the distant sound of a train’s whistle. So I eagerly anticipated these two books hitting the shelves this fall!

themes: nighttime, nature, sounds

Starlight Symphony 

by Buffy Silverman 

32 pages; ages 4-9

‎ Millbrook Press, 2024

The lighting dims. 

The curtain lifts.

 Musicians gather. 

Spotlight shifts.

Settle in and get ready for a symphony of a different sort. Tonight’s program features the song of the wood thrush, the whistle of a screech owl, the slap of a beaver’s tail. Each animal adds their music to the symphony.

What I like about this book: Buffy highlights the bird calls and other animal sounds we might hear in nature at night while at the same time introducing sections of an orchestra. A beaver’s tail slapping the water – that’s percussion. I like the arc of the book, from dusk to dawn. And the back matter is really fun. In “Meet the Musicians” you learn more about each featured animal. “Meet the Musical Instruments” is all about the instruments, from wind to strings, grass to percussion.

A couple weeks ago I asked Buffy what inspired her to write Starlight Symphony.

Buffy: We live at the marshy end of a small lake, and across the street from an even smaller pond. Starting with the spring peepers in March, and continuing through spring and summer, we enjoy a nightly (and loud!) chorus of frogs, insects, birds, and mammals. The book is my tribute to all those songsters that I have enjoyed listening to for many years.

Buffy Silverman is a member of #STEAMTeam2024. You can find out more about her at her website.

Goodnight Sounds 

by Debbie S. Miller; illus. by Michelle Jing Chan 

32 pages; ages 2-5

Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2024

 In the cool, quiet night, fingers of fog spill over the hills, up the channel, and under the Golden Gate Bridge. I listen and wait for the sound…

The child in this book waits for the sound of foghorns bellowing their deep song. For her, it’s the sound of a lullaby. In other places the song that sings you to sleep might be the hooting of an owl, the trilling of crickets, or the clickety-clack, rick-rack of train wheels rolling down the track (which, if you are used to them, make a comforting and rhythmic sound).

What I like about this book: This is a sweet bedtime book, filled with the sorts of sounds a kid living anywhere might hear – whether they’re in a city or in the country, camping beside a stream or falling asleep by a campfire. The sounds might be distant, like a foghorn, or right next to you, like the purring of your cat curled up beside you. 

Beyond the Books:

Open the window tonight. What sounds do you hear? Instead of thinking about what’s making the sound, just listen. And then try to write down what you hear.

What are your favorite nighttime noises? Why do you like them? And what night sounds do you dislike?

Make a sound map. You should be outside to do this, so you can hear sounds coming from all directions. When you hear a sound, write it down on your map, like shown in this post from a couple years ago.

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.

Explore Outdoors ~sitting with nature

 

Sometimes taking a five-minute nature break turns into ten minutes... as I sit and notice the things around me. A couple weeks ago I noticed this tiny spider clinging to a seed head of grass. So I got up closer to take a look. The foxtail has a fuzzy head which, when you get a closer look they seem like needle-thin spines. And if you're that close, you might notice that the spider has spines on its legs. 

What do you notice 

when you sit with nature for a few minutes?

Oddball Armadillos

The Oddball Book of Armadillos 

by Elizabeth Shreeve ; illus. by Isabella Grott 

40 pages; ages 7-10

Norton Young Readers, 2024  

theme: armadillos, evolution, nonfiction

Are they giant roly-poly bugs? Time-traveling dinosaurs? Crazy mixed-up turtle-rabbits? No! They’re armadillos…

… small mammals with tough, scaly armor. Modern armadillos may be as small as 6-inches, but some of their prehistoric ancestors were as big as cars! In this book, Elizabeth Shreeve introduces readers to a variety of armadillos found around the world: pink fairy armadillos, nine-banded armadillos, the screaming hairy armadillo, and more. She discusses armadillo adaptations, behavior, and migration for modern and prehistoric animals. 

What I like about this book: As with The Upside-Down Book of Sloths, Elizabeth Shreeve presents information about armadillos in layers. Some pages feature large text with conversational language, while others have smaller text with sidebars providing more details. That makes this book perfect to read as a picture book to younger kids (6-7) and as an informational book for the 7-10 year old crowd. Some of those sidebars highlight cool stuff, like how armadillos walk under water and how artists have been portraying armadillos for the past thousand years or so.

Armadillos are odder than I expected! So I knew I had to ask Elizabeth One Question: What inspired you to write a book about ancient armadillos?

Elizabeth: Great question! Armadillos are related to sloths, a topic that I explored in The Upside-Down Book of Sloths (Norton Young Readers, 2023). My editor was all-in for a companion title about the “little armored ones” and their prehistoric kin. Armadillos, both living and extinct, help us understand the natural history of the Americas, a topic with special meaning for many students. Plus who doesn’t love an oddball? By celebrating life-forms that are less familiar, we can send a message about embracing differences and finding connections. Let’s appreciate all of Earth’s creatures!

Thanks, Elizabeth. And with that, let’s go have some Beyond-the-Books fun!

Learn more about armadillos at the San Diego Zoo website 

Armadillos can roll up into a ball. Can you? What other animals roll up in a ball to protect themselves?

For older kids: Check out the Adaptation Game in the teacher’s guide at Elizabeth’s website. It’s a card game developed specifically for the book, and shows how the traits of animal populations help them survive in the environments they live in.  

Elizabeth is a member of #STEAMTeam2024. You can find out more about her at her website.

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Explore Outdoors ~ honeybee in flight

 Every now and then I capture a bug commuting to work.... 

Holladay, UT /August 2024

Small Science Expeditions

The Observologist: A Handbook for Mounting Very Small Scientific Expeditions 

by Giselle Clarkson 
120 pages; ages 8-13
Gecko Press (Lerner), 2024

“An observologist is someone who makes scientific expeditions every day, albeit very small ones.” With that introduction you know this will be the perfect book to inspire a backyard study of small things: earthworms, caterpillars, fungi, slug eggs…. 

There are only two things you need to know if you’re going to be an observologist:

1. You’ll spend a lot of time looking at the ground (which is closer to you if you’re between the ages of 8-13 than if you’re an adult).
2. You need to be curious. Because being an observologist is like being a detective… looking for clues that lead to something cool and interesting.

After introducing the whats, hows, and whys of Observology the remainder of the book presents four potential expedition sites – and the sorts of things one might study/observe/examine while there. These are places accessible to any kid: a damp corner (perfect site for discovering more about centipedes and fungi); pavement (great habitat for ants and worms); weedy patches (insects galore!); and around the house.

What I like love about this book: I love the introductory section where Giselle Clarkson lays out such things as “principles of observology,” the reasons for scientific names, and the importance of drawing what you discover. I love the table of contents that exudes the feeling of being a field guide to adventure. Each section – er, expedition site – includes one to three spreads filled with details about the organisms one might discover. There’s even a spread devoted to “aural observology” for those who want to recognize insects by the sounds they make. 

“Not all buzzes are alike,” Giselle writes, “and you have to have very clever ears.”

For those using this book as a text, there is a final exam and a certificate at the back – plus a great index for quick reference to the organisms. Best of all, this book is suitable for parents, teachers, homeschoolers, grandparents, and scientifically minded extraterrestrials desiring to learn more about this planet. 

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Explore Outdoors ~ noisy moth!

 So there I am in my garden on a quiet morning, listening to the birds and the low hum of bees - when a flirrrr of wings goes past. It sounds like a hummingbird with a muffler...

 

but it's not. It's a moth. A hummingbird moth. Sucking all the yummy nectar out of the monarda before the hummingbirds have finished their first cup of coffee.

I know, I know. I post a photo of them every summer. But hey! They are so cool. Look at that looong proboscis. It's like a giant straw that they uncurl to sip sugary stuff. 

Hummingbird moths are hefty and hairy, and even have little fan tails. And their wings beat in a blur. If this one stopped for just a second, you'd notice that the middle part of the wing is clear, giving it the name "clearwing".

Keep your eyes open for hummingbird moths 

hanging out in your neighborhood this week.

Books celebrating Ants and Doves!

Upon returning from my end-of-summer break, I discovered a bunch of summer releases I’d neglected to share. Taking care of that forthwith! Today’s books celebrate animals, behavior, and human interactions.

Rosemary Mosco writes and illustrates a variety of things, from her Bird and Moon comics to chapter books. Her most recent picture book was released in July. It’s about ants – and I love it! 

There Are No Ants in This Book 
by Rosemary Mosco; illustrated by Anna Pirolli 
40 pages; ages 4-8
Tundra Books, 2024  

  
What a nice-looking book this is! It’s the perfect place for… a picnic.

The reason? There are no ants… it even says so on the cover. Except, as we turn the page we discover that there’s one ant. That might be okay, but then two more ants show up, then more until there are Ten Ants! And that turns out to be fine with the character, because she’s discovering just how cool ants are.

What I like love about this book: I love that each ant is a different species, from a tiny acorn ant to a huge dinosaur ant. The back matter provides a brief bio for each of the ten ants, with their scientific name, where they live, and a cool fact. I’d write more, but I want to go check the acorns in the yard for … ants!

Over the past decade or so I’ve enjoyed reading books written by Sara Levine. Whether it’s animal bones or flower talk or math, she combines fun with STEM. Her newest picture book is all about… well, the title says it all.

A Terrible Place for a Nest 
by Sara Levine; illustrated by Erika Meza 
40 pages; ages 4-8
Roaring Brook Press, 2024 

  
When Juno and his mom lost their home, they had to move to a new place.

Juno doesn’t like his new room. The local grocer doesn’t carry his favorite cereal. Making new friends is hard, and mourning doves are building a nest on the fence right next to the gate. “This is a terrible place!” Juno yells. 

What I like about this book: I like how Juno helps the doves when their nest falls to the ground, and how he decides to take them under his wing (so to speak). As the dove family grows, we see Juno’s circle of friends grow, and the ways they come up with to protect the nest, despite its suboptimal location. I also like how Sara’s story focused on a bird that is distributed across the continental US, Mexico, and southern Canada. So any kid reading or listening to this story can see mourning doves – or their rock dove “pigeon” cousins – around their neighborhood.

Beyond the Books:

Make a picnic for the ants in your yard or at a park. What sort of food will you provide? Remember, some ants like sweets, others like meat, and some will eat anything. Make sure you put your ant picnic on a sheet of paper so the ants can reach their favorite food.

Once you’ve made your ant picnic, observe the ants that visit. What ants arrive first? Do they stick around and eat or do they scurry away, only to return with a friend or two or ten? How many kinds of ants did you see?

Maybe you’d rather make a picnic for mourning doves. They like to eat sunflower seeds, millet, oats, unshelled peanuts, and cracked corn. You can learn more about attracting mourning doves at exploring birds.

This summer a robin tried building a nest over a door. It was a terrible place for a nest! Are there any birds nesting in “terrible places” around your house? What kind of bird, and where did they try to build their nest?

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.

Explore Outdoors ~ garden denizen

 Of all the spiders hanging out in my garden, I think this one (Argiope aurantia) is the prettiest. Look at the color and design! And look at those sharp claws! These spiders are great garden residents - they eat flies and mosquitoes and bothersome gnats. I admit I feel sad when I see a bee tangled in their web, but everyone's gotta eat...

 iNaturalist calls this spider a yellow garden spider. They also go by other names:  the black and yellow garden spider, golden garden spider, writing spider, zigzag spider, and zipper spider.

What name would you give this spider?

Taking a break ...

 It's the last week of summer ~ I can't think of a better time to take a break and head out to the woods or a beach, a lake or a mountain...

See you in a couple weeks.

Small Seeds, Big Dreams

 

Saving Delicia: A Story about Small Seeds and Big Dreams 

by Laura Gehl; illus. by Patricia Metola 

40 pages; ages 3-7

Flyaway Books, 2024    

theme: seeds, trees, conservation

Every summer afternoon, Kari and Cookie sat in the shade of the beautiful Delicia tree listening to Old Otis tell tales from way back when.

Back then, the world was filled with delicia trees, but now only one remains. What happens if it disappears? Kari wants to make sure it won’t – that there will be delicia fruit for children in years to come. And she has an idea for how to do it. All she needs is the old freezer in Otis’s shed.

What I like about this book: Though it’s fictional, the story reflects some of the realities we see in our world. Disease and environmental changes have pushed many plants to the edge of extinction. People are trying to save those plants – especially crops – by collecting seeds and storing them in seed banks. Author, Laura Gehl goes into more details about seed banks in her author’s note at the back of the book. “Already,” she writes, “seed banks have helped restore crops around the world that were killed by natural disasters, wars, and pest infestations.” Seed banks play an important role in preserving our planet’s biodiversity!

I always love the opportunity to chat with Laura about her books, so I asked her a couple of questions. Okay, three.

Me: What inspired you to write about saving seeds (and creating a seed bank)?

Laura: When I first began learning about seed banks, I was fascinated. I was particularly amazed as I read about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which is located close to the North Pole. Picturing thousands of seeds stored safely for the future, in a plethora of shapes, colors and sizes, ignited my imagination. I knew I wanted to write about seed banks, but finding my way to the story took a long time. I tried a number of different approaches, trying to craft a story introducing seed banks to young readers that would be interesting, inviting, and inspiring. I hope I succeeded in the end! 

Me: Do you garden - and have you gotten any seeds through seed swaps or seed libraries? 

Laura: When my oldest two kids were little, we lived in an apartment building with a community garden, and we enjoyed growing tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables there. Then we had two more kids and life got too hectic for gardening to fit into our schedule. When COVID took over the world, my oldest son came home on the last day before schools closed with a tomato plant rescued from the environmental science class. That started a new spurt of gardening for our family, and we grew lots of tomatoes, lettuce, and herbs that summer. (My in-laws, who are avid gardeners, lived with us for a while during the lockdown, so we benefitted from their expertise.) But then life got hectic again, and gardening fell by the wayside. When I have my next spurt of gardening energy, I plan to get seeds from a seed library. There are several seed libraries in Maryland, and I am excited to give them a try. Eating heirloom tomatoes is one of my favorite summer activities…now I want to attempt growing some! 

Me: Do you think you'll try to save some seeds after having written about it?

Laura: Definitely! I want to try saving seeds when I get back to gardening, and I would love to host a neighborhood seed swap in the future.  

Beyond the Books:

What seeds would you save if you could? Beans? Apples? Tomatoes? Some of these seeds aren’t very hard to save. Tomatoes, for example – just squeeze (or scoop) seeds from a ripe tomato into a sieve and rinse them, and let them dry. Other seeds that aren’t too hard to save are pumpkin, melon, beans, and some flowers such as sunflowers, calendula, poppies, and lupine.

You can learn more about what a seed bank is here and about the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew Gardens here. Be sure to check out this video of how Native Seeds/SEARCH stores their seeds in their seed bank.

Laura is a member of #STEAMTeam2024. You can find out more about her at her website, https://lauragehl.com/

We’ll join Perfect Picture Book Friday once they resume. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by Blue Slip Media.

Explore Outdoors ~ face-to-face with bumblebees!

 

If you get the opportunity to watch bumblebees this week, see if you can look one in the eye. Sometimes that means getting on the opposite side of a flower. This bee has their tongue out - sipping nectar perhaps? The flower is wild mondarda (bee balm)- they look cool close-up, too!

Clouds in Space, and two more books for Space Explorers

 

Butterfly nebula/ NASA, ESA Hubble 

Have you ever heard a weather report from space that mentioned it would be cloudy with a chance of stardust? If not, that's okay because today we're diving right into some cosmic cloudiness.

theme: space, stardust, astronomy

Clouds in Space: Nebulae, Stardust, and Us 

by Teresa Robeson; illus. by Diana Renzina 

48 pages; ages 7-9

‎MIT Kids Press, 2024   

Want to know a secret? When you look up after sunset – to count the stars, glimpse a glancing meteor, or marvel at the moon …..

There are things you can’t see clearly. Things that look fuzzy or blurry because they are clouds. Which, if you’ve ever stood inside a cloud (like on a foggy day) you know just how fuzzy things can look. This is how Teresa invites readers in to learning about nebulae –  by comparing space clouds to the clouds we see on Earth, told from the Nebula’s point of view. 

What I like about this book: I love how Teresa brings the vastness of a nebula down to Earth by comparing it to a cloud in our sky. For example, clouds can look like different things; just yesterday I saw a cloud that looked like a dog with long ears blowing in the wind. Nebulae can look like different things, too. Take the butterfly nebula – it looks like a tiny bug with two gigantic wings. There is also back matter, where readers can learn more about the discovery of nebulae and the different types of nebulae. And there’s a gallery of nebulae portraits.

I wanted to know more about how this book came to be, so I asked Teresa and she graciously responded.

Teresa: What inspired me to write this book was a combination of a love of astronomy (I've been an amateur astronomer since 1979) and a background in climatology (I took meteorology classes at university for a climatology major). Those provided the foundations (like kindling). The spark came one day around 2012. I was looking at the clouds with the kids and thinking "we see shapes in clouds on earth, but astronomers also see shapes in the clouds in space...heeeeeey!" And off I went with the first draft of this book.

MIT Kids Press has another space book that was released back in March

I’m a Black Hole (Meet the Universe) 

by Eve M. Vavagiakis; illus. by Jessica Lanan  

40 pages; ages 7-9

MIT Kids Press, 2024

This book is told from the black hole’s perspective. Hidden in space and hard to find, a black hole is created when a star collapses. The collapsing star pulls in anything nearby, from stars and moons to entire planets. Reader who want more details will find them in the back matter, where the author explains black holes in more depth.

And here's one more...

Always Beginning: The Big Bang, the Universe, and You 

by Candace Savage; illus. by Rachel Wada 

44 pages; ages 4-8

Greystone Kids, 2024    

This story of the beginnings of the universe is told in lyrical language, filled with alliteration ad wonderful imagery. For example, that moment the universe burst forth, “sizzling stars spiraled into galaxies.” The illustrations and poetic language transport you to a time far, far away. The timeline at the back helps ground readers in the process from Big Bang to formation of stars and planets, to the beginnings of life. Back matter explains things in more depth.

Beyond the Books

Go cloud-watching with a friend. What shapes do you see in the clouds? Does your friend see the same thing you do? Give your clouds “nebula names.”

Go night sky watching – and take some binoculars, or a telescope if you have one (or can borrow one from a library). Look for cloudy patches in Scorpio’s tail, or in the left arm of the W that forms Cassiopeia.

Make some nebulous art. Let images from the Hubble space telescope inspire a poem or painting … or perhaps one of those nebulae have a story of their own to tell.

We’ll join Perfect Picture Book Friday once they resume. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.

Explore Outdoors ~ a Very Young Katydid

 Summer is a great time to slow down and smell the ... hey! What's that on the monarda?

It's bright green, with looong antennae and back legs that are perfect for jumping. My first thought was something in the cricket family - but it's so skinny! A friendly entomologist identified it as a juvenile bush katydid - and reminded me that the young ones are skinny. 

 

 

They do fill out as they grow. Here's a photo of an adult by Bruce Marlin/wikimedia

What interesting bugs are you finding on flowers?

 

[CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25107468]

Go fish!

 Fourth-grade students in a neighboring town participate in the NY state Trout in the Classroom project. So when I saw Mary Boone’s newest picture book, I knew I had to read it!

School of Fish 

by Mary Boone; illustrated by Milena Godoy 

32 pages; ages 4-8

Albert Whitman & Company, 2024 (releasing Sept 5)

theme: fish, nature, life cycle

Shiny, jellylike balls float down, down, down…

coming to rest at the bottom of the fish tank. They’re salmon eggs, and Emmy’s class will raise them and then release the fish into a river when it’s time. This book follows the salmon’s life cycle, from egg to alevin to fry to release day. Along the way, the students learn about more than fish; they learn about ecosystem connections. And they learn how to work together for the good of the fish.

What I like about this book: OK, I will confess that my absolute favorite scene is when Emmy tells her classmates that it’s fry day – and they day, “no, it’s Thursday.” Fry day is a huge day for fish – and for the students, too. Now they get to feed the fish! And I love that Emmy searches for the “perfect” release spot for her salmon on Release Day. Also, there is back matter where kids can learn more about salmon life stages and review some of the words introduced in the book.

This book was so much fun to read that I just had to ask Mary a couple questions.

Me: Did you spend time at schools observing the salmon-raising? And if so, did you talk to students and teachers about their project? 

Mary: I love research – especially hands-on research. To learn about this program, I spent time in a handful of schools, observing lessons, learning the ins and outs of caring for the baby salmon, and talking with teachers and students. I also participated in a half-dozen salmon releases, including one that included thousands of students.

To learn more about salmon in general, I also started volunteering with the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement group. I’ve helped monitor juvenile smolt traps, assisted with DNA testing as part of a project aimed at increasing Steelhead populations, and planted trees in an effort to create a better habitat for salmon.

Me: What cool things did you learn while working on this book?

Mary: I grew up in the Midwest, so I started out not knowing much about salmon at all. I learned so many cool things. I love that I can now tell the difference between the different species of salmon. I think it’s cool that salmon change color over the course of their lives. I love that spawning salmon find their way back to the same stream where they were hatched.

The part of my research that made me really happy was when I met teachers who are able to use this Salmon in the Classroom program across different subject areas: writing about the salmon, drawing them, doing math problems to figure out how far a salmon might swim in a month or throughout its life. The students in those classes truly are getting the most out of this program.

Beyond the Books:

Find out what kinds of fish live in the rivers and lakes near you. Draw a picture of one of your local fish.

Paint with a fish. It sounds a bit … fishy, but here’s what you do: roll ink onto a clean fish and then press paper against it to transfer the print. Before you press roller to scale, though, spend a few minutes looking at your fish. Write down some words that describe their mouth, their fins, their scales. What does your fish feel like? Here’s instructions for painting/printing your fish.

Make an underwater viewer to look for fish and other critters living in a local stream, pond, or lake. All you need is a half-gallon milk carton, some plastic wrap, and rubber bands. Here’s how. 

We’ll join Perfect Picture Book Friday once they resume. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Explore Outdoors ~ 5-minute field trip

 A few years ago lightning hit an oak tree behind my garden. Neighbors helped fell the tree and cut up most of it for firewood... but there remained a trunk too thick for any of our chainsaws. So we left it for part of my outdoor curiosity lab. Last month I wandered over to see what was going on. Turns out a lot is happening. Fungi, moss, and lichens have made their appearance over the years, and now small tree seedlings are gaining a foothold. Insects galore hang out on, in, and under the log. Here are a few photos from my Five Minute Field Trip.

 

Take a 5-Minute Field Trip in your neighborhood~

what do you discover?

More books for Nature Exploration

Last week I featured a couple books for curious young naturalists. This week I've got two more.

theme: plants, animals, observation

Nature Spy Guide 

Words & photos by Shelley Rotner 

32 pages; ages 4-8

 Millbrook Press, 2024

Anyone can be a nature SPY. Here’s how. First you have to GO OUTSIDE.

Because, being a nature spy means you’ve got to see, smell, touch, and hear things close-up and in-person. In this book, Shelley Rotner asks readers to look up, look down, look all around. To breathe in the air and smell the flowers. Look closer, she says. Use your ears.

What I like about this book: Shelley uses simple text and photos of kids in nature to introduce basic observation skills. She reminds nature spies to use all their senses, to observe things both near and far, and most of all, to not give up – because some animals like to hide. I like the back matter, too. She includes a simple plant and animal identification list for things most kids in North America might see. And – even more important for parents looking for ways to incorporate nature spying into daily life – she provides a dozen activities. My fave is “deer ears” with cloud-watching coming in a fast second.

Backyard Bugs (Shine-A-Light) 

by Carron Brown; illustrated by Wesley Robins 

36 pages; ages 4-8

Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 2023    

Did you know you can find amazing animals close to home? Just step outside…

Yay! another book that invites children to head outdoors to discover nature around them. In this case, bugs. From lady bugs to painted ladies, dragonflies to fireflies, this book celebrates arthropods – and a couple of their non-arthropod neighbors.

Beyond the Books: Go outside this week and be a Nature SPY! 

• Look. Listen. Touch. Smell. 
• Draw pictures of what you see. 
• Write notes in your Official Nature Spy Notebook. (If you don’t have an ONSN, they you can make one by folding paper and stapling or sewing it into a notebook.)
• Watch clouds. 
• Watch squirrel antics. 
• Follow ant and snail trails. 
• Smell the roses. 
• Feel the shade on your face. 
• Listen to what the birds and bugs are saying. 
• Use your imagination. 
• And have fun spying on the critters living around you.

We’ll join Perfect Picture Book Friday once they resume. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.

Explore Outdoors ~ Purple Razz

 At the beginning of the month, these purple-flowered raspberries were just coming into bloom. By now they should be producing their fuzzy berries. These plants (Rubus odoratus) are native to eastern North America; their cousins, which I grew up calling "thimbleberries" are native to the western part of the continent. 

The flowers have five petals, and the leaves look a bit like maple leaves, with five lobes. The fruit looks like a red raspberry but is flatter and a bit drier. And then there's the fuzziness... it doesn't seem to deter the birds and small mammals, though, because these berries tend to disappear off the bushes pretty fast. 

What kinds of berries grow around your neighborhood?

Two Books for Exploring Summer

Greystone Kids has a couple books that are perfect for young nature explorers. 

Themes: fungi, nature, hands-on activities

Mushrooms Know: Wisdom From Our Friends the Fungi 

by Kallie George; illus. by Sara Gillingham 

40 pages; ages 4-8

‎Greystone Kids, 2024   

Mushrooms always wear their thinking caps. They know so many things.

For example, they know that there is more beneath the surface than what you see. That being unique is awesome. And that small can be mighty. They also know that it’s important to take care of your neighborhood, your friends, and yourself. Most of all, they know how important it is to stay connected.

What I like about this book: This is a wonderful book on so many levels. There’s the simple text about what mushrooms know, that ranges from ecological understanding to SEL. Sidebars provide another layer that dives deeper into the science of mushrooms. That’s where you’ll find cool info about how fungi send messages to plants, how they glow in the dark, and where you might find them growing. I also love the cute expressions on the mushroom caps. Plus there is back matter! That’s where you’ll find even more information about what mushrooms are, how they’re used to clean up oil spills, and the cool way bird’s nest mushrooms use raindrops to spread spores.

Be a Nature Explorer!: Outdoor Activities and Adventures 

by Peter Wohlleben; illus. by Belle Wuthrich & translated by Jane Billinghurst  

100 pages; ages 6-10

Greystone Kids, 2024 

This book is filled with 52 activities for the curious young naturalist. Peter Wohlleben invites kids to explore what’s outside around them. Record the plants and animals in your own nature notebook, he tells readers – that way you’ll have a book filled with your own discoveries. In addition to taking a pencil and notebook, he suggests a few other things to take along on your outdoors adventures: plastic containers to collect things for further study, a hand lens or magnifying glass, binoculars for observing animals and birds without bothering them, a cell phone to take photos – and maybe a nature app to help identify plants, insects, and other cool discoveries.

The activities are listed in a table of contents, in no particular order. The idea, Peter says, is to browse through and find something that interests you. They range from listening to a tree talk, to following slugs and snails, to mapping plants that move. It’s a great way to beat the “nothing to do” blahs of late summer

Beyond the Books:

Go on a fungus foray. Late summer and into the fall is the perfect time to look for mushrooms and other fungi. Draw what you see – feel free to give them faces, even entire personalities. What wisdom do they have for you?

You’ll find 30+ activities to explore fungi in my book, Funky Fungi: 30 Activities for Exploring Molds, Mushrooms, Lichens & More (co-authored with Alisha Gabriel). Plus there’s more over at Patricia Newman’s LitLinks.

Label some pages in your nature notebook and start some lists of all the birds, trees, wildflowers, insects, and mammals you see in your neighborhood. Share with a friend and ask what they have discovered in their neighborhood. Hint: the more you look, the more you’ll see.

We’ll join Perfect Picture Book Friday once they resume. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.

Explore Outdoors ~ Finding Beauty

 Every day I look for a bit of beauty in the natural world around me. Some days I get lucky and find diamond-studded spider webs clinging to the bridge railing. This usually happens in the early morning after a humid night (in this case the humidity was over 90%)

What beauty do you find in the natural world surrounding you?

Books for the Beach

 If you’re heading to a beach – whether it’s the ocean or a lake or a towel by the backyard wading pool – you might want to take along some beach reading…

theme: ocean animals, animal behavior

Speck: An Itty-Bitty Epic 

by Margaux Meganck 

40 pages; ages 3-6

‎Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2024  

Deep in a tide pool, too small to see, countless tiny specks go forth

These tiny specks are barnacle larva, tossed by waves and carried by currents until they find a spot to grow into a barnacle. They are part of the group of tiny edible things we call “plankton” and that fish and whales call “dinner.” 

What I like about this book: the text is lyrical and soothing, like the gently rocking of a boat at sea. I like the vivid watercolor illustrations (and the sweet expressions on the barnacle faces). I also like that the larvae are looking for a place to grow and thrive, just like us. I wish there had been a smidgeon of back matter so we could learn more about these amazing animals (barnacles are crustaceans) but even so, this book will leave children thinking about the smallest bits of life in the ocean.

Where Do Ocean Creatures Sleep at Night? 

by Steven J. Simmons & Clifford R. Simmons; illus. by Ruth E. Harper 

32 pages; ages 3-7

Charlesbridge, 2024  

Ocean creatures swim in their watery home…

But when their day is done, where do they sleep? Some burrow in the sand of the ocean floor, while others cling to corals or plants. Octopuses snuggle in their dens and otters snooze on their backs. Gentle rhymes and soft illustrations make this a perfect book to read during quiet time at the beach.

Beyond the Books:

Go on a barnacle search. You’ll find them attached to ropes, rocks, docks, and even mussels. Read more about barnacles at this Woods Hole page.

If you have the opportunity to spend part of the night at a beach, do it. What do you hear? What do you see? What do you smell? How does the air feel?

Check out some of these other books that are perfect “beach reads”

• How to Code a Sandcastle    
• Seashells: More Than A Home
• Look What I Found at the Beach
• The Tide Pool Waits

We’ll join Perfect Picture Book Friday once they resume. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers and Blue Slip Media (Speck).

Explore Outdoors ~ Spittlebug Caught in the Act!

 Every now and then I see Cool Things Happening in my garden. Like a couple weeks ago when I discovered a spittlebug in the act of creating a foam dome so they could hide from the sun. And predators - because who wants a mouthful of foamy spit?

Spittlebugs are plant-suckers. They stick their short pointy beaks into stems and then suck up the sap. But they are messy eaters! As they spill sap down their bodies, they add some air and make bubbles. Lots of bubbles. Turns out they can make 80 spit bubbles in a minute.

This week keep your eye open for spittlebugs. 

• If you see a spittlebug starting its foamy dome, stay and watch a while. How long does it take until they are covered?
• What kind of plants do you see spittlebug foam on? And where on the plant do you find it?  Do they hang out at the tips of plants? The base? On stems or leaves? In leaf axils (where leaves meet the stems)?
• How many foam homes do you find on plants? Are they close together or far apart?

The Ants are Marching...

 Today’s books are all about ants – because I have an abiding fondness for these truly marvelous tiny critters. I once spent an entire month trading barley seeds with harvester ants.

Theme: ants, animal behavior, ecology

City of Leafcutter Ants: A Sustainable Society of Millions 

by Amy Hevron 

40 pages; ages 4-8

Neal Porter Books/ Holiday House, 2024   

Below the towering trees of the dense rainforest canopy of Central America, a population the size of New York City bustles.

It is a city of leafcutter ants, and each one of them has a job to help their city thrive. There are ants that manage the city’s trash, ants that care for the youngsters, and ants that build and tunnel and dig. There are ants that gather food from the forest, ants that grow food in the city, and ants that make medicines to keep everyone healthy.

What I like about this book: I like the way this book takes readers right inside the ant city. I like the bright, bold illustrations. And I like that there’s back matter in which Amy Hevron tells more about Leafcutter ants and the important jobs ants hold in their city. 

The Wonderful Wisdom of Ants 

by Philip Bunting 

32 pages; ages 4-8

‎Crown Books for Young Readers, 2024

Hey! This is an ant. And this is an ant. And this is an ant…

In fact, there is an entire page introducing ants, about ten quadrillion of them (though not all of them individually). In this book you’ll discover things ants love and things they don’t love (such as big feet coming down on top of them!). There’s an introduction to a generic ant colony and the different jobs ants do, how they talk to each other, and a lot about what ants (and people) can do to make the world a better place.

What I like about this book: I like the stylized illustrations of ants and the humor that results from the combined text and illustrations. And the scene where ants discover sprinkles – who doesn’t love sprinkles!

Beyond the Books:

Back in April I interviewed Amy for the Fourth Annual Arthropod Roundtable over on the GROG blog. You can read it here.

Follow some ants. Where are they going? Where are they coming from? Are they carrying anything, such as dead insects or seeds? These are some of the questions that inspired Amy Hevron to write City of Leafcutter Ants!

Create art inspired by ant-watching. Perhaps your questions will inspire a poem or story. Or you might paint a picture of the ants in your neighborhood. Or perhaps you’ll map out where the ants live and work…

You can find more ant activities in one of my earlier blog posts here.

We’ll join Perfect Picture Book Friday once they resume. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. City of Leafcutter Ants provided by the publisher; Wonderful Wisdom of Ants provided by Blue Slip Media.