How to Survive as a Firefly

I thought I'd sneak in two more bug book reviews before the weather gets too chilly for bug observations. (You can find more insect book reviews and activities here)

How to Survive as a Firefly
by Kristen Foote; illus. by Erica Salcedo
36 pages; ages 5-10
Innovation Press

"Up and at 'em, larvae." The drill sergeant calls out his young troops to get them ready for life as an adult firefly. He's been in the trenches for a year and a half, and he knows a thing or two...

First, there's tricks to getting through metamorphosis.
"Met-a-more-for-what?" ask the youngsters. Oh boy. This bug's got his work cut out for him. Thing is, you've gotta get ready to change because you just can't stay a larva forever. And if you're a firefly larva, that means COMPLETE metamorphosis - turning into a pupa and....

"Can we get a snack first?"

Written in dialog, this is a fun, fun, fun introduction to insect morphology, physiology, and Photinus pyralis - fireflies for you two-leggers. There are lessons on bioluminescence, flashy facts, and lots of humor - and of course, a pop quiz at the end.

Back matter includes Frequently Asked Questions and an author's note in which Kristen promises that no actual fireflies were harmed in the creation of the book. There's even a glossary.

Bugs! (Animal Planet chapter books)
by James Buckley, Jr.
112 pages; ages 7-10
Time Inc. Books, 2017

What makes an insect an insect? Great question, and that's the first thing you'll discover as you read through this book. Factual information on body parts, where they live, how they outnumber us (10 quintilliun insects; 7 billion people - they've got us a trillion to one!), and where they live. Chapters include: insect life cycles, what they eat, how they move around, and "buggy sense". There are chapters highlighting dragonflies, mantids, beetles, mosquitoes and other flies, butterflies and moths, and ants, bees, and wasps.

I like the "Bug Bites" - double-page spreads that focus on such things as army ants, and extreme insects. "Fact Files" give readers more details about the topics, and there are plenty of fact boxes scattered throughout. Curious bugologists will appreciate the list of resources for further study, and for those who want fast facts, there's an index.

Drop by the STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. Review copies from publishers.

More BUG Books!

One can never have too many books about bugs! Here are a few more from my book basket:

There's a Bug on my Book!
by John Himmelman
32 pages; ages 4-7
Dawn Publications, 2017

The best thing about summer is reading outside. That's what this book is all about: sitting on the grass with a ...
"Hey! there's a bug on my book! It's a beetle."

Okay, we can handle that. Just puff a breath of air on it to get it moving. Now, back to reading. Yikes! now there's a snake slithering across the page.

What I like about this book: it invites readers to tilt the book (so the snake slides back into the grass), to nudge a bug, to be patient while a slug meanders across the page. At the same time, John Himmelman shares observations about the insects, spiders, worms, and other .... what's that? A frog just plopped onto the page! Another thing I like about this book is the back matter. Four Pages! That's where you learn more about each critter that slithered, slimed, hopped, wiggled, and plopped across the pages of the book. There are also activities that explore how bugs move, habitat, and "design a bug". You'll find more buggy activities at the Dawn website here.

Explore My World: Honey Bees
by Jill Esbaum
32 pages; ages 3-7
National Geographic Children's Books, 2017

"Look, a honey bee!" Easy to read and understand, the text describes the life of a honey bee. There's nectar-collecting, loading up the pollen baskets (which, we learn, can be a messy job), and carting the food back home. The hive is a busy place, with so many sisters and a queen, and there's lots of work to do in hive as well. We see the bee life cycle, meet a newly emerged bee who is immediately given a task: clean your room! Back matter includes more details about honey, pollination, the waggle dance, and a maze.

You might wonder why NGK writes "honey bee" rather than "honeybee". That's because they're following the rules of entomology: a honey bee is a kind of bee, just like a house fly is a kind of fly. On the other hand, a dragonfly (one word) is not a fly at all.

Incredible Bugs (series: Animal Bests)
by John Farndon; illus. by Cristina Portolano
32 pages; ages 8-12
Hungry Tomato, 2016

This is a fun, browsable book with a table of contents so you can find what you're looking for fast (if you want). Sections include smartest bugs, communication, special senses, builders, tool users, teamwork, migration, and special skills. You'll discover maze-solving spiders, dragonfly flight instruments, and which bug can leap tall buildings in a single jump. Text is accompanied by cartoons and photos.

Drop by the STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. Review copies from publishers.

Up! Up! Up! Skyscraper

Up! Up! Up! Skyscraper
by Anastasia Suen; illus. by Ryan O'Rourke
32 pages; ages 3-7
Charlesbridge, 2017

Dig, dig, dig!
Pour, pour, pour!
Pound, pound, pound!

What's going on behind that tall board fence? Put on your hardhat and let's find out.

Machines and people work together to build a skyscraper. So tall it touches the clouds. So if they're building up, why are they digging down? Because tall buildings need sturdy foundations.

Anastasia Suen takes readers behind the fence and into the world of a construction site. Active language engages kids in what's going on, and additional text explains why. Bolt by bolt, beam by beam, we travel up, up, up to the top of the building. Once the skeleton is completed it's time to put the "skin" on - the metal and glass panels that hold everything in. And then, at last, with a fold-out page that extends high above the others, we see the finished skyscraper.

Beyond the book:
Want to see one under construction? Check out this video.

For older kids interested in architecture, click over to my review of Architect Academy (ages 7 and up).

Then pull out the bin of blocks and build, build, build your own tower!

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.

A Boy and a Jaguar

A Boy and a Jaguar
By Alan Rabinowitz; illus. by Catia Chien
32 pages; ages 4-8
HMH Books for young readers, 2014

This is a true story about a boy, his connection to animals, and how he became the "Indiana Jones of wildlife conservation".

themes: nonfiction, autobiography, animals

"I'm standing in the great cat house at the Bronx Zoo. Why is this jaguar kept in a bare room? I wonder. I lean toward my favorite animal and whisper to her."

Alan Rabinowitz loves the jaguar. He can talk to her. He also loves his chameleon, gerbil, and snake. He can talk to them, too. The only animals he can't talk to are human. Alan stutters, and no one - not his dad or his teachers - can understand him. So when he talks to his animals, Alan promises that if he can ever find his voice, he will be their voice and keep them from harm.

When he grows up, Alan studies jaguars. But they are being hunted nearly to extinction. Alan knows he has to protect them - and that means talking to government officials.

What I like about this book: It is full of hope - for children and for animals. And I like that Alan tells his own story, and that he still talks to jaguars (and other cats). In an interview on NPR Alan says that all children go through periods in their live where they feel misunderstood or shut off from the human world - whether they have a disability or just something inside them that makes them different from everyone else. "I wanted this book to speak to all of those children because I don't think adults realize, unless you've gone through it as a child, what a lasting mark such pain leaves on a young person."

Beyond the book: Have you ever talked to an animal? Cats make wonderful listeners. So do toads (they don't hop away as quickly as frogs). If you do end up talking to an animal, what sort of things might you discuss?

Visit jaguars and other wild cats at a zoo.

Alan Rabinowitz is president and CEO of Panthera, a wildlife organization dedicated to protecting the world's wild cat species. You can learn a lot about jaguars and other wild cats at Panthera.

Watch In Search of the Jaguar (free feature-length documentary)

See out what other bloggers are reviewing over at the STEM Friday blog. Today's review is also part of 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 provided by the publisher.

A Boy who Loved Math!

The Boy Who Loved Math

by Debora Heiligman; illustrated by LeUyen Pham

44 pages; ages 5 & up

Roaring Brook Press, 2013

Paul Erdos loved numbers and grew up to be one of the greatest mathematicians in the world. And it all started with a big problem …his nanny. Nanny loved rules. Paul didn’t. So he counted the days until his mama returned. And he kept on counting. He added numbers, subtracted numbers, and discovered that you could go the other way beyond zero. Negative numbers – what a cool concept for a young child!

This book describes the life of a very eccentric mathematician who couldn’t tie his shoes but could find patterns for prime numbers. If you’re not too sure about prime numbers, don’t worry -  there’s a great explanation in the story. There are wonderful illustrations of Paul and his college classmates “doing math” around Budapest; they see math in rooftops and steeples.

At the age of 20, Paul was traveling about, giving lectures on math. He couldn’t do his laundry or cook food for himself. Or drive a car or open a carton of orange juice. But boy, could he do math! And people invited him to stay in their homes while he taught classes around the world. Some folks even buttered his toast.

Thankfully (for us mathematically-challenged) both the author and illustrator include great notes for kids (and parents) who want to learn more about Paul. They also include explanations about where the puzzles and graphs come from. This is one picture book that will interest older readers! 

Today's review is part of STEM Friday, where the "M" stands for Math. Find out what other people are reading and doing this week by checking out the STEM Friday Blog. Then on Monday head over to the Nonfiction Monday blog to see what books other bloggers are reviewing.

To Infinity ... and Beyond!

Infinity and Me

By Kate Hosford; illus. by Gabi Swiatkowsksa

32 pages, for ages 5-10

Carolrhoda Books (Lerner), 2012

When Uma looks up into the night sky, she is awed by the number of stars. Are there a million? A billion? Or infinity?

What is infinity anyway? That’s what author Kate Hosford explores through Uma’s eyes. Infinity is huge – because no matter how high you count, you can always add one. Uma thinks about writing that really really big number down: “Even if I lived forever, I would never finish.”

Hosford offers a variety of ways to look at infinity: as a family tree; using a cooked spaghetti noodle; as a measure of how much love Uma has for her grandmother. This is the sort of book that would have had my kids cutting strips of paper into ever smaller pieces until they ended up with “an infinity of confetti” – or drawing infinite iterations of a Sierpinski triangle.

 

So how does a nice country girl end up writing about something as abstract and philosophical as infinity?

Kate: Large numbers are difficult not only for children to conceptualize, but for adults as well. Isn’t this one of the problems with our national debt? We just can’t imagine a number that big (note: $16 trillion and growing) -  if understanding these numbers is difficult, how much harder is it to think about infinity?

Archimedes: But why infinity, as opposed to, say, a billion or a trillion?

Kate: Infinity is a whole different animal – it’s an idea, first and foremost. It can be applied to math, philosophy, science, and religion. It can take the form of a never-ending number, but it can also be used to conceptualize heaven or eternity.

When we attempt to actually think about infinity itself, we cannot do it. The best we can hope for is to imagine what infinity might be like: What would it be like to play a circular piece of music that continued forever?

I also wanted to explore the way that infinity makes us feel. At the end of the day, Uma grapples with this existential question that we all must face; if something can be infinitely large, what does it say about us and our place in the universe?

Archimedes: You must have done some sort of research for your book.

Kate:  The first thing that I did was try to research existing picture books on this topic, and ended up finding almost nothing. After writing a few rough drafts of the story, I began interviewing children. I was completely bowled over by how they defined infinity. For example:

• Infinity is a made-up number that is supposed to be the last number, but it isn’t really the last number because numbers go on and on.
• Infinity is when you ask what’s outside of a galaxy, and then outside of that, and on and on.

 I did a good deal of reading on infinity, not only to research the book but also for the curriculum guide. A lot of these things never made it into the book -   things like why we can have infinities of different sizes or why the Hilbert’s Hotel paradox works -  but it became vital to me to understand as much as I could about infinity.  [the Fractal Foundation’s Sierpinski triangle activities did make it into her curriculum.]

From conception to publication, I spent eight years on this book. There were definitely times when my personal definition of infinity was ‘the amount of time it takes to sell a picture book on this topic.’

Archimedes: So where did the red shoes come from?

Kate: I wanted something that would ground the story – a small concern to balance Uma’s larger concern with infinity. Shoes seemed to be the perfect counterpoint. Red is my favorite color, and I have had multiple pairs of red shoes over the years.

Archimedes: Uma cuts a cooked noodle in half and then in half again and again. Have you ever done that?

Kate. Not with a noodle, but I have cut a piece of string into bits.

Kate invites readers who want to share how they imagine infinity to write to her at http://khosford.com/contact/ .  Check out more STEM Friday resources here. Review copy provided by Blue Slip Media.