Reading the Rivers

During the hot days of August it sure would be nice to jump into a river - or at least get our feet wet. Here are two books looking at rivers and the animals that live in and around them.

theme: rivers, nature, wildlife rescue

About Habitats: Rivers and Streams
By Cathryn Sill; illus by John Sill
48 pages; ages 2-6
Peachtree publishers, 2019

Rivers and streams are places where fresh water flows across the land

From babbling brooks and mountain springs to the mighty Amazon river, this book offers a glimpse into river habitats. We see how rivers form, how they shape the land – and are shaped by it, and the diversity of wildlife and plants that live along and in these waterways. Author Cathryn Sills also emphasizes the importance of conservation, because people depend on healthy rivers too.

What I like about this book: Informative text is paired with engaging illustrations. While some are scenic, others are filled with details that will have kids spending time on the page. For example, one page introduces the concept that rivers provide food and shelter to animals – and the caption lists some animals for the reader to find in the illustration.

There is back matter! As with other books in the About Habitats series, this one has six pages of more detailed information about each river illustration. There is also a glossary and a list of books and websites for further discovery. And there is Front Matter: a labeled diagram showing parts of a river basin, with simple definitions.

River Rescue 
by Jennifer Keats Curtis; illus. by Tammy Yee
32 pages; ages 4-9
Arbordale Publishing, 2019

On shore, two big pelicans hop rather than fly. See how black their bellies are? They are covered with oil.

When there is an oil spill, workers rush to the scene to clean the water and shoreline. But who cleans the animals? This book shows how the Oiled Wildlife Response Team at Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research in Delaware responds to an oil spill. It also shows how oil spilled into water affects the birds, turtles, salamanders, fish, and other animals living in and near the water. We see the wildlife rescuers cleaning birds – flushing oil from their eyes and mouths, washing and rinsing oil off feathers. It can take two or three people about an hour or more to wash and rinse the wings and body. And then they need to dry them with heat lamps and blowers – another couple hours. Then the birds need to stay under their care until they have preened and water-proofed their feathers and that might take another week.

What I like about this book: I love the up-close-and-personal view into wildlife rescue. I didn’t know it took that long to wash and rinse off gloopy, sticky oil! I like the back matter: a section about preventing oil spills, a wildlife identification challenge, and an interview with the director of the rescue center.

Beyond the Books:

Visit a river or stream near you. Notice the kinds of plants growing near it. Can you identify any of them? Look for animals in the water and along the shore. Try to find some birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, insects, and mammals. Take photos or draw pictures to make a book about your river. More activities here.

Play “Jump the River” game. Here's how.

Today we're joining other book bloggers over at STEM Friday, where you can discover other cool STEM books.
Review ARC (About Habitat) and copy provided by the publishers.

Wednesday Explorers Club ~ looking up

Trees can help you gain perspective ~

look at the world from a different point of view!

The Apollo Missions for Kids

The Apollo Missions for Kids: The People and Engineering Behind the Race to the Moon, with 21 Activities
By Jerome Pohlen
160 pages; ages 9 and up
Chicago Review Press, 2019

This was the summer of SPACE – celebrating the historic spaceflight that landed the first two people on the moon (July 20, 1969). Getting people to the moon took money and man-power. It took teamwork! More than 400,000 people worked on the Apollo project, in factories and offices spread over 46 states, writes Jerome Pohlen.

Mostly, it took vision – the vision of President John F. Kennedy who, in 1961 declared the goal of landing a man on the moon within the span of a decade. At the time, the US space program was in its infancy; just 20 days earlier the first astronaut had been launched – a 15-minute flight up and back without even time to orbit the earth. Landing a human on the moon would be a challenge.

This book takes us into Mission Control and into space with the Gemini and Apollo projects. We get a close-up view of astronaut training, engineering problems, and the test of human endurance that early missions demanded. There were tragedies – the Apollo One crew was killed in a fire on the Launchpad during a test – and triumphs as the scientists, engineers, and astronauts worked toward their goal of safely landing on the moon and returning to Earth.

What I like about this book: The writing is engaging, like reading a story well told, and supported by plenty of sidebars. The book opens with a timeline that begins with 1926 – when Robert Goddard launched his first liquid-fueled rocket – to 1979 when Skylab fell to Earth. Sidebars provide additional details about the Saturn V rocket, how capsules “surf” through the atmosphere, moonsuit details, as well as offer short bios of software engineer Margaret Hamilton and “computer” Katherine Johnson (who calculated flight trajectories).

Twenty-one activities range from designing your own mission patch to figuring out your moon-weight, orbital mechanics, making “space food”, and more.

Beyond the Book:

Check out NASA’s page on the Apollo missions here.

Watch the Apollo 11 moon landing here.

Today we're joining other book bloggers over at STEM Friday, where you can discover other cool STEM books. And 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.