Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday - September New Releases

September 3, 2014 Alyson Beecher

Thank you everyone for all of the great posts each week for the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge 2014.

At the beginning of each month, I like to try to do a post to spread the word about recent releases or upcoming nonfiction/informational titles. It is not comprehensive, but I do try to include a variety of books that might be of interest to readers. Some of them I have read and some I have yet to read. Often I include reviews in later posts.

Here are some September titles and a few that I missed posting earlier in the year. If you missed the posts from the past eight months, I have included links to them below.

Coming this month:

September 1, 2014

Dear Wandering Wildebeest: And Other Poems From the Watering Hole by Irene Latham (Millbrook Press)

The Case of the Vanishing Little Brown Bats: A Scientific Mystery by Sandra Markle (Millbrook Press)

When Lunch Fights Back by Rebecca L. Johnson (Millbrook Press)

September 2, 2014

In the Rain Forest by Kate Duke (HarperCollins)

Joltin' Joe DiMaggio by Jonah Winter; Illustrated by James E. Ransome (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)

Mr. Ferris and His Wheel by Gibbs Davis; Illustrated by Gilbert Ford (HMH Books for Young Readers)

September 15, 2014

The Seasons of Little Wolf by Jonathan London; Illustrated by Jon Van Zyle (Westwinds Press)

September 30, 2014

The World According to Musk Ox by Erin Cabatingan; Illustrated by Matthew Myers (Roaring Brook Press)

From earlier in the year:

August 1, 2014

Who Was Here? Discovering Wild Animal Tracks by Mia Posada (Millbrook)

July 1, 2014

How Strong is an Ant? And Other Questions About Bugs and Insects by Mary Kay Carson (Sterling Children's Books)

April 1, 2014

The Secret Life of the Woolly Bear Caterpillar by Laurence Pringle (Boyds Mills Press)

March 18, 2014

Have You Heard of the Nesting Bird? by Rita Gray; Illustrated by Kenard Pak (HMH Books for Young Readers)

January 7, 2014

How Does a Seed Sprout? And Other Questions About Plants by Melissa Stewart (Sterling Children's Books)

How Many Planets Circle the Sun? And Other Questions About Our Solar System by Mary Kay Carson (Sterling Children's Books)

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews:

Building a Nonfiction Classroom Library Part V - Marine Life

August 31, 2014 Alyson Beecher

When I began this series, I wasn't sure where it would take me. Of course, I want each post to assist teachers and other readers of the series to find great books to include in their classroom libraries, but I never realized how much I would learn too.

In high school, my biology class took a field trip to the coast of Connecticut and we spent the day on a fishing boat discussing the various marine life in the area. I was completely enthralled by the trip and always thought it would be cool to be a marine biologist. Though that never became a part of my career path, I have always maintained an interest in and a love for the ocean and marine life.

Today, listed below is over 25 titles written in different styles and also geared towards a range of reading levels. Some of the books are great for their photographs and others can be used as a read aloud or a reference, while others will draw students into shared reading experiences as they call others over to see what they have discovered.

Also don't forget to check out the previous posts for more book recommendations:
Part I Introduction | Part II Biographies | Part III Animals/Mammals | Part IV Creepy Crawlies

This time I am taking a slightly different approach and instead of focusing on individual authors, I have grouped some titles together. Below are 28 titles and really this is just a small number of titles that are out there. I realize that I have so many more books to read it this area and to expand beyond the parts of the ocean that I naturally gravitate towards, but this list will certainly get you started.

National Geographic Kids - There are so many amazing titles by National Geographic Kids that it is best just to go browse on their website. I have enjoyed everyone of their titles.

Scientists in the Field - This is an amazing series with so many wonderful titles. Check out the website for the series and all of the titles including the six listed below.

Biographies - Here are two biographies that I did not include in my previous post. Here are the links - The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino and Life in the Ocean by Claire A. Nivola

Poetry - Water Sings Blue by Kate Coombs and In the Sea by David Elliott

Sharks and Coral Reefs
CORAL REEFS | NEIGHBORHOOD SHARKS | SURPRISING SHARKS | CORAL REEFS

Sea Turtles and More
I'LL FOLLOW THE MOON | ONE TINY TURTLE | LIFESIZE OCEAN | SHIMMER & SPLASH

And even more...
STAR OF THE SEA | HERE COME THE HUMPBACKS | DOWN, DOWN, DOWN | WEIRD SEA CREATURES

For several more titles beyond what I included here, check out the following posts by Carrie Gelson: Life in the Deep Blue Sea | Ocean Wonders: 20 Nonfiction Picture Books About Sea Life

Additional Marine Biology Resources:

marinebio.org

Marine Mammal Center

Smithsonian: Ocean Portal

National Geographic: Ocean Photos

Ocean Conservancy

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday - When Lunch Fights Back

August 27, 2014 Alyson Beecher

Thank you everyone for all of the great posts each week for the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge 2014.

When Lunch Fights Back: Wickedly Clever Animal Defenses
by Rebecca L. Johnson
Millbrook Press (September 1, 2014)
Audience: Grades 4 to 8
Nonfiction * Animal Defenses * Animals
IndieBound | WorldCat | Author's Website

Description from GoodReads:
Meet living things with some of the strangest defenses known to science: termites that blow themselves up to save the colony; fish that produce copious amounts of gooey, slippery slime; lizards that run on water, and more.

My thoughts on the book:

From primitive eels that ooze slime to frogs with hidden weapons in their rear toes to lizards that squirt a stream of blood at predators, Rebecca L. Johnson's newest book, When Lunch Fights Back, engages readers from the very first page to the very last one. Through the course of the book, readers learn about several different creatures and one unique plant/insect partnership and how they are each uniquely equipped for survival.

Similar to Johnson's Zombie Makers: True Stories of Nature's Undead, readers learn the story followed by the science behind the story. The first story is about a hagfish (primitive eel) and how it releases "snot-like goo" when a shark tries to attack it. On the next page, there is a picture of the hagfish being held by a biologist's hands that are covered in slime. Though I am still grossed out by the first chapter, I couldn't stop reading. The "I don't want to stop reading" experience is definitely what I want students to have when reading nonfiction.

When Lunch Fights Back may only have 48 pages, but it is filled with great information and the extra resources at the end provide students with a way of learning more about the stories contained in the book. This is a definite must have in a classroom nonfiction library.

And since I am still grossed out by the Hagfish, here's a video of one:

Here is the other story that has me saying "Eww" - Horned Lizard shooting blood:

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews:

Building a Nonfiction Classroom Library Part III - Animals

August 23, 2014 Alyson Beecher

Animals. This is definitely a popular category with children. And you would think this category might be fairly simple. There are tons of animal books. However, it is deceptively complex. Animals actually include vertebrates, molluscs, arthropods, annelids, sponges, and jellyfish. Even if I just tried to focus on vertebrates, this section would be huge.

So, here is where biologists with their efficient classification systems likely roll their eyes at teachers in preschool and primary grades who separate and rearrange these classifications to suit their own sensibilities. It certainly makes sense to me to group all of the ocean and marine life into one category even if technically they fall into all six from above.

Remember how in Part II, I spoke about tubs of books? Well, mammals will likely end up divided into several tubs. When I taught preschool my classifications looked more like this - pets (cats, dogs, rabbits, birds) and animals on a farm (cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens) and animals in the jungle (monkeys, tigers, lions, elephants, zebras) and forest (wolves, deer, bears, moose). Either you are laughing or crying by now, depending on whether you are a teacher or a scientist. However, my teacher buddies know exactly what I am talking about. And to the be respectful of my scientist friends, yes, we should include opportunities to discuss those various classifications with students and why they exist.

In thinking about this category, and in light of this project, I have elected to refer to animals as mammals for the purpose of this post. Additionally, as with the biographies section, I am focusing on some individual books, and some authors that are quite prolific. You will also see many of these authors again when I do future posts on creepy crawlies or reptiles and birds or marine life.

Finally, the purpose of this post is not to refer you just to a pre-packaged series of books but to identify a number of quality trade titles that can be used as a starter for building your classroom library. Have fun exploring these titles and other books written by the authors listed below.

You will find the links to the previous posts here: Part I: Introduction | Part II: Biographies

Jean Craighead George

Side Note: National Geographic Kids has a plethora of books on animals and I could list 100 just from them. Additionally, the Scientist in the Field Series (HMH Books for Young Readers) has additional titles not listed above.

Building a Nonfiction Classroom Library Part II - Biographies

August 20, 2014 Alyson Beecher

Yesterday, I began a series on Building a Nonfiction Classroom Library. At this point, I am not exactly certain how many parts it will be. Originally, I was thinking I would do one a day for five days. However, the more I thought about it, the more I decided to focus on several things:

Nonfiction Book Recommendations
Choosing Books and Developing Your Collection
Using Nonfiction in the Classroom to Support Writing

When I started to think about categories, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to organize book recommendations. Do I use writing styles such as narrative, expository, and persuasive? Or do I think about text structures (description, sequence, problem & solution, question & answer, cause & effect, comparison & contrast). Neither felt like a natural way of dividing up books or making recommendations. However, both of these - writing style and text structure - play a huge role in using nonfiction in the classroom. So, we will return to this in future posts.

Finally, I settled on how I would divide books into tubs in a classroom. This may not be how a librarian would sort them, but as a teacher, this is likely where I would look for them if I am going to use them as part of lessons.

My first set of tubs would be biographies.

Below you will find 40 titles by 20 different authors to include as you build your classroom library. By clicking on the author's name, you will be taken to his or her GoodReads page where you can see more information about the covers shown below as well as additional books by many of these authors. It was difficult to narrow down my list to just these authors since there are many more that I have loved. However, I tried to choose authors who had more than one title (yes, I have a few exceptions) and also tried to aim for some diversity though I have a ways to go to truly be diverse.

For more recommendations, here is a link to my GoodReads Shelf: Biographies. In 2013, I wrote a post for the Nerdy Book Club about my Top Ten Biographical Picture Books and the way I would pair them with another book. Though my top ten has likely changed since then, there are several more titles listed there.

In a future post, I will explore biographical series created by a publisher, and those can be selected and included as well in a classroom library.

Stop by on Friday, for my favorite nonfiction picture books about animals.

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews here:

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