Author: Roberta

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Jane Goodall and Chimps

As an aspiring children’s book author, I am now ready to throw in the towel. I was okay when the king of artist biographies, Mike Venezia, moved into biographies of musicians. I started to get a little uneasy when he began to tackle the presidents. Now I have found out Mr. Venezia has a new “Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Inventors and Scientists” series. He is just too much competition, I’m afraid. I’m calling it quits.

Okay, so that was tongue-in-cheek, which I’m sure Mike Venezia would understand because he is so fantastic at injecting humor into his works.Jane-Goodall

This weekend I found a copy of Jane Goodall:  Researcher Who Champions Chimps at the library. If you are familiar with Mike Venezia’s previous books, you will immediately recognize the winning formula here. Interspersed with pages of the typical biographical information and photographs are lighthearted stories of things Jane Goodall did as a child, illustrated with funny cartoons.

Most children find the less-serious approach very appealing, and these books are wonderful for reluctant readers. Adults shouldn’t be fooled though, this book does an excellent job of covering the essentials of Jane Goodall’s life. One can’t help being inspired by an eager young secretary who goes to Africa in search of adventure and ends up a famous ethologist and world authority on chimpanzees.

A perfect fit for any library, this book is sure to attract readers.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Library Binding: 32 pages
Publisher: Children’s Press (March 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0531237311
ISBN-13: 978-0531237311

On the same day, I also found Termites on a Stick by Michele Coxon, which would make a fine companion to the Jane Goodall book.

Termites on a Stick

In this case, the illustrations caught my eye. The chimpanzees that Jane Goodall studied take center stage. The story follows a little chimp as he learns the important skill of using a stick as a tool to fish for termites. This is one of the first interesting behaviors that Jane Goodall discovered.

The book includes a page of chimpanzee facts and detailed illustrations of a chimps hands and feet, as well as the inside of a termite mound.

Reading level: Ages 4-8
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Star Bright Books (May 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1595721835
ISBN-13: 978-1595721839

If you are interested in learning more about Jane Goodall, try Meet A Scientist:  Jane Goodall at Growing With Science today. If you want to see more about how chimps and gorillas feed on ants, check Wild About Ants.

nonfictionmonday

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. For more information, stop by Picture Book of the Day. This week’s post is at In Need of Chocolate.

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Fun Children’s Book Blog

After the rant in yesterday’s post, let’s look at something in a lighter vein today:

If you like snarky book reviews, or reviews that will make you laugh out loud, try Curious Pages blog. One of my favorites is the review of The Stupids Die by Harry Allard and James Marshall. It’s short and sweet.

Thanks to Sandra Foyt for making my day. 🙂

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Google Alert Rant: Children’s Nonfiction

Have you tried Google Alerts? I have been getting Google Alerts for a while now, all of them blog-related topics. Given my interest in “children’s nonfiction,” I chose that as an alert.

At first I thought probably it would be too broad an alert and I’d get dozens or maybe even hundreds of links. I figured I’d have to tweak it to make it manageable. As it turns out, I have gotten relatively few alerts, even though I know our community is actively blogging about children’s nonfiction. I began to wonder how are the blog posts chosen for alerts.

Today’s alert hit a new bottom. There was only one alert for “children’s nonfiction” this week, despite all the posts I know have been written. I don’t want to give this post any more traffic, but I know you’ll be curious and want to see it for yourself, so here’s the link. I am just so very, very sad that this is the only post chosen.

Do you know how Google chooses blog posts for its alerts? Do you think I’m missing the boat because most people choose to hyphenate non-fiction?

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Share a Story: Nonfiction

ShareAStoryLogo-colorToday’s Share a Story-Shape a Future literacy blog tour explores reading nonfiction. Here are my response to one of the writing prompts.

Do you have an image (photo, chart, illustration) from a nonfiction book that has stayed with you, even though you don’t remember many of the details about what you read?

So many of the nonfiction picture books these days have extraordinary images, it is hard to really narrow it down to a few. I asked my son to help, and here are his favorite books with memorable visuals:

pumpkin-circle Pumpkin Circle:  The Story of a Garden by George Levenson has the most amazing photographs by Shmuel Thaler. This book is sure to excite any child. Who doesn’t love pumpkins and growing things?

He also picked out A Seed is Sleepy by Diana Hutts Aston and illustrated by Sylvia Long, as well as An Egg is Quiet, by the same pair.

Finally, he said, “The beetle book!” He meant Dragonfly Beetle Butterfly Bee by Maryjo Koch. He helped me make the Amazon widget, and decided to add her other books to remind me to buy them. 🙂

(Am I the only one who thinks these carousel widgets are really cool? I don’t see many people using them.)

Any of these beautiful books is guaranteed to attract a child’s attention and encourage him or her to pick it up.

What books would you add?

Thanks to Elizabeth Dulemba for the great Share -A -Story button!