Category: Middle Grade Nonfiction

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Catch the Wind, Harness the Sun: 22 Super-Charged Projects for Kids

Catch the Wind, Harness the Sun: 22 Super-Charged Projects for Kids, a new book from Storey Publishing by Michael J. Caduto, will catch your eye if you are interested in hands-on projects covering environmental and science topics. You will be surprised, however, to find it is also chock full of history, current events, and even a few jokes, as well.

Renewable energy is currently a hot topic and this book is definitely a well-rounded overview, exploring from many different angles. The activities range from relatively fast and straightforward, to those requiring more time and skill.

The illustrations, running the gamut from color photographs to cartoons, clearly show how to complete each project and are very child-friendly.

The activities are original and the book has a great deal of depth compared to many other hands-on science books. Depending on your outlook on renewable energy and environmental issues, however, some people might find parts of the text a bit heavy handed, especially for a book targeted for young children. Personally, I found the addition of jokes and cartoons were a nice counter balance to the more serious aspects of the book.

The book trailer will give you a better idea what it is all about:

You may also see an extensive excerpt of the book at Google Books:

Catch the Wind, Harness the Sun: 22 Super-Charged Projects for Kids might be just the ticket to get children excited about renewable energy. Who knows where it may lead them in the future.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this book.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (April 30, 2011)
ISBN-10: 9781603427944
ISBN-13: 978-1603427944

Be sure to look for more information about children’s books at today’s Book Talk Tuesday.

Book provided for review electronically at NetGalley.

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Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot

Have you seen  Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot by Sy Montgomery and photographs by Nic Bishop yet? It is on the shortlist for the Cybils in the Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction category. Fuse #8 has predicted it might be in line for the Sibert Medal. If you haven’t seen it, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. It just another book in the Scientists in the Field series, right?

The fuss is all about the strangest, most wondrous, and captivating bird on the planet, called a kakapo parrot.

My family first learned about the adorable kakapo parrot from Sir David Attenborough’s The Life of Birds. The kakapo lives in New Zealand, known for its unusual bird life. In this case “unusual” is an understatement. These large, flightless parrots (weighing up to eight pounds) have soft green feathers that smell strongly of honey, of all things. The sweet smell is thought to come from a bacteria that lives on the birds. They are active at night, and hide during the day in burrows under the ground. That is not where you would expect to find a parrot at all.

Photograph from Brent Barrett at Wikipedia

This tale does have a sad part. Over the last few hundred years, the kakapo numbers have plummeted. A few times they were thought to be nearly extinct. Right now conservationists are trying valiantly to save the less than 100 birds that remain.

With the team of experienced nature writer Sy Montgomery and and fabulous photographer Nic Bishop, you know Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot is going to be high quality. Two of their previous books have been Sibert Honor books. What really tips this book into another category is their obvious passion for the topic. You can tell these two are thrilled to be freezing and wet on a remote island near Antartica chasing the kakapo story to share with us.

Photograph by Mnolf at Wikipedia

As Montgomery so eloquently reminds us, we don’t know the ending to this particular story yet. “We could be witness to one of the most thrilling conservation success stories in human history – or one of the noblest but most tragic failures.”

What do you think?

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 80 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (May 24, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0618494170
ISBN-13: 978-0618494170

nonfictionmonday

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. We invite you to join us. For more information and a schedule, stop by the new Nonfiction Monday blog to see who is hosting each week. This week’s post is at Charlotte’s Library.

If you are a fan of children’s nonfiction books, be sure to visit the new Nonfiction Monday Facebook page.

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Journey Into The Deep Has Real Depth

Middle grade and older students who are interested in science have it so good these days, with new books like Journey Into The Deep: Discovering New Ocean Creatures by Rebecca L. Johnson. Readers learn about cutting edge science, view glorious full-color photographs of creatures never seen before, and get glimpses into the lives of scientists at work. It is so appropriate for kids at an age where they are getting ready to explore their world, as well as starting to think about their career options. This book is sure to inspire everyone to want to study marine biology.

Journey Into The Deep is an overview of the Census of Marine Life, a world-wide effort (carried out from 2000 to 2010) to survey, count, and investigate all the living things in the ocean. Johnson describes where and how the searches were carried out, and describes in detail some of the exciting findings. As of the time the book was published, the participating scientists had found some 5,600 new species, from tiny and colorful lobsters to zombie worms that feed on bones without the benefit of having mouths or stomachs. (The zombie worms are actually a lovely, delicate pink color, so zombie may be a bit of a misnomer.) You just have to see the photographs of these new creatures. They are amazing!

As an example of the level of thought that went into this book, the pages start with light blue hues in the background, symbolizing the color of the water at shallow depths. As your get “deeper” into the book, the page backgrounds darken, until they are black with white text. It is subtle, but adds to the effect that you are right there with the scientists exploring the ocean depths.

Tucked in sidebars are things that any individual can do to help the oceans, and information how you can become a scientist who studies the oceans. And believe me, after reading this book you are going to want to become an ocean scientist,  because it is so inspiring. Pick up a copy and see for yourself!

This short video from National Geographic gives you an idea what the Census of Marine Life is all about.

Journey Into The Deep is nominated for a 2010 Cybils award in the MG/YA nonfiction category.

Resources:
Discussion Guide at Lerner Books (check right sidebar)

Other popular and science books at Census of Marine Life

Reading level: Young Adult
Library Binding: 64 pages
Publisher: Millbrook Press (September 2010)
ISBN-10: 076134148X
ISBN-13: 978-0761341482

nonfictionmonday

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. We invite you to join us. For more information and a schedule, stop by Anastasia Suen’s Nonfiction Monday page. This week’s post is at Simply Science.

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The Bat Scientists

Mary Kay Carson’s new book The Bat Scientists with photographs by her husband, Tom Uhlman, is a stand out in the wonderful Scientists in the Field series. Even if you are only mildly interested in bats or find bats off putting, this is a fascinating book.

Carson follows bat scientist Merlin Tuttle into a cave in Texas to find out what studying bats in like. Immediately we learn that this field is not for the squeamish. Wading through bat guano teeming with insects, while breathing through a respirator in a smelly cave at temperatures of 100° F isn’t for everyone. Thank goodness that Dr. Tuttle and his colleagues (and Mary Carson) are willing to do it, because it turns out that bats are pretty important in the scheme of things. By learning more about them, hopefully we can protect these fragile and misunderstood little creatures before it is too late. Carson discusses some of the disturbing recent threats to bats at the end of the book.

Our family became intrigued by bats years ago through two great fiction picture books: Stellaluna by Janell Cannon and wonderful The Bat in the Boot by Annie Cannon. This great nonfiction middle grade book is keeping that curiosity alive and well, as we learn the current bat facts and research techniques. As my son says,”The Bat Scientists is a really good book!”

This book was nominated for a Cybils in middle grade nonfiction.

For more information and reviews, see Mary Carson’s The Bat Scientists page.

For bat science activities, see Growing With Science.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 80 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (September 6, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0547199562
ISBN-13: 978-0547199566

Related Nonfiction Reader:

Fiction Picture Books About Bats:

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon

The Bat in the Boot by Annie Cannon

nonfictionmonday

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. We invite you to join us. For more information and a schedule, stop by Anastasia Suen’s Nonfiction Monday page. This week’s post is at Books Together.