Wrapped in Foil

April 18, 2010April 20, 2010

Nonfiction Monday April 19 Edition

Spring has sprung. Poetry is in the air. The birds are singing, flowers bursting, and the insects are all abuzz. Throw off the dark cloaks of winter and come celebrate the warm spring sunshine with a great nonfiction book.

Nonfiction Monday is here today. Please leave a link to your contribution in the comments and I will post them throughout the day.

I’m trying a new format. Please let me know if you have any trouble viewing it in your browser.

	Robin starts us out with a review of the book Art from Her Heart, a wonderful biography about folk artist Clementine Hunter at The Book Nosher.
	Here at Wrapped in Foil, I have Amy S. Hansen’s Bugs and Bugsicles: Insects in Winter.
	Doret at TheHappyNappyBookseller presents the young adult book Spies of Mississippi by Rick Bowers.
	Sarah listed her family’s favorite wildflower guides at In Need of Chocolate. It’s a great time for wildflowers!
	Bookends is featuring a wonderful book, If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge by Marc Aronson with Mike Parker Pearson.
	At Abby the Librarian, Abby reviewed Prowling the Seas: Exploring the Hidden World of Ocean Predators by Pamela S. Turner.

	Jeannine wrote about two nonfiction picture books that got love from otherwise unimpressed children’s literature class: One Thousand Tracings and Planting the Trees of Kenya, at Jeannine Atkins.
	Kim says they are continuing their Earth Day series at the Wild About Nature blog with a review of Oil Spill! by Melvin Berger.
	Jennifer has a post on introducing nonfiction to early readers showcasing three nonfiction book titles at Jean Little Library. – and there are several other nonfiction posts in the April I can Read Carnival!
	Wait isn’t Wicked a fiction book? Peggy at Telling Kids The Truth, shares a story that highlights the difference between nonfiction and fiction writers. OZ– Literally.
	At Lori Calabrese Writes!, Lori reviews Weird But True: 300 Outrageous Facts. I don’t want to know how they found out about that cat urine thing…
	Mary Ann at Great Kid Books has a review of Tan to Tamarind, a wonderful book of poetry that celebrates the beauty of brown, and helps give voice to the different shades of skin children see all around them.

	Anastasia has a sentence fluency mini-lesson relating to Pierre the Penguin: A True Story at Picture Book of the Day.
	Shirley at SimplyScience reviews Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow: A Compost Story,right in time for spring gardening season.
	Becky also takes a look at the popular If Stones Could Speak by Marc Aronson today at Becky’s Book Reviews.
	Today at The Cat & The Fiddle, Michelle has an interview with Poet/Author Betsy Franco about the process of writing her math book Zero is the Leaves on the Tree.
	Wendie Old at Wendie’s Wanderings is featuring Linda Sue Park’s yummy book of poetry Bee-bim Bop!
	A big welcome to Tammy Flanders, who writes about 14 Cows at Apples with Many Seeds.

Amanda adds a review of Global Warming over at A Patchwork of Books for Earth Day.

Welcome to Paula from Belgium. She reviews a book about WWII called The Little Ships at her blog.

Thank you to everyone who contributed this week.

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. For more information, stop by Picture Book of the Day.

April 18, 2010September 6, 2010

Bugs and Bugsicles

Bugs and Bugsicles: Insects in the Winter is such a great title, you just know that children are going to want to pick it up to see what it “bugsicles” are. The topic is appealing, too. Who hasn’t at one point or another wondered where do insects go in the winter? The answers are here in stories filled with interesting facts.

Author Amy S. Hansen and Illustrator Robert C. Kray have put together an irresistible package. Kray’s acrylic paintings capture each season with autumn oranges and yellows in the fall, and cool blues and grays in the winter scenes. Hansen has chosen eight types of insect to investigate in detail. Some stories are fairly unique in the insect world, such as the long migrations of the monarch butterfly. Others are common strategies also used by many related insects, such as the cricket laying eggs underground. She saves the best for last with the story of how the artic woollybear caterpillar overwinters. Kids will love that one!

Although winter is coming to a close, spring is a wonderful time to pull out this book. Children can look for insects that are just coming out of their winter hibernation and think about where they were hiding. For example, when you see the first honey bee of the season, remember that honey bees cluster together in the hive and shiver to keep warm. Now it is time for them to gather the nectar they will need to replenish their honey stores that they used to get through the winter.

A real selling point for this book is that Hansen has included two fun hands-on experiments in the back to explore the properties of water when it freezes. The first examines how water expands when it freezes, one of the problems insects face when exposed to extreme cold. The second experiment points the way to a possible “solution” to that problem.

If you intrigued to find out more about bugsicles, then this is the book for you.

For more activities:

Shirley also has a review and activities at Simply Science.

Anastasia has a review and mini-lesson at Picture Book of the Day

I have related activities at Growing with Science.

Reading level: Although Amazon says Ages 9-12, I would say a bit younger.
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press (January 2010)
ISBN-10: 1590787633
ISBN-13: 978-1590787632

This book was provided by the author.

April 12, 2010August 6, 2015

Bursting With Poetry

April is a wonderful time for National Poetry Month. Flowers are blooming, the leaves are popping, insects are buzzing. Spring is a magical time of rebirth, which seems can only be fully and joyfully expressed in the form of poetry.

For example, the bright yellow brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) are blooming on the roadsides right now in Arizona.

The bright yellow masses inspired this simple acrostic poem:

Brittlebush

Bright yellow flowers
Rattlesnakes slip into shade
Indigenous to Arizona
Tortoises munch
Tarantulas wander by
Lizards sunbathe quietly
Elegant bouquet

Bees slurp, then zip
Underneath is cool
Sun loving
Heat resistant

By Nathan and Roberta

And this haiku:

bee sits on flower

buzz buzz bee sips sweet nectar

quick! next flower waits

Roberta Gibson

If you are in the mood to read some insect-inspired poetry, then Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (illustrated by Eric Beddows), is an absoulutely wonderful older book to pull out and enjoy once again. It was the winner of 1989 Newbery Medal.

On page 3, the grasshopper poem is a perfect accompaniment to a good bout of spring fever.

Enjoy!

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins; First Edition edition (December 28, 2004)
ISBN-10: 0064460932
ISBN-13: 978-0064460934
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices

(Affiliate link to Amazon)

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 Shelf-Employed.

April 6, 2010March 26, 2011

Cheerios Writing Contest Open

Attention aspiring children’s book writers:

If you are an unpublished author (please check the website for the rules about being published), then you should consider the 4th Annual Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories New Author Contest. Basically, you need to enter by July 15, 2010 and if you win, your work will be published and distributed in cereal boxes. There are profiles of past winners at the Simon and Schuster site.

After finding a free copy of Duck for President by Diane Cronin in our Cheerios one day, we have been hooked on the Spoonfuls of Stories idea.

Edit: Although some of these links still work, check my 2011 post for the newest contest.

(Oats cereal rings by Petr Kratochvil)

Good luck!