Nonfiction Monday: Pumpkin Circle

Pumpkin Circle
Written by George Levenson, Photgraphs by Shmuel Thaler
Ages 4-8; 40 pages
Tricycle Press, 2004

Reviewed by Heidi Bee Roemer

Book Source: This book was borrowed from the Orland Park Public Library.

Nestled inside the pumpkin’s squishy orange middle is the secret to its life cycle—seeds! The amazing transformation from small seed to garden giant is artistically conveyed through dazzling full-color photographs. Early images show how a planted seed grows roots and sprouts baby leaves. Over the course of a summer, time-lapsed snapshots follow the plants’ growth. Delicate tendrils, massive green leaves, feathery buds, and magnificent golden blossoms fill the pages, until, at last, the first baseball-sized globe appears! Rhymed text describes the pumpkin’s progress. "A hundred days of weather. / A hundred days of care. / Pumpkins climbing up the fence. / Pumpkins everywhere!"
But that’s not the end of the story! Come fall, pumpkins are harvested and some are carved for Halloween. And as the jack-o-lanterns age, they slowly decompose—and you guessed it!— they provide a fertile new place for seeds to sprout. The closing lines underscore this important point: "We can be sure of this: It’s a circle without end. / It’s pumpkin seeds to pumpkins, / to pumpkin seeds again!"
If you feel inspired to plant a seed and watch grow, the final page offers instructions on how to do just that. Available in Spanish and English, hardcover and paperback, Pumpkin Circle is based on an award-winning, 20 minute video. For a video preview, ordering information, classroom activities, a recipe, and related links, visit http://www.pumpkincircle.com/.

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday Round-Up posted this week at Abby the Librarian.

Nonfiction Monday: Music in the Marsh

Marsh Morning
By Marianne Berkes
Millbrook Press, 2003
Marsh Music
By Marianne Berkes
Millbrook Press, 2000
Reviewed by Kimberly Hutmacher
Book Source: We would like to thank Millbrook Press for donating both of these books for review.

We learn in both of these books that if it is music you want, the perfect place to be is in a marsh. Blackbirds, sparrows, wrens and more contribute their individual songs to the ultimate in outdoor concerts in Marsh Morning. From the blackbird’s o-ka-lee to the ha-oo-oo of the laughing loon, this book is a wonderful tool to introduce mother nature’s music.

What birds give to daytime in the marsh, frogs give to the night. Told in romping verse, maestro frog begins the show. We hear the chorus, woodwinds, strings, horns and percussion. Along the way, readers are introduced to a variety of frogs and the sounds they make.

The back matter of both books includes a glossary of vocabulary terms and supporting facts about the birds and frogs featured in the texts. This symphony of music is both educational and beautiful.

To learn more about the author, Marianne Berkes, read an interview Laura Crawford did with her earlier this year.

This post is part of the Nonfiction Monday Round-up hosted this week at Books Together blog.

Nonfiction Monday: Shrinking Days, Frosty Nights

Shrinking Days, Frosty Nights: Poems about Fall by Laura Purdie Salas
Ages 4-8, 32 pages
Capstone Press, 2008

Reviewed by Heidi Bee Roemer

Book Source: We would like to thank Capstone Press for sharing a copy of this book for review.

This collection of sixteen lively seasonal poems captures the essence of autumn and all its orange-crimson-golden glory. Using a variety of poetry forms, Salas highlights some of the season’s most "ap-peel-ing" aspects. A terse verse simply titled "Apples" describes the crisp, red skinned fruit as "…Tree-sprucers / Sweet-juicers / Ground-spillers / Pie fillers..." In another poem, smooth-skinned pumpkins metaphorically call themselves "golden moons" and "hard-knock globes with mushy guts." Its closing line reads, "We’re giant autumn garden gems / We’re wobbly bowling balls—with stems." Nature’s nod to chillier weather is cheerfully noted in poems about geese winging their way south and squirrels burying acorns in preparation of the coming winter. A haiku speaks of glittery frost on delicate leaves.
Several non-nature poems are also included, such as "Big Yellow Ride," which narrates a child’s first bus ride, "Watchman," an acrostic poem about a scarecrow standing guard, and "Score!" a let’s-play-football shape poem. Stunning, large-size color photos compliment each poem and capture the magic and nostalgia of the season.
Perfect for beginning readers or as a read-aloud, Shrinking Days (Capstone Press A+ Series) encourages further learning with its glossary, description of various poetry forms, additional reading list, and suggested internet sites. Truly delightful!

Laura Crawford also had the opportunity to interview author, Laura Purdie Salas:

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF.

I'm a freelance writer, and I write a lot of nonfiction for educational companies. I'm really a poet at heart, but I love to learn new stuff, so writing nonfiction is something I enjoy, too. The nonfiction work I do gives me great ideas for poetry, which is always cool. And I especially enjoy poetry that incorporates lots of nonfiction.In addition to writing books, I also do assessment work, do some freelance PR work, teach some online and in-person classes...all sorts of stuff to craft a career and income based mostly around children's writing.

WHERE DO YOUR IDEAS FOR NONFICTION COME FROM?

For my nonfiction books for educational publishers, the publishers actually come up with the ideas! They hire me to write books on particular topics for particular age ranges--often in a specific format to match the rest of a series.For this book, Home on the Earth, I got to mix nonfiction with verse, which was a challenge to do, but was a real blast. Like a giant rhyming puzzle.For my trade manuscripts that are either nonfiction or a mix of poetry and nonfiction, I get my ideas largely from the natural world. Usually, one small fact that I learn that catches my fancy inspires anentire larger work.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE HARDEST PART ABOUT WRITING?

I struggle (a lot) with matching content age to form age. In other words, I'll come up with a project that I want to do as a picture book, but the topic or the voice are really older than picture book age. I have SO MANY projects that are cool in some ways but totally unmarketable in other ways. Sigh.

WHAT IS THE STRANGEST FACT YOU HAVE LEARNED?

There's a toad that totally freaks me out. The Surinam toad hatches her babies from her back. Ack! The eggs kind of implant themselves on her back and a thin skin grows over them. Then the babies hatch out later, right out of the back. I don't know what it is, but this totally makes me shudder.http://www.honoluluzoo.org/surinam_toad_gallery.htmHere's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUeMxI0dtQcEeeeuwww. But the facts that get the most visceral response from me are the ones I remember most. I first saw a picture of the Surinam toad probably 20 years ago, and it has just stayed with me, always.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR LATEST WORK.

My latest trade book is Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School (http://www.stampedebook.com). It's a collection of poems comparing kids at school to different kinds of animals. These are not nonfiction poems, but because I love the animal facts that inspired some of them, I enjoy doing some animal activities with kids at story times. Kids measure their arm span against various birds'/foxes' wingspans, and they jump to see what animal they can jump as far as, etc.

This post is part of the Nonfiction Monday Round-Up posted this week at Wrapped in Foil.

Nonfiction Monday: Bubble Homes and Fish Farts

Bubble Homes and Fish Farts

Written by Fiona Bayrock

Illustrated by Carolyn Conahan

Charlesbridge 2009 Ages 4-8

Book Source: Donated by Charlesbridge

Reviewed by Kimberly Hutmacher

I can recall the joy that a new bottle of bubbles brought me as a child. Small bubbles, large bubbles, double-bubbles and waves of rainbow bubbles. Those floaty shimmery bubbles were magical to me. But it was not until I read this new title by Fiona Bayrock that I realized how magical they were for animals, too!
The violet sea snail can’t swim. Guess what their mode of transportation is? Yes! They sail on bubbles.
Most sea animals have a thick layer of fat that insulates them from the cold. Unfortunately, sea otters do not have this gift. How do sea otters stay warm? Yes! Bubbles! They blow bubbles and move the water to make even more bubbles. They rub the bubbles into their fur. Their fur is designed to keep air bubbles in and cold water out.
And how about the title of the book? Thousands of herring gather each evening near the ocean’s surface and release streams of bubbles from their backsides. You might think the herring have some major digestion issues. Not so. We learn in this book that scientists think the herring use their fish farts as a way to communicate to each other without alerting predators.
Fiona Bayrock shares a total of sixteen ways in which bubbles are magical for animals in this book. The back matter includes several additional "bubble-maker" facts and a glossary defining several great vocabulary words found throughout the text. Carolyn Conahan’s soft watercolors were the perfect choice to capture the beauty and magic of each creature and bubble.

As an added bonus this week, Laura Crawford had the opportunity to interview Fiona Bayrock via email:

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF.

The “writing me” thumbnail sketch goes like this: I've been writing professionally for about eight years, mostly quirky science books and magazine articles for kids. I typically write in a conversational style, come at subjects from unusual angles, and season with generous helpings of humour, onomatopoeia, and kid-friendly similes. I have fun with whatever I’m working on. Family and theatre are the other big parts of my life.WHERE DO YOUR IDEAS FOR NONFICTION COME FROM?

Everywhere! …the news, my backyard, friends and family, questions kids ask at school visits, things I’m curious about. I never know when an idea is going to come zinging along. It can happen any time. And I do mean *any* time—while driving, sleeping, or conditioning my hair in the shower have all happened to me.The idea for Bubble Homes and Fish Farts came about one day when I tripped over four examples of animal bubbles: dolphin bubble rings (magazine article), water spider bubble home (book), spittlebugs (mygarden), fish farts (a new discovery at a local university). I found it fascinating that these four animals used bubbles in such unusual ways and I wondered if other animals did too. After a little snooping, I had a nice little picture-book-size list of bubbly animals.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE HARDEST PART ABOUT WRITING?

Getting the first draft down. I love doing it, but that’s the one step that definitely feels like work to me. After that, the process of moving words around, auditioning verbs, and tightening, tightening, tightening is so much like playing, I sometimes feel giddy with pleasure (and a bit guilty) at how much fun I’m having. Oh, what a word nerd, I am, eh!?
WHAT IS THE STRANGEST FACT YOU HAVE LEARNED?

Ever? Oh, man, every project seems to reveal facts stranger than the last. It’s one of things I love about writing nonfiction. Some facts are so bizarre that if you said you’d made them up and then published them as fiction, no one would believe it.Bubble Homes and Fish Farts is full of strange and unusual facts, but if I have to choose one as The Coolest Strange Fact, it would have to be the star-nosed mole. This critter sniffs air to follow scents as a dog would, except the star-nosed mole does it underwater by blowing bubbles from its nose and then breathing them back in. The mole follows the scent in the bubble air to find its prey.

This post is part of the Nonfiction Monday Round-Up hosted this week at Lori Calabrese Writes.

Nonfiction Monday: In the Forest

In the Forest (Look Once, Look Again series)
Written by David M. Schwartz, photographs by Dwight Kuhn
Ages 4-8, 16 pages, Gareth Stevens Publishing

Reviewed by Heidi Bee Roemer

Book Source: Orland Park Public Library

The artful close-up nature photos of plants and animals in In the Forest may fool you. At first you’ll see only a small section of the subject—a tip of a tail or a small portion of its body. Can you guess what it is? If not, turn the page to see the entire animal.
It looks like a textured, tan-colored rock, but it’s not! It’s a zoomed-in snapshot of a moose antler. It looks like a close-up view of a feather. Look again! It’s the antenna of a moth. Could this be the scaly leg of a monster reptile? Not quite. The odd-looking leg belongs to the box turtle. How many plants and animals will you be able to correctly identify? In addition to colorful, eye-catching photographs, accompanying text offers interesting fun facts about the featured plants and animals. For example, readers will learn that the bull moose’s hard, bony antlers fall off in the fall. In spring, he’ll grow new, larger antlers. The moth’s two feathery antennae function like its "nose." With his highly sensitive antennae, the male moth can smell a female three miles away!
In the Forest is just one of 24 titles in the Look Once, Look Again series. Informative, visual, and engaging, young animal-lovers will be eager to read every title in the collection!
As a child, David Schwartz was amazed by the size and distance of the stars and universe. One night as he looked into the sky, he was inspired to write his first book, How Much Is A Million. After 17 rejections, it was published with Steven Kellogg as the illustrator. David loves doing school visits and continues to write books that make science and math interesting for children. He has almost 50 books published and contributes to the Smithsonian magazine. Check out his website at http://www.davidschwartz.com/.

Bio written by Laura Crawford.

This post is part of the Nonfiction Monday Round-Up posted this week at Jean Little Library.

Nonfiction Monday: Count Down to Fall

Count Down to Fall
Written by Fran Hawk Illustrated by Sherry Neidigh
Sylvan Dell Publishing, 2009 Ages 4-8

Reviewed by Kimberly Hutmacher

If you are planning a leaf unit study with your class, or even if you’re just planning to take your children on a hike through the forest this fall, you’ll want a copy of this book. Count Down to Fall works its way backwards from ten, counting and identifying many different kinds of leaves. It begins:

Ten sweet gum leaves,
orange, purple, red,
look like bright colored stars
as they fall on earth’s bed.

Along the way, we see dogwoods, aspen, birch, maple, oak, chestnut, linen, pine and beech leaves. We also see a variety of wildlife frolicking amongst the leaves. This book offers beautiful rhyme and gorgeous illustrations. It serves up a For Creative Minds Section that includes facts about plant parts, tips on identifying leaves by their various shapes, an explanation about why we most definitely need plants, and a leaf matching activity.

For more teaching activities, click here.

Fran Hawk was on an autumn afternoon walk when she noticed the leaves around her. Realizing she did not know their names, she checked out books from the library and began her leaf research. Count Down to Fall with Sylvan Dell is the result of this fall adventure. Her other books include Ten Tips for Raising Readers and The Story of the H.L. Hunley and Queenie's Coin. She is currently a librarian and writes a children's book column and travel stories in Charleston, South Carolina. She says her favorite things are children, books and writing!

Bio written by Laura Crawford.

This post is part of the Nonfiction Monday Round-Up posted at Moms Inspire Learning.

Nonfiction Monday: Home on the Earth

Home on the Earth: A Song About Earth's Layers
Written by Laura Purdie Salas and illustrated by Viviana Garofoli
Ages 6-8, 24 pages
Picture Window Books, 2009

Reviewed by Heidi Bee Roemer

Earth. Water. Air. These environmental essentials are introduced to young readers in a lively, kid-friendly format though simple text, vivid illustrations, and, yes, even song lyrics! Original lyrics to "Home, Home on the Range," briefly explain how mountains erode and eventually turn into sand, and that air is a mixture of gases without which living things cannot exist. The importance of water is also noted in lyrical form: "Don’t ever forget that the ocean is wet;/ It protects Earth from getting too dry./We need water to drink; it’s amazing to think/That it falls from the clouds in the sky." Accompanying prose reveals in greater detail facts about earth, water, and air. Equally engaging are the colorful acrylic cartoon illustrations depicting three outdoorsy junior scientists. These curious children use a magnifying glass to examine rocks, take snapshots of living creatures, jot their observations in a notebook, and experience the simple pleasures of earth, water, and air in various child-like ways.
Additional song verses, a fun facts page, glossary, bibliography, and website resource are found at the back of the book. There’s even a downloadable audio file for your learning, listening and sing-along pleasure. http://www.capstonekids.com/science/index.html
If your goal is to inject a bit of learning fun into an earth science lesson, Home on the Earth is sure to be a hit with primary students. Check out other sing-along titles by Laura Purdie Salas in the Science Song series published by Capstone Press.
Capstone Press website: http://www.capstonepress.com/

As a child growing up in Florida, Laura Purdie Salas read for hours in her tree house or while lying on a trampoline. She loved to escape into another world through the magic of books. As an adult, she majored in English, edited for a magazine, and was an 8th grade teacher, where she rediscovered her love of children’s literature. Currently she writes poetry…and had 10 books come out in 2008! Her recent book, Home on the Earth: A Song About Earth’s Layers was released in 2009 with Picture Window Books. She is a former instructor with the Institute of Children’s Literature and now teaches online courses for aspiring authors.

Bio written by Laura Crawford.

This post is part of the Nonfiction Monday Round-Up posted at Wendie's Wanderings.