Nonfiction Monday: A Double Dose of Marianne Berkes

Over in the Arctic Where the Cold Winds Blow
Written by Marianne Berkes Illustrated by Jill Dubin 32 PagePictureBook,Ages 4-8
Dawn Publications

Over in the Jungle, A Rainforest Rhyme
Written by Marianne Berkes Illustrated by Jeanette Canyon
36 Page Picture Book, Ages 2-7
Dawn Publications

I have two new favorite books!
Over in the Arctic Where the Cold Winds Blow introduces readers to the Arctic, the many animal families that inhabit the region and some of their behaviors. This romping rhyme is also a counting book:

Over in the Arctic
Where the cold waters run,
Lived a mother polar bear
And her little cub one.
“Roll,” said the mother.
“I roll,” said the one.
So they rolled on the ice
Where the cold waters run.

Delightful cut paper illustrations set the scene, and the back matter includes tips from the author and illustrator, facts about the arctic tundra, a hidden animal game and sheet music and lyrics so readers can ‘sing’ the book if they wish. This book is the winner of the 2008 iParenting Media Greatest Product Award and 2009 Mom’s Choice Gold Award.
Click here for a list of companion teaching activities for this book.

Over in the Jungle, A Rainforest Rhyme introduces us to the rainforest, the many animal families that populate it and some of their behaviors. This title is also a counting book:

Over in the jungle
Where the trees greet the sun
Lived a mother marmoset
And her marmoset one.
“Swing,” said the mother.
“I swing,” said the one.
So they swung and they hung
Where the trees greet the sun.

Beautiful polymer clay sculpture illustrations set the scene for this title. The back matter again includes tips from the author and illustrator, facts about the rainforest, a game of animal hide and seek and the sheet music and lyrics for the song. This book is the winner of the 2008 Publisher’s Marketing Assoc. Benjamin Franklin Gold Award for Interior Design, 2008 International Reading Association’s Teacher’s Choice Award, 2008 Mom’s Choice Award and 2007 iParenting Media Outstanding Products Call Award.
Click here for a list of companion teaching activities for this book.

These books were reviewed by Kim Hutmacher.

The author of both of these titles, Marianne Berkes, was kind enough to conduct an email interview with our Laura Crawford:

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF.
As a child I wrote plays that my friends and I performed in the summer. Our show included scenery, costumes and music. We spent weeks getting ready for it in our backyard. Reading, writing, music and theater have been a constant in my life. After graduating with a degree in Early Childhood Education, I ran a preschool in New York for many years, but it wasn’t until I moved to Florida and became a children’s librarian, that I took writing seriously. Reading lots of children’s literature and working with kids really helped me find my niche: “creative non-fiction.” See http://www.marianneberkes.com/

WHERE DO YOUR IDEAS FOR NONFICTION COME FROM?
I have always had an appreciation of our Earth and a respect for nature. I spent a lot of time outdoors as a child, and still do. Discovering nature is a life-long adventure and ideas are everywhere you look.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE HARDEST PART ABOUT WRITING?
I don’t always complete a project. I may have an idea in mind, but sometimes I let it sit too long, which isn’t really bad, because you can always pick it up again. But, using the analogy of baking a cookie, you can follow the recipe, but you really don’t have a cookie until the dough is placed in the oven and baked. I think writing is like that—you brainstorm, write, revise, edit, and in non-fiction, do a lot of research, before you have a finished piece.

WHAT IS THE STRANGEST FACT YOU HAVE LEARNED?
My first book, “Marsh Music” is about frogs performing a concert. I never realized how many grunts, whistles, clicks and chirps frogs make, until I went out into the night and really listened. The story is a fantasy, but the ten different frog sounds are real.
I’ve learned so many amazing facts writing my “habitat” books. Here are some:
A bird, the bittern, freezes and blends in with the landscape when approached.
Scallop shells swim by flapping their bivalves together. A father seahorse gives birth to babies. Leafcutter ants bring leaves to their underground colonies where they fertilize them with saliva. The gas planet, Saturn, has winds that blow over 1,000 miles an hour. Wolverines, part of the weasel family, spray food with their musk and store it underground. Monarch butterflies flying south, often roost in the same trees their ancestors did.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR LATEST WORK.
“Going Home, the Mystery of Animal Migration,” will be released in early 2010. I’m currently writing about a mother and baby manatee. It’s not in rhyme as my others are, but there is a story and, of course, lots of fascinating facts about this endangered creature.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO ADD?
I’m sure your blog is a great help to teachers especially, who bring a sense of wonder to their classrooms. Keep up the good work!

THANK YOU, MARIANNE! :)

This post is part of the Nonfiction Monday Round-Up posted at Book Aunt.

Nonfiction Monday: Life Size Zoo

Life-Size Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya
Seven Footer Press, 2009
Ages 4-8, 48 pages

Have you ever wished you could get an up-close look at a giraffe’s long tongue,
a gorilla’s dark eyes, or an aardvark’s odd face? Thanks to the photographs in Life-Size Zoo, readers can view "mug shots" of these and other creatures in amazing detail. For example, spanning two pages, the startling, actual-size photo of a tiger’s snarling face reveals black lips, green eyes, and fierce fangs. The text prompts readers to examine the rough, sandpapery texture of the beast’s huge pink tongue, noting that it "comes in handy for grooming and for stripping meat off bones. Yum." I was intrigued to see that the tiger’s true-to-life-size tongue is as large as my hand!

Several pages fold out to reveal impressive headshots of larger animals such as the elephant, rhino, and giraffe. Other pages contain full-body snapshots of different, but similar-sized animals. One such spread shows a spiky hedgehog beside an armored armadillo. A subsequent photo shows what these curious creatures look like when they each roll up into a ball.

You’ll probably see more animals in this over-sized book than you would on an actual zoo tour. Indeed, photographer Toyofumi Fukuda visited several Japanese zoos to capture these breath-taking images. The book’s table of contents appears as a colorful cartoon-drawn zoo map, and endpapers, featuring full-body photos of all 21 animals, includes basic information such as height, weight and natural habitat. Cartoon-style sidebars offer additional fun facts about these magnificent creatures. Life-Size Zoo is a captivating read, a "must-see" book for anyone who is truly wild about animals.

This book was reviewed by Heidi Bee Roemer. This post is part of the Nonfiction Monday Round-Up posted at Tales From the Rushmore Kid.

Nonfiction Monday: The DesertAlphabet Encyclopedia

The DesertAlphabet Encyclopedia

Written by Sylvester Allred Illustrated by Diane Iverson

Stemmer House Publishers, 2007

What comes to mind when you think about the desert? Hot, dry, sandy? The conditions of the desert are harsh. It's amazing that any plant or animal could survive such extreme conditions. But they do. From the addox ( a member of the antelope family) to the free tail bat to the zinnia plant, each of these living things has developed adaptations. Thick dry skins, deadly poisons, camouflage, sharp spines and deep roots are just a handful of the ways desert plants and animals not only survive but thrive. Sylvester Allred's alphabet presents this information in an easy to understand and interesting manner, and Diane Iverson's drawings bring the various plants and animals to life.

After reading this book to students, you might want to engage them in The Art of Camouflage!

Dr. Sylvester Allred is both an author for children and college professor. He teaches biology at Northern Arizona University and is a well-known expert on tassel-eared tree squirrels that are found in the southwestern United States. He and his wife live in cottage in the ponderosa pine forest under Mount Humphreys, the tallest mountain in Arizona. Illustrator Diane Iverson is hiker, backpacker and bird watcher who loves observing and sketching wildlife. She is the illustrator of several children’s nature books including Rascal, the Tassel-Eared Squirrel and The Desert Alphabet Encyclopedia, both authored by Allred.

This book was reviewed by Kim Hutmacher, and the bio was written by Laura Crawford.

This post is part of the Nonfiction Monday Round-Up posted at Books Together Blog.

Nonfiction Monday: Visiting Volcanoes With A Scientist

Visiting Volcanoes with a Scientist by Catherine McGlone
Ages 5-8, 24 pages, Enslow Elementary, 2004

A mountain emits ominous plumes of thick ashy smoke. When will it erupt? No one knows precisely, but that doesn’t stop scientists from studying clues and collecting important data. Meet Cynthia Gardner. She is a dedicated volcanologist, a scientist who studies volcanoes. Like a detective, Gardener gathers clues. She wants to know how volcanoes are created, why they erupt, and how to predict an eruption. Trek along as Gardner visits volcanic sites, many of them located in the Ring of Fire that encircles the Pacific Ocean. In her backpack she carries tools, water, and a notebook in which she jots down her findings. View crisp color photos of smoking craters and explosive eruptions, as well as images of the dedicated scientist as she chips away at a mountainside with a hammer, examines a small rock with her hand lens, and studies volcanoes from a helicopter.

In this bilingual easy reader, Visiting Volcanoes with a Scientist, (I Like Science series), Gardner answers basic questions such as What is a volcano? Why are there volcanoes? and Where are volcanoes found? A volcanic diagram, map, glossary, and reading resources are offered for further study. Also included in English and Spanish are instructions on how young readers and future volcanologists can construct their own homemade volcanoes.

This book was reviewed by Heidi Bee Roemer. This review is part of the Nonfiction Monday Round-Up posted at Charlotte's Library.