ARNOLD, Caroline. A Warmer World: From Polar Bears to Butterflies, How Climate Change Affects Wildlife. illus. by Jamie Hogan. Charlesbridge. 2012. ISBN 9781580892667. JLG Level: SCE : Science Nonfiction Elementary (Grades 2-6)

The average annual temperature is warmer by just over one degree. Though it sounds very small, just a small rise in the temperature impacts the way nature adapts and survives. Arnold informs readers that with rising temperatures, ice melts. If it melts, then polar bears have less time to build up fat that helps them survive the winter, resulting in fewer cubs being born. Higher temperatures mean lower male loggerhead turtle eggs, making it more difficult for females to find a mate.

Using a color palette in collage and facts on note paper, Hogan and Arnold provide interesting details on important ecological factors without being alarmists. This nonfiction text also includes a glossary and bibliography of books and websites for further research.

FERN, Tracey. Barnum’s Bones: How Barnum Brown Discovered the Most Famous Dinosaur in the World. illus. by Boris Kulikov. Farrar. 2012. ISBN 9780374305161. JLG Level: I+ : Independent Readers (Grades 2-4)

From his early years on his family’s farm, Barnum had a knack for fossil finding. His training as a paleontologist and his work for the American Museum of Natural History (along with great determination) lead to the most exciting dinosaur discovery of our time―the tyrannosaurus rex. Often clothed in a beaverskin coat, Barnum’s archaeological digs take him into Montana where his team finds a partial skeleton. It will be years later before the full specimen is completed. Fern’s narrative brings this dedicated, eccentric scientist to life while Kulikov’s illustrations provide an excellent backdrop and support for the storytelling of this informative, entertaining picture book biography.

There can never be enough dinosaur books in an elementary school library, and this must-have title won’t remain on the shelf for long.

KAMKWAMBA, William and Bryan Mealer. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. illus. by Elizabeth Zunon. Dial. 2012. ISBN 9780803735118. JLG Level: NE : Nonfiction Elementary (Grades 2-6)

In 2001, Malawi experienced a drought, which resulted in a famine. With fewer crops to sell, children dropped out instead of paying fees to attend high school. To conserve their food, families ate once a day. Just as they began to despair, one teen boy went to the library and read about an invention that could solve his town’s problems: a windmill. Using junk from the scrapyard, William and his friends built a windmill that would bring water to his mother’s garden, allowing it to grow all year. Another windmill brought well water for his father’s crops. “Magesti a mphepo―electric wind―can feed my country, William thought. And that’s the strongest magic of all.”

William Kamkwamba’s powerful picture book biography is beautifully told through collage illustrations and lyrical text. African phrases punctuate the story. An inspiring author’s note shares further details on “this boy who harnessed the wind,” and saved his village.

JENKINS, Steve. The Beetle Book. Houghton Harcourt. 2012. ISBN 9780547680842. JLG Level: SCE : Science Nonfiction Elementary (Grades 2-6)

“Line up every kind of plant and animal on Earth and one of every four will be a beetle.” Jenkins produces another winner in his latest solo science book about beetles of all shapes, and sizes. Cut-paper collage illustrations are often enlarged to allow readers the opportunity to see the details in their structure. Though beetles come in many different forms, they all have the same basic structure―two antennae, six legs, and three main body parts. Jenkins shares amazing facts: the fire beetle has heat-sensing spots that can feel a fire from more than 20 miles away, the six-spotted green tiger beetle hunts down its prey and tears it to pieces; the Fijian long-horn beetle is seven inches long, and squeezes air from beneath its wings to make a hissing noise.

Readers will pore over the gorgeous illustrations and spout facts just like an entomologist.

JENKINS, Steve and Robin Page. My First Day: What Animals Do on Day One. Houghton Harcourt. Jan. 2013. ISBN 9780547738512. JLG Level: NEK : Nonfiction Early Elementary (Grades K-2)

From the team that brought us What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? (Houghton Harcourt, 2003) comes another award-winning science title. Lifelike collage illustrations and a large font create a beautiful book that’s accessible to younger readers. Told in the voice of the babies themselves, readers will learn about the variety of ways newly born creatures adapt to their environment. Golden snub-nosed monkeys and sifakas cling to their mothers for safety. Leatherback turtles are on their own from the day they are born. They race to the water for safety upon birth. Darwin’s frog babies hop out of their father’s mouth, as they are raised in a special pouch from the tadpole stage. Covering a variety of animals, the text expands in an author’s note at the back of the book.

Educators might use this book as a starting place for research. After reading the brief information, kids will surely be interested in knowing more. With 22 different creatures, they can work alone or in pairs to complete their research.

For ideas about how to use these books and links to supportive sites, check out the Junior Library Guild blog, Shelf Life.

Junior Library Guild is a collection development service that helps school and public libraries acquire the best new children’s and young adult books. Season after season, year after year, Junior Library Guild book selections go on to win awards, collect starred or favorable reviews, and earn industry honors. Visit us at www.JuniorLibraryGuild.com.

App Challenge for Students

STEM app challenge: The Verizon Innovative App Challenge was created by the Verizon Foundation to ignite students’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Hosted by the Verizon Foundation and administered by the Technology Student Association (TSA), groups of 5–10 students in middle and high school and their faculty advisers are given the opportunity to develop an original mobile app concept that incorporates STEM and addresses a need or problem in their school or community. Between October 15 and January 18, each team entering the contest must submit an essay of up to 1,000 words that describes the team and the process it went through to develop the concept, how it will address the problem, what STEM skills were used in the process, and its functionality and potential impact. Each team must also submit a three-minute video or other visual presentation describing the app concept and how it will function. Teams may create a video, use presentation software such as PowerPoint or Keynote, or utilize online tools like Animoto, Prezi, or SlideRocket. Be sure to check out the rules and guidelines.

During the week of February 21, a winning middle school and a high school team will be chosen from each state. From this group, five middle school and five high school teams will be selected as challenge winners on March 18. Each challenge winner’s school will receive a $10,000 grant to build the app and to enhance STEM education. Members from the team will receive a Samsung Galaxy wireless tablet.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Prolific author honored: Popular author Russell Freedman has won the Educational Book and Media Association’s (EBMA) 2012 Jeremiah Ludington Award. Named after the Association’s founder, the annual lifetime achievement award is given to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the “education book business.” Russell has written more than 50 biographies and other nonfiction books, and won the 1988 Newbery Medal for Lincoln: A Photobiography (Clarion, 1987). At EBMA’s annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, in January 2013, Freedman will receive a framed certificate and $2,500 will be given to the charity of his choice—the San Francisco Public Library. “The EBMA board and membership are thrilled to present this year’s Ludington Award to Russell Freedman,” said Gene Bahlman, EBMA president and vice president of Follett Library Resources, Inc. “His contributions to children’s nonfiction literature spanning over 50 years is unmatched and truly impressive.” Previous recipients of the award include Steven Kellogg, Jon Scieszka, Kevin Henkes, Judy Blume, and Richard Peck, among others.

Teens’ Top Ten

Best books: Divergent (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books), Veronica Roth’s debut novel set in a dystopian Chicago world, has been selected by teens as their favorite book in the annual Teens’ Top Ten vote sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). To come up with the top ten books, national teen book discussion groups created a list of 24 of their favorite books published between January 2011 and March 2012. Then, teens across the country voted for their top three favorites online between August 15 and September 15 to create the 2012 Teens’ Top Ten. You can check out a video announcement of the list.

The other winners are: The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton, 2012) by John Green, Legend (Putnam) by Marie Lu, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Quirk Bks., 2011) by Ransom Riggs, What Happened to Goodbye (Viking, 2011) by Sarah Dessen, Across the Universe by Beth Revis (Penguin/Razorbill, 2011), Cinder (Feiwel and Friends, 2012) by Marissa Meyer, The Scorpio Races (Scholastic, 2011) by Maggie Stiefvater, Where She Went (Dutton, 2011) by Gayle Forman, and Abandon (Scholastic/Point, 2011) by Meg Cabot. The winners will be featured on YALSA’s literature blog, The Hub: Your Connection to Teen Reads.

Awarded

Children’s book illustrations: If you’re in New York City between October 24 and December 22, you’ll have the opportunity to see The Original Art 2012, an annual exhibit celebrating children’s book illustration at the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators. Founded in 1980 by illustrator and art director Dilys Evans, the exhibit showcases the original art from the year’s best children’s books that have been selected by a jury of illustrators, art directors, and illustrators. This year, 139 books were chosen from more than 550 entries submitted.

Awards in a number of categories will be presented at an opening reception on October 25 at the Society of Illustrators. Gold and silver medals are going to three books representing a variety of mediums and techniques. Laetitia Devernay won the Gold Medal for The Conductor (Chronicle, 2011). The Silver Medal winners are Jon Klassen for This Is Not My Hat (Candlewick, 2012) and Steve Jenkins for The Beetle Book (Houghton Harcourt, 2012). In addition, the Founders Award, given to the most promising new talent in children’s book illustration, is going to The Brothers Hilts for The Insomniacs (Putnam). The Lifetime Achievement Award for distinguished accomplishments in the art of children’s book illustration was awarded to Tomie de Paola and the late Richard Scarry.

Best Practices

Cutting-edge recognition: Is your school or public library using cutting-edge technology? The American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for InformationTechnology Policy (OITP) and the Library & Information Technology Association (LITA) are accepting nominations from libraries that have successfully implemented technological advancements. Submissions for best practices must involve the use of technology, must be a novel idea or implementation of a service, and must document the project so that it can be replicated. Nominations may be made for work in numerous areas, including application development, circulation, collections, community services, integration of Common Core Standards, open source, patron services, professional development, readers’ advisory, references services, web services, and many more. The applications must be submitted no later than November 6, 2012, and a joint committee of members from the Subcommittee on America’s Libraries for the 21^st Century and the Library & Information Technology Association will review the nominations. Winners will be announced at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in January 2013.

“We want to showcase libraries that are serving their communities with novel and innovative methods and provide the library community with some successful models for delivering quality library service in new ways,” said Patty Saidenberg, chair of the Cutting-edge Technology in Library Services selection committee.

Digital Reference Update

Database update: A “Focus on History through Video” feature has been added to Infobase Learning’s African-American History Online. On the homepage, each time the site reloads, a new video will be shown. A gallery of all the videos in the database can be accessed by clicking on the link just below that video screen. To help students who are searching for video clips from a specific time period in African-American history, the video gallery can be filtered by era. “Booker T. Washington Is Enshrined in Hall of Fame,” “Joe Louis and Bill Conn Sign for the Title Bout,” and “Torpedo Boats” are among the new videos.  This footage from the time adds context and depth to students’ understanding of events in African-American history. The database also includes primary sources, images, time lines, biographies, maps, charts, subject entries, and more.

Watch Steve Jenkins in his studio »»»

The idea came to me last fall as I sat in a high school auditorium in Brooklyn, New York listening to award-winning author Marc Aronson address a group of school librarians on the Common Core and its emphasis on nonfiction—not the “safely bland” texts that so many teachers seem to favor for their brevity or simplicity, but well-crafted “literary” nonfiction that engages and offers a point of view. He explained that as information specialists it was our job to provide teachers with the resources they would need to support this new curriculum.

I started thinking about my nonfiction collection and all of the authors that embody the qualities Aronson had described. How could I sell these more complex, nonfiction picture books to the teachers and students I served? Traditionally, elementary author studies invoked names such as Eric Carle, Leo Lionni, or Patricia Polacco. Why not broaden the practice to include nonfiction writers with a significant body of work? Since most teachers at my school tend to assign animal research reports to introduce nonfiction, I chose Steve Jenkins for my first nonfiction author study—a writer whose books can be found in most classrooms and libraries.

Not unlike Leo Lionni, Jenkins grew up with a menagerie at home—lizards, mice, insects—“My father was a scientist and encouraged my interest in the natural world.” Jenkins also loved to draw and paint; his signature cut-and-torn paper collages make his books easily identifiable to young readers. The author collects handmade papers from around the world, and even makes his own. He has written and/or illustrated dozens of award-winning books, many with his wife, Robin Page.

While the average Lexile level of his books falls in the mid-800s—around a 4th grade level—the copious illustrations and clear, straightforward text make them accessible to students in the 2nd and 3rd grades as well. In addition, many titles offer “…two levels of text, one that can be managed by a beginning reader and a second that can be read by a more proficient reader, or aloud, by an adult if a younger child is interested in finding out more.” Teaching vocabulary and assigning and modeling clearly defined tasks render the texts even more accessible. Visit Jenkins’s website for biographical information, a gallery of his work, and an excellent slideshow titled “Making Books.”

Prehistoric Actual Size (Houghton Mifflin, 2005) presents young readers with striking images of 18 creatures. Single- and double-page spreads, including two dramatic gatefolds, portray all or part of the animal, depending on its true size. Images include one or two sentences about the creature along with information about when it lived and its length in standard and metric measure. One or two paragraphs with a small picture of the complete animal appear at the back.

Introduce the book by passing around a variety of small plastic dinosaurs for students to examine and identify. Explain that these toys do not represent the relative or actual size of these prehistoric creatures. Ask students how we know the size of animals that no longer exist (vocabulary: archaeologist, fossil, skeleton). Read the book, ask “What did you notice? Turn and talk to your neighbor about something that surprised you…Why do you think the illustrator sometimes shows only part of the animal?”

As a follow-up activity, groups of students can choose one animal from the book to research. With a roll of brown kraft paper, they might like to sketch and color the entire animal or an impressive part …actual size. They can label their drawings with the creature’s name and measure and add a short description of when and where it lived, what it ate, and any other facts they would like to include.

Though dinosaurs are gone forever, Almost Gone: The World’s Rarest Animals (HarperCollins, 2006) introduces the concept of endangered species. Single- or double-page spreads offer a textured collage of the animal accompanied by its name, where it lives, and the number left—from as few as one (the Abington Island tortoise) to nearly 500 (Bactrian camel). A large-print paragraph describes the species and what threatens its survival. An introduction explains the consequences of extinction: “Every living thing is connected to many other living things, often in ways we don’t understand or even suspect. And once an animal or plant is gone, it can never come back. All the living things that interact with it will never be the same….”

Before reading the book, have students name one animal that is extinct. Introduce vocabulary such as  “endangered” and “rare.” Ask the class why they think a species becomes endangered. Present a short slideshow of photographs of some of the animals mentioned in the book such as the California condor, Yangtze River dolphin, or Miami blue butterfly. Explain that these species are headed toward extinction like the dinosaurs. As you read, ask students to record at least one cause of endangerment in their notebooks or on a post-it; create a list of these causes including items such as overhunting, loss of habitat, pollution, etc. Query  students about how we can protect animals and why it is important to do so.

Living Color (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) explores the vibrant hues of the animal kingdom. The introduction explains that, “If an animal is very colorful, it is likely that its brilliant skin, scales, or feathers somehow help it stay alive.” Each color is allotted one or two full spreads with five to seven monochromatic images of creatures with a paragraph about each. As there are two levels of text here, teachers can read the simpler, more provocative text to prompt discussion. “Blue says …Don’t touch! Look at me! Don’t eat me…I’m here to help. I’m a mystery. Now you see me, now you don’t.”

Children can guess what each message means. Back matter thumbnail illustrations of each animal accompany information about size, habitat, diet, and more. Introduce the book by asking students their favorite color. Challenge them to think of an animal that is that color. After sharing the simple text, divide the class into seven groups: red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, and pink). Each group is responsible for reading and reporting on the different ways their color helps animals survive. Watch the video “Steve Jenkins on creating Living Color” on TeachingBooks.net. In their color groups, have each student choose an animal and create a collage illustration in the way that Jenkins does. Include a caption with the creature’s name and what purpose its color serves. Your bulletin board will be a rainbow of the natural world.

In I See a Kookaburra!: Discovering Animal Habitats Around the World (Houghton Mifflin, 2005) Jenkins and co-author Robin Page introduce children to six habitats. They explain that living things “…thrive in all these habitats because, over many generations, animals adapt. They change their size, shape, and habits to fit different conditions.”

Each environment considered opens with an “I Spy” spread featuring eight partially hidden animals. “In the desert I see…” Students can first locate the living things on the page and describe what they see using adjectives and prepositions: “I see an orange-and black-striped creature hiding behind some rocks and cactus on the right.” Have children guess what the animal might be. Then turn the page to view each one featured with its name and a descriptive phrase such as “…a stinging anemone hitching a ride.”

More details about each creature are available at the back of the book. Divide students into six groups and assign each a different habitat. Have them create a group mural with each student responsible for drawing or creating a paper collage representation of one animal from the designated locale. They can write a brief riddle to help viewers identify each species: “Though I am only two or three inches long, my big red eyes scare off predators. I like to hop from tree to tree. Can you find me?”

Another husband-wife collaboration, sisters & brothers (Houghton Mifflin, 2008), examines animal siblings. Once again there are two levels of text: a header or footer offers a word or phrase that characterizes the relationship such as “quadruplets,” “sibling rivalry,” or “stepsisters and stepbrothers.”

Bold images of the young animals pop against the white background of the pages. The short cryptic captions in large print such as “Exactly alike,” “Girls rule!,” “I’m having my family for dinner…,” or “Friends for life” are great conversation starters. Before reading the book aloud ask youngsters, “How many brothers or sisters or cousins do you live with? How do you get along? Turn and talk to your neighbor about something you enjoy doing together and something you fight about.” Introduce the word “sibling” and explain that animals have brothers and sisters too—sometimes just one and sometimes thousands! After reading the book, have students work with a partner or in a group to either write or improvise a skit about animal siblings that captures and reveals their special relationship. Beforehand, distribute the longer explanation that also appears on each spread. They can make masks or puppets to enhance their skits.

Jenkins says, “I believe we should teach science as a process…not just a collection of facts. It’s a tool that allows children to test their own theories and to trust their own conclusions.” This is just what the Common Core dictates; children need to learn to think for themselves and process new ideas, not simply to summarize them. The books and activities mentioned above do just that.

Many of the ELA reading, writing, speaking and listening standards for K-5 informational texts are incorporated into the lessons described. The titles and activities suggested above reference the following Common Core State Standards:

RI.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
RI.2.6 Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe.
W. 2.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.
W. 2.7  Participate in shared research and writing projects.
SL. 2.2 Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud.
RI. 3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., keywords, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.
RI. 3.7 Use information gained from illustrations…and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text.
W. 3.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting appoint of view with reasons.

Related TeachingBooks.net resources »»»

Watch Steve Jenkins in his studio »»»