Frogs! Strange and Wonderful

Author: Laurence Pringle
Illustrator: Meryl Henderson
Publisher: Boyds Mills, 2012
Age Range: Grades K-4
Lexile: 980L
ISBN: 9781590783719

Laurence Pringle's Frogs! Strange and Wonderful begins with an invitation for reader participation with the opening line, "Make a sound like a frog.  Go ahead. Pretend you are a frog and make its sound."  Pringle then explains that many potential responses would be correct, as the many types of frogs make a wide array of sounds.  The book maintains a very kid-friendly, instructional tone throughout, and it is highly informative and quite entertaining.

Frogs is part of a series of books Pringle has written about different types of animals, all with the Strange and Wonderful subtitle.  Other animals he has written about include bats, crows, scorpions, cicadas, snakes, and dinosaurs, among others.  The illustrator for Frogs is Meryl Henderson, and she has painted highly detailed, realistic paintings of numerous kinds of frogs to accompany Pringle's text.  The image shown below is from page 6 in the book, a page that displays some of the variety in the physical appearance of different types of frogs.   

Pages 16 and 17 provide another interactive element to the book.  Henderson has painted a forest scene with eight frogs, each a different species, nearly hidden by camouflage.  An answer key at the back of the book reveals their locations and identifies their species.

In an author's note at the end of the book, Pringle summarizes his "life full of frogs."  He discusses his childhood interest and interactions with frogs and describes the frog habitat he has created on his own property in recent years.  Pringle is not a herpetologist himself, but he did have one read and approve his book before it was published.  The herpetologist made a couple of corrections, which Pringle discusses on his website.

At the back of the book, Pringle informs readers about some groups who are concerned with preserving the habitats of frogs and other wildlife, including the Wildlife Conservation Society and the World Wildlife Fund.  He also recommends websites such as amphibiaweb.org and frogs.org to learn more about frogs.

Here is a video from National Geographic that shows images of many different types of frogs, as submitted by the magazine's readers.

Daredevil: The Daring Life of Betty Skelton

Author: Meghan McCarthy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2013
Age Range: Grades K-3
Lexile: 640L
ISBN: 9781442422629

Recognition
Starred review in Publishers Weekly
Junior Library Guild Selection



I had never heard of Betty Skelton, the subject of Meghan McCarthy's new biography, Daredevil: The Daring Life of Betty Skelton.  She was quite a remarkable woman, and McCarthy shares the highlights of Skelton's life in this attractive picture book.  The book opens in the early 1930s with Betty as a young girl, sitting on her front porch with a toy airplane as a naval airplane flies overhead.  She grew up next to a navy base in Pensacola, Florida, and that exposure shaped her love of planes and flying.  The book then chronicles her first (not quite legal) solo flight at age 12 and her acquisition of a pilot's license at 16.  As a woman, she was not allowed to become a navy or commercial pilot, so she developed her talents and became a stunt pilot.  After breaking several flying records, she also made a mark in racecar driving and boat jumping.  She also trained at NASA with the Mercury 7 astronauts but ultimately didn't go on the space mission.  After reading about all of Betty Skelton's feats and accomplishments, it is clear that "Daredevil" is an appropriate title for the book.

The length of the book as well as McCarthy's word choice and writing style make this a great read-aloud for students in primary grades.  Both girls and boys will enjoy the descriptions of Betty's tricks, stunts, and records in the air, on the racetrack, and in the water.  There is a strong female empowerment theme throughout the book, as McCarthy mentions several times that Betty's actions were unique and groundbreaking for a woman of that time period.  The playful illustrations in bright primary colors match the text and depict fun facts like Betty's preference for flying barefoot.

The only area of concern in this book is the issue of whether all of the details are portrayed accurately.  Alyson Low's review for School Library Journal addresses this issue (full review can be read on the book's Amazon profile).  Low mentions the fact that the book leads young readers to believe that Betty Skelton prepared for her first solo flight at age 12 just by reading about airplanes.  The book doesn't mention that she had lessons from Ensign Kenneth Wright.  I noticed another issue when reading some of the primary source news articles that Megan McCarthy's webpage links to.  One of the articles, "The Highest-Up Girl is Only 5 Feet High" explains that mechanics gave Betty's tiny plane the name "Little Stinker."  McCarthy's book just says that Betty gave her plane that name.  

Since McCarthy provides convenient access to primary source articles about Betty Skelton, this book would be a great tool to teach students about primary sources and the way that one source may not give the full story. In her book, McCarthy explains that Betty was not included among the Mercury 7 because "NASA wasn't ready to send a woman to space."  In a 1960 newspaper article in the S.F. Examiner, Betty Skelton gave her age as the only reason that she was not sent on a space mission.  NASA would only send people under the age of 35 on space missions, but she would be too old by the time they were ready to launch.  However, in an interview for a later article that was published when Sally Ride became the first American female astronaut, Betty acknowledged that NASA had been discriminatory toward women at the time that she trained with them.  She mentioned that she and other women were only included in the astronaut training because "they were trying to get the public off their backs about not including women."  Even though Daredevil is targeted to children in lower elementary, it could easily be used with older children to teach them how authors use primary sources and the way that different sources can give conflicting accounts of events and situations.

Below is footage of Betty Skelton flying in 1948.  It was posted on YouTube by the Florida Memory Project.

In this video, Megan McCarthy talks about her artistic process as she paints an illustration for Daredevil.

Click Here to see Betty's airplane, "Little Stinker," on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Learn more about Betty Skelton by checking out the resources on Megan McCarthy's webpage for Daredevil.

Henry and the Cannons: An Extraordinary True Story of the American Revolution

Author: Don Brown
Publisher: Roaring Brook, 2013
Age Range: Grades 2-5
Lexile: 820L
ISBN: 9781596432666

Recognition
Starred Review in School Library Journal
Junior Library Guild selection


Henry and the Cannons tells the story of  Boston bookseller, Henry Knox, who went on a grueling journey during the winter of 1775 to retrieve cannons from Fort Ticonderoga in New York and deliver them to General Washington and his army who were camped out above British-occupied Boston.

The book is both written and illustrated by Don Brown.  The story is told in a very straightforward style that could easily be followed by young children, even if they lack understanding of much of the larger context of the American Revolution.  The muted colors in Brown's watercolor illustrations are very attractive yet communicate the bleak, wintry conditions of Knox's journey.

Some of the pages are divided into panels, allowing the illustrations to more powerfully indicate action and the passage of time.

Henry and the Cannons incorporates three direct quotes from Henry Knox himself (they are the only quotations in the book).  Curious about whether the quotes were historically accurate, I looked at the book's bibliography.  None of the sources listed were primary sources themselves, but a webpage on the list, The Knox Trail-History, contained transcriptions of primary sources.  The webpage, hosted by the New York State Museum, tells the complete story of Henry Knox's mission.  It incorporates many excerpts from the diary that Knox kept at the time as well as letters that he sent to Washington and others.  Each of the three quotations that Brown incorporated in his book can be found in primary sources excerpted on this webpage.

Although Henry and the Cannons is targeted to students in lower elementary grades, it could definitely be read and enjoyed by fifth grade students who are studying the American Revolution (covered by Indiana academic standards for 5th grade social studies).  The picture book is a much more appealing way to learn about this historical event than a textbook's rendition.  The fact that the book includes quotations from Knox could be a great way to introduce students to the concept of primary sources.  The teacher or librarian could ask the students, "How do we know that that is what Henry Knox really said?"  Then they could explain to students how primary sources can give us an idea of what really happened in the past.  Students could then look at the Knox Trail webpage and read other pieces of Knox's writings, adding depth to their knowledge of Knox and the historical event.  The primary sources would also allow students to see how spelling and grammar have changed over the past couple hundred years.

An Amazon preview of Henry and the Cannons is available HERE.

Learn more about Don Brown and his books by visiting his website- Books by Brown.

His book, Let It Begin Here!: April 19, 1775: The Day the American Revolution Began (Roaring Brook, 2008) makes a good companion to Henry and the Cannons.

For another great picture book about Henry Knox, check out Anita Silvey's Henry Knox: Bookseller, Soldier, Patriot (Clarion, 2010).

Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature

Author: Joyce Sidman

Illustrator: Beth Krommes

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011

Age Range: Grades K-2

Lexile: 330L

ISBN: 9780547315836

Awards and Recognition

Junior Library Guild Selection

Young Hoosier Award Nominee 2013-2014

ALA Notable Children's Book, 2012

Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature is a beautiful display of the the many qualities and functions of spirals.  Joyce Sidman describes in poetic sentences the way that spirals protect and give strength to plants and animals.  She also explains the way that they can be observed in weather patterns- visible in the air and water.  Her examples are beautifully depicted in Beth Krommes' artwork.

Each page contains no more than a singe sentence, making it a quick read.  However, the reader will want to linger on each page observing the intricacies of the artwork.  The book would work well as a read-aloud for a class of students, but it would work even better as a read-aloud with just one or two children sitting right beside the reader.  That way the artwork can be examined up close so the children and adult could point out and discuss all of the examples of spirals shown in the artwork.  The drawings of plants and animals are all labeled, which adds to the scientific purpose of the book.  At the end of the book, Sidman takes a couple pages to add more detailed, expository passages about spirals, giving examples of the way that they are strong, clever, growing, and so on.  The language is still very kid-friendly, but the facts that are read aloud will probably vary depending on the child.  For example, a kindergartener could appreciate the way a hedgehog "rolls up into such a tight spiral that the only thing showing is its bristly back, full of quills."  However, the information about the Fibonacci sequence would be better comprehended by an older child.

I was surprised by the extent of the examples of swirls in this book.  Sidman reveals that swirls can be found all throughout nature.  After reading this book, children will likely want to look for swirls in their own classroom, house, or backyard.  A parent or teacher could encourage them to keep a scientific notebook to record "swirl sightings."  The child could practice making detailed drawings and labeling them.  This could lead to other nature observations that could be recorded in their notebook.

The unique pictures in the book are scratchboard illustrations.  You can read an explanation of this style of art at illustrator Beth Krommes' website.  She won the Caldecott Medal in 2009 for a book that she also illustrated in the scratchboard style- The House in the Night.

A video preview of Swirl by Swirl is available on Youtube, posted by the book's publisher.  You can also view the book's Amazon Preview.

If you enjoy Swirl by Swirl, check out this other collaboration between Joyce Sidman and Beth Krommes- Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2006).

A Rock Is Lively

Author: Dianna Hutts Aston

Illustrator: Sylvia Long

Publisher: Chronicle, 2012

Age Range: Grades K-5

Lexile: 1110L

ISBN: 9781452106458

Awards and Recognition

Scientific American Science Book for Stormy Weather

School Library Journal starred review

Junior Library Guild selection

A Rock Is Lively is a beautiful, informative creation by the author and illustrator of An Egg Is Quiet, A Seed Is Sleepy, and A Butterfly Is Patient.  Young readers may at first be surprised by the book's title.  The word lively is not the first thing to come to mind when one thinks about rocks.  However, the first few pages explain the molten, liquid nature of rocks at the earth's core.  Sylvia Long's watercolor illustrations vividly depict this lively nature of rocks.  The illustrations throughout the book are colorful and intricate.  Each representation of the many types of rocks is impressively realistic.  Dianna Hutts Aston uses clever analogies to describe the composition and nature of different types of rocks.  The spread of pages shown below compares the mixture of minerals found in rocks to the ingredients needed for baking cookies.  The page on the right contains a "recipe" for Lapis Lazuli.

This book could easily appeal to children at a range of ages.  Children as young as kindergarden would enjoy this book as a read-aloud.  The colorful rock illustrations are eye-catching, and they would likely grasp the concept of different types of rocks forming under various conditions.  However, many of the finer print details involving geographic locations, years, and temperatures wouldn't necessarily be understood by young children.  The cursive text and scientific vocabulary make this book a challenging read.  Most children won't be able to read it independently until upper elementary.  At this level, they are also ready to understand some of the more scientific concepts.

My only criticism of the book is a lack of nonfiction text features- glossary, index, bibliography, or any recommendations for further learning about the topic.  Since many scientific facts are conveyed in A Rock Is Lively, it seems as though there should at least be a bibliography.  

A possible point of contention is the fact that the book mentions that the Earth is billions of years old.  For that reason, some families may not feel that it is suitable reading material for their children.

Extensions

It is likely that this book will inspire children to go looking for rocks in their own backyards.  These books will help them identify and learn more about their rocks:

• Rocks & Minerals (DK Eyewitness Books)
• Simon & Schuster's Guide to Rocks and Minerals

Find photographs of dozens of different types of rocks at http://geology.com/rocks.  Click on their names to read detailed information about them.

Test your knowledge of different types of rocks and what they are made of with this rock cycle interactive.

See more of A Rock Is Lively on its Amazon Preview Page.

Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard

Author: Annette LeBlanc Cate
Publisher: Candlewick, 2013
Age Range: Grades 2-6
Lexile: 810L
ISBN: 9780763645618





This book arrived at my school library as the May 2013 Junior Library Guild selection for Science Nonfiction Elementary.  It is as attractive and entertaining as it is informative.  Primarily, this book is procedural, guiding young people through the steps necessary to begin a birdwatching hobby.  The book is also heavily explanatory, with information about the characteristics and behaviors of specific bird species.  For example, the "Shapes Are Clues" page shows silhouettes of many different birds either perched or in flight.  The captions identify the birds and provide explanations such as. "The Turkey Vulture is famous for flying in a V shape, called a dihedral" (pg. 15).  The reader is exposed to content-specific vocabulary while learning about the characteristics that make individual bird species unique.

The illustrations are beautifully done in ink and watercolor.  While all of the birds are drawn in the technical style of a nature sketchbook, many are given cartoonish features and speech bubbles to contribute jokes and commentary.  These birds give the book a playful and conversational feel.  The talking birds have expressive eyes and make humanlike gestures, such as the cardinal wringing its hands (wings) and expressing pity for the brown birds- "Oh, look at all the poor dears, the color of dirt! So sad for them!" (pg. 13).  While the cardinal is anthropomorphized, the brown birds that it is referring to are all drawn very realistically.

Cate's book is packed with helpful features from start to finish.  The endpapers are fully illustrated and provide lists of equipment needed for bird-watching, bird-watching do's and don'ts, and tips for bird drawing.  Cate acknowledges that bird-watching is her hobby and she is not an expert in the field of ornithology.  She gives credit to Jim Barton, a veteran birder, for technical assistance.  She also provides a bibliography of bird books and field guides.  A table of content and index help direct readers to specific areas of interest.

After reading Cate's book about bird-watching, middle-grade children will want to grab a sketchbook and head outside to look for birds.  Here are some companion pieces that could make their venture more rewarding.

• National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America
• The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds
• Audubon Birds app

Annette LeBlanc Cate recommends the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's website in her book.  You can search this online guide to learn all about the birds in your backyard!

Several pages of Look Up! Bird Watching in Your Own Backyard are shown in its Amazon Preview.