National Geographic Kids Bird Guide of North America

National Geographic Kids Bird Guide of North America

By: Jonathan Alderfer

Publisher:National Geographic Children's Books

Copyright: 2013

Age Range: 8-12

Format: Paperback

This is a great book to have if your child is interested in birds or bird watching.

The book includes color photographs of 100 species found in North America. The book is divided by location so it is much easier to locate what birds you would most likely see in each area. The book provides information about each species' habitat, diet, and other fun facts.

  

This pictures in the book are beautiful, my daughter's personal favorite is Anna's Hummingbird pictured above. This is not a book we sit down and read through but we will sit down together and read about a couple different birds together.  

The book also provides information on hot to spot birds, building a birdhouse, building a bird feeder, and much more. It's a great way to get involved in something with your child.

The only downfall to this book I have found it the cover does not stand up to repeated handling very well. My daughter loves this book and carries it with her and you can tell. 

Other books about bird watching!

                                           

A Beetle Is Shy

 A Beetle Is Shy

Dianna Hutts Aston & Sylvia Long

A beetle is a digger...a runner...a hopper

This book is full of beautiful water color illustrations done by the very talented Sylvia Long.

Each of the beetles in the book is labeled so you know what kind it is.  As I read it to my daughters we had to read the names of each and every beetle and they each picked their favorites.

 Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Copyright: April 5, 2016
Age Level: 5-8 Years

If you are reading this to a younger child you can focus on the pictures and the large font, but if you are reading to a child that has a longer attention span you can also read the smaller font that provides greater detail about the beetles.

A beetle is helpful....or harmful.

I try to read books about bugs to my girls so they are not scared of them and see how useful they are to the world around us. This book shares the many cool things about bugs as well as information about their life cycle. The book also introduces many scientific words to children in a way they can understand.

We really enjoyed this book as a family and will be checking out more of this author's work.

Other books about bugs!!!

                

Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas

Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas

Jim Ottaviani & Maris Wicks

This nonfiction graphic novel tell the stories of  three of our greatest primatologists.

This graphic novel is the perfect introduction to the lives and work of these great women and their studies of primates. Louis Leakey found these women and helped secure funding for their research, he was positive that women would make greater strides with primates then men, Goodall studies chimps, Fossey studied gorillas and Galdikas studies orangutans. 

 Here is an illustration from the book where Jane Goodall first observes the chimpanzees using a tool. This was a major breakthrough in her research.

I think the graphic novel format is perfect for this story because it is an introduction to each of these scientists and their work. If you are wanting to go more in depth there are other resources available.

This book would be great for an Ecology unit, a study on animal behaviors, a project on scientists, a STEM/STEAM book club, or a graphic book club.

Age Range: 12-18

Grade 7-12

Publisher: Square Fish

Pages: 144

Recommendations:

                                                                                                                     

Bad Girls of Fashion

Bad Girls of Fashion: Style Rebels from Cleopatra to Lady Gaga

By: Jennifer Croll

The book  cover the lives of ten women who made history and hugely impacted fashion. If it had not been for their influence fashion would not be what we know it today. Included are Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette, Coco Chanel, Marlene Dietrich, Madonna, and Lady Gaga. Sidebar subjects include: Elizabeth I, Marilyn Monroe, Rihanna, and Vivienne Westwood.

Photos and illustrations show the fashion risks and trends that these ladies took or started in their lives. This book will educate you about how fashion has changed through history but also how it has been used socially and politically as a tool to cause change. 

The book includes lots of trivia interspersed throughout.  For example Cleopatra knew nine languages and wrote medical texts and Marie Antoinette did not say "Let them eat cake".

I did find the way the book was organized confusing, but overall enjoyed learning about these powerful women and the history of fashion.

I think this would be a great read for those interested in fashion, art, history, or feminism. 

Publisher: Annick Press

Date: October 11, 2016

Age Range: 12 Years

Grade: 7+

Readalikes:

Stronger Than Steel

Stronger Than Steel: Spider Silk DNA and the Quest for Better Bulletproof Vests, Sutures, and Parachute Rope

By: Bridget Heos

Photographs: Andy Comins

First of all I hate spiders with a passion so for me to read a book that has anything to do with spiders is pretty unusual. Despite this fact, I found the book to be quite enjoyable.

The book takes us both in the field and lab to learn about the world of genetics through the study of spider silk. The book has a narrative approach and contains difficult science topics that are explained 

in a way young readers can understand. A wide variety of pictures are included that adds to the understanding of what is being explained. 

Randy Lewis takes spider DNA and injects it into goats, bacteria, silkworms and alfalfa in an attempt to discover a better way to produce spider silk. The books takes you through each of these process in detail. 

The strongest spider silk is five times stronger than steel, the possibilities for this are amazing! Spider silk could be used to produce a lighter but safer bulletproof vest and could be used to produce replacement tendons and ligaments in the medical field to just name a few of these amazing possibilities.

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers

Date: February 26, 2013

Lexile Level: 860L

Grade Level: 5-7

Educator Information:

I would recommend this book as a read aloud to introduce a unit on DNA or genetics, a topic for a book report or a book for a student that is very interested in spiders, DNA, or genetics. This book also addresses GMOs and could be used to start a discussion, a debate or introduce the topic to a class.

This book is part of the Scientists in the Field Series. This series introduces young readers what goes on in the field and the lab during various scientific studies in a way that is both entertaining and educational. The series covers a wide variety of scientific topics and would be a great resource in any science classroom.

http://www.sciencemeetsadventure.com/

The website provides an educators guide that is available for download.

Here are a few of the other books in the series I would recommend if you like this book.

My Friend Dahmer, A look at a nonfiction graphic memoir by Derf Backderf

My Friend Dahmer

by Derf Backderf

A student of mine recommended this book to me and this book is very popular at the school library. I love reading crime and mystery fiction but this was my first nonfiction book in that genre.

This is a graphic novel and I think this was the best format for this memoir.  The author was a classmate of the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and provides a unique perspective of what led up to Dahmer's killing spree.

I think case studies should be made about incidents like these to show teachers and school administrators that this really does happen. This is a sad story because he didn't get the help he needed as a student. I think students find this story interesting because they get insight on what caused him to end up where he did. It could be an interesting read and discussion for a Psychology class.

I found the book interesting but I think I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been focused on the crime, catching Jeffrey Dahmer, the evidence and the trial.


I would recommend the following books if you are interested in true stories about famous crimes.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
2013 ALA/YALSA Alex Award
2014 Revelation Award at Angoulême
2015 ALA/YALSA Alex Award (Excellence in Narrative Nonfiction)

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Date: March 1, 2012
Grade Level: 7-12

Teacher Guide: https://www.abramsbooks.com/pdfs/academic/MyFriendDahmer_TeachingGuide.pdf

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

"Not that there's anything wrong with just lying around on your back. In its way, rotting is interesting too, as we will see. It's just that there are other ways to spend your time as a cadaver."

From the Introduction.

I have always chosen fiction books for reading in my spare time. However, I have recently found the genre narrative nonfiction and I have a long list of books I would like to read. I read a lot of medical thrillers from authors such as: Patricia Cornwell, Robin Cook, Tess Gerritsen, and Jefferson Bass. So choosing this book as one of my first nonfiction reads was a natural choice. As a science teacher the graphic details of the human body interest me.

From the chapter "Life After Death," about forensics and embalming:

Out behind the University of Tennessee Medical center is a lovely, forested grove with squirrels leaping in the branches of hickory trees and birds calling and patches of green grass where people lie on their backs in the sun, or sometimes in the shade, depending on where the researchers put them.

This pleasant Knoxville hillside is a field research facility, the only one in the world dedicated to the study of human decay. The people lying in the sun are dead...

Many medical thrillers reference what is commonly known as "The Body Farm" so I was not surprised at all when it came up in Roach's book. This research facility is what Jefferson Bass'  book series The Body Farm Novels revolves around. Jefferson Bass has also written a couple nonfiction books about The Body Farm. I highly recommend these if you enjoy his fiction books or Stiff.

The chapters that probably held the most interest for me were Dead Man Driving, Beyond the Black Box, and A Head is a Terrible Thing to Waste.

I didn't know that human cadavers had contributed so much to science and what we know now about the body and so much more. I was aware the human cadavers were used in medical school for Gross Anatomy, a class that introduces medical students to Anatomy by dissection of a human cadaver. 

In Dead Man Driving, Mary Roach describes the many ways that human cadavers have been used to improve safety in automobiles. Beyond the Black Box, explains how plane crashes are studied using human cadavers and that they can determine what happened by the injuries that the bodies sustained. A Head is a Terrible Thing to Waste, explains how human cadavers are used for doctors to continue their training on something besides a live patient.

I highly recommend this book, where else can you read about cannibalism, decomposition and decapitation without reading about serial killers?

Suggestions for use in Education

I think this book would be a great addition to an Anatomy & Physiology class, it would provide insight to the history of the study of the human body that textbooks do not provide. This would also be a great choice for a Science Club to read and discuss. 

A discussion guide can be found at the following link.

 http://books.wwnorton.com/books/readingguidesdetail.aspx?id=13653&CID=7521&tid=3288&tcid=11201

Stiff is a New York Times Bestseller, an Alex Award, as well as being chosen for many other reader's awards.

Pub. Date: 05/17/2004 Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc. 

Lexile Reading Level: 1230L Recommended Grade Level: 9-12