The Snake Scientist, by Sy Montgomery

Published June 10, 2013 by Dagmar

I’ve found a non-fiction series that I just love, Scientists in the Field: Where Science Meets Adventure. The writing in these books is targeted toward older elementary and middle school students.

In The Snake Scientist, writer Sy Montgomery is joined by fabulous nature photographer Nic Bishop. (See my blog on Nic Bishop here. It just so happens that I wrote on his snake book. Bishop has an beautiful series of companion books to his Snakes book.)

The Snake Scientist follows the work of Robert Mason, Ph.D., a zoologist from Oregon State University who works studying the red-sided garter snakes in Manitoba province in Canada at the Narcisse Wildlife Management Area. There, drawn by the unique geology of the area, tens of thousands of harmless red-sided garter snakes make their home during the winter.

I really like this book, because it moves so effortlessly from topic to topic. This book describes how Bob Mason studies snakes and how he began his career as a scientist. You’ll find examples of how Mason uses the information he gathers to run experiments so he can study snake behavior. The Snake Scientist explains the impact of Mason’s work and how the study of snakes may even result in the development of cures for human diseases. The book also works to dispel common myths about snakes.

It’s no surprise to me that Nic Bishop’s photographs are stunning. Not only do you get a sense for the number of red-sided gartner snakes in the area (quite amazing), but you see pictures of scientists collecting snakes and measuring snakes and snakes in their natural habitats.

This book is not a survey of snakes, but any child interested in snakes or zoology will gain valuable insight into how a zoologist studying snakes goes about their work.

Highly recommended to future scientists and reptile fans.

Corduroy, by Don Freeman

Published June 10, 2013 by Dagmar

I think I read this book to my son about a million times – no, two milion times. It’s a book I remember loving from my own childhood. This book doesn’t seem to age. The best thing, though, is to see the looks on the faces of my preschoolers and kindergartners when I read them this book.

Corduroy is a about a little teddy bear sitting on the shelf of a department store who is missing a button on his overalls. A little girl named Lisa wants to buy Corduroy, but her mother won’t let her, because he doesn’t look new. A button is missing on Corduroy’s overalls. That night, after the store closes, Corduroy searches the department store for a button to fix his overalls. Lisa, determined to bring Corduroy home, returns the next day with all her savings so that she can buy Corduroy, despite his missing button. In a very sweet ending scene, as Lisa sews on a new button to Corduroy’s overalls, both Corduroy and Lisa realize that they’ve each found a friend.

Bake Sale, by Sara Varon

Published June 9, 2013 by Dagmar

I really like Sara Varon’s graphic novels. They are emotional, a little melancholy but most of all, really good. Bake Sale is very popular in my library. I have a lot of cooks and bakers at my school, so I think Bake Sale’s appeal extends beyond the very sweet (sorry) story of friendship to the recipes throughout the book.

Cupcake owns a bake shop in New York City. He has a best friend named Eggplant and plays drums in a band with his friends. He loves baking and playing in the marching band. Eggplant tells him that he is going to visit his aunt Aubergine in Turkey. His aunt Aubergine knows Turkish Delight, the famous baker. Turkish Delight is Cupcake’s baking idol. Eggplant invites Cupcake to come along to Turkey so that he can meet Turkish Delight. Cupcake doesn’t have the money for his plane ticket. At Eggplant’s urging, Cupcake quits his band and works lots extra hours creating new recipes and selling his baked goods all over New York City so that he can save up all his money to buy a ticket to Turkey. I love Cupcake’s entrepreneurial spirit. He sells little marzipan dogs and cats outside to sell at St. John the Baptist Cathedral for St. Francis of Assisi Day, dog biscuits for the Westminster Dog Show and heart-shaped peppermint brownies for Valentine’s Day. Finally, Cupcake saves up enough for his ticket to Turkey so that he can meet Turkish Delight. Sadly, Eggplant loses his job and can no go to Turkey.

What happens next? Read and find out how this great story ends. I loved it.

This book was a Junior Library Guild selection.

Big Mean Mike, by Michelle Knudsen

Published June 8, 2013 by Dagmar

Wow did my students love this book! It’s a lot of fun, and the illustrations by Scott Magoon are great.

“Big Mean Mike was the biggest, toughest dog in the whole neighborhood.” He has the meanest looking car and really mean looking combat boots. When he opens his trunk to put in a package, there is a bunny – a really, really cute little bunny. Nothing is less big and mean than a really, really cute bunny. Big Mean Mike, puts it on the ground and drives away. The next day, the cute bunny is back with a friend. Big Mean Mike again leaves the bunnies on the sidewalk and drives away. This continues until the day that Big Mean Mike goes to the monster truck show. He then finds four really adorable bunnies under the driver’s seat of the car. He leaves them in the car to go into the truck show, but then just can’t leave those incredibly cute bunnies in the car. So, he sneaks them into the monster truck show. Eventually, he can’t resist their cuteness and lets them out of their bag to watch the show. As you might suspect, the other dogs tease him when they seem Big Mean Mike with four little bunnies. This is the best part of the book… The bunnies growl back at the dogs that are teasing Big Mean Mike. Then, Big Mean Mike tells those dogs that he can be friends with whomever he wants.

This book is so great. I love the Big Mean Mike has a soft side and that he’ll stick up for himself when he does something that other dogs would be afraid to do. Go Big Mean Mike! Go Bunnies!

Magic Tree House, by Mary Pope Osborne

Published June 7, 2013 by Dagmar

This was a sleeper series in my library. I read almost everyone with my son when he was four and five years old, and he just loved them. I couldn’t figure out why my students weren’t reading the books. It turns out that my students just didn’t find the covers interesting. So, I asked one of my second grade teachers to try reading the series out loud to her students. Oh my goodness. She loved the series and so did they. I can’t keep these books on the shelves anymore. Her entire second grade is now excited about these books, and my teacher said she will read them to her new second grade students next year.

What are the Magic Treehouse books? These short chapter books are books that combine history with adventure, magic and suspense, perfect for first and second graders. There are even picture to break up the text. Jack and Annie are brother and sister. While playing near the woods in Frog Creek Pennsylvania, Annie, Jack’s younger sister, spots a tree house high in a tree. She, the more adventurous of the two, climbs up to the tree house. Jack, the more cautious of the two, follows her reluctantly. They find books in the tree house on all different topics. Jack, a big reader, picks up one of the books on dinosaurs. Looking at a page, he says, “I wish I could see a Pteradon.” No sooner has he said it, but there is a Pteradon outside the treehouse. Annie runs out to meet it, much to Jack’s dismay. So begins Jack and Annie’s first adventure with the Magic Tree House. Once hooked, as my students now are, students can visit Pompeii, Ninjas, Pirates, the Titanic, the Amazon and many more places.

Not only does this wonderful and engaging series go on for 48 books, but it is accompanied by non-fiction readers for those students interesting in learning more about the topics in the books.

I highly recommend this series as a read aloud to younger students and as a great early chapter book for first, second and third grade readers.

The Paper Crane, by Molly Bang

Published June 5, 2013 by Dagmar

This book never fails to please my students. I usually read it to second or third graders, but it can be enjoyed by older students as well.

This is a story of a man who owned a restaurant on a busy road. He loved owning his restaurant and had many customers, until a new highway was built. Travelers no longer passed by, and the restaurant was empty. One evening, a stranger wearing old and worn clothes comes to the restaurant. Although the restaurant owner is very poor, he feeds the stranger. The stranger repays the kindness of the restaurant owner by folding a napkin into a paper crane. He tells the restaurant owner that when he claps his hands, the crane will come to life and dance. Sure enough, it works. The crane dances. People come from all around to see the dancing crane and soon the restaurant is busy again. One day, the stranger returns and takes out a flute. The crane comes to life and goes to him. Together, they leave the restaurant. The stranger and his crane are never seen again, but travelers still come to the restaurant to hear the story of the stranger and the crane.

The illustrations are cut paper collage. This book is the winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for illustration (1986).

Wonder, by R. J. Palacio

Published June 3, 2013 by Dagmar

I wasn’t sure what to make of Wonder when I started it. In fact, I put it down for a while thinking it would be a cliched story of a person living with a disability, bullied by others. This book is so much richer and more thoughtful than I first thought. I was inspired to give it another try after my students talked about it at school and after my son recommended it to me after it was recommended it to him by a friend.

August is a fifth grader who has been homeschooled until fifth grade because he suffers from severe birth defects that have deformed his face. All his life, people have gawked at him, laughed at him, been scared of him or have otherwise been unkind. August’s parents think he should go to a real school and learn to build friendships. August begins fifth grade at a private school. His entry into school is rough. There are only a few kids who will take the social risk to befriend him.

The book moves along well, because each chapter is told from the point of view of another character. You hear not only from August, but also from his sister Olivia, her boyfriend Justin, her good friend Miranda and August’s best friends Summer and Jack. Each person has their own story to tell.

I was moved to tears several times in this book. It’s really well done. Highly recommended to tweens and middle school readers.

One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia

Published June 2, 2013 by Dagmar

One Crazy Summer is an incredible book – not only because much of the book takes place just blocks from my school library in North Oakland, CA – but because the main character, Delphine, is a strong and capable 11 year old girl who really knows how to make the best of a bad situation. I love her strength and her determination. This book ran like wildfire around my school.

Delphine, Vonetta and Fern are three girls, 11, 9 and 7, who live with their father and Big Ma, their grandmother, in Brooklyn, NY. Their mother, Cecile abandoned them when Fern was just a baby. One summer, the girl’s father says the girls need to know their mother and sends them across the country to stay with their mother in Oakland, CA. The girls, who don’t know their mother at all, are greeted by Cecile at the airport. Cecile not only doesn’t hug them, when she takes them home, she doesn’t cook for them or care for them in any way. Cecile sends them off every day to get their breakfast from the Black Panthers kitchen in the neighborhood and tells the girls to spend the day in the Black Panthers’ summer camp. The girls learn all about revolution but also that the Black Panthers feed hungry people. They also discover that their mother, a poet with a printing press, has been asked to print the Black Panther newsletter.

Delphine rises to the occasion. She rejects her mother’s call to eat Chinese food every night and goes to the store so she can cook meals for her sisters. She even plans an excursion into San Francisco so that the girls can actually see something of California, not just “poor people in Oakland”. Delphine is smart. You just can’t help routing her on and hoping that her mother can see all the good that we see in her.

This book is a window into the world of the 1960s and those who believed in the work of the Black Panthers and those in the black community who saw things differently. Delphine is forced to view both worlds, that of her father and grandma and that of her mother Cecile. What a great book. But, don’t just believe me. This book won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, the Coretta Scott King Award and a Newbery Honor and National Book Award Honor. Don’t miss it.

I’m excited to read Rita Williams-Garcia’s new book, P.S. Be Eleven.

Of Thee I sing, by Barack Obama

Published May 30, 2013 by Dagmar

I find this book incredibly inspiring. Many thanks to Amelie’s Bookshelf for the recommendation. I went out and bought it and used it for my final week of library classes. I read it to students in grades 1-5.

President Obama’s book is a letter to his daughters about the people that made our country wonderful. He starts, by saying, “Have I told you that you’re creative?” and then talks about Georgia O’Keefe. Each page, he talks about a quality exemplified by the person he highlights, including Helen Keller, Cesar Chavez, Neil Armstrong, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King, Jane Addams, Abraham Lincoln, Maya Lin, Sitting Bull and others. Some people, like Georgia O’Keefe, Maya Lin, Jane Addams and Helen Keller were less familiar to my students. It was nice to have the opportunity to talk about these amazing people and the importance of their work. Most importantly, President Obama finishes the book by saying that America is full of people of all different races, religions and ideas.

This book is a beautiful, touching book. It’s especially great to share. The illustrations by Loren Long are wonderful. My students quietly while I read the book to them (good quiet, not bored quiet). Afterward, we went from student to student and talked about which person or people inspired them the most. I loved hearing students talk about the people that inspired them, particularly when they mentioned people they’d first learned about in the book.

This is Not My Hat, by Jon Klassen

Published May 24, 2013 by Dagmar

Here is another fabulous picture book by Jon Klassen, the author of the very the very funny I Want My Hat Back. I love the dark, dry humor in this and I Want My Hat Back.

A little fish has taken a very big fishes’ hat. He swims confidently to the place where the plants grow big and tall and close together. He is sure that the big fish will not know where he is and that the crab that saw him swim by will not tell the big fish where to find him. Oops. This book has great pacing and is perfect for my “too old for picture books” students. They love it as do I.

Jon Klassen is also the illustrator of Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, one of my favorite picture books. C

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