Spinning Spiders

Okay, I'll admit it. I don't like spiders, not in the least, and honestly every time I looked at the inside cover of this book my skin crawled and I got an icky shiver. You know, the one where you raise your shoulders just a bit and make a face. That's a testament to how realistic the illustrations in this book are. The book I'm talking about is part of the Let's-Read-And-Find-Out series titled Spinning Spiders written by Melvin Berger and illustrated by S.D. Schindler. If you like spiders or like me, are trying to come to terms with a dislike of spiders, then you'll probably enjoy this book. I know, you're thinking "but Kerry, why would you get a book on spiders if you really don't like them?" The answer to that is easy. Yes, it's true spiders make my skin crawl, however I find them to be incredibly fascinating creatures in many ways. I just can't look at them very long or have them sneak up on me. I scream bloody murder when one decides to surprise me, and spend the next chaotic five minutes squealing while trying to capture it in a jar. It's true, very rarely do I kill a spider, instead I choose the capture and release method even if I probably shave a few minutes off my own life for it!

Well, now that I've gotten sufficiently side-tracked, let's head back to the book. *Shiver* Berger begins by explaining that spiders are in fact, not insects but are instead arachnids, and continues on with  descriptions of both creatures. He also details the various ways spiders create and use their webs, which is quite amazing. Did you know that the Ogre-faced spider actually carries its web, hangs from a branch, and catches it's own food? Or that another type of spider "fishes" for its meals in the air by swinging a sticky ball of silk thread? Mother nature, you are amazing!

A really neat extension that was listed in this book was a spiderweb activity, where you can actually collect a spiderweb and hang it on your wall! Can you believe it? Well, if you don't you'd better check this book out and follow the directions in the back!

Wild Tracks!

Have you ever been out for a walk in the woods and seen a set of animals tracks? Did you ever wonder what kind of creature might have made them? Well, if you happened to be carrying this book you might very well be able to identify them.

Wild Tracks, a non-fiction picture book written and illustrated by Jim Arnosky is an interesting and very informative book all about the various animal tracks you might stumble upon outside in the U.S. This handy little guide is filled with life-size drawings of all sorts of woodland creatures prints, so if you did happen to have this book with you, you could compare the tracks side by side. How cool is that?

For this book, Arnosky broke up his informational text into seven different types of tracks: deer, other hooved animals, bears, small animals, reptiles and birds, felines, and canines. For each section he includes a brief overview of the track family as well as labeled pencil drawings of the various animal prints. He also includes examples of tracks for animals running and walking with the average distances between each print.

The illustrations for this book are vibrant and colorful, which definitely lend a lot of spirit to the overall product. To really tie them into the concept of the book, Arnosky made sure that each animal in the painting also had their tracks displayed as you might see them in the wild.

Overall, I think students, especially upper elementary and above, would really enjoy this book and learn a lot from it, particularly with the life-size drawings. This is definitely a book you could use at your own home to figure out which little creature has been scampering across your flowers at night! You could even expand on this concept by having students make their own human tracks out of clay and displaying them around the room.

A Seed Is Sleepy

Don't you just love the sound of this title? I think it aptly describes just what any little old seed is. It's got so much potential to grow into something beautiful, but is just sleeping away until everything is just right. In this non-fiction picture book Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long, paint with words and color, the elegant story of seeds. This text, though informational, is often times written in a very poetic manner.

Each page has bold and colorful examples of almost every type of seed you can think of. I was surprised with how much I learned from it, thinking of all the little seeds I've seen outside without ever knowing their names. It made me think of how full of life this little world of ours is.

This is a great book for introducing children to seeds and how they start growing. Each page tells the different ways seeds look, travel, and grow, and provides many accurate representations for each. I really liked about this book was how it connected the beginning and end of its story with a single seed coming full circle, which is something I didn't pick up on until the 3rd read through. I have to admit though, that each time I read it I found another neat little tidbit of information to think about the next time I'm out for a little walk.

Clouds

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to lay out in the yard and look at the clouds. I'd always imagine what it would be like to reach out and touch one.

From this non-fiction picture book titled Clouds, written by Anne Rockwell and illustrated by Frane Lessac, I was able to learn a whole lot more about the shape shifting cotton balls in the sky. This book, part of the first series of Let's-Read-And-Find-Out, provides detailed explanations of the many different types of clouds we can see in the sky. It describes how far up each cloud is located, what its name means, and what kind of weather you can expect from it.

I like that it doesn't tackle the more complex concepts of how clouds form and instead focuses on the idea that there are different types of clouds for different types of days. I think this would be a great book to read with younger elementary students, and could be used to introduce them to the science concept of weather. It even has a cloud experiment that they could do with an adult where they can make a cloud in a bottle. How cool would it be for them to be able to hold a cloud in their hand, just like what I'd dreamed about doing when I was a kid!

The illustrations in this book are very bright and eye catching, with plenty of little details for students to pick out. The fact that the pictures are so bold will help keep them focused on the different types of clouds and allow them to visualize each of the clouds in turn.

All in all, this is a great book to get younger elementary students excited and thinking about science, specifically the world around them.

Nothing but Trouble: The Story of Althea gibson

Who was Althea Gibson? Well, let me shed some light on this with the book Nothing but Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson written by Sue Stauffacher and illustrated by Greg Couch.

The first sentence in this biographical picture book; “Althea Gibson was the tallest, wildest tomboy in the history of Harlem”, says so much about her character before the story even starts! Althea is a wild child, full of life and color, and ready to play any game. The whole neighborhood says she’s nothing but trouble (in a loving sort of way I’d imagine), however that doesn’t bother her a bit! She’s full of energy and having fun.
Even though everyone else saw her untamed energy as trouble, one man saw through to her full potential, and that was Buddy Walker. After seeing her play paddle tennis on the streets Buddy, though a poor musician, bought her a secondhand tennis racket and encouraged her to play at an actual court. There, others saw her dazzling ability and helped her focus that wild energy into a professional tennis player and win the Wimbledon Cup.

Now, some people may not be impressed by this feat, but for Althea during this time period (the 1950’s) this was an amazing accomplishment. She didn’t just win the Wimbledon Cup, she became the first African American, man or woman, to compete in it and win! During a time of social injustice and racist barriers Althea, with the support of many people, was able to overcome these obstacles and achieve a success she never knew she could reach for.

The illustrations for this book are absolutely wonderful. Throughout the story Althea is surrounded by a whirl of color and movement. I love that there isn’t a single page without these colors, showing that she never changed who she was, she just became more determined.

This is a great inspirational biography for students to read and subtly touches on the theme of racism in a way that could lead to great classroom discussion.

Ice Bear: In the Steps of the Polar Bear

I love the cover of this book! Look at it! Isn’t it gorgeous? As soon as I saw it, my eyes lit up and I read it right there in the library; I didn’t even bother to find a table or sit. I just read it, standing in the stacks.

     This non-fiction picture book, Polar Bear: In the Steps of the Polar Bear written by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Gary Blythe presents the unique characteristics that make up a polar bear in a charming and elegant manner. Each page displays beautiful and stoic paintings of polar bears in their natural habit and provides a large amount of information about the life of a polar bear and the relationships it has with its surroundings. They also made sure to incorporate the reverence with which the Inuit people view polar bears and how they’ve depended on the bears for their own survival.

One textual technique that I found interesting about this book is how the information is split up on each page.  One set of text is presented in larger font and set in a paragraph form while the other is done in a swirling smaller font, as though it’s following the snow drifts on each page. Even though life in the Arctic can be harsh and savage, Davies and Blythe do a great job of addressing these aspects in a natural and almost poetic manner.

Aside from the cover, my favorite pages of the book have to be the description of the polar bear’s solitary lifestyle. Here, the pages are separated lengthwise by a white strip containing the larger text. The upper portion shows a solitary polar bear during the summer when it is always day time, while the lower portion shows another solitary polar bear on the right side during the winter when it is always dark. It was a neat way to reinforce this polar bear fact.

Polar bears have such a mysterious allure and this picture book only adds to it. If on a chilly day you feel like a bit of a polar bear yourself, I suggest you pick this book up and snuggle up for a good read.

Boy: Tales of Childhood

I love the title of this autobiography! So many times while reading his story, I could hear the screech of one adult or another starting with this one simple word. Often times, when I think about an author I imagine them to be a studious and extremely professional person always with a pen in their hand incase inspiration hits them. Not once have I tried to imagine them as children or the silly predicaments they surely got themselves into just like anyone else. It’s with these thoughts, that I began reading the autobiography Boy: Tales of Childhood written by Roald Dahl.

As I read through the book, I was surprised to see how many hardships he had endured during his childhood without carrying any of the burden or negative emotions I surely would’ve had if I’d experienced the same events. It’s no wonder that he was able to develop such wonderfully fantastic stories when he was able to keep such a positive spirit throughout his childhood.

The stories he reveals in his narrative follow along the lines of any other childhood memory, however he manages to do it in a very unique way. Instead of just telling the reader what the kids do with the dead mouse, he draws it out into a sort of adventure that leaves you squirming and second guessing your choice of tootsie rolls as a snack. (Yes, I threw a wary glance at my pile of candy). 

Though Roald Dahl was lucky to be a part of a wealthier family growing up during the 1900’s, he certainly didn’t have a charmed life as it was littered with bouts of corporal punishment handed out during his time at school, much to the disdain of his mother. As a student in a graduate Elementary Education program I was more than a little upset each and every time the cane was mentioned. I’m surprised he was able to conjure up a character like Ms. Honey in his other book Matilda, given the horrible experiences he’d had with teachers during his childhood.

Another interesting point to this book, aside from his childhood adventures, like putting goat droppings into a man’s pipe, was that many of the pages included actual letters he’d written and photos from his life! I found that these tidbits a neat and extra personal touch to his life story that couldn’t have been expressed the same way through words alone.

I’d like to note that this book is merely the first recounting the life experiences of Roald Dahl, and that if you’d like to read the rest of his adventures, you should pick up the sequel: Going Solo.