A Weather Book For the Younger Set

Witnessing the changing sunlight, knowing the tilt of the earth as it travels around the sun brings changes in our seasons and weather, I can't help but think of God's hand in the creation of our world.  It's truly miraculous!

Today I'd like to introduce you to a fun and simple book about weather: Willy and Lilly's Adventures with Weather.  It is written by Meteorologist and now Mom, Jennifer Stanonis. 

Jennifer has covered and forecasted tornadoes, major snow storms, forest fires, floods, polar vortexes and more during her decades of meteorological TV weather reporting. The seeds that grew into Willy and Lilly's Adventures with Weather were sown while taking her twins on walks in all sorts of weather. 

Her engaging explanation of changing weather in this cute picture book - featuring a brother, sister, and their dog and cat - is great for 4-6 year olds. Kids will enjoy Jennifer's Stanonis' rhyming text and Bill Blenk's colorful illustrations.

Among other things, children will learn that their shadows are long in the winter, when the sun is low in the sky and short in the summer, when the sun is highest.  

Lots of different types precipitation are talked about, and a nice meteorologist (who looks a lot like the author, haha!) points out the warm and cold fronts from the kids' television screen. Willy uses technology to help him plan his day as he checks in on the day's forecast by the hour on a small digital screen. 

For further reading:

For children wanting a more in-depth discussion and fun activity exploring the science of the seasons (using an orange and a pencil and flashlight), I highly recommend Frankly M. Branley's Sunshine Makes the Seasons, for ages 4-8.  Our children loved all his science picture books - they're great for homeschoolers!  To see more of his books, go here.

Will and Lilly's Adventures with Weather, by Jennifer Stanonis is illustrated by Bill Blenk and published by CrissCrossAppleSauce/City of Light Publishing. This fun story will help young meteorologists notice important details as they learn about predicting weather!  There's also a handy reference at the back with definitions of "Weather Words" from the book.  

A Beautiful Beetle Book. I'm Serious.

Though not particularly "bonkers about beetles", I'm definitely "bonkers" about this book about beetles!  And your child will be too.  

 Did you know that there are roughly 400,000 different species of beetles? These amazing creatures make up about 25% of all animals on our planet.
You'll find out all you ever wanted to know about these creatures in Owen Davey's Bonkers About Beetles.

As you can see from the Contents Page, there is loads of fun info to be found...

The mythology section is particularly interesting.

I love the fact-filled detail in the text and illustrations!

All of Owen Davey's large format Flying Eye Books are striking artistically, as well as fun and informative in content.  Parents and kids alike will appreciate both aspects of these books!

I hope you'll take time to find this gorgeous book for your little science enthusiast!  And look for Davey's other titles: including:
SMART ABOUT SHARKS
FANATICAL ABOUT FROGS
CRAZY ABOUT CATS
MAD ABOUT MONKEYS

Giveaway: Two New Books from Animal Planet

Today I'm featuring and giving away two books from Animal Planet's new series of nonfiction "Animal Bites" softcover books for 4-8 year olds.

The new series provides emerging readers with the perfect bite-sized guide to the animal world.  The habitat-focused titles make it easy for kids to choose which animals they want to read about, and even reluctant readers won't be able to resist the bright covers.

Animal loving young children will be fascinated by all the fun facts—and more—found in Animal Bites, as they pour over the informative, fun pages of these books.

Each soft cover book contains more than 200 striking photographs, easy-to-understand graphics, and maps that bring the world of polar and ocean animals alive for young readers.

The two books I'm giving away are Animal Planet Ocean Animals and Animal Planet Polar Animals by Laaren Brown (Time Inc. Books, April 2016, ages 4-8)

Animal Planet Ocean Animals highlights life in and around the deep blue sea all around the globe. Do you have a child that wants to know about killer whales and green sea turtles?  Or maybe moray eels, sharks, and dolphins?  He/she will love this book!

In Animal Planet Polar Animals kids will learn all about the animals that survive and thrive in the subzero temperatures of the Earth's polar regions.  Amazing adaptations allow Arctic foxes, lemmings, Emperor Penguins, jellyfish, and many more species to call these frigid regions home. And your child will see them all in the beautiful photographs of this book!

Go here for some fun posters and activity sheets to go with the Animal Bites books. They're new, and Time Inc. created them for use at home in addition to the classroom and library.

To enter my giveaway, leave a comment here on this blog post and/or on my Good Books For Young Souls Facebook page by midnight Friday, April 22, 2016.  Winner announced Saturday, April 23, 2016.  Be sure to check back, to see if you are my lucky winner!

[Thanks to the Blue Slip Media for providing the giveaway copies of these books.]

"The Secret Lives of Animals" - Blog Tour & Publisher's Giveaway!

Do you have a child who loves random facts about animals?  I'm happy today to be one of the stop-offs along a blog tour introducing a brand new not-to-be-missed book, The Secret Lives of Animals.

The book's intriguing subtitle will grab the attention of its target audience: kids aged 6-12...

1,001 Tidbits, Oddities & Amazing Facts about North America's Coolest Animals

I just love this book.  When my review copy arrived, I thoroughly enjoyed reading through it and immediately sought the opinions of four experts: my three home-schooled goddaughters and their mom.  They all agreed that it's a fun book, and one they would enjoy sitting down together with! 

The authors, Stacy Tornio and Ken Keffer have done an excellent job with the text which is at once informative and engaging. Their enthusiasm for the world of animals and nature is contagious! (This is their second book collaboration.  Their first was The Kids' Outdoor Adventure Book.)  

Having written a volume that's perfect for home schooled or traditionally schooled children, Ken and Stacy are inviting kids to become privy to lots of lots of random amazing facts and secrets about North American animals.

Take for example, the OWL:
Owls fascinate people all over the world.  They have gained a lot of popularity in the past several years, maybe in part because of Harry Potter.  Actually, there have been lots of owl characters in movies and literature over the years...

Little Known Facts
1. While owls mostly stick to themselves, a group of owls is called a parliament.
2. It might seem that owls can turn their heads all the way around, but that's not really the case.  They can turn their heads about 270 degrees but not a full 360 degrees.
3. Some owls often have to survive in the cold because their range goes well into northern areas.  One thing that allows them to do this is having feathers that go all the way down on their feet too.
4. Owls don't create (or excavate) their own nests out of trees.  Instead they find nests that have been created by other birds...
...and it goes on and on!  Twelve facts in all for the owl!

The chapters are organized by animal classifications. There are a couple of pages devoted to every animal, with a nice illustration by Rachel Riordan for each one. At the back of the book there's also an index of animals by state and province. 

In addition to the "little known facts" about each animal, your child will read about the animals' sizes, what they eat, who eats them, and where they hang out.  There are also science Q&A's, animal "all star picks" from around the world, and "go outside" challenges.

WIN A FREE BOOK AND A PAIR OF KEEN SHOES

Shoes, book, and t-shirt giveaway! Click to enter publisher's giveaway.

GO HERE TO ENTER

The publisher is doing a cool giveaway, which you can learn about and enter by going HERE.  (There’s an added fun part…whoever wins gets to choose a friend to send a book and t-shirt to as well!)

The Secret Lives of Animals is available on Amazon and from Barnes and Noble.

MARCHING ALONG WITH PENGUINS

Adélie Penguins look like they're wearing tuxedo tails!

How much do you know about penguins? (I just found out there are 17 species!) "Penguin Appreciation/Awareness Day" is coming up on January 20th.  Below are some books your family might enjoy reading about penguins - I also included some research I did in order to help you better appreciate these flightless birds.

CHAPTER AND PICTURE BOOKS:

MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS by Richard and Florence Atwater, illustrated by Robert Lawson.

I did not see the recent movie, but as usual, I'd imagine the book is better than the Hollywood version! Mr. Popper is a house painter in the 1930s in Stillwater, USA.  He only works from the spring through fall seasons.  During the winter, he reads National Geographic and listens to radio shows about world explorers, such as Admiral Drake and his Antarctic Adventures.  The Admiral surprisingly responds to a fan letter from Mr. Popper by sending him a live penguin (who they name "Captain Cook"). The adventures start with one, but soon the Popper family grows to include 12 penguins - all of whom must be fed!  So Mr. Popper, his wife, and their two kids take the penguins on the road.  They're billed as "Popper's Performing Penguins, First Time on Any Stage, Direct from the South Pole". The act eventually gets old and they have a run-in with the law - only to be bailed out by the Admiral.  Mr. Popper is then faced with a moral dilemma about the penguins' future. The adventures while on tour are hilarious, as the penguins disrupt other acts and invade hotels. This classic read-aloud is perfect as a bedtime "chapter-a-night" book for ages 7 and up.

365 PENGUINS
by Jean-Luc Fromental. In this oversize picture book from France, family members deal with penguins that arrive at their home--one a day, for a whole year!  The mayhem begins on New Year's Day. As the penguin population increases, Dad, Mom, and the kids use multiplication and a few other schemes to organize, feed, and care for the increasing number of birds, but the scheme they come up with is only temporarily helpful. Finally, at the end of the year, Uncle Victor (an ecologist) arrives, and explains why he has sent the birds. He takes all but one of them, "Chilly", away. The premise is goofy, but the math is fun, in this big book. Joelle Jolivet's bold illustrations, in orange, blue, and black, give a retro, almost surreal look to the artwork, which adds to the story. (ages 5-8)


LOST AND FOUND

 by Oliver Jeffers. Is this little penguin lost (or just lonely)? After a penguin shows up at his door, a little boy determines to help it get back home. The journey to the South Pole in the boy's rowboat is long and difficult, so to pass the time the boy tells the penguin lots of stories along the way.  Finally they arrive, but instead of being happy, they are sad. Find out what happens next, in this sweet read aloud.



LITTLE PIP...you'll love these cute picture books (for ages 4-8), illustrated by Jane Chapman, and written by talented author Karma Wilson, about a little Adélie Penguin named "Pip". These reassuring stories about Pip and her family were introduced to me by my sweet pre-school aged god-daughter, Emma:
WHERE IS HOME, LITTLE PIP?

DON'T BE AFRAID, LITTLE PIP

WHAT'S IN THE EGG, LITTLE PIP?


DOCUMENTARY FILM:
Hopefully, many of you have seen MARCH OF THE PENGUINS - an incredibly enjoyable and beautifully filmed 2005 documentary, narrated by Morgan Freeman (if you haven't, try to see it soon!)  It's about a colony of hundreds of Emperor Penguins as they return, in a single-file march of 70 miles or more, to their frozen breeding ground, far inland from the cold oceans where they thrive. Most of the other creatures leave, and the Emperor Penguins, are the only animals to spend the long winters on Antarctica's open ice (unlike the Adélie Penguins, who spend their winters in the cold seas surrounding the offshore Arctic ice pack).  Click here to read more (and watch video) about both of these types of penguins on the National Geographic KIDS website.  


CRAFTS AND MORE...
Family Fun Magazine Online is a great resource for party and craft ideas.  Want to have a penguin party?  Click here to see lots of fun penguin craft ideas and recipes from FAMILY FUN.


WANT TO GO SEE PENGUINS?
These social animals are not only superb swimmers, but world-class divers - and fun to watch!
The website Nothing But Penguins has information about penguin exhibits and websites from arount the world.  You'll find additional exhibit sites here.  

EDUCATION THROUGH ADVENTURE!

PADDLE-TO-THE-SEA is also a film.

Kids love books full of adventure. The genius of Holling C. Holling was that he knew how to teach through adventure, by filling his entertaining tales with well-researched historical, geographical, and scientific data that might otherwise be boring to children had it not been presented in an exciting work of fiction.

This author/artist/naturalist was born in Jackson County, Michigan, in 1900.   His father was superintendent of schools, so as a boy, Holling had access to all the books he could want at home (but his mother would also make trips to the library to find books that he especially liked about animals and Indians.)

He not only loved reading, he loved being in the outdoors - roaming the woods, camping and exploring. “At three, he was an avid artist, drawing very advanced pictures of horses, cows, and other animals. In his youth, his father once brought him a dead owl. The investigative boy became fascinated with it, making an Indian headdress from the feathers and a belt with the claws. His love of Indian customs and ways was a constant throughout his life.” (as noted in Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults, 2nd ed., Gale Group, 2002)


Holling Clancy Holling graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1923. He then worked in a taxidermy department of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and spent time working in anthropology.  He married Lucille Webster and within a year of their marriage they had both accepted positions as art instructors for a year (1926-1927) on the first University World Cruise, sponsored by New York University.

For many years of his life, Holling C. Holling dedicated much of his time and interest to creating books for children.  I'd like to focus on a set of large format books he started in the 1940's.  Much of the material he wrote about was known to him firsthand through field and library research. His wife worked with him on many of the illustrations.  Each story is rooted in the natural world: set on the sea, rivers, the coast, and inland trails. Each story involves a journey.

"The story lines of these books are well-complemented by their art. Of special interest are the sidebars that make a reader linger. They may be a detailed, hand-lettered pen and ink of a ship’s rigging in Seabird or the Great Lakes displayed “like bowls on a hillside” in Paddle-to-the-Sea. Learning new information was never more inviting and entertaining. Holling was a writer/illustrator who tapped into children’s secret consciousness and curiosity.  Such richness in storytelling and illustration still makes for classical favorites, which says much about this master of children’s literature." -Walter Giersbach, (Grinnell College Book Review).

These stories are especially loved by homeschooling families.  Click here to see Beautiful Feet Books wonderful "Geography Through Literature Pack" that uses these books.

PADDLE-TO-THE-SEA the four year journey of a miniature wood carving of an Indian boy in a canoe from its starting point in Lake Nipigon, Canada, through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River to its final destination in the Atlantic Ocean.  Paddle receives help staying on course from people who read the message carved on his canoe: "Put me back in the water. I am Paddle-to-the-Sea".  Middle readers will learn about the history, industry, geography, seasons, tides, currents, locks, inhabitants, animals of the region.


TREE IN THE TRAIL the story of the passing of history as seen by a stationary cottonwood tree, located on what eventually becomes the Santa Fe Trail. (The wood from the tree is eventually made into an ox yoke and ultimately makes a journey to the end of the trail.)


SEABIRD - Through the travels of Seabird - an ivory gull carved by a cabin boy from a walrus tusk - the history of America at sea is traced. Your child will delight in this story of sailing, whaling, ships and ship building, while they learn world geography and much more!


MINN OF THE MISSISSIPPI Minn (a snapping turtle) travels over many seasons and years from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico.  Children will learn about the history of the Mississippi River Valley and its fascinating world of bayou's, steamboats, river pirates, flatboats and keelboats, French and Spanish explorers, plantations, floods, and even Mark Twain.


PAGOO studies life in a tidal pool through the story of a hermit crab named Pagoo.  Every detail of tide pool life is presented. Holling's wonderful illustrations bring to light the many microscopic forms of life found in the sea, and the habits and methods of survival are clearly explained.