The Book Search

Wow, are these some good ones and you'll have to keep an eye out for them, because I just tried to order them and they haven't hit the stores yet.  They are totally worth waiting for.  Check these out! The first one is called Build Beaver Build by Sandra Markle.  The art work in this one is amazing.  The pictures are very detailed and so pretty!  It's about a young male beaver living in a dam with his family.  It shows how he grows and changes, how he gets food, how he avoids predators, how he plays with his sisters.  It's really a very thorough story of the life cycle and habits of a beaver.  Here in south Florida, we don't have beavers so I think my kids will be super interested to read about them in such an inviting and lovely book.  It's set to be replaced at the end of January, which should be an awesome time of year to get this one on the shelves, when the beavers are really having their babies and starting to be more active. ...

Here are some terrific books about science.  They are picture books but one of them is big enough for really big kids! The easiest one (possibly the most beautiful) is called "Water is Water-A Book about the Water Cycle" by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Jason Chin.  I mention Chin because these pictures are like poetry.  I know when I read this one, the kids are going to gasp as I turn the pages and say "Whooooaaa"  I love it when they do that!  The text is really great too.  It's quite simple but poetic (you won't mind reading this one several times) and the vocabulary is terrific.  But it's about the water cycle so there's science too (science AND poetry?  Can it BE?) and it has this very fun leading structure.  You really need to look for this one, there's a lot to like about it. The second one is sort biographical but it's also about the scientific method.  It's called "Mesmerized - How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery th...

I've been busy enough with the books in my hands so I haven't been looking at Netgalley but now that school is out for a few weeks, I had a little extra time to look.  I found a really great one that will be published in March and if you like books that make kids think about global issues, this is going to be one for you.  It's called The Red Bicycle by Jude Isabella.  It's about a red bicycle and what happens to it after the boy who buys it in Canada is finished with it (he outgrows it).  He donates it to charity that takes bikes to Burkina Faso and donates them to charitable organizations there.  I loved how it showed not only that the bike went to a girl who really needed it, but how she used it to help her family.  When she was finished with it, she donated it to another charitable organization which used the bicycle as an ambulance.  The pictures are cheerful and simple but evocative enough to make you feel a part of the story.  It also has i...