A book whose title asks a question owns a special spot to those kidlit readers. Do You Know Where the Animals Live? is a children’s book from Peter Wohlleben, who young readers might know from The Hidden Life of Trees or The Inner Life of Animals. This is our first time reading one of his books and the difference in how he approaches nature content, relative to how some readers might be used to reading about it is immediate and respectful.
Just yesterday we reviewed a climate change book aimed at early elementary-aged readers. That book was the opposite of Our World Out of Balance, Understanding Climate Change and What We Can Do by Andrea Minoglio and Laura Fanelli. That’s a scary title, isn’t it? Our World Out of Balance sounds like it would be an alarmist, riot grrl, worst case, handbook for skipping school on Friday and blaming the environment for it. Instead, Our World Out of Balance is a STEM-focused, scientific-minded, cause and effect illustrated book that will make kids think and want to solve, instead of panic and freak out.
The Story of Climate Change, A First Book About How We Can Help Save the Planet is the fifth book in the series by Catherine Barr and Steve Williams. It’s an engaging book that introduces second through fourth graders to the history of climate change. The illustrations by Amy Husband and Mike Love are playful, have lots of movement, and certainly keep the eyes of those young readers busy in the best of all possible ways. Most of the target audience will enjoy the book and its approach to global warming is unique in its visual presentation.
Educational and entertaining illustrated books have a sweet spot in our hearts. Elementary school children want to be entertained, and they don’t mind learning. While parents or educators would prefer that the verbs in that previous sentence were flipped and that learning came first in the equation, it’s not. Busy Spring, Nature Wakes Up by Sean Taylor, Alex Morss with illustrations by Cinyee Chiu is an illustrated book that softly tells a story about a dad and his two daughters on an early spring day.
Our family has lots of non-fiction books on animals, nature, and science in the house. A reference book is a great thing to have around because you never know when school-age children will need something in it. Granted there is that whole internet thing, but a book allows for that random sense of discovery that online searching simply doesn’t satisfy. However, odds are that all of, or almost all of your non-fiction animal reference books are encyclopedic, or listing in the presentation. That certainly leads to discover and learn about new creatures, but might not motivate kids to read it page to page. What Breathes Through Its Butt? is a non-fiction book on animals, but it’s unlike any critter book you or your kids have seen.
Regardless of your stance on books, STEM, mglit, or chocolate chip cookies, we can all agree that Who Gives A Poop?, Surprising Science From One End To The Other is one of the cleverest book titles you’ll ever run across. The book is a story of things that we see every day. Sometimes it’s hiding in plain sight and other times it smacks us on the shoulder while we’re sitting at the pool. It’s worth noting that actually did happen to our son this summer from a passing seagull. Now that I’ve read this book I know that so many things could’ve been gleaned by taking a look at that white splotch that splattered from him onto our stuff.
The Screaming Hairy Armadillo is a book whose title will grab mid-elementary school through middle school readers by their nape and drag them in. It won’t be an unwilling situation at all. Most young readers will see the animals drawn on the cover, read, or make out ‘screaming hairy armadillo’ and be curious. Those critter readers will jump right into the book and read about 77 seriously strange animals that they’ll probably never see.
Young children are smart. At their core they want to learn, it’s just up to the older people who are taking care of them to get fun, educational materials in their way. For the sake of this review, young children is referring to those kids who are between two and six. These are the crawlers and first-grade kids who have nothing better to do than learn, so hop to it parents. That is where Hello Numbers! What Can You Do? An Adventure Beyond Counting can hardwire these kids for math brilliance, with a little assistance.
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