Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday - books for spring 3.21.18

Artwork by Sarah S. Brannen ©2017

Every Wednesday I join Alyson Beecher from kidlitfrenzy and other

kidlit bloggers to share wonderful nonfiction picture books.

The intention of today's blog post is to give professionals that work in the
education field new nonfiction reading material and ideas to use 

with students to promote a love of reading nonfiction materials.

It's officially spring!  And even if spring hasn't sprung by you (or it has, yet cold temperatures are sure to stop by - that's call midwest spring!), these books will get you in the season!


Warbler Wave
by April Pulley Sayre

I've always loved April Pulley Sayre's words and in this one she's teamed up with her husband to give us a beautiful book.  Wonderful poem about the migratory birds - warblers.  Full of rich vocabulary in simple text, there is much to learn.  Jeff Sayre's photographs are simply gorgeous and makes this a book to pour over time and time again.  Fascinating information in the backmatter.


Thank You, Earth: A Love Letter to Our Planet
by April Pulley Sayre

Sayre is busy, giving us two new books this spring!  She always amazes me - her poetic story that gives us so much to think about and wonder as we read and look at the photographs.  But then you get to her backmatter, and there is always so much to learn there!  This is a book you'll want on your shelves this Earth Day!


Spectacular Spring: All Kinds of Spring Facts and Fun
by Bruce Goldstone

I am so excited to have this book - it's absolutely one of the best books about the spring season.  One reason I love it is it shows the difference that occurs within the season.  For example, the weather - at the beginning of spring there may be snow, at the end there is rain.  At the beginning of spring, you still wear sweaters, at then end you wear a raincoat.  It shows flowers and animals that make appearances in spring, and also why.  It's a longer book because of all the information but short enough that it still works as a read aloud.  I am excited to see the Fall and Winter books are already published.  I'm sure we'll see a book about my favorite season in the near future!  If you work in the primary grades, this is a book I highly recommend for your libraries!

Thank you to Macmillan for the review copy!


The Things That I Love About Trees
written by Chris Butterworth
illustrated by Charlotte Voake

A beautiful ode to trees - a narrative story explains why our young narrator loves trees throughout the seasons.  The narrator shares how trees change in each season and gives the readers interesting facts and reasons to love the changes.  In smaller print is further information that corresponds with the narrative.  The author also includes some more information, including an index for the book, in the backmatter.

Thank you to Candlewick for the review copy!


A Seed is the Start
by Melissa Stewart

This is such a beautiful book from National Geographic Kids!  I love the photographs.  So much for young readers to learn by the visuals.  No surprise, but Stewart has this organized in a way that is easy for readers to process and understand and also find a reason to go back and reread multiple times for multiple purposes.  For example, on the first read, you might just read the large print words on each page that end up reading like a poem all the way through.  Then go back and check out the information on each page.  A third reading could be warranted by closely reading the photographs and put the visual with the information that had been read together.

Our second grade classrooms spend a unit focusing on seeds as part of their NGSS focus.  I am excited to add this book to our library for the teachers and students to use as a resource during their unit.

Melissa has been adding information to her blog that gives ideas how you can use her new book.  Here are some posts that have been added so far:
ways to use the book in grade 3
ways to use the book in grade 2
ways to use the book in grade 1
ways to use the book in kg

Thank you to National Geographic Kids for the review copy!


And one fun fiction story:


The Weather Girls
by Aki

I know a lot of primary grades study weather and patterns.  This is just a fun fiction book about things you see and wear in the different seasons told through poetic verse.

Thank you to Macmillan for the review copy!


Let's do some spring reading and see if we can get spring here just a bit faster!