Mrs. Knott's Book Nook: NGSS

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Animal Heroes: Supermoms! - review 3.07.23

When we think about all the things moms and grown-ups and caregivers do, it's quite the list. From carting the kids around place to place, keeping up with everything a youngster needs, meal planning and packing, and organizing the household, it's definitely a full time job! But did you know animal moms have the same job?

Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

Animal Heroes: Supermoms!

written by Heather Lang and Jamie Harper

illustrated by Jamie Harper

published by Candlewick Press

Heather Lang and Jamie Harper have teamed up to give us an inside look at the supermoms of the animal world. The life of a mom seems to be similar whether you're mammal or reptile; live in the sea or take to the sky. Even animal moms have to cart their children around, just maybe, not in a minivan! As Lang and Harper share, animal supermoms transport their young around on their backs or on their chest or even in their mouths! Now, that's a different form of transportation! And just like their human counterparts, animal supermoms will stop at nothing to sacrifice everything to support their young! From starving themselves, or searching for food for months, they work hard to make sure those young ones are satisfied!

Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

Let's not forget about making a safe and comfortable home. Decorating with the latest style (nothing like some mud and poop, like the red-knobbed hornbill) or separating the children into their own rooms (thanks, strawberry poison frog mom), these animal supermoms have it covered!

Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

I love the format author/illustrator Jamie Harper has taken with this book. Using a comic book type format with the different frames on the layouts, this supermom book mimics some superhero type reading!

I know young readers will enjoy the facts covered in this story and will have a new appreciation of these amazing animals. Grade levels that use the NGSS and study animal adaptations and parent/offspring traits will benefit using this book as a read aloud. This is the first in the "Animal Heroes" series that will be celebrating the animals in the world around us.

ELA tie-in:

Let's talk character traits. A common standard for readers is to identify character traits. So often when I ask young readers to describe a character I get overgeneralized traits - happy, sad, mad. Trying to come up with a myriad of words that don't oversimplify a trait or feeling is complicated for students. However, this is a perfect book to share when discussing how to come up with lesser used synonyms for these words! The backmatter of this book has an excellent layout that gives an adjective describing an animal that was discussed in the text. By collecting these words, young readers will have a wonderful tool for generating a whole new set of traits to use when describing characters.

Join me in wishing this book a happy, happy book birthday today!

For additional resources and activities be sure to visit heatherlangbooks.com/supermoms and jamieharper.com.

Would you like to add a copy of this book to your library? Thanks to the generosity of Candlewick Press, I have a giveaway copy for one lucky winner (US only). Winner will be selected on March 14th.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday 1.06.16 - Burping in Space!

Every Wednesday I join Alyson Beecher from kidlitfrenzy and other

kidlit bloggers to share wonderful nonfiction picture books.

The intention of today's blog is to give educational professionals

new nonfiction reading material and ideas to use

with students to promote a love of reading nonfiction materials.

It's a new year - Happy 2016! At the start of each year, I always try to reevaluate my reading goals. Thinking about nonfiction and my Wednesday posts, I continue to not worry about the number of books I will read this year, but keep thinking about what I'm reading and how to get information to teachers. Last year I wanted to read more books that could be used with our new science standards. This year I will continue that, but in order to help me find those posts quicker, I will add more blog labels so I can find them faster in a search. I also would like to try and write more posts that cultivate ways to use groups of books, not necessarily by subject matter. I think those posts are what Carrie Gelson likes to refer to as "lists" :) They are very useful to me when she makes them so I'm going to attempt my hand at more of them.
Happy nonfiction reading this year!

How Do You Burp in Space?

written by Susan E. Goodman

illustrated by Michael Slack

published by Scholastic

I came across this book a few years ago in my Scholastic order. I knew it would be fun based on the title - Space? Check! Burping in Space? Done deal! I knew I could sell this book to students.
This year it was chosen to be on our state book list - the Illinois Bluestem List for 3rd-5th graders. Now I had another reason to push this book into hands of readers.

It's such a fun nonfiction book. Written as a "guidebook", each chapter is organized around a part of space travel. Instead of there being dry information about space travel, the author has written every description in such a humorous way, young readers will be surprised they are learning new information while laughing out loud. Here's a part that particularly interested me:

pg. 23 "Microgravity also affects your body. The good news? You grow taller because gravity isn't pushing the bones of your spine as close together. The bad news? You'll look a little weird. The fluids in your body shift upward rather than being pulled low by Earth's gravity. So your legs get skinny. In fact, people call them the 'chicken legs' of space. Some of the fluid travels up toward your head, so you get a puffy face, too."

Skinny legs? Taller? Sign me up for space travel!

All of the information is well organized into the separate chapters that are subdivided by headings. Additional information is found in captions, labels and cutaways. The photographs have great images that are sure to keep kids looking and asking more questions.

This book was filled with fascinating facts. Every few paragraphs or so I wanted to stop and share information with someone around me. This is a really fun informational text to share with readers.