Jenkins, Steve. Actual Size. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004
ISBN:0-618-37594-5
Summary:
Jenkins features 18 amazing animals in his simple, beautiful picture book. The concept couldn’t be any more simple or entertaining. A life-size illustration of each animal is given along with a brief fact about the creature. For some creatures a page is far too large, like the dwarf goby, which Jenkins tells us is the smallest of all fish at 1/3 of an inch in length! Other creatures can only show off one part of their bodies because they would take a whole book up with their size. Some of these large animals are the giant squid, and the Alaskan brown bear. This book is beautifully illustrated, and at the end, the reader can see the “big picture” as Jenkins profiles each animal with an illustration of the whole body of the large animals and a magnified picture for each of the small animals.
Reviews:
Jenkins'newest presents a parade of cut-paper animals, each accompanied by a pithy line of text. The difference here is the scale: everything appears at actual size. Jenkins'masterstroke, though, is his inclusion of creatures both great and small, so while petite critters fit comfortably within 12-by-20-inch spreads, larger ones appear as evocatively cropped bits and pieces
Booklist (May 15, 2004 (Vol. 100, No. 18))
“A new exploration of the biological world, from one of the current masters of collage, features life-size-not scaled-representations of the extremes of the animal kingdom.” Kirkus Review (May 1, 2004)
Enrichment Activity:
This book allows for many cross curricular activities. One such activity would be measuring yourself. Pair students up and give them each a meter stick. Students then take turn measuring one another. They would then come up with a description (with the help of teacher or librarian) using that measurement and each write theirs on a piece of construction paper. Then students could draw part of their bodies on the paper- hand, foot, pigtail. . . At the end of this activity all of the pieces of construction paper would be collected and made into a book. What a way to remember a class- in actual size!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Team Moon
Thimmesh, Catherine. TEAM MOON How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006.
ISBN:0-618-50757-4
Summary:
Team Moon is a photo essay about the Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first man on the moon. What stands out about this book is how seamlessly Thimmesh weaves in direct word-for-word quotations from the people who were involved along with all of the pictures and captions, and dates that would need to be in such a book. She makes this watershed event in human history, not just an event, but something personal and meaningful to a variety of people (virtually anyone who actually was involved . . . factory workers to rocket scientists), and she includes their individual roles, as well as their feeling in the overall telling of the Apollo 11 mission.
Telling the story of the two Bobs in mission control, Themmesh describes the tense scene--
Thirty seconds!
Now would not be the time for the two Bobs to miscalculate, miscount, or lose their superhuman powers of concentration. They could not afford to be wrong.
“When we tripped the low level, things really got quiet in that control center,” recalled Bob Carlton. “We were nervous, sweating. Came to sixty seconds, came to thirty seconds, and my eyes were just glued on the stopwatch. . .”
Reviews:
From launch to splashdown, Thimmesh gives names and voices to the 400,000-strong army that got Neil Armstrong and company to the moon and back. Taking as her organizing principle the journey itself, she describes how each element was made possible by NASA and its many contractors. Thus readers learn about the 14,000 people at North American Rockwell who built the command module Columbia, the 17,000 people at NASA's launch operations, and so on, from the women who sewed the spacesuits to the engineers who designed the re-entry parachutes.
Horn Book (July/August, 2006)
With exciting you-are-there language and stunning historical photographs, this book captures the excitement of the Apollo mission to the moon. It lives up to its subtitle; besides the astronauts, it tells about the work of the contractors who built the rocket and the lunar module, the computer gurus who programmed the equipment, the crew in Mission Control who guided the machines, the seamstresses who constructed the spacesuits, and many more.
Library Media Connection (February 2007)
Enrichment Activity:
This would be a great book to pair with a book like The Apollo 13 Mission by Donald Lemke to compare the two missions which were meant to be similar. Seeing all of the components that are part of Team Moon, should show the students how little room for error there is in a mission. Reading about Apollo 13, and showing movie clips from the film, might make the danger seem more real. As a class, a Venn diagram could be used to find the similarities and differences of the mission.
Another activity would be to look at the different vocations involved and do a job study, helping students see what they might be good at. Once they have decided on a type of job they are interested in, they could write a short “what if” essay describing how they would have impacted the Apollo 11 mission with their vocation.
ISBN:0-618-50757-4
Summary:
Team Moon is a photo essay about the Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first man on the moon. What stands out about this book is how seamlessly Thimmesh weaves in direct word-for-word quotations from the people who were involved along with all of the pictures and captions, and dates that would need to be in such a book. She makes this watershed event in human history, not just an event, but something personal and meaningful to a variety of people (virtually anyone who actually was involved . . . factory workers to rocket scientists), and she includes their individual roles, as well as their feeling in the overall telling of the Apollo 11 mission.
Telling the story of the two Bobs in mission control, Themmesh describes the tense scene--
Thirty seconds!
Now would not be the time for the two Bobs to miscalculate, miscount, or lose their superhuman powers of concentration. They could not afford to be wrong.
“When we tripped the low level, things really got quiet in that control center,” recalled Bob Carlton. “We were nervous, sweating. Came to sixty seconds, came to thirty seconds, and my eyes were just glued on the stopwatch. . .”
Reviews:
From launch to splashdown, Thimmesh gives names and voices to the 400,000-strong army that got Neil Armstrong and company to the moon and back. Taking as her organizing principle the journey itself, she describes how each element was made possible by NASA and its many contractors. Thus readers learn about the 14,000 people at North American Rockwell who built the command module Columbia, the 17,000 people at NASA's launch operations, and so on, from the women who sewed the spacesuits to the engineers who designed the re-entry parachutes.
Horn Book (July/August, 2006)
With exciting you-are-there language and stunning historical photographs, this book captures the excitement of the Apollo mission to the moon. It lives up to its subtitle; besides the astronauts, it tells about the work of the contractors who built the rocket and the lunar module, the computer gurus who programmed the equipment, the crew in Mission Control who guided the machines, the seamstresses who constructed the spacesuits, and many more.
Library Media Connection (February 2007)
Enrichment Activity:
This would be a great book to pair with a book like The Apollo 13 Mission by Donald Lemke to compare the two missions which were meant to be similar. Seeing all of the components that are part of Team Moon, should show the students how little room for error there is in a mission. Reading about Apollo 13, and showing movie clips from the film, might make the danger seem more real. As a class, a Venn diagram could be used to find the similarities and differences of the mission.
Another activity would be to look at the different vocations involved and do a job study, helping students see what they might be good at. Once they have decided on a type of job they are interested in, they could write a short “what if” essay describing how they would have impacted the Apollo 11 mission with their vocation.
The Bard
Stanley, Diane. Bard of
ISBN 0-688-09109-1
Summary:
This biography of Shakespeare is incredibly informative and entertaining. It covers the early life of Shakespeare through his death and very gently, but accurately handles some of the more controversial issues that surrounds parts of Shakespeare’s life. For example, in reference to his sonnets:
Some were written to a “fair youth” and others to a “dark lady.”
There was also a ‘rival poet.’ Historians have been trying ever
since to discover who these important people in Shakespeare’s life
might have been.
This picture book is heavy on text, and covers more than just Shakespeare’s life. It includes information about stage design, popular actors of the time, and general information about the influence of Elizabethan England on the theater.
Reviews
“One of the things that both children and adults are likely to enjoy about this book is its creators' recognition of the difference between historic and imagination-based story events.”
Reading Onlilne (June 1999)
"These seasoned raconteurs...neatly piece together the puzzle of Shakespeare's life,"
Publishers Weekly (July 31, 1998)
Enrichment Activity:
This book is definitely a book for “tweens,” (readers about 10-13 years old) which, with the popularity of myspace and facebook with this age group, lends itself to the use of technology. Students could use Powerpoint to create a “myspace” profile all about Shakespeare. This gives the students a chance to use what they learned about him in this book to make it factual, and then go a step beyond that to come up with what band’s music would play on his page, and create pictures of his “top eight friends” like: Queen Elizabeth, or Romeo, or even Diane Stanley, the author of the biography.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Toasting Marshmallows
O’Connell george, Kristine.Toasting Marshmallows Camping Poems. New York: Clarian Books, 2001.
ISBN 0-618-04597-x
Summary:
Toasting Marshmallow is a collection of poetry by O’Connell George that covers many of the real, and memorable aspects of camping. The book appropriately starts by setting up camp with, “Tent”, and ends with “Pulling up the stakes, with other fitting camping themed experiences happening in between. O’Connell George pays as much attention to form and rhythm as she does to rhyme, making this a more sophisticated book than many of the picture book- poetry genre. “Tent,” for example, is in the shape of a triangle- narrow at the top with only one word on the line, and then widening, adding one word on each line until the base of the tent is formed with seven words, “Our tent is up! Blooming, bright Orange.”
O’Connell George is not restricted to rhyming poems, in fact many of the poems in this collections do not rhyme, others have rhyme in them but truly feature rhythm. “Forest Walk” makes a beautiful read aloud, because of the rhythm:
I-belong-here
no-twig-snap
no-leaf-rustle
no-branch-crack
see all-all, know-all
float-like-fog
like-smoke
pine-needle-soft
forest walk.
Reviews:
A young girl savors the sights, sounds, and smells of a family outing. Whether playful or profound, the exquisitely crafted poems reverberate with eloquent yet effortless language, while the radiant acrylic artwork hints at the awe-inspiring mysteries of nature."
School Library Journal Best Books 2001
Enrichment Activity:
This book allows for a fun chance to build prior knowledge for students. The teacher can read the book aloud outside with all of the students sitting in a circle on the ground- for a camp-out feeling, and at least demonstrate (with a stick and a marshmallow) how to toast a marshmallow, if not actually allow the students to do so (given appropriate age and safety measures). After toasting marshmallows, go back inside, and have students create their own poem to describe what kind of marshmallow toaster they are. Be sure to re-read the poem “Toasting Marshmallows” to the students on page 22 of the book. Drawing pictures of the process or gluing cotton balls to the page to represent the marshmallow in its various toasting states would complement this activity.
ISBN 0-618-04597-x
Summary:
Toasting Marshmallow is a collection of poetry by O’Connell George that covers many of the real, and memorable aspects of camping. The book appropriately starts by setting up camp with, “Tent”, and ends with “Pulling up the stakes, with other fitting camping themed experiences happening in between. O’Connell George pays as much attention to form and rhythm as she does to rhyme, making this a more sophisticated book than many of the picture book- poetry genre. “Tent,” for example, is in the shape of a triangle- narrow at the top with only one word on the line, and then widening, adding one word on each line until the base of the tent is formed with seven words, “Our tent is up! Blooming, bright Orange.”
O’Connell George is not restricted to rhyming poems, in fact many of the poems in this collections do not rhyme, others have rhyme in them but truly feature rhythm. “Forest Walk” makes a beautiful read aloud, because of the rhythm:
I-belong-here
no-twig-snap
no-leaf-rustle
no-branch-crack
see all-all, know-all
float-like-fog
like-smoke
pine-needle-soft
forest walk.
Reviews:
A young girl savors the sights, sounds, and smells of a family outing. Whether playful or profound, the exquisitely crafted poems reverberate with eloquent yet effortless language, while the radiant acrylic artwork hints at the awe-inspiring mysteries of nature."
School Library Journal Best Books 2001
Enrichment Activity:
This book allows for a fun chance to build prior knowledge for students. The teacher can read the book aloud outside with all of the students sitting in a circle on the ground- for a camp-out feeling, and at least demonstrate (with a stick and a marshmallow) how to toast a marshmallow, if not actually allow the students to do so (given appropriate age and safety measures). After toasting marshmallows, go back inside, and have students create their own poem to describe what kind of marshmallow toaster they are. Be sure to re-read the poem “Toasting Marshmallows” to the students on page 22 of the book. Drawing pictures of the process or gluing cotton balls to the page to represent the marshmallow in its various toasting states would complement this activity.
Beast Feast
Forian, Douglas. Beast Feast.. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Company, 1995.
ISBN 0-15-295178-4
Summary:
Beast Feast is a collection of Florian’s poems- specifically about different types of animals. It gives a brief and usually funny description of each creature, and on the opposite page there is a picture of the animal being described. The pictures, are funny as well, for example the Kangaroo is described as having a “kangaroom” inside for babies, and the accompanying picture shows a window where the pouch would be.
This book is a delightful venture into rhyming poetry, and subject specific, so that it is an easy one to recommend to children interested in animals—especially the more extra-ordinary animals of the world. Most of the poems are in a predictable pattern of couplets, or have an easy ABAB rhyme scheme. The Toad for example displays couplets, “The tubby toad’s so squat and plump/That rarely does it even jump.” making this a good independent read for young students. The pictures are beautifully done, and are as interestingly silly as the poems themselves feature a camel looking at itself in a mirror, a toad on a scale, a mole wearing glasses, and much more. This would be a great addition for any classroom or library.
Reviews:
Gr 1-4-A colorful and clever assemblage of 21 animals, from the walrus (``The pounding spatter/Of salty sea/ makes the walrus/Walrusty.'') to the kiwi (``Wings so small./No tail at all./ Very rare./Feathers like hair./Quiet and shy./Cannot fly./They call you a bird,/But I don't know why.''). Each brief poem employs an Ogden Nashian twist of language, a small surprise, or a happy insight into the familiar.
School Library Journal
Enrichment Activity:
This would be a great book to incorporate into any biology unit or poetry unit. One fun activity to do with this book is for students to draw a picture of a pet at home, and then create a couplet to describe it. The teacher or librarian could then collect these pictures and short poems to make a whole book about the “beasts” that the students know.
ISBN 0-15-295178-4
Summary:
Beast Feast is a collection of Florian’s poems- specifically about different types of animals. It gives a brief and usually funny description of each creature, and on the opposite page there is a picture of the animal being described. The pictures, are funny as well, for example the Kangaroo is described as having a “kangaroom” inside for babies, and the accompanying picture shows a window where the pouch would be.
This book is a delightful venture into rhyming poetry, and subject specific, so that it is an easy one to recommend to children interested in animals—especially the more extra-ordinary animals of the world. Most of the poems are in a predictable pattern of couplets, or have an easy ABAB rhyme scheme. The Toad for example displays couplets, “The tubby toad’s so squat and plump/That rarely does it even jump.” making this a good independent read for young students. The pictures are beautifully done, and are as interestingly silly as the poems themselves feature a camel looking at itself in a mirror, a toad on a scale, a mole wearing glasses, and much more. This would be a great addition for any classroom or library.
Reviews:
Gr 1-4-A colorful and clever assemblage of 21 animals, from the walrus (``The pounding spatter/Of salty sea/ makes the walrus/Walrusty.'') to the kiwi (``Wings so small./No tail at all./ Very rare./Feathers like hair./Quiet and shy./Cannot fly./They call you a bird,/But I don't know why.''). Each brief poem employs an Ogden Nashian twist of language, a small surprise, or a happy insight into the familiar.
School Library Journal
Enrichment Activity:
This would be a great book to incorporate into any biology unit or poetry unit. One fun activity to do with this book is for students to draw a picture of a pet at home, and then create a couplet to describe it. The teacher or librarian could then collect these pictures and short poems to make a whole book about the “beasts” that the students know.
Stop Pretending
Sones, Sonya. Stop Pretending. New York: Harper Collins, 1999.
ISBN 0-06-446218-8
Summary:
Stop Pretending is a powerful, purposeful collection of poetry by Sonya Sones. It tells a story in fragments of poems that creates a deeper meaning than paragraphs after paragraph could describe. She chronicles her emotions after her sister was diagnosed as manic depressive. Stop Pretending is also the title of one of the poems that describes her feelings about the way her family and friends react to her sister’s break down.
Sones uses poetic devises beautifully, for example: one poem is titled “REALITEASE,” a pun, as Cookie questions whether the reality of the matter is that her sister has gone crazy and she is sane, or if in truth Cookie is the one who has gone crazy. The poems range from sweet to disturbing giving a full range to the emotion a young teenager might feel in this situation. One sweet poem called “MIDNIGHT SWING” remembers when Cookie’s sister “helped [her] climb up/ and taught [her] to pump” One more disturbing poem describes Cookie getting lost in the ward, and a nice nurse helping her find her way back to the elevator. It ends with,
“Just as the doors close,
I see that she’s drooling,
And rocking, and rocking, and rocking.”
showing that Cookie not only is upset by the events going on in her life, but that she can’t tell who is sane anymore. She is so desperate for someone to reach out to her at this point that she didn’t even notice that the helpful nurse was really a patient in the psychiatric ward.
Reviews
In a story based on real events, and told in poems, Sones explores what happened and how she reacted when her adored older sister suddenly began screaming and hearing voices in her head, and was ultimately hospitalized. . . Individually, the poems appear simple and unremarkable, snapshot portraits of two sisters, a family, unfaithful friends, and a sweet first love. Collected they take on life and movement . . .
Kirkus Reviews
Enrichment Activity
This genre of book particularly allows for transition into a longer poem, such as an epic like, The Odyssey, or a Shakespeare play as it is a less intimidating version of the same concept. Stop Pretending would be a great read aloud to do before Shakespeare’s Othello, where there is truly pretending going on or Hamlet in which there is a lot of question of his an other characters’ mental stability. This would also serve older students in preparing to write poetry about themselves. After listening to one poem from this book read aloud, students could create their own poem to be shared with the class, or simply kept in their journals.
ISBN 0-06-446218-8
Summary:
Stop Pretending is a powerful, purposeful collection of poetry by Sonya Sones. It tells a story in fragments of poems that creates a deeper meaning than paragraphs after paragraph could describe. She chronicles her emotions after her sister was diagnosed as manic depressive. Stop Pretending is also the title of one of the poems that describes her feelings about the way her family and friends react to her sister’s break down.
Sones uses poetic devises beautifully, for example: one poem is titled “REALITEASE,” a pun, as Cookie questions whether the reality of the matter is that her sister has gone crazy and she is sane, or if in truth Cookie is the one who has gone crazy. The poems range from sweet to disturbing giving a full range to the emotion a young teenager might feel in this situation. One sweet poem called “MIDNIGHT SWING” remembers when Cookie’s sister “helped [her] climb up/ and taught [her] to pump” One more disturbing poem describes Cookie getting lost in the ward, and a nice nurse helping her find her way back to the elevator. It ends with,
“Just as the doors close,
I see that she’s drooling,
And rocking, and rocking, and rocking.”
showing that Cookie not only is upset by the events going on in her life, but that she can’t tell who is sane anymore. She is so desperate for someone to reach out to her at this point that she didn’t even notice that the helpful nurse was really a patient in the psychiatric ward.
Reviews
In a story based on real events, and told in poems, Sones explores what happened and how she reacted when her adored older sister suddenly began screaming and hearing voices in her head, and was ultimately hospitalized. . . Individually, the poems appear simple and unremarkable, snapshot portraits of two sisters, a family, unfaithful friends, and a sweet first love. Collected they take on life and movement . . .
Kirkus Reviews
Enrichment Activity
This genre of book particularly allows for transition into a longer poem, such as an epic like, The Odyssey, or a Shakespeare play as it is a less intimidating version of the same concept. Stop Pretending would be a great read aloud to do before Shakespeare’s Othello, where there is truly pretending going on or Hamlet in which there is a lot of question of his an other characters’ mental stability. This would also serve older students in preparing to write poetry about themselves. After listening to one poem from this book read aloud, students could create their own poem to be shared with the class, or simply kept in their journals.
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