Curriculum Tie-in

STEM Tuesday– Mixing Science and Poetry/Verse — Book List

By on April 9, 2019   /   Articles, Cross-Curricular, Curriculum Tie-in, Poetry/Verse, STEM Tuesday  

April is a time to celebrate poetry so we’ve gathered a list of wonderful STEM titles in verse for you to explore. Enjoy a poem each day. You might find many of these will spark you to write your own STEM poetry this month. From birds to biographies, these titles are sure to please.

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Leaf Litter Critters and Superlative Birds by Leslie Bulion

Leslie Bulion’s titles featuring familiar birds and bugs will spark joy this spring.

 

 

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry: More than 200 Poems With Photographs That Float, Zoom, and Bloom! by J. Patrick Lewis

With over 200 poems about nature by many well-known authors, you are sure to find a favorite.

 

 

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Carver, A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson – A biography of George Washington Carver

Explore the life of agricultural scientist George Washington Carver in these biographical poems by poet, Marilyn Nelson.

 

 

 

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org The Universe Verse by James Lu Dunbar

Explore this fun comic book in verse about the origin of the universe.

 

 

 

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman and Eric Beddows

This classic book by Paul Fleischman celebrates the insect world. It’s even more fun if you read it with a friend.

 

 

The Poetry of Science: The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong

This great classroom resource has over 200 STEM poems from 78 authors, including Joyce Sidman, Mary Ann Hoberman, Laura Purdas Salas, Jane Yolen, and Greg Pincus.

 

 

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Finding Wonders: The Girls Who Changed Science by Jeannine Atkins

Explore the lives of Maria Merian, Mary Anning, and Maria Mitchell is this beautiful text by poet Jeannine Atkins.

 

 

 

FICTION
Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Forest World by Margarita Engle

Margarita Engle brings this rainforest to life in this book in verse that is a perfect accompaniment to habitat lessons.

 

 

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Ringside: 1925 – Views from the Scopes Trial by Jen Bryant

This title is a bit older but is worth searching out to open up a discussion of the Scopes Trial with a middle school class. Perhaps pair it with Charles and Emma by Deborah Heiligman.

 

 

 

Lastly, we don’t usually include picture books on STEM Tuesday lists, but this classic title by one of our contributors is worth breaking the rules:

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Big Bang! The Tongue-Tickling Tale of a Speck That Became Spectacular by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano

Pair DeCristofano’s alliterative verse with The Universe Verse listed above. Both titles deal with the creation of the birth of our cosmos. How are they the same or different?

 

STEM Tuesday book lists prepared by:

Nancy Castaldo has written books about our planet for over 20 years including, THE STORY OF SEEDS: From Mendel’s Garden to Your Plate, and How There’s More of Less To Eat Around The World, which earned the Green Earth Book Award, Junior Library Guild Selection, and other honors. Nancy’s research has taken her all over the world from the Galapagos to Russia.  She strives to inform, inspire, and educate her readers. Nancy also serves as the Regional Advisor of the Eastern NY SCBWI region. Her 2018 multi-starred title is BACK FROM THE BRINK: Saving Animals from Extinction. Visit her at www.nancycastaldo.com

Patricia Newman writes middle-grade nonfiction that inspires kids to seek connections between science, literacy, and the environment. The recipient of a Sibert Honor for Sea Otter Heroes and the Green Earth Book Award for Plastic, Ahoy!, her books have received starred reviews, been honored as Junior Library Guild Selections, and included on Bank Street College’s Best Books lists. New:  Eavesdropping on Elephants: How Listening Helps Conservation, an NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book. During author visits, she demonstrates how her writing skills give a voice to our beleaguered environment. Visit her at www.patriciamnewman.com.

 

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Middle-Grade Meets the Moon

By on January 21, 2019   /   Book Lists, Curriculum Tie-in, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, STEM, Teacher Tips  

By the time this post goes live on Monday, January 21st,  we will have all experienced (or slept through) the Blood Supermoon Lunar Eclipse of 2019.  The eclipse is, of course, the passing of the moon through Earth’s shadow. The “blood” comes from the crimson and oranges colors that can be seen, and “supermoon” refers to the how large the moon appears due to its relative proximity to Earth.

NASA has prepared some very useful tools for parents and teachers, and even though the event has passed, everyone will be talking about it. What better time to investigate further? Look for NASA’s Teachable Moments for the 2019 total lunar eclipse here  and lunar eclipse moon lessons guide for teachers is available here.

And, what better time to bring the moon into our to-be-read lists?

Let’s make a list of middle-grade books that capture our imaginations using the mystery of the moon – at least in their titles. I’ll start. Please comment below with additions to this list!

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin is a Newbery Honor winner and it received the 2010 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature.

From Indiebound:  In the valley of Fruitless mountain, a young girl named Minli lives in a ramshackle hut with her parents. In the evenings, her father regales her with old folktales of the Jade Dragon and the Old Man on the Moon, who knows the answers to all of life’s questions. Inspired by these stories, Minli sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man on the Moon to ask him how she can change her family’s fortune.

 

 

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool is the 2011 Newbery Medal winning middle-grade tale of Abilene Tucker and a Kansas town called Manifest. Abilene navigates Manifest’s present and past mysteries in order to find the answers she’s been looking for.

This is one of my favorite middle-grade novels.

 

 

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle, proud of her country roots and the “Indian-ness in her blood,” travels from Ohio to Idaho with her eccentric grandparents. Along the way, she tells them of the story of Phoebe Winterbottom, who received mysterious messages, who met a “potential lunatic,” and whose mother disappeared.

As Sal entertains her grandparents with Phoebe’s outrageous story, her own story begins to unfold—the story of a thirteen-year-old girl whose only wish is to be reunited with her missing mother.

 

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill is the winner of the 2017 Newbery Medal.  Wait. I’m seeing a pattern here. Are you? Wow! There are a lot of Newbery books with “moon” in the title!  Anyway, this book didn’t stop at the Newbery. It has racked up Best Book of 2016 Awards from School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Chicago Public Library, Entertainment Weekly and New York Public Library. Filled with mystery and wonder, magic and suspense, this is a book comes along once in blue moon. (I had to. I’m sorry.)

 

I haven’t read The Moon Within yet, but only because it isn’t out yet! The pub date for the Aida Salazar’s The Moon Within is February 26, 2019.  But, what a cover! WOW!

From Indiebound:Celi Rivera’s life swirls with questions. About her changing body. Her first attraction to a boy. And her best friend’s exploration of what it means to be genderfluid.

But most of all, her mother’s insistence she have a moon ceremony when her first period arrives. It’s an ancestral Mexica ritual that Mima and her community have reclaimed, but Celi promises she will NOT be participating. Can she find the power within herself to take a stand for who she wants to be? 

 

 

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a firm believer that picture books belong in middle-grade readers’ hands. So, although this is a picture book, I’m featuring Margaret and the Moon.   Written by Dean Robbins and Illustrated by Lucy Knisley, it is the true story of Margaret Hamilton, whose code writing for NASA helped put a man on the moon.

 

 

 

The Far-Out Guide to the Moon was written by Mary Kay Carson, who is one the Mixed-Up Files STEM Tuesday contributors.  A wealth of information and facts, the book makes an excellent addition to middle-grade reading lists.  Strike now while the lunar interest is hot and everyone is talking about the eclipse we had last night!

 

 

 

 

What titles would you add to our Middle-Grade Meets the Moon list? Drop them in the comments below!

 

 

 

 

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STEM Tuesday– Getting Your Comic-on with Great Science Graphic Novels — Book List

By on December 4, 2018   /   Cross-Curricular, Curriculum Tie-in, Graphic Novels, STEM Tuesday  

 

Can you believe it is already December? We hope that you have found some amazing reads here this year. To finish out 2018 we’ve selected some comics and graphic novels that might have you looking at STEM in an entirely new way.

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Older than Dirt: A Wild But True History of Earth by Don Brown and Dr. Michael R. Perfit  

Almost 14.5 billion years ago, it all started with a BIG BANG. What began as a cloud of gas and dust became our planet. Sibert Honor medalist Don Brown tackles the history of our planet in his latest.

 

 

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.orgThe Great American Dust Bowl by Don Brown

Another title from Don Brown for your bookshelf provides readers with information about one of the worst environmental disasters of our planet. This is a great book to pair with The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse.

 

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Science Comics series

We’ve featured select titles within this STEM series before, but we wanted to be sure to tell you about the newest title released this fall:  Solar System: Our Place in Space. Other titles include Volcanoes, Coral Reefs, Robots & Drones, Rockets, and The Brain. Check them out.

 

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Twisted True Tales from Science series 

Stephanie Bearce is the creator of another great science comics series. Budding science fair enthusiasts will enjoy Explosive Experiments and Disaster Discoveries. The truth is always stranger than fiction!

 

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer  by Sydney Padua

A bit of a departure from our normal middle-grade focus, this informative and fun young adult graphic novel includes tons of primary information as it explores the lives of Ada Lovelace and inventor Charles Babbage. It was too good to pass up!

 

Plus, we wanted to share a few fiction titles that pair well with the above nonfiction science comics:

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Secret Coders by Gene Luen Yang and Mike Holmes

We featured the Monsters and Modules installment of this series back in June, but there are lots of other (alliterative) titles to consider.  Potions and Parameters. Paths and Portals. Robots and Repeats. Secrets and Sequences. The combination of logic puzzles, basic coding instruction, and mysteries is perfect for budding STEM wizards.

 

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org Lowriders in Space; Lowriders to the Center of the Earth; and Lowriders Blast from the Past by Cathy Camper and illustrated by Raul the Third

Lupe Impala, El Chavo Flapjack, and Elirio Malaria love working on cars, specifically lowriders. Sketched in pen-and-ink, the stories are chock full of science facts and several Spanish words/phrases. These titles will entertain as they inform.

 

 

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