Posts Tagged book clubs

STEM Tuesday– Tectonics: Volcanoes, Ring of fire– Book List

The ground beneath our feet feels pretty solid. But in reality, our Earth is constantly stretching, shaking, and grumbling. Fortunately, there are tons of books for curious kids who want to learn more about earthquakes and volcanoes. Here’s a dozen to get you started:

EARTHQUAKES

The Big One: The Cascadia Earthquakes and the Science of Saving Lives by Elizabeth Rusch.

After examining the oral and geologic history of the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes in the 1700’s and the evidence of resulting tsunamis in Japan, this book explains the science involved in predicting and preparing for (retrofitting) a massive quake along the Pacific coastline. And offers lots of information for surviving such an event and further research.

Daring Earthquake Rescues by Amy Waeschle

Highlighting six earthquakes, this book shows how rescue teams work in the disaster zone. It highlights sniffer digs, discusses how scientists measure earthquake strength, and outlines steps to stay safe during a quake. There’s also a checklist for a basic earthquake survival kit that kids can put together from easy-to-obtain items.

Fault Lines: Understanding The Power Of Earthquakes by Joanna Wagstaffe

A through discussion of the science behind earthquakes, advances in monitoring and predicting them, and the numerous subsequent events (such as aftershocks and liquefaction) all framed within the first hand experiences of a female seismologist/meteorologist. Full of photographs, graphics, and specific examples, it also includes a wonderful chapter of preparedness.

Earth’s Core and Crust by Barbara J. Davis.

This thin book is packed with information about drifting continents, plate tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanoes. There’s a good section on deep ocean rifts and vents. Sidebars dive into details on such things as mapping Earth’s layers, ocean exploration, and more.

VOLCANOES

Volcano Geo Facts by Izzi Howell

Highlighting half a dozen volcanoes, this book provides an overview of what volcanoes are and how they form on land and underwater. There’s an explanation of volcanic rocks, the effects of volcanoes on the landscape and on climate, and an examination of pros and cons of living near a volcano.

How Does a Volcano Become an Island? by Linda Tagliaferro

If you want an island, you might begin with a volcano. This book explores the Ring of Fire in the Pacific Ocean, and provides an overview of how volcanoes form and, over time, become populated by plants and animals.

Mount St. Helens by Jen Green

After vividly explaining the impressive effects of Mount St Helens’ eruption, the book examines the source, location, and structure of volcanoes around the world. As well as the aftermath and eventual recovery of the area. A glossary and additional resources offer additional information on active volcanos worldwide.

Earth Shattering Events by Robin Jacobs

The first half of this book focuses on geological disasters, with an overview of plate tectonics and good explanations of earthquakes (and a bit on the role of fracking). Chapters include volcanoes, tsunamis, as well as meteorological disasters. Ends with discussion on how climate change affects geological disasters through melting ice caps and releasing pressure on faults.

GEOLOGY/PLATE TECTONICS

Geology is a Piece of Cake by Katie Coppens

What a genius idea – using the analogy of a cake and cooking to explain geology. Writing a recipe for Granite (heat feldspar, quartz, & amphibole to 900 degrees, then cool for a million years), like one would for Carrot cake (included too), is such a fun and accessible way to explain rocks and minerals. Lava cake anyone? Continuing with this format, the book explores the rock cycle, rock hardness, erosion, sediment, fossils and casts, geologic history, and tectonic plates. Don’t read right before lunch.

Plate Tectonics by Charlotte Luongo

This book begins with the idea that continents were once attached, and showing fossil evidence that supports that idea. Not only do plates shake the Earth, but the concept shook the accepted theories on age of the Earth and how it formed. From there, the book explores undersea evidence for continental drift, and looks at the technologies used to track the movement of Earth’s plates.

ACTIVITY BOOKS

Dynamic Planet: Exploring Changes on Earth with Science Projects by Tammy Enz

This book includes seven miniature Earth-shattering experiments that explore different aspects of geology. Experiment topics include plate tectonics, volcanoes, and tsunamis and suitable for classroom or home.

Fault Lines & Tectonic Plates: Discover What Happens When the Earth’s Crust Moves With 25 Projects (Build It Yourself) by Kathleen M. Reilly.

Each of six chapters explores one aspect of plate tectonics: how they move, earthquakes, volcanoes, and more. Sidebars and textboxes highlight words to know, essential questions, and links to primary sources. Activities include making a seismograph and building a shake table to test model structures.


 STEM Tuesday book list prepared by:

Sue Heavenrich ~ an author, blogger, and bug-watcher who has often wondered whose fault it is when the Earth shakes. She prefers her volcanoes dormant. When not writing, she’s either in the garden or tromping through the woods. Visit her at www.sueheavenrich.com

Maria Marshall ~  a children’s author, blogger, and poet passionate about making nature and reading fun for children. She’s been a judge for the Cybils Awards from 2017 to present. Her poems are published in The Best Of Today’s Little Ditty 2017-2018, 2016, and 2014-2015 anthologies. When not writing, critiquing, or reading, she bird watches, travels the world, bakes, and hikes. Visit her at www.mariacmarshall.com

STEM Tuesday — Animal Superpowers — Interview with Author Bridget Heos

Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview & Book Giveaway, a repeating feature for the last Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math!

Today we’re interviewing Bridget Heos, author of Stronger Than Steel It’s a fascinating look at biologist Randy Lewis’s work to create spider silk from genetically modified goats. Heo’s research combined with Andy Comin’s photography makes for compelling reading. Could we one day build stronger bullet proof vests? Are we one step away from duplicating the feats of Spiderman?

* * *

Christine Taylor-Butler: Bridget, I met you before you published your first book. Now you have 100 children’s books under your belt. That’s a huge accomplishment in this industry. But you didn’t start out as a writer. Can you tell me a bit about what you were doing before you dove into children’s literature?

Bridget Heos: I was an English major in college. Before I changed careers, I taught English, reading and religion at a Catholic school. I’d also been a social worker. But I’ve loved reading and writing since I was a child and eventually moved into freelance writing.

Christine: Your background in teaching helped with your transition to children’s publishing but it’s unusual to see people gravitate to science in nonfiction. Where did that come from?

Heos KidsBridget: The science part came from my son’s love of nonfiction. I read to my children all the time, but fiction didn’t engage him. At first I thought he was a non-reader. But at the library he would immediately go the nonfiction section. He loved that world. So I thought, how can I support that? Plus, I’m curious. One day I thought, “We live on a planet that has everything we need.” I would see an insect and think “ugh!” But then I started reading about them and it made me see the world in a different way. So I began writing. It changed my life and I began to relive the magic of stories. I was already writing for newspapers and magazines, but now I was passionate about writing books that would engage children.

Christine: So what was your first book?

Book_Jay ZBridget: My first book was a middle grade biography on rapper Jay-Z (Shawn Carter). That was was back in 2009. I saw an email inviting local authors to write for an editor at Rosen. I applied and was hired. Shawn Carter has such a great story. I remember spending a lot of time on it because it was my first book. I’m a journalist so I knew it had to be right. After that, I wrote more biographies. But when I had a choice, I preferred to write science books. Those were the types of books my son liked to have read to him. Even so, writing about a famous person as a first book is a show-stopper.

Christine: And then your career took off!

Bridget: I think it was partly luck and good fortune. I spent a lot of time trying to understand the business and how to make money at it. I loved writing so much I was willing to write anything. Children’s literature felt like a good fit and I began writing a lot of nonfiction. I emailed 20 publishers trying to be a good sales person. Workman hired me to write workbooks.

Christine: You also wrote: What to Expect When You’re Expecting Larvae. I remember thinking that was such a clever homage to the human series for expectant mothers and packed with so many facts. Of the sequel on marsupials, Kirkus Reviews said, “Never once dropping the pretense that this is written for pouched mammals, this manages to be both entertaining and informative.

Heos Kids What to expect

Bridget: Yes! That was first book I sold that paid royalties. I went to the library at University of Missouri – Kansas City and checked out huge books.  When I write about science I have to learn it first. I do a lot of research. It makes up for me not being the best science student when I was younger. I chose the topic because my son loved insects. But as with all things, by the time the book came out he’d moved on World War II. The book was followed by What to Expect When You’re Expecting Hatchlings (Crocodiles) and What to Expect When You’re Expecting Joeys (Marsupials).

Christine: The series is out of print now, but maybe a saavy editor will bring it back into print for eager readers now that engaging STEM and nonfiction are increasing in popularity. And especially since Kirkus loved them. They’re a hard reviewer to please.

Bridget: Yes. The books came out ten years ago and the timing might have been early for the information trend we see now.

Christine: Before we get to Stronger Than Steel, I’m going to take some artistic liberties and stray over to fiction for a minute. Can you tell us how Mustache Baby came about? It has so many good reviews and it was the winner of the 2017 Colorado’s Childrens Book Award.

Mustache baby

Bridget: Mustache Baby was my first fiction book. I had wanted to be a writer since I was a little kid. I had put the dream aside until, one day, I found a box in the attic. I realized that I’d had that dream but didn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t live with the idea that I didn’t at least try to do something about it.  but my true dream was to write fiction. I had no idea on how to proceed. People have this impression that to be a writer you have to be this beautiful serious writer, but that’s not how I am. When children were younger, I began telling them a story that had been in my head about baby who was born with a mustache that showed if he was a good guy or a villain. It made the kids laugh so I decided to write it down.

“Occasional badness has never been so good.”
Kirkus

You never know what you’ll get in the delivery room, and something isn’t quite right with this new baby. . . . Heos’s offbeat tale muses on the possibilities, playing off parental hope and panicky nightmares.”
—New York Times Book Review

The book’s sole purpose was for kids to have fun. I wrote several drafts and agonized over them. Then I mentioned it who gave me ideas then  sold to Daniel Nayeri who was at Houghton Mifflin at the time. Daniel brought on the illustrator Joy Ang. Her illustrations brought a new dimension to the story. There are now 5 books in the series. By the way, Daniel just won the 2021 Printz for his own book: Everything Sad is Untrue.

Christine: So tell me about Stronger Than Steel. I am fascinated by golden orb spiders and use them as one of the plot points in my series. I had not met anyone else in kidlit that researched them until this book so I was riveted.

Stronger book coverBridget:  I’d seen an article about spider goats and the scientist researching them. My former agent had another client who was doing a scientist in the field book and walked her through the process of proposing a book. It book was acquired by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. That series is fun because the publisher also commissions a photographer. Andy Cumin and I traveled to Wyoming to meet with the scientist, Randy Lewis . Then Andy and I traveled to Utah State where the project was moving. It was good that we had that time to do the research. It involves learning about molecular biology. The team walked me through the process.

Christine: The goats are genetically altered to carry a gene from golden orb spiders.

Bridget: The science is fascinating. Spider silk is stronger than the Kevlar in a bullet proof vest. But you can’t farm spiders. They’re territorial. So the solution was to use goats. Randy took the gene from the spider and combined it with the DNA that creates milk in goats. I got to see the process first hand, how the team works with the goat’s milk to get to the spider silk protein. The scientists filter the milk and get it down to the protein which is a powder, then they combine the powder with a chemical. I watched the silk emerge from the process.

Spider silk

Christine: So what are the scientists doing with the silk?

Randy LewisBridget: They’re interested in it because of its toughness. In a technical sense, it’s hard to break (compression strength) and it’s stretchy (tensile strength). They’re hoping it would be a fit for fly fishing lines. The appeal is that the silk is stronger than most man made materials. But for some projects, the stretchiness is still a problem – like for bullet proof vests and parachutes. One of the other fascinating things, though, is that the spider silk can be used in the human body to repair ligaments and bones.

The book was so much work and I did so much agonizing over it. As a former journalist I wondered, “Did I get it right?” Randy read it to make sure I had not made any factual errors. I do a lot of school visits so I talk to students about the science I learned. Kids are amazing and absorb the information. They wonder if there could be a Spiderman just like there are spider goats.

Christine: So could there be a real Spiderman one day?

Bridget: You never know. The scientist isn’t raising the goats any more, Now he’s focused on comb jellies and the sticky stuff they use to catch their prey. But writing the book was a great experience. Children’s books have taken me to many states I’d never been before.

Christine: So what’s up next for you? Any books coming out we should be watching for?

Triceraopposite Treemendous Santa JawsGood Knight Mustache

Bridget: I have several books coming out in 2021: Triceratopposites, illustrated by T.L. McBeth. It’s about a dinosaur that does the opposite of what his parents say. It’s a sequel to Stegathesaurus. There’s also Treemendous: The diary of a not yet mighty oak illustrated by Mike Ciccotello. It’s the story of an oak tree from acorn to tree. Santa Jaws comes out next. It’s a rhyming book about a Christmas shark. And, or course, the next installment in the Mustache Baby series: Goodnight Mustache Baby.

 

Win a FREE copy of Stronger Than Steel

Enter the giveaway by leaving a comment below. The randomly-chosen winner will be contacted via email and asked to provide a mailing address (within the U.S. only) to receive the book.

Good luck!

 

Bridget HeosBridget Heos is the prolific author of more than 100 books for children. Most are nonfiction. A former teacher and journalist, she lives in Kansas with her three sons, daughter, a basset hound and a cat.

To learn more about Bridget and her books, please visit www.authorbridgetheos.com  You can follow her on Twitter @bridgetheos

***
Christine Taylor-ButlerYour host is Christine Taylor-Butler, MIT nerd and author of Bathroom Science, Sacred Mountain: Everest, Disasters Alert!, and many other nonfiction books for kids. She is also the author of the middle grade sci-fi series The Lost Tribes. Her article: When Failure Is Not An Option: Connecting the Dots with STEM appears in the Nov/Dec 2021 edition of The Horn Book. Follow @ChristineTB on Twitter and/or @ChristineTaylorButler on Instagram

STEM Tuesday — Animal Superpowers — Book List

 

Who needs superhuman heroes when there are animals with their own superpowers? This list gives readers an opportunity to explore all of the ways animals use their skills for surviving in the wild and even help us humans out as well!  

Animal Zombies! And Other Bloodsucking Beasts, Creepy Creatures, and Real-Life Monsters by Chana Stiefel  

Some may call these creatures creepy, but others will marvel at their special skills.  

Insect Superpowers: 18 Real Bugs that Smash, Zap, Hypnotize, Sting, and Devour! by Kate Messner, illustrated by Jillian Nickell

 Messner explores the super talents of bugs in this fun title.  

Stronger Than Steel: Spider Silk DNA and the Quest for Better Bulletproof Vests, Sutures, and Parachute Rope by Bridget Heos, photographs by Andy Comins

Can you believe that delicate little spiders can create something with such amazing strength that might someday be used to repair or replace human ligaments? Read all-about it in Heos’ Scientists in the Field title.  

Superpower Field Guide: Moles and Superpower Field Guide: Eels by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Nicholas John Firth

Discover the extraordinary skills of moles and eels in these two guides. Then explore the rest of the series. Poliquin and Firth have two other titles about beavers and ostriches.

Superpower Dogs: Disaster Response Dogs by Cosmic  

Dogs have some of the best noses in the business. Learn how they help in disasters.

Super Sniffers: Dog Detectives on the Job by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent  

Explore how dogs use their super sniffing detection skills to help humans.

101 Animal Super Powers by Melvin Berger and Gilda Berger

Discover lots of extraordinary animals with this collection of animal superpower stories.  


Photo of DESERTS author Nancy Castaldo

Nancy Castaldo has written books about our planet for over 20 years including, SNIFFER DOGS: How Dogs (and Their Noses) Save The World, so she knows first hand about animal superpowers. Her books have 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 empower her readers. Nancy also served as Regional Advisor Emeritus of the Eastern NY SCBWI region. Her 2020 international title about farm and food is THE FARM THAT FEEDS US: A Year In The Life Of An Organic Farm. Visit her at her website, on Twitter, on Facebook, and on Instagram

Sibert Honor author Patricia Newman shows young readers how their actions can ripple around the world. Using social and environmental injustice as inspiration, she empowers young readers to seek connections to the real world and to use their imaginations to act on behalf of their communities. One Texas librarian wrote, “Patricia is one of THE BEST nonfiction authors writing for our students in today’s market, and one of our MUST HAVE AUTHORS for every collection.” Titles include: Planet Ocean (new); Sibert Honor book Sea Otter Heroes; Green Earth Book Award winner Plastic, Ahoy!; The NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book Eavesdropping on Elephants; California Reading Association’s Eureka! Gold winner Zoo Scientists to the Rescue. Visit Patricia online at her website, on Twitter, on Facebook, and on Pinterest.