Posts Tagged books

STEM Tuesday — STEM Activity Books– Book List

By STEM Tuesday on August 4, 2020 / Activity Books, STEM Tuesday

Summer is still here and you might be running out of activities for the young people in your life. Whether you are looking for projects to tie-in with your homeschooling curriculum or just want a fun STEM project to pass the time on a hot summer day, these titles will inspire you.

Darwin and Evolution for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities by Kristan Lawson

Try your hand at a Darwin-inspired activity with this book by Kristan Lawson. It’s a great title to pair-up with Deborah Heiligman’s Charles and Emma.

Isaac Newton and Physics for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities by Kerrie Logan Hollihan

Activities are a great way to learn the principles of physics. Read this one with a snack of apple slices.

Awesome Snake Science! 40 Activities for Learning About Snakes by Cindy Blobaum

Snakes might seem threatening, but Blobaum has some activities that will introduce readers to these fascinating creatures. A great pairing for Kate Messner’s Tracking Pythons: The Quest to Catch an Invasive Predator and Save an Ecosystem.

Rainforests and Deserts both by Nancy Castaldo

If the pandemic has changed your summer travel plans, discover some new places in the US and abroad with these two titles by Nancy Castaldo that include, STEM activities, folktales, and recipes.

Destroy This Book in the Name of Science by Mike Barfield

The Brainiac and Galileo editions of this series are meant to be literally pulled apart.

Smithsonian: STEM Lab by Jack Challoner

Readers will find 25 activities to excite their imaginations. Great illustrations accompany each activity.

Calling All Minds: How To Think and Create Like an Inventor by Temple Grandin

Learn from a master inventor through personal stories, acts, and inventions. Readers will come away inspired!

Recycled Science: Bring Out Your Science Genius with Soda Bottles, Potato Chip Bags, and More Unexpected Stuff by Tammy Enz and Jodi Wheeler-Toppen

Readers see how to recycle stuff around their homes and then use it for science projects and experiments. Entertaining and informative.

Albert Einstein and Relativity for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities and Thought Experiments by Jerome Pohlen

Learn all about one of the greatest inventors in history through text and 21 activities to try at home.

Alexander Graham Bell for Kids: HIs Life and Inventions with 21 Activities by Mary Kay Carson

Your cell phone may be lightyears away from Bell’s first phone, but his invention changed our lives forever. Find out more and try the great activities in the book.

Extreme Garage Science for Kids! by James and Joanna Orgill

If you followed the author’s You Tube channel, you’ll love the activities and projects in this book. Readers can try their hand at drawing on water, removing the iron from their Cheerios, and even more.

Everything You Need to Ace Chemistry in One Big Fat Notebook

The title says it all. Inside this book is what students need to rock that chemistry class.

Also by Jennifer Swanson — Explore Forces and Motion! With 25 Great Projects and Bridges With 25 Science Projects for Kids

Get ready for some hands-on physics with these two titles from Nomad’s Explore Your World series.

STEM Tuesday book lists prepared by

Nancy Castaldo has written books about our planet for over 20 years including, THE STORY OF SEEDS, 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 empower her readers. Nancy also serves as Regional Advisor Emeritus 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 empowers young readers to act on behalf of the environment and their communities. The Sibert Honor author of Sea Otter Heroes, Newman has also received an NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book Award for Eavesdropping on Elephants, a Green Earth Book Award for Plastic, Ahoy!, and a Eureka! Gold Medal from the California Reading Association for Zoo Scientists to the Rescue. Her books have received starred reviews, been honored as Junior Library Guild Selections, and included on Bank Street College’s Best Books lists. During author visits, she demonstrates how young readers can use writing to be the voice of change. Visit her at www.patriciamnewman.com. Stay tuned for her upcoming Planet Ocean – spring 2021.

STEM Tuesday — Pollinators — Writing Tips & Resources

By STEM Tuesday on July 21, 2020 / Pollinators, STEM Tuesday

Title Talk

Creating the perfect title for a nonfiction piece is tough. In a few short words you’re supposed to convey the subject, approach, and audience — and be appealing. That’s a tall order. Honestly, I used to hate drafting a title but I’ve come to see it as an effective exercise.

Working and reworking a title at different stages of a project helps me nail down more than words for the cover. When I finally smile at a title I’ve crafted — and when that smile returns every time I dive in to revise — I know I’ve also got a handle on what my book is actually about.

Often though, even that title isn’t the final title. The editor, marketing team, others at the publishing house all have a say and sometimes one of them develops the final title.

[Note: This discussion is relevant for trade books. For books in the education market, the title is typically assigned ahead of time.]

So, how do you develop the perfect title? Lots and lots of work — and play! Here are some exercises to help.

Structure

Read these titles from this month’s list, paying particular attention to their structure:

Birds, Bees, and Butterflies: Bringing Nature Into Your Yard and Garden

The Pollinator Victory Garden: Win the War on Pollinator Decline with Ecological Gardening

Pollinator Friendly Gardening: Gardening for Bees, Butterflies, and Other Pollinators

Summer’s Flight, Pollen’s Delight: Meet the Bees, Butterflies, Birds and other Creatures Who Keep Our World Green and Alive!

Pollinators: Animals Helping Plants Thrive

These titles use a traditional structure: a shorter title (indicating the subject matter), a colon, and a subtitle (fleshes out the topic or scope of the book). Check your shelves for titles that use this structure. Nonfiction writers are fortunate; we can use subtitles! Subtitles give us options. Providing additional clues through the title/subtitle combination can be a critical element in helping a book find the right readers.

What about titles that break from that traditional structure?

They may use questions:

Where Have all the Bees Gone? Pollinators in Crisis

Consider what the use of a question does for the title. Prompt the reader to think? Provide an air of uncertainty? This particular title also introduces a level

of anxiety and capitalizes on the tension inherent in the topic.

Or imperatives:

Know Your Pollinators: 40 Common Pollinating Insects including Bees, Wasps, Flower Flies, Butterflies, Moths, & Beetles, with Appearance, Behavior, & How to Attract Them to Your Garden

What does that do?

Or need no subtitle at all:

Turn this Book into a Beehive

Standing Out

Now, look for literary devices which help a title stand out.

Alliteration, assonance, consonance like Astronaut Aquanaut: How Space Science and See Science Interact by Jennifer Swanson and Woodpecker Wham! by April Pulley Sayre
A play on words like The Whole Story of the Doughnut by Pat Miller and I See Sea Food by Jenna Grodzicki
Rhythm or rhyme like Joan Proctor, Dragon Doctor: The Woman Who Loved Reptiles by Patricia Valdez

What other devices can you find in titles you love?

Try adding a literary device to one of the titles listed above.

The Power of Play!

Amazing titles can come from play. Play with the language, play with the concepts, play with what your reader might be thinking. Here are a few examples: You’re Invited to a Moth Ball by Loree Burns, Something Rotten: A Fresh look at Roadkill by Heather L Montgomery, Save the Crash-test Dummies by Jennifer Swanson

- - - - Draft the most conservative title possible. Draft the most outrageous title possible. Which do you like best?
        
        Reverse the words in one of your draft titles.
        
        Combine opposites (over/under, fresh/rotten, etc)
        
        Swap out a common word with something that challenges readers just a bit.

Tricks and Tips

Like any other skill, developing a finely honed title requires practice. Here are a few more exercises to round out your workout:

Listen to the words of friends, critique partners, strangers as they talk about your project or subject. Stockpile their words as fodder for your title.
Revise one of your titles using each of the literary devices listed above.
Jot down a title and develop a list of at least 10 synonyms for each word. Mix-and-match, paying attention to the rhythm of the words.
At random, select five non-fiction books and use their titles as models for yours.

Many thanks to the members of the NF for NF Nonfiction Children’s Writers Facebook group who suggested titles for this post.

—

Heather L. Montgomery writes STEM books for kids. She’s had fun with her recent titles:

Who Gives a Poop? Surprising Science from One End to the Other (Bloomsbury 2020)

Little Monsters of the Ocean: Metamorphosis under the Waves (Lerner, 2019)

Bugs Don’t Hug: Six – Legged Parents and their Kids (Charlesbridge 2018)

STEM Tuesday — Pollinators — Book List

By STEM Tuesday on July 7, 2020 / Pollinators, STEM Tuesday

Pollinator populations are declining. For those of us who like to eat, this is a problem because bees pollinate 75 percent of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in the United States. In addition, bees, butterflies, bats, and other animals pollinate plants and fruit trees which provide food for birds and other wildlife.

Where Have all the Bees Gone? Pollinators in Crisis, by Rebecca E. Hirsch

Beginning with a field trip to find the once-common Franklin’s bumble bee, this book highlights what can happen when wild bees disappear. It concludes on a hopeful note, with two chapters devoted to bee conservation and positive actions that kids – and their families – can take.

Bugs in Danger, by Mark Kurlansky

This book opens with an overview of how insects fit into the ecosystem and the biggest threats they face: habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, and climate change. There’s a good section on what pollination is and the co-evolution of insects with plants. Remaining sections focus on individual groups of pollinators: bees (big emphasis on honey bees), beetles, and butterflies and moths. Fortunately, there are things everyone can do to keep the world a safe place for bugs.

Turn this Book into a Beehive, by Lynn Brunelle

This book provides an introduction to honey bees, bumble bees, and native bees. Bee-lovers of all ages will appreciate the novelty of turning the book cover into a home for mason bees. Plus there are hands-on activities and recipes for organic pest control, with plenty of tips on how we can keep our landscapes bee-friendly.

Attracting Native Pollinators: The Xerces Society Guide, Protecting North America’s Bees and Butterflies, by The Xerces Society

Though written for adults, we feel this is a valuable reference for curious young naturalists. The first section introduces pollinators (bees, butterflies, beetles, wasps, flies). Another section focuses on strategies to help pollinators (including school gardens). There’s a photo guide to bees of North America, garden suggestions, and a photo guide to pollinator plants.

How to Raise Monarch Butterflies: A Step-by-Step Guide for Kids (How It Works) by Carol Pasternak

This book offers instructions on how to feed and care for monarch butterflies and their caterpillars. It explains varieties of milkweed and how to propagate plants, and offers suggestions for starting a butterfly garden. It also includes information about threats to Monarchs and actions people can take to conserve the butterflies.

Pollinators: Animals Helping Plants Thrive by Martha London

Opening with an in depth look at pollination, this book examines the insects, birds, and bats responsible for the majority of plant pollination. Sidebars extend the discussion to topics like prehistoric pollination, mammals, and artificial pollination. It includes large color photographs, a “fast facts” section, and a glossary, as well as cross-curricular extension activities throughout the book.

Know Your Pollinators: 40 Common Pollinating Insects including Bees, Wasps, Flower Flies, Butterflies, Moths, & Beetles, with Appearance, Behavior, & How to Attract Them to Your Garden by Tim Harris

With a focus on 40 insects from around the world responsible for plant pollination, this book offers full page color images opposite brief discussions of the habits, nests, and life-cycles of many well-known insects (honeybees, monarch butterflies, and ladybugs) and some more unusual ones (blueberry digger, sandpit mining bee, and snowberry clearwing). It also contains succinct sidebar information on the insects, including size, season, nectar sources, and habitat.

National Geographic Birds, Bees, and Butterflies: Bringing Nature Into Your Yard and Garden by Nancy J. Hajeski

This book examines the basic physical and life-cycle information and habitat necessities for these three pollinator groups. Along with gorgeous photos, the text and sidebars help identify common backyard birds, butterflies, bees, and moths. Additional “focus on” sections provide more information on topics like monarch butterfly migrations and creating a moon garden for moths. It also shows how to create a garden plan for each group and offers a list of plants and a growing guide.

The Pollinator Victory Garden: Win the War on Pollinator Decline with Ecological Gardening; Attract and Support Bees, Beetles, Butterflies, Bats, and Other Pollinators by Kim Eierman

Although also having a more adult feel, this book expanded the evaluation of pollinators beyond insects and birds. The large color images and charts examine the many insects, birds, mammals, and lizards responsible for plant pollination. After exploring their required habitats and foods, the book shows how to create different pollinator gardens. Additional resources include garden tips, a checklist, and plant lists for specific pollinators.

Bug Lab for Kids: Family-Friendly Activities for Exploring the Amazing World of Beetles, Butterflies, Spiders, and Other Arthropods (Lab Series), by John W. Guyton

Bug Lab brings together more than 40 activities for exploring the world of arthropods: spiders, centipedes, butterflies, bees, ants, and many other insects. Activities include making a collecting net, caring for live arthropods, and best ways to photograph bugs. One section focuses on bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, inviting kids to conduct a local survey and make a pollinator habitat.

STEM Tuesday book list prepared by:

Sue Heavenrich writes about science for children and their families, from space to backyard ecology. A long line of ants marching across the kitchen counter inspired her first article for kids. When not writing, she’s committing acts of citizen science in the garden. She blogs about science for kids and families at archimedesnotebook.blogspot.com.

Maria is 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. And a judge for the #50PreciousWords competition since its inception. 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.

Posts Tagged books