Posts Tagged National Geographic Kids

Book Blast: It’s a Number’s Game!

By on March 11, 2021   /   Articles  

 

To celebrate the release of It’s A Numbers Game! Baseball by James Buckley, Jr., and foreword by Cincinnati Reds’ Pitcher Sean Doolittle on February 2nd, as well as Pi Day on 3/14 and the start of Baseball season, blogs across the web are featuring exclusive spreads from the book plus 5 chances to win a finished copy and a $25 gift card to the MLB Shop!

 

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With every hit, ball, strike, and home run numbers are being calculated on the baseball field. Get ready to learn all the ways digits and math factor into the game, from the countless statistics used to measure an individual player’s game to the exact timing used to steal a base.
Read about all the greatest players from baseball history and get fun facts, like what the most retired jersey number is. Discover what countries dominate in the Little League World Series and check out cool graphics that show the frequency of hits to every part of the field. Jam-packed with sports trivia, awesome photos, and fun activities at the end of every chapter, this number-focused look at the game is the ultimate grand slam.
JAMES BUCKLEY, JR. is the author of more than 100 books for young readers on basketball, baseball, football, soccer, and more. A former editor at Sports Illustrated and NFL Publishing, he is also the author of the top-selling annual Scholastic Year in Sports. In the non-sports world, he has written a dozen titles in the New York Times best-selling Who Was…? biography series. He lives in Santa Barbara, California, where he runs the Shoreline Publishing Group, a leading producer of nonfiction for kids.

 

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GIVEAWAY
 

 

 

  • One (1) winner will receive a finished copy of It’s A Numbers Game! Baseball by James Buckley, Jr., and foreword by Cincinnati Reds’ Pitcher Sean Doolittle and a $25 gift card to the MLB store!
  • Check out the other four stops for more chances to win
  • US/Can only
  • Ends 3/21 at 11:59pm ET

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Book Blast Schedule:

March 8th – Frantic Mommy

March 9th – BookHounds

March 10th – Always in the Middle

March 11th – From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle Grade Authors

March 12th – Christy’s Cozy Corners

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Picturing the Past: ENSNARED IN THE WOLF’S LAIR Blog Tour

By on February 11, 2021   /   Articles, Giveaways  

Welcome to the Ensnared Blog Tour!

To celebrate the release of Ensnared by Ann Bausum on January 12th, blogs across the web are featuring exclusive articles from Ann, plus 5 chances to win a hardcover copy!

Picturing the Past

by Ann Bausum

Often the best way to bring history alive is to share it through the eyes of people who witnessed it happening. Ensnared in the Wolf’s Lair is bursting with cherished photos, personal recollections, and primary source documents about the family punishments that followed the failed attempt to kill Hitler on July 20, 1944. Although the book focuses on a handful of affected families, I deliberately folded breadcrumbs into its pages about many others. Savvy readers can trace additional relationships using these embedded strands of history.

Consider the Hayessen family, for example. Although the children are never specifically mentioned in the main text, readers can learn about them by using visual clues and the book’s supplemental reference material. Take a good look at the meticulous inventory of families that appears in the back matter. Not only do readers discover the names, ages, and genders of each person; the itemized listing includes a key that helps to identify their individual fates.
By consulting this guide, we can surmise that Hans-Hayo Hayessen, the oldest child in the family at age two, had probably barely begun to talk by the time of his family punishment detention. Volker, at age nine months, was unlikely to even be walking. We can tell from the Hayessen family listing that the boys’ father died because of his involvement in the attempted coup, and their mother was detained.
Using the book’s index we are taken to the last photo ever taken of the family. This image captures an ordinary family moment that would, within months, be impossible to regain. The facing page authenticates some of the family’s trials by showing the certificate Margarete Hayessen received when she was discharged from Ravensbrück concentration camp.
BTW—here’s a tip to keep in mind when reading German dates: Europeans typically present the date and month in the reverse order from the American pattern. So the day shown on her discharge certificate of 6–10–44 represents the date October 6, 1944.
Would you like to follow some more breadcrumbs?
Let’s start with Dagmar Hansen. We can tell from the itemized listing of families that she was a newborn during this period, and this fact is reinforced several times in the text. By using the index we can find a family photo that predates her birth, and we can read about how her christening served as an alibi for her father on the day that the conspiracy unfolded. Subsequent text references are indexed in the book, including the revelation that Gestapo agents took Dagmar away from her mother when the girl was just two weeks old.
Visitors to my author website will find a series of classroom suggestions for Ensnared in the Wolf’s Lair. Among other ideas I challenge students to research various families using the book and other resources. A good first stop beyond my book is the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin. If the site displays in German, click the EN option in the upper access menu to switch the text to English. Then use the BIOGRAPHIES tab that appears at left in the home menu to find brief biographical essays about all coup conspirators.
Are you curious about other family members? Savvy internet users will discover that one of the 46 detained children became a famous German model and actress. (Hint: you’ll find a childhood photo of her on page 44.)

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Blog Tour Schedule:

February 8th – Teen Librarian Toolbox

February 9th – Christy’s Cozy Corners

February 10th – Bookhounds

February 11th – From the Mixed-Up Files

February 12th – Ms. Yingling Reads

 
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Follow Ann Bausum: Website | Twitter | Facebook
“I’ve come on orders from Berlin to fetch the three children.” –Gestapo agent, August 24, 1944
With those chilling words Christa von Hofacker and her younger siblings found themselves ensnared in a web of family punishment designed to please one man—Adolf Hitler. The furious dictator sought merciless revenge against not only Christa’s father and the other Germans who had just tried to overthrow his government. He wanted to torment their relatives, too, regardless of age or stature. All of them. Including every last child.
During the summer of 1944, a secretive network of German officers and civilians conspired to assassinate Adolf Hitler. But their plot to attack the dictator at his Wolf’s Lair compound failed, and an enraged Hitler demanded revenge. The result was a systematic rampage of punishment that ensnared not only those who had tried to topple the regime but their far-flung family members too. Within weeks, Gestapo agents had taken as many as 200 relatives from their homes, separating adults and children.
Using rare photographs and personal interviews with survivors, award-winning author Ann Bausum presents the spine-chilling little-known story of the failed Operation Valkyrie plot, the revenge it triggered, and the families caught in the fray.

ANN BAUSUM is an award-winning children’s book author who brings history alive by connecting readers to personal stories from the past that echo in the present day. Ensnared is her 11th book for National Geographic Kids and her fourth look at international history. While researching the book, she traveled twice to Europe to get to know the people and places that became intertwined in 1944 after the failed effort to kill Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair. Previously Bausum has explored international history with such works as Stubby the War Dog; Denied, Detained, Deported; and Unraveling Freedom. Many of her books highlight themes of social justice, including her National Geographic title The March Against Fear. In 2017, her body of work was honored by the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, DC. Individual titles have won numerous starred reviews and been recognized with a Sibert Honor Award, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, the Carter G. Woodson Award, and the SCBWI Golden Kite Award, among other distinctions.

GIVEAWAY
  • One (1) winner will receive a hardcover copy of Ensnared
  • Check out the other four stops for more chances to win
  • US/Can only
  • Ends 2/21 at 11:59pm ET

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Breaking the News Blog Tour Activity and Giveaway

By on November 5, 2020   /   Articles  

 

Welcome to the Breaking the News Blog Tour!

To celebrate the release of Breaking the News by Robin Terry Brown on October 13th, blogs across the web are featuring original content from Breaking the News, plus 5 chances to win a hardcover copy!

Learn to Detect Phony Photos

by Robin Terry Brown

Technology has made it so easy to alter photos that it can be hard even for professionals to tell if a photo is real or fake. Some experts specialize in “photo forensics,” using special software to detect false photos. But you can use these simple tricks to tell if a photo D might be a fake: 1 Look at the shadows. The light should be on one side and the shadows should be on the other. And all of the shadows should be at the same angle. If the shadows look off, that’s a sign that something may have been altered. 2 Does someone’s head look too big, or is a person’s body positioned at a strange angle? That could be a sign that two images have been combined into one. 3 Does it look like anything in the photo has been duplicated, with the same image appearing more than once? 4 If a photo looks suspicious, try doing a reverse image search. The search will show you where else the image has appeared online. If it shows up with details that are different from the ones you are seeing, that’s a sign that the photo is doctored.
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Answers (highlight to reveal): [A. The same flower is repeated multiple times, and did you notice the duplicated clouds? 
B. This shot is missing shadows, and the people are too big in relation to the mountain. C. The fireworks are drawn in and seem to come out of the ground. Look closely, you’ll see mountains in the background. But this is Brandenburg Gate, located in Berlin, Germany—a big city that’s not near a mountain range.
D. These grizzly bears look “pasted” into the scene. They don’t look natural. 
E. This cuddly panda mother and cub sure are sweet, but they appear cut out and placed in this bamboo setting. 
F. Several duplicate groups of people are sitting on the grass.]

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Blog Tour Schedule:

November 2nd – Bookhounds

November 3rd – Word Spelunking

November 4th – Always in the Middle

November 5th – From the Mixed-Up Files

November 6th – Feed Your Fiction Addiction

 

“Robin Terry Brown’s ‘Breaking the News,’ written in consultation with several journalism luminaries, is laid out the way magazines used to be, with captivating images, bite-size fact-filled blurbs and intuitive design. “Breaking the News” urges young people to leave their social media feeds and “read reliable news and information from many different sources.”
―The New York Times
“[Breaking the News] provides a sharp-looking survey that examines the history of news-how it began, how it evolved, and what consumers of all ages must consider before accepting a truth as the truth. Cool bits of history, funny hoaxes, and the scary reality of propaganda are packed in simple bites easy to absorb. Excellent design and a clear narrative help readers navigate the vast and fast-changing concept of news.”
―Kirkus STARRED REVIEW
 

 

Visit the Website | Read an Excerpt

Educator Guide

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Headlines leap out at us from mobile phones, TV screens, computers, newspapers, and everywhere we turn. Technology has opened up exciting new ways to tell interesting stories, but how much of it is news … and how much is just noise? This refreshing and up-to-date media literacy book gives kids the tools they need to distinguish what is fact from what is fiction so that they can make smart choices about what to believe.
Topics cover a broad range, from defining freedom of speech, the journalists’ code of ethics, the dangers of propaganda, and the future of news.
Packed with profiles of influential journalists, fun facts, and iconic photographs, this ultimate guide to the information age will get kids thinking about their relationship and responsibility to media.

 

About the Author: ROBIN TERRY BROWN graduated from the master’s program at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism with a passion for writing, editing, and getting the facts straight. She carried this passion throughout her 17-year career as a senior editor with National Geographic. Brown currently lives with her husband in northern Virginia, where she works as a writer, editor, and truth-seeker.
SUSAN GOLDBERG, contributor, is an award-winning journalist, editorial director of National Geographic Partners, and editor in chief of National Geographic magazine. Prior to National Geographic, Goldberg was an executive editor at Bloomberg News in Washington, D.C. She has also held posts at several news organizations, including The Plain Dealer, San Jose Mercury News, USA Today, the Detroit Free Press, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In 2017, Washingtonian magazine named Goldberg one of Washington, D.C.’s most powerful women.
Follow Susan: Instagram | Twitter
GIVEAWAY
  • One (1) winner will receive a hardcover copy of Breaking the News
  • Check out the other four stops for more chances to win
  • US/Can only
  • Ends 11/15 at 11:59pm ET

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

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