Book Bunch: It's All about the Weather

On the Same Day in March: A Tour of the World’s Weather
Written by Marilyn Singer
Illustrated by Frane Lessac
HarperCollins, 2000

On the Same Day in March is a fine nonfiction picture book that could be used to introduce a unit on weather in the early elementary grades. It’s also an excellent book for connecting science and geography. Both the author and illustrator take readers to various locales around the world on one day of one particular month of the year to show how people living in different places don’t all experience the same kind of weather at the same time.

Singer takes us on a tour of cities, areas of countries, and continents situated in all the hemispheres of the globe. Readers travel to the Arctic; Alberta, Canada; Paris, France; New York City; the Texas Panhandle; the Nile Valley; a Louisiana bayou; Xian, China; Darjeeling, India; Central Thailand; Dakar, Senegal; Barbados; Northern Kenya, the Amazon Basin in Brazil; Darwin, Australia; Patagonia, Argentina; and Antarctica. Lessac’s endpapers label these locales on a hand-painted map of the world.

Here’s a partial weather report for this “same day in March”:

• There’s a tiny twister in Texas.
• “Fog threads through the temples” in the Nile Valley.
• Hailstones fall on a hillside in Darjeeling.
• In Thailand, it’s hot…hot…hot.
• The rains leave behind a river in Kenya.
• It’s raining, too, in the Amazon Basin.
• While in Patagonia, autumn “shears the clouds like a flock of sheep.”

The text printed on each page of the book is brief—usually just a sentence or two. The illustrations extend the text. They show how animals and people in different habitats experience this particular weather day in March where they reside. Folks in Paris sit outside a café or sell produce in an open market. People swim in the ocean and play cricket at the beach in Barbados. A family in Darwin pulls their boat out of the water and boards up their windows before the willy-willies (cyclones) arrive.

Singer includes A Note from the Author in the back matter of the book.

Click here to read an excerpt from the book. http://www.marilynsinger.net/march.htm

From Open Wide, Look Inside
Teaching Geography with Children’s Literature: On the Same Day in March
http://blog.richmond.edu/openwidelookinside/archives/2246

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Here are two books of poems that could be used to integrate poetry with a unit on weather:

Weather: Poems for All Seasons
Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Illustrated by Melanie Hall
HarperCollins, 1994

This is a Level 3 I Can Read Book. It’s excellent for using in primary grades. The twenty-nine poems are organized in five sections: Sun, Wind and Clouds, Rain and Fog, Snow and Ice, Weather Together. It contains works by some of our finest children’s poets—including David McCord, Lilian Moore, Valerie Worth, J. Patrick Lewis, Barbara Juster Esbensen—as well as poems by Carl Sandburg and Langston Hughes.

Here are some excerpts from the SUN section to give you a flavor of the book:

No-Sweater Sun, the first poem in the collection, captures the excitement children feel when spring has finally arrived.

No-Sweater Sun
by Beverly McLoughland

Your arms feel new as growing grass
The first No-Sweater sun,
Your legs feel light as rising air
You have to run—
And turn a thousand cartwheels round
And sing—
So dizzy with the giddy sun
Of spring.

J. Patrick Lewis personifies the “star” of our solar system in Mister Sun—who “puts his gold slippers on” at dawn. He also switches off the “globe lamplight” and pulls “down the shades of night.”

Isabel Joslin Glaser’s summer sun sports a “lion face” at noon and “shakes out/its orangy mane”—and its searing “tongue scorches leaves.” Valerie Worth’s sun “is a leaping fire” that can form “warm yellow squares/on the floor” where a cat can sun itself.

The SUN section is typical of the rest of the book. It includes short poems that are easy to read. Some poems are straightforward rhythmic, rhyming poems of a lighthearted nature; some poems are free verse and do not rhyme; some poems have lovely imagery.

Click here to browse inside this book. http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780064441919

Seed Sower, Hat Thrower: Poems about Weather
Written by Laura Purdie Salas
Illustrated with photographs
Capstone Press, 2008

Laura Salas wrote poems for this collection in a variety of forms: limerick, cinquain, haiku, concrete, and acrostic. The photographs included in the book served as Laura’s inspiration for her poems. For example: Laura was inspired to write a list poem for the picture of a child flying a kite across an expanse of a bright blue sky dotted with puffs of white clouds:

Wind Is An…

Expert blower
Seed sower
Sailboat go-er
Hat thrower
And, best of all, a
Kite tow-er

Seed Thrower, Hat Thrower: Poems about Weather was published by Capstone for the educational market. It contains poems about fog, arid lands, rain, icicles, lightning, wind, a tornado, and clouds. In the back matter of this book, the author includes a glossary—as well as recommendations for other poetry books about weather and the seasons. In addition, there’s a section titled The Language of Poetry in which the author defines poetic terms—such as alliteration, repetition, free verse, and cinquain.

Edited to Add:

Click here to read more poems from Laura’s book at her blog.

Click here to read another excerpt from the book and for links to a couple of classroom activities at Laura’s Web site.

Picture Book Reviews: Winter Trees, Christmas Trees

WINTER TREES
Written by Carole Gerber
Illustrated by Leslie Evans
Charlesbridge, 2008

This is a treasure of a nonfiction book written in verse. The rhyming text introduces young children to the different shapes of the crowns of deciduous trees once they are bare of leaves—

the egg shape of the maple tree;
the taller oval of the beech…
The V formation of the birch;
the yellow poplar, wide and high;
the spreading structure of the oak,
its branches reaching toward the sky.

Gerber also writes about the bark and buds and other characteristics of different trees: The American beech’s bark is smooth and silver-gray; the yellow poplar’s is furrowed. The sugar maple’s buds are stout and have clawlike tips; the poplar’s reddish twigs hold puffy buds. She writes, too, about evergreens and how they keep their needles throughout the year. The back matter includes three paragraphs with further information about trees and small illustrations of the seven trees written about in the book.

The spare illustrations created from linoleum block print, watercolor, and collage, are a fine complement to the text. The pictures are set mostly against a plain white or pale blue background. Evans focuses the reader’s eye on the shapes of the trees, the leaves, the buds, the bark—whatever is the main point of each page of text. This helps to enhance the information that is conveyed through Gerber’s verse.

Winter Trees would make a great read-aloud for children in Pre-K through the early elementary grades. It’s an excellent book for young naturalists and one that encourages kids to observe nature more closely.

Click here to view illustrations from Winter Trees.

More Blog Reviews of Winter Trees

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #93: Featuring Leslie Evans (This post includes images of a number of illustrations from the book.)

From Check It Out: Nonfiction Monday: Winter Trees

CHRISTMAS TREE FARM
Written by Ann Purmell
Illustrated by Jill Weber
Holiday House, 2006

This is a “realistic fiction” picture book that tells all about the planting, pruning, and care of evergreens on a farm where Christmas trees are raised as the cash crop. The story is narrated by a young boy who explains how his Grandpa and the rest of his family go about their work on the farm throughout the year. The boy also informs readers about the measuring and tagging of trees before they are cut down and brought to the Tree Hut to be sold. Christmas Tree Farm is also a book about a family working together. The story closes with a slew of relatives coming to Grandpa’s and Grandma’s house for a tree trimming party. Weber’s gouache and acrylic naïve-style illustrations are colorful and an appropriate complement to a story narrated by a young boy.

The back matter of the book includes information under the following headings: Christmas Tree Lore, Christmas Tree Facts, and a Christmas Tree Time Line—as well as a two-page spread with labeled illustrations of different types of evergreen trees: Colorado Blue Spruce, Fraser Fir, Virginia Pine, Scotch Pine, Norway Spruce, White Pine, Balsam Fir, and Douglas Fir.

Click here for the teacher packet for Christmas Tree Farm.

HENRY BEAR’S CHRISTMAS
Written & illustrated by David McPhail
Atheneum, 2003

Henry Bear enjoys everything about Christmas: the presents, the jelly cakes Momma Bear always bakes, the warmth and good cheer of the holiday season. But what Henry loves most of all is having a fine, full, beautifully decorated Christmas tree and good friends all around. This story tells about Henry’s search for a Christmas tree. When Henry and his best friend Stanley find the perfect tree at the church, the vicar tells them that it’s not for sale. The tree is going to be raffled off. So what does Henry Bear do? Why, he spends all his Christmas tree money on raffle tickets. He feels certain he’ll win the tree. Unfortunately, on the day of the raffle drawing, Henry Bear isn’t present when his winning number is picked. He’s at the doughnut shop warming himself with a steaming mug of cocoa. Henry ends up having to settle for a brown-needled, scrawny tree that no one wants. After looking over the tree more carefully, Henry observes: “I see that it is not such a bad little tree after all.” Christmas ends up a happy occasion for Henry, Stanley, and Momma Bear. In the book’s final illustration, we see Momma Bear, Stanley, and Henry celebrating the holiday by a glowing fire. This book is another charmer from the talented McPhail.

NIGHT TREE
Written by Eve Bunting
Illustrated by Ted Rand

This is a cozy story about a family (father, mother, son, and daughter) going out on Christmas Eve to decorate a tree in the forest with holiday treats for wild animals: apples and tangerines and balls of sunflower seeds pressed with millet and honey. Beneath the tree the family scatters shelled nuts, breadcrumbs, and pieces of apple for “the little creatures who can’t climb very well.” When the family is finished, they spread out a blanket, open a thermos of hot chocolate, sing songs, and admire their handiwork. This story is told from the perspective of the son who conveys the excitement he feels sharing this annual tradition with his family in the forest and the wonder of this special night as he lies awake in bed. Ted Rand’s realistic watercolor illustrations transport us to a winter forest. The royal blue sky aglow with a full moon adds warmth to the scenery and the changing perspectives help bring the story alive on the pages.

APPLE TREE CHRISTMAS
Written & illustrated by Trinka Hakes Noble

Published nearly a quarter century ago, Apple Tree Christmas is still in print today. It’s a book I used to read aloud to my elementary students every December.

The book is set on a farm in the late 19th century. This is a warm family story about a mother, father, and two young daughters named Katrina and Josie. It’s also about an apple tree overgrown with wild grape vines that stood near their barn. It was a special tree to the girls. Josie loved to sit on the swing her father had fashioned from the tree’s vines—and Katrina, the artist, sat on a limb that made a perfect drawing board. “She called it her studio.”

One night a ferocious blizzard howls through the farm. Katrina and Josie learn to their dismay that their special apple tree has been felled by the storm. In the days before Christmas, Katrina finds it difficult to concentrate on knitting papa’s presents. She’s disturbed by the sound of her father’s sawing and hacking away at her beloved tree. But what Katrina and Josie don’t know is that Papa isn’t just chopping firewood—he’s making presents for his daughters from the vines and limbs of the tree. On Christmas morning, this is what the girls awake to find:

There, hanging from the beam, was Josie’s swing, the very same swing from the apple tree. Sitting on the swing was a little rag doll that mama had made.

Near the swing was a drawing board made from the very same limb that had been Katrina’s studio. On the drawing board were real charcoal paper and three sticks of willow charcoal.

Noble’s homey, period-style art suit this story of country life in bygone times.

Click here to see illustrations from Apple Tree Christmas at Noble’s website.

More Picture Books about Christmas Trees

Click here to read my review of A City Christmas Tree.

Click here to read my reviews of Merry Christmas, Merry Crow and Mr. Willoughby's Christmas Tree at Blue Rose Girls.



Click here to read my review of Wendell and Florence Minor’s Christmas Tree!.

Autumn Book Bunch: Leaves, Leaves, Leaves!

OLIVER FINDS HIS WAY
Written by Phyllis Root
Illustrated by Christopher Denise
Candlewick Press, 2002

Oliver Finds His Way is an exceptional picture book for students in preschool and kindergarten. Phyllis Root’s simple storyline about a little bear who finds himself lost near the edge of the woods, panics, and then thinks of a way to solve his problem, will resonate with young children. Christopher Denise’s illustrations, done in pastels and charcoal, provide a soft autumnal backdrop for Root’s spare text. They capture the flavor of the season and closeness of this loving “bear” family.

One fall day, while his parents are doing chores outside, Oliver chases an autumn leaf that is blown by the wind. He follows the big yellow leaf…

down the hill,
around a clumpy bush,
under a tree,
and all the way
to the end of the woods.

Soon enough, Oliver discovers that he is lost. He tries to find his way back home--but the tree he runs to is not the twisty one he had passed before and the bush he runs to is not the clumpy bush he had seen earlier. Oliver’s afraid. He begins to cry…and cry….and cry. But he soon realizes that he’s still lost. He rubs his nose and thinks until he gets an idea. Then he roars and roars and roars--louder and louder and louder--until he hears Mama and Papa roaring back. Oliver is then able to listen to their roars and find his way home.

Note: When I was an elementary librarian, I used the art in Oliver Finds His Way to introduce my youngest students to the concept of setting in picture books. The children could tell just from looking at the endpapers that the story was set out in the country in autumn. Click here to view an illustration from the book.

FLETCHER AND THE FALLING LEAVES
Written by Julia Rawlinson
Illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke
Greenwillow, 2006

It’s autumn. Fletcher, a young fox, notices that the world around him is changing. Every morning things seem “just a little bit different.”

The rich green of the forest was turning to a dusty gold, and the soft, swishing
sound of summer was fading to a crinkly whisper.

Fletcher becomes worried when his favorite tree begins to look dry and brown. He thinks the tree is sick and expresses concern to his mother. His mother explains that it’s “only autumn” and not to worry. Fletcher runs outside, pats his tree, and tells it that it will feel better soon.

Of course, the leaves on the tree continue to turn brown and fall from the branches. Fletcher catches a falling leaf and reattaches it to his tree--but the wind shakes the leaf loose again.

The next day, a strong wind blows through the forest, and the tree’s leaves are set flying. Fletcher’s upset when he sees a squirrel taking leaves for its nest and a porcupine using the fallen leaves to keep itself warm. Try as he might, Fletcher cannot save his tree from the inevitable. Finally, he clutches the last leaf as it flutters from the tree and takes it home--where he tucks it into a little bed of its own.

The following morning, Fletcher is awed by the sight of his tree, which is now hung with thousands of icicles shimmering in the early morning light. He wonders, though, if the tree is okay and asks: “But are you all right?” Fletcher is relieved when a breeze shivers the branches and the tree makes “a sound like laughter…” The little fox then hugs his tree and returns to his den for a “nice, warm breakfast.”

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves has a longer, more lyrical text than Oliver Finds His Way. Beeke’s soft-edged pastel illustrations capture the tone and setting of this comforting story and deftly convey the change of seasons as autumn turns to winter.

THE LITTLE YELLOW LEAF
Written & illustrated by Carin Berger
Greenwillow, 2008

Carin Berger, who did the “bold” and brilliant collage illustrations for Jack Prelutsky’s Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant, hits a high note again with her art in The Little Yellow Leaf. Her illustrations in this book are inventive and striking. Berger even used composition and graph paper as the backdrop for some of her pictures. Her spare illustrations with changing perspectives and her lovely lyrical text partner well in this tale about finding strength in friendship.

The main character of this little allegory is a “Little Yellow Leaf.” It’s autumn. The LYL clings to a branch of “a great oak tree.” “I’m not ready yet, thought the Little Yellow Leaf as a riot of fiery leaves chased and swirled round the tree.” No, the leaf isn’t ready to leave its home in the tree--even as the afternoon sun beckons--even…

as apples grew musky,
pumpkins heavy,
and flocks of geese
took wing.

Even when LYL sees that the other leaves have “gathered into heaps, crackly dry, where children played,” it isn’t willing to join them. And it still it isn’t ready to leave its home when a harvest moon blooms in an “amber” sky.

LYL holds fast to its branch through a long, cold night when snow falls. It holds fast as days pass. It looks and looks at the tree--but sees only the “shimmer of snow.” LYL is all alone. At least that’s what it thinks…until one day it spies a “scarlet flash” high up in the tree. It has a comrade! Both had been hesitant to cast off for the unknown. The Little Yellow Leaf and the Scarlet Leaf take courage in each other…set themselves free and soar.

Into the waiting wind they danced…
off and away and away and away.
Together.

I highly recommend these three titles, which will make fine autumn read-alouds.

Book Bunch: Looking at Langston Hughes

I love the poetry of Langston Hughes. I used to read poems from his book The Dream Keeper to my second grade students. I always shared poems from the book when I read them Coming Home: from the Life of Langston Hughes, a picture book biography that was written and illustrated by Floyd Cooper.

Today, I’m reviewing Tony Medina’s book of "autobiographical" poems about Langston Hughes entitled Love to Langston. As the front flap of the book jacket states: “Each poem explores an important event or theme in Hughes’ life, from his lonely childhood and the racism he overcame, to his love of travel and his ultimate success as a writer.” In his introduction, Medina tells readers that his book “captures glimpses of Langston’s life in the art form he cherished most—poetry.” The book's poems are narrated in the voice of Langston Hughes.

LOVE TO LANGSTON
Written by Tony Medina
Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
Lee & Low, 2002

The fourteen poems contained in the book give us glimpses not only of events and themes in Hughes’ life—but also a peek inside the man, his thoughts and emotions. Because Medina speaks in the voice of Hughes, the poems seem personal. It's as if the poet is talking directly to and confiding in the book’s readers.

Following are excerpts from Love to Langston, which I hope will give you a flavor of Medina’s free verse poetry in the book:

Langston speaks of libraries being special places for him in his poem Libraries.

From Libraries

to sit and to stay
with books and books
and books of endless

beautiful words

keeping me company
taking my loneliness
and blues

away


He explains his feelings for his father in another poem:

From I Do Not Like My Father Much

My father is a man who could not do what
he wanted to do or be what he wanted to be
so he takes out his pain on everyone
even his own family

His anger causes me pain
just the same

No, I do not like my father much


He tells of his love for his favorite place in Harlem Is the Capital of My World:

Harlem is a bouquet of black roses
all packed together and protected
by blackness and pride…

Yeah, Harlem is where I be—
where I could be
Me
Harlem is the capital of my world


In Jazz Makes Me Sing, Langston relates how the music “makes me/think about my sadness/and how I ain’t alone/The blues makes me feel/a whole lot better/It hits my heart in/the funny bone.”


In Poetry Means the World to Me, he expresses the importance of poetry in his life.

From Poetry Means the World to Me

Poetry means the world to me
it’s how I laugh and sing
how I cry and ask why…

Poetry is what I use
To say
I love you


The fourteen “glimpses” into the life of Langston Hughes also: show us a young boy learning about his people from listening to the stories his grandma tells him; speak of the prejudice he faced in school and about Jim Crow; recall his high school days when he lived in a white neighborhood where his white friends were immigrants and outsiders like him; and tell about his travels to many different places around the world.

Medina modeled some of his poems in Love to Langston after poems Hughes wrote for The Dream Keeper: Grandma’s Stories evokes Aunt Sue’s Stories and Sometimes Life Ain’t Always a Hoot echoes the sentiments expressed in Mother to Son.

In the back matter, Medina includes Notes for Love to Langston. In these detailed notes, the author provides information about the poet’s life and background information for each of the poems. Love to Langston is an excellent book to share with students during Black History Month--or any time of the school year.


Classroom Connections

• Read Coming Home to your students along with a few poem selections from The Dream Keeper.
• Continue to read two or three poems a day from The Dream Keeper for a period of four or five days.
• Then share and discuss the fourteen poems in Love to Langston.
• Follow up your reading of Love to Langston with readings of selected poems from the book—along with the detailed notes about those particular poems.
• Read Grandma’s Stories and Aunt Sue’s Stories, Sometimes Life Ain’t Always a Hoot and Mother to Son. Discuss the poems with your students and talk about the similarities in Hughes’ and Medina’s poems.
• It would be great to have several paperback copies of The Dream Keeper in your classroom. Some of the poems in the book are short and would be easy for children to memorize. You could let children peruse the book and select poems they might like to memorize and recite for their classmates or share with them in a choral reading exercise.
  

Here are links to some poems written by Langston Hughes:

Dream Variations

Dreams

Harlem

I, Too

Mother to Son

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Theme for English B

From Random House: More than twenty poems excerpted from Vintage Hughes



Click here to read about the career and poetry of Langston Hughes.

Book Bunch: School Stories

Here are titles of some school stories I recommend:

GETTING THE JITTERS

Off to School, Baby Duck!
Written by Amy Hest
Illustrated by Jill Barton
Candlewick Press, 1999

Baby Duck is nervous about going to school. It’s a good thing Grampa is on hand to help allay Baby’s fears and send her into class singing a happy song.

Wemberly Worried
Written & illustrated by Kevin Henkes
Greenwillow/HaperCollins, 2000

FUN AT SCHOOL

Someone Says
Written by Carole Lexa Schaefer
Illustrated by Pierr Morgan
Viking, 2003

For children in nursery school through grade one. This book celebrates childhood creativity. The spare text and art work together perfectly in this joyful picture book about imaginative play.

A BAD DAY AT SCHOOL

Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse
Written & illustrated by Kevin Henkes
Greenwillow/HaperCollins, 1996

Today Was a Terrible Day
Written by Patricia Reilly Giff
Illustrated by Susanna Natti
Viking, 1982

Ronald Morgan gets discouraged at school one day when he does everything wrong—including making mistakes when reading aloud in class. Then, on the way home, he reads the note his teacher has given him without any help. The day’s troubles dissipate in the excitement of knowing that he can actually read. (Pair this book with Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day and have children discuss their “terrible” days.)

SCHOOL STORIES TO TICKLE YOUR FUNNY BONE

David Goes to School
Written & Illustrated by David Shannon
Blue Sky Press, 1999

Morris the Moose Goes to School
Written & illustrated by B. Wiseman
Harper & Row, 1970

Morris can’t read or count. He goes to school to learn how. Young children will enjoy all the funny situations and experiences Morris has during his first day in an elementary classroom.

Math Curse
Written by Jon Scieszka
Illustrated by lane Smith
Viking, 1995

Captain Abdul’s Pirate School
Written & illustrated by Colin McNaughton
Candlewick Press, 1996

This is a hilarious tale told via the diary of a young girl whose father has sent her off to pirate school to toughen her up. Children will laugh at some of the pirates’ names—Poop Deck Percy Ploppe, Walker the Plank, Yardarm Pitts—and will enjoy the ending in which the children attending the school outwit the pirates, take over the ship, become pirates themselves and decide not to return home. Ooh-arrgh!

A Fine, Fine School
Written by Sharon Creech
Illustrated by Harry Bliss
Scholastic, 2001

No matter how fine a school may be—too much of a good thing can prove to be a bad idea. Principal Keene learns about some of the other important things in children’s lives from a young girl who has the courage to speak up to an adult.

SCHOOL STORIES ABOUT TEASING AND BULLYING

Chrysanthemum
Written & illustrated by Kevin Henkes
Greenwillow, 1991

Hooway for Wodney Wat
Written by Helen Lester
Illustrated by Lyn Munsinger
Houghton Mifflin, 1999

Poor Wodney Wat (Rodney Rat) can’t pronounce his r’s. His classmates constantly tease him. When Camilla Capybara, a new student who is a big bully, enters the classroom, Wodney fears his days at school will only get worse. Fortunately for Wodney, he is a hero by story’s end because he gets rid of Camilla….forever.

Stand Tall, Molly Lou Mellon
Written by Patty Lovell
Illustrated by David Catrow
Penguin, 2001

Molly Lou is the shortest girl in first grade. She’s got buck teeth, has a terrible singing voice, and is quite clumsy. Her grandma gives her the courage to take pride in herself. Then Molly Lou moves to a new town away from her grandma and old friends. A bully picks on her and teases her—but Molly takes it all in stride and wins over her classmates…including her harasser.

Thank You, Mr. Falker
Written & illustrated by Patricia Polacco
Philomel, 1998

Autobiographical story about young Polacco who was teased by classmates and called a “dummy” because she couldn’t read. In fifth grade, a teacher who is both understanding and wise takes the time to tutor the young artist every day after school and opens the world of words to her.

GOING TO SCHOOL AT SEA

Sailing Home: A Story of a Childhood at Sea
Written by Gloria Rand
Illustrated by Ted Rand
NorthSouth, 2001

This story is based on the experiences of the children of Captain and Mrs. Mads Albert Madsen aboard the four-masted sailing bark named the John Ena, a ship that carried cargo all over the world during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The children learn school lessons from their mother and governess. Their father teaches them about the planets, stars, celestial navigation, and how to send signals with flags at sea. The back matter of the book includes an afterward and Madsen family photographs.

Book Bunch: A SEAsonal Selection

Since my computer crashed early Monday morning, it looks like I'll have to write my post directly on blogger because the laptop I have available doesn't have any word processing program. Oh well, I think you may see some typos.

Recently, I wrote reviews of two sea-themed books: Into the A, B, Sea and What the Sea Saw. I've got reviews of three more books about the sea. These are nonfiction picture books about tidepools.

IN ONE TIDEPOOL: CRABS, SNAILS AND SALTY TAILS

Written by Anthony D. Fredericks

Illustrated by Jennifer DiRubbio

Dawn Publications, 2002

Fredericks takes a non-typical approach with his nonfiction text. This book is a cumulative tale told in verse about a young girl observing the creatures in a tidepool: barnacles, fish, anemones, a blood-red sponge, crabs, snails, limpets, and a sea star. The names of all the creatures mentioned in the text are written in bold print throughout the book. This will be a help with word recognition--especially for children who are encountering these words for the first time.

Here is an excerpt to give you a flavor of the author's text:

Anemones with stinging cells

Hold fast to rocks and empty shells,

Friends to fish that dart and hide

And find their food in the surging tide,

Near barnacles with legs so small

That waved at the girl that watched them all.

In one tidepool, fun to explore,

A web of life on a rugged shore.

At the end of IN ONE TIDEPOOL, Fredericks includes a section called Field Notes, which contains information about the animals in the book. The author notes that all of the animals can be found on both coasts of North America--but that the specific species illustrated in the book live on the West Coast. He also provides a list of recommended books about seashore ecology. This is a good book for reading aloud to very young children to introduce them to the varied life that exists in tidepools.

AT HOME IN THE TIDE POOL

Written by Alexandra Wright

Illustrated by Marshall Peck III

Charlesbridge, 1992

AT HOME IN THE TIDE POOL is the most typical nonfiction book of the three reviewed here. Information about animals that inhabit tide pools is given in clear, concise prose. Each two-page spread has a large color illustration, smaller spot illustrations of sea creatures that are labeled for identification, and one, two, or three short paragraphs of factual text. This book goes into more detail about tide pool creatures, their movements, and behavior. It also has a more advanced vocabulary. AT HOME IN THE TIDE POOL provides a good overview of the subject.


Here is an excerpt from the book:

The starfish wraps itself around a mussel and uses its rows of suckers to pry apart the two halves of the mussel shell. The starfish will push its own stomach out through its mouth and into the mussel. After it eats the mussel, the starfish pulls its stomach back where it belongs!

THE SEASIDE SWITCH

Written by Kathleen Kudlinski

Illustrated by Lindy Burnett

NorthWord, 2007

Kudlinski's book focuses on the effect the changing tides have along the coast and on the creatures who live near the shore. In this book, we see a young boy adventuring out with his notebook and pencils and paints. Evidently, he is a young scientist prepared to record the natural wonders he'll observe in the sand, in the ocean, and in shallow tidal pools. The author's lyrical text has rhythm and repetition that echo the movement of the ocean and the changing tides. Burnett's gouache illustrations with their shifting perspectives and use of light capture well the body language of an inquisitive child, the sunlight shimmering in shallow waters, and the passage of a day from dawn into evening.

Here's an excerpt from the book:

Snails hide in their shells
in the shadows until...
surging, submerging, the tide rolls in.
Then the snails slither out,
scouring food from the rocks.


In addition to surging and submerging, Kudlinski uses other pairs of rhyming words to describe the movement of the incoming sea: curling, swirling; creeping, seeping; crashing, splashing; gushing, rushing. The author also describes the movements and actions of gulls and sea creatures with verbs such as the following: soar, dart, peck, scamper, scurry, stretch, poke, pinch, slurp, dart, nibble, flee, slither, hover, dip, wilt, circle. She has chosen her words well.

THE SEASIDE SWITCH would be a fine book to read aloud to a young child before setting out for a day at the beach...or after a day spent investigating the creatures that inhabit the shallow waters and the tide pools along the coast.