Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca

"Reading MOONSHOT gave me the feeling I was back up in space," said Michael Collins, the Command Module Pilot of Apollo 11. I've never been to space, but reading MOONSHOT, I felt like I was right there with Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong, as they locked their hands into heavy gloves and their heads into large, round helmets, squeezed into the Columbia's sideways seats, and took off into the summer sky. And I was there as the astronauts went "rushing into the darkness, flying toward the Moon, far away, cold and quiet, no air, no life, but glowing in the sky." And I was there as Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon, "dust and stone beneath their feet, where no seed has ever grown, no root has ever reached…"

This is a really different information picture book. It's chockful of terrific information that starts on the front endpages and doesn't stop until you close the back cover. The information is really specific, really scientific, and really accurate (e.g. that the spaceship doesn't smell very good after a week of astronauts using the restroom in space) and yet the text sounds almost poetic. Listen to this description of the rocket…

Their (the astronauts) two small spaceships are
Columbia and Eagle.
They sit atop the rocket
that will rise them into space,
a monster of a machine:
it stands thirty stories,
it weighs six million pounds,
a tower full of fuel and fire
and valves and pipes and engines,
too big to believe, but built to fly--
the mighty, massive Saturn V.

The illustrations are a contrast too. Some pages are done in very light pastel colors. Others, when the astronauts are in space, have an all black background. Some two pages spreads are black on one side, showing the astronauts on the moon, and then pastel showing people on earth. There's a tremendous sense of perspective and movement. A really nice addition to any classroom library (or for the space lover on your Christmas list)!

JACKSON AND BUD'S BUMPY RIDE- ELIZABETH KOEHLER-PENTACOFF

The year is 1903. The car, or at least the car as we know it, has been in existence for about ten years, and there are only 150 miles of paved roads in the entire United States. Horatio Jackson, a wealthy doctor from Vermont who is vacationing in San Francisco, takes a bet that no one can drive a horseless buggy cross country from California to New York.

Four days later, Jackson and a mechanic, Sewall Crocker, set out on their cross country adventure. A few weeks later, they are joined by Bud, a bull dog, who makes the trip perched in the front seat, wearing driving goggles. The trio plows through various obstacles- the rocky ledges of the California Sierras, the sand of the Oregon desert, a storm of grasshoppers in Omaha, rain and more rain, mud, mud, and more mud, not to mention endless flat tires. Eight thousand dollars 5600 miles, and 63 days later, they arrive in New York City.

A fun, light-hearted story with cartoon-like illustrations that I know kids are absolutely going to love.

POETRY FRIDAY

From the time I was very young, I loved , loved, loved horses. Despite the fact that we lived right smack in the middle of the city, I wanted a horse more than anything. I took horseback riding lessons on the old tired trail animals at Mark Reyner's riding stable, collected horses and horse memorabilia, and read every horse book I could get my hands on. Two of my absolute favorites were MISTY OF CHINCOTEAGUE and STORMY, MISTY'S FOAL by Marguerite Henry.

This week, reading through the stack of CYBILS nominees, I came across PONY ISLAND by Candice F. Ransom. PONY ISLAND tells the stories of the Chincoteague ponies in verse. Listen to a couple of pages:

Big ship wrecks.

Stormy sea.

Cargo horses.

Swimming free

*******

Swim the channel,

Noses high.

Ponies dripping.

Crowds stand by.

*******

Morning sunrise

By the sea

Ponies gallop

Wild and free.

According to an author's note, the ponies actually live on the island of Assateague. There are various stories about how they got there- some believe they were castaways from a Spanish shipwreck, others think farmers moved them there to avoid paying taxes. However the ponies came to the island, they have been there a long, long time. Since 1925, the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department has a pony roundup once a year. They swim the ponies across the channel from Assateague to Chincoteague. The pony auction and carnival raise money for the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department. Each year, more than 75,000 people flock to the island to watch the ponies make their five minute swim. After the event is over, the ponies return to Assateague, where they run wild for another year. (For the animal lovers in the crowd, the fire department feeds and cares for the ponies throughout the winter, and they are checked by a veterinarian several times throughout the year).

Ransom has done a terrific job capturing this historic event in rhyming poetry. Equally wonderful, however, are Wade Zaharas' beautiful illustrations. Bold, vivid oil paintings, with lots of interesting use of line and shadow. The end pages feature the island at dawn or dusk, and are pretty and quiet and peaceful. Other pages, like the page where the ship wrecks, or where the ponies run through the village, are bold and action packed. I think kids will want to go back and look again and again; I know I sure did.

POETRY FRIDAY is at Becky's Book Reviews.

LET THERE BE PEACE: PRAYERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD- Jeremy Brooks

Yesterday I reviewed FAITH, a terrific photo essay by The Global Children's Fund. I loved how the book emphasized the similarities, and not the differences in world religions. Certainly, one of those similarities is that we all pray, and more specifically, that we all pray for peace. In LET THERE BE PEACE, Jeremy Brooks has collected prayers of peace from all over the world. Here are a couple that I especially loved:

Goodness is stronger than evil,

Love is stronger than hate,

Light is stronger than darkness

victory is ours through him who loves us.

Father Desmond Tutu

Lead us from death to life,

from falsehood to truth,

from despair to hope,

from fear to trust,

Lead us from hate to love,

from war to peace,

Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe--

peace, peace, peace.

Satish Kumar, a Jain Monk

The gentle, colorful illustrations of people from all over the world,

contribute to the peaceful feeling of this book.

FAITH- Maya Agjmer, Magda Nakassis, Cynthia Pon

Are you familiar with the The Global Fund for Children? They are an organization dedicated to bettering the plight of children and youth around the world through providing grants to organizations working in those areas. They also strive to "promote global understanding through the use of film, photography, and children's books." I've enjoyed many of their books over the past ten years- GLOBAL BABIES is one of my favorite baby shower presents, I also love sharing TO BE A KID with students.

The Global Fund for Children has come out with a new book this year, and it's a stunner. FAITH is a photo essay that captures the essence of different religions around the world. Each two-page spread addresses a different tenet of faith, e.g. we pray, we chant and sing, we read our holy books, we listen to and learn from others, we cleanse ourselves, we visit holy places, we observe holidays in our homes or places of worship, we care for those around us. The text is usually only one sentence; it's the beautiful, beautiful photographs that proclaim, again and again, that though we are all very different, we are also very much alike. On one page, for instance, the text says, "We show our faiths through what we wear…" The photos show six different religions- four little Muslim girls from Turkey, wearing decorative head scarves, an Indonesian boy wearing a songket udeng (a ceremonial headdress), a Mennonite boy dressed in "plain clothes," a Buddhist girl with thanaka face paint, three beautiful Jain girls in ceremonial headdresses before a procession, and Sikh boy wearing a Patka. The authors have included every religion I can think of-- there are photographs of Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Farsi, Native Americans, Hindus, Jains, and many others.

A map in the back shows the loctions of all of the countries in the book. There are also three or four pages of notes about the elements of faith, as well as an extensive, and very detailed glossary of words to know.

Thank you, Global Fund for Children, for helping us to understand that we are all much more alike than different!

TARRA AND BELLA: THE ELEPHANT THE DOG WHO BECAME BEST FRIENDS

OK, I admit it. I'm a sucker for a good dog story. Found a new one in my CYBILS nominee pile.

For twenty years, Tarra was a performing elephant. After many years of hard work, she was allowed to retire to a newly created elephant sanctuary in Tennessee. All of the other elephants who came to the sanctuary quickly found elephant friends, but not Tarra. Tarra was a loner until she met a yellow mutt named Bella. From that day on, Bella and Tarra were inseparable.

A really nice dog story, a story about friendship and loyalty, that I know kids are going to love…

KEEP ON: THE STORY OF MATTHEW HENSON, CO-DISCOVERER OF THE NORTH POLE- DEBORAH HOPKINSON

Deborah Hopkinson (SWEET CLARA AND THE FREEDOM QUILT, SKY BOYS) is one of my favorite picture book authors. Hopkinson knows how to take a story from history and tell it in a way that makes it interesting and accessible to kids. Her latest book, MATTHEW HENSON: CO-DISCOVERER OF THE NORTH POLE is certainly no exception.

Matthew Henson was born about the time the Civil War ended. As a young African American boy, he had big hopes for seeing the world, but not much hope of fulfilling them. Orphaned at 13, Henson somehow managed to convince the captain of a sailing ship to hire him as a cabin boy. The captain took fondly to young Matt and schooled him in the ways of the high seas. Five years later, the Captain died, and Matthew Henson ended up back on land, working in a store. That's where he met Admiral Peary.

Admiral Peary is a man many of us know as the discoverer of the North Pole. But did you know that he was actually not alone when he made this discovery? Peary was accompanied by none other than Matthew Henson. In fact, Henson was actually the one who bonded with the Inuit people, trained the sled dogs, and stood next to Peary at the Pole (after surviving a fall into the icy water a few days earlier). Amazingly, after they returned from their expedition, Henson worked as a parking lot attendant because that is the only job he could get.

I loved everything about this book- Hopkinson's powerful storytelling, Henson's journal entries, the end pages that include author's note and timeline, and Stephen Alcorn's oh so beautiful illustrations, done in hues of blues, and oranges, and golds. I will be using KEEP ON as the center of an African American history unit in January. Matthew Henson has a lot to teach my kids about dreams, and tenacity, and perserverance, and dignity. Some pretty important life lessons, I think!
**********
P.S. In case you are wondering why I have not been blogging--Ten days ago, my computer had an unfortunate accident (laptop bag meets parking lot, parking lot 1, laptop 0) and I have been without internet at home since then.

JOHN BROWN: HIS FIGHT FOR FREEDOM- JOHN HENDRIX

Some people don't believe that children should be exposed to controversial figures. If you are one of those people, then JOHN BROWN is probably not a book for you. If you believe, however, that children need to understand that most people are neither entirely good nor entirely bad, that sometimes very good people make poor decisions, and that kids learn from talking about controversy, then JOHN BROWN is a book you will enjoy sharing with your upper elementary, or middle or high school students.

John Brown was an ardent Christian. He believed that blacks should not only be free, but that they should be EQUAL- toward that end, he was kicked out of his home church for giving African Americans his pew at the front of the church after they had been seated in the back. Brown began his abolitionist roots working on the underground railroad in Hudson, Ohio. After the United States passed the Kansas-Nebraska act, which said that those two states could vote on whether they would enter the Union as free or slave states, Brown fought tirelessly to ensure that Kansas would be free. In one well-known battle, John and his sons stormed the homes of five pro-slavery settlers who had been threatening his family and other abolitionists, took the men to a creek, and killed them.

John Brown is perhaps best known for his role at Harper's Ferry. Harper's Ferry, the home of a federal armory which housed more than one hundred thousand rifles, was viewed as a symbol of Southern power. Brown decided that he and a small band of abolitionsists would capture the armory and seize the rifles, then use them to battle the Southern slave owners. Although he was initially successful, he made several poor decisions during this battle, and was eventually captured and hanged as a traitor. Many dismiss Brown as a madman. Hendrix, however, believes that we must see Brown as a man with huge passion and convictions for the downtrodden.

"I will raise a stom in this country that will not be stayed so long as there is a slave on its soil."

I love when illustrations help kids understand a complex story, and John Hendrix's frontier style water colors (I'm not sure that is exactly how to describe them, but it's the best this non-artist can do) done on backgrounds of blues, tans, and golds, definitely do that. Most are bold, two-page spreads, that include a larger than life John Brown, but a few are also maps. Key quotes figure prominently in many of the illustrations. And if you enjoy reading author's blogs, John Hendrix has a great one- he includes photographs from a recent John Brown book tour, but also pages from his sketchbook.

I'll be sharing this book not only with our fourth and fifth graders, but also with some of my high school history teacher friends!

POETRY FRIDAY- WHEN POETRY MEETS HISTORY

CORETTA SCOTT
Poetry by Ntozake Shange
Paintings by Kadir Nelson

For POETRY FRIDAY today, I'm not sharing just a poem. Instead, I'm sharing a biography in a poem. Actually a civil rights biography in a poem. Today I'm sharing Ntozake Shange's beautiful poetry picture book, CORETTA SCOTT. Shange has taken just a few events from Coretta Scott's life, and shaped them into a beautiful poem. Listen to this page, when Coretta and her younger siblings are walking to school…

white school bus
left a
funnel of dust
on their faces
but
songs and birds of all colors
and rich soil
where slaves sought freedom
steadied them
in the face of danger

The illustrations in this book are by Kadir Nelson (WE ARE THE SHIP, HENRY'S FREEDOM BOX, HE'S GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS) who is most definitely one of my all-time favorites. The illustrations in CORETTA SCOTT are his usual- rich details, vivid colors, so real the people almost seem to jump off the page.

If I was doing a unit on biography, or teaching students about Coretta Scott King, I would probably read a more traditional biography first (there is actually a brief biography in the back of this book), then share Shange's poem. Prior to reading CORETTA SCOTT, I'd ask kids to list important events from her life, then to listen for these as I read. The book is short, so I could read it two or three times to let kids soak in the beautiful language. If kids were writing biography, I might ask them to choose a few important events from the person's life, then write a poem, using CORETTA as a mentor text.

This is definitely a book to add to your poetry and/or biography collection…

THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS- CHRIS BARTON

I have a few little quirks. Well, actually, if you asked my sons, I have more than a few. But a few for sure. And one of them is that I love knowing how things were invented or where they came from.

THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS: THE TRUE STORY OF BOB AND JOE SWITZER'S BRIGHT IDEAS AND BRAND NEW COLORS is a "where things came from" kind of a book. Bob Switzer dreamed of being a doctor until a work-related accident left him with headaches and double vision. His younger brother Joe wanted to be a magician. Instead, the two ended up inventing day-glo paint. This book chronicles their journey with all its stops and starts, and false tries, e.g. the time they used their mom's mixer and turned her angel food cake a pale fluorescent pink. It's an engaging story, but the book also has lots of potential life lessons about creativity, risk taking, mistake making, patience, and perseverance. Character education at its finest!

First-time illustrator Tom Persiani has done a terrific job with the artwork in DAY-GLO BROTHERS. According to the back of the book, he used the computer to create fifties-style characters and settings in various hues of blacks, grays, and whites. He then digitally colorized the pictures with various day-glo oranges, yellows, greens, and pinks. At first, these colors are really pale, and there is just a little bit of color on each page As the Spitzers refine their invention, the colors become brighter and brighter, and there is more color on each page. Really clever!

In the back of the book, Chris Barton explains where he got the idea for the book, and how he did his research. He also includes a page about how regular and daylight fluorescence work. And if you want a quick, simple, explanation of fluorescence vs. day-glo fluorescence, check out this Charlesbridge site.

ELEANOR: QUIET NO MORE- DOREEN RAPPAPORT

As I said yesterday, I love books about brave, strong women. I love putting those books in front of kids, love saying look, this person made it and you will too. Well here's another book to add to the brave, strong women basket.

ELEANOR: QUIET NO MORE traces the life of Eleanor Roosevelt through a wealthy but very lonely childhood, overseas travels, meeting and marrying FDR, dealing with a domineering mother-in-law, managing a new kind of life after FDR was stricken with polio, advocating for the downtrodden, and finally living the life of First Lady.

I love the layout of this picture book. Each two-page spread includes a picture and two or three paragraphs about a particular section of Roosevelt's life. It also includes, in a very large font, a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt. Here are a couple of my favorites:

"We must be able to disagree and to consider new ideas and not be afraid."

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right-- for you'll be criticized anyway."

"I have never felt that anything really mattered but knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could."

A brave strong woman I want all my students to know!

MERMAID QUEEN- SHANA COREY

"Annette Kellerman loved to make waves."

As someone who has been known to "make a wave or two," I knew, the minute I read the first line, that I was absolutely going to love this book. And I did. MERMAID QUEEN: THE SPECTACULAR TRUE STORY OF ANNETTE KELLERMAN, WHO SWAM HER WAY TO FAME, FORTUNE, AND SWIMSUIT HISTORY tells the story of Annette Kellerman, the Australian woman who invented water ballet and maybe more importantly to many of us, the modern woman's swimsuit.

Annette Kellerman was a sickly child whose father taught her to swim to strengthen her legs. Soon Annette was winning races and setting records. In 1903, however, not many women were athletes, and Annette's mother wished she would choose something a little more artistic. Ignoring all criticism, Annette and her father left Australia and traveled to England, where Annette was the first woman to attempt to swim the English Channel, then to Paris, and finally to Boston's Revere Beach. There, Annette was arrested and had to appear in court to defend her racy bathing suit! The tone of this book is bold and joyful and dashy and fun. And I don't know whether it was the author or illustrator or picture book designer, but they made some choices about font that I think kids (and their adults!) will find really interesting.

The illustrations, by Edwin Fotheringham, are exuberant and splashy and fun. Each page has kind of a "wavish" background done in blues, or greens, or oranges, with cartoonish-characters kind of super-imposed over the waves. Sometimes there are "mini-illustrations," done in water droplets, super-imposed on top of all that. And then there are a few random comments, e.g. "How sweaty! How rugged!" worked into the illustrations. It's kind of hard to explain, but the illustrations really add to joy and exuberance of this book. Kit lit blog extraordinaire, "Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast" did an interview of Shana Corey, and included several of the illustrations. Check them out here.

A splashy, joyful, strong, fun picture book that I can't wait to share with the strong girls and women in my life!

BUBBLE HOMES AND FISH FARTS- FIONA BAYROCK

I spend fifty percent of my time working with intermediate grade kids who are still trying to get the hang of reading. The state of Colorado calls them UNSATISFACTORY (a term that NEVER, in my mind, should be applied to a child) or PARTIALLY PROFICIENT, and much of the professional literature calls them struggling readers. A couple of months ago, I read something (and I wish I could remember what) about "developing" readers. That terms seems a lot more positive, a lot more hopeful, and a lot more appropriate, to describe kids who are still working out the reading puzzle.

When I work with developing readers, I have three goals. First, I want to help them develop the heart of a reader- the attitudes and beliefs, that readers carry in their heads, e.g. reading is valuable to me, I am able to read, there are reasons to want to read, reading has value to me. Next, I want to help kids develop the skills and strategies readers need, the phonics and comprehension strategies that will help them make meaning from those funny little black squiggles on the page. Finally, I want kids to develop the voices of readers, to become fluent, to read like people talk.

I put attitudes and beliefs first, because I truly believe that until kids WANT to read, see value in reading, and think they CAN read, not much else is going to happen. With that in mind, I'm always on the lookout for books that kids will WANT to read. I've found a new one this weekend. BUBBLE HOMES AND FISH FARTS, by Fiona Bayrock, and illustrated by Carolyn Conahan, begins with this introduction:

Bubbles are soft and squishy and full of air. They shimmer. They float. And they are very handy. Animals make bubbles, ride bubbles, breathe bubbles, and even live in bubbles. Animals use bubbles in amazing ways.

The remainder of the book is organized into two-page spreads, with each spread focusing on a different way that each of the sixteen featured animals uses bubbles. The section begins with a statement about how the animal uses bubbles, e.g. Bubbles are for fishing (humpback whales), bubbles are for talking (herring), bubbles are for nesting (African gray treefrog), followed by a paragraph of more detailed information. The illustrations are mostly pastel colors, watercolor I think. Each illustration contains a few cartoon bubbles that capture the essence of the text in a fun and different way. An appendix in the back contains more information about each animal, including scientific name, size, habitat, and a few fun facts, as well as a glossary. And don't miss the acknowledgments, with its extensive list of scientists who were consulted for this project!

I can't wait to share this one with my developing readers!

NIC BISHOP BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS

If you have hung out in the world of children's nonfiction at all in the last few years, you've almost surely heard of uber-photographer Nic Bishop. Last year, Bishop won a CYBILS award for NIC BISHOP FROGS. The annotation on the CYBILS website pretty much says it all:

Nic Bishop is known for his jaw-dropping nature photography. Open a book cover with his name on it and you'll be greeted with stunning action shots, exquisite attention to detail, and sharp, sharp close-ups that inspire awe. Couple that with Bishop's equally crisp, up-close and personal writing in Nic Bishop Frogs, and you've got an award-winning combination of text and illustration that captures a child-like wonder about a topic that is anything but new. That's quite a feat. Bishop's language is interesting and playful, and his analogies and references are right on, squarely aimed at where kids' heads are at. Simple word choices never talk down, but will allow newish readers to find success easily. The book flows logically, covering life cycle, defense, diet, habitat, and other essentials you'd expect to find in an animal book, but the organization is refreshingly kid-friendly, meandering through the topics as though Bishop and the reader were having a conversation while sitting in a marsh waiting for a frog. It's intimate and personal and accessible---frogs as you've never seen them before. Fascinating process notes are sure to inspire young photographers.

Substitute moths and butterflies for frogs, and you would have a pretty good review of NIC BISHOP MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES is an absolutely gorgeous book of nature photography, written by a biologist who clearly knows tons and tons and tons about his subject. He shares his knowledge in a way that is kid-friendly and accessible, yet not at all condescending or watered down.

At the end of the book, Bishop shares a little about his process, including a story of an overnight trip to Costa Rica to photograph a rarely seen rainforest caterpillar that is able to puff up its body and look like a snake. I was fascinated by this story and dropped in at his website to look for similar stories about his process. One whole section of his site is devoted to an explanation of how he takes his photographs. Fascinating stuff!

BALARAMA: A ROYAL ELEPHANT- Ted and Betsy Lewin

Ted and Betsy Lewin have spent their lives travelling the world, collecting stories and creating beautiful picture books. Their latest book, BALARAMA: A ROYAL ELEPHANT. For this book, the Lewins travel to southern India, to meet Drona, the lead royal elephant in an annual parade held in celebration of Dasara, a centuries-old royal and religious festival. The Lewins are so taken with Drona, that they decide they must return the next year for the parade.

Unfortunately, sometime that year, Drona is electrocuted when a branch he is eating touches an electrical wire. When the Lewins return to India, they meet Balarama, the newest lead elephant. This book chronicles the Balarama's role in parade in words, but maybe more importantly, in Ted Lewin's glorious, glorious, glorious watercolor illustrations. The pictures are so real that I feel like I'm right there watching the parade. Wow, wow, wow!

An appendix contains lots of helpful nonfiction text tools to share with kids. There's a list of interesting facts (did you know, for instance, that elephants' trunks contain tens of thousands of individual muscles, or that elephants are left or right-tusked, just like humans are left or right-handed?). There's also a pictorial comparison of Asian and African elephants, and a short bio of the five most recent lead elephants in the Mysore Dasara celebration.

CREATURE ABC- ANDREW ZUCKERMAN

This new animal alphabet book is about as perfect as perfect can be. Each four-page spread begins with a photograph of an animal and a large upper and lowercase letter. The next two-page spread has a different photo of the animal, as well as its name. Readers have the opportunity to peruse an alligators' toes, get close enough to tickle the hair under an elephant's chin, flinch at kangaroos kicking, feel the prick of a porcupine's quills, and caress a vulture's wing feathers. The animals' photos, placed against a plain white background (with the exception of N for nocturnal, which is black) are absolutely stunning. Emergent readers can practice strategies like predicting and cross checking picture against word. This book is a treat for the reader's eyes!

DOWN, DOWN, DOWN: A JOURNEY TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA- Steve Jenkins

I am a charter member of the the Steve Jenkins Fan Club. I love the way Jenkins draws on children's natural curiosity to teach them about our world. I love how he makes complex information accessible to kids. And of course I love Jenkins' beautiful collage illustrations. SISTERS AND BROTHERS, and ACTUAL SIZE have long been two of my favorite nonfiction mentor texts. This weekend, Jenkins' newest book, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN: A JOURNEY TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, leaped to the top of my list of all time favorite nonfiction/information picture books.

DOWN, DOWN, DOWN begins with this one page introduction:

"Viewed from space, the earth looks like a watery blue ball. Oceans cover more than two-thirds of the globe's surface, and well over half the planet lies beneath water more than a mile (1 1/2 kilometers deep). We have explored only a small fraction of the oceans. In fact, more humans have walked on the moon than have visited the deepest spot in the ocean.

In this book, we'll descend from the ocean's surface to the sea floor and travel through one of the most extreme environments on earth. Along the way we'll encounter some unusual creatures…"

Jenkins begins at the surface of the ocean, and takes his readers on a journey 35,838 feet down, to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Each two-page spread represents a different cross section of the ocean. A "depth-meter" on the righthand side helps readers to know how far down they have travelled. Headings, accompanied by one or two paragraphs of text, explain to the reader what might be going on at that level. The text is typical Jenkins- meaty, yet accessible and interesting to kids. Here are a few facts that I found particularly interesting:

• The bodies of most ocean animals are filled with fluids, so they don't have a problem with the pressure found under the ocean.

• Nine out of every ten animals that live below the sunlit layers of the ocean are bioluminescent- they can produce their own light. Anything containing a hollow, air-filled space, such as a human body or a submarine, risks being crushed as it descends.

• At 3,300 feet, marine snow, composed of dead plankton, fish scales, animal waste, and bits of larger creatures that have died in the waters above, is the primary food source for small animals, who then become prey for larger hunters.

And of course, each two-page spread is illustrated by three or more of Jenkins' amazingly accurate and breathtakingly beautiful collage sea plants and animals. An appendix at the back of the book contains a paragraph about each animal, as well as a visual comparing the animal's size to that of the human hand. There is also a diagram showing what humans or vehicles have descended to particular depths.

DOWN, DOWN, DOWN is a book that will fascinate kids (not to mention parents and teachers!) I could use the book to teach kids about tools such as headings and diagrams and appendixes. I could use it as a mentor for interesting nonfiction writing. I love having kids draw on Jenkins' work to create illustrations for their own research reports. A must-own for any library, classroom, or family!

JUST THE RIGHT SIZE- WHY BIG ANIMALS ARE BIG AND LITTLE ANIMALS ARE LITTLE by NICOLA DAVIES

I love when people who know a lot about a topic can make the information interesting and understandable to someone who is not an expert in their field. That's exactly what happens in JUST THE RIGHT SIZE: WHY BIG ANIMALS ARE BIG AND LITTLE ANIMALS ARE LITTLE. Author and zoologist Nicola Davies draws on her considerable expertise as a zoologist to help kids understand some pretty complex information about animal evolution and physiology. Davies begins by explaining the BTLT (Big Thing, Little Thing) Rule (which would be terrific to link to intermediate grade math or science lessons on surface area and volume):

If you DOUBLE the length of something,
the surface area and cross section
go up FOUR TIMES,
while its volume and weight
go up EIGHT TIMES.

Davies then explains, in 1-2 page spreads, how this rule impacts any number of aspects of human and animal physiology, e.g. why people can't fly, why animals can only be "so big," how the surface area of the gills and the intestines are increase the efficiency of the respiratory and digestive systems, how size impacts travel, etc. Each of these topics, and lots of others, are complicated, but Davies explains them in a way that is friendly, and understandable, and humorous. And there are tons of fun-to-know facts embedded throughout, e.g. "If you spread out the skin that makes up the air sacs in your lungs, it would cover most of a tennis court" OR "Gibbons used to be large, tree-climbing apes, more like chimps, but when they started to get around in the forest by swinging from tree to tree, having a nice, light body was convenient…now they are the lightest ape, the size of a fat domestic cat."

Kids (and adults) will also love Neal Layton's humorous, cartoon- style illustrations. They're funny, but also packed with tons of information that complement the text. The illustrations will be great "mentor texts" for my fourth and fifth graders, who already know quite a bit about diagrams, and need to stretch themselves a little. I think it would be fun for them to choose three or four significant facts, then try to embed those some how in their illustrations.

This probably is not a book for most little guys, but I think third, fourth, and fifth graders would really enjoy it. I could even see reading it aloud to my son's high school biology class…