GRAND CANYON- Jason Chin

Last week, GRAND CANYON won NCTE's Orbis Pictus, for best nonfiction children's book of the year. This morning, I read GRAND CANYON, and I can definitely see why. I don't think I can do this beautiful, multi-layered picture book justice, I think it's one you will have to read for yourself but I'm going to try to describe it, just a little.

GRAND CANYON follows a little girl and her father as they hike the South Trail from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the rim. Most pages have "snapshots" of the discoveries the little girl makes as she hikes. Some pages devoted to specific animals- the California condor, the mountain goat, and dragonflies. There are also pages that show what the Grand Canyon looked like during times when it was covered by water, with the little girl swimming, surrounded by creatures. And many of the pages have a cut out that leads to a fossil on the next page.

Swimming in the sea, millions of years ago

The gorgeous watercolor (I think) illustrations and the rich factual text would probably be enough. However, they are only the beginning. Each illustration is placed directly is placed directly on top of another illustration- usually some kind of a diagram associated with a particular layer of of the canyon, or of the wildlife that lives in that area.

California condor page, along with diagram of sedimentation, most of the pages contain both kinds of information

The book has lots of special features, including cut outs to the fossils, and one spread that opens out to a double wide. End matter includes pages of factual information about the geology, ecology, history, and human life in the Grand Canyon, as well as an author's note. The front end page is a map of the Grand Canyon, the back is a generalized cross section of the area.

I could see giving it to someone planning a trip to the Grand Canyon. A person, child or adult, could spend hours and hours and hours with this book and notice something new every time they read it. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!

Bugs, bugs, and more bugs

Bugs! Ewww! I don't kill 'em, but I don't love them either! Even if you are not a big fan, Sneed Collard's INSECTS: THE MOST FUN BUG BOOK EVER, is more than a little interesting. Did you know, for instance, that there are more than 950,000 species of insects identified so far (that compare to 5,400 mammals or 10,600 birds or 33,200 amphibians? I also learned that insects have been around for 480 million years (again compare this to mammals, who have only been around for 180 million years). And that ironclad beetles have such strong shells that scientists have to drill holes  to mount them. Dragon flies fly over 35 miles per hour. The dung beetle specializes in eating particular kinds of poop (according to page 26, if you try to feed cattle dung to a dung beetle that prefers elephant poop, he will unfriend you faster than you can say "Poop"). And that a diet of insects is healthier than what Americans eat now-- did you know that a hamburger is 18% protein, but a cooked grasshopper is 60%?

INSECTS includes sections on body parts, chemical communication, reproduction, defenses and social groupings. Every chapter includes sidebars with related topics- things like how insects breathe, locust plagues, and colony collapse disorder, and diseases. The book is illustrated with beautiful full color close up photographs, taken by the author. There's not a lot of end matter, in fact Collard goes so far as to say that he's not going to suggest alternate sources because kids can find their own. He does, however, includes an extensive glossary. A book kids (and their adults) will definitely enjoy.

SHARK LADY: THE TRUE STORY OF HOW EUGENIE CLARK BECAME THE OCEANS MOST FEARLESS SCIENTIST by Jess Keating, illustrations by Marta Álvarez Miguéns

So I'm a CYBILS nonfiction judge this year. And I should be blogging about all of the terrific books I'm reading every day. Time to get started.

SHARK LADY: THE TRUE STORY OF HOW EUGENIE CLARK BECAME THE OCEAN'S MOST FEARLESS SCIENTIST is the biography of oceanographer Eugenie Clark. The book follows Eugenie's life long love affair with sharks, starting at an aquarium when she was a little girl. In 1986, when she was 64, she made the first of over 12,000 trips in a submersible. In 2014, she celebrated her 92nd birthday by diving in Jordan and Israel. In between those years, she earned a doctorate in zoology, was a professor and author, discovered many new species of sharks, was the first to train sharks to prove their intelligence, and advocated for protection of our oceans. The book reads like a story, and that, along with Maria Álvarez Miguéns illustrations are lively and colorful and sure to hold kids' interest.

Lots to love about this book. Of course you could use it as a biography. But you could also use it to help kids understand that the passions they pursue in childhood really could lead to life long work. You could use it to show how important it is to persevere when people tell you your dreams aren't realistic. Or to show kids about all of the different ways of learning about a topic- Eugenie studied sharks in museums, read books and articles, took classes, and finally learned to dive. She kept track of her learning in research notebooks. 

And there were lots of great extras. The end pages are various kinds of sharks (I wondered if these were the species that Eugenie loved most or  discovered or ????). Back matter includes a page of "Shark Bites," (facts about sharks), an illustrated timeline, and author's notes.

Definitely a great addition to your picture book biography library.