How to Make a Planet
Publishers Weekly 02/03/2014 Forbes offers a faux guide to creating a planet, with the second-person narration letting readers know exactly what they’ll need, starting with “a really, really Big Bang†(“it has to be so strong that it will go on for billions of billions of years,†he adds helpfully). Through this frame, Forbes enthusiastically […]
Space Tourism
Marilyn Courtot: Many may dream of traveling into space and visiting another planet, but few have had the opportunity. McMahon recaps the existing space programs and then begins his discussion of the few space tourists to date. It is only those who have had plenty of money who have been able to buy a ticket […]
Mathemagic! : Number Tricks
Kirkus Reviews: Stun friends and family members by guessing secret numbers and doing painless long division. Dice and card tricks and finger multiplication are among the fascinating tricks potential mathemagicians will learn to perform. But Colgan goes beyond the ordinary by giving an in-depth, easily understandable explanation of the math behind each trick, as well […]
Totally Human : Why We Look and Act the Way We Do
The Washington Post – Abby McGanney Nolan Cynthia Pratt Nicolson makes young readers think about actions we take for granted…The text explains scientific concepts with concision and wit…Each action described is accompanied by a playful illustration…
Case Closed? : nine mysteries unlocked by modern science
Junior Library Guild selection.
If America Were a Village : a Book About the People of the United States
School Library Journal: Gr 2?6?As in If the World Were a Village, Smith and Armstrong help children understand large statistical numbers by collapsing the U.S. population of 300 million down to a village of 100. For example, "82 people in our village speak English as their first language, 10 speak Spanish. 1 speaks Chinese, 1 […]
My Childhood Under Fire: a Sarajevo Diary
Junior Library Guild selection. Nadja Halilbegovich could be any twelve-year-old: she enjoys school, singing, and being with friends in Sarajevo. One spring morning in 1992 school is cancelled; the next day sniper fire and explosions drive Nadja, her family and neighbors to the basement. The siege of Sarajevo has begun.
Gizmos & Gadgets : Creating Science Contraptions That Work (& Knowing Why)
School Library Journal Review: Gr 4-7-Hauser gives directions for making a bunch of gadgets, gizmos, contraptions, and doohickeys constructed with stuff often found in cupboards, closets, garages, and "junk" drawers. Materials such as plastic soda bottles, marbles, buttons, straws, and cardboard tubes are cut, trimmed, shaped, and bent in order to be glued, stapled, sewn, […]
Transformed : How Everyday Things Are Made
CDs start out as sand. Blackboard chalk comes from tiny sea creatures. The objects all around us ? every single product in the world ? is made from elements found in nature. Discover how nature is transformed into more than sixty things we eat, drink, play with, wear or use every day. Technology changes constantly, […]