Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday is hosted today by ATeaching Life.

I'm having an "Emily" sort of day -- contradictory, silly, aggravating, and prone to imagining all manner of outlandish behaviors, though I don't think even my most over-the-top speculations will find me eating toads.

For Poetry Friday -- "Emily Stew with someside dishes" written by Thomas Rockwell with illustrations by David McPhail.

Rockwell, who gave us "How to Eat Fried Worms" presents Emily in all her moods and incarnations. Silly on the surface, as when she is imagining herself as a potato, the verses go straight to the heart of our most basic search for identity -- who we are and what is our place in the great scheme of things.

McPhail's  artwork is a spot-on portrayal of Emily's quest.

Nonfiction Monday

Nonfiction Monday is hosted today by Practically Paradise.

Just for fun, my selection is "SCRATCHbot" written by Adam Woog.

A SCRATCHbot is a robot rat designed to teach researchers about how the brain processes the sense of touch.  A SCRATCHbot senses and negotiates through the space around it by utilizing stiff bristles located on the front and sides of its head, much as a real rat does.

Readers will discover how the SCRATCHbot came into being, how it is used at present and hopes for its use in the future as well as receiving a basic understanding of robots in general.  Sure to fascinate and inspire young inventors.

Click HERE for a SCRATCHbot video.

poetry Friday

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Check It Out.

My selection is "TheSwamps of Sleethe: poems from beyond the solar system" written by JackPrelutsky with illustrations by Jimmy Pickering.

Prelutsky delights in this foray to the dark side where dreadful destruction and mind-numbing horrors await.  Each  cleverly worded verse introduces young readers to bizarre worlds ranging from seething slime to bone splintering cold.  Even the flower-filled forests are malevolent --

"The delicate twigs are deceitful,

and pierce you with torturous spines. 

There is pain in the touch of the branches,

There is fire in the whip of the vines."

The language is sometimes challenging, but Prelutsky trusts his readers to figure it out and rewards the effort with rhymes that are a delight for the ear even as they give you a good case of the shivers.  Pickering's bold colors and images enhance the power of the word pictures with ghoulish precision.  Taken together the book is a creepy good time.

Nonfiction Monday

Nonfiction Monday is hosted today by A Curious Thing.

My garden is awash in Lady Bugs which aren't bugs at all, but one of many varieties of beetles. 

So it seemed appropriate that today's selection is The Beetle Book by

Steve Jenkins.



"Jewel beetles, tortoise beetles, giraffe beetles, forest fire beetles, flower beetles.  Beetles that stink, beetles that bite, beetles that sprint, beetles what walk on water.  Beetles that squeak and beetles that glow." So begins this fascinating exploration of one of nature's most abundant creatures: "Line up every kind of plant and animal on Earth . . . and one of every four will be a beetle," explains Jenkins.

Whether  arrayed side-by-side as if displayed in an entomologist's case or featured individually, each beetle-filled page offers readers a detailed look at these amazing creatures from descriptions of their anatomy to an explanation of Latin nomenclature. 

Jenkins' illustrations of torn and cut-paper collage are visually appealing and invite readers to pause and appreciate the beauty, diversity, and occasionally weird forms of these specimens collected for discussion.

Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday is hosted today by -- Tabatha Yeatts: The Opposite of Indifference.

"My selection is "What's for dinner?: quirky, squirmy poems from the animal world" written by Katherine B. Hauth and illustrated by David Clark.

Hauth's collection of 29 poems in a variety of forms combine biology and verse in a sometimes macabre, but always entertaining dance of predator and prey that is nature's food chain.

The first poem which echoes the  book's title is a perfect example and clearly introduces the tone and theme of the verses that follow.

What's for dinner?

They might seek meat,

or nectar sweet,

the white of eggs,

or yolk,

sleek fish, dead trees,

fresh blood, live bees,

or prickly artichoke.

But finding food

is not a joke.

Living things must eat

or croak.

Well-known cartoonist, David Clark, provides comical relief.  Whether it's "yucky" vultures cleaning up road-kill or an "icky" praying mantis decapitating her mate, the illustrations are sure to generate a smile even as the reader squirms.

Teachers will find this book an enjoyable introduction to life cycles, food chains, survival, symbiosis and other life-science concepts.  Students might be inspired to create their own verses to describe animal-related studies.

The book concludes with definitions, animal facts and additional resources.

Happy 4th of July!

Nonfiction Monday

Nonfiction Monday is hosted today by Booktalking.

My selection is "TheWorld Made New: why the Age of Exploration happened and & how it changed the world" written by Marc Aronson and John W. Glenn.

What particular set of circumstances existed to set in motion the Age of Exploration?  How did those circumstances influence the events that followed and change the world as it had been known until that time?  This National Geographic publication challenges readers to discover the answers to these questions and more. Aronson and Glenn give their audience a contemporary look at the new world and old as they existed before, during, and after the events ushered in by the arrival of European explorers in the Americas. 

The text covers three significant time periods and begins with an introduction to the people and cultures that existed in America and their counterparts in Europe prior to the voyage of Columbus.  Readers are offered a modern, global approach to this turning point is world history that is far more comprehensive and thoughtful than a mere clash between primitive vs. advanced societies.  The authors provide a balanced look at what both Native and European people lost and gained by the contact while remaining sensitive to the impact that contact had on America's extant civilizations.

The authors continue their work with a discussion of some of the explorers  that followed Columbus and provide timelines, maps, and illustrations to enrich the text. The consequences of exploration are the authors' final focus as they lead readers through the negative and positive impacts for the world at large that resulted and are still being felt today.