ReaderKidZ wishes all of you safe travels, happy reunions, and if you can’t go where you were planning during this stormy Thanksgiving weekend, we hope you’ll be happy where you are. Stay home. Cook a small dinner. Settle in with a good book and love the ones you’re with.
Be sure to check back here in December! We’ll be giving away beautiful, fun and exciting books all month so that you can pass them on to a child who loves to read, or one who hasn’t yet been captured by the magic of books. It’s only a matter of finding the right one …
Happy Thanksgiving and know that we give thanks for YOU, our readers!
According to Chip Kidd, graphic design is “Purposeful planning that uses any combination of forms, pictures, words, and meanings to achieve one’s goal.” In other words, design is problem solving. It’s art, yes. But it’s also math (think size and balance, patterns and symmetry, repetition and variation).
This graphic design primer for savvy kids (and curious adults!) covers everything from Form (things like scale, focus, color, space, and variation) to Typography, Content to Concept, and Application (10 design practice projects for you to tackle on your own) to Inspiration.
For a more in-depth peek inside GO, check out this Brainpickings REVIEW and the video below.
Mystery, poetry, bold daring art, and scientific information about strange and weird creatures – what a wonderful mix of science and art!
Try this one – what creature is this? Thousands of these tiny living things are hatched in water or soil, but this particular cousin prefers OIL. What am I versing about? Petroleum flies… ugh.
Ok, here is another one. This creature flies but is the “salt of the earth.” Perhaps pink salt. That’s if they eat enough algae and brine shrimp:
“In saline lakes they stand (often on one long leg)
No grassy lawn, no dock.
FLAMINGOS find it grand.”
Imagine, this bird can take in salt water and then cry salty tears to get rid of a too-salty diet that would kill most other creatures.
Caldecott Medalist Ed Young’s super-sized collage illustrations fit the extreme animals and their habitats described in this collection of poems and illustrations. What a feast of information and images. OK, here is one more. Last verse from “Frozen Solid”:
If buried in the mud or sand,
If lurking in the deepest seas,
Why not beneath the glacial ice,
Helped by their own antifreeze?
What animal is this poem describing? Ice Worms, of course.
I asked Marilyn Singer how she ever came up with such a wonderful crazy idea – “extreme” poems about extreme creatures and their homes. Marilyn said:
“Hmm. It might have begun with seeing a real live dipper out west in a rushing stream and learning that this chunky little bird—America’s only aquatic songbird—not only catches its food underwater, but builds its nest in such difficult habitats on cliff ledges and behind waterfalls.
“Or maybe it was the group of snow monkeys I visited at the Central Park Zoo that live outdoors all winter long—and the documentary I watched which showed these primates bathing in hot springs on a freezing cold Japanese island, their natural habitat, to keep warm.
“Then again, it could have been the blind cave fish I saw at the Prospect Park Zoo. Fish in deep, dark caves? How do they navigate, I wondered. How do they survive?
“Once I found out about these animals, I wanted to discover other creatures that made their home and their livelihoods, as it were, in extreme environments. That’s when I plunged into research—and that’s how this book was born.
“I’ve never met an animal that didn’t fascinate me, so all of the ones in this book were interesting to research and to write about. I think the petroleum flies and the tube worms that live in the ocean depths around hydrothermal vents were the most surprising, and I probably got the most pleasure writing the villanelle about flamingos and the sonnet about mountain goats.
“To do the research, I read a lot of articles and books, watched documentaries, visited zoos, aquariums, preserves, parks, and some wild places. I also corresponded with or spoke to zoologists and other experts.
“I should add that I could’ve written a non-fiction book on the subject. I’ve done quite a few straight prose non-fiction works. But I love writing poetry, and there seems something so lyrical about the struggle to survive in these risky places. This book also gave me the chance to play with many poetic forms, something I like to do. My editor and I chose to present it as a poetry book without extensive back matter or a bibliography rather than an informational work—an impression Ed Young’s beautiful artwork enhances.
“My hope is that readers will want to do research on their own about these amazing creatures and about the strange places they call home and to marvel at nature’s incredible adaptability.”
Books about science don’t have to read like dusty encyclopedias. These books reveal intriguing facts about our universe with lyrical language and beautiful art.
For the youngest readers:
All the Water in the World by George Ella Lyon and Katherine Tillotson (Atheneum, 2011) Science, poetry, and art swirl together in this gorgeous picture book. All the water in the world is all the water this world will ever have, so it’s our responsibility to keep this precious resource clean. It’s a beautiful book to introduce the water cycle to kids.
For the transitional readers:
You Are Stardust by Elin Kelsey and illustrated by Soyeon Kim (Owlkids Books, 2012) It’s science, but it reads like poetry, and the 3-dimensional art is exquisite. “Every tiny atom in your body came from a star that exploded long before you were born.” It’s full of all kinds of “who knew?” cool facts, like in your every breath there is pollen that may grow to be a new plant.
For the older readers:
A Black Hole is Not a Hole by Carolyn Cinami Decristofano and illustrated by Michael W. Carroll (Charlesbridge, 2012) Complex information about astrophysics and singularities is presented with a conversational tone and sense of humor, and interesting illustrations make science irresistible as well as accessible.
Graphic organizers are some of the most beneficial tools around to help teach complicated literary concepts such as theme, text structure, chronology, and sequencing – to name just a few. Also known as knowledge maps, cognitive organizers, or concept diagrams – graphic organizers provide a visual opportunity to grasp complex learning and instruction. And, they’re fun to use!
Maureen McLaughlin and Brenda J. Overturf have joined forces to create an excellent e-book collection of graphic organizers that address both the narrative and informational text CCSS standards. The collection is entitled The Common Core: Graphic Organizers for Teaching K-12 Students to Meet the Reading Standards. All of the organizers are developed to support students’ thinking processes, and each is sensational.
The authors offer the following tips for the most effective use of graphic organizers. They say that educators should:
·Clearly explain how the organizer works.
·Demonstrate how to use it.
·Engage students in guided practice.
·Allow students to practice using the graphic organizer on their own.
·Finally, engage students in reflection regarding how to use the organizer and in the topics and/or skills that they learned.
If you are an educator looking for ways to help students grasp the expectations of Common Core Reading Standards 1 to 10, consider downloading this insightful e-book. It is filled with plenty of strand-specific, power-packed graphic organizers, each complete with clear definitions stating the purpose and intent.
No dry worksheets here – these books about math will have readers thinking about numbers in an entirely new way.
For the youngest readers:
1 + 1 = 5 and Other Unlikely Additions written by David LaRochelle and illustrated by Brenda Sexton (Sterling, 2010) 1 + 1 = 5 when 1 set of twins + 1 set of triplets = 5 babies. With each page turn, kids have to think about what 2 groups of some things could add up to a certain number. Math + creative thinking = a great picture book for kids!
For transitional readers:
Just a Second by Steve Jenkins (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2011) In one second, a hummingbird beats its wings 50 times. In one minute, a grizzly bear can run one-half mile. Jenkins captivates readers with cool facts about time and measurement, all illustrated with his signature cut-paper art.
For older readers:
Millions, Billions, and Trillions: Understanding Big Numbers by David A. Adler and illustrated by Edward Miller (Holiday House, 2013) It’s hard to imagine just how big a million is, until you learn that “if you count at a rate of one number a second without stopping, it would take you a little more than eleven and a half days to reach one million.” This book brings big numbers into relatable terms that will dazzle kids’ minds.
As a young boy, he hated school and rules, couldn’t sit still, and turned everything in the world around him into a math game. Known as the Magician from Budapest by the age of twenty because of his extraordinary math skills, Paul Erdos was a man whose passion and generosity made him beloved of mathematicians around the world. This lively account of the life of one of the world’s foremost mathematicians (to say nothing of characters) brings the sometimes remote, staid, black&white world of math to colorful life with enough verve and vigor to make math a fun subject for the youngest readers. ReaderKidZ spoke with author Deborah Heiligman about her own life’s journey that made this subject so important to her.
ReaderKidZ: You say that THE BOY WHO LOVED MATH was inspired by your two sons, who were excited upon learning about the lives of famous mathematicians. Also, that you had enjoyed math until the day came when you thought it was “for other people.” Are you referring to the glass ceiling idea that women are not as capable in the field of mathematics as men? Are there any famous female mathematicians?
DH: There are definitely female mathematicians. I’m sure not as many as males, though. One of Paul’s best friends was Ver Sos, who is still a working mathematician. She lives in Hungary. I do think, though, that when I was growing up girls were not particularly encouraged to pursue math. I doubt I would have been a mathematician considering how confusing I found calculus, but maybe with the right encouragement… you never know. I hope girls today are being encouraged, but I kind of think they are not. I wonder what your readers think.
ReaderKidZ:You portray Paul Erdos as a small boy who had a hard time sitting still and following rules. This continued after he went to school, so his mother allowed him to stay at home, a situation many young boys today would envy. Did your own sons have these problems and were they home schooled at any point?
DH: My older son did leave school after 9th grade! We fought him on it for about a year and a half, but he finally won. He thanks us to this day for letting him. He went on to the University of Chicago and still thinks it was the right thing to do.
ReaderKidZ: You obviously did a tremendous amount of research in order to write this. How were you able to select what you considered the most important milestones in Edros’s life and profession for mention in your book? Why did you choose the picture book genre?
DH: It was kind of crazy to do Paul Erdos as a picture book, but I really never thought of it any other way. It took me many many drafts to get to the core of the story. I left a lot on the cutting room floor. But once I had the core the book started to flow. Some of the choices were easy (leaving out his amphetamine use, for example). Others were hard (leaving out his father).
ReaderKidZ: You sure lucked-out with your illustrator! LeUyen Pham’s illustrations are wonderful, and her end notes (and yours) are fascinating. She put so many Erdos-specific details and math-related references into every illustration. Did you two talk to one another about the book and your visions for it, or were you as surprised as any reader when you saw what she’d created?
DH: LeUyen and I were not in contact until the last stages—when I saw sketches. When I first saw the sketches I was bowled over! It was as if she had looked inside my brain, saw what I wished she would include, and then made the pictures a zillion times better than I could have imagined them.
ReaderKidZ: In the same way that you fictionalized the life of the Darwins in a middle grade novel (Charles and Emma: The Darwin’s Leap of Faith), when can we hope to read your middle grade version of the life of Paul Erdos?
DH: Guess what? That’s not fiction! Everything in that book is true! It’s what some people call a nonfiction novel, but there’s not a thing made up. I have no plans to do anything else on Paul Erdos. Unless Hollywood comes calling. Or Broadway.
ReaderKidZ: The Erdos Number concept is a bit like seven degrees of separation. To what do you attribute his tremendous popularity when most mathematicians are reputed to be solitary people?
DH: He really loved his friends, his friends loved him, and he really enjoyed doing math with other people. Once I was interviewing one of his best friends and after a while Joel said to me, “It’s hard to talk about Paul in anything other than religious terms.” This from a mathematician! They all just loved him, and still do! Even those mathematicians who never met him!
ReaderKidZ: When attempting to write about any famous character in history, the author must pick and choose which events to portray, what portion of their subject’s life to focus on, and how deeply to go into details. What advice would you give to any writer – young or old – who wants to write about someone famous?
DH: I would say: do a lot of research, and then give your readers YOUR take on the famous person. Have the courage to show them the person as you see her (or him). I’m telling myself that right now with my current project!
ReaderKidZ: For more about Paul Erdos and The Boy Who Loved Math, check out Deborah’s website HERE.
Mission Statement
To provide teachers, librarians, and parents with the resources and inspiration to foster a love of reading in kids, K-5.
ReaderKidZ wishes all of you safe travels, happy reunions, and if you can’t go where you were planning during this stormy Thanksgiving weekend, we hope you’ll be happy where you are. Stay home. Cook a small dinner. Settle in with a good book and love the ones you’re with.
