Sorting Through Life's Lessons: Children's Science Books

Showing posts with label Children's Science Books. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Yogi Bear's Guide to Plants

I am always on the look out for books that engage kids with science concepts and vocabulary. Yogi Bear's Guide to Plantsprovides younger readers with fun characters to guide them through learning the basic language, vocabulary, and scientific concepts associated with plants.

The book begins with the introduction of seeds and how seeds turn into plants. I particurally liked the picture that shows the progression in bean plant growth. While not labeled it is a great visual that demonstrates plant growth from the hard seed to the beginnings of a leaf plant.

The book gave a very basic attempt at explaining chlorophyll and photosynthesis. I looked at this a couple of times before deciding this was actually an age appropriate explanation of the topic. Some books choose to ignore the science of plants, thus making it harder for kids to learn later. Some bombard them with so much information they can't absorb it all and it gets shut off. To pardon a pun, this planted the beginnings of the concepts in language that is accessible by younger children without teaching them inappropriate science language or ignoring the science concepts. It begins to explain photosynthesis without all the chemistry that most younger readers aren't going to absorb. However, it does it in a way that once they are ready for the chemistry of photosynthesis, nothing they have learned will need to be relearned. It will be building on knowledge already introduced.

The book goes on to discus the purpose of leaves, stems, and roots. I thought the explanations and illustrations were again age appropriate and designed to engage and entertain. While there are practical examples, there are also some very wild looking roots introduced as well.

Yogi goes on to discuss seeds and how they are spread, as well as other forms of plant reproduction. I was impressed with this section. Often in books written for younger readers you see the basic seeds discussed and the topic is left there. However, this discussed a wide range and scope of how plants reproduce. The book begins with bean seeds, continues with fruits, but then continues to conifers, ferns, moss, then flowering plants and trees. Clearly each is addressed at a basic level, but it does open the topic for further exploration and discussion.

While I've enjoyed all the books in the Yogi series, I will say this is my favorite that I've reviewed to date. I'm hoping more will be written and that they will eventually be published in something other than library binding, so I can put them on my Christmas list for my younger family members.

Monday, September 5, 2016

Aliens and Energy

Aliens and Energyis another entry in the Monster Science series.

Agnieszka Biskup chose aliens as a method to teach children about energy. The book begins by introducing the readers to the relationship between matter and energy. The author uses illustrations to help children access the vocabulary and concepts. I do prefer when the the characters are more integrated into telling the story, but I've come to accept that some in this series are only going to use the characters as illustrations, not as storytellers.

The story continues by defining the types of energy for readers. I was impressed by the explanation of kinetic vs potential energy. The explanations were clear and the illustrations added provided humor and more ways for students to access the material. Sound, light, and electrical energy are also addressed.

Changing energy is lightly covered. I thought the best part of this section was the explanation that energy can be changed but it isn't created or destroyed. The examples are less consistent. I found some were good in this section, others less strong.

The end was the weakest when it discusses energy conservation and renewable sources of energy. It lacked the consistency of the previous sections.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Yogi Bear's Guide to Bugs

Yogi Bear's Guide to Bugs (Yogi Bear's Guide to the Great Outdoors)is a great introduction for primary readers to the vocabulary associated with bugs and insects using Yogi and Boo Boo to entertain and engage the students.

As I write this I can only find the book published in a library binding. Since it is a recent series I'm hoping it will soon be available in paperback soon as I think they'd make great birthday and Christmas gifts for certain younger readers in my family.

In this volume Yogi and Boo Boo take on the challenge of bugs vs. insects. I thought the author did a good job of providing age appropriate definitions and examples to help them understand the differences between bugs and insects. The book gives a brief definition of the life cycle of an insect, explaining that bugs may have a slightly different cycle. The book also covers the eating habits of bugs and insects identifying the main types of food that insects eat.

This is clearly meant to be an introduction to the topic. However, I like the fact that the book focuses on teaching children the vocabulary, basic scientific concepts, and engaging children in a manner that will encourage them to explore more about the topic.

Monday, August 29, 2016

Vampires and Light

Vampires and Lightis another book in the Monster Science series. I was curious to see how Joby Jensen Shaffer would attack the topic because it is a complicated one.

The vampires provided an entertaining frame for the subject because of the vampire lore that they don't like light. The book begins by defining what light is and why we need it, even convincing the vampires that while it is a problem for them, they can't live without it. The author continues to explain the elements of light defining and illustrating vocabulary terms in clear, concise and humorous terms.

The author moves from discussing wavelengths to the electromagnetic spectrum. The author cleverly uses the vampires to illustrate the concepts giving students another way to view the material.

From there the author discusses the characteristics of light including speed, traveling in a straight line, why it passes through some objects and not others, light reflection and absorption. There was an interesting description of how the human eye processes light.

This was a challenging topic and I thought the author did a great job breaking it down and making it accessible for children. I continue to be excited by this series.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Mummies and Sound

Mummies and Sound is another entry in the Monster Sound series.

I was glad to see sound covered as while it is often taught as an elementary science topic, finding age appropriate material that students can access independently isn't always as easy as one would hope.

This book follows the previous books in the series using a graphic novel format, humor, and lots of science vocabulary and concepts to create a book to teach students about sound. This book didn't tie the mummies as directly to the science material as I would like. The best attempt was made in using mummies to explain frequency. In the rest of the book the mummies are mostly used to provided illustrations and humor.

The science descriptions are thorough but accessible for children. The pictures do help illustrate the topics and keep children engaged. I just think it would be more engaging if the mummies were more directly involved with demonstrating science material. I also think this could be a great book for older students needing to review the topic. The graphic novel format and the humor might be attractive and make the material accessible without it being too childish.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

The Berenstain Bears Dinosaur Dig

The Berenstain Bears' Dinosaur Digis a more science focused book in the Berenstain Bear series.

In this story the Bear children begin researching dinosaurs at the local library, move on to the Bearsonian Museum where they meet Professor Actual Factual who invites the family to visit a local dinosaur dig.

I discovered this book when I reviewed The Berenstain Bears Under the Seareleased this year.

These two books are a slightly different direction for the Berenstain series. The books remind me more of the Magic School Bus with the Bears exploring scientific topics in an age appropriate manner for young readers. This book encourages readers to use the library, explore the museum, and introduces where the museums get the dinosaur bones they display. The author provides phonetic pronunciations to help adults and children to tackle to long names of the creatures that often fascinate young children.

While I realize science isn't the focus of the series, I am hopeful the writers and publishers continue to include new science titles in the series. It is a great way to encourage fans of the series to move into non-fiction reading.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

The Berenstain Bears Under the Sea

I wasn't sure what to expect from The Berenstain Bears Under the Seawhen I saw the title. I've been familiar with the Berenstain Bears through several family members, but this title seemed like it was going in a slightly different direction for them.

I was correct. While they use a sub, not a bus, the premise is similar to the Magic School Bus series. While visiting the local aquarium the family is invited to take a trip on a submarine to see the creatures in their natural environment. The book shows readers what types of creatures are encountered as the Bears head to the bottom of the ocean. Along the path the professor educates the Bear family about the animals, what they eat, and where you find them.

I thought this was an great way to get fans of the Berenstain Bear series to engage with non-fiction material. There is another one recently published about a Dinosaur dig as well. I'm hoping they continue embedding non-fiction material in their fantasy series.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

The Fort on Fourth Street

The Fort on Fourth Street: A Story About the Six Simple Machinesis a great concept for teaching simple machines, but it didn't quite deliver as strongly as I'd hoped. The book demonstrates how simple machines are used in the construction of a fort.

The idea is engaging. Many kids want a practical reason for learning about simple machines. Making a fort is an attractive reason to learn about simple machines and to learn to use tools. However, the author chose a rather difficult format for this book, the nursery rhyme "The House that Jack Built." At the end of each introduction of a simple machine used to build the fort, we get a listing of all the simple machines used. It is repetitive and not that helpful.

What is lacking is a good definition of a simple machine. We are supposed to infer what a simple machine is through the list of items we are given that are simple machines. However, it doesn't quite work. At the end of the book, the author has a page that gives textbook definitions of simple machines, but the definitions aren't age appropriate for the target audience of the text. This information would have been much more useful embedded in the story of the grandpa building the fort. The author sprinkled little bits and pieces, but it needed to be more organized and direct to help kids walk away with a real understanding of why X is a simple machine and Y is not. Also why X is a specific type of simple machine. At the end the author has a little picture quiz with answers that tries to clarify some of the definitions, but that would have been better suited as part of the story.

Monday, May 30, 2016

Science Books for Kids