The Boy Who Grew A Forest – PPBF and Arbor Day, April 1st

Posted on March 29, 2019 by Joanna

Title: The True Story of Jadav Payeng The Boy Who Grew a Forest

Author: Sophia Gholz

Illustrator: Kayla Harren

Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press, 2019

Ages: 4-8

Themes: deforestation, tree planting, habitats, conservation, India, one man power, caring for earth

Opening:

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago.
The second best time to plant a tree is now.
-Proverb

Synopsis:

As a boy, Jadav Payeng was distressed by the destruction deforestation and erosion was causing on his island home in India’s Brahmaputra River. So he began planting trees. What began as a small thicket of bamboo, grew over the years into 1,300 acre forest filled with native plants and animals. The Boy Who Grew a Forest tells the inspiring true story of Payeng–and reminds us all of the difference a single person with a big idea can make. 

Why I like this book:

This story of a young conservationist change-maker many years ago is wonderfully inspiring and relevant today. Many boys and adults are worried about deforestation, very few turn compassion and concern into action. One seed, one plant, one tree at a time, he grew a bamboo forest.

I love how the book addresses the inevitable challenges of the return of the bamboo habitat, and how this young man deals with them to care for humans and animals in his beautiful river island home in northern India. facing the threat of the return of different species like tigers and elephants, or the human greed for poaching for financial gain, he finds solutions that work for the entire community. Written in simple lyrical language, the words flow beautifully to tie in with the lush earth-tone art.

This is a beautifully written and illustrated environmental biography that will inspire your children/students.

Activities/resources:

This is the perfect book to read to your class for National Plant a Tree Day, April 1st. Thoughtful back matter and a plant-a-seed activity encourage further engagement from young readers, which is a perfect finish to this biography.

On the author’s website you can find a terrific teacher’s guide created by Marcie Colleen.

Pair this with The Tree Lady.

Each week a group of bloggers reviews picture books we feel would make great educational reads. To help teachers, caregivers and parents, we have included resources and/or activities with each of our reviews. A complete list of the thousands of books we have reviewed can be found sorted alphabetically and by topics, here on Susanna Leonard Hill’s website.

Posted in Biography, children's books, conservation, Perfect Picture Book Friday | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

A Brief History of Life on Earth – Children’s Book Recommendation

Posted on March 26, 2019 by Joanna

Title: A Brief History of Life on Earth

Author & illustrator: Clémence DupontI

 Publisher: Prestel Verlag, 2019 (French edition, l’Agrume, 2017)

Translated from French by: Paul Kelly

Ages: 5-11

Themes: history of the earth, hadean age, archean age, proterozoic, phanerzoic age, eons

Opening:

We’ve travelled back about 4.6 billion years before the present day. The earth is very young and extremely hot. All around us is an ocean of magma – the boiling, fluid rock that we can still see today as lava. The atmosphere is dense, almost yellowish, and a continuous burst of meteorites bombards the planet. Welcome to hell! This is the first eon (geological time) of Earth’s history, and it is aptly named after Hades, the god of the underworld. Millions of years go by and the Earth starts to stabilize and cool down. It is covered by water., with the first oceans appearing. They occupy almost the entire globe. The moon can also be seen, but it is much closer to Earth than nowadays. So close, in fact, that its gravity causes enormous tides that make the entire planet appear to swell.

Synopsis:

The story of life on earth unfolds in dramatic fashion in this amazing picture book that takes readers from 4.6 billion years ago to the present day.

It’s difficult to grasp the enormous changes life on Earth has undergone since it first came into existence, but this marvelously illustrated book makes learning about our planet’s fascinating history easy and entertaining. In an accordion style, the series of pages take readers through every major geological period, with bright artwork and detailed drawings. Opening on lava-filled oceans and smoking volcanoes, the book unfolds, era by era, to show how life evolved from tiny protozoa and crustaceans to dinosaurs and mammals. Fully expanded to 8 meters (26 feet), this spectacular visual timeline is a very impressive panorama that reveals evolution in all its glory. Each page is brimming with illustrations that readers will turn to again and again. A celebration of life, this extraordinary and beautiful book illuminates the history of Earth for young readers in an unforgettable and delightful way.

Why I like this book:

I think I am going to have to catalog this one as reference in the school library as I know so many of my upper elementary and middle school students are going to want to pore over it. The huge unfolding format is so visually effective and the card used appears sturdy, but I do want to keep an eye on it. The text is beautiful narrative nonfiction and reading this science and history is a pleasure. It offers a terrific visual of how recent and small homo sapien’s history is.

Using the same color palate throughout, but adding to the detail and complexity of life forms is visually compelling. As an anthropologist, I have studied all these eons but this presentation was so much more enticing than any of my old text books. I would honestly happily use this in a high school anthropology class.

By the way, the book folds out the length of a triceratops, how cool is that?

Activities/resources:
I would pair this with two more picture books I have reviewed over the past couple of months: One Iguana Two Iguanas and The Stuff of Stars.

Posted in children's books, Children's literature, nonfiction | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

NEW YORK Day & Night – Perfect Picture Book Friday

Posted on March 22, 2019 by Joanna

Title:  NEW YORK Day & Night

Author: Aurélie Pollet

Illustrator: Vincent Bergier

Publisher: Prestel Verlag, March 19th, 2019, originally published in French by l’Agrume in 2017

 Ages: 3-6

Themes: New York City, perception, nighttime, daytime, imagination

Genre: Concept picture book

 Opening:

Good Evening, dear friend.
My name is Sandy.Are you ready to takeoff?
Let’s fly to the city that never sleeps

Synopsis:

Some of New York’s most familiar sights look very different at night in this highly amusing introduction to the city.

Sometimes your eyes can play tricks on you, especially in the dark. This enchanting picture book shows how New York City can look quite peculiar at night. Each brightly colored spread is overlaid with a sheet of translucent blue paper and when lifted, voilà! A space ship and Martian become The Guggenheim, a giant serpent is actually the subway, King Kong’s jungle turns into Central Park, and a superhero takes on the shape of a construction worker. Exhilarating and captivating, all the scenes are easily switched between day and night and will take the reader on a unique journey that lets imaginations run wild while revealing that some things at night aren’t as scary as they seem. (Publisher)

Why I like this book:

As someone who knows what it is to be a foreigner in New York City as well as more of a local now, it is fun to see an outsider’s perspective. In this case a cat who’s imagination goes a little wild when nighttime lighting transforms the city into a place of incredible fantasies. The translucent dream-scene pages, often with favorite superheroes/monsters will be a sure hit with young readers. I know when I was an elementary librarian some of my most borrowed books were with a torch/magnifying attachment. This will make a great group read-aloud in a classroom or library because of the page reveals.

Cool that it is a New York squirrel who keeps correcting our narrator cat, Sandy, about her misconceptions.

Activities/resources:

The story obviously leads itself to a prediction activity.

As an art activity, use the location of your local urban center and have your children create an imaginary night scene maybe starring their favorite (s)hero?

Don’t miss the interview I did this week with the illustrator, Vincent Bergier.

Each week a group of bloggers reviews picture books we feel would make great educational reads. To help teachers, caregivers and parents, we have included resources and/or activities with each of our reviews. A complete list of the thousands of books we have reviewed can be found sorted alphabetically and by topics, here on Susanna Leonard Hill’s website.

Posted in Perfect Picture Book Friday | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments