OCEAN SOUP: A Recipe for You, Me, and a Cleaner Sea: A Picture Book Review and Giveaway

 Beware! Reading this nonfiction picture book written by Meeg Pincus and illustrated by Lucy Semple, may convince you that you are over-using plastic. That's what it did for me!

Do you see those four children walking along the beach on the cover? Those characters illustrate the scenes of Ocean Soup (Sleeping Bear Press, 2021) as they go from playing at the beach, to discovering that what appears to be pure and clean under a microscope is SOUP! And not a very tasty or healthy one either. 

REVIEW

As you can tell, Meeg Pincus wrote a book with a powerful message, in simple and accessible verse. On a few pages she shows how people have been using styrofoam cups, bottled water, synthetic fibers, and plastic containers without thinking about the consequences to our environment. 

The four characters ask an important question:

Do you ever wonder how this produced Ocean Soup? 

How such everyday habits made saltwater goop? 

 

 

Here is a fact I didn't know:

Once it's made , any plastic is with us to stay. 

It's on Earth till forever--there's no real "away."

Here are more interesting facts shown on a spread of the world's oceans:

Sad and startling is the fact that Ocean Soup fills the bellies of all types of creatures from dolphins to plankton to crabs. And if plastic is in the bellies of fish then,

The "story" ends with four pages of suggestions of ways in which children can use less plastic. 

End notes include lists of the plastics that pollute the world's seas and a recipe for cleaner oceans. Meeg's author's note reflected how I felt after reading Ocean Soup:

I wrote this book to remind myself about my own impact on my beloved ocean, by the daily choices I make, as much as anyone else. We all need to rethink our use of plastic and speak up to manufactures and lawmakers about the overproduction. It will take a sea change to save our seas--and it starts with each one of us, each day.

This great curriculum resource can be useful in kindergarten through fourth grade. The characters appear to be around eight, but the book's message that is delivered in smooth rhyme, is for all ages.

Here's an interesting note from Meeg about the four children who show up throughout the book. Since they have no speaking lines, I wondered if she created them or suggested them to the illustrator. Here is what she said:

"The four kids were a creation of the art team for the book, actually! I'm not sure who among the illustrator, art director, and editor came up with them, but I was so thrilled when I saw them! I think it's a great example of how "leaving room for the illustrator" can lead to magic when the artist sees their own story within the author's story."

GIVEAWAY

To enter, please leave me a comment by 6 PM on June 4 along with your email address if you are new to my blog. Share it on social media and tell me what you did, and I'll enter your name twice.  Continental U.S. addresses only. 

FLY, FIREFLY! A Review and Picture Book Giveaway

 Congratulations to Connie Saunders who won the autographed copy of JUST BETWEEN SAM AND ME from last week's blog.

With the holidays coming up, I'm going to review and give away a few more books than usual. I know that many of you give these books to your children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. I enjoy passing them along and would love if you share pictures with their books on Facebook (please tag me and Sleeping Bear Press too) --as long as their parents don't mind!

Today I have another outstanding book written by Shana Keller and illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki. Shana is no stranger to my blog but this is the first time I saw Ramona's evocative illustrations. 

With a few pictures and quotes from this rhyming picture book, I hope you will glimpse the beauty and hear the music in this story.

REVIEW

                                   to see the sea.

Attracted by bright lights in the ocean, the firefly ends up being whooshed out to sea. 

A young woman and her niece see him sink.

The woman wades in and scoops him out from the wet sand. Her niece explains to the firefly he is seeing bioluminescence swirling and twirling in the great sea. 

Cradling him in her hand, she brings him back to the tree line. 

"Trust us, you'll see. That glittering there is from the sea.

The glowing HERE is your own family.

 

 

 

CURRICULUM RESOURCE

This lovely picture book not only includes a message about the importance of "staying close" to one's family, but the back matter includes how Rachel Carson inspired this story and information about bioluminescence. Pre-kindergarten through second-grade teachers could use this book in their classrooms. See Shana's website for LOTS of ways to use this book as a resource. 

GIVEAWAY

Leave me a comment if you wish to be entered in this giveaway. PLEASE leave your email if you are new to my blog. If you are a new follower, I'll enter your name twice--just let me know! The giveaway ends on Wednesday, December 9 at 6 PM. 

Lions & Cheetahs & Rhinos OH MY! Animal Artwork by Children of Sub-Saharan Africa: Picture Book Review

                                                                 

Today I'm sharing another unique book published by Sleeping Bear Press, Lions, & Cheetahs & Rhinos OH MY!. Sorry, no giveaway this time--I'm keeping this one for my grandkids. 

HOW TO DRAW A LION

I love the concept behind this book. Each stellar drawing was made by a young African who participated in John Platt's non-profit program, How to Draw a Lion. 

Here is the program's mission statement from their website:

How to Draw a Lion is a program founded to provide art classes for children, raise money for their education with shows around the world, and to create awareness about child welfare and conservation.  The program has taken shape around art classes for under-resourced youth in sub-Saharan Africa, and now the US.  Each piece brings with it the spirit and personality of the artist who created it and the sale of the work raises funds for the organizations that support their education. All proceeds from the book are donated to the program to support these and future artists. 

REVIEW 

Do you like wild animals? Would you like to paint one? How about a LION?

Young readers are invited into this gorgeous book with information about this ferocious hunter.

Each page leads naturally to the next. Maybe the reader won't want to get too near to a lion to draw her, so he might want to draw a gentler animal, like a zebra.

The text provides interesting information about each animal. Did you know that you can tell zebras apart because the pattern of each zebra's stripes is different, like fingerprints?

Cheetahs with all their spots are FAST! You better draw a cheetah before it dashes away...It can race at 65 miles per hour.

[Giraffes] are covered in spots too. Like the zebra's stripes, the pattern of posts on the giraffe's fur is special to each animal. 

Like the giraffe, here's another animal that loves to eat vegetables.

An animal that spends its day in the water and feeds on the grass at night is pictured here.

An elephant can drink 50 gallons a day--that's 800 glasses of water!

Female lions raise the cubs and are the primary hunters for the pride.

An animal this majestic inspires everyone. Let's all draw a lion and then paint it!

Other facts I learned reading this book:

1. Impalas are a type of antelope.
2. Leopards are shy.
3. Some gorillas live in tropical forests but others hang out in the mountains. 

CURRICULUM RESOURCE

How to Draw a Lion concludes with information about endangered animals and habitat loss. By learning about African animals and their endangered status, you can help protect them.

Of course, this book would not be complete without directions on how to draw a lion; and these are included. If you don't get a copy for your child, grandchild, or classroom, you can follow this tutorial instead.

A cross-curriculum book, students in grades K-4th grade will enjoy the artwork and information about African animals. I hope many readers will be inspired by the art of other young people and attempt to draw animals also. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go draw a lion.

Robert Bateman: The Boy Who Painted Nature- A Review and Giveaway

Congratulations to Clara Gillow Clark who won Finding Home: My Arc-O-Biography on last week's blog.

Note: In the next two weeks I'm going to try and post extra book giveaways so you have a chance to win a holiday gift for someone special. 

REVIEW

When I saw on Margriet Ruurs Facebook page that she had a new book coming out, I knew I wanted to share it with all of you. 
Robert Bateman: The Boy Who Painted Nature, (Orca Books, 2018) is a wonderful tribute to one of Canada's most famous artists. Both the text and illustrations are beautiful; I had a hard time selecting which illustrations to accompany this blog. Hopefully the pictures and short snippets of text will pique your interest; the animals I've named in the review are accompanied by magnificent illustrations.

From a youth, Mr. Bateman loved the outdoors and was "in awe of nature." He investigated fields and animals; birds and plants.

"In school he spent a lot of time staring out the window. He dreamed of traveling so he could see more wildlife, from whales to wrens."

Not only did Mr. Bateman "paint the shapes and patterns of the world around him," but he also carved wooden birds and noticed "details of feathers and form."

Owls, penguins, polar bears, and lions in their habitats. 

Towards the end of the book, there is a lovely illustration of Mr. Bateman walking through a field with his grandchildren. The text reads: 

Now Robert walks the forest with his grandchildren. He shows them the shape of a leaf, the texture of bark. He tells them to pay attention to the details of nature around them.

Robert Bateman: The Boy Who Painted Nature will be enjoyed by grandparents, parents, K-3 teachers, and of course--young readers themselves. Hopefully the text and illustrations will encourage our next generation to appreciate nature as Mr. Bateman did as a child. 

GIVEAWAY

Leave me a comment by December 12 with your email address if you are new to my blog. For an extra chance to win, share this on social media (please let me know what you did) and I'll put your name in the hat twice. 

Bonnie Doerr: On Book Series, School Visits, and Story Lines

As promised last week, here is the follow-up interview with Bonnie Doerr, author of three eco-novels for middle grade students. 

CAROL: When you wrote Island Sting, did you have any idea that there would be two more books?

BONNIE: Island Sting is a rework of Kenzie’s Key. The publisher of Kenzie's Key went out of business, but the original editor had envisioned an entire series. When the miracle of a new publisher picking up KK and tweaking occurred, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I hoped at least two more books would be born. The only thing I had going for me was the right of first refusal. There’s much more to this publishing tale. It involves the publisher that picked up KK going away, an editor sticking with Island Sting, and then Stakeout through a new company, then that publishing company being sold and... Oh enough already, this just gets boring, doesn’t it? But, yes, I always had an idea of at least three books, though the featured animals and wildlife organizations were not always so obvious to me. So, imagine the joy when I held the third, Tangled Lines, in my hand!

CAROL: What's next? A fourth Kenzie and Angelo book? 

BONNIE: As for another book, it will not be an additional Kenzie and Angelo story. Their story arc is complete. The story keeping me awake these days features a new locale with new characters who battle a different kind of environmental injustice.

CAROL: I can relate to a story keeping you up at night! Do you hear from teachers who are using your books in their classrooms? 

BONNIE: Teachers are using my books, but few know about them because they are not published by one of the big five houses. Word is spreading, however. I was invited to participate in an environmental program at a NC coastal science center after a PTA purchased copies of Stakeout for an entire sixth grade class, and a high school librarian near Tampa, Florida, received funding to purchase classroom sets of all three books for her ninth graders and to host my visit next February. Bookmarks literary organization has been incredibly supportive of my work sponsoring many school visits through their Authors in Schools program. Each visit resulted in wider classroom usage of the books.

Bonnie at Poplar Springs Elementary
Poplar Springs, NC

Most often a book is used to introduce the topic of endangered animals or, surprisingly, in sixth grades they’ve been discussed as a way to introduce research in writing units; a unique way to show how fiction requires research as well as nonfiction. More teachers are also finding them useful to support nature and conservation activities. Recently, at the YALSA Symposium in Pittsburgh, librarians were initially drawn to my books because they were described as contemporary, realistic literature that empowered teens. But upon learning more about the books, some also saw them as filling the niche of “hard to find” nature fiction for younger YA readers.

During school visits, teachers always seem interested in resources I’ve created for them on my website, but I honestly haven’t heard directly from anyone who’s used them. There’s little time for teachers to search out new ideas and less time to think of responding to an author about a particular lesson. It’s been interesting, though, to occasionally see one of my lessons on specific skill Internet resource pages, so educators must pick up one or two activities from time to time. Tangled Lines' project guide only recently available on my website is too new for any kind of response, so I have yet to get feedback on that.

CAROL: I'm glad to hear that some teachers are finding your books. But now is the $64,000 question...How many story lines ARE in Tangled?

BONNIE: I stopped counting at ten.

CAROL: Which shows you chose a perfect title. 

GIVEAWAY: Leave me a comment by Thursday, January 12 to enter the giveaway for an autographed copy of TANGLED. If you commented last week, you can add another entry to the hat! PLEASE leave your email address if I don't have it. 

Bonnie reading a portion from Stakeout.

Behind the Scenes with Monika Schroeder and an Autographed Book Giveaway

Congratulations to Sandra Warren who won my ARC of  BE LIGHT LIKE A BIRD. In this week's post, Monika Schroeder provides some behind the scenes information about writing her newest middle grade novel AND offers an autographed copy as a giveaway.

CAROL: I’m curious about the backstory behind this book. It’s very different than your previous books and I’m wondering how you got interested in the topic of landfills. Why Michigan? Do you have a personal connection to the area or the topic? 

MONIKA: My husband is from Michigan and we inherited a cabin that his father built on an island in the Upper Peninsula. (We actually got married there.) Here is an excerpt of my answer regarding the setting I gave for an interview with School Library Journal:

"I often start a book with setting. The 'seed idea' for Be Light Like a Bird came to me the first time I saw a landfill. My husband and I had cleaned out the cabin my husband inherited from his father in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I couldn't believe it when he drove all the stuff to a landfill nearby, a big hole where people bury unwanted items. In Germany we recycle or incinerate most of our garbage, so it left an impression on me when I saw a guy dropping a vacuum cleaner, a book shelf and an entire carpet into this landfill...a cemetery for junk.

I learned more about this landfill and read about the people in the community who had fought its expansion. Then I asked myself a "What if...?" question: What if there were a girl who loved birds and whose bird watching was threatened by the expansion of the landfill? Once I had that girl in my mind I found myself asking more and more about her life. How did she get to Michigan's Upper Peninsula? And why was birding so important to her? I learned that her father had recently died and that her mother had more or less dragged her up north. She was grieving and lonely and once she arrived in Upper Michigan she came up with a plan to make her mother stay. From there the story of Wren developed."

CAROL: How did you come across the turtle and Native American connection? I assume that is true? It definitely adds another dimension to the book. 

MONIKA: In my research I found articles that mention the ceremonial use of turtle shell rattles among Chippewa Indians and several archaeological sites around the Great Lakes contained fragments of turtle shells. I did, however, not find any written evidence of the excavation of a Native American burial site on the Upper Peninsula with such rattles. I had read stories in the paper about constructions sites for road building in the area having to be stopped after possible Native artifacts or remains were found.

I called the former head of the Sault Tribe Office of Cultural Repatriation in Sault Ste. Marie, MI and asked him about the shell. He said in our phone conversation that turtle rattles were used for many purposes but they also were burial gifts and under the right soil conditions they could survive and be found. 

The article the librarian finds and uses in the council meeting remains fictional, but I think that is okay, given the possibility of such findings.

******

If you haven't already, you can read my review of Be Light Like a Bird on last week's blog. Plus, Monika is generously giving away an autographed copy; leave me a comment by October 20 for a chance to win. If you are new to this blog or share this on social media, I'll enter your name twice. Please, let me know what you do and leave your email address if I don't have it. 

Monika with Frank, the dog she and her husband
adopted when they were in India.

FLUSH: An Example of What Every Book Should Include

I can't help myself. Whenever I read a book I'm always analyzing how the author pulls it off. How does he or she weave together the different elements needed to produce an engaging book for young readers? 


My recent read, FLUSH by Carl Hiaasen, is a great example of this type of book. It has:


A great beginning that hooks the reader

The deputy told me to empty my pockets: two quarters, a penny, a stick of bubble gum, and a roll of grip tape for my skateboard. It was pitiful.

  "Go on inside. He's waiting for you," the deputy said.

   My dad was sitting alone at a bare metal table. He looked pretty good, all things considered. He wasn't even handcuffed.

    "Happy Father's Day," I said.

(I dare you not to want to read more after that!)

Memorable characters

    

Paine Underwood- who is jailed for trying to prevent a floating casino from dumping raw sewage into the Florida Keys.

Noah Underwood- his son who supports his dad's crusade--even when his father gives up on it himself. (his name really fits him!)

Abbey Underwood- Noah's tough younger sister who has a very mean bite. 

Donna Underwood- who is tired of her husband Paine's crusades. She vacillates between understanding him and thinking he is a selfish jerk who she should divorce.

Antagonists that readers love to hate

Dusty Muleman- the greedy, scrupulous casino operator (his name fits him too).

Jasper Jr. Muleman- Dusty's bully son and Noah's #1 enemy.

Interesting Minor Characters

Shelley- a bartender with an attitude, guts, and her own axe to grind against Dusty.

Grandpa Bobby- a mistaken pirate with a wild past.

Conflict

You name it, this book has it. Man vs. nature; man vs. man; man vs. self; man vs. a machine. It's all here.

A great ending where the main character solves the problem

For that you'll have to read the book.

And I'm going to help you do that by giving away a copy of this book!

Here are the rules to enter:

1. You have to be between 11-15 to win.

2. You have to follow this blog.

3. You have to leave a comment with your email address AND Facebook, Twitter, or email this post to one friend (or have a significant adult in your life post it on Facebook or Twitter. That works too.)

So....

If you're already a follower--get going! If you're not a follower, sign up now! Contest is up November 7th.

If you don't fall into that age category you can:

1. Tell your child, grandchild, niece, nephew, or student(s) to enter.

2. Hop over to Joyce Hostetter's and my latest issue of Talking Story where we have 3 other giveaways going on right now. No age restrictions apply! 

Happy Reading...and oh yes, don't forget to FLUSH!