environment

Nonfiction children’s picture books about people and dinosaur hunters and elephants

/ Pamela Kramer

Biographic picture books serve multiple purposes; they not only teach children about special people, they can serve to inspire children by demonstrating the actions of others who may have overcome challenges, followed their passions, or shown a desire to change the world. In these picture books, children will learn about people who challenged traditions, people who fought to discover our history, and a woman who didn’t listen to what others thought women should do. We also learn about the people who saved an elephant in Vietnam and a man who wants to save the world.

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‘Wrecker’ by Carl Hiaasen is an thrilling, must-read, thoughtful middle grade novel

/ Pamela Kramer

“Wrecker,” is pure Carl Hiaasen with its Key West setting and fabulous action, quirky characters, and clever plot. Carl Hiaasen is known for his novels about Florida, its struggle against pollution and destruction of the land and waters around it, as well as his tongue-in-cheek depiction of people who are oblivious to common sense and basic reasoning skills. This is a book that, in pointing out the racist past of Florida, and Key West in particular, could very well be banned in Hiaasen’s home state of Florida: In this clever and gripping novel, one of the characters actually feels terrible about an ancestor who was a member of the Klu Klux Klan and participated in the lynching of a white man who had dared to enter into a common law marriage with the Black woman he loved.

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‘The Boy Who Cried Bear’ by Kelley Armstrong is the second in the thrilling “Haven’s Rock” series

/ Pamela Kramer

“The Boy Who Cried Bear” is the second book in the Haven’s Rock series by Kelley Armstrong. Few mystery series have enthralled me as totally as these novels set in the Canadian Yukon wilderness, in a settlement so remote that there are no roads, no cell phone service, no internet, and limited electricity. The first series, the Rockton novels, ended after seven mysteries, but the main character, detective Casey Duncan, and her husband Eric, the sheriff of that settlement, weren’t finished in their mission of rescuing those who needed a safe place to hide. Haven’s Rock, which belongs to Casey and Eric, takes in those who are in danger and must flee for their lives.

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‘Project F’ by Jeanne DuPrau is a middle grade book about climate change and difficult decisions

/ Pamela Kramer

In her new book, “Project F,” Jeanne DuPrau takes us yet again far into the future to a different kind of world. It’s a simpler world where there is some electricity, but little technology. Through the eyes of main character fourteen-year-old Keith, we learn about a world in which there are no cars, no planes, no smart phones. Instead people take trains if they need to travel long distances, they bike within their small cities, and they walk. Life as we know it today is hundreds of years in the past.

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‘Gather’ by Kenneth M. Cardow is a brilliant young adult novel about abandonment and finding family

/ Pamela Kramer

In “Gather,” Kenneth M. Cardow introduces us to a teenager who has had to grow up much more quickly than anyone should have to. Ian is used to being abandoned; his father left Ian and his mother years before, and then his grandmother left them to move south to be with her sister. So now, it’s just Ian and his mother in the small, run-down family home, on land that has been in Ian’s family for many generations. His father’s family, that is.

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‘Hemlock Island’ by Kelley Armstrong is a novel that’s horrifyingly spine-tingling

/ Pamela Kramer

“Hemlock Island” is the eponymous setting for Kelley Armstrong’s new stand alone horror novel, and just the name of the island is a clue that it could be a dangerous place to visit. Laney, a divorced teacher who just published her first book, owns a beautiful house on the island. It was a gift from her ex-husband Kit when he walked away from their marriage. Laney must visit it because the current renters left in a huff after complaining about a blood-stained closet door, and that, in combination with other strange happenings, causes her to investigate what’s going on there.

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‘Just A Regular Boy’ by Catherine Ryan Hyde

/ Pamela Kramer

With her latest introspective novel, “Just a Regular Boy,” Catherine Ryan Hyde takes us on a journey that we’d never imagine taking ourselves — going with a survivalist and his five-year-old son into the wilds of northern Idaho to survive what he believes is a coming apocalypse. Remy’s father, Roy, plans to survive off the land, and he believes that he has everything they need to survive.

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Three children’s books, one an ode to Temple Grandin and two by Temple Grandin

/ Pamela Kramer

Three children’s books that would be fabulous additions to any school or home library are “I Am Temple Grandin” by Brad Meltzer and Christopher Eliopoulos, “The Outdoor Scientist: The Wonder of Observing the Natural World” by Temple Grandin, and “Calling All Minds: How to Think and Create Like an Inventor” by Temple Grandin. The first book is engaging and explains how being different is not a bad thing, and actually can be very special. The other two books are for exploration and activities that kids might want to do. Not a bad choice with summer vacations coming up because they are filled with information and ideas for great projects!

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Nonfiction picture books for readers of every age

/ Pamela Kramer / 1 Comment

Nonfiction picture books for children are a great way to introduce information to kids about the world around them in a very digestible manner with vocabulary that’s just right for them to understand. This group of nonfiction picture books about animals and plants is for a range of ages. Two books are a part of the “Meet Your World” series. One is “You Are a Honey Bee!” and the other is “You Are a Raccoon!” for young readers who will enjoy the book’s physical suggestions to move like those animals. “Stinkbird Has a Superpower” is about a hoatzin, an Amazon bird that lives in the rain forest. This picture book is filled with information but also with lots of humor that will engage young readers and cause them to want to read and reread this adorably illustrated book. “A Home for Every Plant: Wonders of the Botanical World” is a large, information-filled book about plants from all over the world. “Whale Fall: Exploring an Ocean-Floor Ecosystem,” begins with a sad event, the death of a seventy-year-old whale, but then we learn about how that death goes on to nourish other creatures for half a century. “Cicada Symphony” is all about the cicadas we see every summer, and this colorful book is chock-full of information. “We Are Starlings: Inside the Mesmerizing Magic of a Murmuration” is filled with stunning watercolor illustrations of the birds and the fantastic and beautiful shapes they make as they fly together, as the story is told in first person plural, the band of starlings to fly together so amazingly. And three books in the “Save the…” series are about blue whales, frogs, and giraffes, and would be great informational texts for a classroom.

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