Each of these nonfiction picture books has something special to offer children. Most children love reading nonfiction picture books as a way to learn about the world around them, and even adults like me can learn new information from these books! Each book would make a fabulous addition to any classroom or home library.
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Addiction is an issue that directly or indirectly plagues all of society. It is the inability to escape a habit that haunts its victim, the “user,” the addict. It is an illness that carries a perfectly awful stigma, an illness which must be fought with the entire being of the sufferer if it is to be conquered. Dr. Michael Cowl Gordon, who has devoted his career and his life to the goal of leading addicts on the road to sobriety, has provided all of us with the knowledge, the guide, and a concrete plan to achieve that victory with his remarkable book, “The Twelve Step Pathway; A Heroic Journey of Recovery.”
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There’s a new dog book in town and it’s written by two women who really know their dogs. In their nonfiction love story to dogs everywhere, “The Purest Bond: Understanding the Human-Canine Connection,” the authors share all the wonderful benefits and reasons to bring a dog (or two or more) into your family.
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Dog lovers need an easy reference book that can help with practical information about dog care, dog cognition, dog emotions (yes, they have emotions just as we do), and dog breeds, and “Dogs Demystified: An A-to-Z Guide to All Things Canine” by Marc Bekoff is just that book. This is a book with important information that is helpful not just to the new dog owner, but even to seasoned dog people like me.
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The best way to educate young readers is to provide picture books that are so irresistible that kids feel a compulsion to pick them up and read them. Here are some educational picture books that appear to accomplish just that feat.
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Those of us who are lucky enough to have animal companions know one tragic truth: With the exception of a few parrots, we will outlive all our companion animals. And as we experience the passing of each one, our hearts break. In “The Book of Pet Love & Loss,” Sara Bader manages to reassure us that we are not alone in our grief, that our sadness, our heartbreak, our sense of loss, is normal and equivalent to what is experienced by many others, include the noted writers of the quotes in this small treasure.
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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 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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Two recently released nonfiction picture books, “Amazing Animals Around the World” and “Amazing Insects Around the World” entranced both me and my six-year-old grandson. To be honest, I wasn’t sure of his reaction because while he does love nonfiction books about animals, even those aimed at adult readers, these books don’t have photographs but rather simple, muted illustrations of the animals and insects. It didn’t matter. Once he opened the books and saw the plethora of unusual animals (some of which I had never heard of in my rather long life), he was hooked. In fact, in the ultimate sign of approval, he didn’t want to give them back to me.
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Almost all kids love pop-up books, and pop-up books about animals are sure to be a hit. “Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures” by Arnaud Roi and illustrated by Charlotte Molas and “The Pop-up Guide: Animals” by Maud Poulain and Peggy Nille are two picture books that entranced my six-year-old grandson, and he did think that his two-year-old sister would love the one about animals.
Fans of The Great British Bake Off love Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith and their encyclopedic knowledge of all things baking, and with their new cookbooks, “Bake: My best ever recipes for the classics” by Paul Hollywood and “Bliss on Toast” by Prue Leith, we can join in on the baking and fill our homes with aromas of the delicious treats contained in the pages of these books.
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The Spanish word “solito” means alone, and in his memoir, “Solito,” Javier Zamora shares the perilous journey the author made as a fairly sheltered nine-year-old child from a rural town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, to the US.
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