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Category: Non-Fiction

Non-Fiction for Preschoolers: Fangs! (with Hologram!)

The cover of the book alone is appealing because it is a hologram that morphs into four different animals. You have to tilt it just right to get all four images but this was really fun for my preschool-soon-to-be-Kindergartener son. I don’t want to spoil the surprise so I won’t tell you which four animals appear, but hint: they all have fangs.

This is an appealing non-fiction series for preschoolers through 1st graders, particularly for reluctant young boy readers. The text is larger than most books and is composed in short sentences, usually about 3. Each animal page spread has full color attractive photographs. There is a box with factoids that include information on the animal’s length, color, food, where found, and sometimes numbers.

My elementary school encourages children to read non-fiction so that they understand that the captions under photographs or the separate box of factoids are important elements of the text (and come into play during standardized state tests).

So what did we learn?

The Black Mamba (Dendroaspis polylepsis) is the largest venomous snake in Africa at up to 14 feet long!
The venom of a king cobra (Naja) can kill a full-grown elephant!
Tigers (Panthera tigris) can eat up to 90 pounds of meat in one day!
Some scorpions can go a year without eating!

I also have Poison! from this series. The layout is completely different and the text font size is much smaller though the information is similar to Fangs! I couldn’t find this on Amazon and I’m not sure why. I do think reluctant readers prefer larger font size, so I’d recommend starting with Fangs!

Jun 30, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

Top 10: Best Young Adult Books for 2010 (ages 12-18)

This list is from the Young Adult Library Services Association. They took their 101 YA Books and narrowed it down to 10. This list is alphabetical order and includes fiction and non-fiction.

p.s. FREE book: Borders Summer Reading Program. Get one book free from their list after you submit their form with 10 books that they’ve read.

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or buy from the Pragmatic Mom Store on the Right Hand Column.

Thank YOU!

Blackshaw, Ric and Farrelly, Liz. Street Art Book: 60 Artists in Their Own Words.

Brown, Marvelyn. The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful and (HIV) Positive.

Elkeles, Simone. Perfect Chemistry.

Knowles, Jo. Jumping Off Swings.

Myers, Walter Dean. Dope Sick.

Regan, Sally. The Vampire Book.

Smith, Alexander Gordon. Lockdown: Escape from Furnace.

Fagerstrom, Derek and Smith, Lauren. Show Me How: 500 Things You Should Know Instructions for Life From the Everyday to the Exotic.

Von D, Kat. High Voltage Tattoo.

Willin, Melvyn. Paranormal Caught on Film.

Jun 16, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

Top 10: Magic School Bus Science Books (Grades 1-4th) UPDATED

The Magic School Bus series both books and DVDs are really wonderful and accurate introductions to science. I loaded up on them when my oldest was young, and we watched the DVDs all the time … if we are going to watch TV, at least it’s educational! But, with my third, I seriously think that he has not watched a single show of this excellent series. My kids say that at school when they have more indoor time than scheduled (absent music, art of PE teacher so the sub can’t really fill in), they watch a DVD and very often, it’s The Magic School Bus series.

So, out of a stack of about two dozen of The Magic School Bus picture books, I asked my two oldest to rank their favorites. It might be the difference in their personalities, but my middle child was quite adamant about rejecting the books she disliked while my oldest said, more or less, she liked them all with the exception of Ants in My Pantsbecause the ants creeped her out. My middle, though, really liked Ants in My Pants. So…here’s their list that they came up with together.

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Honorable Mention

The Magic School Bus: And the Climate Challenge

Personally I get a little stressed out when I read about global warming with the large chunks of ice melting and the earth seemingly forever changed for the worse. Somehow, The Magic School Bus manages to convey the climate change with urgency yet with a positive message of how to change our habits to prevent global warming. This is a great way to introduce the urgency of recycling to young ones in a meaningful and relevant way.

10. The Magic School Bus: Gets All Dried Up

A book about deserts focusing on animal and plant adaptations.

9. The Magic School Bus: At the Waterworks

How your city gets its water from the time it falls out of the sky to when it shows up in your bathroom.

8. The Magic School Bus: Inside the Earth

All about rocks, stalagmites & stalactites, volcanoes, igneous rocks, and the earth’s layers.

7. The Magic School Bus: Plants Seeds

A book about how living things with detailed information about pollination and seed fertilization

6. The Magic School Bus: See Stars

The lifecyle of stars from inception to implosion.

5. The Magic School Bus: Kicks Up a Storm

All about thunderstorms from cloud creation to rain, sleet and snow.

4. The Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body

All about the body from digestion to blood and the organs of the body.

3. The Magic School Bus: Wet All Over

A book about the water cycle from evaporation to condensation to rain.

2. The Magic School Bus: Gets Ants in Its Pants

A book about ants including ant communication, job specialization, and reproduction.

1. The Magic School Bus: Gets Baked in a Cake

The science of baking with a focus on the chemical reaction of vinegar and baking soda.

May 22, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

Our Extraordinary Earth: Non Fiction for ages 6-12

This is what I learned from Planet Earth, Our Extraordinary World Up Close! by Matthew Murrie and Steve Murrie:

The black ink the octopus sprays in the face of pursuers is believed to disrupt their sense of smell.
One Dugong can devour a bed of seagrass the size of a soccer field in one day!
Crocodiles can sprint (from zero to 8.5 miles per hour in the blink of an eye) faster than a human!
Emperor Tamarin monkey males take care of the babies!
No two jaguars have the same spot pattern.
Cicada larvae remain underground for 17 years living off tree sap before metamorphosis into adults.
Dromedary camels have three sets of eyelids.
Lions are color blind.

This book has four color photographs and with captions for each photo. It covers different regions: ocean deep, shallow seas, freshwater, rainforests, Great Plains, Forests, Deserts and Open Savannas, Frozen Poles, Caves and Mountain Heights with a nice assortment of animals and insects. This would be great as an overview for a reluctant reader who needs to expand into non fiction to see if there is a particular animal or terrain that he or she would like to explore further. It’s also the kind of book that you can skip around to find a page that is interesting; my five-year-old will enjoy this book if allowed to select pages of specific animals or pictures.

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May 04, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

Non Fiction for Kids: True or False series Storms, Birds (ages 6-9)

True or False series by Melvin and Gilda Berger is a young science series in a fun question-and-answer format. My kids reviewed Storms and Birds and gave both a thumbs up. My oldest has been studying weather as a science unit in 4th Grade so she was familiar with hurricanes and tornadoes but there were still factoids that she enjoyed learning from the book. The Birds book covers birds from all different continents; my fourth grader knew all these factoids but still enjoyed it. My 5-year-old also could participate in the Q and A so this made a nice group bedtime story.

The question-and-answer format makes non-fiction very accessible to kids and each page covers one interesting fact. I would have preferred if each photo had a caption below the picture instead of a large bubble caption as this is an important element of information in non-fiction that kids need to learn for standardized tests. The sweet spot for this series is ages 6-9. This would be a great series for reluctant readers.

To purchase any of these books, please click on image of book OR

buy at The PragmaticMom Store on the right hand column. Thank You!

Apr 20, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

Appealing Non Fiction Book: 100 Most Disgusting Things on Planet (ages 4-12)

100 Most Disgusting Things on the Planet: Prepare for the Worst by Anna Claybourne is a book that delights those with a fascination for grossness that occurs in nature. But this book is also a clever guise to get reluctant readers reading and readers of all ages engaged in life science non-fiction. This book gives equal weight to Disgusting Nature as to Disgusting Humans delving into interesting creatures as poo-covered beetles, Surinan toads that hatch their young below a layers of their mother’s skin on their backs to maggot cheese and snot. Yes, this book is hard to resist!

My five-year-old delighted in the factoids and colorful photography of gross stuff. My fourth grader read alongside with the fascination one has for a on-coming train wreck. Each entry gets a full page with “yuck factor,” photograph with captions, and side bar tips. If you child likes the Guiness Book of World Records, he or she will love this book and it’s much more portable!

If you are looking for reading material for boys, please check out my Favorite Books for Reluctant Boy Readers or my Top 10: Magic School Bus Science Books.

To buy this book, please click on the image of the book

or buy at the PragmaticMom Store on the right hand column. Thank You!

Apr 19, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

Non-Fiction Animal Picture Books That Teach Math

My 2nd grader bought these books home from her school library yesterday and I pounced on them. Apparently, there were three available, but she was only able to check out two. These books combine a really interesting, behind-the-scenes-at-the-zoo, rescue story about a zoo animal baby and marries it with a mathematical concept. These books are perfect for grades 2-5.

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Polar Bear Math: Learning About Fractions from Klondike and Snow is the story about two polar bear cubs abandoned by their mother at the Denver Zoo and their fight for survival AND about fractions.

Tiger Math: Learning to Graph from a Baby Tiger is the story about a tiger born at the Denver Zoo whose mama tiger unexpectedly dies of cancer when he’s just a cub AND about graphing.

The author, Ann Whitehead Nagda, has an interesting background. She has a degree in mathematics and worked for IBM. She travels widely around the world then becomes a docent at the Denver Zoo and starts cranking out these books. She seems like a really interesting person; I’d love to have her for my neighbor!

Here are her other books:

Cheetah Math: Learning about Division from Baby Cheetahs