Nonfiction Wednesday

I'm excited that Alyson Beecher, at Kid Lit Frenzy, is continuing her Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge for the third year in a row.

 

 

I'm always excited to read a Scientists in the Field book, and I know there are students who are going to want to find out about the amazing topics these books feature.

 

 

Stronger Than Steel by Bridget Heos, with photographs by Andy Comins

 

2013-book, animal-rights, animals, intermediate-kids-book, nonfiction, nonfiction-challenge-2014,  science, young-adult-book       What do goats and spiders have in common? Don't let the golden orb weaver on the front cover (or crawling up a five-year-old's face) creep you out. This Scientists in the Field book is about more than just spiders. It's about DNA, transgenic organisms like goats and alfalfa, potential spider silk products, diabetes, bacteria, the ethics of animal testing, and spider astronauts. The animal testing section would make a great launch pad for argument writing! The work scientists do is fascinating, a...more What do goats and spiders have in common? Don't let the golden orb weaver on the front cover (or crawling up a five-year-old's face) creep you out. This Scientists in the Field book is about more than just spiders. It's about DNA, transgenic organisms like goats and alfalfa, potential spider silk products, diabetes, bacteria, the ethics of animal testing, and spider astronauts. The animal testing section would make a great launch pad for argument writing! The work scientists do is fascinating, and this series continues to make it accessible to kids. The goat photograph on the back is much cuter than the spider on the front, I must say.   Megan Ginther and I have talked about designing a literacy contract around Scientists in the Field this year.  If we do, we'll be sure to send it in as part of our series at Choice Literacy.   Next week, be sure to come visit Nonfiction Wednesday because Cathy Mere, Mandy Robek, and Julie Balen are hosting a Nonfiction Event #nf10for10 on February 19th.  Anyone can participate!  Just link up your 10 nonfiction books you can't live without to Julie Balen's blog post that day.  We've been chatting on Twitter about it - will you organize by theme? Random titles?  New or old?  So exciting!  Get your lists together - we can't wait to see them all!