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Laurie Ann Thompson

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Review: Who Gives a Poop?

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Who Gives a Poop cover

Who Gives a Poop?
Sur­pris­ing Sci­ence from One End to the OtherWho Gives a Poop?

By: Heather L. Mont­gomery, Illus­tra­tor: Iris Gottlieb
Blooms­bury Chil­dren’s Books/October 13, 2020
Ages 10–14, 192 pages

Here’s what the pub­lish­er says:

This unique­ly craft­ed nar­ra­tive non­fic­tion invites read­ers to fol­low the author into sci­ence labs, forests, hos­pi­tals, and land­fills, as the author asks:

Who uses poo?

Poop is dis­gust­ing, but it’s also packed with poten­tial. One sci­en­tist spent months train­ing a dog to track dung to bet­ter under­stand ele­phant birthing pat­terns. Anoth­er dis­cov­ered that mastodon poop years ago is the rea­son we enjoy pump­kin pie today. And every week, some folks deliv­er their own poop to med­ical facil­i­ties, where it is swirled, sep­a­rat­ed, and shipped off to a hos­pi­tal to be trans­plant­ed into anoth­er human. There’s even a train full of human poop sludge that’s stuck with­out a home in Alabama.

This irrev­er­ent and engag­ing book shows that poop isn’t just waste-and that deal­ing with it respon­si­bly is our duty.

Here’s what review­ers have said:

⭐  “A well-stirred slur­ry of facts and fun for strong-stom­ached “poop sleuths.””  —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
⭐  “Feces have lots of great sto­ries to tell… .” —BCCB (starred review)

And here are my thoughts:

OK, I have to con­fess: I had so much fun read­ing Who Gives a Poop?! Read­ing this book felt like I was walk­ing through the woods on an excit­ing adven­ture with a trust­ed friend. The author’s voice is unfail­ing­ly authen­tic, and each chap­ter con­tains a ton of real sci­ence along­side gen­uine human emo­tion and just the right amount of humor. I think what I loved most about it, how­ev­er, is how her pas­sion for sci­ence and her rev­er­ence for curios­i­ty comes through. She’s not afraid to ask ques­tions, and she takes us along on her research trips to get those ques­tions answered, as well as giv­ing us an up-close view of her hands-on observations.

Even if you think you know all you need (or want) to know about poop, I guar­an­tee you’ll take away loads of fas­ci­nat­ing facts as well as many mem­o­rable sto­ries about the sci­en­tists hunt­ing for them. Read­ers of Who Gives a Poop? will thor­ough­ly enjoy both the sub­ject mat­ter and the infor­mal approach. One cau­tion: I was pep­per­ing my fam­i­ly with ran­dom poop facts for days and days after read­ing this book. You’ve been warned! The foot­notes and author’s note are love­ly addi­tions, as is the rest of the back­mat­ter. High­ly rec­om­mend­ed for ages ten and up!

More about the book:

This fun video from the author, shar­ing the first chap­ter of Who Gives a Poop?, is not to be missed:

Click here for a fecal pho­to gallery from the author to go along with Who Gives a Poop?!

For more books by this author, vis­it https://heatherlmontgomery.com/.
Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

 

 

 

*** Dis­clo­sure: I received a dig­i­tal pre­view copy from the pub­lish­er in exchange for an hon­est review. ***
 

Blog Tour: Growing Up Gorilla by Clare Hodgson Meeker

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Growing Up Gorilla cover

Today I’m thrilled to be a part of the blog tour for Clare Hodgson Meeker’s new book, Growing Up Gorilla!

Growing Up Gorilla cover

GROWING UP GORILLA
by Clare Hodgson Meeker
Millbrook Press/September 3, 2019
Grades 3–6, 48 pages

Here’s what the publisher says about Growing Up Gorilla:

This heart­warm­ing true sto­ry chron­i­cles what hap­pened after a moth­er goril­la gave birth for the first time and then walked away from her new­born baby at Seattle’s Wood­land Park. The ded­i­cat­ed staff worked tire­less­ly to find inno­v­a­tive ways for moth­er and baby to build a rela­tion­ship. The efforts were ulti­mate­ly suc­cess­ful, as baby Yola bond­ed with her moth­er and the rest of the fam­i­ly group.

And here are my thoughts about Growing Up Gorilla:

This beau­ti­ful­ly pho­to-illus­trat­ed non­fic­tion is both metic­u­lous­ly researched and lov­ing­ly told. Meek­er does a fan­tas­tic job of bring­ing this true sto­ry to life in a very kid-friend­ly way, bring­ing us into the world of both the goril­las and their keep­ers in a way that keeps read­ers thor­ough­ly absorbed at all times. There is some­thing for every­one here, with plen­ty of dra­ma and sus­pense as well as heart-tug­ging emo­tion and (spoil­er alert!) a hap­py ending.
The book also con­tains a table of con­tents and exten­sive back­mat­ter, includ­ing an author’s note, fur­ther reading/websites/videos, glos­sary, index, maps, pri­ma­ry source quotations/images, side­bars, and more.

AND, here’s my interview with the author of Growing Up Gorilla, Clare Hodgson Meeker!

LAT: Can you describe your writing process? Did Growing Up Gorilla require any particular changes to how your typical process?

CHM: Nor­mal­ly I don’t start writ­ing a book until I’ve worked out the arc of the sto­ry from begin­ning to end and done enough research and inter­view­ing to feel ready to tell the sto­ry with excite­ment and con­fi­dence. Prepar­ing a pro­pos­al helps me orga­nize my thoughts — out­lin­ing the sto­ry with chap­ter sum­maries helps me think in scenes and how I’m going to thread in the fac­tu­al infor­ma­tion I think is rel­e­vant. Once I have that, I can begin writ­ing my first scene of the book and con­tin­ue chrono­log­i­cal­ly through the sto­ry. The only change in my writ­ing process with Grow­ing Up Goril­la was hav­ing to write a full draft before inter­view­ing the goril­la keep­ers who were direct­ly involved with help­ing Yola and her moth­er Nadiri bond. I was able to inter­view them once I had a pub­lish­er on board, which sat­is­fied the Zoo’s require­ments. How­ev­er, the zoo staff did give me some access to the Keeper’s Dai­ly Record book, which includ­ed their notes of what hap­pened dur­ing the first few months after Yola’s birth, to help me write the first draft.

LAT: What do you find most challenging about writing for kids? About Growing Up Gorilla in particular?

CHM: I’ve taught writ­ing in the schools to chil­dren for many years. When we talk about plot and what makes a sto­ry inter­est­ing, kids agree that there needs to be a prob­lem that has to be solved and a main char­ac­ter they can relate to who wants some­thing and/or has to solve the sto­ry prob­lem. In writ­ing a book about a baby goril­la whose moth­er ini­tial­ly refused to care for her after her birth, my chal­lenge was to get chil­dren to relate to these char­ac­ters and care about their prob­lems. Children’s books should be action-ori­ent­ed and avoid too much descrip­tion or flash­back. I had to choose care­ful­ly the places where I slowed down the action to describe a scene in more detail — like the night Nadiri went into labor where I want­ed to show the close rela­tion­ship between Nadiri and the infant care spe­cial­ist who had hand-raised her at birth after Nadiri’s moth­er reject­ed her. I don’t believe in writ­ing down to a cer­tain grade lev­el or lim­it­ing word choice to a grade-appro­pri­ate list. I think about pre­sent­ing the sto­ry in the most nat­ur­al way I can as though I am telling it to the read­er sit­ting next to me.

LAT: What authors and or books do you most admire, and why? Did you have any specific mentor texts that you looked at for Growing Up Gorilla?

CHM: Kather­ine Applegate’s mid­dle-grade nov­el The One and Only Ivan and her pic­ture book Ivan: The Remark­able True Sto­ry of the Shop­ping Mall Goril­la are fan­tas­tic exam­ples of a goril­la char­ac­ter and sto­ry that chil­dren can relate to and empathize with, in both a fic­tion­al ver­sion and in a more con­densed non­fic­tion format.
CHM: I am also a big fan of Sy Mont­gomery, who has writ­ten many of the Sci­en­tists in the Field series books pub­lished by Houghton Mif­flin Har­court. Her voice is so dis­tinc­tive as she takes you on an adven­ture shad­ow­ing biol­o­gists and nat­u­ral­ists who are study­ing ani­mals in the wild around the world and weav­ing in fas­ci­nat­ing facts about them.

LAT: Outside of the writing itself, what kinds of things do you do that you feel help your writing career?

CHM: I am a life-long learn­er. I love tak­ing class­es in dif­fer­ent writ­ing gen­res, from poet­ry and pic­ture books to essay and nov­el writ­ing. Hugo House in Seat­tle is a won­der­ful place to take class­es, get inspired, and meet oth­ers in the writ­ing and read­ing com­mu­ni­ty. I also enjoy writ­ing con­fer­ences where I can get tips on writ­ing and the busi­ness of writ­ing lis­ten­ing to edi­tors and talk­ing with fel­low children’s book authors.

LAT: What advice would you give to someone who is interested in writing nonfiction for kids?

CHM: Children’s non­fic­tion is a very pop­u­lar genre today, espe­cial­ly STEM sub­jects (sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy, engi­neer­ing, and math). My advice is to choose a top­ic that you are excit­ed about and will­ing to immerse your­self in, so that you can feel con­fi­dent writ­ing a sto­ry that kids and pub­lish­ers will love. Think of cre­ative ways to present your book idea, like Lau­rie Ann Thomp­son did in her Two Truths and a Lie series. It also helps to include themes that reflect the cur­rent ele­men­tary sci­ence or human­i­ties cur­ricu­lum stan­dards so a pub­lish­er can mar­ket your book to schools and libraries.

LAT: Wow, thanks so much for that shout out, Clare! And thanks so much for including me in the blog tour for Growing Up Gorilla and for taking the time to do this interview for us.

Please check out the rest of the Growing Up Gorilla blog tour stops on the schedule below!

blog tour schedule

Review: Three Stars in the Night Sky

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Zoo Scientists cover

Three Stars in the Night Sky cover

THREE STARS IN THE NIGHT SKY
by Fern Schumer Chapman
Gussie Rose Press/June 6, 2018
Grades 5–8, 56 pages

Here’s what the pub­lish­er says:

At the age of 12, Ger­da Katz fled Nazi Ger­many and came to Amer­i­ca all by her­self. Decades before the label gained recog­ni­tion, she became what’s now known as an “unac­com­pa­nied minor.” Gerda’s sto­ry of fam­i­ly sep­a­ra­tion reflects the dis­lo­cat­ing trau­ma, cul­ture shock, and excru­ci­at­ing lone­li­ness many unac­com­pa­nied minor immi­grants expe­ri­ence. As Ger­da becomes an Amer­i­can, she nev­er stops long­ing to be reunit­ed with her fam­i­ly. Three Stars in the Night Sky illu­mi­nates the per­son­al dam­age of racism in three coun­tries – Nazi Ger­many, the Domini­can Repub­lic, and the Unit­ed States dur­ing the 1930s and 40s — and the emo­tion­al dev­as­ta­tion of a child com­ing to a new coun­try alone.

And here are my thoughts:
This was an engag­ing, up close and per­son­al look at an his­tor­i­cal event that is sad­ly still rel­e­vant today for many rea­sons, includ­ing under­stand­ing World War II, anti-Semi­tism, refugees, and the very real impacts of immi­gra­tion poli­cies. There is also local rel­e­van­cy here in west­ern Wash­ing­ton state, as Ger­da emi­grat­ed to Seat­tle to escape the per­se­cu­tion of Jews in Ger­many in 1938 and wound up fac­ing the intern­ment of the region’s Japan­ese-Amer­i­can cit­i­zens. I found the sto­ry and accom­pa­ny­ing images to be inter­est­ing as well as infor­ma­tive. The for­mat makes it looks like a pic­ture book, but I would not rec­om­mend it for younger read­ers due to the sen­si­tive top­ics cov­ered and the way in which they are pre­sent­ed here. High­ly rec­om­mend­ed for grades 5 and up, how­ev­er, whether as part of learn­ing more about the World War II era or look­ing at cur­rent events through a his­tor­i­cal lens. Ger­da’s sto­ry will stick with me for some time to come, and I’m thank­ful to have had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to read about it.
For more books by this author, vis­it https://fernschumerchapman.com/.
*** Dis­clo­sure: I received a review copy from the pub­lish­er as part of judg­ing the CYBILS contest. ***
Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

Review: Votes for Women!

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Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

Votes for Women! cover
Votes for Women! Amer­i­can Suf­frag­ists and the Bat­tle for the Ballot
by Winifred Conkling
Algo­nquin Young Read­ers, Feb­ru­ary 13, 2018
Grades 8–12, 320 pages

Here’s what the publisher says about Votes for Women!:

For near­ly 150 years, Amer­i­can women did not have the right to vote. On August 18, 1920, they won that right, when the 19th Amend­ment to the Con­sti­tu­tion was rat­i­fied at last. To achieve that vic­to­ry, some of the fiercest, most pas­sion­ate women in his­to­ry marched, protest­ed, and some­times even broke the law—for more than eight decades.
From Susan B. Antho­ny and Eliz­a­beth Cady Stan­ton, who found­ed the suf­frage move­ment at the 1848 Seneca Falls Con­ven­tion, to Sojourn­er Truth and her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech, to Alice Paul, arrest­ed and force-fed in prison, this is the sto­ry of the Amer­i­can women’s suf­frage move­ment and the pri­vate lives that fueled its lead­ers’ ded­i­ca­tion. Votes for Women! explores suf­frag­ists’ often pow­er­ful, some­times dif­fi­cult rela­tion­ship with the inter­sect­ing tem­per­ance and abo­li­tion cam­paigns, and includes an unflinch­ing look at some of the ugli­er moments in women’s fight for the vote.
By turns illu­mi­nat­ing, har­row­ing, and empow­er­ing, Votes for Women! paints a vibrant pic­ture of the women whose tire­less bat­tle still inspires polit­i­cal, human rights, and social jus­tice activism.

And what the critics say about Votes for Women!:

  • “This is a fas­ci­nat­ing account of the bumpy road to women’s suf­frage in the U.S.… Well-cho­sen black-and-white archival repro­duc­tions and pho­tographs ably sup­port the text, which makes excel­lent use of pri­ma­ry sources, includ­ing excerpts from let­ters and writ­ings to bring key per­son­al­i­ties to life.” —The Horn Book Mag­a­zine (starred review)
  • “From the first Women’s Rights Con­ven­tion in Seneca Falls in 1848 to the rat­i­fi­ca­tion of the 19th Amend­ment in 1920, this is a com­mand­ing and rel­e­vant account of sweep­ing, hard-won social reform and action.” —Pub­lish­ers Week­ly (starred review)
  • “Span­ning mul­ti­ple cen­turies, this work may be the most com­pre­hen­sive account for young read­ers about the founders, lead­ers, orga­niz­ers, and oppo­nents of the Amer­i­can suf­frag­ist move­ment … Con­kling deliv­ers a tour de force.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
  • “Look­ing for a com­pre­hen­sive, well-writ­ten his­to­ry of women’s fight for the right to vote? You’ve found it. Con­kling draws read­ers in  … this is great for research as well as a good read.” —Book­list
  • “The intense dra­ma of the 72-year bat­tle for women’s suf­frage springs vivid­ly to life from the pages of this com­pul­sive­ly read­able account.” —School Library Journal

And here are my thoughts about Votes for Women!:

I lis­tened to this one as an audio­book as part of judg­ing the CYBILS con­test. I also plan to check out the print ver­sion so I can see the images and backmatter.
From the open­ing scene to the final chap­ter, I was com­plete­ly drawn in. I thought I knew a fair bit about the his­to­ry of the wom­en’s suf­frage move­ment, but it turns out I had only super­fi­cial knowl­edge of the peo­ple and events involved. I’m grate­ful to have been enlight­ened, although I’ll admit the expe­ri­ence was­n’t always easy nor pleas­ant. There were times when the injus­tices and insults endured by the women made me sput­ter with out­rage. And there were oth­er times when I was, lit­er­al­ly, reduced to tears by the way they were treat­ed. But most­ly I was grate­ful for the courage and per­sis­tence of these hero­ic female lead­ers and buoyed by it. Con­kling has brought these icons to life and giv­en us a peek inside their dai­ly lives in addi­tion to their well-known accom­plish­ments. I found it thor­ough­ly engaging.
This book should be required read­ing in schools for both girls and boys. It offers impor­tant lessons not only in his­to­ry but also in equal­i­ty and fair­ness, grit and deter­mi­na­tion, group dynam­ics and social inter­ac­tions, and pow­er and process. It also feels quite time­ly in this era of resis­tance, activism, and #MeToo. High­ly recommended.
Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

Review: Capsized! by Patricia Sutton

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Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

Capsized! cover
Cap­sized! The For­got­ten Sto­ry of the SS East­land Disaster
by Patri­cia Sutton
Chica­go Review Press (July 1, 2018)
Grades 5–8, 176 pages

Here’s what the publisher says about Capsized!:

A fas­ci­nat­ing his­tor­i­cal account of courage and tragedy on the Chica­go River
On July 24, 1915, the SS East­land, filled to capac­i­ty with 2,500 pas­sen­gers and crew, cap­sized in the Chica­go Riv­er while still moored to the pier. Hap­py pic­nic-goers head­ed for an employ­ee out­ing across Lake Michi­gan sud­den­ly found them­selves in a strug­gle for their lives. Trapped belowdecks, crushed by the crowds attempt­ing to escape the ris­ing waters, or hurled into the riv­er from the upper deck of the ship, rough­ly one-third of the pas­sen­gers, most­ly women and chil­dren, per­ished that day.
The East­land dis­as­ter took more pas­sen­ger lives than the Titan­ic and stands today as the great­est loss of life on the Great Lakes. Cap­sized! details the events lead­ing up to the fate­ful day and pro­vides a nail-bit­ing, minute-by-minute account of the ship’s cap­siz­ing. From the courage of the sur­vivors to the despair of fam­i­lies who lost loved ones, author Patri­cia Sut­ton brings to light the sto­ries of ordi­nary work­ing peo­ple endur­ing the unthinkable.
Cap­sized! also rais­es crit­i­cal-think­ing ques­tions for young read­ers: Why do we know so much about the Titan­ic’s sink­ing yet so lit­tle about the East­land dis­as­ter? What caus­es a tragedy to be for­got­ten and left out of soci­ety’s col­lec­tive mem­o­ry? And what lessons from this dis­as­ter might we be able to apply today?

And what the critics say about Capsized!:

    • “A true dis­as­ter sto­ry riv­et­ing­ly told.” —Kirkus Reviews
    • “A bad­ly designed ship, a care­less cap­tain, and decks jammed with 2,500 pas­sen­gers are a recipe for dis­as­ter. Patri­cia Sut­ton describes the trag­ic launch­ing of the SS East­land in a dra­mat­ic, riv­et­ing nar­ra­tive filled with the vivid first­hand accounts of those onboard that brings read­ers along on a har­row­ing day trip.” —Jim Mur­phy, author of New­bery Hon­or titles The Great Fire and An Amer­i­can Plague
    • “A riv­et­ing page-turn­er sure to grab read­ers’ atten­tion. Patri­cia Sutton’s well-researched Cap­sized! will leave you shocked, sad­dened, and unable to put it down.” —Kate Han­ni­gan, author of The Detective’s Assistant
    • “Through metic­u­lous research and vivid prose, Sut­ton brings to life the lit­tle-known sto­ry of the East­land ship dis­as­ter. Based on first­hand accounts of pas­sen­gers, ship work­ers and bystanders, read­ers can expe­ri­ence the peo­ple and events that led to the sink­ing of the fastest steamship on the Great Lakes and its trag­ic after­math.” —Claire Rudolf Mur­phy, author of Gold Rush Women and March­ing with Aunt Susan
    • “The nar­ra­tive-dri­ven account, filled with quotes from indi­vid­u­als and news­pa­pers, his­tor­i­cal pho­tos, and tri­al tran­scripts, is engag­ing and accessible…Extensive source notes, which account for every quote, as well as a bib­li­og­ra­phy, round out this infor­ma­tive, engross­ing title.” —Book­list
    • “Cap­sized! is an excel­lent book for his­tor­i­cal research and high­ly rec­om­mend­ed for both mid­dle and high school libraries.” — KidsReads

And here are my thoughts about Capsized!:

I read this one as part of judg­ing the CYBILS, and I could not put it down! I start­ed read­ing it one night in bed, intend­ing to get in a quick chap­ter or two before turn­ing off the light, but I did­n’t stop until I’d read every last page.
I’m shocked, and frankly a lit­tle appalled, that I’d nev­er heard of this event before. Thank­ful­ly, Sut­ton chose to ded­i­cate her­self to telling this lit­tle-known sto­ry, and she tells it very well. The book itself reads with all the sus­pense and dra­ma of a well-paced nov­el, but you can see the research that went into this true sto­ry in the includ­ed source notes and bib­li­og­ra­phy. I par­tic­u­lar­ly appre­ci­at­ed how Sut­ton spelled out the var­i­ous cumu­la­tive rea­sons for the dis­as­ter: there are many impor­tant lessons to be learned from this sto­ry. I also appre­ci­at­ed the very human con­nec­tions Sut­ton built, let­ting us feel like we real­ly get to know many of the pas­sen­gers and their actions on that trag­ic day: there are lessons to be had there as well.
Giv­ing read­ers both the fac­tu­al account of an event and its emo­tion­al res­o­nance from mul­ti­ple view­points is not easy to do. This book pulls it off; an excel­lent exam­ple of nar­ra­tive non­fic­tion and one I expect I’ll be going back to as a men­tor text. High­ly recommended!
Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

Review: EAVESDROPPING ON ELEPHANTS

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Zoo Scientists cover

Eavesdropping on Elephants cover

EAVESDROPPING ON ELEPHANTS
by Patri­cia Newman
Mill­brook Press/August 1, 2018
Grades 4–8, 56 pages

Here’s what the pub­lish­er says:

Can under­stand­ing how for­est ele­phants com­mu­ni­cate help sci­en­tists find ways to pro­tect this vul­ner­a­ble species? Researcher Katy Pane and oth­ers involved with Cor­nell University’s Ele­phant Lis­ten­ing Project believe it can. Patri­cia New­man takes read­ers behind the scenes to see how sci­en­tists are mak­ing new dis­cov­er­ies about ele­phant com­mu­ni­ca­tion and using what they learn to help these majes­tic animals.
Fea­tures: Author/Illustrator biog­ra­phy, Bibliography/further read­ing, Glos­sary, Index, Maps, Page Plus, Pri­ma­ry source quotations/images, and Reviewed

And what the crit­ics say:

  • A Junior Library Guild Selection
  • “An invit­ing intro­duc­tion to biol­o­gists at work.” —Book­list
  • “…this book does an excel­lent job of trans­port­ing read­ers and pro­vid­ing a clear, mul­ti­fac­eted pic­ture of African for­est elephants…“The more you lis­ten to wildlife, the more your mind opens up to new ideas about why the world is a place worth sav­ing.” VERDICT A great pick for mid­dle school non­fic­tion col­lec­tions.” —School Library Journal
  • “Fas­ci­nat­ing for earnest con­ser­va­tion­ists.” —Kirkus Reviews

And here are my thoughts:
Patri­cia New­man does it again, with anoth­er engag­ing piece of nar­ra­tive non­fic­tion! This is a high­ly engag­ing read about the less well-known African for­est ele­phants and sev­er­al of the sci­en­tists who study them. The sci­ence here–bioacoustics–is quite inter­est­ing and the human sto­ries give it a per­son­al touch. I always appre­ci­ate when we get to see how sci­en­tists real­ly work, and it’s espe­cial­ly reward­ing to get a peek at how they col­lab­o­rate with one anoth­er on their sep­a­rate-but-relat­ed research projects. The book also men­tions some of the con­ser­va­tion aspects involved and even how kids can par­tic­i­pate if they’re so inspired. An added bonus is that most of the sci­en­tists in the book hap­pen to be women, which is so impor­tant for show­ing young girls that they can indeed have an impor­tant career in the sciences.
Final­ly, watch the trail­er to see–and hear–some of the ani­mals from the book!

Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

Review: ZOO SCIENTISTS TO THE RESCUE

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Zoo Scientists cover

Zoo Scientists cover

ZOO SCIENTISTS TO THE RESCUE
by Patri­cia New­man, pho­tographs by Annie Crawley
Mill­brook Press/August 1, 2017
Grades 4–8, 64 pages

Here’s what the pub­lish­er says:

Zoos take care of ani­mals and wel­come vis­i­tors of all ages, but that’s not all zoos do. Author Patri­cia New­man and pho­tog­ra­ph­er Annie Craw­ley bring read­ers behind the scenes at three zoos to meet sci­en­tists work­ing to save endan­gered animals.
Mered­ith Bas­tian’s expe­ri­ences study­ing wild orang­utans help edu­cate both zoo vis­i­tors and the zoo work­ers who care for cap­tive orang­utans. Jeff Baugh­man breeds black-foot­ed fer­rets and rein­tro­duces them into the wild. And Rachel San­tymire exam­ines poop from black rhi­noc­er­os­es at the zoo and in their nat­ur­al habi­tat to ben­e­fit all black rhi­nos. Find out how zoo sci­en­tists are help­ing us learn more about these remark­able, at-risk species before it’s too late!
Fea­tures: Author Biog­ra­phy, Bib­li­og­ra­phy, Full-Col­or Pho­tographs, Fur­ther Read­ing, Glos­sary, Index, Maps, Pri­ma­ry Source Quo­ta­tions, Websites

The pro­fes­sion­al review­ers liked it:

“Many kids are famil­iar with zoos, but there’s much more to these attrac­tions than an oppor­tu­ni­ty to see ani­mals up close. New­man shines a light on the impor­tant work zoo sci­en­tists do to aid con­ser­va­tion and con­tribute impor­tant research, both at zoo labs and in the wild. This engag­ing­ly writ­ten book focus­es on three sci­en­tists and their work pro­tect­ing and research­ing orang­utans, black-foot­ed fer­rets, and black rhi­noc­er­os­es, respec­tive­ly. Each sci­en­tist describes his or her back­ground, research in the wild, chal­lenges to con­ser­va­tion efforts, and how zoo labs help them do their work. Pho­tos of the sci­en­tists in the field, as well as their ani­mal research sub­jects, enlivens the already fas­ci­nat­ing mate­r­i­al. New­man clear­ly describes the con­di­tions that led to each species becom­ing endan­gered and encour­ages read­ers to think care­ful­ly about their own actions in light of threats to wildlife. Though the book appears slim, the con­tent is fair­ly dense, so this will like­ly appeal more to mid­dle-grade read­ers. Hand this to kids who can’t get enough of the Sci­en­tists in the Field series.” —Book­list

“In this incred­i­bly infor­ma­tive book, read­ers learn about three zoo sci­en­tists who are work­ing to save three species (orang­utans, black-foot­ed fer­rets, and wild black rhi­nos) using a vari­ety of meth­ods, from con­ser­va­tion edu­ca­tion to breed­ing pro­grams. New­man also includes ideas on how stu­dents can con­tribute to con­ser­va­tion efforts, such as reduc­ing palm oil usage. Var­i­ous zoos and orga­ni­za­tions that focus on con­ser­va­tion are also men­tioned; for exam­ple, biobanks, where sci­en­tists freeze the sperm and eggs of var­i­ous species in order to pro­tect it from a cat­a­stroph­ic loss. The pho­tographs show the ani­mals as well as the sci­en­tists and effec­tive­ly enhance the infor­ma­tion pre­sent­ed. Sev­er­al charts, includ­ing one com­par­ing apes and mon­keys, add a deep­er lev­el of under­stand­ing. Maps of the orig­i­nal and cur­rent habi­tats of the crea­tures are help­ful in visu­al­iz­ing how the earth has changed over the years. A great book for research or for stu­dents inter­est­ed in con­ser­va­tion. —School Library Journal

And here are my thoughts:
I real­ly enjoyed this book. As the Book­list review above says, the book is quite slim, so I was not expect­ing to learn as much as I did once I cracked the cov­er! On the one hand, I did­n’t want to put the book down, because I was so engrossed in the sto­ries and infor­ma­tion. On the oth­er, it was nice­ly bro­ken up into the three sep­a­rate sto­ries fol­low­ing three sep­a­rate sci­en­tists and their efforts to help three spe­cif­ic species, so it was easy to pick up where I’d left off when I was forced to walk away for a bit. The sci­ence is fas­ci­nat­ing, the human sto­ries are com­pelling, and the gor­geous pho­tog­ra­phy brings it all to life right before your eyes. I’ve been ambiva­lent about zoos my whole life. I love ani­mals, so I love being able to see them… but I also want them to live as hap­pi­ly and nat­u­ral­ly as pos­si­ble. This book helped me see a dif­fer­ent side of zoos that I have heard about but nev­er real­ly had a chance to explore in much detail or depth, the con­ser­va­tion aspect. I admire the sci­en­tists pro­filed in this book and the work that they’re doing, and I am grate­ful to Patri­cia New­man and Annie Craw­ley for shar­ing their sto­ries with us.
Final­ly, watch the trail­er to see some of the peo­ple and ani­mals from the book!

Review: POISON by Sarah Albee

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POISON interior

POISON cover

POISON: DEADLY DEEDS, PERILOUS PROFESSIONS, AND MURDEROUS MEDICINES
by Sarah Albee
Pen­guin Ran­dom House/September 05, 2017
Mid­dle Grade (8–12), 192 pages

Here’s what the pub­lish­er says:

Sci­ence geeks and arm­chair detec­tives will soak up this non-lethal, humor­ous account of the role poi­sons have played in human his­to­ry. Per­fect for STEM enthusiasts!
For cen­turies, peo­ple have been poi­son­ing one another—changing per­son­al lives and the course of empires alike.
From spurned spous­es and rivals, to con­demned pris­on­ers like Socrates, to endan­gered emper­ors like Alexan­der the Great, to mod­ern-day lead­ers like Joseph Stal­in and Yass­er Arafat, poi­son has played a star­ring role in the demise of count­less indi­vid­u­als. And those are just the delib­er­ate poi­son­ings. Med­ical mishaps, greedy “snake oil” sales­men and food con­t­a­m­i­nants, poi­so­nous Pro­hi­bi­tion, and indus­tri­al tox­ins also impact­ed millions.
Part his­to­ry, part chem­istry, part who­dunit, Poi­son: Dead­ly Deeds, Per­ilous Pro­fes­sions, and Mur­der­ous Med­i­cines traces the role poi­sons have played in his­to­ry from antiq­ui­ty to the present and shines a ghoul­ish light on the dead­ly inter­sec­tion of human nature … and Moth­er Nature.

The pro­fes­sion­al review­ers have weighed in favorably:

“[Albee’s] light tone makes this mor­bid, well-researched study a sin­is­ter indul­gence.“—Book­list starred review

“A com­pelling, enter­tain­ing, and infor­ma­tive intro­duc­tion to a sin­is­ter aspect of human his­to­ry.” Kirkus Reviews
“There’s plen­ty of mate­r­i­al here to delight fans of [Geor­gia] Bragg’s pop­u­lar How They Croaked.” —The Bul­letin
“Ide­al for read­ers, includ­ing reluc­tant ones, who delight in the sci­ence and scare fac­tor of poi­sons or grotesque med­i­cine.” —School Library Journal

And here are my thoughts:
This book is deli­cious­ly dark fun! Sarah Albee’s POISON is the per­fect mix of sci­ence, his­to­ry, mys­tery, and enter­tain­ment, and read­ers of many dif­fer­ent gen­res will be thor­ough­ly engaged by this book. I know I was! From ancient times to today (and beyond!), Albee shows us how poisons–both nat­ur­al and man-made–have affect­ed humans lives and cul­ture. The facts are shock­ing and fas­ci­nat­ing, but bro­ken down in a way that makes them acces­si­ble. There’s also a ton of humor to bal­ance the heavy sub­ject mat­ter, with puns and sar­casm galore, espe­cial­ly in the titles and cap­tions. And all of it is tied togeth­er with a com­pelling design fea­tur­ing side­bars, pull­outs, pho­tos, and illus­tra­tions. There are also some seri­ous non­fic­tion fea­tures, includ­ing a table of con­tents, author’s note, acknowl­edge­ments, notes, select­ed bib­li­og­ra­phy, research guide, index, and more. A high­ly rec­om­mend­ed mid­dle-grade nonfiction!
Here are some inte­ri­or views to give you a bet­ter sense of what you can expect:
POISON interiorPOISON interior 2 POISON interior 3 POISON interior 4POISON interior 5POISON interior 6
And yes, if you’re won­der­ing, this review is per­fect for Labor Day! One of my favorite fea­tures of the book was the “Nice Work if You Can Sur­vive It” side­bars, which told of var­i­ous pro­fes­sions through­out the ages where peo­ple were actu­al­ly poi­soned by their jobs (did you know mad hat­ters were mad because of the chem­i­cals used for felt­ing?). Sober­ing, to say the least. And it made me even more grate­ful for reg­u­la­tions that pro­tect work­ers from unscrupu­lous busi­ness owners!
Be sure to check out Sarah’s oth­er great books, too!
Why'd They Wear That? cover BUGGED cover POOP HAPPENED cover

The Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive! Blog Tour Wrap-Up

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Two Truths and a Lie blog tour header

Two Truths and a Lie blog tour header
Pri­or to its release date on June 27th (TOMORROW!!), many peo­ple worked real­ly hard to put togeth­er an amaz­ing blog tour for the launch of my newest book (with Ammi-Joan Paque­tte), Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive! The tour includ­ed reviews, excerpts, inter­views, give­aways, and more. Here’s a roundup of all of the great posts that were part of the offi­cial tour (links will go direct­ly to the rel­e­vant post):

There were also a few that weren’t part of the offi­cial blog tour, but that put up awe­some posts dur­ing the same time frame, so I want­ed to high­light those as well:

I’m extreme­ly grate­ful to each and every one of these blog­gers for help­ing to get the word out about our new book in par­tic­u­lar, of course, but also just for shar­ing their love of books and writ­ing in gen­er­al. I hope you’ll stop by and check out all of their won­der­ful blogs! ❤️
 

Review: Fred Korematsu Speaks Up

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Yes­ter­day, Jan­u­ary 30th, was Fred Kore­mat­su Day of Civ­il Lib­er­ties and the Con­sti­tu­tion. I did­n’t know much about Fred Kore­mat­su’s sto­ry before read­ing this brand new book, Fred Kore­mat­su Speaks Up, writ­ten by Lau­ra Atkins and Stan Yogi, and illus­trat­ed by Yuta­ka Houlette. I’m so thank­ful, now, that I do.
Fred Korematsu Speaks Up cover

Hey­day Books
Middle-grade
Hard­cov­er, 112 pages
ISBN: 978–159714-368–4
Price: $18.00

The book shares the sto­ry of Fred, and sec­ond-gen­er­a­tion Japan­ese Amer­i­can liv­ing on the West Coast dur­ing World War II, when the Unit­ed States forced immi­grants and cit­i­zens alike into intern­ment camps. Fred resist­ed the order, and was jailed. The ACLU took up his case, which he even­tu­al­ly lost. He lost more than just the case. Many Japan­ese Amer­i­cans turned on him, and he was offi­cial­ly con­sid­ered a con­vict­ed felon. More than 40 years lat­er, the ACLU decid­ed to try his case again after find­ing new doc­u­ments show­ing that the gov­ern­ment had lied in his orig­i­nal case… and this time they won, set­ting an impor­tant prece­dent going for­ward. Fred knew what was hap­pen­ing was wrong and stood up against it. He was a changemaker.
Here’s an excerpt from the main text:

Fred chal­lenged something
he thought was unfair.
He spoke up–
for himself
and for all Japan­ese Americans,
even when no one stood with him.
It was not easy.
But Fred fought
to make the Unit­ed States–
his country–
a fair­er place.
And he won.
We all won.

I love the lyri­cal, spare text of the book. I love the engag­ing lay­out and design fea­tur­ing illus­tra­tions, full-col­or pho­tos, def­i­n­i­tions of terms, and his­tor­i­cal time­lines. There are also side­bars and pull­out box­es that explain con­cepts in greater detail and add con­text. And I espe­cial­ly love the call­out bub­bles that ask read­ers direct ques­tions, such as, “Have you ever been pun­ished for some­thing you did­n’t do?” These make Fred’s sto­ry all the more relat­able and help read­ers make per­son­al con­nec­tions from Fred’s sto­ry to the injus­tices they see all around them every day.
In addi­tion to non­fic­tion text fea­tures such source notes, bib­li­og­ra­phy, pho­to and text cred­its, and an index, the book also includes a fan­tas­tic sec­tion about how read­ers can stand up for social jus­tice them­selves. I’m sure it will encour­age read­ers to pur­sue activism and change­mak­ing for themselves.
The tim­ing for a book like this could­n’t, unfor­tu­nate­ly, be more time­ly and impor­tant, as it comes just days after the exec­u­tive order ban­ning immi­gra­tion from cer­tain countries.
As Fred’s daugh­ter Karen writes in the afterword:

Fred Kore­mat­su’s sto­ry is the reminder of the con­stant dan­ger that the gov­ern­ment will over­reach unless the pub­lic and the courts are vigilant.

I urge you to check this one out for the chil­dren in your life, for your­self, and for our coun­try and ALL of its citizens.

NEWSLETTER
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