What Floats in a Moat? a STEM Friday review

OK, here's one for you - can you think of a funny, rhyming picture book that teaches Archimedes' Principle? It's hard to believe, but yes, it does exist! What Floats in a Moat?

Berry, Lynne. 2013. What Floats in a Moat? New York: Simon & Schuster. Illustrated by Matthew Cordell.

Archie the Goat
stopped short at a moat.

He measured and mapped.

He doodled and drew.
He sketched and scribbled
 and scrawled.

"Aha! To cross the moat,"
pronounced the goat,
"we build a contraption to float!"

And so begins a silly tale of trial and error as Archie and Skinny the Hen try to cross the moat in the S.S. Buttermilk, a barrel that is in turns full, empty, and finally, just right.  If there is a more fun way to learn about Archimedes' Principle, it surely involves actual water!  Fun, entertaining, and educational, too.  What more can you ask for?

See a preview of What Floats in a Moat? here.


Today’s post is part of STEM Friday, a weekly round-up of children’s science, engineering, math and technology books.

Join STEM Friday! We invite you to join us!

• Write about STEM each Friday on your blog.
• Copy the STEM Friday button to use in your blog post.

It's STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

• Link your post to the comments of our weekly STEM Friday Round-up. (Please use the link to your STEM Friday post, not the address of your blog. Thanks!)

Picture Book Roundup - May edition

So many great picture books have passed my desk lately.  Here are a few:

• Joose, Barbara. 2012. Old Robert and the Sea-Silly Cats. Ill. by Jan Jutte. New York: Philomel.

Each night, Old Robert counts "his regular things in their regular place"

Clean socks
a clock
my ship in the slip at the dock.
One dish
one spoon
a slice of the silver moon.

Things are always the same until the night a cat asks to come in.  There was no room for a cat on Old Robert's boat,

And yet ...
        and yet ...
               Old Robert said yes ...
... and the cat came in.

This is a delightfully, quirky story about Old Robert, his boat, and how one small decision can change a life (or two, or three, or ...).  Illustrations by the Netherlands' Jan Jutte, give Old Robert and the Sea-Silly Cats a salty and silly air reminiscent of old comics (think Popeye or original Tin Tin) touched with whimsy.  Comforting, repetitive refrains make this a great read aloud. 

There is just something irresistible about Old Robert and the Sea-Silly Cats.

And there's apparently a song available, too,  "Old Roberts Jig" by the Happy Racers.

• Elya, Susan Middleton. 2012. Fire! ¡Fuego! Brave Bomberos. Ill. by Dan Santat. New York: Bloomsbury.

My husband has had a long and wonderful career in the fire department, so I'll admit some partiality to firefighter books, even ones that feature firefighters rescuing cats from trees.  For the record, professional firefighters don't rescue cats from trees. They will, however, rescue animals from fires, and in Fire! ¡Fuego! Brave Bomberos, a house fire traps a poor kitty on an upper floor,

Climbing up la escalera,
KITTY, KITTY,
COME AFUERA.
Coaxed by food in small pedazos,
kitten jumps to outstretched brazos.

See how easy that was?  You're speaking Spanish. Even without the brightly colored double spread illustration of a firefighter on a ladder, hand extended with cat treats, you knew what it meant, and kids will too!  The story rhymes, the meter's fine, and if you need help with pronunciation, it's all in the Glossary.  All bias aside, I like it!

• Kohuth, Jane. 2012. Duck Sock Hop. Ill. by Jane Porter. New York: Penguin. 

I've been waiting to see this one, ever since I saw it on Fuse #8's Librarian Preview.  As usual, Betsy Bird knows her stuff. 

Warm up, wiggle,
stretch your beak.
Duck Sock Hop
comes once a week.

Short, fun, and simple with colorful illustrations surrounded by white space with minimal text on each page.  Perfect for storytime, for toddlers, for reading aloud.

And another song!  This one comes with the free "Duck Sock Hop Bop," composed by Jeremy Stepansky, the author's cousin.  I'm always game for singing, so I'll give it a try.  Thankfully, children are such kind audiences.

And last but not least, a little beauty of a book,

• Isadora, Rachel. 2012. Bea at Ballet. New York: Penguin.

Rachel Isadora's simple words are accompanied by pen and pencil sketches of an adorable mix of multicultural children.  All are highlighted by colorful clothing painted in oils. Another perfect book for very young listeners.

If you have or know a tiny ballerina, this book is a must!

The Glorious Adventures of the Sunshine Queen

McCaughrean, Geraldine. 2011. The Glorious Adventures of the Sunshine Queen. New York: Harper.

Out of prarie desperation tumble the most amusing predicaments you've read in ages! It's like Mark Twain for kids.

Cissy Sissney lives in the prairie railroad stop of Olive Town, circa 1890. Since her beloved teacher, Miss Loucien left town with The Bright Lights, a traveling theater group, life hasn't been the same. 

Beyond the window, a great tidal wave of Boredom rolled in from the eastern horizon, then broke over the school roofs and Main Street and the silo and the umbrella factory before rolling on to the western horizon.  Cissy knew the color of boredom; it was the color of prairie.  It was the color of northwest Oklahoma.  It was the color of schoolday afternoons.  Sometimes she thought they sky had been nailed down on Olive Town like a crate lid and that she was suffocating on Boredom.

And things were about to get worse. School might be boring, but at least she had friends there, including her best friend, Habakkuk (Kookie) Warboys. Now her mother wanted her to give up school, work full time in the family shop.  Her father's

heart ached for his little girl whose life had suddenly shrunk in the wash from a costume gown into a shopgirl's apron.

But life has a way of changing the best laid plans. A runaway silo accident (!) destroys Cissy's family's store and severely injures her father. To make matters worse, there is a diphtheria outbreak in Olive Town. Soon Cissy, Kookie, and the beautiful Tibbie Bolden, find themselves in the care of their prim and proper new schoolteacher, Miss May March. All are bound for refuge in Salvation - the town of Salvation, that is, current and temporary home of Mrs. Lucien Shades Crew and the Bright Lights Theater Company - at least until they can get Curly out of jail.

The Bright Lights Theater Company, currently residing in a grounded paddle wheeler, takes a highly unanticipated journey downriver, meeting up with actors, entertainers, gamblers, rogues - a complete cast of "characters!" And subject to their many unexpected situations, they become in turn The Bright Lights Theater & Shipwrecking Company, The Bright Lights Theater & Funeral Company, and The Bright Lights Theater, Last Ditch & Final Curtain Company.  The Bright Lights "family" takes it all in stride.  As Henry, the Bright Lights' English butler reminds Cissy,

Yesterday I was a butler, Miss Cecelia.  Today I seem to be the Prime Minister of England, ... Sometimes life has a way of asking us to take a step up.

And step up they do!  To the direst, funniest, most improbable situations that might be found on a dilapidated paddle steamer plying the 1890 Numchuck River, calling on such colorful ports as Salvation, Patience, Plenty, Woodpile, Blowville, and Boats-a-Cummin.

The Glorious Adventure of the Sunshine Queen is not for the reluctant reader; the reader who struggles with contextual clues.  Rather, it is for the reader who glories in wordplay, colorful language, and magnificent adventures.  Ms. McCaughrean does not stop to ensure that the reader has "gotten," the joke (and there are many!), she keeps on moving, toward greater exploits downriver.  Get ready to be swept away from Salvation to Golden Bend on an exuberant trip with the Bright Lights!
Highly recommended.

The Glorious Adventures of the Sunshine Queen is a sequel to the 2005 novel, Stop the Train. I've never read Stop the Train, having only recently become a huge fan of Ms. McCaughrean after reading The Death-Defying Pepper Roux (my favorite book of 2010). I slipped easily onto the fictional Numchuck River, however, without the benefit of the Train.

A few comments on the cover art - Elizabeth Bird of Fuse #8 had an intriguing post about books which appear to be hiding the fact that they are novels of historical fiction.  Certainly no one can make that claim in this case.  However, I wonder if the cover looks a little too much like historical fiction and fails to hint at the hilarity and mayhem contained within.  One need only to look at the UK version (with its alternate title of Pull Out all the Stops) to see what I mean.  Of course, it highlights the Sunshine Queen's fieriest adventure, but it lets the reader know that there are more than petticoats, overalls, and paddle wheelers in store; there are grand adventures to come! However, in the end, as long as the cover says "Geraldine McCaughrean," that's enough of a draw for me.

Advance Reader copy begged from the publisher.  Due on shelves May 17, 2011.

Another Picture Book Roundup

I've fallen behind in all the great new books that I'd like to review - so here's a quick take on a few of my new picture book favorites.

Waddell, Martin. 2010. Captain Small Pig. Illustrated by Susan Varley. Atlanta: Peachtree. (first published in the U.K., 2009)

This book had me from page one.

One day Old Goat and Turkey took Small Pig down to Blue Lake. They found a little red boat. "I want to go for a row!" Small Pig said, dancing about. "Turkeys don't go in boats," Turkey said. "Neither do goats," said old Goat, but he climbed into the boat, and they rowed off onto Blue Lake.

It doesn't matter that one cannot catch a whale in the lake, that Little Pig is too small to row, or that he is too small to steer, Turkey and Old Goat let him try. And when Little Pig is done trying, he's tired out... and he dreams, dreams 

of a lovely day out in a boat with good friends on Blue Lake...the day that he was Captain Small Pig.

And what could be better than that? The only lesson in this book is one for grownups - Let children try. It may aggravate you today, but it gives gives the lifelong gift of confidence and remembered joy.
A perfect pairing of cheerfully painted ink drawings and an enchanting story! Love it!

Yolen, Jane. 2010. All Star! Honus Wagner and the Most Famous Baseball Card Ever. Ill. by Jim Burke. New York: Philomel.

Paintings evocative of a bygone era grace this non-fiction, picture book for older readers and help to tell the story of baseball great, Honus Wagner, and his rare baseball card, last sold for nearly three million dollars.

Stories from his childhood (he worked in a coal mine for 79 cents a day) and his early career (to try out for his first professional job, he hopped a freight train and then ran to the field without uniform, glove or spikes), offer a glimpse into both his personality and the time period.  A great baseball story for independent readers or as a read-aloud for school-age baseball fans.

Harper, Charise Mericle. 2010. Pink Me Up. New York: Knopf.
What's a little bunny to do when she's got a "pink-nic" to attend and Mama's sick?  What else can she do but "pink up" Daddy?! 

I hold Daddy's hand because he is not used to being pink. "Don't worry, Daddy.  Being pink will be fun," I tell him.

Pink Me Up is pure pinkish fun.

Kimmel, Eric A. 2010. Joha Makes a Wish: A Middle Eastern Tale. Illustrated by Omar Rayyan. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish.

According to the author's note, Joha is a recurring character throughout the Arabic-speaking world."  He is what is sometimes termed a wise or divine fool.  In this humorous retelling of a classic folktale, Joha finds a magical wishing stick.  The stick, however, does not do what he wishes - in fact, quite the opposite!  After wishing for new red slippers to replace his old sandals,

He opened his eyes.  He looked down at his feet.  He did not have a pair of red leather slippers.  He did not have a pair of worn-out sandals, either.  His sandals had disappeared!

Can it get much worse?  Oh yes!  It can!  Delightfully told by Eric Kimmel and hilariously illustrated by Omar Rayyan.  Don't miss this one!

(Fuse #8 offers a detailed review.)

Share |