Book Review: When Planet Earth Was New

It’s hard to say a lot about a book that has only 300 words. It’s elegant. It’s simple. It’s a look at billions of years of Earth’s natural history in 16 images.

This picture book is made up of engaging stylized art accompanied by super-simple text with a touch of the poetic. I would love to have a little kid again to read this to. It is accurate, but accessible. Images are full of action. Gladstone wrote about complex things using words are short and common; though a parent might have to explain “evolve,” it is a common word. Sentences hover around 10 words.

“The earth cooled slowly — so slowly…”

While this book doesn’t have the resilience of a board book, I’d much rather have read this to my son than Goodnight Moon every night for four years, even before he knew what the words meant. We would look at all the scenes, talking about what is shown, how long a million is, whether humans rode dinosaurs (they didn’t, and the text makes it clear that the two creatures are separated by several pages). We would use the folio at the end to guide discovery of each image, making it a scavenger hunt as we spot more detail. A glossary and list of related websites would help me explain even more and guide that little learner where their curiosity leads.

Diemert created the art with ink, collage, and digital media. She made every image active and engaging and full of detail that kids will love to discover every single night. Even the spread showing a dinosaur skeleton in the desert has an active tiny creature kids can imagine a story for.

The book leaves us with a sense that though Earth’s journey was long, it’s not over. Little minds will wonder where it might lead, and they’ll repeat the poetic words making them part of the family lexicon.

Recommended for kids from 1 to 8.

by James Gladstone, illustrations by Katherine Diemert

36 pages, OwlKids Books

Images from the book reproduced with permission of OwlKids Books.

So You Want to Work with Animals.....

Post by Helaine Becker

A lot of kids love the idea of a career working with animals. Who can blame them?Animals are cute, cuddly, funny, fascinating. But they're also hard to take care of!

For my recent book, Worms for Breakfast: How to Feed a Zoo,  I got the chance to interview several people who do work with animals, every day. They told me what their favorite parts of their jobs were, what they liked least, and how they got the job in the first place. While most agreed that their jobs had lots of hard bits, they all agreed that working with animals was everything they'd imagined it would be: challenging, exciting and rewarding.

Dr. Deb Schmidt, a Nutritionist at the St. Louis Zoo, had this to say, "The fun part of being an animal nutritionist is helping to solve problems. I like to figure out what nutrients animals need and at what levels. Sometimes, domestic animals (like cows, horses, chickens, dogs and cats) give us clues about what wild animals similar to them may need. But the diets of other animals (such as apes and reptiles) can be harder to figure out."

Dr. Schmidt went on to say that if you want to become a zoo nutritionist, you should be good at math and science. A strong background in biology or biochemistry wouldn't hurt!

You can find out more about careers that involve science and working with animals, check out Worms for Breakfast.  But also check out Sci-Why's very own giant list of super science resources (click the tab, above). You'll find a listing there specifically for Careers in Science.

Another Book Birthday!

Have you ever wondered what to feed a platypus? Or how to keep a lion from getting bored with a never-changing menu of antelope, antelope, antelope? Zookeepers certainly have, and for them it's literally a matter of life and death.

Keeping hundreds of different animals fed and healthy is a mammoth job. And I wanted to know how they did it. Do zoos have boxes of index cards with favorite recipes? And if so, what are they?

The answer is yes, they do, and all last year I chatted with animal nutritionists at zoos all over the world to find out their go-to recipes and secret ingredients. I also found out more about the issues zoos are facing:  about whether or not animals should be kept in captivity, and what to do for animals whose habitats are disappearing. I learned about best practices in animal and habitat conservation, breeding and more.

For example, do you know how  - or why - it is important to hand-rear flamingo chicks in captivity?
You'll find the answer, and a recipe for a yummers smoothie here! You'll also find out why pandas get birthday cakes and tigers get popsicles ---really.

Worms for Breakfast: How to Feed a Zoo is published by Owlkids Books and is a Junior Library Guild selection. You can find the book at your favorite bookseller anywhere in North America.

CSWA 2014 Book Awards Short List Announced!

Post by Helaine Becker

We here at Sci-Why are pleased to interrupt our regular publishing schedule (which is normally on every Friday) to post the short list for this year's:

CSWA 2014 Book Awards

And yes, I'm pleased as punch to point out that my own book, Zoobots, is on the Children's Book Short List. 

Best of luck to all the nominees! If you are a reader, you won't need luck to pick a winner from these lists - are all guaranteed to inform and delight. 

Short List for the 2014 Science in Society Children/ Middle Grades Book Award competition:

Zoobots by Helaine Becker, Kids Can Press.

Starting from Scratch by Sarah Elton, Owl Kids Books.

It’s Catching by Jennifer Gardy, Owl Kids Books.

The Fly by Elise Gravel, Penguin Random House.

If by David J. Smith, Kids Can Press.

Short List for the 2014 Science in Society General Book Award competition:

The End of Memory by Jay Ingram, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.

Canadian Spacewalkers: Hadfield, MacLean and Williams Remember the Ultimate High Adventure by Bob McDonald, Douglas & McIntyre.

Pain and Prejudice: What Science can Learn about Work from the People Who Do It by Karen Messing, Between the Lines (BTL).

Is that a Fact? by Dr Joe Schwarcz, ECW Press.

Bee Time by Mark L. Winston, Harvard University Press.

The winners in each category will be announced on Canada Book Day, 23 April 2015. Winners will each be presented with a plaque and $1000 cash prize during an awards dinner held in conjunction with the CSWA ‘s 44^th annual conference in Saskatoon, SK, held at the University of Saskatchewan 18-21 June 2015.

Our Science Book List Hits its First Update!

By Claire Eamer

There's nothing like publishing a list of books to make more books and authors pop out of the woodwork! (Well, actually, we missed a few the first time.)

Anyway, our amazing and awesome and Really Long list of great science books for kids has already received its first update. Click the link for more science-y goodness!

This update courtesy of Sci/Why's perpetual motion machine, Helaine Becker. Thanks!

The 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel? Maybe....

In the November 2013 issue of The Atlantic, the Editors present a list of their top 50 inventions since, well, the wheel.

A few years ago, I covered this same ground in my book What's the Big Idea? from Owlkids.

Needless to say, the choice presented in my book were not exactly the same as the ones the Atlantic came up with (and there are more of them). That's partly because I selected inventions based on what's most important to kids.

For example, there's the all-important needle.

The needle you say? Why would kids care about a needle?

Simple. The needle is what allowed our ancestors to survive the brutal cold of the Ice Age in Northern Europe etc. etc. They used it so they weren't totally reliant on furs for clothing. And think about it - if you drape furs around you, they can be a little drafty. You really need something to wear underneath them, something close to the skin that you can layer...

Underwear.

Without the needle, there'd be no underwear. And without underwear, we wouldn't have survived the freezy breezy.

So check out the Atlantic list of inventions for sure, but don't overlook, ahem, what's under-represented. Check out What's the Big Idea? for a real EYE-opener. (get it?)

PSST, while you're at it, you might what to check out my current book, Ode to Underwear! Yes, I have a "thing" for underthings!)