Today I’m focusing on animal books. Here’s a couple that just popped into my reading basket:
The World’s Best Noses, Ears, and Eyes
by Helen Rundgren; illus. by Ingela P. Arrhenius
32 pages; ages 6-10
Holiday House, 2014
“Ears are for hearing, eyes are for seeing, and noses collect smells.” But what are we trying to see? Or hear? And what is that stinky smell?
This book offers a fun look at the diversity of noses: long noses, short noses, funny looking noses. There are hedgehog noses and moth noses, elephant noses and shark noses and the very dazzling nose of the star-nosed mole. There are lizard ears and bunny ears, cricket ears and funny ears. We look at the biggest eyes and eyes on stalks, eyes that see at night and eyes that see hundreds of images at once. And then there’s us. Humans. We’re pretty average when it comes to eyes and noses and ears. Is there anything we do better than other animals?
Animals Work
by Ted Lewin
24 pages; ages 4-8
Holiday House, 2014
This easy-reader makes good on the title’s promise. Each page features an animal at work. The text is simple subject/verb construction: “A dog herds. A horse carries.” The illustrations show an animal doing its work, from herding sheep (dog) and lifting tree trunks (elephant) to mowing the lawn (sheep) and protecting the herd (llamas). Lewin includes the important work of a companion animal, too. At the back is a map showing where the featured animals live.
Head over to Archimedes Notebook for some beyond-the-book activities and one more animals book.
STEM Friday 