S. Ramsay LSC530

  Poetry Book Science Verse  written by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Lane Smith. Published by Viking (2004) When the science teacher says "they can hear the poetry of science in everything" one student is cursed/gifted to hear poetry in a variety of scientific topics. Scieszka adapts many different classic children's songs (It's Raining, It's Pouring, I've Been Working on The Railroad) and nursery rhymes (Mary Had a Little Lamb, Hey Diddle Diddle) into silly science verses in this collection of science poems. Scieszka uses many classic tunes that kids would be familiar with, and the adaptations don't lose too much of the cadence of their original works. This is a follow-up work to Scieszka and Lane's 1995 book, Math Curse , and the duo have only improved here. Scieszka and Lane have collaborated on over a dozen projects, and both can provide bizarre and hilarious moments in this book and others. Smith uses mixed media here, as he did in one of their

  Picture Book Big Cat, Little Cat  by Elisha Cooper published by Roaring Brook Press (2017) Cooper tells a simple story of change, and the inevitable passing of a loved pet. Big cat enjoys their days, and then a new companion is added to the mix, little cat. They enjoy their days together, getting up to the usual cat activities (cleaning themselves, staring at birds, and occasionally acting wild). One day the older cat goes away and doesn't come back. The cat's passing is hard on the other cat, and the human family who hadn't been seen until now, but they continue with their lives, a new cat comes along, and the cycle begins again. Cooper keeps both the text and the illustrations simple, mostly just using black and white colors except on full page spreads and after the older cat's passing. It's a tough topic to broach, but Cooper does an excellent job in conveying the joy in life up until the older cat's passing and, despite how hard it is after a loved one pas

Picture Book Sector 7  by David Wiesner, published by Clarion Books 1999 In this wordless picture book by Caldecott winner, David Wiesner, a boy goes on a school field trip to the Empire State Building and finds himself on an unlikely adventure in the clouds. He meets a friendly cloud who takes him to wear clouds come from, the boy gets creative and shows the clouds how they could resemble underwater creatures instead. Wordless picture books require a curious reader which is just what this book instills in the reader. Just like the boy, the reader will wonder what will happen next in this imaginative text, and will want to explore the beautiful illustrations. Wiesner won the Caldecott honor for his watercolor illustrations in Sector 7 , and one can't help but see the resemblance between this and one of his Caldecott winning books, Flotsam, when looking at the reimagined clouds (I'm also reminded of his graphic novel Fish Girl ). Although there is no words to guide the reader,

I remember many people reading to me when I was to young to do it myself: my parents, other relatives, and teachers. When I started Kindergarten, students were encouraged to take time to read on their own and there was a cozy nook to do it in too! I did not have a total grasp on reading by Kindergarten, but I spent many hours just looking at the books and trying to understand what was going on in the stories through the pictures and the few words I could identify. When I started to read, I enjoyed funny and weird books like Mike Thaler's Black Lagoon  series, and Tedd Arnold's Parts  trilogy. The pictures got pretty whacky, and were fun to look at and imagine the scenes playing out again and again. As I got a bit older and started to read chapter books, my interest in the weird continued. I started going to my town's library and my school's library and checked out all the Goosebumps stories they had. The library was/and is right next to a playground which made for a gre

  Ocean Meets Sky is a 2017 picture book written and illustrated by Terry and Eric Fan (The Fan Brothers) and published by Simon and Schuster.  This is the Fan Brothers' second book written and illustrated by them, their first work was The Night Gardener which I also recommend. In both of these picture books the art stands out the most, they are detailed and there is a lot to discover. In Ocean Meets Sky our main character Finn is dreaming of a surreal world where items and people from the beginning of the book have been transformed (made bigger, reinvented entirely), but it never outright states it; it's up to the reader to see where these ideas in his dream are coming from. The story itself is kept fairly simple. Finn's grandfather passed away and Finn dreams up a surreal adventure they could have had. The art is the real star here, and it's always a pleasure to pore over The Fan Brothers' illustrations. Review: Ocean Meets Sky  keeps the plot and characters fa