THREE RECOMMENDED BOOKS!

            

 

 

Greetings from very gray, rainy and cold McKinney! An apropos end to 2020, methinks. Listening to The Planets by Holst and thinking about the books I read yesterday!

The Fabled Stables is a new series by Jonathan Auxier. The fabled stables are on a small island at the top of the world. An eight-year old boy, Auggie, is assigned to take care of all of the creatures that live in the stables.  He is a bit lonely, though. He has Fen, his Stick-in-the-Mud, which can transform into any tool that is needed but Fen doesn't really want to play.... Auggie has finished feeding all of the creatures when there is a big BOOM - and a portal opens in the stables for Auggie to go and rescue a creature that is in trouble. Should he go? How will he get back? And what kind of creature is it? 

This is what I would call a Stepping Stone book. It has short chapters with large-ish print and lots of illustrations. It is similar in length and format to the Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo. It's perfect for kids that have outgrown Readers but are not quite ready for a two or three hundred page book filled with lots of text and few or no illustrations. It would also make a great read-aloud! If you enjoy Willa the Wisp, you can look forward to the second book in the series which will be published in May!

Cozy is Jan Brett's latest book! I love anything by Jan Brett and found this book to be delightful! It's about a young musk ox named Cozy that is separated from his family during a winter storm. He's not too worried because he has his cozy coat to keep him warm. Gradually a few other critters discover Cozy and his warm coat. First is a freezing family of lemmings. Next is an arctic hare. Then a snowy owl and arctic fox... Some ground rules must be laid, of course, with this diverse gathering of animals. Not too much chatter, only a little thumping, no claws and no biting! More creatures gather under Cozy's protective coat but eventually spring arrives and Cozy finds her herd again. Some have compared this to The Mitten and while I can see similarities, I find this to be a completely different kind of story. It's not really a folk tale as much as it is an informational book - introducing children to animals that live in the Arctic and highlighting some of their differences. The illustrations, of course, are marvelous. And I have a soft spot for musk oxen, anyway. I got to see a few of them when I visited Alaska plus they were the favorite animal of Alex Trebek. If you would like to visit a musk ox farm with Jan and see her read the story, here is a link to a YouTube video!

Last is The Language of the Universe: A Visual Exploration of Mathematics by Colin Stuart. This is a book that belongs in every classroom. Or home if you homeschool! So much accessible information is packed into 80 pages! But this is not really a small book - it is oversized - a little over 13 inches tall! - and filled with interesting tidbits about different inventors, different types of math, different formulas... just enough to whet your appetite to learn more. Or to reinforce theories or ideas that you may have already heard a little bit about. 

I was intrigued by the story of Tycho Brahe. He was so passionate about math he lost the tip of his nose arguing over a mathematical formula. With a cousin! Plus Tycho's detailed observations were essential to Kepler discovering his laws about the ways planets orbit the sun.
Plus the Perisan poet Ferdowsi's study of exponential growth in the year 1000.  

Background knowledge is really important for kids. It provides them with hooks to hang other information on to -  and this book provides a wealth of that type of information. 

 

Happy end of 2020! Here's to brighter days in 2021!