Is it too late to share what I read in July? I will anyway, 'though it was a pretty light reading month; too many other vacation distractions. But I did manage to read a few good books.
by Joseph D'Agnese
Funky cover, awesome content. This is a series of fascinating journalistic essays on ordinary citizen scientists who are making their own unique contributions in the world. I just like Joseph D'Agnese's approachable style of writing. And he has a knack for making science interesting.
by Meg Cabot
This is a fluffy, fun adult (yes, most definitely adult) romance with a touch of mystery and a whole lot of being chased by bad guys. This is only the second Meg Cabot book, the first being Insatiable a year or so ago. I read She Went All the Way at my sister's house, where, coincidentally, my 15-year-old niece was in the middle of Cabot's famed Princess Diaries series, w
hich she says she's really enjoying. ("And completely different from the movies," she says.)She kept eyeing the book and finally asked if it was by the same author. I said "Yes, but if you touch this book your mother will string me up by my little toes, so hands off, toots."
Oddly enough, I've never read any of Meg Cabot's tween/teen books.
by Maria V. Snyder
Trella is a pipe scrubber, a resident of the Inside: a mysterious, overcrowded world where classes of people (the intellectuals vs. the "workers") are kept separate, and not given much knowledge of each other, or what, exactly is the world they inhabit. When Trella reluctantly goes with her foster brother to meet a prophet claiming the existence of the mysterious Gateway -a portal long talked about, but held by most to be mere myth- she inadvertently starts a growing rebellion against the establishment.
I started reading this dystopian book and didn't want to put it down until I finished. (And for those who care about possible objectionable content: if it were a movie, it would be rated PG for violence, and G -possibly PG- for sexual content, and I don't remember any language.) The sequel is Outside In.
Showing posts with label Joseph D'Agnese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joseph D'Agnese. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Three Picture Book Biographies of Great Scientists and Mathematicians
Written and illustrated by Don Brown
Ages 6 and up
(Published in 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company)
This book introduced my girls to Albert Einstein, taking him from his birth to the years of his greatest accomplishments in theoretical physics, highlighting his early characteristics, personality and interests. My older two girls liked the book, even though they didn't understand the science it contained.
They were especially intrigued when the book mentions Einstein's early fascination with the compass, since they recently acquired compasses and we have been working on the concept of magnetic north and how to use a compass.
The author also includes a note at the end of the book containing more details of Einstein's life (including an intriguing suggestion of a book to read regarding what happened to Einstein's brain after he died), and lists other biographies to pursue more knowledge of Einstein.
Written by Joseph D'Agnese
Illustrated by John O'Brien
Ages 6 and up
(Published in 2010 by Henry Holt and Company)
The author says in his note at the end of the book that "Little is known about the life of the mathematician called Leonardo Fibonacci. This story is based on the few things we do know--and a bit of make-believe."
The book tells the story of young Leonardo Fibonacci who spends alot of time skylarking out of boredom and thinking about the numbers he sees in nature, much to the vexation of his teacher, who calls him a blockhead. His fellow students and the people of the town take up the refrain, so Leonardo spends much of his time feeling like he doesn't fit in. But one of the men who works for his father sees his potential and helps him explore his interest in numbers. As he travels the world with his merchant father, he learns about the Hindu-Arabic numerals. The ease of using them makes Leonardo excited to share them with the rest of the world, which is still using the clumsy Roman numerals. He wrote a book about the Hindu-Arabic numerals in which he included a riddle that became the famed Fibonacci Sequence. He realized that everywhere he looked in nature, he kept seeing the same numbers appearing: the numbers in his Fibonacci Sequence.
The book is well-written, and because it is told in first person narrative, it is very relate-able. I think D'Agnese does an excellent job of showing children that the natural world is full of numbers. D'Agnese also does an excellent job of presenting the Fibonacci Sequence in way that is easy to understand, although it may be a bit mind boggling to younger readers.
(I just hope I won't be hearing my girls call each other "Blockhead".)
Ages 5 and up
(Published in 1996 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
"A book depicting the life of a famous scientist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, physicist: Galileo Galilei."
One of the things I really like about this fascinating book is that it has a little something for a wide spectrum of young (and old) readers. There is the main story line that is very readable and interesting for both younger and older children, and there are extra facts, fascinating trivia, and quotes from Galileo himself in cursive script, that will appeal to older readers of the book.
I only read the main story line on the first reading aloud of the book, so as not to interrupt the flow of the story. Then we went back and read some of the cursive parts. (Most of the information in the cursive parts was too detailed and the language and concepts too difficult to be of interest to my little girls, so I just skipped those parts. However, if Olivia or Karina happen to read it themselves, we'll deal with the questions that may arise.)
I liked the pictures that are so reminiscent of art in Galileo's day, but they were confusing to my girls. I think the pictures would be appreciated more by older children.
Ages 6 and up
(Published in 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company)
This book introduced my girls to Albert Einstein, taking him from his birth to the years of his greatest accomplishments in theoretical physics, highlighting his early characteristics, personality and interests. My older two girls liked the book, even though they didn't understand the science it contained.
They were especially intrigued when the book mentions Einstein's early fascination with the compass, since they recently acquired compasses and we have been working on the concept of magnetic north and how to use a compass.
The author also includes a note at the end of the book containing more details of Einstein's life (including an intriguing suggestion of a book to read regarding what happened to Einstein's brain after he died), and lists other biographies to pursue more knowledge of Einstein.
Written by Joseph D'Agnese
Illustrated by John O'Brien
Ages 6 and up
(Published in 2010 by Henry Holt and Company)
The author says in his note at the end of the book that "Little is known about the life of the mathematician called Leonardo Fibonacci. This story is based on the few things we do know--and a bit of make-believe."
The book tells the story of young Leonardo Fibonacci who spends alot of time skylarking out of boredom and thinking about the numbers he sees in nature, much to the vexation of his teacher, who calls him a blockhead. His fellow students and the people of the town take up the refrain, so Leonardo spends much of his time feeling like he doesn't fit in. But one of the men who works for his father sees his potential and helps him explore his interest in numbers. As he travels the world with his merchant father, he learns about the Hindu-Arabic numerals. The ease of using them makes Leonardo excited to share them with the rest of the world, which is still using the clumsy Roman numerals. He wrote a book about the Hindu-Arabic numerals in which he included a riddle that became the famed Fibonacci Sequence. He realized that everywhere he looked in nature, he kept seeing the same numbers appearing: the numbers in his Fibonacci Sequence.
The book is well-written, and because it is told in first person narrative, it is very relate-able. I think D'Agnese does an excellent job of showing children that the natural world is full of numbers. D'Agnese also does an excellent job of presenting the Fibonacci Sequence in way that is easy to understand, although it may be a bit mind boggling to younger readers.
(I just hope I won't be hearing my girls call each other "Blockhead".)
Written and Illustrated by Peter Sis
Caldecott Honor BookAges 5 and up
(Published in 1996 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
"A book depicting the life of a famous scientist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, physicist: Galileo Galilei."
One of the things I really like about this fascinating book is that it has a little something for a wide spectrum of young (and old) readers. There is the main story line that is very readable and interesting for both younger and older children, and there are extra facts, fascinating trivia, and quotes from Galileo himself in cursive script, that will appeal to older readers of the book.
I only read the main story line on the first reading aloud of the book, so as not to interrupt the flow of the story. Then we went back and read some of the cursive parts. (Most of the information in the cursive parts was too detailed and the language and concepts too difficult to be of interest to my little girls, so I just skipped those parts. However, if Olivia or Karina happen to read it themselves, we'll deal with the questions that may arise.)
I liked the pictures that are so reminiscent of art in Galileo's day, but they were confusing to my girls. I think the pictures would be appreciated more by older children.
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