All in a Drop: How Antony van Leeuwenhoek Discovered an Invisible World


Lori Alexander - 2019
    A full-color chapter book biography that shows how a self-taught scientist was the first to observe the microbial life in and around us. By building his own microscope, Antony van Leeuwenhoek advanced humanity's understanding of our oft-invisible world around us.

Wild Weather: Storms, Meteorology, and Climate


M.K. Reed - 2019
    What is the difference between weather and climate? How do weather satellites help us predict the future? Can someone outrun a tornado? Does the rotation of the Earth affect wind currents? And does meteorology have anything to do with meteors? Stormin’ Norman Weatherby is gearing up to answer all your wildest questions!Get ready to explore the depths of the ocean, the farthest reaches of space, and everything in between! These gorgeously illustrated graphic novels offer wildly entertaining views of their subjects. Whether you're a fourth grader doing a natural science unit at school or a thirty-year-old with a secret passion for airplanes, Science Comics is for you!

From Here to There: Inventions That Changed the Way the World Moves


Vivian Kirkfield - 2021
    Perfect for fans of Mistakes that Worked and Girls Think of Everything.In a time when people believed flying was impossible, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier proved that the sky wasn’t the limit. When most thought horseback was the only way to race, Bertha and Karl Benz fired up their engines. From the invention of the bicycle and the passenger steam locomotive, to the first liquid-fuel propelled rocket and industrial robot, inventors across the world have redefined travel. Filled with informative sidebars and colorful illustrations, this collective biography tells the story of the experiments, failures, and successes of visionaries who changed the way the world moves.

Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth


Molly Bang - 2014
    professor Penny Chisholm to present the fascinating, timely story of fossil fuels.What are fossil fuels, and how did they come to exist? This engaging, stunning book explains how coal, oil, and gas are really "buried sunlight," trapped beneath the surface of our planet for millions and millions of years.Now, in a very short time, we are digging them up and burning them, changing the carbon balance of our planet's air and water. What does this mean, and what should we do about it?Using simple language and breathtaking paintings, Bang and Chisholm present a clear, concise explanation of the fossil-fuel energy cycle that began with the sun and now runs most of our transportation and energy use in our world.Readers will be mesmerized by this engaging fourth book in the award-winning Sunlight Series by Bang and Chisholm.

The Boreal Forest: A Year in the World's Largest Land Biome


L.E. Carmichael - 2020
    Besides providing homes for a diversity of species, this spectacular forest is also vitally important to the planet: its trees clean our air, its wetlands clean our water and its existence plays an important role in slowing global climate change. In this beautifully written book, award-winning author L. E. Carmichael explores this special wilderness on a tour of the forest throughout the four seasons, from one country to another. Evocative watercolor and collage artwork by award-winning illustrator Josée Bisaillon provides a rare glimpse of one of the world's most magnificent places. With excellent STEM applications in earth science and life science, this enjoyable book aims to foster environmental awareness of and appreciation for this crucial forest and its interconnections with the entire planet. In a unique approach, the text features a lyrical fictional narrative describing the wildlife in a specific part of the forest, paired with informational sidebars to provide further understanding and context. Also included are a world map of the forest, infographics on the water cycle and the carbon cycle, a glossary, resources for further reading, author's sources and an index. This book has been reviewed by experts and was written in consultation with Indigenous peoples who live in the boreal forest region.

Guitar Genius: How Les Paul Engineered the Solid-Body Electric Guitar and Rocked the World


Kim Tomsic - 2019
    

The Secret Life of the Red Fox


Laurence Pringle - 2017
    Stunning, realistic illustrations celebrate the beauty of these mysterious creatures as readers learn important facts through an engaging and fascinating story. The book also includes back matter with more in-depth information, a glossary, and further resources.

A Brief History of Underpants


Christine Van Zandt - 2021
     Gain a whole new understanding of underthings as you:Learn which ruler was buried with over 100 pairs of underwear.Discover how people kept their underclothes from falling off before elastic was invented.Find out why some underwear was made from feathers.And much, much more!Zany illustrations add to the humor, and step-by-step instructions teach real dyeing and washing techniques used hundreds of years ago. Interact with the topic directly by turning the reveal wheel on the front cover to see underwear evolve through the ages.

William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad


Don Tate - 2020
    As a young man, William went to work for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, where he raised money, planned rescues, and helped freedom seekers who had traveled north. And then one day, a strangely familiar man came into William's office, searching for information about his long-lost family. Could it be?Motivated by his own family's experience, William began collecting the stories of thousands of other freedom seekers. As a result, he was able to reunite other families and build a remarkable source of information, including encounters with Harriet Tubman, Henry "Box" Brown, and William and Ellen Craft.

The Silver Arrow


Lev Grossman - 2020
    And if their dull, uninteresting parents are anything to go by, they don't have much to look forward to. Why can't Kate have thrilling adventures and save the world the way people do in books? Even her 11th birthday is shaping up to be mundane -- that is, until her mysterious and highly irresponsible Uncle Herbert, whom she's never even met before, surprises her with the most unexpected, exhilarating, inappropriate birthday present of all time: a colossal steam locomotive called the Silver Arrow.Kate and Tom's parents want to send it right back where it came from. But Kate and Tom have other ideas -- and so does the Silver Arrow -- and soon they're off to distant lands along magical rail lines in the company of an assortment of exotic animals who, it turns out, can talk. With only curiosity, excitement, their own resourcefulness and the thrill of the unknown to guide them, Kate and Tom are on the adventure of a lifetime...and who knows? They just might end up saving the world after all.

From Tadpole to Frog


Wendy Pfeffer - 1994
    Tadpoles are likely tiny fish that breathe underwater through gills. As the tadpole gets older, it loses its fishy tail and its gills and grows legs and develops lungs. The tadpole has become a frog. From Tadpole to Frog is a lovely first look at this amazing metamorphosis.

The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid


Dylan Thuras - 2018
    And just as compelling is the way the book is structured—hopscotching from country to country not by location but by type of attraction. For example, visit the site of the Tunguska event in Siberia, where a meteor slammed into the earth in 1908—and then skip over to the Yucatan, ground zero for the ancient meteor crash that caused the mass extinction of dinosaurs. Then, while in Mexico, tour the fantastical Naica caves, home to crystals ten times larger than the average person—then, turn the page to Vietnam to a cave so vast you  could fly a 747 through it. Illustrated in gorgeous and appropriately evocative full-color art, this book is a passport to a world of hidden possibilities.

If: A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas and Numbers


David J. Smith - 2014
    But what if we took these big, hard-to-imagine objects and events and compared them to things we can see, feel and touch? Instantly, we'd see our world in a whole new way." So begins this endlessly intriguing guide to better understanding all those really big ideas and numbers children come across on a regular basis. Author David J. Smith has found clever devices to scale down everything from time lines (the history of Earth compressed into one year), to quantities (all the wealth in the world divided into one hundred coins), to size differences (the planets shown as different types of balls). Accompanying each description is a kid-friendly drawing by illustrator Steve Adams that visually reinforces the concept. By simply reducing everything to human scale, Smith has made the incomprehensible easier to grasp, and therefore more meaningful. The children who just love these kinds of fact-filled, knock-your-socks-off books will want to read this one from cover to cover. It will find the most use, however, as an excellent classroom reference that can be reached for again and again when studying scale and measurement in math, and also for any number of applications in social studies, science and language arts. For those who want to delve a little deeper, Smith has included six suggestions for classroom projects. There is also a full page of resource information at the back of the book.

The Great American Dust Bowl


Don Brown - 2013
    In fact, five of them could fit into the period at the end of this sentence.On a clear, warm Sunday, April 14, 1935, a wild wind whipped up millions upon millions of these specks of dust to form a duster—a savage storm—on America's high southern plains.The sky turned black, sand-filled winds scoured the paint off houses and cars, trains derailed, and electricity coursed through the air. Sand and dirt fell like snow—people got lost in the gloom and suffocated . . . and that was just the beginning.Don Brown brings the Dirty Thirties to life with kinetic, highly saturated, and lively artwork in this graphic novel of one of America's most catastrophic natural events: the Dust Bowl.

Our House Is on Fire: Greta Thunberg's Call to Save the Planet


Jeanette Winter - 2019
    I want you to panic…I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is. When she was fifteen years old, Greta Thunberg’s teacher explained to her class that our climate is changing—the earth is getting warmer, the polar ice caps are melting, and life on earth is threatened. Greta was devastated. What could she do? If the grown-ups weren’t doing enough to save the planet, Greta would have to demand change herself. So she went on strike, skipping school every Friday to sit outside of the Swedish Parliament building with a sign that read “School Strike for Climate.” At first, Greta was the only one. But gradually, more and more students joined her, until her lone protest had sparked a worldwide student movement for action on climate change. Now, a year later, Greta is speaking to audiences of world leaders at important meetings like the United Nations Climate Conference and the World Economic Forum. She is leading the conversation on climate change and sparking worldwide conversation on how to save our planet. Greta is showing everyone that even the smallest person can make a big difference, and this picture book informs and inspires young readers who are beginning to learn about the world around them.