Ella Bailey has started a charming series of picture books on the different habitats on our planet.  The first, One Day On Our Blue Planet: In the Savannah, follows an energetic lion cub from dusk to dawn.

This is a beautifully illustrated book that introduces children to a whole host of animals, and it does so in a way that even very young children can understand.

 

A day is a length of time that children understand.  The book underscores all that can happen in that brief period of time that for children isn’t brief at all.  It gives them a window on a different environment and how animals spend their days.

For the very young it’s got a delightful narrative.

For the older reader, there’s a lot of information on how animals share their environment.  Bailey shows how lions hunt but spares us the grisly details you’d find in a nature documentary.  The little cub is still living on mother’s milk.  And when the pride isn’t hunting, it co-exists with the other animals that share the savannah.

 

I love books that spark conversation and the hunting scene always does that.  Children identify both with the hunter and hunted.  This book gives them a chance to think and talk about the cycle of life.

The second book in the series was just released.  One Day On Our Blue Planet:  In the Antarctic follows a little penguin through her day on an ice shelf.  We find out what she and her family eat, and what they do for fun.

I love the endpapers of each book.  They show all the animals of each environment.  You get an idea of how big and diverse the world is.  You see that many animals share each environment.  In the coldest and warmest worlds there is a way for animals to co-exist.

Maybe one day humans will learn how to do that, too.

Ella Bailey is also the author of No Such Thing, and At the Animal Ball.  You can find her website here.

The One Day On Our Blue Planet series is published by the innovative press Flying Eye Books.  You can find a wonderful interview with Ella Bailey here.

Hope your day on this blue planet is full of color and adventure.

Thanks for reading my blog.

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This Blog is a Children’s Book Week Champion.  Children’s Book Week is May 2 – 8, 2016.

Established in 1919, Children’s Book Week is the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country. Every year, commemorative events are held nationwide at schools, libraries, bookstores, homes — wherever young readers and books connect!

Voting opens March 8 at ccbookawards.com for the ninth annual Children’s Choice Book Awards, the only national book awards program where the winning titles are selected by kids and teens. You can read all about the amazing 2016 finalists here. Last year over 1.3 million votes were cast.  Let’s see if we can surpass that number in 2016.

Children’s Book Week is administered by Every Child A Reader, a 501(c)(3) literacy organization dedicated to instilling a lifelong love of reading in children. The Children’s Book Council, the national non-profit trade association for children’s book publishers, is an anchor sponsor. Find out more about it here:

http://www.bookweekonline.com/

 

 

 

Great news from the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader.    The 2016 Children’s Book Week poster has been released and you can get a free copy!  You’ll also get lesson plans.  Children’s Book Week is May 2-8, but encouraging reading is a year round activity.   I’ll be participating in the event and featuring books from the 9th annual Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards, the only national book awards program where winning titles are selected by children and teens.  I copied this from the Children’s Book Week website, but you can link to the original site if you’d like.  

2016 Children’s Book Week Poster!

Presenting the 2016 Children’s Book Week poster by Brian Won, commemorating the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country!

Brian Won is an author, illustrator, former animation artist, and 2015 Children’s Choice Illustrator of the Year Award-finalist for his debut picture book Hooray for Hat! The book stars Elephant and his animal friends, who you’ll also find on this year’s Book Week poster!

TO ORDER 2016 POSTERS BY BRIAN WON

Posters are available from the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader at no cost beyond shipping.

Please note that supplies are limited. This page will be updated as posters run out.

To receive a free poster(s) with activity guide, please send a 9 x 12 self-addressed envelope (for 1 or 10 posters) or a 10 x 13 self-addressed envelope (for 25 posters) with appropriate postage affixed.

Please include a note stating how many posters you are requesting.

Note that Postal regulations have changed. Please use the USPS Postage Price Calculator to determine postage cost, or ask for help at your local post office.

Weight of posters and an envelope:
1 poster and envelope: 1.2oz.
10 posters and envelope: 14oz.
25 posters and envelope: 2lb 6oz.

Mail envelopes with postage affixed to:
Children’s Book Council
ATTN: 2015 Poster Order
54 West 39th Street, 14th floor
New York, NY 10018

Please note: There is a 25 poster maximum per person.

Due to the volume of poster requests, we cannot process any poster orders that do not include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

There are so many fantasy novels being written for middle grade and young adult readers that have dystopian themes, that I generally avoid them.  I was intrigued, however by Marie’s Atlas, by Sophia Estelle Wood, a book that promised “mathematical wits and a virtuous character.”  Plus, I admit, I loved the cover.

Marie is the only daughter of scientists who work on archeological digs.  She’s a brilliant girl, in love with math, puzzles, and nature.  Her parents move around from project to project so Marie is a loner and home-schooled.  In Marie’s Atlas, her parents are working in a desert.  Marie has always helped out when her parents find “puzzles” that can’t be solved:

“When she was three years old her mother found her in the closet with a box of unidentified bone fragments that the team had given up on.  Marie had fully assembled the fragments into bones with preschool glue.  Everyone was so amazed that they started to give her some of the difficult pieces to see if she could make sense of them.  Every single puzzle (or “job”) was solved with her nimble fingers, acute mind, and peaceful patience.  From that time on, Marie’s nickname was “Arti,” which was short for “Bone Articulator.”  Instead of having to hire someone to piece fragments together, Marie had filled the position at a young age to formulate ancient creatures’ bones into coherent structures.”

The novel opens with her biggest job yet.  Her parents have found a mysterious box, an impossible artifact from the era they are studying.  Inside it are 987 pieces that all look identical.

“Marie was a girl of exceptional sensory perception.  It was both a blessing and a curse.  At times it seemed like noises, light, or people could be overwhelming.  Other times a texture, taste, or sound could be complete serenity.   Sitting in the quiet of her room, feeling dime-sized pieces of bone and thinking through the textures, colors, and shapes was a time of serenity, a time of peace.”

What she discovers is that the 987 pieces equal a Fibonacci number.

Marie is able to put together the pieces and finds herself in possession of an enchanted egg.  It releases the power of the entity Atlas who bestows wings upon Marie, and demands she take a quest on which the fate of a whole universe depends.

Her adventures and victories depend not only on her mathematical prowess, but also on virtues including cooperation, courage, detachment, peace and trust.

The adventures are engaging and the story is compelling.  Worlds depend on the way Marie makes her way through her adventure.  The narration includes what could have happened if Marie had not solved the problems laid before her, but the story doesn’t dwell in despair.  It underscores how using her intelligence and instinct, Marie can conquer whatever challenges lay ahead of her.  She must also learn to trust Atlas, and the personality that emerges from their union.  To me it read like a metaphor for learning to trust one’s self, and the inner guides or intuition we’re all born with.

 

When I finished reading this, I found out the sequel had just become available.  In Cosmos Ignites, Marie and Atlas meet at the ocean and they must take on more tests of character, as well as put to use Marie’s knowledge of fractals, physics, and chemistry.

Meteor pieces with mysterious chemical properties has been discovered in the ocean.  When Marie sees them, she feels the presence of Atlas within them.  After figuring out how they all fit together, Atlas arrives and the magic begins again.

“She felt her body turn into a beam of particles and shoot across space and time….  She opened her eyes as she reconstituted and realized that she was completely submerged in water.  Marie had to adjust to not breathing air.”

She and Atlas merge together as the personality Cosmos and are on a mission with 3 compass coins that become tattoos on Marie’s arm.  She must figure out the meaning and use of elements through riddles and pass 5 tests of virtue.

The adventure is taken with grace, humor and suspense.

Both of these books are compelling and would be excellent reads for those interested in mathematical theories, and for those who are pretty sure most math is useless in their lives.  While none of us will go on adventures as dramatic as Marie’s trials, the books integrate math, physics, and chemistry into the story in a way that makes her knowledge exciting and enviable.

Not quite practical math, it’s more like fantastical math that adds the element of play that most mathematical teaching doesn’t have.  Maybe we should coin a word like “mathmagical” for it.  I know I learned a lot and enjoyed the fascinating stories, as well as the charming illustrations.

Sophia Estelle Wood is an author and artist in Salem, Oregon. She has a passion for creativity, mathematics, photography, and art. She ties in her experiences as an engineer, mathematician, artist, and children’s virtue educator into her work. Her goal is to produce educational and character enriching content for her readers.   The website for her books is here.  They are available both in print and as ebooks.

Thanks for reading my blog and may you have a mathmagical day.