As our Raising Star Readers column kicks off another school year, educators and caregivers both continue to face the kind of challenges few of us could have imagined last fall. Here, Ann Angel describes how her Reading Team is countering the “pandemic bubble” by adding nonfiction books to their list of favorite reads:
Hey there, parent or grandparent, raise your hand if you’re a pandemic teacher. I’m guessing many hands just went up. My hand is up, too, and I hear from many other grandparents that as the school year begins, we’re providing childcare and the classroom for toddlers, kindergarteners, and even some grade schoolers. At least we know that although we may be isolated in this pandemic, we’re in this together.
While we hadn’t really planned to be called into service this way, there are some amazing upsides to educating our little ones. The best upside is that we get to sift through and share new books and authors with our kids and grandkids. In my new role as Nana and teacher, I’m seeing such a wonderland of nonfiction books, and I’m learning about the universe alongside my little students. For instance, I now know that diadem snakes have windpipes that open into the bottom of their jaws so they can breathe and eat at the same time; an octopus has eight brains; and the earth’s inner core is made of solid iron, which grandson Teddy always reminds me is also what Ironman’s suit is made of.
Entertainment, art, and education are all combined in some of the best illustrated books I’ve come across. Marion Dane Bauer’s The Stuff of Stars is surely the most beautiful weave of these elements, with abstract illustrations by Ekua Holmes that allow a glimpse of nature made of star dust. You can make out the forms of horses, feet, birds, butterflies, and a caretaker hugging a child. The first time I read this with my grandson Teddy, he exclaimed at the exploding stars, “I’m beginning to love this book!” It has become a favorite, and Teddy and I enjoy finding new images every time we share it. He reads along with me, loving the idea that before there was you, there was a universe, and we’re all made of star dust. (Note: this book actually inspired the name of this column.)
Other favorites that focus on a single element include Flip, Float, Fly: Seeds on the Move by JoAnn Early Macken and illustrated by Pam Paparone, a poetic perspective of the way seeds travel and implant across the land. Sheri Mabry Bestor has captured details from the world of insects with Good Trick, Walking Stick! and Soar High, Dragonfly!, both colorfully illustrated by Jonny Lambert. Sidebars provide additional details about these insects and encourage kids to discover the tiniest creatures in our world.
With well over 100 pages of illustrated information, the DK books from Penguin Random House provide hours of fun for my younger grandkids when we’re together in our pandemic bubble. Andrew, 6, Teddy, 4−1÷2, and Emma, 4, might not always have the patience to sit through listening to all of the text, but they do pick their favorite animals, planets, and explorers to share with one another. Two favorite books include the DK Smithsonian Did You Know? Amazing Answers to the Questions You Ask and My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things. I’m guessing that, if they don’t grow up to become explorers, they could well end up environmentalists or zoo keepers or even actors, seeing as part of reading always entails acting out everything from lightning strikes to snakes breathing through their mouths.
And of course, kids can learn anywhere, so we are also making the most of time outdoors. Why not take your books and your Reading Team outside to enjoy the early fall weather?
There is such a wide variety of nonfiction available for all age levels. Feel free to leave your favorites in the comments below so we can all build our nonfiction libraries.
_______________________
Bookology is always looking for new Reading Teams to help us celebrate the joys of reading aloud together. Contact Lisa Bullard for further information if you’re interested in participating.
This addition to Raising Star Readers features the theme “If you read it, they will come.”
Priya did not want to sit and read either, though she was intrigued by the title. She kept repeating, “grumpy monkey” as she puttered around the porch with her armful of toys. It wasn’t until Grandpa picked up the book, began to read aloud, and clearly enjoyed the story, that Priya couldn’t resist coming in for a look. Hence the moral of the story: If you read it, they will come!
When I first read The Stuff of Stars by 
I’ve been anxiously awaiting the book birth of The Stuff of Stars by 
When you sit down to write a picture book, what has inspired you?
Do you know the ending of your picture book before you begin to write?
Do you ever begin a picture book feeling at a loss for how to write it?
Why is “older” an acceptable word and “old” almost forbidden?
There are times when I don’t know my own mind. Worse, there are times when I think I know my mind perfectly well and then find an entirely different mind on a later visit to my opinions.
We hope you enjoyed reading 
In this interview with Jennifer A. Bell, illustrator of many endearing books, we’ve asked about the process of illustrating Little Cat’s Luck, our 
How did you interact with the art director for these books?
In this interview with Marion Dane Bauer, we’re asking about her novel-in-verse, Little Cat’s Luck, our 
The moment I give an animal human speech, I have violated its animal nature. We are who we are as humans precisely because we talk, and we do it constantly, with good and bad results. We converse to understand one another, and we call one another names. In stories it can be very difficult to hold onto the animal nature of a dog or cat while human words are coming from their mouths. When I wrote my novel Runt, about a wolf pup, I chose to give the animals speech, following the pattern of marvelous writers such as Felix Salten, the author of Bambi, a Life in the Woods. And while that was a very intentional choice, it was a choice I found myself not wanting to repeat when I considered writing a sequel to Runt. I returned to my wolf research in preparation for writing that second book and found myself so impressed with the subtle, complex ways wolves actually communicate with one another that I put the idea for a sequel aside. I found I didn’t want to put speech into their mouths again. However, when I wrote Little Cat’s Luck I put that concern aside easily, partly I suppose because cats are domesticated animals, so speech felt less a violation. I gave them roles that are familiar in our human world, too, for Patches be a mother and for Gus to be a hurting bully, which made it easy to know what they might say. Throughout, though, I retained their animal nature by staying close to their physicality. Describing the way they move and the things they do with their bodies kept their animal natures in view.
I believe that the most important thing a story does, any story, is to make us feel. By inhabiting a story, living through it, we are transformed in some small — or sometimes large — way. I know that when stories are used in the classroom, they are used for multiple purposes, and that is as it should be, but I hope adults presenting Patches and Buddy will first let the children experience the boy, the dog, the cat, will let them feel their stories from the inside. After the stories have been experienced, as stories, there is plenty of time to use those words on the page for vocabulary lessons or as a prompt for children to write their own verse stories or anything else they might be useful for. But always, I hope, the story will be first.
This month, we are pleased to feature Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall, written by Anita Silvey, with photographs and book designed by the incredible team at National Geographic. This book is not only fascinating to read, it’s a beautiful reading experience as well.
