It is hard to find a solid science picture book for read-aloud that has photographs as illustrations. Nature Is a Sculptor: Weathering and Erosion by Heather Ferranti Kinser (Milbrook Press, September 2023) is such a book. It features photography of geological wonders from around the world, paired with soft poetry that is nice to read-aloud.

Read Post

Backpack Explorer: Rock Hunt (Storey Publishing, February 2023) is an engaging activity book for “rock hounds” on the hunt for rocks all around them. From the beginning of this photographic and colorful book, kids see creative ways to make STEAM come alive as they find and examine rocks. Rock Hunt provides stickers for marking pages

Read Post

Water is Water by Miranda Paul, illustrated by Jason Chin (Roaring Brook Press, 2015). Although the subtitle is “A Book about the Water Cycle,” Water is Water provides a readable, poetic reminder about the various stages in which water accumulates on the Earth. The various forms water takes range from water to steam (technically, it

Read Post

The world lost a legend when we lost Tomie dePaola recently. The Cloud Book that he wrote and illustrated (Holiday House, 1975). is a one-of-a-kind, semi-comprehensive volume about clouds for early elementary children. It is written in the second person, immediately drawing in a young child. First, the book introduces clouds as drops of water

Read Post

As with many of the Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out series books, Franklyn M. Branley’s Down Comes the Rain, illustrated by James Graham Hale (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Stage 2, Harper Collins, 1963/1997), interests the child reader by giving examples of simple things for children to do and try throughout. For example, it suggests activities such as dipping one’s fingers in water,

Read Post

Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean by Arthur Dorros (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out, Stage 2, HarperCollins Children’s Books, 1991) emphasizes the collection and movement of water. It names and explains underground water systems, springs, brooks, rivers, and water’s power to carve through rocks to create canyons. Water’s interaction with Earth creates waterfalls, causes floods, and is dammed

Read Post

With an emphasis on the impact of the ocean in every aspect of our lives, The Ocean in Your Bathtub by Seth Fishman, illustrated by Isabel Greenberg (Greenwillow Books, 2020), introduces the water cycle by showing how the ocean’s water not only cycles through various stages, but also sustains life that feeds the world, provides

Read Post