The nonfiction picture book My Light by Molly Bang (Blue Sky Press, 2004) is narrated by the sun and covers many topics in elementary science. The influence of the sun is woven into explanations about the power of the great star into the water cycle and so much more. The water’s movement and the warm

Read Post

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

With a natural poetic rhythm, the nonfiction picture book Zap! Clap! Boom!: The Story of a Thunderstorm by Laura Purdie Salas and illustrated by Ellie MacKay (Bloomsbury, February 2023) skillfully depicts the development and impact of a thunderstorm. The text takes readers on a journey from a calm day to the formation of clouds and

Read Post

Drop: An Adventure Through the Water Cycle by Emily Kate Moon (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2021). Watercolor (specifically, India ink mixed with water) seems to be the perfect medium for illustrating the water cycle. In Drop, the author/illustrator emphasizes the eternal existence of Drop as she has cycled through Earth’s atmosphere and surface over

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

Breaking Through the Clouds: The Sometimes Turbulent Life of Meteorologist Joanne Simpson by Sandra Nickel, illustrated by Helena Perez Garcia (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2022) teaches readers about an unknown young woman who went into a unique STEM field in the mid-1900s, this time the study of meteorology. Her interest in clouds began even

Read Post

Ice Cycle by Maria Gianferrari, illustrated by Jieting Chen (Millbrook Press, 2022) is subtitled “Poems about the Life of Ice,” and I must say that, just as I had never considered the variety of animals living near icebergs, I had never considered varieties of ice on which those animals live! Yes, as Gianferrari shows in

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

Clouds by Anne Rockwell, illustrated by Frane Lessac (HarperCollins, 2008, Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Stage 1) provides a gentle introduction to clouds, with a nice tone that brings the reader into the text, encouraging observation of the worlds around us. As Rockwell provides explanations about types of clouds, the illustrator, Lessac, provides the same clouds image of where

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