Why Oh Why Are Deserts Dry? - Tish Rabe

All About Deserts
Illustrated by Aristides Ruiz & Joe Mathieu
The Cat In the Hat's Learning Library, Random House, 2011
HC $8.99
45 pages
Rating:  3
Endpapers:  orange

Not as good as trees or butterflies (the two I've read previously), but informative and fun.  My two problems with it stand out strongly, though.   Some of the rhythm seems off, some of the rhyming seems forced.  And although it mentions and describes deserts - the Sonoran, the Namib, the Sahara, the Mojave, Antarctica, it jumps around giving facts.  Some kids might think camels and kangaroos live in the Sonoran Desert!  It never tells where anything's located.  A map of the world showing these deserts' locations would be a great addition.

The glossary includes abdomen, burmoose, burrow, cell, differ,geologist, glare, habitat, mirage, nocturnal, oasis, and shimmering.

My, Oh My - A Butterfly! - Tish Rabe

All About Butterflies
Illustrated by Aristides Ruiz & Joe Mathieu
The Cat in the Hat Learning Library, Random House, 2007
HC $8.00
45 pgs.

I'm the Cat in the Hat
if you look in the sky,
you might see a butterfly
fluttering by.

This book takes a child through the stages that create a butterfly, from egg to caterpillar, growing and losing and eating its skin; to hanging and becoming a chrysalis and emerging as a butterfly. It shows the differences between a butterfly chrysalis and a moth cocoon. It teaches about color and camouflage and then starts telling about different species - ending with 10 pages describing the habits of the monarch butterfly.

A fascinating book for young kids!

The book ends with a glossary (antennae, chrysalis, cocoon, foe, nectar, nutritious, oyamel, proboscis, protein) and a list of other books for kids about butterflies.

Growing Frogs - Vivian French

Illustrated by Alison Bartlett
Candlewick, 2000
Paper $6.99
32 pages
"Read and Wonder" series
ages 5-8
Excellent book

Ever since Brendan's ranger-led Acadia National Park frog adventure, I've been checking out books about frogs. In this book it is springtime and a little girl and her mother find frog spawn at the pond. They take it home to watch the amazing changes fron egg to tadpole to frog.

Not only is this a story, it's an excellent easy how-to guide so kids --- with their parent's help --- can watch these magical changes themselves.

How often do you change the pond water? What happens next? What should you do when they become frogs?

The illustrations are full-page, brightly colored acrylics. The large "Tapioca" font tells the story, smaller font gives the info.

Oh would I love to do this! But the book itself is all you need to easily learn LOTS of neat things about frogs.

The Day-Glo Brothers - Chris Barton

The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors
Illustrated by Tony Persiani
Charlesbridge, 2009
40 pgs.
$18.95
Rating: 4.5
For: School age kids, a perfect first biography or nonfiction for reluctant nonfiction readers.
Note: The Day-Glo colors on the actual cover really "glow", much more than they appear to on this picture.....

As I read this book, I was totally thinking like a teacher - this would definitely be a great model for biography writing. It tells the story of how two brothers went from wanting to be a doctor and a magician/performer to becoming the inventors of day-glo colors and paint. Born in 1914 and 1915, their invention particularly impacted World War II. Though full of details (theirs is a fascinating story), it's not so overly detailed that it becomes dry and/or uninteresting. So many people are not nonfiction readers. This is a great way to read nonfiction.

The illustrations are quite uniqes. Cartoon-like, they begin in grayscale with light shades of orange, yellow, green here and there. As the brothers begin experimenting with fluorescence, the colors become deeper and deeper, although grays still predominate - until the last page has a black background. I really like the overall look and concept of the book.

At the end I was not disappo9inted with the afterwords. "How Does Regular Fluorenscence Work? "How Does Daylight Fluorescence Work?" and a great two-page "Author's Note" gave me the satisfaction I needed. I think I'm going to compile a list of books with great author's notes. I'm such a list person!

A picture book packed with facts and interesting to read. What more could you want in nonfiction? Perfect for me!

Read the original New York Times obituary that started author Chris Barton's interest and research here.