ACHUKAblog
James Patterson and the Albert Einstein Archives are teaming up to publish a new middle grade series, the first and only line of children’s books to bear the archive’s official seal. The debut title in the three-book series will release in October 2018, under the author’s Jimmy Patterson imprint at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
The adventure series follows girl genius “Max” Einstein and a team of brilliant kids who set out to solve problems across the world using STEM skills.
Remember last year’s Illuminature?
This title is from the same design team, Silvia Quintanilla and Francesco Rugi, known jointly as Carnovsky.
It’s an anatomy lesson like no other! Look inside the human body with the magic three-colour lens and x-ray from head to toe to discover how your body works. Use the red lens to reveal the skeleton, the green to see the muscles working, and x-ray your organs with the blue lens to find out what they do day and night to keep you alive. Uncover the secrets of the human body and explore how its different systems work in this stunning follow up to the internationally best-selling Illuminature. Jam-packed with detailed illustrations and full of facts and information, this innovative encyclopedia from from Milan-based design duo Carnovsky will make you see the human body in a whole new light.
Recommended non-fiction title for KS2 and KS3 readers aged 7 – 14 packed with information about the chosen 50 women of science, many previously unknown to me.
The book has a straightforward format. A biographical-dictionary style entry on the right, with marginal illustrations giving additional information, alongside a a full-page illustration on the left. Both text and illustrations are the work of Rachel Ignotovsky.
The book is designed, I suppose understandably, to appeal to girls, with a profusion of pastel shades on black backgrounds and a fancy font used for page titles.
The six inspiring science books for under-14s shortlisted for this year’s Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize are:
Lift-the-flap First Questions and Answers: How do flowers grow?by Katie Daynes, illustrated by Christine Pym
The judges said: “This book is exquisitely illustrated, a delight to look at, it’s the sort of thing that really intrigues young children. But it’s also really informative. What it has is the correct science and at the level that’s right for its young readers – and it’s beautiful to look at.”
How Machines Workby David Macaulay
The judges said: “This book isn’t just dry pages about what engineering is. It’s a very exciting story about a sloth that has to get somewhere and in order to get to where he’s going he has to build levers, he has to build bridges. Each of the pages is about how he designs a solution to a problem – just what an engineer must do.”
How to Change the Worldby Isabel Thomas, illustrated by Esme Lonsdale
The judges said: “We love this book because it’s a book about the future and it encourages curiosity and thinking for yourself. It’s about how the reader of this book can learn from what’s gone before, what other scientists have achieved and asks how you might change the world to make it a better place or make it safer or to get us to the moon… It shows how things can become quite surprising when it comes to science – including a chapter called ‘avoid being boiled alive’”
Project Bodyby John Farndon
The judges said: “This book about the human body and how it functions is packed with absolutely amazing pictures, illustrations and real life pictures. It has so many facts and activities – this is a great educational book with a great balance between reading and interactive parts.”
Rebel Scienceby Dan Green, illustrated by David Lyttleton
The judges said: “This is a brilliant book. It’s about science in a really novel way. It has fantastic bits in it, like a rap battle between Sir Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke, and funny bits like the Great Atomic Bake Off. It talks about the unsung heroes of science that are not usually mentioned in text books. It’s a really fun way for children to explore science and the story of science.”
The Usborne Official Astronaut’s Handbookby Louie Stowell, illustrated by Roger Simo
The judges said: “This is a superb book all about how to become an astronaut. It’s a step by step guide for would-be astronauts and space scientists – plus it has a foreword from a really inspirational astronaut, Tim Peake. There’s a lot of humour in it, and it’s full of those little details that just make a book special.”
Eye Benders: The Science of Seeing and Believing, by Clive Gifford, won the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize 2014.
Each year the Royal Society awards a prize to the best book that communicates science to young people. The prize aims to inspire young people to read about science and promotes the best science writing for the under-14s.
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Eye Benders: the science of seeing and believingby Clive Gifford with consultant Anil Seth (Ivy Kids) The judges said: “Warning: this book will try to trick you! It is full of optical illusions you can try for yourself, and we love how interactive this is. What this book does really well is explain each trick of the eye through the science behind it. Both fascinating and fun.” |
What makes you YOU? by Gill Arbuthnott (A&C Black – an imprint of Bloomsbury)
How Animals Live, by Christiane Dorion (Templar Publishing)
Eye Benders: the science of seeing and believing, by Clive Gifford with consultant Anil Seth (Ivy Kids)
We’ve Got Your Number, by Mukul Patel (Kingfisher)
The Usborne Big Book of Stars and Planets, by Emily Bone (Usborne)
Lift-the-Flap Questions and Answers about Your Body, by Katie Daynes (Usborne)
via Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize | Royal Society.
Empowering boys to find a passion for reading is the life’s work of Jon Scieszka, the 59-year-old elementary school teacher turned multi-million-selling children’s author. At the age of eight, his own son was prescribed Little House on the Prairie to read at school. ‘I asked him how he was enjoying the book,’ Scieszka says. ‘He turned to me and said, “Are you kidding me? Is anything ever going to happen?” And that sent him the message: if this – dense fiction writing – is reading, then I’m not a reader.’
His son’s experience, and a befuddlement that ‘the educational world cannot tap into the mania and energy’ that boys have for non-fiction, helped fuel Scieszka’s latest franchise. Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor is the first in a six-part series centred on its eponymous child genius hero. It integrates real science, immersive and educational illustrative diagrams and experiments that children can (safely) undertake themselves.
via Jon Scieska's Frank Einstein series and how he's getting boys to read – Telegraph.
Maria Russo reviews two non-fiction picture books for the New York Times:
TINY CREATURES
The World of Microbes
By Nicola Davies
Illustrated by Emily Sutton
40 pages. Candlewick. $15.99. (Picture book; ages 5 to 8)
IF . . .
A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas and Numbers
By David J. Smith
Illustrated by Steve Adams
39 pp. Kids Can Press. $18.95. (Picture book; ages 7 and up)
If you want to find the wildly creative people now, I’m told, look in fields that have to do with science, math and technology. They say these days, that’s where an imagination can really fly. I’ve been skeptical. Growing up as a creative type, I experienced a plummeting sensation just catching a whiff of formaldehyde outside the science lab, or hearing the word “cosine,” which to me had a sinister ring. I couldn’t see science and math as anything other than earthbound and rote, and yet all too often, confusingly abstract.Two new picture books may make me a believer. Both aim to help children comprehend proportion and scale — or, as I am now inspired to put it, the vastness and majesty of the universe. They do so with playfulness and visual style, obliterating distinctions between a “creative” and a “fact-based” storybook. Both these books pulled me into their worlds as magically as any fictional narrative might.
Computer scientists have developed an algorithm which can predict with 84 per cent accuracy whether a book will be a commercial success – and the secret is to avoid cliches and excessive use of verb…
Scientists have developed an algorithm which can analyse a book and predict with 84 per cent accuracy whether or not it will be a commercial success.
A technique called statistical stylometry, which mathematically examines the use of words and grammar, was found to be “surprisingly effective” in determining how popular a book would be.
They found several trends that were often found in successful books, including heavy use of conjunctions such as “and” and “but” and large numbers of nouns and adjectives.
Less successful work tended to include more verbs and adverbs and relied on words that explicitly describe actions and emotions such as “wanted”, “took” or “promised”, while more successful books favoured verbs that describe thought processes such as “recognised” or “remembered”.
via Scientists find secret to writing a best-selling novel – Telegraph.
Recommended audio recording of a Hay Festival event about what neuro-science tells us about the way we learn, and the implications for education:
TREVOR ROBBINS, SARAH-JAYNE BLAKEMORE, PAUL HOWARD-JONES AND BARBARA SAHAKIAN
THE ROYAL SOCIETY PLATFORM 1; LEARNING AND THE BRAIN
via Trevor Robbins, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Paul Howard-Jones and Barbara Sahakian – Hay Festival.
Publishers across the UK submitted their best recent books that communicate science to young people. An adult shortlisting panel has narrowed down the choice to a shortlist of six books.
The winning book will be selected entirely by groups of young people from schools and youth groups around the UK. These groups together form a judging panel that looks at all the shortlisted books and chooses a winner.
The six books shortlisted by the shortlisting panel for 2013 are:
Build the human body
by Richard Walker (Templar)
The judges said: “A hands on, fun kit to help learn about the human body, accompanied by a well-illustrated, concise, clear book.”
Buzzing!
by Anneliese Emmans Dean (Brambleby Books Ltd)
The judges said: “This book is buzzing with interesting science facts and wonderful poetry. Each page features a different British minibeast that you might find in your back garden, with a funny poem about them.”
Discover more: The elements
by by Dan Green (Scholastic Children’s Books)
The judges said: “A good starting point for learning about the topic and full of rocking chemistry! Starting with what elements are and where they come from, the book goes through each element in turn with facts about their discovery and the science about how they impact our everyday lives.”
Don’t Flush: Lifting the Lid on the Science of Poo and Wee
by Richard Platt, Mary Platt, John Kelly (Kingfisher – An imprint of Macmillan Children’s Books)
The judges said: “A light-hearted but informative look at the science behind the use of poo and wee throughout history to build houses, wash and dye our clothes, fertilize crops, treat illnesses, solve crimes, control pollution and create fuel, energy and explosives. A perfectly disgusting book: Kids will love it!”
Human Body Factory
by Dan Green (Kingfisher – An imprint of Macmillan Children’s Books)
The judges said: “This book is intricately illustrated with tiny factory workers who explain how each part of the body works. It is the ‘Where’s Wally?’ of the human body; you keep noticing comic little details such as the workers in dinghies mixing gastric juices in the stomach with a giant whisk! As well as being fun, we were also impressed by the level of accurate scientific detail.
Look inside space
by Rob Lloyd Jones (Usborne Publishing)
The judges said: “A fantastically interactive book for younger children. Full of flaps to lift (and flaps under flaps) that reveal amazing facts about space!”
The shortlisting panel are:
Professor John Goodby FRS – Chemist at the University of York researching liquid crystals
Dr Jenny Read – University Research Fellow at the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University researching visual perception
Grrlscientist – an evolutionary biologist, science writer and blogger
Shazia Lydon – Assistant Headteacher at Challney High School For Boys, Luton
Simon Watt – Science communicator and presenter of Inside Nature’s Giants on Channel 4
via Shortlist – Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize | Royal Society.
The winner will not be announced till 11th November 2013.
