Focusing On Fabulous Flora

In all seasons of the year, they provide vivid sensory experiences for all the planet's inhabitants.  The survival of all species needing air is determined by their existence.  There is hardly a facet of human lives untouched by them.  It's astounding the links they provide in the chains of our everyday moments.

For those who think they know how valuable plants are to humans, prepare to be amazed.  I Ate Sunshine For Breakfast: A Celebration of Plants Around the World (Flying Eye Books, March 18, 2020) written by Michael Holland FLS with illustrations by Philip Giordano is a joyous gift for readers' minds and eyes.  It is a journey through an unimaginable world with words and visuals to savor for the rest of your lives.

Part One

ALL ABOUT PLANTS

Plants are essential to your world.  Without

them, no other living thing would be able to 

survive.  This book will help you to become more

acquainted with your leafy neighbors, from

how they grow, to fossilization and everything

in-between.  With over 400,000 species on our

planet to discover, let's find out all about 

these incredible organisms!

This first of four parts has ten two-page sections.  Some of the section titles are:

Why do plants matter?

Leaves: a food factory

Flower power and

Seeds on the move.

Within this first part, there are three DIY projects, extending your knowledge through application and play.  You will be dazzled by the presentation of introductory and basic facts.  Seeds need certain conditions to germinate, but if those conditions are not present, they change.  In areas such as Australia or South Africa with frequent fires, the heat melts fruit to set the seeds free, or smoke tells them it is time to sprout.  Did you know blue-green algae was around millions of years ago?  It still works to send out oxygen.  This tiny, tiny plant can multiple to span 

thousands of miles.

In the second part, World Of Plants, there are two DIY activities.  One of them instructs you how to observe the freezing process and the differences between deciduous and evergreen trees during this process.  You'll learn about plant families like the Cucumber Family which includes pumpkins.  Evolution and adaption are explained.  Did you ever hear of 

The Great Dying? 

Did you know tightly packed spines on cactus reflect the sun, protecting them?  There are plants that steal the sugary sap from other plants!  You will be shocked at the percentage of plants that are poisonous!

The title of the book is further explained in part three, From Breakfast Until Bedtime.  Eleven sections and four DIY tasks add up to fascinating facts about plants as part of our food, caring for our teeth, how we clean, what we wear, and how we make art.  Plants are crucial to constructing homes and relevant to sports.  Did you know the oldest building made of wood stands in Japan?  It was built in the year 700.  Plants can either attract us or repeal us with their odors.  A plant is so smelly it is banned in Southeast Asia.  Phew! 

In the final part, The Power of Plants, if we are still not aware of plants' impact on us, this portion offers specific and further examples.  There are plants which can take gold and silver from the soil and store it.  We than extract it through

phytomining. 

Did you know you can light a bulb using two potatoes?  You'll enjoy this DIY experiment.  Maori hunters used plants at night in a remarkable manner.  (I'll be thinking about this for a long time.)  For those interested in the healing properties of plants, there are some plants used for generations for curative purposes, but the bark of the white birch has been examined in the last several decades for its potential use as an anti-cancer medication.  Plants are symbolic on flags and crests around the world.  Countries and states have national plants and flowers.  Plants are fuel.  We need to protect and preserve them from all forms of pollution.  Did you know earthworms hindered by pesticides when consumed by birds poison them, too?  This fourth part concludes with acknowledgements of the champion plants in a variety of categories.

Whether you read this book in a single sitting, part by part, or section by section, author Michael Holland displays his considerable knowledge conversationally and concisely.  His presentation is thoughtful and follows an understandable progression.  Everything is labeled carefully.  Scientific and common names are used.  Throughout the book, sometimes within a two-page explanation, he includes Did You Know? extra facts.  These have a definite "wow" factor.  In the DIY portions, the instructions are clear, usually advising readers to do them with an adult present or assisting.  Here is a passage.

Power Of Plants

Smart Plant Technology

Home-made torch

If you 're lost outside in Polynesia

on a dark night, the candlenut tree

(Aleurites moluccana) from Samoa

can double up as a handy torch!

By threading its oily seeds together

on a coconut leaf, the plant can be

ignited and makes a very bright,

long-lasting torch.  The black soot

that is left when the seeds burn is

collected and used to make an ink

used for tattoos.

The vibrant, cheerful case of this title beckons to readers.  You'll take a few moments to identify the numerous plants, animals, and seeds shown with splendor by artist Philip Giordano in his signature style.  Readers will enjoy running their fingers over the front to feel the textures through embossing and cut-outs.  On the other side of the spine, the back, using the same canvas color as on the front, more flora and fauna are portrayed along the bottom.  Above is text normally viewed on the front flap of a dust jacket.  There is an endorsement from Tim Smit, co-founder of The Eden Project.  Careful readers will notice a small square creature with wings.  This is your guide throughout the book.  Look for it (and other insect pals) on nearly every page.

On the opening endpapers plants, plant leaves, and seeds in shades of green on yellow look like botanical artwork.  On the closing endpapers the vividness of the color palette will leave readers gasping.  On a darker, but muted, peach background flowers burst forth in all their beauty.  They are joined by several insects.  No page is left unadorned by Philip Giordano.  Even the glossary and index are framed with plentiful, colorful plants.

The Contents has a double-page picture across most of the top half.  It is a pastoral scene with varying perspectives.  Each of the four parts have a glorious double-page picture.  For each section, the images in different perspectives define and enhance the text.  We are given up-close and personal views.  Plants are labeled with their common name.  Humor comes in the form of a worm wearing a hat or the smiles on insect faces.  Often, we are shown a microscopic view such as chloroplasts on an oak leaf.

To delineate from the main parts and sections, the DIY projects are done in green, black and white only.   They have a list of what you will need and numbered steps.  Our guide, Square, is always there.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is for Watery World.  It is a two-page illustration.  Across the top is either a sunset or sunrise sky in golden orange.  A red sun sits on the horizon.  Just past the gutter on the left, a turtle sits on a piling.  A rope from this piling extends to the right, tied to a boat.  Swans and other smaller birds are resting on or near the water.  The water, in a rich, midnight blue stretches to the bottom of the page.  This is filled with close-ups of water plants and animals.  We are shown how they appear on the surface of water and what is seen below the surface.  The color choices here are marvelous.  (They are throughout the book.)

This book, I Ate Sunshine For Breakfast: A Celebration of Plants Around the World by Michael Holland FLS with illustrations by Philip Giordano, is one to enjoy repeatedly.  It can be used for those with an interest in botany, units of study on plants, for research, and to promote discussions on preserving and protecting our planet and its residents. I can't imagine a collection, personal or professional, without a copy of this book.  

To learn more about Michael Holland and Philip Giordano and their other work, please visit their websites by following the link attached to their names. There are multiple images from this book to view at Philip Giordano's site.  Michael Holland has accounts on Instagram and Twitter.  Philip Giordano has accounts on Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter.  At the publisher's website you can view more interior visuals.  Philip Giordano is interviewed at Nobrow about this book.  It is interesting and insightful.  You will love it! There are interior images and downloadable DIY pages here, also.  At Penguin Random House you can see interior illustrations.  

Begin At The Beginning

For several weeks now whenever you walk into a grocery or home improvement store or a local nursery signs of spring are featured in displays.  Rows of packets of fruit, vegetable and flower seeds invite you with their pictures promising plentiful edibles and bouquets.  Bins full of bags of summer bulbs entice you with their colorful varieties.  If the ground and air were warmer, many would be digging in the dirt with abandon.

 Sometimes it's hard to comprehend how much bounty and beauty can come from something so small.  In A seed is the start (National Geographic, February 13, 2018) written by Melissa Stewart readers are given the inside story on seeds.  Your appreciation for them will grow as large as the results they produce.

A seed is the start of a new plant life.
Bury it in soil, and watch it grow,

     grow,

grow.

Step by step through words and a cross-section of earth we watch and understand how a planted corn seed splits, shoots a root down and a bit of green up.  That green in turn reaches for the sun until leaves unfurl soaking up the sun they seek.  From the sunlight this corn plant makes food to nourish itself.  

Plants travel to private spaces so they can grow strong.  If you've ever seen a milkweed pod open or a dandelion head shed, you know seeds have a way to fly.  Did you know a maple seed can glide the length of two American football fields?

If you look closely at the top of a poppy plant after the petals are gone the fruit sits alone.  Like a salt or pepper shaker seeds spill from its holes if breezes blow.  Have you ever wandered among the wetlands in the spring?  Marsh marigolds grow there announcing spring.  After the flowers finish blooming pods form and snap open.  Rains cause the seeds to splash into the surrounding water.

Page by page you read about seeds on the move.  They float, drift, pop, hop, creep, hook and cling.  Their specific characteristics designed according to their habitats help perpetuate their existence. If seeds can't get about through their own locomotion, they are known to hitch a ride inside or outside another living creature.  Seeds are a glorious circle of life; seed to plant, then to flower and fruit and then more seeds. 

Every time Melissa Stewart writes we readers are winners.  Her love of science and the natural world drives her curiosity and research.  When she learns she passes this on to us.  In this newest title she begins by explaining six words to readers; berry, burr, fruit, nut, seed and seedpod.  From this point her factual, fascinating story of seeds sprouts and grows.  By explaining a seed's need for space, she not only acquaints us with their methods of travel but we learn of plants throughout the world.  Some are familiar to us but others will cause us to exclaim out loud.  Here is an example of her writing style in this title.

Look at these Asian climbing gourds!

These fruits are the size of basketballs. They grow

on vines in the rain forests of Southeast Asia.

When a gourd cracks open,

hundreds of seeds take flight.  They

glide through the trees.  After a seed lands, its

wings slowly rot away.  Then a new vine sprouts.  

Realistic photographs by a variety of artists (named in the credits on the verso page) grace each page beginning with the matching dust jacket and book case.  Notice how the smaller photographs are placed in circles (like the circle of life).  This particular design is carried throughout the book.

On the page defining those initial six terms a small pictorial example is placed at the end of the phrase.  It will be interesting to see if readers can name all of them.  It also provides an impetus for further research. On many of the pages the circles provide a place for important text describing a particular image.

Shades of green and yellow with faint outlines of plants supply a textured canvas for pictures and text.  Rounded fonts in different sizes generate accents in contrast to more traditional fonts.  Font colors are yellow, white and black.  The larger words have green shadows outlining each letter.  This lettering with this particular color palette and the selected photographs create a stunning visual effect.  

One of my favorite of many photographs is for the discussion of Seeds splash.  On the background of green and yellow leaves, a large three-quarter circle extends from the lower left-hand corner of the page.  In it is a close-up of a cluster of marsh marigolds with a rushing stream blurred behind them.  To the right of this image is a smaller complete circle.  In it is a magnified group of seedpods opened and filled with tiny seeds.  (For someone who has enjoyed the beauty of marsh marigolds for decades, this is truly a gift to see.)

For a unit on seeds, spring, to celebrate Earth Day or to simply enjoy the wonder of our planet, A seed is the start written by Melissa Stewart is a book for all to enjoy.  It is certain to be popular with one-on-one sharing or with a group during story time.  I highly recommend this title for all professional and personal collections.  An index, selected sources and books and online resources for more information conclude this title. 

To learn more about Melissa Stewart, her body of work and this title, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  Melissa has created blog posts on how to use this title with grades K, 1, 2 and 3.  She promises to continue with ideas for grades 4 and 5.  This is a link to a Pinterest board which helped to inspire this title.  At Penguin Random House you can view an interior image from this book.  Here is a National Geographic Kids Educator's Guide for this title.  All of Melissa Stewart's ideas are in this single publication.   

Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to enjoy the titles selected by others participating in this week's 2018 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge. 

Get Your Facts Straight

One technique for enhancing the connectedness of a group of people is to have them participate in icebreakers, activities designed to reveal information about each individual.  One of these games is called Two Truths and a Lie.  Participants sit in a circle with each one making three assertions about themselves.  The others need to figure out which one of the three statements is false.

When engaged in this contest of wits, we are able to assess body language and facial expression along with the spoken words.  In a new title, Two Truths And A Lie: It's Alive! (Walden Pond Press, June 27, 2017) written by Ammi-Joan Paquette and Laurie Ann Thompson, arranged using a similar format, it's much trickier to sort what is real from what is fabricated.  As we read it's all about separating the possible from the impossible and reaching credible conclusions.

You should know something right up front:  this book is sneaky.

This first sentence in the introduction has my undivided attention.  The narrator continues with an explanation of the book's contents; three parts, nine chapters and three stories in each of those chapters.  Two stories are absolutely true and the other is blatantly false.  It's up to us to decide.

Read them.  Talk them over with your friends.  Do your own research.  Dig around online (safely, of course!).  When it comes to information---and life, really---asking good questions is a kind of superpower.  

It's hard to believe forty-seven thousand trees are all connected to a single plant covering an area larger than one hundred football fields or plants send out warnings to other plants about possible attacks from predators. These plants can even summon reinforcements in the form of insect soldiers or can they?  There might be a flower which at the possible height of ten feet has an odor which will literally knock your socks off.  It gives new definition to the term stench.  Do ants truly need to be on the watch for a fungus designed to turn them into zombies?  Plants turning into bridges, glowing in the dark like lanterns or reversing a taste from sour to sweet can't exist or do we discover they are real?

As shivery-creepy as this may seem the ears of wild dogs in East Africa might be the home of African threadsnakes and teeny, tiny scorpions might hide in the pages of books.  As you go hiking you will be looking in the trees along the Pacific Northwest for the weirdest thing ever, a tree octopus or tiny dragons...yes dragons...living in caves in Slovenia.  Have you ever heard of a family vacation dedicated summer after summer to finding dinosaur bones?  If so, you might know about the location of a dinosaur affectionately known as Bambi.  You won't want to remember a deadly sea creature growing to one hundred thirty-feet long.  It may actually be many joined as one and as thin as a rope.

As if the eighteen stories in the previous two parts on plants and animals are not challenging enough, the final nine stories within three chapters on humans will likely have you running to the nearest source of trustworthy information in a heartbeat.  Poop donors for fecal transplantation and urine transforming into energy are simply mind-boggling.  Is it possible for a person to have the hiccups for sixty-eight years and not go crazy?  Will experimentation with blood finally answer the quest for the fountain of youth?  Can we transmit our thoughts from one person to the next over the Internet? In all twenty-seven tales there is truth in varying degrees.  It's a quest you will willingly take, expanding your respect for this planet and its inhabitants.


The honest truth is you will have a hard time not reading this book in a single sitting.  Authors Ammi-Joan Paquette and Laurie Ann Thompson write in a manner to fully engage the reader.  Their word choices, use of language and meticulous research combine to draw you into the world of plants, animals and humans.  You won't want to leave.

Each part is prefaced by an upbeat introduction.  The stories are illustrated with captioned full color photographs, maps and artwork.  There are lists of ten asking you to locate the falsehood in each.  It might be a group of facts, real plant names, sea creature titles, weird medical procedures or kinds of diseases.  Readers are asked in Try This! or Take Action sections to expand their thinking.  Inserted flags define words mentioned in the stories extending understanding to the readers.  Sometimes Talk It Out paragraphs offer explanations and issue questions.  Here are some sample passages.

Ah, nature.  A green meadow.  Wind rustling through the leaves.  Mushrooms growing on the side of a fallen log.  What could be more peaceful, more predictable, more ordinary?

To that we say:  ha!  The plants and fungus we spotlight in this section are full of surprises.  They completely defy those common stereotypes and misconceptions!

Intrigued?  We hope so!  Because once you've read these, going green will never again mean quite the same thing...


Everyone needs a friend, right?  Someone to talk to.  Someone to do stuff with.  Someone who can curl up quietly and snooze inside your ear until the next time you want to hang out.
Wait---what?


Talk It Out
From the tiniest mustard seeds to the tallest giant sequoia trees, plants are amazing!  They're extremely diverse and very different from us, and we're completely dependent on them for our survival.  Imagine you're a plant scientist.  What kinds of plants would you most like to study?  What questions do you have about how plants live? ...

Try This!
1.  The deep ocean is one of the most mysterious places on Earth, with new species of creatures being discovered all the time.  Pretend you are a deep-sea explorer who has just come upon an astonishing new creature.  What does it look like?  What does it eat?  How does it protect itself?  Make sure to give your creature a name and sketch its portrait for posterity. ...


As soon as you can, plan on placing more than one copy of Two Truths And A Lie: It's Alive! written by Ammi-Joan Paquette and Laurie Ann Thompson on your professional shelves.  I know it will be a hit at home too.  Some readers will read all the stories, make guesses and then look for answers.  Or they might start searching even before a story is finished.  The thing is... this book is loaded to the brim with facts...and yes, fiction.  It invites speculation and confirmation.  After the final story readers are offered a Research Guide with suggestions for seeking verifiable facts. An Answer Guide follows with complete discussions.  For each story, true or not, bibliographic resources are listed.  An index is proposed.  (I am working from an uncorrected proof.)

To learn more about Ammi-Joan Paquette and Laurie Ann Thompson and their other work please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  They both maintain accounts on Twitter here and here.  Laurie Ann Thompson wrote a guest post at author Tara Lazar's Writing for Kids (While Raising Them).

UPDATE:  June 30, 2017 This dynamic duo wrote a post about their title at the Nerdy Book Club.

UPDATE:  There is now a fabulous Educator's Guide to Support Information Literacy for this title. October 17, 2017.  

[There is a wonderful stand-alone lesson titled Two Truths and a Lie  accessible at the American Library Association which would pair wonderfully with this book.]

June 5 Librarian's Quest

June 7 Flowering Minds

Pragmatic Mom

June 11 Geo Librarian

June 12 The Book Monsters

June 13 Smack Dab in the Middle

June 14 Bluestocking Thinking

June 15 Novel Novice

Library Lions Roar

June 16 Archimedes Notebook

June 18 Nerdy Book Club

June 19 Cracking The Cover

June 20 The Hiding Spot

Writers' Rumpus

                                                              June 21 Maria's Melange

June 23 Unleasing Readers

June 24 This Kid Reviews Books

Groovin' Movin' Greenery

Too late for a proper garden but unable to resist the temptation of growing something to eat, two large pots on my deck are home for a single pumpkin and zucchini plant.  In less than sixty days six inches have become five feet of winding vines weaving among annuals planted in layers of flower boxes.  Yellow blossoms dot the strands of green, signs of tasty goodness to come.

Plants in all seasons of the year are a promise of renewal, a continuation of life.  Plants Can't Sit Still (Millbrook Press, a division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., August 1, 2016) written by Rebecca E. Hirsch with illustrations by Mia Posada presents their fascinating methods of motion.  You'll be ready to focus on flora with new eyes.  

Plants don't have feet 

or fins or wings,

yet they can move

in many ways.

Look closely and you'll discover

that plants

cant't

sit still.

They begin beneath the ground twisting and turning their way upward toward their essential needs; heat and light.  Some roots form a chain sending up new plants from a central point.  A single plant may grow many arms reaching over the ground.  Vines may need other plants or structures to spread vertically or they contain hidden strengths.

Branches on plants can act as hands repelling and capturing enemies.  Plants can have internal clocks.  Have you ever walked outside after dark to see how they shift and change?  

Doing different dances, partnering with air, seeds spread on the ground or from high places.  They can burst forth from small pods attached to plant bodies.  Seeds can be sneaky attaching to unsuspecting animals or people.  Sometimes seeds become a vessel transported on water until they discover new ground.  Every place they land, regardless of how they move, gives seeds a chance to begin anew.  

An array of action words, verbs, selected by Rebecca E. Hirsch portrays the movements of plants in ways readers might not initially notice.  She takes us beneath the ground, along the ground, and upward, always upward.  Their amazing survival techniques and hidden clocks are descriptively depicted.  Like real life, Hirsch brings us full circle providing us with information on seeds and how they are spread. The More About Plants pages at the book's end gives readers a conversational overview of plants in general but also supplies us with more in-depth information about twenty particular plants, including their scientific names.  You will be pleasantly surprised by what you learn.  Here is another sample passage from the book.

A seed is a plant

built for travel.

Seeds can whirl

like helicopters

or float on

parachutes

or glide on papery wings.

But they 

can't 

sit 

still.

Readers are greeted with a rainbow of color and plants performing many movements in the collage on the front of the matching dust jacket and book case.  Their lifting, dropping, popping and shifting surround the title text which appears to be in motion too.  To the left, on the back, readers see a scene from nighttime, moonflowers opening and raising their faces to the light.  On the opening and closing endpapers, looking from left to right, seven individual illustrations on a pale blue background represent the cycle of a dandelion from parachuting seeds, to tiny sprouts, a small plant, yellow blossoms and back to an old plant ready to release seeds.  Morning glory vines and flowers frame the verso and title pages.

Rendered in cut paper collage with watercolor eight of the eighteen illustrations created by Mia Posada span from left to right across two pages.  Ten of the images are on single pages but they appear together intricately bound by background color and the type of plant pictured.  The use of light and dark and layers generate a life-like texture.  

The perspectives are varied as we view the places these plants move.  Tucked in each illustration are other creatures; a blue butterfly, a bird enjoying the seeds from a sunflower, creeping caterpillars, moths, a mouse and small red ladybugs to name a few.  It's as if we are surrounded by the worlds Posada makes for us.  

One of my favorite of many illustrations is of the exploding pods attached to a squirting cucumber.  From left to right pale green leaves, portions of vines and pale yellow blossoms spread.  On arched stems hang the pods.  One of them is shooting out seeds crossing the gutter from left to the right zooming over a full bloom.  A small green frog sits on one of the leaves.    

Plants Can't Sit Still written by Rebecca E. Hirsch with illustrations by Mia Posada is a way to discover movement secrets of plants more commonly known and seen by readers.  We can walk in the wild world, our neighborhoods or in our backyards to discover these truths.  In addition to the More About Plants section there is an author's note, glossary and more information through books and websites.  The time lapse videos at one of the websites are amazing.  It might be fun to pair this title with Rooting for You: A Moving Up Story written by Susan Hood with pictures by Matthew Cordell.

To learn more about Rebecca E. Hirsch please visit her website by following the link attached to her name.  She also maintains a blog linked here.  At the Lerner website Mia Posada participates in a short Q & A.  In a longer interview Rebecca E. Hirsch answers questions at Lerner.  To get a glimpse at interior pages please visit the publisher's website.

Be sure to stop by Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to read about the other titles chosen by bloggers participating in the 2016 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.