Nonfiction

Simon, Seymour. 1995. Sharks. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 0060230290

SUMMARY

Seymour Simon portrays sharks as fascinating creatures not monsters as often depicted in movies. Sharks belong to the class of fish known as chondrichthyes. Unlike other fish, sharks only have backbones. Sharks have five to seven pairs of gill openings. Sharks cruise one to three miles per hour. A shark’s jaw may have twenty rows of teeth. The shark’s skin is covered with skin teeth called denticles.

These cold-blooded fish have a sixth sense—electroreception. They reproduce through internal fertilization. Approximately 350 kinds of sharks have been discovered. The dwarf shark is as small as your hand. The whale shark is longer than a school bus. The great white shark, seen in “Jaws”, has fifty 2.5” pointed teeth. The oldest sharks lived 400 million years ago 200 million years before the first dinosaurs.

The last page of the book features five bulleted rules to follow to reduce your risk of a shark attack.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Seymour Simon has written 200 science books half of which have been named Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children by the National Science Teachers Association. Sharks a 32-page book, is written for children ages 4-8. The large, full-color photographs in the book are very realistic bringing the text to life. The photographs in the book were taken by several photographers listed at the end of the book. Included are photos of an entire shark, the mouth, the teeth, schools of whales, feeding and ocean flora. The factual information is presented in descriptive, informative narrative. The reproduction process is thoroughly described in an age-appropriate manner. Sharks, is easy to read, colorful and presents excellent information.

BOOK REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

School Library Journal
In a narrative that flows from the general to the specific, Simon describes the appearance, physical characteristics, and behavior of sharks. Large, full-color photographs amplify the text and hint at its contents. For example, a close-up of a sand tiger shark's open mouth and row upon row of teeth invites readers into the facing text, which describes how sharks bite and what happens when a tooth is broken or lost. A photo of the gaping mouth of a whale shark introduces the filter-feeders, a small group without teeth….

Booklist
With a good balance of text and illustrations, Simon introduces the world of sharks. Always informative, he offers basic information about their variety, habits, physical characteristics, and life cycles. Although not captioned, the excellent full-color photographs relate so closely to the text on the opposite page that the pictures work in harmony with the words. …

Connections
Encourage students to read more by displaying a collection of Seymour Simon’s books. Compare shark’s teeth with other animals. Discuss beach experiences. Discuss the safety tips located on the last page of the book. Make posters using Google “shark pictures”) for each safety tip and to use as a technology component. Genre 4 Book 3















Jenkins, Steve. 2006. Almost Gone the World’s Rarest Animals. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 0060536004

ANNOTATION

Caldecott Honor

Excerpt from the book--

NORTHERN HAIRY-NOSED WOMBAT
Australia - Fewer than 60 left

The northern hairy-nosed wombat got its name from the short bristly hairs that grow on its face. It is a stocky, powerful animal about three feet long. It uses its strong from claws for digging burrows and finding the roots it eats. Sheep and cattle ranching have destroyed most of this wombat's territory. It is now found only in a tiny corner of one national park in Australia.


SUMMARY

Steve Jenkins, wrote and illustrated The World’s Rarest Animals—a Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science series book. The book, featuring 28 species, is divided into three sections—Almost Gone, Gone Forever, and Coming Back. A short paragraph for each species contains the specie name, the geographical location, the number in existence or in the Gone Forever section the year the specie became extinct, unique characteristics, behavior, diet, and why the specie became endangered.

The art features Jenkins’ signature colorful, cut-paper collage illustrations on a white background. Although the illustrations of the animals are not to scale the narrative does describe the animal’s size accurately. The illustrations medium is watercolor realistically colored and touchable.

The last two pages feature a world map and a numbered list of the three categories. This visual page names the animal, identifies its’ geographical location and its’ size. The world map is numbered for easy location of the specie.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This stage 2 Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out Science series book is written for children ages 5-9. The introduction discusses the basic concept of the food chain and how the world works. The text and illustrations for each book in this series is checked for accuracy by experts. This 33-page book contains informational paragraphs that are easy to read. Children will enjoy reading the paragraphs and looking at the colorful realistic pictures.

BOOK REVIEW EXCEPT(S)

School Library Journal
Starred Review. Kindergarten-Grade 3–This engaging title is informative as well as visually stunning. Jenkins captures the essence of his subjects with appropriately colored, cut-paper collage illustrations on stark white backgrounds. Each endangered animal is introduced in a single paragraph that typically contains a fact or two about its range, behavior, diet, and those conditions that threaten its welfare. The actual number remaining is poignantly noted. A middle section, Gone Forever, memorializes animals no longer on Earth with an indication of when they were last seen. In a hopeful third section, Jenkins discusses the Indian crocodile, whooping crane, and Alpine ibex, three animals that are coming back, due to the efforts to protect their habitats. All the animals included in this book are numbered and appropriately placed on a double-page world map….

Booklist
Gr. 1-3. Caldecott Honor Book illustrator Jenkins applies his considerable talents to the cause of conservation in this book in the long-running Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series. Using his signature cut-and torn-paper collages, he shows 21 endangered species, accompanying each image with a few sentences about the animal's habitat, a particular characteristic, and, sometimes, the reason for its endangered status. The art is not to scale, but Jenkins often works in text references to give kids an idea of relative size: a Yangtze River Dolphin "may grow to be eight feet long"; an Assam rabbit weighs "four or five pounds." As usual, Jenkins' artwork is fascinating….

Connections
Encourage students to read more by displaying a collection of books on endangered species or more books by the author. Students could search for more endangered species in Texas. A good web site for this activity is http://www.texasento.net/TXendsp.htm

Students could write stories including pictures or create a bulletin board or posters. This text contains several new vocabulary words. Create a vocabulary activity including the term, the definition, and writing a sentence using the term. Terms are: marsupial, migratory, scavengers, endangered, omnivorous and extinct.











Armstrong, Jennifer. 1998. Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. New York: Crown Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0375810498

ANNOTATION

NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
YALSA Selected List of Audiobooks for Young Adults
Publishers Weekly Listen up Award - 2000
One of five Best Audios Produced for Children - 2000
An ALA Notable Book
Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor
Best Books of 1999 - Publishers Weekly

SUMMARY

Jennifer Armstrong’s survival story entitled “Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World” is a chapter book written for students ages 10-14. The books begins with a photo of the 27-member crew and their job assignments, followed by architectural drawings of the Endurance, a map of Antarctica, and a route map of the Endurance Expedition. Chapter 1 vividly sets the scene by describing Antarctica as the most hostile place on earth where “cold air masses created by this icecap clash with warm winds from the ocean to churn up a storm belt.”

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton had ventured to Antarctica twice before setting out on this expedition. The Endurance Expedition’s goal is to make landfall and set out across the continent. A sister ship will sail from Australia and wait on the opposite side of Antarctica to pick up Shackleton and his crew.

The narrative vividly describes the wild life (Emperor penguins bowed to the ship and crews), crew behavior (singing “Auld Lang Syne” and playing soccer on the ice), and landscape/seascape (Deep crevasses snaked across their paths).

Approximately 40 black and white reproductions in the book are of the expedition taken on glass plates by Frank Hurley. They are of exceptional quality and are accompanied by descriptive captions. At one point during the expedition, Shackleton and Hurley had to select the best 150 of the 400 photos and destroy the rest.

This page turner holds your interest to the very end. Do all 27 return to England safely?

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Jennifer Armstrong has written more than 100 books for all ages. Shipwreck is a novel of epic proportion an exciting story of a crew who was stranded at the South Pole for more than a year when their ship, the Endurance, sank into the icy waters. The book is different from other books based on true stories because it provides page-to-page excitement…as you read you feel drawn into the terror of panic and isolation. With you-are-there quality readers are kept holding their breaths for much of the story.

Shackleton’s mission—“If you’re a leader, a fellow that other fellows look to, you’ve got to keep going” rings true throughout the story. The vocabulary is easy to understand with only a few technical terms. The chapters are short and the photography placement and white space present appealing, readable pages. The book includes a bibliography and index. Students wishing to pursue studying the expedition will easily find additional books, articles and museum exhibits.


BOOK REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Amazon
The harrowing survival story of English explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and the ill-fated Endurance has intrigued people since the 1914 expedition--spurring astounding books such as Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage and The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition. As Shackleton and 27 sailors attempted to cross the frozen Antarctic continent from one side to the other, they were trapped in an ice pack, lost their ship to the icy depths, survived an Antarctic winter, escaped attacks from sea lions, and traversed 600 treacherous miles to the uninhabited Elephant Island……

School Library Journal
Grade 6 Up-When their ship, Endurance, became icebound in Antarctica and sank in 1914; Sir Ernest Shackleton and his 27 crewmen were 100 miles from land. Unbelievably, they all survived. At first, the men played on the ice to kill time, but after Endurance sank, they took to their life boats, and spent a year and a half traveling over ice, water, and mountains to reach safety. Taylor Mali's narration of the book by Jennifer Armstrong (Crown, 1998) is riveting, and his shifts from one accent to the next are effective and not at all distracting. The text moves from diary entries to explanations of how to read the sun, and the descriptions of the terrain and weather are superb.

Connection

Provide a display of similar adventure books and additional titles by Jennifer Armstrong. Encourage students to read more nonfiction or write a short story about a personal adventure.

The chapter entitled “Into the Boats” contains specific vocabulary. A pre-reading vocabulary exercise incorporating a globe or map will help students. Vocabulary words are: longitude, latitude, parallels, meridians, perpendicular, coordinates, celestial bodies, sextant, and chronometer.

Have students create a pictorial time line of ship expeditions. Examples:

1492 Columbus Discovered San Salvador Island
1908 Shackleton Came within 100 miles of the South Pole
1911 Amundsen Reached the South Pole
1916 Shackleton Arrives at Elephant Island