Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Ocean's Alive (FAMILY magazine reviews)

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Once the school year is over, children sometimes forget what they have learned. Parents can encourage their child/children to read during summer weeks to keep this from happening. When children go to the beach, or out in a boat, the questions they ask show their interest in the living world around. Don’t hesitate to “wonder” with your child/children about what they see and smell, feel and hear.  A few ideas below can add to what parents already do:

·      Read out loud with your child -- this helps her/him grow in understanding, vocabulary and decoding words. Whatever her/his age, it raises interest in reading on their own.

·      Excite your child to read with a variety of books and magazines at his/her interest level. Keep reading material in cars, bathrooms, bedrooms, and family rooms, even beside the TV.

·      In your daily routine, include 15-30 minutes when everyone in the family reads together silently. Your child’s interest in reading grows when she/he sees you reading. And it makes her/his reading smoother and more confident.

·      Invite your child to read signs, grocery store items, menus, movie time listings, weather reports, board games, and other necessary everyday information. Keep something to read with them or for them to read when they wait for appointments or travel in the car.

·      Visit the library regularly with your child to help them choose books to borrow. This is a great way to get new reading materials, let him/her make their own reading choices, and build their reading interest.

·      Most important, give them genuine praise for their efforts to read, and share your own reading pleasure with them!

A few summertime book choices are below. Happy vacation!  

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These Seas Count! by Alison Formento 
illustrated by Sarah Snow
Albert Whitman, $16.99 (hardcover) 
Interest Level: Junior Kindergarten – Grade 2 
(This book is available to purchase from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)
           
Mr. Tate’s class is at Sunnyside Beach to help on Clean-Up Day.  Working with Captain Ned and counting the ocean’s animals, students pick up trash. They talk about weather, air and water, and the fish they like to eat.
            Digital collage illustrates a dirty, then clean beach and ocean. Busy seascapes are paired with counting language and children’s questions and comments. 
Lively text and alert children and animals drive readers’ interest in this environmental storybook.  Additional information about oceans is included at the back.

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Ocean Commotion: Life on the Reef by Janeen Mason
Pelican, $16.99 (hardcover) 
Interest Level: Grades1-3 
(This book is available to purchase from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)
                 
A too-tight tulip shell house sends a hermit crab on a hunt, across the living reef, for a new home.  The author/illustrator, a Florida resident, uses sunlit colors and active shapes to create an undersea adventure. 
Vivid language propels hermit crab. She tiptoes “through a garden of anemones,” and past turtle grass.  Readers meet sea creatures like pufferfish, sea urchins, parrotfish and more. After a powerful storm, hermit crab discovers a perfectly sized whelk shell house.
End matter includes an Illustrated Glossary and letter from the author.

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Out of the Ocean by Debra Frasier 
Harcourt, $7.00 (paperback) 
Interest Level: Pre-Kindergarten – Grade 2 
(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch. 
Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)
           
With a pleasing mix of photos, cut paper and found objects the author/illustrator welcomes readers to share her delight. Ocean treasures create a collage of words and pictures.  Asking the sea to bring something often depends on remembering to look for it, the girl and mother in the book find out together.   
            This winning picture book works its wonder, shaping a magical experience.  Those who read this book will be eager to search a beach for what is waiting to be discovered.  An Ocean Journal at the back adds richness to this Florida story.
           
 
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Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! by April Pulley Sayre
illustrated by Annie Patterson 
 Charlesbridge, $7.95 (paperback) 
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2 
(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch.   
Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)
           
Starting on a Florida beach, this picture book shows the dangers a young turtle must find her way through, in order to survive. Beginning with eggs, and then hatchlings, each part of a sea turtle’s life is risky. The author uses the repeated words of the title to warn. Many hands help in different ways to keep rare turtles alive. 
Blues, greens and purples in watercolors and pastels suggest day and night for turtle’s water world.  The artist adds contrast and detail with golden browns for turtles, beaches, other animals and sea creatures.  Additional pages -- Helping Hands for Sea Turtles, and, Sea Turtle Species – are included at the end.


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Try any of these terrific books too:

The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino 
Knopf,  $7.99 (paperback) 
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2 
(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch, Little River. 
Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)

The Earth Book by Todd Parr 
Little Brown, $9.99 (hardcover) 
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2 
(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch, Allapattah, Culmer/Overtown, Little River, Miami Lakes, North Dade Regional, Opa-Locka. 
Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)

Down Down Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea by Steve Jenkins 
Houghton Mifflin, $17.00 (hardcover) 
Interest Level: Grades 1-3 
(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch, North Central. 
Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)

Mayday! Mayday! A Coast Guard Rescue by Chris L. Demarest
Simon & Schuster, $17.99 (hardcover) 
Interest Level: Preschool – Grade 2 
(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch, Miami Lakes, Miami Springs, North Dade Regional. 
Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)

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