The Twenty-One Balloons
by William Pène du Bois
Age: 8 +
Interests: balloons, travel, inventions, inventors, science, adventure, volcanoes
Talking about children's books and films. Useful information for parents.
12 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in Books, books 8+ Tags: adventure, air travel, balloons, inventions, inventors, science, scientists, travel, volcanoes
by William Pène du Bois
Age: 8 +
Interests: balloons, travel, inventions, inventors, science, adventure, volcanoes
20 Jan 2014 2 Comments
in Books, books 10+ Tags: biography, history, Paris, Poland, science, scientists, strong girls
by Eleanor Doorly
illustrated by Robert Gibbings
Age: 10
Interests: science, scientists, biography, history, strong girls, Paris, Poland
12 Sep 2013 Leave a comment
in Books, books 8+ Tags: action, adventure, cities, history, Krakow, medieval history, Poland, religion, scientists
by Eric P. Kelly
Age: 8+
Interests: medieval history, Poland, Krakow, adventure, action, religion, science
12 Feb 2012 Leave a comment
in Books, books 7+ Tags: biography, history, Italy, math, medieval history, science, scientists
Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci
Joseph D’Agnese, text
John O’Brien, illustrations
Henry Holt and Company, 2010
40 pp.
Age: 7+
Interests: math, history, science, biography, Middle Ages, Italy
06 Feb 2012 Leave a comment
in Books, books 5+ Tags: airplanes, biography, France, history, inventions, scientists
CALDECOTT MEDAL WINNER – 1984
The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Blériot
by Alice and Martin Provensen
The Viking Press, 1983
38 pp.
Age: 5+
Interests: history, biography, inventors, airplanes, France
Next: science/invention biography – Snowflake Bentley; more about France in this era – The Invention of Hugo Cabret; artistic style – look up works by Henri Rousseau
10 Dec 2011 Leave a comment
in Books, books 3+, Canadian books Tags: animals, digging, scientists, single parent
BLUE SPRUCE nominee – 2012
Roslyn Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth
by Marie-Louise Gay
Toronto: House of Anansi/Groundwood Books, 2010
28 pp.
Age: 3+
Interests: digging, scientific inquiry, nature, animals
Also by this author: Rainy Day Magic, Stella: Queen of the Snow
06 Oct 2011 2 Comments
in Movies, movies 6+ Tags: action, adventure, cars, castle, inventions, Magic, science, scientists, song and dance, spies
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Released: 1968
Rated: G
Length: 144 min. (with an intermission at the 1:27 mark)
Age: 6 and up Commensense Media sez: 6 +
Scary Factor: fantasy adventure story abounds in peril but all is exaggerated and cartoonish; the Baron and his spies are too bumbling to be truly scary; the Child Catcher on the other hand is extremely creepy, he’s the scariest thing in the movie, especially when he captures Jemima and Jeremy
Intense Scenes: all the children living underground is a rather pathetic sight, it stuck with me as a child; Caractacus and Truly posing as dolls is a bit suspenseful, but mostly amusing
Questionable Language: apparently Grandpa says “ass” at some point
Other Violence and Mayhem: the Baron and Baroness are pretty weird, especially the Baron’s sly attempts to do away with his wife, particularly during their cutesy song together before the party; in an earlier scene the Baroness is ejected high into the air, she floats gently down thanks to her large skirts and the Baron hauls out his shotgun and shoots at her! (the resulting holes in her billowing skirt bring her down quickly, and he expresses disappointment that he only hit her skirt!)
Interests: cars, inventions, magic, action, adventure, castles, scientists, inventors, spies, musicals
Next: Ian Fleming book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (very different plot)
More
22 Aug 2011 Leave a comment
in Books, books 5+ Tags: biography, nature, photography, science, scientists, snow, winter
CALDECOTT MEDAL WINNER – 1999
By Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Illustrations by Mary Azarian
New York: Scholastic, 1998
30 pp.
Age: 5+
Interests: snowflakes, snow, biography, science, scientists, photography, nature
Also about W. A. Bentley: My Brother Loved Snowflakes by Mary Bahr
“Every child is a scientist.”
29 May 2012 Leave a comment
by Kim in Commentary, Parenting Tags: science, scientists
Here’s a wonderful perspective on children and science from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson:
I can’t think of any more human activity than conducting science experiments. Think about it — what do kids do? … They’re turning over rocks, they’re plucking petals off a rose — they’re exploring their environment through experimentation. That’s what we do as human beings, and we do that more thoroughly and better than any other species on Earth that we have yet encountered… We explore our environment more than we are compelled to utter poetry when we’re toddlers — we start doing that later. Before that happens, every child is a scientist. And so when I think of science, I think of a truly human activity — something fundamental to our DNA, something that drives curiosity.
(courtesy of brainpickings.org )