Ruth Owen (2)Reseñas

Perfect for grades 1 and 2. I used it on Epic! Students were able to read along on ipads. The best part was that the author challenged students to complete a summer treasure hunt. This will get them outside exploring nature!

Has vivid pictures and captions to explain them. The text goes over various different types of carnivorous plants, has an experiment for children to do, and a glossary in the back of the book. The book has a list of books and a website for further reading and understanding.

5ITHHQRM

My local library just added several awesome children's books to its digital website. I'm always looking for great books to send to the grandkids, so I checked out a few. The cover of this book by Ruth Owen really caught my eye. How Do You Know It's Winter? is part of the Signs of the Seasons series.

Not only does this book have awesome full-color photos and artwork on each page, but it also includes classroom or homeschool activities and a science lab section. Geared for elementary age students, I can see this book being a great supplement for weather related science lessons for kindergarten through second graders. The book includes common core requirements like a list of keywords, an index, suggested booklist and an informational weblink. I homeschooled my youngest son for three years in elementary school and I would have loved this book! Lessons that combined information with outdoor activities always helped my son learn and retain his lesson work, and added fun to our school day.

This book could also be read at home by parents, with the addition of some fun, outside activities like tracking morning temperatures and sunset times, or taking a walk to see how winter changes the landscape.

Awesome book! Very colorful and inviting, plus great activities for school or home.

Ghosts and Other Spirits of the Dead is part of the Not Near Normal: The Paranormal series for kids. The series has six books on spooky topics ranging from aliens to zombies. I love ghost stories -- even ones for kids -- so when I saw my local library had just added this to their digital site, I had to read it! I'm always looking for interesting books for my grand kids or to give as gifts to friends' kids, but I always read them myself first. Especially if they are spooky!

This book is very visually appealing. Each story is illustrated with full-color photos and artwork with varied page layouts. The stories are set in the US and UK with intersting locations like an aircraft carrier and even a haunted road. Some of the tales are well-known like the phantom hitchhiker, the Brown Lady and a demon cat.

The stories are age appropriate for elementary age students....spooky but not overly scary. Each book in this series has a glossary of spooky terms from the stories, a bibliography, a short suggested reading list and a weblink for kid who want more information. I could see this series having some fun classroom applications...from writing prompts to fun, supplementary reading at Halloween. A student who loves ghost stories but who is a reluctant reader might really benefit from this series.

I'm definitely going to read more of these books and buy a couple titles for my grand kids! Very entertaining!

As a mom, grandma and former home-school teacher, I love it when my local library adds cool new science titles for kids! Recently, I got sucked into the vortex of the "New Additions'' section on the library's digital site and ended up checking out several children's books. Why not? Every review helps authors...and reviewing great kids books helps other parents, teachers and home-schoolers. :) Plus, this book has poop in the title....even grandmas have immature giggly moments which leads them to read books with poop in the title...just 'cause.

Blood, Poop and Dead Skin isn't a book on gross stuff....it's all about what insects eat. It talks about great buggy science facts accompanied by awesome full-color photos and illustrations. The book could have science lesson applications in a classroom, but might also tempt reluctant readers to enjoy reading a book.

This book is common core compliant. There is a glossary, index, suggested reading list, web links, etc. Blood, Poop and Dead Skin is part of The Secret Lives of Insects series. There are four books in the series. Other topics include where insects live, insect defenses and cool facts about bugs.

Blood, Poop & Dead Skin could have some fun classroom uses....supplementary reading for science lessons, outdoor activities about bugs, and fun solo reading for reluctant readers who might get a bit of giggly fun out of the title like I did. :) The pages are informative and colorful. All information is grade school age appropriate.

A great book about bugs! I'm so glad my library added this!

As a grandma and former homeschool teacher, I'm always on the lookout for great children's books. My local library just added some awesome children's science books, so I checked out a few. Ruth Owen's books on the weather really caught my eye. Each page has colorful and eye-catching photos and illustrations. The science information is presented in an age appropriate way for young elementary students, with ideas for extra activities included.

The first thing that drew my attention to this book is the cover. Who could resist that cute squirrel? After teaching my youngest son at home for 3 years, I know that front cover would have been a great segue into a science lesson on fall weather, environmental changes and other fall facts. Each page of this book is full-color with an attractive layout. The information is age appropriate for young elementary students. The book is fully in line with common core requirements and includes a list of keywords, an index, suggested reading list and a weblink for more information. The book would be perfect in a classroom setting. It includes a science lab, plus several suggested outdoor activities like tracking daily temperatures and collecting autumn leaves or taking a walk to discuss signs that it's autumn. I always found that combining a lesson with an experiment and outdoor activities helped my son learn and retain important facts so much better than depending only on written classwork.

Awesome book! Great activities and facts for use at home with parents/grandparents or in a school setting.

This is from a Bearport set called The Dino-Sphere, part of their Little Bits! first readers series. The Dino-Sphere has ten books, ranging from books about modern paleontologists, fossils, and overviews of different aspects of dinosaurs from their eggs to their extinction.

This title is a general collection of facts about dinosaurs. It covers their name, general time period, and a variety of unusual dinosaurs - the biggest and smallest dinosaurs, most horns, hardest skull, smartest, etc. Illustrations include artist's depictions of dinosaurs, photographs of fossils, and models. Back matter defines four words - crest, fossils, mate, and scientists. There is also a short index, two books (both from Capstone) to read further, a link to the publisher's website for the series, and a brief note on the author.

The book is physically not the traditional size of easy readers; it's an 8x8 square. Little Bits is marketed to "beginning readers" but the vocabulary and text complexity is actually much higher than that. It comes in at a 600 lexile and the highest I put in my easy readers is between 500-600. It needs a fairly competent reader to tackle these books.

Verdict: While I wouldn't necessarily recommend these as easy readers, they're perfectly acceptable picture books and that's exactly what I needed. My dinosaur picture books needed new titles and these have been flying off the shelf. I think they will also be popular when we get back to school and teachers and younger kids are looking for books to read together or browse.

ISBN: 9781642801866; Published 2019 by Bearport; Review copy provided by publisher; Purchased set for the library

The fascinating world of dinosaurs and their eggs is brought to life and explained in a way appropriate for young dino enthusiasts.

The first two-page spread sets the atmosphere—cute, little dinosaur babies just breaking out of their eggs. The high quality of the worked photos throughout the book create an extremely realistic appearing setting, which is sure to catch the attention of young readers right away. How dinosaurs laid eggs, what their nests looked like, how the babies were card for and exactly why the eggs we find today were fossilized are topics which are all addressed. At the end of the book, there's a glossary to help with more difficult terms, a list of where to find more information about the topic and a website address to learn more as well.

The text is steered toward younger readers/listeners and kept at the minimum required to address a topic. The colorful bubbles of information sprinkled among the illustrations help point out certain aspects and offer more information. The information never runs too deep, but simply gives a general idea of dinosaurs and their eggs. Several different dinosaurs are addressed to illustrate the various nesting possibilities, and while this was interesting, some of the dinosaur types were not familiar to my listeners. Since the book does not dive into that aspect, this left a bit of a void.

Dinosaur fans are sure to enjoy this one!

I received a complimentary copy and enjoyed this one enough to want to leave my honest thoughts.

Kids who love the icky, gross and simply can't get enough of insects and how they eat are in for a huge treat with this book!

This book is about insects. . .some very rare and some more common. . .and the more disgusting habits several harbor. Disgusting as some of the food sources might be, this is not only about hitting high on the grossness scale, but rather, offers all sorts of interesting insect tidbits along the way.

Twelve very different critters are put in the spotlight, including everything from Honeypot Ants to Green Bottle Flies to Tarantula Hawks and so many more. Each insect becomes the star of a two-page spread and is presented in real life, very colorful and clear photographs. Readers get a glimpse into their natural habitats. There's a quick summary of the insect, their environment and their food source as well as a reason for why they eat what they do. A 'The Science Stuff' box sits between the photographs, offering more curious and interesting bits of information about the insect. And to keep the excitement high, little boxes point to various attributes in the photographs and give a short description or another bite of information. At the end of the book, there's a good sized glossary to help with more difficult terms, an index and the mention of a website, where readers can discover even more.

This is not a book for the weak of stomach, but the insects as well as the information is interesting. The text is at the perfect level for middle graders, gets right to the point and keeps things short. This keeps readers from getting bogged down and bored, and lets them simply dive right into the information. And the insects here are not ones often explored. There's definitely something new to discover even for insect fans who know their stuff.

I received a complimentary copy and enjoyed it enough to want to leave my honest thoughts.

Yuck. Every time I read a Bearport book I am impressed with the images and photos. The images of zombies and photos of real diseases in this book are best not seen after a meal. "Becoming a Zombie" is great for anyone fascinated with zombies or horror. It has a little bit of zombie lore at the beginning but most of the book is about diseases and wildlife that might truly cause zombification. At the end there is a game people can play, a glossary, "learn more online" and a "read more" section. I loved this book even though I am not a zombie fan.

Ruth Owen and Ross Piper found the nastiest insect facts and put them all together in this book. The photos in the book match the gross facts perfectly. The bedbugs page will make sleeping hard at night. It isn't bad enough to describe a green bottle eating a corpse; they had to add that sometimes they lay eggs in the wound of an animal that is still alive. Forensic Scientists use green bottles to determine the age of a corpse. Children that love this book might consider growing up to become one.

I recommend this book for all elementary school libraries and for young scientists. It is written in an entertaining way and has fantastic images of habitats both large and small and various food chains. There are activities and questions throughout the book for exploring. There is a website with printouts available. Each subject in the series "Get Started with STEM" is part of elementary Science curricula. For schools with interactive whiteboards, the ebooks would be perfect.

Bearport books have a way of finding unique aspects of popular subjects. This book is about a boat that was dug up by an archaeologist next to the Pyramid of Giza. The book explains how boats were used by the ancient Egyptians and then goes on to explain how this particular boat needed to be put back together using the same methods the ancient Egyptians used to first create it. The book is as well put together as the pharoah's boat.

Predicting volcanic eruptions or earthquakes could save many dollars and lives. Volcanologists study active volcanoes and get down and dirty with ash. They even experiment with red hot lava! Seismologists study earthquakes from fault to devastation. Show young readers that earth science can thrill and astound.

This is a great reference book for the "almost invisible" bugs that haunt our daily lives.

This book is part of a series of books that take a close look at a variety of insects. This particular book in the series covers small to microscopic bugs found in peoples homes.

One of the best features of this book is the enlarged photos of microscopic bugs. These photos give accurate representation of the bugs that cannot be seen by the naked eye.

Each page (covering a different bug) explains the feeding habits, reproductive habits and living environments for each bug.

This is in addition to the effects that these bugs have on humans.

A brief children's book about ghosts, poltergeists, and different types of hauntings. It has a lot of good pictures that would grab the attention of the kids, but I felt that it was too short. I think the author could of made it about 10-20 pages longer. The paranormal is becoming mainstream now and it is not unusual like it was when I was in my tween years. I think there is much more interest in ghosts and monsters so many more people would purchase the book. I enjoyed the brief stories and I liked how the author provided ghosts stories that occurred both on land and sea. This really gave variety to the book. I highly recommend this book for teachers that have interested students around the Halloween holiday. I think this book would be a fun addition to any extra reading time, etc. It is not scary and would be good for kiddos in the 8 to 10 age group. My only hang up is the length. It is just a bit too short for me and I honestly think children would stay interested in the stories if the author were to add a couple more.