This book about a tiny creature different from the rest touched my heart in a big way.
Like the scientist whose discovery inspired this book, I pay attention to small things. What small thing did the scientist notice? A snail shell that spiraled the opposite way of most snails–left instead of right. This one-in-a-million snail had inverted organs–his heart and other organs were on the right side, and he couldn’t reproduce without a mate who also had inverted organs.
Through crowdsourcing, two snails with right hearts were found–and eventually, baby snails were born!
Genetics, diversity, evolution, and love all fit into this book, tenderly and beautifully told in sparse language that somehow helped me understand these big concepts–and encouraged me to look for and appreciate the diversity in our world.
A Kirkus Best Book of 2021: A Best Informational Picture Book A Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) Best Children's Book of 2021 A Spirituality & Practice Best Spiritual Book of 2021
Based on a real scientific event and inspired by a beloved real human in the author's life, this is a story about science and the poetry of existence...
The Snail with the Right Heart is a story about time and chance, genetics and gender, love and death, evolution and infinity-concepts often too abstract for the human mind to fathom, often more accessible to the young imagination; concepts made fathomable in…
I’ve always been intrigued by how quickly mushrooms pop up in my yard and nearby forest, and now I’m fascinated at the science behind that, thanks to this picture book!
The energetic text combined with the gorgeous, large-scale illustrations immediately pulled me in, and made the world of fungi dramatic and exciting. We even get a look at how mushrooms spread underground. And I learned that there actually is such a thing as mushroom rain!
This is a fabulous book to share with kids–or anyone. You’ll definitely want to take a closer look at mushrooms during your next nature walk!
What can smell like bubble gum, glow neon green at night, be poisonous and yet still eaten by humans, and even help create rain? The answer is mushrooms! From their hidden networks underground to the fruiting body above, mushrooms can do incredible things. But don't call them plants--mushrooms are fungi. They're more closely related to animals like you! Through lyrical text and colorful, detailed artwork, the wonderful, mysterious, and sometimes bizarre world of mushrooms is explored. Back matter includes a glossary, additional mushroom facts, and a science activity.
I love beautiful picture books, and everything about this one is beautiful: the deep feelings of love, loss, and longing of a son for his father, the healing aspect of the natural world, the carefully-crafted poetic words that express hope through all of that longing, and the dynamic line art that illustrations depict the young main character, forest creatures, and other living things.
A collaboration between poet Nikki Grimes and the late author-illustrator Jerry Pinkney, this book only fully came together after Jerry Pinkney’s unexpected death–and fittingly completed with his son Brian Pinkney’s all-encompassing, abstract swirls that bathe the book in light. A book to warm sore hearts and to treasure.
In this moving account of loss, a boy takes a walk in the woods and makes a discovery that changes his understanding of his father.
A week after the funeral I stare in the morning mirror Angry that my father’s eyes Stare back at me.
Confused and distraught after the death of his father, a boy opens an envelope he left behind and is surprised to find a map of the woods beyond their house, with one spot marked in bright red. But why? The woods had been something they shared together, why would his father want him to go…
Beautiful Noise: The Music of John Cage is about an innovative composer who believed all sounds were music. John Cage experimented with making sounds no one had heard before by adding toys, coins, and screws to a piano’s strings. He looked for music in places like a turtle’s tank, a cactus’ spines, and conch shells. He even created a piece for piano in which, for four minutes and thirty-three seconds, the pianist played no notes at all! Though his music angered and annoyed some, John Cage was undaunted. He continued to experiment and innovate, and is now considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.
