Bugged!

Knudsen, Michelle. Blanche Sims, illus. Bugged!. Kane Press: 2008. “Science Solves It” early reader series, $5.95. ISBN-13 978-1-57565-259-7.

Targeted at a grade 1 – 3 interest level, with the large type and high-frequency vocabulary of early readers, Bugged! offers more than enjoyable easy reading with life science content about mosquitoes. As a sample of the “Science Solves It” series by Kane Press, Bugged! offers enough to interest me in the entire line of “fun stories with a curriculum connection” from this innovative publisher.

From a reading perspective, Bugged! provides a good mix of high-frequency sight words and multi-syllabic vocabulary words to offer young readers both success and surmountable challenges within the story text. Sidebars address content knowledge and vocabulary in reader-friendly bites that complement the story. Colorful illustrations depict multi-ethnic characters and inviting scenes that add depth and humor.

The science skills of observation, questioning, inference, prediction, experimentation, comparison, and communication are incorporated as students strive to solve the central problem of how to help Riley escape his plague of mosquitoes. The characters conduct research by using the Internet at home, consulting books in a well-populated library, and visiting an actual science professor in his college setting. Content information appears in the main text, the sidebars, the illustrations, and is reinforced by the “Think Like A Scientist” activity page following the story.

The publisher’s forward informs adults that Kane Press “Science Solves It!” titles have been reviewed by respected scientists and teachers during development to ensure accuracy and alignment with current content curriculum frameworks. This careful development pays off handsomely in an attractive, humorous story that children will be eager to read, explore, and revisit repeatedly. Titles address physical science, earth science, and life science topics. Some titles are also available in Spanish.

Thank you, Kane Press, for making learning fun and rewarding! Young readers will enjoy emulating the skills modeled by the characters as they solve their own scientific mysteries. Me? I’m off to break my piggybank so I can enjoy more of these delightful stories and explore the math, reading, and social studies nonfiction series titles, too.

The Picnic Basket rating: 5

Cynthia Winfield
educator & author

Review of "Up and Down the Andes"

The following was originally posted as a review on The Picnic Basket.

Krebs, Laurie. Aurélia Fronty, illus. Up and Down the Andes: A Peruvian Festival Tale. Barefoot Books: 2008. Picture book, $16.99. ISBN 978-1-84686-203-8.

Laurie Krebs’s seventh Barefoot Books title is an extraordinary celebration of language, color, and culture. Although this is only my first excursion into the world of Barefoot Books, I’m hooked—eager to explore more of this publisher’s list and of Krebs’s writing.

Beginning with the rich, vibrant acrylic illustrations by Aurélia Fronty—a full time painter, illustrator, and fabric artist residing in France—the reader is drawn into the world of Up and Down the Andes which is brought to life by the colorful paintings. The images grant the words possibility and promise without overwhelming the text. Seemingly-simple pictures illustrate a world begging discussion and further exploration, and provide a textured surface upon which to display the story.

Krebs also uses deceptively-simple and sparse text to draw in readers, yet each page presents a carefully-crafted rhyming couplet written in trochaic meter with a strong, masculine rhyme that tantalizes the ear and engages the mind. (More simply stated, each page offers two rhyming lines of text, each written in a DA-dum-DA-dum-DA-dum-DA rhythm.) The rhythm, rhyme, and meter conspire to bewitch readers and transport us fully into the story’s world. The text introduces characters from various points in Peru, traveling to Cusco to participate in the annual celebration of Inti Raymi honoring the Sun God on June 24th, the winter solstice, in a traditional Incan fertility ritual. Closing after a description of the festival, Krebs’s line “Up and down the Andes, There are children just like me” brings the reader into the discussion: In what ways am I just like the children in Peru? Finally, the last quarter of the book’s pages present the history, geography, and culture of Peru and its peoples—native and otherwise.

Suitable for lap-reading or Story Time, Up and Down the Andes could easily be used in classrooms. Krebs, a former elementary teacher, knows the elementary audience and has produced a book that teachers and librarians will treasure. As an eighth grade English Language Arts teacher, I can readily envision lessons in middle school history, geography, Spanish, English, and art classes; and with a little more work, the text could provide a springboard for lessons in math, music, drama, even Family and Consumer Science, computer, and shop classes. An independent school could readily devote a week, or more, to an interdisciplinary unit encompassing all classes of a grade either designed around or introduced or enriched by this particular Barefoot Book.

If all Barefoot Books achieve the goal of “celebrating art and story” to this extent, I shall become a devoted fan. Even the leaves are composed of “ancient-forest friendly,” “100% acid-free” paper, showing respect for the earth and providing yet another opening for inquiry and discussion.