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Annotated Bibliography: Childrens books

Erika Limkilde

St. Thomas University

Dr. Shaunda Wood

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Gravel, E. (2016). The slug. Toronto, Ontario: Tundra Books.

This picture book The Slug introduces children to what a slug is. It explains that there are many

different types of slugs in the world, but focus mainly on land slugs like we have around New

Brunswick. It explains the physical features of a slug. Gravel identifies how a slug can retract its

tentacles when scared, how it breathes through the side of its body and how land slugs are both

male and female similar to a worm. Slugs are a very important aspect of nature because they help

break down decaying plant and animal matter and turn it back into nutrients for the soil. Gravel

does a wonderful job introducing this concept to young children. This book would be a great way

to introduce investigating soils composition and interactions of living things and soils to children

in grade three. It shows students that even though they may not like the bugs around us, they all

play an important role in the environment.

Morlock, L., & Bradshaw, C. A. (2012). Track that scat! Ann Arbor: Gale.

Track that scat by Lisa Morlock is a book that teaches children about all different types of scat. It

is done through a story of a little girl who goes on a walk with her dog in her new boots. Before

she leaves her house, her mother tells her not to get her new shoes dirty, but along the way she

runs into all different types of scat an tracks and gets her boots all dirty. This picture book is

great for students around New Brunswick because the animals that are in it are ones that we have

here. For example, Canadian goose, fox, skunk and raccoon. I found this book very interesting

because it was a story but in the story explained what the scat of each animal and their tracks

look like. It goes into great detail explaining how a child could identify tracks they may see

around their woods. This book could be used in a classroom of grades 3-5 students introduce

different types of animals we have around New Brunswick and the habitats they live in.
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Kelly, M. E., & Payne, C. F. (2013). Mousetronaut goes to Mars. New York: Simon & Schuster

Books for Young Readers.

Mousetronaut goes to Mars is a picture book that introduces the concept of flying into space.

There is a mouse named Meteor who hangs around at NASA as an astronaut mouse. The NASA

crew is planning a trip to Mars and Meteor wants to go with them, but his name does not get

called to go on the trip. But because he is small, he is able to sneak onto the rocket. Meteor ends

up flying into space with the other crew members staying hidden the entire time. When the crew

finds out that they cannot land on Mars because of a technical issue, Meteor comes out of hiding

and saves the day. He ends up being the only one to land on Mars. He explains that there is no

water, no plants and no soil there. Meteor saved the day and was the first person to land on

Mars. This book would be a fantastic introduction to a grade four class learning about space and

the procedure required to go to Mars.

Schaefer, L. M., & Crews, D. (2002). This is the sunflower. New York: Scholastic.

This is the sunflower by Lola M. Schaefer begins by talking about a sunflower that grows in her

garden. It is a picture book that explains the cycle of a plant from when it dies to when it re-

grows again. The sunflower starts out tall and bright, but after a while, the birds begin to pick at

it until it eventually dies. After the sunflower dies there is only dirt to be found, until the next

year where it grows again. But this time, multiple sunflowers grew in the yard because of all the

seeds that had fallen to the ground. It shows the flowers growing from when they were a very

small sprout, all the way up until they were tall and bright. This would be a great book for a 3-5

classroom introducing the life cycle of a plant. The students could plant a sunflower themselves

and watch the lifecycle.

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Shields, C. D., & Nash, S. (2005). The bugliest bug. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

The bugliest bug by Carol Diggory Shields is a picture book that explains the difference between

insects and arachnids. All of the insects are gathering together to have a contest to see who can

be the bugliest bug. Each bug showed off their different talents, when one bug noticed that the

judges had wings that were tied to their backs with gossamer strings and realized that they were

not insects at all, they were arachnids. The arachnids came clean and tried to eat all of the

insects, but the insects used their strengths to get away from the spiders. The insects end up

escaping from the arachnids and a bug gets crowned the bugliest bug for saving the day. This

book would be great to introduce students to different types of insects and the food chains

revolving around insects.

Viano, H. (2014). S is for salmon: a Pacific Northwest Alphabet. Seattle: Little Bigfoot, an

imprint of Sasquatch Books.

S is for salmon is a picture book written and illustrated by Hannah Viano, it is a wonderful story

that introduces the alphabet through the flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest. It talks about

all different types of plants and animals that can be found in the Pacific Northwest. Ones that

would pertain most to children in New Brunswick would be a crab, fern, pinecone, queen bee,

salmon, fox and yellow cedar. These are all organisms that students would be able to make

connections to, making it more realistic for them. The book gives a brief overview of what each

organism is through a story. This would be a great book both for younger grades, to help teach

the alphabet through science and also for upper elementary to introduce new vocabulary that can

be found in every science unit.