Come to my new home

I now blog on my own site. Please visit me at the Big Learning website and check out my blog there, BiggerLearning. I'm eager to hear your comments.

See you there,
-Karen Cole

Beautiful Books

A certain discount retailer beginning with T has made its fortune by attending to style. Used to be, with functional goods, beauty or style cost extra. To cut the cost, function remained but beauty was the first thing to go. Not any more. Now T hires big name designers to integrate style into its functional products, and other discounters are following suit.

A similar split between functionality and beauty is all too common in children's non-fiction. If a book is to be functional - that is, informative - then beauty is the first thing to go. Thankfully, we have delicious counter-examples, like A Drop of Water by Walter Wick (Read a Review)(See Buying Information). This is a book of science explanations and demonstrations about water. Where others might have gone with simple, functional diagrams, Wick give us stunning photographs that qualify as art. They sure make the demonstrations seem inviting and make it a pleasure to handle the book. And at around $11.00, beauty and function are still affordable.

Interesting Books at Any Age

You know how children's book reviews often suggest an age range? I do it myself when I review books, but I never feel good about it because many good books can be enjoyed on many different levels, especially when they're shared between adult and child.

A great example is the grown-up version of Earth from Above (read a review). This is a beautiful book of aerial photographs from around the world, along with commentary on eco-devestation and sustainable development practices. I've been enjoying this book with my six-year-old, but not as a commentary on industrial pollution. We just look at the photos together and try to guess what theye are (it's often not obvious). Both my kids (6 and 9) are interested in the locations where the photographs were taken, since they both like geography. This is a book that's worth having because we can continue to learn from it as the kids get older.

Way to learn history!

What more delicious way to learn about history than a good piece of historical fiction? The vivid descriptions of context, the personal views of the characters, and the compelling scenarios - it all adds up to history that means something. Kids learn that the events of history had immediate and important effects on people's - and kids' - everyday lives.

Once you make history come alive, kids are a lot more ready for a non-fiction analysis of broad social movements and world events.

An great example for kids ages 7-12 is Wingwalker by Rosemary Wells, which brings the dustbowl drought of the 1930s to life.

Read a review of Wingwalker on BigLearning.com.

Good Science Books

What makes a good children's science book?

Part One: Concept Development

Many science books aim too low, going only for the Gee Wiz. They underestimate both children's ability to understand science and a book's ability to help them.

Good science activity books have activities that connect with one another to help kids build robust understanding of real science concepts.

So skip the books with one-shot activities on a million different topics, even if each activity has a wimpy one or two sentence explanation of the science behind the activity. Instead, go for the ones that thoughtfully and completely develop important concepts.

Click here for a list of great science activity books with reviews and buying informaiton.

One Smart Cookbook

Why is it so rare for children's book authors to treat their young readers as if they had brains? I looked high and low for a children's cookbook in which the approach went beyond, well, cookbook. Since this is rare even in adult cookbooks, I was thrilled to find Cooking Wizardry, which explains the "why" behind the recipes, includes science when helpful, and encourages kids to embellish recipes and create their own.

Check out the full review on Big Learning at www.biglearning.com/book-review-cooking-wizardry.htm.

More cookbooks at
www.biglearning.com/books-cooking-for-kids.htm

-KC

Children's Educational Books

You call them educational, but your kids will call them "interesting."
Or "great."
Or "one of my favorite books."

Maybe even, "the book that changed my life."

I'm here to help you find books that will excite your child's intellect and open new worlds. To get started, check out the reviews on Big Learning:

Big Learning Children's Book Reviews