BEASTLY BIONICS: RAD ROBOTS, BRILLIANT BIOMIMICRY, AND INCREDIBLE INVENTIONS INSPIRED BY NATURE by Jennifer Swanson

BEASTLY BIONICS: RAD ROBOTS, BRILLIANT BIOMIMICRY, AND INCREDIBLE INVENTIONS INSPIRED BY NATURE by Jennifer Swanson

Publisher: National Geographic Kids

Release date: June 23, 2020

I first heard of Jen Swanson in Arizona at the Tucson Festival of Books when she presented in a panel with author Jason Chin and several other kidlit creators.  Her work has been on my radar ever since because I was fascinated with her research process, and I loved her enthusiasm for science! I also have many avid nonfiction readers in my library and I'm always looking for new books to bring to them. (Hint: I've found another one to share and that's what this post is about!)

Nonfiction author panel at the Tucson Festival of Books, 2018 

Jen Swanson is an award-winning nonfiction author (and middle school science instructor), and her latest book is an explanation and exploration of the concepts of biomimicry and bionics. In her latest books Beastly Bionics (National Geographic Kids, 2020) Swanson demonstrates how inventors and scientists are inspired by animals to solve real-world problems, ease everyday tasks, help us use energy more efficiently, and heal and protect humans. 

The book's format includes the pairing of a real-life "Design Dilemma" with a "Building Bionics" text column- offering a solution, either in the works or in the beginning planning stages. Page by page, and animal by animal, Swanson explains (with clarity), how scientists, engineers and other innovators are working to make our lives better. How can a butterfly's wings help the world? What about an elephant's trunk? How can a slug offer ideas for designing better stitches and bandages? All very fascinating! (*One of my favorite pages: "Solar-Powered Butterflies"!) 

Eye-catching photos on double-page spreads add appeal and work smoothly hand-in-hand with the text. Although the book is cohesively organized in neat chapters, each stands alone - allowing readers to open up to any section and still enjoy the experience. (This aspect of nonfiction is particularly appealing to the readers in my library.) 

Whenever I read a children's book, I always think about what I will tell our teachers about it. Here's a part of what I will say:

Teachers in search of nonfiction text features will be happy to find bold words in in different colors, clever titles and labels, standout fonts, informative diagrams, and text-rich captions. Although a short glossary is included in the back matter, readers can find new vocabulary throughout the text- and low-key opportunities for use of context clues. Beastly Bionics will - no doubt --also inspire inquiry and research. And, indeed, the reading of this book will inspire the reading of so many others! I want to read more about ALL of these animals! 

ALSO: Animals have inspired art, poetry, stories, and songs. To know that they also inspire science and innovation will cause young readers to appreciate and love animals even more! 

Finally, as a maker librarian, I can see SO many applications for Makerspace here -- with students creating their own inventions or replicating those in the book. We may not have the equipment the scientist and engineers have, but the makers in our library can do amazing things with cardboard tubes, straws, and foil! I can see it all now! 

If you'd like to learn more about the book, visit here. 

On the Horizon by Lois Lowry and Kenard Pak

Lois Lowry's latest book is a thin volume with a lovely cover*, but it is powerfully packed.

With haunting and poignant verse,  Lowry recalls and retells memories of her childhood in both Japan and Hawaii, while also sharing the tragic historical snapshots of lives lost at Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. This novel in verse gives us glimpses of World War II in a way you might not expect -- not from Lois Lowry, and not in poetry.

The verses are written with efficiency, and, yet each line is rich in depth.  I found myself rereading verse after verse, settling in the  magic created by its existence. As with novels of verse, white space comes with it, and these generous spaces surround and almost protect the stories on the page.

But what makes this historical novel in verse special for me is the author's ties to this time in history -- and how she learned about them. I won't ruin this for you, but when you get a copy of this book, make sure to read the Author's Note at the end. I am reminded once again of the true value of back matter, reminded of why I advise the young readers in my library -- and the teachers -- to pay attention to these things. I treasure glossaries, and timelines, and acknowledgements, and, especially here-- author's notes.

On the Horizon is a timely example of the value of memory -- and the necessity of sharing it.

Don't read it because it is a Lois Lowry book -- although that may be what draws you to it, of course.

Read it because you want to find its value for your own life. In today's pandemic times, good books can add such joy, richness, distraction, and peace to solitary, quarantine hours.

Available now from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers.
Learn more about it here.

Kenard Pak (The Hundred Year Barn and Goodbye Autumn) illustrated the cover as well as pages within. Read more about his work here.