Author/Illustrator: Bruce McCall
Plot Summary: Is it a dream? Is it a fantasy? Is it real? Is it fake? Growing up in a town filled with wacky, but useful inventions seems like paradise until something goes drastically wrong. This book encourages kids to think big and outside the proverbial box.
Comments: The vivid pictures of wacky, but useful, inventions could encourage creative thinking and new ideas. This book could be used to illustrate science concepts for young children who need concrete examples.
Extensions:
1. Either assign a project with specific requirements or have students think of their own. Students would be asked to design, draw, and present an invention that solves a specific problem.
2. This book would be a great way to introduce students involved with projects such as the Science Olympiad, Future Problem Solving or science fairs.
Themes/keywords: Inventions, robots, science
Also - innovation, invention, productivityAge/Reading Level: K-5; ATOS - 4.3; Follett - 5.0;
Standards:
(Also includes similar standards for other grades.)
S3CS1/S4CS1. Students will be aware of the importance of curiosity, honesty, openness, and skepticism in science and will exhibit these traits in their own efforts to understand how the world works.
S3CS4/S4CS4. Students will use ideas of system, model, change, and scale in exploring scientific and technological matters.
S3CS7/S4CS7. Students will be familiar with the character of scientific knowledge and how it is achieved.
S3CS8/S4CS8. Students will understand important features of the process of scientific inquiry.
Publisher's Info: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. 2008
ISBN-13: 978-0-374-39925-2
ISBN-10: 0-374-39925-5
Awards/Review Sources:
Wilson's Children 07/01/09 | School Library Journal 09/01/08 |
| Publishers Weekly 08/18/08 | Booklist 11/01/08 |
| New York Times 11/09/08 | Horn Book 04/01/09 |
| Kirkus Review 09/01/08 |
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Genre/Dewey: Fiction; Easy/Everybody
Websites:
The author is best known for his work in The New Yorker including cover illustrations. Click here for more information.
See more of the author's professional credits here.
Post from an art teacher's blog - http://artjunction.org/blog/?p=1300 - includes a video clip of the author/illustrator speaking that is interesting but not appropriate for children.
Notes for Booktalk:
Vocabulary:
Comments