WHAT GOES ON INSIDE A BEAVER POND? — Review

Thought for the Day:

“There are two reasons I support mistake-making. First, we know that failure means we tried. It also means if the mistake is wrong enough, we can make someone laugh.”

~ Jorjeana Marie ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Writing good dialogue is a real art. I am always on the lookout for good articles about writing dialogue. HERE Rose Atkinson-Carter writes for A Writer’s Path with 4 Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Dialogue. I don’t necessarily agree with her number 3.

We need to know our characters well to be able to make them come alive on the page. HERE Ellen Buikema has a good post on Writers in the Storm called Ways to Know Your Characters, Part 1- Background. It’s worth your time.

HERE is a great article on FoxPrint Editorial called How to Kill Your Darlings. I’m really bad at this, so I need the occasional kick in the patooty.

I very likely won’t be here for the next couple of weeks. I am going on a road trip with a couple of goals. I will visit some baseball parks I’ve never been to in my quest to visit every major league park before I die. Next weekend I will be in San Diego to see my beloved Giants beat the Padres (fingers crossed!). Then I will head to Houston to catch an Astros game before going to the Dallas area to see a Rangers game. But I will be spending a few days in the Dallas area to visit with some favorite cousins and have a mini family reunion as all my sisters will be there as well. It has been a while since the four of us sisters have been in the same place at the same time. We will be there for the total eclipse, and I am pretty excited about that. After that, if I have the stamina, I will head for games in St. Louis and Kansas City. If I’m not feeling up to that much travel, I will follow two of my sisters back to Albuquerque for a couple of days before heading to Phoenix for a Diamondbacks game. So I will knock off between four and six parks. It doesn’t sound like much, but I will be hitting the road again this summer. I have a class reunion coming up in Minnesota, and I will take care of more parks on that trip.

I love the many STEM picture books that are written for middle-grade readers. I always keep my eye open for those. I found WHAT GOES ON INSIDE A BEAVER POND? by Becky Cushing Gop and illustrated by Carrie Shryock on the review list for the Portland Book Review and requested it. It was even better than I thought it would be. It has a lot of information on animals other than beavers as well as a mountain of information on beavers. This is the kind of book that animal-loving kids (and aren’t all kids animal lovers?) will want to read over and over. Here is the review I wrote for PBR.

It is spring and the snow and ice are melting in the brooks and ponds. Many animals are coming out of hibernation. The beavers, who have been active in their lodge, are starting to come outside to repair their dam and lodge. A young beaver has been learning all she will need to know to be on her own. It is nearly time. She explores the area but comes home at night. The father, brother, and young beaver spend time repairing their dam and lodge. When they come home, they find that the mother beaver has had two new kits. Suddenly, the lodge is too crowded. The young beaver sets off the next day to find a new place to build her own lodge and her new life.

Becky Cushing Gop has written a complete and fascinating chronicle of the life of a young beaver, explaining the problems and opportunities she faces and introducing many of the flora and fauna of the beaver’s habitat. Illustrator Carrie Shryock has completed the story with gorgeous, detailed drawings of all that can be found where beavers live. This is a real tour de force in STEM writing for children. Don’t miss it.

Please don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.