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Earlier this year, I had the chance to talk with author Pamela Turner about her next big thing. (Here’s that post.) I’m logging on today to let you know that thing, the ‘Scientists in the Field’ book THE DOLPHINS OF SHARK BAY, is officially out in the world. Also? It’s a must-read.

I know. I say that about all the SITF books.

And I probably am biased, as I write for the series myself.

Whatever.

This is still a book I will recommend to everyone in my life, young and old. The dolphins living in the waters of Shark Bay are opening our eyes to the complexity of dolphin life and behavior … and what scientists are learning from these dolphins is rocking human notions of, well, what it means to be human. Don’t miss this one, folks!

Here’s a link to more information on the book.

Here’s a link to one of Pam’s latest blog post on the SITF website.

Attention teachers and science lovers: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has launched a new website devoted entirely to the award-winning Scientists in the Field (SITF) series. These books for upper elementary and middle school students cover an impressive array of science topics, from honey bees and trash (my two entries in the series, pictured above) to sea horses, wild horses, manatees, tarantulas, anthropology, space exploration, and beyond. The new site includes an overview of the series, including every SITF title, and features sneak peeks from upcoming titles and updates from the authors.

What are you waiting for? Go check it out!

We can’t put this book down. And I can’t stop reminding my daughter, who is reading with me, that she should never sneak out of the house at night and climb on top of a styrofoam raft …

THE MAN WHO PLANTED TREES:

Lost Groves, Champion Trees and an Urgent Plan to Save the Planet

By Jim Robbins

Spiegel & Grau, 2012

Category: Nonfiction for Grownups

“We can wait around for someone else to solve the problem of climate change and the range of other environmental problems we face, from toxic waste to air pollution to dead zones in the oceans to the precipitous decline in biodiversity, or we can take matters into our own hands and plant trees.”

If you have even a smidgeon of doubt that this statement is true, read this book. I predict that when you’re done, you’ll plant a tree. Or twenty.

Postscript: For those of you who are truly into nonfiction, particularly children’s nonfiction, don’t forget about the weekly Nonfiction Monday celebration. Check it out here!

STEP GENTLY OUT

Poem by Helen Frost

Photographs by Rick Lieder

Candlewick, 2012

Category: Nonfiction picture book (but truly for all ages)

It was the title that grabbed me first. Step Gently Out. There is an ethic in those words, and they have deep meaning for me. When the book was finally in my hands, though, it was the ant on the cover that pulled me in. He is not rendered in paints as I’d thought when I’d seen the book online, but photographed. Captured atop a slender leaf, antennae waving, stepping gently. Completely enchanting.

Would you believe that things got better from there?

Helen Frost’s text is charming, and I can tell you from personal experience that it holds up to repeated readings. Rick Lieder’s breathtaking images lend a hand, inspiring closer looks at blades of grass and silken threads both inside the book and, of course, out.

I find myself reading this one over and again. I’m in love.  I think that every child on the planet should have a copy. I plan to start with the half-dozen kids who know me as Auntie Loree …

“Oh, no. No. We are not breaking a poodle out of baggage claim.“

Anna, in Kate Messner’s CAPTURE THE FLAG

While all of you Kate Messner fans were leaving enthusiastic comments on Wednesday’s giveaway post, I’ve been re-living the adventure that is CAPTURE THE FLAG with my ten-year-old daughter.  Here’s what I have to say:

Andy Starowitz, YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE THIS BOOK!

I used a random number generator to pull Andy’s name out of a virtual hat. Please contact me, Andy, at lgb (at) loreeburns (dot) com with your mailing address and I will post this to you first thing on Monday.

If you didn’t win, don’t fret! CAPTURE THE FLAG will be released on July 1 and you can order yourself a signed copy through the good folks at The Bookstore Plus.  Simple instructions for placing that order can be found right here on Kate’s blog.

Thanks for playing, everyone. Happy reading. And for those of you who found your way here through the Teachers Write! extravaganza, happy writing, too. You rock!

CAPTURE THE FLAG, by Kate Messner (Scholastic Press, 2012)

Category: Middle-grade Novel

Do you know what I loved as a kid? Nancy Drew mysteries. I devoured them, kept checklists of those I’d read and wishlists of those I needed desperately to get my mitts on. Each summer, my friend Kelley and I re-opened our private detective agency–G&G Detectives–in homage to our heroine. When business was slow, we read more Nancy Drew books. Or wrote mysteries of our own. Eventually we’d read and written so many mysteries that we had no choice but tho share them: one dog-day, on a whim, we closed G&G Detectives and opened The Garland Street Library instead. It was made up almost entirely of Nancy Drew books.

Do you know what else? If there were a way to go back and talk to eleven-year-old Loree, she’d be tickled to know that she’d one day be friends and writing partners with Kate Messner. And that Kate would create a mystery series that starred a trio of kid detectives. Little Loree would love that trio of kids as much as Not-so-Little Loree does, I’m sure of it. And she would demand Not-so-Little Loree share the love.

So, in celebration of good mysteries, good books, good friends, and the long, lazy days of summer, I’d like to send YOU an advanced copy of my friend Kate Messner’s newest mystery, CAPTURE THE FLAG. You can read a little about Kate here, and a little about the book here. If you’d like an advanced copy for yourself or for your best friend or for that neighbor kid with a detective agency, and if you live in the continental United States, just leave a comment on this post before midnight on Friday, June 22. On Saturday morning, I’ll put all the names in a hat, pull one out, and let you know who the lucky detective is.

Good luck!

© Loree Griffin Burns

On the bottom: THE BEAK OF THE FINCH, the book that changed the way I think about sharing science and, quite possibly, the course of my scientific career. (I’m not kidding. I’d still be a lab rat had this book not crossed my desk back in 1995. Read it.)

On the top: my gorgeous, wholly original and completely amazing new purse, made from an actual copy of THE BEAK OF THE FINCH* by the uber-talented Caitlin Phillips at Rebound Designs.

Have you ever seen anything so excellent in your life? I am the happiest book geek on the planet.

* Said copy was contributed by its kind and generous author, Jonathan Weiner, who took pity on a devoted fan who wanted a purse but couldn’t bear to give up her copy of his book. Thank you, Jonathan!