Summer 2024 Recommendations (Early Nonfiction)

1) City of Leafcutter Ants: A Sustainable Society of Millions

Author

Hevron, Amy

2) If the rivers run free

Author

Debbink, Andrea

Formats:

Book, eBook

Description

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"Over the centuries, cities were built over rivers, hoping to address pollution and flooding concerns. However, naturalists now advocate freeing buried rivers to manage urban water issues"

3) Great white shark

Author

Saxby, Claire

Description

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"Follow a female shark as she heads to warm waters for the sake of her young in a lyrical, fact-filled look at one of the ocean's top predators."--

4) Never give up: Dr. Kati Karikó and the race for the future of vaccines

Author

Dadey, Debbie

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook

Description

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"This picture book biography introduces Hungarian American biochemist Katalin Karikó, who played a critical role in developing the mRNA vaccine for COVID-19. Follow the journey of Katalin (Kati) Karikó from her childhood in rural Hungary"--

5) The bedtime book of incredible questions

Author

Thomas, Isabel

Description

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"Have you ever struggled to concentrate because there are SO many questions buzzing around your brain? Here are answers to seventy-one of the most bamboozling questions and curious queries that you can think of. This book will define, debunk, and demystify the trickiest of questions and open your eyes to amazing facts you have never even thought of!"--

6) Finding Langston

Author

Cline-Ransome, Lesa

Series

Finding Langston volume 1

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Playaway Audiobook, Spoken CD

Description

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Discovering a book of Langston Hughes' poetry in the library helps Langston cope with the loss of his mother, relocating from Alabama to Chicago as part of the Great Migration, and being bullied.

7) Glow: the wild wonders of bioluminescence

Author

Smith, Jennifer N. R

Description

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"The astonishing phenomenon of bioluminescence is brought to life in vivid detail by scientific illustrator Jennifer N.R. Smith--featuring a colorful palette that seems to glow on the page"--

8) A few beautiful minutes: experiencing a solar eclipse

Author

Fox, Kate Allen

Description

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"Sky gazers experience a total solar eclipse in this descriptive picture book about the wonders of this phenomenon"--

9) Life after whale: the amazing ecosystem of a whale fall

Author

Brunelle, Lynn

Description

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"A book about the rich ecosystem that springs up around the death of a whale in the deep sea"--

10) Fungi grow

Author

Gianferrari, Maria

Description

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"Fungi are all around us. They root and fruit and twist and twine. The mycelium roots spread below ground while the mushroom fruits pop above the earth. Some are edible, and some are poisonous. Some help keep forests communicate, others recycle decaying matter. But all across the world, fungi are growing. Discover when, how, where, and why in this poetic and illuminating nonfiction picture book"--

11) Bugs: a skittery, jittery history

Author

Forster, Miriam

Formats:

Book, eBook

Description

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"Insects are some of oldest creatures on Earth, evolving well before other land animals alongside ferns and trees. This epic survey follows bugs and their cousins from their earliest appearance in the Paleozoic era up through today. Along the way, readers will meet many different kinds of insects from various points in history - like the trilobite of the Cambrian Explosion or the more recent and familiar termite. The text explores insect skills like...

12) Everybody has a body

Author

Jackson Ehlert, Molli

Description

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"Everybody has a body. Whether you're short, tall, fat, thin, hairy, bald, whether you use a wheelchair or have a limb difference, we all rely on our bodies to take us through the world. From hiking a mountain to playing baseball to exploring an aquarium, debut author Molli Jackson Ehlert and illustrator Lorian Tu show us all the different ways that bodies can look and the things they can do, with representation of all different types of bodies"--...

13) Nothing: John Cage and 4' 33"

Author

Day, Nick

Description

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"The story of the composer John Cage's famous composition of four minutes and 33 seconds of empty sheet music, and its first performance by the pianist David Tudor"--

14) This book is full of holes: from underground to outer space and everywhere in between

Author

Nickum, Nora

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

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"When you think of holes, what comes to mind? Maybe the irritating hole in your sock. Or the hole on the shelf where you plucked out this book. But did you know there are holes that suddenly devour entire gas stations? Big holes in the ocean that are visible from space? Small holes in balls that prevent a backyard home run? A hole is a part of something where there's nothing at all. Holes are investigated by scientists, used by artists, designed by...

15) What's inside a caterpillar cocoon?: and other questions about moths & butterflies

Author

Ignotofsky, Rachel

Series

What's inside (Rachel Ignotofsky)

Formats:

Book, Juv Readalong

Description

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"Have you ever wondered what happens inside a caterpillar cocoon? Or how moths and butterflies are related? Or what the difference is between a cocoon and a chrysalis? Wonder no more!"--

16) Iguanodon's Horn : How Artists and Scientists Put a Dinosaur Back Together Again and Again and Again

Author

Rubin, Sean

Description

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"Ever since mysterious bones were found in 1822, scientists and artists have tried to figure out what the creature they came from looked like. But it seems that every time they've made up their minds, someone makes a new discovery, and they have to start all over. That's only fair, though--after all, it's how knowledge advances!"-- Publisher's website "Traces the process of defining--and redefining--the dinosaur called Iguanodon"--