Window Music (train)

Window Music by Anastasia Suen
Picture Book

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Hardcover/Paperback: 32 pages

Publisher: Viking/Puffin

This train ride was A New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year!

Photos:

Visit Union Station in Los Angeles where the train ride began.

The Union Pacific Railroad photo gallery has LOTS of trains!

Follow the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway freight map.

Use Amtrak’s Interactive Route Atlas to explore all the places Amtrak goes.

Activities:

Print these trains activity and coloring pages.

Try this train track maze and this train shape maze.

Put this online train puzzle together.

Can you find all of the words in this train word search?

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Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

The Story of Soccer (easy reader)

The Story of Soccer by Anastasia Suen
A Sports History easy reader

“A brief history of the sport for beginning readers.”
~School Library Journal

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Hardcover/Paperback: 24 pages

Publisher: Rosen/Rigby

This book is also available in Spanish.

Activities:

Preview the book.

Try these soccer puzzles and word searches.

Soccer Printables has puzzles, word searches, and coloring pages.

Play Soccer Mania online.

Literacy Links
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

The Red Cross (book and activities)

The Red Cross by Anastasia Suen
A Helping Organizations easy reader

With big, dramatic, close-up color photos and a few sentences of clear text on every page, these titles in the Helping Organizations series present the basic facts about each charity: the work it does across the world and the essential role of volunteers, including young people. New readers will be drawn by the drama of worldwide disasters and by the actions of those who can make a difference. Booklist

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Hardcover/Paperback: 24 pages

Publisher: Rosen/Rigby

This book is also available in Spanish.

Activities:

Preview the book.

Explore the Red Cross Tools for Teachers and Parents.

Visit the online Red Cross Museum.

Print and color this historic Red Cross Poster Coloring Book. (The first poster was printed in 1945.)

Prepare for disasters with Cool Cat (fire), Ready Rabbit (winter storms) and Disaster Dog (earthquakes) in this Red Cross Activity Book

Literacy Links
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Delivery

Delivery by Anastasia Suen
Picture book

“A good choice for preschool story hours or for primary units on communities or transportation.” Booklist

Activities:

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Hardcover: 32 pages

Publisher: Viking

Try this Online Truck Puzzle.

See Ocean Freight Photos from around the world.

Print these Airplane Coloring Pages.

Can you find all of the words in this School Bus Word Search?

Trace your hand and arm to make this Train Craft.

Literacy Links
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Here Comes the Bus

Here Comes the Bus by Anastasia Suen
A Bebop Easy Reader

Reading level: Guided Reading™: B DRA: 2 Intervention: 2

Paperback: 8 pages

Publisher: Bebop Books

A Chinese American girl takes the bus to school and greets her friends, one by one, at each stop.

Also available in Spanish as Ya viene el autobús

Activities:

Use the lesson plans from the 91 page Illinois School Bus Safety Program.

First School has school bus music, coloring pages, crafts, and online games.

Play the online School Bus Safety Games.

Visit the Traffic Safety Kid’s Page for coloring pages, puzzles and a word scramble.

Download Free Bus Safety Presentations in PowerPoint.

Use these lesson plans with your class.

Literacy Links
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Tyrannosaurus Rex
by Anastasia Suen (North American Dinosaurs series)

A close-up look at the Tyrant Lizard, Tyrannosaurus rex.

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
• Library Binding: 24 pages
• Publisher: Rourke Publishing (January 31, 2007)

Photos:

See the T-rex that Barnum Brown found for the American Museum of Natural History in 1902 and 1908.

A school teacher found T-rex bones at a Royal Saskatchewan Museum dig. They named the T-rex Scotty. (Yes, that coprolite is fossilized dinosaur poop!)

The Field Museum in Chicago named their T-rex Sue (after the person who discovered the bones.) Sue is the largest and most complete T-rex found so far.

Activities:

The Just for Kids page at the Field Museum in Chicago has a T-rex flip book you can make, a T-rex cross word puzzle, and a prehistoric word search.

First School has 1, 2, 3 T-rex coloring pages as well as Dinosaur alphabet coloring pages and flash cards in Zaner-Bloser and D’Nealian format.

Enchanted Learning has several T-rex pages, including one you can color online!

Literacy Links

Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

An Elephant Grows Up

An Elephant Grows Up
by Anastasia Suen (Wild Animals series)

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Hardcover / Paperback: 24 pages

Publisher: Picture Window Books

Under the hot African sun, a baby elephant is born. The calf looks small next to her mother, but she weighs more than 200 pounds. Her days will be filled with lots of eating—this calf has a lot of growing left to do. What else happens when an elephant grows up?

Science Books and Films Best Book of 2006

Photos:

Watch San Diego Zoo’s Elephant Cam and meet all 11 elephants.

See all 25 elephant photos in the AWF media gallery.

Activities:

Find your way through the elephant maze.

Try a baby elephant dot-to-dot, an ABC elephant dot-to-dot, and an online elephant dot-to-dot.

Set your own level of difficulty in this online elephant puzzle.

Select the number/shape of the pieces for this elephant puzzle.

Make a 3-d elephant or an elephant counting book.

Color the elephants in M.E. and Me’s Africa Coloring Book.

Visit the Elephant Coloring pages at First School.

Literacy Links

Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Man on the Moon – 40th anniversary!

Man on the Moon by Anastasia Suen
An Apollo 11 moon landing picture book
June 20th is the 40th anniversary of this historic mission!

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Paperback: 32 pages

Publisher: Puffin

Photos:

NASA’s photos of Apollo 11.

See three Apollo 11 videos:

Watch the earth launch, the moon landing, and the first step on the moon.

See and hear the Apollo 11 Mission at the History Place.

Activities:

Create your own Moon Art with the Eagle moon lander (above).

Use the Six Trait Writing mini-lesson at Picture Book of the Day.

For lesson plans and more, visit Challenging the Space Frontier

COMING NEXT WEEK at ALA:

Nonfiction Book Blast: Booktalks for Reluctant Readers
Sunday, July 12, 10:30 am to 12:00 pm
Convention Center Room W181 (Level 1 of the West Building.)

18 authors will “booktalk” their latest books! (You can see the booktalks on our wiki.)

Literacy Links
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam by Anastasia Suen
American Symbols Picture Book

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Library Binding: 24 pages

Publisher: Picture Window Books

He has become one of the country’s most well-known characters. Tall and firm, Uncle Sam stands for a strong U.S. government. Join meatpacker Sam Wilson in Uncle Sam as he shares the wild story of how he, a clown, and countless artists shaped this American symbol.

Activities:

September 13th is Uncle Sam Day!

Bake and paint an Uncle Sam hat.

Try this online Uncle Sam coloring page.

Make an Uncle Sam pin with seed beads and a safety pin.

Find lesson plans, crafts, puzzles and writing activities at abcteach.

Use these six trait writing activities as students create their own Uncle Sam comic.

Are you attending ALA in Chicago? On Monday, July 13 from 11-12 in Booth #1940, I’ll be signing 100 copies of Uncle Sam…and Capstone is giving them away!

Literacy Links
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

The Clubhouse

The Clubhouse by Anastasia Suen
Peter’s Neighborhood easy reader series

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Hardcover/Paperback: 32 pages

Publisher: Viking/Puffin

A pile of junk or a brand-new clubhouse? When Peter, Archie, and Louie see the pile of wood, they think it’s just a big mess. But when Amy and Lily look at it, they see a clubhouse that’s waiting to be built. Louie’s father says that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Is he right?

Activities:

June is National Safety Month!

Use these safety craft ideas and lesson plans from Crayola.

Make a first aid or emergency preparedness kit.

Talk about safety all year long.

Literacy Links
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.