PRESCHOOL

Science picture books will help develop observation and thinking. Some of the books in this section may not seem very scientific or informative, but they are included because they develop an idea in a way that can lead to understanding scientific thought.

Who sank the boat?
Allen, Pamela (Nelson, 1982, 32pp.)
This picture storybook with brief rhyming text and humorous full colour illustrations shows several animals climbing into a rowing dinghy one after another as the boat gets lower and lower in the water. The last in is a mouse, and that is just too much. The text does not explicitly tell the reader that they all sank the boat.

The less colourful Mr Archimedes' bath (1980), in equally lighthearted manner, introduces children to the idea that bodies displace water.
(PHYSICS. AUSTRALIAN)

A seed is sleepy
Aston, Dianna Hutts; illustrated by Sylvia Long (Chronicle Books, 2007, unpaged)
This beautiful picture book describes seeds and how they germinate. Each double page spread features a different aspect of seeds with a poetic statement in large-size handwritten calligraphy. The language used in these sentences is more poetic than factual, such as 'A seed is sleepy' and 'A seed is clever'. However the scientific basis for these statements is then given in further information on the page. The great strengths of the book are in the magnificent botanical illustrations, executed in ink and watercolour, and in the book design. A double page before the title page is covered with different types of seeds, all labelled, and the final double page at the back shows the adult plants of these and other seeds mentioned in the book. (Note: Because this is an American publication, imperial measurements are used.)

An earlier companion volume by the same team is An egg is quiet (Chronicle Books, 2006) which won many awards.
(PLANTS)

One hungry spider
Baker, Jeannie (Scholastic Australia, 2006, 28pp.)
This counting book also teaches a few things about how an orb web spider lives. Illustrations are carefully constructed collages.
(ANIMALS)

Silly galah
Brian, Janeen; illustrated by Cheryll Johns (Scholastic Australia/Omnibus, 2001, 32pp.)
Light-hearted verses and bold bright illustrations by Cheryll Johns introduce children to seventeen Australian animals (eight mammals, six birds, two reptiles and one frog). A secondary text around the edge of the page provides a bit more information in more serious fashion.
(ANIMALS. AUSTRALIAN)

Sebastian lives in a hat
Catterwell, Thelma; illustrated by Kerry Argent (Scholastic Australia/Omnibus, 1991, 32pp.)
The mother of Sebastian, a wombat, was killed by a car when he was about four months old and still in her pouch. He was hand-reared by the author who describes in this picture book his development and needs until he was able to return to the wild. Delightful, realistic full colour illustrations by Kerry Argent complement the text. Reissued in paperback by Scholastic in 2004.
(ANIMALS. AUSTRALIAN)

My apple
Davies, Kay and Wendy Oldfield (Simple Science, A. & C. Black, 1997, 26pp.)
Full page photographs by Fiona Pragoff of children undertaking a variety of activites with everyday objects are accompanied by simple statements and questions to set them thinking about the science around us. An apple is dropped into water, cut in half and allowed to go brown, used for printing, cooked and its seeds planted. Further information for parents is added at the end.

Five other titles in the series provide a series of experiments for an age group not often catered for in science publishing.
(GENERAL SCIENCE)

The quicksand book
de Paola, Tomie, (Holiday House, 1977, 32pp.)
This tongue-in-cheek Tarzan-style picture book has a jungle girl sinking in quicksand while a know-it-all jungle boy lectures her about its properties and formation. After describing various rescue techniques, he pulls her free, only to fall in himself.
(OUR WORLD)

Diary of a wombat
French, Jackie; illustrated by Bruce Whatley (Harper Collins, 2002, 32pp.)
A wombat's daily activities and interactions with the people who live near her burrow are recorded in diary form as though by the wombat, with items like ‘slept a bit', ‘asked for carrots'. The brief text indirectly reveals a lot about wombat character and about the tolerance needed to live with an animal whose requirements do not quite coincide with those of the people. Bruce Whatley's illustrations bring the wombat to life.
(ANIMALS. AUSTRALIAN)

Growing frogs
French, Vivian; illustrated by Alison Bartlett (Read and Wonder, Walker Books, 2000, 30pp.)
The story of a little girl and her mother who take some frogspawn and watch it develop into frogs is combined with scientific facts about frog biology and sound advice on how to look after tadpoles and frogs. An unusual typeface, a naïve style of art and a simple index add to the child-centred text, resulting in a charming information book for young children. Reissued with an accompanying CD in 2008.
(ANIMALS)

365 penguins
Fromental, Jean-Luc and Joëlle Jolivet (Abrams books for Young Readers, 2006, unpaged)
This large format, four-colour picture book tells the amusing story of a family which receives by courier a penguin a day for a year. However apart from the humorous storyline, the young reader is introduced to basic mathematical operations. When the numbers of penguins are added, they are arranged in groups (“12 boxes of 12 penguins = ??”) and their food requirements are calculated. By the end of the book, readers have discovered who is clandestinely sending the birds, why and some basic facts about penguins. However the strength of the book is in its plot and mathematical concepts.
(MATHEMATICS; ANIMALS)

Push
Graham, Bob (Science Early Learner Series, Five Mile Press, 1986, 16pp.)
Bill tries riding his tricycle in grass, in mud, on the carpet and kitchen floor, but discovers that the path is best. Also, Heat, Moving, Senses, Sound and Water. Each has a named character and pet, a brief text and delightful cartoon-style colour illustrations.

Four of these books were re-issued in 1991 with new titles. They are now called It's much too hot!, Look out for Rosy!, Pig's wild cart ride and Rupert's big splash.
(PHYSICS. AUSTRALIAN)

The rabbit problem
Gravett, Emily (Macmillan, 2009, unpaged)
In 1202, Leonardo of Pisa (known as Fibonacci) studied a mathematical sequence based on the proposition of a pair of rabbits being placed in a field and reproducing under certain conditions. Emily Gravett has taken this idea and produced a very entertaining picture book where Lonely and Chalk Rabbit set up home in Fibonacci’s Field and produce a family. Laid out in the design of a yearly calendar, the pages contain baby record books, ration books, newspaper items, cookbooks, cutouts and flaps. Small descriptions of Fibonacci and his sequence are found in these additions for readers who want to know more about the mathematics and the actual sequence itself unfolds on the population signpost. There is more information about how the sequence works on the back cover and a disclaimer that this book is NOT about maths but the humorous story is great fun and may be read to quite young children.
(MATHEMATICS)

Two's company...
Greenway, Shirley (Charlesbridge, 1997, 32pp.)
This beautiful picture book illustrated with superb photographs from the team at Oxford Scientific Films is a simple introduction to animal behaviour through the names of different groups of animals. Each left-hand page shows a small photograph of a single animal and a photograph of two of the animals; the right-hand page shows a large picture of a whole group with the correct name (flock, shoal, swarm, herd, etc.) A simple introductory page and a corresponding conclusion tie up the concept neatly but a final two pages of further information about each animal adds an extra dimension.
(ANIMALS)

Science is everywhere
Howitt, Christine (text) Peter Bowdidge (photos) (Christine Howitt, 2010, unpaged)
This self-published book is a wonderful introduction to the world of science for preschoolers. Beautifully photographed and designed, the book shows young Joe and his Mum going for a walk. As they go through the garden and along the fence, jump into puddles and explore the park, Mum points out all the things that science helps to explain, such as what shadows are, where puddles go when the sun comes out, how rainbows are formed, why things fall towards the ground, why metal objects rust and how cheese is made. The layout and design are excellent, with text and a single item on different coloured pages on the left and a full-page photo on the right. The photographs are well-composed and the one of Joe on the first double-page spread is most engaging. At the end of the book are three pages of notes for parents, giving them some helpful suggestions for activities to do with their child. Available from www.scienceiseverywhere.com.au
(GENERAL SCIENCE; OUR WORLD)

Walk with a wolf
Howker, Janni; illustrated by Sarah Fox-Davies (Read and Wonder, Walker Books, 2001, 32pp.)
Originally published in hardback in 1997 and reprinted in paperback in 2001, Walk with a wolf is a superbly produced information book for young children. The lyrical, poetic text is written by an award-winning British author and the beautiful realistic illustrations are by an artist experienced in creating animal books for children. As with other titles in the Read and Wonder series, additional facts about wolves are curved beside the evocative artwork to augment the information imparted in the narrative. Due to be reissued with an accompanying CD at the end of 2008.
(ANIMALS)

Boy, were we wrong about dinosaurs!
Kudlinski, Kathleen V.; illustrated by S.D.Schindler (Dutton Children’s Books, 2005, unpaged)
This picture book is not really about dinosaurs. Rather it shows the way scientific knowledge adapts and grows in the light of new discoveries. Using dinosaurs as the subject matter, the book explains how interpretations of fossils have changed since they were first discovered (the ancient Chinese thought they were dragon bones) and therefore our understanding of these creatures. Examples include the placement of Iguanadon’s ‘horn’ on its nose when they later turned out to be spikes on its front limbs and the way the nests of baby dinosaurs has altered thinking on dinosaur behaviour. An excellent explanation for young children about how scientific facts are not always correct at first and the need to be open to new interpretations and understandings as scientific knowledge evolves. Also suitable for ages 5-8.
(PREHISTORIC TIMES; GENERAL SCIENCE)

Mrs Millar's frogs
Millar, Annette; illustrated by Kerry Anne Jordinson (Paperbark, 1998, 24pp.)
This delightfully simple story, told in rhyming verse in the first person, tells about Mrs Millar who lives in Broome and has frogs in every room. A snake comes in after the frogs so she banishes them to the pond outside. She misses them so much she allows them back inside. Both verse and illustrations (by Kerry Anne Jordinson) are fun and full of life.
(ANIMALS. AUSTRALIAN)

The Hunt
Oliver, Narelle (Lothian, 1995, 32pp.)
A tawny frogmouth chases a series of animals for food but, before it can catch them, they disappear by settling on a background where their camouflage is most effective or by disguising themselves as a twig. Then the tawny frogmouth itself has to disguise itself as a branch to avoid a powerful owl. Keys at the back of the book indicate where and what all the hidden species are (there are many more than those the tawny frogmouth sees).
(ANIMALS. AUSTRALIAN)

Sorting
Pluckrose, Henry (Know About Series, Franklin Watts, 1988, 32pp.)
The brief text has questions which will start a child thinking about different ways in which objects can be sorted – by size, colour, type (toy animals or buttons). It introduces set theory by showing how things can be sorted into different sets. Chris Fairclough's clear, well composed colour photographs expand the text and illustrate each point specifically.

Capacity by the same team (also published 1988) starts the child thinking about how much liquid or marbles a jar holds, and how to compare them, and leads to our standard measure of volume, the litre. Weight (1987) introduces the concept of weight, and how to weigh things.
(MATHEMATICS)

Where in the Wild?: Camouflaged creatures concealed…and revealed
Schwartz, David M. and Yael Schy (text), Dwight Kuhn (photos) (Tricycle Press, 2007, unpaged)
This flap book demonstrates the concept of camouflage to children in a stunning and very effective format. Each page opening has a heading and poem on the left-hand side and a full-size colour photograph on the right. Somewhere in the photograph is a well-camouflaged animal. To find out what the creature is and where it is hidden, the flap is lifted to reveal the same photograph greyed out except for the animal. A full page of information about it is then contained on the reverse side of the flap. With an emphasis on North American animals, those featured include mammals, amphibians, insects, reptiles and birds’ eggs. With the additional information included, this book is also suitable for the 5 - 8 age group.
(ANIMALS)

Let's try it out with towers and bridges: Hands-on early learning science activities
Simon, Seymour and Nicole Fauteux, illustrated by Doug Cushman (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2003, unpaged)
The 'Let's try it out' series presents simple experiments with everyday materials for young children to try at home. In this book, blocks, drinking straws, cardboard tubes and pieces of paper are used to show how buildings and bridges of different shapes can be made strong enough to withstand various forces such as weight and wind. Australian readers may not be familiar with the introductory section about the American pioneers going west but this is a minor issue. Other books in the series can be found at the author's website: www.SimonSaysKids.com.
(TECHNOLOGY; PHYSICS)

10 things I can do to help my world
Walsh, Melanie (Walker Books, 2008, unpaged)
This interactive picture book for young children contains flaps and cut-outs along with a simple text encouraging preschoolers and their families to do simple things to live more lightly on the earth. The suggested changes in behaviour are well within the abilities of this age group and include such things as always using both sides of a page, planting seeds, recycling and turning off the light when it’s not being used. With an attractive yellow cover with die-cut light globe, the bright colours continue inside and the text can be read with just a single larger sentence on each page or with further information. Printed on recycled paper, the production of this book has put into practice what it is advocating. This book is valuable and useful for both educational and home situations.
(OUR WORLD)