Senor Parrot's Perch

Did Fleming Rescue Churchill?: A Research Puzzle by James Cross Giblin, and illustrated by Erik Brooks.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); 1st edition (April 1, 2008)
ISBN-13: 978-0805081831

Did Fleming Rescue Churchill?: A Research Puzzle illustrates the problems of historical research and the work that goes into establishing what is true and how to make facts into an interesting story. It’s also a cautionary tale of the pitfalls of internet research. While researching a well known scientist, fifth grader Jason finds three conflicting stories and must sort out the truth.

Jason had missed class so he could see the dentist because of a toothache. Too bad, because he missed getting his choice for a scientist to research and report on. The only one left was Alexander Fleming, and who was he? His teacher, Ms. O’Mara, insisted he was a great choice because he discovered penicillin, the antibiotic that has saved millions of lives.

When Jason agrees, he mentions to his teacher that he’ll start on the internet and go from there. Jason’s teacher warns him that the internet is a poor place to start, not everything is true. He accepts her advice, but he’s turned off by the biographies he finds, and settles for the encyclopedia. Here he learns the details of Fleming’s career and that he won the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Then, his teacher gives him useful pointers for organizing and writing his report, and most importantly, he learns how to make his report interesting for others.

Jason’s report grows more interesting to him, also, as he proceeds. Inspired to find the truth about a link between Fleming and Winston Churchill that he has learned about on the internet, Jason spends every free moment looking for some source that will settle the questions that have arisen during his research. How will he resolve the conflict stories about Fleming?

All in all, this book was fun to read. More importantly, it taught important lessons about research and writing at a middle school level. I really do think that this book is worth reading. It -Yeah, right Dad! – would even make a good jumping off point for keeping a kid or two busy for a while during the upcoming summer. Have him or her read the book, then assign someone who has won a Nobel Prize as a subject for a three page paper, using the lessons from this book as a guide.

Well, Senor Parrot, you’ve laid a big goose egg, I hear you say, Not over summer break!� But a trip to a water park would make a good reward, if you need help kicking up the enthusiasm.

Its raining today. The kids are home sick, too. They’ll want to get on the computer and play Webkinz or something like that, or they’ll want to watch TV all day. All brain rot, really. They’ll be bored and drive my wife crazy. They need an activity, and a fun one, and why not a brain building one?

Cool Gravity Activities: Fun Science Projects About Balance by James Hopwood is full of fun, simple, and thought provoking science activities. Beginning with some basic instruction on scientific method, the book sets some rules for the activities. Really, they’re hints on what to look for, and set the stage for kids to learn.

Second, there is a two page layout of things the kids can find around the house to use in their experiments. Maybe a hockey stick, or a rake, or a ruler or thread. Get some eggs, metal forks and wooden popsicle sticks. A few more things and you’re ready. I’d skip on the bathroom plunger, though. Yuck! Maybe a kid’s garden shovel, or something like that.

Now to the activities. Each has pointers on what to look for, instructions on performing the experiment, an explanation of the science behind the activity, and a practical application for real life. There’s quick projects like balancing a plunger, or a more suitable substitute, making tops from oddly shaped pieces of paper, or how an uncooked egg spins compared to a hard-boiled egg. Some of these will be fun for your kids to use to show off to their friends. Try balancing two forks and a popsicle stick on one finger!

None of the experiments takes too long and each incorporates writing data and findings in a journal. This writing part is critical. Scientists write down everything and then misplace it. Engineers know where they put everything. If you kid loses his or her notes, you know they’ll be a scientist. If they tidy them up, file them alphabetically and cross-reference them, they’ll be librarians. But if they just keep them organized on a bookshelf, they’ll be engineers.

Little Rat Sets Sail by Monika Bang-Campbell, illustrated by Molly Bang.

Little Rat Sets Sail introduces kids to sailing without really downplaying their ambiguous feelings. The book depicts learning to sail pretty much the way they will experience it for themselves.� As Little Rat grows in experience and overcomes some of her fears, she grows in confidence, too. It’s also very entertaining for young readers along the way. The illustrations are great. Illustrator Molly Bang has fantastic fun exaggerating Little Rat’s fears, and she shows what it’s like to be out in the boat, the way sailing really is.

In Monika Bang-Campbell’s book, Little Rat’s parents enroll her in a sailing class, much to her dismay. She shouldn’t have been surprised, though. Pictures of sailing scenes hang from every wall in her home, evidence that her parents are passionate about sailing. But Little Rat finds danger and distress everywhere, from the steep descent from the top of the hill down to the boats, the deep water that she thinks is filled with eels and jellyfish, and even having a life jacket different from what the other kids wear, not dorky like hers. But she has a good teacher who recognizes her fears and helps her to grow in confidence and courage as the summer progresses.

Sailing can be scary for little folks. Sailboats rock. They are never level. Things happen all the time. The wind strengthens or wanes and changing direction means changing sides and ducking heads to avoid the boom, changing which line is held, and on and on.

For my kids, it wasn’t so much the depth of the water or the thought of what might be waiting just below the surface that upset them. It was the tipping and rolling with the wind and the constant sense of losing their balance. The boat would not stay level or at even the same angle. But these things, disconcerting or not, are much of what later becomes the fun of sailing.

After a while, my kids became eager to get into the boat and spend a few hours out on the lake. As long as they have enough to keep them busy, its a lot of fun. Now they’re old enough to spend some time steering at the rudder, or holding the jib or main sheets to control the sails. Videos can also be helpful. We’ve acquired several and we review them in the spring, or watch them snowy nights when we’d rather be on a warm lake soaking up the sun.

Here’s a video clip from Youtube, cut from a popular video Teaching Kids How To Sail:

Rapunzel’s Revenge is a graphic novel that had plenty of good press before it made it to the shelves of your local book store. Written by girl’s favorite Shannon Hale, along with her husband, Dean Hale, and illustrated by a non-relative coincidentally named Nathan Hale, it started out with an advantage. Later, it won the Cybils award for best graphic novel for the elementary/middle grades.

When I first heard about it, some time before the Cybils, I was excited to get it, thinking my girls would go for this tale. I had, out of curiosity picked up my oldest girl’s copy of Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale, and was very surprised that it was intelligent and well written, instead of some sort of boy-hungry clone. Now I’m a dad who doesn’t want his girls growing up to be vapid boy-hungry clones, so this left me predisposed to hunting out Rapunzel’s Revenge. Then, like a busy dad, I forgot about it.

I came across it a few weeks ago and finally picked it up. Oldest daughter couldn’t put it down, and ended up finishing it that day before she went to bed. She still lights up when I ask her about it. So I read it. It was great. Jammed with action and adventure on every page, it was a truly exciting revision of the well known fairly tale, and far more fun to read. The illustrations were an easy match for the well told tale.

And it is a revision. Somehow, Jack, of Jack and the Beanstalk fame – an occasionally cross-dressing Jack! – even gets messed up in the whole affair, too.

I generally dislike graphic novels/comic books. Usually they have a story not worth bothering to tell. If they have any value, its usually because of the illustrations, but even then, that’s not always the case. I love opera, and in many ways comic books are like opera. The music of opera is unparalleled in western civilization, but if you take the time to learn the story, that can wreck the whole experience because it can be so stupid. Take Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”, for example. The story is beyond stupid and confusing, but the music is so transcendent you can’t pry it out of your head with a two-by-four! Comic books are like that. The story is too often beyond stupid, but the drawing can somehow redeem the work.

However, Rapunzel’s Revenge is a great exception to the rule. It’s story is very well told. The characters are engaging and funny. The drawing is fantastic and imaginative. I have no qualms recommending this to anyone.

So, is someone’s birthday coming up? Find out if she’s read it, and if not, go buy this book and give it to her. (That’s right, “she”. I really don’t think many “he’s” are going to really be thankful, deep down in their hearts, if they were to receive this book. Buy him Artemis Fowl instead!)

Here’s an odd little video from YouTube:

You have to love this cover, and the title’s not bad either – Uncle John’s Strange and Scary Freaky Facts about Peculiar People:Bathroom Reader for Kids Only! Ah! To be a boy again and allowed to read this book without explaning myself to all my friends. I saw this with a short review over at the Provo City Library Children’s Book Review. However, responsible dad that I am, shouldn’t I at least preview this tempting book before I get it for my kids? I don’t know? What would you do?

My kids loved this video. Three teens, calling themselves The Galactic Wailers have constructed instruments from Lego bits and pieces and Lego sensors. These are not robots, but they are instruments that incorporate sensors and other stuff used in lego robotics.� Legos are the coolest toys ever made.� It’s� over here is the newspaper article where I learned about this.

Here’s their really cool video where they describe their instruments and� perform the theme to Star Wars:

This sort of stuff inspires them. It’s over their heads, right now, but they start aiming higher. I think its great.