Nature Art with Chiura Obata describes not only the life of a contemporary Japanese artist, but also depicts a man who maintained his spirit and dignity when he was interned with fellow Japanese Americans during World War II.

Chiura Obata was born in Japan in 1885. His older brother and wife were unable to bear children of their own, so they adopted Obata when he was five years old. Obata showed a talent for art at any early age, and his rigorous training began immediately in his new home.

Most interesting to Obata was the nature around him. He studied plants, birds and animals. He learned to make his mind calm and to use all his senses, not just his eyesight, when he was observing his subject.

In 1903, at the age of 17, Obata set sail for California, where he fell in love with the Pacific Ocean, the mountains, the redwood trees and Yosemite National Park. He also encountered prejudice and survived the earthquake of 1906. Through it all, Obata ultimately became a teacher at the University of California in Berkeley.

This book is filled with fascinating old photographs, reproductions of Obata's beautiful sketches and paintings, along with art exercises for budding artists who want to try out some of Obata's techniques. The exercises encourage readers to follow their feelings and draw nature as they see it. I found this book perfect for a presentation on Japanese Art to a second grade class.

When Obata and his family became internees in 1942, he recorded the story of their imprisonment through art. Even though their accommodations were dirty and depressing, Obata encouraged his people to see the beauty of nature in order to survive. He organized an art school and students would carve sculpture from tree stumps and build lamps from old car parts.

Obata became an American citizen in 1952 and lived to a ripe old age.

Children love to learn about insects and this biography of Charles Henry Turner offers them the opportunity to do that while conducting experiments as they go through the book. As a 2/3 grade teacher I am always looking for books that are interactive. This book offers simple experiments to replicate and is a great example of a children's biography. This book gives information about the history of entomology and the life of a great American scientist.

"Children of Northern Ireland" is part of "The World's Children" series which uses photographs of smiling children to "lure young readers into learning a good deal about the history, geography, and cultures of countries of hte world." In this book written by Michael Elsohn Ross with photographs by Felix Rigau, young readers will meet the children of Northern Ireland, a country that has seen its share of troubles. In fact, this book deals with "the troubles" up front, explaining the history of the land that came to be part of the United Kingdom rather than a united Ireland. The photographs show kids playing rugby, doing Irish dances, and sailing mineature yachts, while the text talks about the agriculture, industry and customs of the land. Many of the photographs show the children in the lush green Irish countryside and there are some beautiful pictures of ruins on Devenish Island. A constant theme of the book is to highlight examples of Protestant and Catholic children playing together and refusing to continue the cycle of violence. Young readers will get a sense for the beauty of Ireland and how the culture is different from their own, but they will also understand that things are quite different for children their own ages who live in Northern Ireland. Other books in this series look at children from Vietnam, Guatemala and the Tlingit as well as the grandchildren of the Lakota.

This book has information about rolypolies, which are my son's favorite bugs. It also has many activities you can do with rolypolies, such as making a rolypoly hotel, a rolypoly playground, racing rolled up rolypolies down a ramp, and much more.

These activities seem pretty silly to me as a parent, but the kids loved them. The book also encourages the kids to observe many different things about the bugs and their behaviors. Heightening the kids awareness of small details is a good skill the kids can apply to other activities.