Flip, Float, Fly: Seeds on the Move
This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share a commission.
A gust of wind lifes a maple seed, sending it spinning like a shiny green helicopter throught the sky. Where will it land?
A gust of wind lifes a maple seed, sending it spinning like a shiny green helicopter throught the sky. Where will it land?
From splashing away in a raindrop to scurrying with scampering squirrels to hitching rides on your sleeves and socks, seeds have many ingenious ways to traveling to new laces, growing roots, and beginning the cycle again.
About the Author
JoAnn Early Macken writes poetry, picture books, nonfiction, and novels for children and young adults. She earned an M.F.A. in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College. She has written more than one hundred nonfiction books for educational publishers. She speaks about poetry and writing to children and adults at schools, libraries, and conferences. Visit her web site at www.joannmacken.com
A Few Reviews:
Fans of From Seed to Plant, a perennial seller by Gail Gibbons, will want this lushly illustrated picture book.
From Booklist: “Maple seeds twirling in the wind, tumbleweeds rolling across the prairie, burdock seeds sticking to socks, coconuts drifting across the ocean, fig seeds falling to the ground in bat droppings, and acorns buried by forgetful squirrels are some of the examples used here to introduce methods of seed distribution. Each is introduced on a double-page spread, in which a few lines of poetic text provide information succinctly, while the occasional use of internal rhyme or onomatopoeic words gives verbal punch to the presentation. The plants’ varied habitats give broad scope to artist Paparone, who offers a series of acrylic paintings that show seeds traveling within distinctive locales. Pleasing in their colors, compositions, and decorative elements, the pictures clearly show points made in the text. The final pages offer an illustrated glossary of words relevant to the topic. Satisfying and well designed for both classroom sharing and individual reading.”
From School Library Journal: “Macken’s crisp text reveals burdocks sticking to a kid’s socks and to a rabbit’s fur, touch-me-not seeds exploding from their pods, and acorns being interred energetically by provident squirrels. A final segment explores several kinds of seed “containers” (pods, fruit, nutshells) and the varying shapes of a number of seeds (peach pits, corn kernels, peas), and explains the stages of growth from seed to flowering plant. All the while, in careful step, Paparone’s bright, realistic acrylics present clear pictures of the featured seeds in their natural dispersals, from tumbleweeds rolling across a Western landscape to coconuts dropping into a tropical sea. Many of the double-page illustrations contain a circular “bubble” with close-ups of leaves, flowers, pods, etc.”
