New Releases by Heather Lang

There’s strength in numbers out there in the wild! In a lively comics-style format, the creators of Supermoms! and Superdads! deliver a funny, fascinating look at some ingenious ways that animal squads survive. Did you know that when honeybees find a food source, they do a dance to convey the direction, distance, and yumminess level to their hive mates? Or that chickadees add extra “dees” to their calls to warn their flock of danger? Or that a meerkat standing like a sentry may well be guarding its mob while they eat? Sometimes the key is divvying up tasks, like when beavers build a dam, or it’s combining differences—like when a sea anemone protects a hermit crab with its stinging tentacles, then gets a ride and some tasty tidbits from the crab. Or it’s power in numbers, as when hundreds of thousands of starlings fly in a murmuration, foiling predators trying to lock in on a target. With fun, fact-filled panels, Heather Lang and Jamie Harper delve into the ways animals band together to stay safe and thrive, from orcas to ostriches, spiny lobsters to snow monkeys, leaf cutter ants to zebras and more. Aspiring naturalists can find out more about the animals in the back matter, along with an array of resources for continuing to explore.

Fiction: In 1950, Kathryn Johnston wanted to play Little League baseball, but an unwritten "rule" kept girls from trying out. So she cut off her hair and tried out as a boy under the nickname "Tubby." She made the team--and changed Little League forever. Nonfiction: Baseball may have originally come from the European sport of cricket. Today, 30 Major League Baseball (MLB) teams compete each year to win the World Series Championship. Learn more in Baseball, a title in the For the Love of Sports series.

Firefall, by Heather Lang-Cassera, whispers to us the urgency of climate change. In hushed tones, lyrical free verse and cyclical pantoums evoke the diminishing and intensifying seasons. We might look for comfort in the occasional rhyming couplets, in the evocative syntax, in the breathtaking imagery that portrays the beauty of this world, yet these ecopoems require us to parse out seeming dualities: fire and flood, repetition and redundancy, vulnerable witness and autonomous self. Exploring the complexity of language in advocacy and activism, both the tangible effects and the dangers of mere performance, Firefall quietly begs us to consider the wisdom of our own hands as "a birth cry, a death breathing, an intangible / sun, a heap of inconsolable hope / available only from yesterdays" as well as the ways in which each "voice is a comet / electric."

Raising babies in the wild is a mighty big job, but these super animal dads are up to the task! Packed with cool facts in a fun comics format. It''s wild out there for baby animals, but nature''s superdads can handle it all. A great horned owl dad brings home tasty prey to his nest, while a sandgrouse dad carries precious water on his feathers across the desert for his thirsty chicks. Wolf dads love a game of tug-of-war with their rambunctious pups, glass frog dads protect their eggs from predators with powerful kicks, and kiwi dads sit on their eggs for eighty days, keeping them safe and warm. And did you know that giant water bug dads can tote a whopping 150 eggs on their backs while doing push-ups? The team behind Supermoms! delivers another humorous and fascinating look into wild parenting, highlighting how superdads from seahorses to gorillas feed, protect, nurture, and even incubate their babies. The comics-panel format, with its lively art and cheeky comments from offspring, makes for an engaging read. Back matter includes bonus super facts about each animal and recommendations for more children''s books, websites, and episodes to explore.

In comics-style panels full of facts and humor, this lively picture book investigates the amazing lengths animal mothers go to in caring for their young. An emperor penguin mom treks up to fifty miles to bring food to her hungry chick. A toothy American alligator carefully carries hatchlings in her mouth, shuttling them safely to the water. A piping plover uses her best acting skills to feign an injury, luring predators away from her offspring. Whether building elaborate burrows, forgoing food for months on end to feed their cubs, toting hundreds of spiderlings on their backs, conducting patient swimming lessons, or fearlessly kicking away hyenas, mothers in the animal kingdom—whatever their species—give it their all (and then some!) to keep their little ones safe, fed, and ready to face the world on their own. This first book in a young series on animal science includes in its back matter a look at the “super” qualities of some of the animals and offers a collection of resources for budding naturalists.

Gathering Broken Light confronts pasts we cannot understand, largely following the October 2017 mass shooting. Anchored in the severity and the beauty of the Mojave Desert landscape, fractured narratives, surrealist repetition, and imagistic lyricism work to contemplate grief, including both overwhelming sorrow and deep love. A voice yearns, "I wish I could sing the sky to you." In a collection that refuses to flatten the horrors of gun violence, both "flashing restless anger" and immense sadness, acknowledging that grief never leaves entirely, these poems also offer small comforts, even hope, as the "century plants continue to bloom // slowly, like stars burn" beneath a "moon as emptiness traced / and brimming with promise / because both can be true." To those lost, this collection insists, "You deserve to be remembered."

Discover a thrilling moment in history when pioneering aviator Ruth Law attempted to do what no other aviator had done before: fly nonstop from Chicago to New York. On November 19, 1916, at 8:25 a.m., Ruth Law took off on a flight from Chicago to New York City that aviation experts thought was doomed. Sitting at the controls of her small bi-plane, exposed to the elements, Law battled fierce winds and numbing cold. When her engine ran out of fuel, she glided for two miles and landed at Hornell, New York. Even though she fell short of her goal, she had broken the existing cross-country distance record. And with her plane refueled, she got back in the air and headed for New York City where crowds waited to greet her. This story is perfect to share during Women''s History Month or anytime during the year!

Here is a story of Alice Coachman, the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal. When Alice Coachman was a girl, most White people wouldn''t even shake her hand. Yet when the King of England placed an Olympic medal around her neck in 1948, he extended his hand to Alice in congratulations. Standing on a podium in London''s Wembley Stadium, Alice was a long way from the fields of Georgia where she ran barefoot as a child. With a record-breaking leap, she had become the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal. This inspirational picture book is perfect to celebrate Women''s History Month or to share any day of the year.

This picture book biography tells the story of Meg Lowman, a groundbreaking female scientist called a "real life Lorax" by National Geographic, who was determined to investigate the marvelous, undiscovered world of the rainforest treetops. Meg Lowman was always fascinated by the natural world above her head — the colors, the branches, and, most of all, the leaves and mysterious organisms living there. Meg set out to climb up and investigate the rain forest tree canopies — and to be the first scientist to do so. But she encountered challenge after challenge. Male teachers would not let her into their classrooms, the high canopy was difficult to get to, and worst of all, people were logging and clearing the forests. Meg never gave up or gave in. She studied, invented, and persevered, not only creating a future for herself as a scientist, but making sure that the rainforests had a future as well. Working closely with Meg Lowman, author Heather Lang and artist Jana Christy beautifully capture Meg''s world in the treetops.

Lucille Mulhall wasn’t like most girls in the 1890s. She didn’t give a lick about sewing or cooking or becoming a lady. Lucille had her heart set on roping and riding. At a time when most women couldn’t vote or own property, Lucille never let society’s expectations or the dangers of roping and riding stop her from pursuing her passion.

Poetry

Before Eugenie Clark''s groundbreaking research, most people thought sharks were vicious, blood-thirsty killers. From the first time she saw a shark in an aquarium, Japanese-American Eugenie was enthralled. Instead of frightening and ferocious eating machines, she saw sleek, graceful fish gliding through the water. After she became a scientist—an unexpected career path for a woman in the 1940s—she began taking research dives and training sharks, earning her the nickname ""The Shark Lady."""

The Best Children''s Books of the Year 2019, Bank Street College In 1950, girls didn''t play baseball––until Kathryn Johnston changed Little League. In 1950, Kathryn Johnston wanted to play Little League baseball, but an unwritten "rule" kept girls from trying out. So she cut off her hair and tried out as a boy under the nickname "Tubby." She made the team—and changed Little League forever. This is a story about wanting to do something so badly, you''re willing to break the rules, and how breaking those rules can lead to change.

An introduction to how things work in the natural world using real-life scenarios, simple experiments, hypothetical projects, and plenty of illustrations to bring physics to life.