New Releases by Ruth Owen

Readers explore a backyard habitat and discover how garden animals and plants form an ecosystem and rely on each other for survival. This title cleverly takes young readers on a mini safari through a backyard making connections between the living things that call it home. For example: As aphids suck nectar from the stems of plants, a ladybird leaves its winter hiding place to start munching on aphids. As worms wriggle through the soil helping to bring nutrients and rainwater to the roots of the garden’s trees, a robin hunts for worms to feed to its chicks. • Packed with curriculum science information • See how backyard animals make their homes and what they eat. • Learn about the life cycles of some common mammals and birds • Discover how insects pollinate plants • Controlled vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure • Beautiful, labelled photographs throughout • Close photo/text match • Includes a backyard food web diagram Filled with facts about the natural world, this title is perfect for students studying habitats, animal and plant life cycles, and ecosystems.

Halloween is the perfect time to great creative! Young readers are encouraged to embrace the spirit of this holiday through a series of exciting DIY projects guaranteed to gross out their friends. This high-interest topic is presented through clear text that sets the scene and breaks down each project into simple steps. By following the helpful instructions, readers are able to practice following written directions as they independently create impressive Halloween horrors. Safety tips and eye-catching materials lists ensure a safe and successful DIY experience, and colorful photographs enhance the creepy fun.

Christmas and Hanukkah light up the winter with festive celebrations, and readers learn how to add to the fun with their own origami crafts. This multicultural guide to popular holidays introduces readers to a variety of paper folding projects, including Christmas cards, Santa Claus, a menorah, and a dreidel. Clear, step-by-step instructions with visual examples help readers master each project, and helpful tips and materials lists ensure they’re prepared before they begin. In addition, fun facts about the history behind these holidays are presented throughout, allowing readers to learn as they play.

Cards and gifts made with love are popular parts of Valentine’s Day, and readers have fun making these tokens of their affection with the help of this guide to Valentine’s Day origami. By following simple steps and looking at visual examples, readers are able to make hearts, roses, and cards by folding paper into beautiful shapes. Each project features a helpful materials list and fun facts about the symbols and objects being made and why they’re a special part of this holiday. The encouraging and conversational tone takes the stress out of making the perfect Valentine’s gift for loved ones.

It''s thick and sticky, splishy and splashy—mud! Dive into the wonderful world of mud and discover what it''s made of and how essential it is to the lives of many animals. After reading, put your knowledge to the test with a simple science project.

They are colorful. They form amazing shapes. They feed on our food. And some are even deadly poisonous. Fungi! Explore the lives and life cycles of nature’s clean-up champions that help keep our world free from dead leaves and other rotting material. After reading, put your knowledge to the test with a simple science project.

Swoop, snatch, slurp, suck—welcome to the world of bats. Join the natural world''s only flying mammals on their night-time flights as they use echolocation to hunt for insects, feed on fruit or nectar, and even suck blood from other living animals. The exceptional photography in this book will allow young readers to examine these beautiful creatures up close, learn about their physical characteristics and see how they are adapted to obtain food and live in their varied habitats. Bat life cycles will also feature with stunning imagery of moms and pups. The book supports learning across all areas of life sciences curriculum. After reading, put your knowledge to the test with a simple science project.

They are colorful. Some are bigger than your head. They go through an amazing metamorphosis. They even pollinate plants. And they are every bit as beautiful as butterflies! It’s time for moths to take center stage and get the attention they deserve. Explore the world of these fascinating furry insects and learn about their lives, their life cycles and why they fly into your porch light at night! After reading, put your knowledge to the test with a simple science project.

It’s a snorkel. It’s a highly-sensitive tool for finding food underground. It can even show the neighbors who’s boss. The nose! Get up close to some of the weirdest but most hard-working noses in the animal kingdom and discover just how physical adaptations – no matter how funny-looking – can help animals survive in their natural habitats. After reading, put your knowledge to the test with a simple science project.

Our Earth is just a tiny, tiny, part of a universe that is so vast even numbers such as billions and trillions aren’t big enough to measure it! This fascinating in-depth look at our world''s place in space explores the big bang, the formation of the solar system, and why we experience day and night and different seasons. Readers will even learn how ancient people used the Sun''s movements and temples such as the UK''s Stonehenge to predict the seasons and why the Moon seems to change shape in the night sky. Packed with facts and activities, this book will be a gripping read for all young space fans.

"In the middle of the big city, there was a tired, ugly place that made Mr. Green feel very sad." So begins this uplifting and charming story of the magic that can happen when young people, older people, and plants come together. Mo has lost his father. But as he helps his neighbor Mr. Green create a beautiful garden in an abandoned, forlorn space in the city, a smiley feeling grows inside Mo and he learns that a garden can be a very good place to remember people we''ve lost. As the two friends grow their garden, readers will also discover: • How being in nature is good for our mental health • How intergenerational friendships are important • The importance of rebuilding ecosystems and making places for wildlife • How plants grow, including vegetables • The importance of planting trees • How soil is a living thing that needs to be nurtured The story is told with beautiful artwork created from collage and pencil drawings.

Zoom into the tiny but incredibly busy world of a colony of leafcutter ants. Stunning macro photography will allow young readers to get up close to these fascinating and industrious insects as they get to work cutting leaves and carrying them back to their nest to feed to the fungi that they grow in their underground fungus farm. After reading, put your knowledge to the test with a simple science project.

Some look like dog vomit. Others pretend to be mushrooms. There''s even one that grows in the shape of a pretzel. They are creepy, crawly, colorful slime molds and they are living in a backyard, park, or forest near you! These unusual living things ooze over dead leaves and old wood feeding on these substances and acting as one of nature''s clean-up crews. And even though a blob of slime mold has no brain, it spreads out tendrils that work as a team telling each other when they find some food. Kids will love discovering all about the lives and life cycles of these real-life, living blobs of slime! After reading, put your knowledge to the test with a simple science project.

All around us Earth''s rock cycle is in action. Wind and rain turn rocks to sand; dead leaves mix with rock particles to make soil; over millions of years, layers of sand and soil turn to sedimentary rock; beneath our feet in Earth''s crust, extreme heat and pressure create metamorphic rocks; while lava bursts from volcanoes and cools to become igneous rock. This in-depth look at rocks and fossils gives students the chance to carry out investigations such as examining rock properties, building a rock cycle model, and even creating their own fossils.

In this title, join a tiny toad as she embarks on a long journey to lay her eggs in a pond. Along the way, she must avoid inquisitive pet dogs, a hungry snake, and a busy road. The book combines repetitive text with high-frequency and familiar sight words. Unfamiliar vocabulary is supported by detailed photographic images with labels, close photo/text matches, and a picture glossary.

In this title, join a tiny mole as she digs tunnels under a garden, hunts for earthworms, meets a mate, and raises her family. The book combines repetitive text with high-frequency and familiar sight words. Unfamiliar vocabulary is supported by detailed photographic images with labels, close photo/text matches, and a picture glossary.

In this title, join a tiny harvest mouse as she munches on blackberries, crunches on grasshoppers, weaves a nest from grass in a wheat field, and raises her family. The book combines repetitive text with high-frequency and familiar sight words. Unfamiliar vocabulary is supported by detailed photographic images with labels, close photo/text matches, and a picture glossary.

Plastic pollution is one of the most damaging environmental issues we face today. And no one is more passionate about solving this problem and protecting our world than kids! This new title in the Get Started With STEM series gives young science enthusiasts all the information they need to investigate and do their part to help solve this problem now and for the future. Packed with facts, discussion topics, imaginative ideas for activities, experiments, and investigations, this book will have students eager to use their science skills and knowledge to tackle plastic pollution head on.

Plastic pollution is one of the most damaging environmental issues we face today. And no one is more passionate about solving this problem and protecting our world than kids! This new title in the Get Started With STEM series gives young science enthusiasts all the information they need to investigate and do their part to help solve this problem now and for the future. Packed with facts, discussion topics, imaginative ideas for activities, experiments, and investigations, this book will have students eager to use their science skills and knowledge to tackle plastic pollution head on.

Inside this book, meet 12 insects that take “home sweet home” to a whole new level. From maggots that wriggle and crawl through blocks of cheese to the tiny bloodsuckers that set up home on our pets, every page is packed with truly unbelievable facts. Perfect for reluctant readers, these books deliver life sciences in the creepiest, yuckiest way possible!

Our TV screens are filled with terrifying images of the walking dead. However, people have been frightened of zombies long before movies and TV shows. This book uncovers the blood-curdling history of the undead—from Viking draugar to dancing Tibetan corpses to medieval revenants that crawled out of the ground, spreading plague and death. This fascinating new title introduces zombie fans to a horrifying host of zombies, both past and present. Packed with gruesome, spine-chilling details, the book takes readers from lurching Ro-langs in Tibet to zombies in 20th century America. Love zombies? Then lock the doors and dare to investigate Zombies Through the Ages!

Inside this book, meet 12 insects whose life cycles take weird to a whole new level. From wasps that turn spiders into zombies to help them take care of their larvae to bot flies that start life by burrowing into a horse’s tongue, every page is packed with truly unbelievable facts. Perfect for reluctant readers, these books deliver life sciences in the creepiest, yuckiest way possible!

According to zombie lore, if a zombie bites a person, he or she will become a hungry flesh-eater, too. But how might a zombie virus actually get started—and spread? This book lifts the lid on a whole range of horrifying theories on how “zombie-fication” might happen. This fascinating new title invites zombie fans to investigate the many spine-chilling zombie origin stories. Packed with gruesome details, the book takes readers on a stomach-churning journey through zombie lore and science. Love zombies? Then lock the doors, hunker down, and discover the many weird ways of Becoming a Zombie!

Inside this book, meet 12 insects that take defense to a whole new level. From caterpillars that disguise themselves as blobs of bird poop to beetles that repel predators with poisonous, boiling-hot farts, every page is packed with truly unbelievable facts. Perfect for reluctant readers, these books deliver life sciences in the creepiest, yuckiest way possible!

Inside this book, meet 12 insects that take disgusting eating habits to a whole new level. From dung beetles slurping up elephant poop soup to tiny creatures that could be feasting on your body right now, every page is packed with truly unbelievable facts. Perfect for reluctant readers, these books deliver life sciences in the creepiest, yuckiest way possible!

On the island of Haiti, stories tell of corpses brought back to life. Fact or fiction? Do voodoo witch doctors called bokors really have the power to raise people from their graves? Or is there a scientific—but just as chilling—explanation involving powerful poisons and ruthless con-men? This fascinating new title introduces zombie fans to the spine-chilling world of Haitian zombies. Did a man named Clairvius Narcisse really live as a zombie for almost 20 years? And what do puffer fish and poisonous cucumbers have to do with the undead? Love zombies? Then lock the doors, settle in, and get ready to learn all about Voodoo Zombies!

"The first trick to baking successful St. Patrick''s Day treats is to make them green. The second way to make excellent treats for this March holiday is to make enough to feed everyone at the party. Readers can find excellent St. Patrick''s Day baking inspiration by paging through this book''s many themed recipes. Step-by-step instructions guide both new and experienced bakers through the recipe, and a full-color photograph of each finished product shows what they have to look forward to sharing with friends and family."

"In many cultures, making food for those you love is common practice. Since we celebrate those special people on Valentine''s Day, it''s the perfect holiday to make some amazing baked treats. Each themed recipe is written especially for young bakers, including safety tips, ingredients and equipment lists, and step-by-step instructions. A full-color photograph accompanies each recipe so readers can page through the book to find just the treat they want to make. Whether it''s sweet for a sweetheart or has the traditional red in it, whatever recipe readers choose will stand up to the inclusion of an extra ingredient, love."

"There can never be too many treats on Thanksgiving Day. From pies to pumpkin cookies, readers are sure to be familiar with the wonderful baked goods often served at their family''s dinner. With this book in hand, they''ll be able to find the inspiration they need to bake up a themed surprise. With simply written ingredients and equipment lists and easy-to-follow instructions, each recipe was specially formatted and chosen for young bakers eager to take on part of the Thanksgiving meal."

Specially created to support early years teaching, this beautiful new words and pictures book is perfect for children learning to read. As young readers turn the pages, they will have lots of opportunities to: understand similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities, and traditions; understand feelings; be sensitive to others'' needs; explore behavior and consequences.