Rebecca Donnelly

This is a goofy rhyming book about the zany behavior of cats, as observed by a group of young scientists. It enumerates the many properties of a liquid and shows cats performing all of them: slopping, plopping, drizzling, sloshing, flopping. It goes through the water cycle and weather, shows scientists weighing and measuring, and settles on the conclusion: cats are a liquid, except when they're not. The cartoonish illustrations, reminiscent of webcomics, is the perfect delivery system for a whole lot of cat pictures. This might be over-the-top silly if I hadn't taught states of matter to 6- to 9-year-olds and seen firsthand that "is a cat a liquid?" is a question that might seriously give pause to someone just learning the rules of the universe.… (mere)

Synergy: Garbage

GARBAGE is material discarded by humans because it’s no longer of use. Sometimes called trash, rubbish, or waste, these objects include organic matter such as food scraps, dry goods like boxes and bottles, and consumer products made of plastic, wood, metal, glass or cloth. Garbology is the study of modern trash.

Read the recently published narrative nonfiction for middle grades, then learn more at the websites:

TOTAL GARBAGE: A MESSY DIVE INTO TRASH, WASTE, AND OUR WORLD written by Rebecca Donnelly and illustrated by John Hendrix traces the history of the trash and waste generated by humans. In addition, readers learn about the different types of garbage, how it’s managed, and what individuals can do to reduce their impact on the Earth. ARC courtesy of Henry Holt and Co., an imprint of Macmillan.

HISTORY OF GARBAGE from SWA provides a brief timeline of trash.

To read the article, go to https://swa.org/DocumentCenter/View/277/History-of-Garbage-PDF.

GARBOLOGY from BBC is an article exploring patterns in people’s waste.

To read the article, go to https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220429-garbology-how-to-spot-patterns-in-pe....

GARBOLOGY from UW video shares the work of garbologists at the University of Washington.

To view the video, go to https://youtu.be/1C2aQuK_LD4.… (mere)