Bøger af Linda Booth Sweeney

Can a butterfly's sneeze actually change the weather thousands of miles away? Our world is full of such surprising interdependencies. But how do we help our children understand such complexity -- especially when it impacts the events and the world around them? WHEN A BUTTERFLY SNEEZES teaches us how. Aided by systems thinking, children learn to ask simple questions: What happens next? What happens to this if there is more or less of that? They start to look for patterns in how things happens, to understand why problems arise, and to figure out what they can do about them. This powerful resources includes a fun, detailed discussion of systems thinking, and a comprehensive guide to 12 favorite children's stories that illustrate key systems thinking concepts. A must-have resource for educators and parents who want to help children understand the interconnections in our world. Review: Brandon, How to use stories to unveil the real world, February 14, 2018 I'd been looking for this book for years without knowing it. I use stories to help kids understand the world of complexity - science, history, technology, math, art, and so on. I've long suspected, though, that we can do more than TELL kids stories: stories are things kids can climb into, can play with. A story, I've suspected, can be the start of a sort of game that helps us see how we might live. Sweeney's book is helping me better understand how we might do that. A story, she points out, actually HIDES how the world works. In the real world, everything links up with everything; events transpire in cycles that are hidden. But stories catch our attention precisely because they simplify that complex reality, and give us a handful of protagonists who desire, strive, and then succeed/fail. Sweeney, though, doesn't tell us to turn away from stories, but rather to embrace them and use them (or some of them) to show how the world really functions. As an aside, this book also teaches the basics of complexity theory (formerly chaos theory) more clearly than many popular books in the genre. A close study of the chart on page 10 is worth a few books. Especially useful for anyone who's in love with the Imaginative Education approach of Kieran Egan.

"In this poetic picture book, two curious siblings observe the hidden world of a vernal pool: a special kind of puddle habitat that pops up in the spring, dries up by summer, reappears in the fall, freezes over in the winter -- only to come back again in the spring. Linda's buoyant text is nothing short of an anthem for these "now-you-see-me, now-you-don't" wetland habitats, encouraging young naturalists and future water stewards to listen, watch and even wait to witness the seasonal changes of the ever-changing puddle and its inhabitants. And as readers pore over Miki's beautiful and busy cut-paper collages, they will be fascinated to discover many familiar and not-so-familiar creatures that make up the surprising web of interrelationships living in these vital pop-up pools. THE NOISY PUDDLE includes backmatter that introduces relevant vocabulary (for e.g., "ecosystem" and "vernal pool") and answers some anticipated questions by explaining the vernal pool's annual cycle in more detail, as well as its connection to the larger forest ecosystem. Linda worked with several vernal pool experts to review the manuscript for scientific accuracy - she has included their names and affiliations in her acknowledgements."--

"When putting two separate things together, you will find that they may make something new and beautiful."--

This is the story of how a farmboy became America's foremost sculptor. After failing at academics, Dan was working the family farm when he idly carved a turnip into a frog and discovered what he was meant to do. Sweeney's swift prose and Fields's evocative illustrations capture the single-minded determination with which Dan taught himself to sculpt and launched his career with the famous Minuteman Statue in his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts.  This is also the story of the Lincoln Memorial, French's culminating masterpiece. Thanks to this lovingly created tribute to the towering leader of Dan's youth, Abraham Lincoln lives on as the man of marble, his craggy face and careworn gaze reminding millions of seekers what America can be. Dan's statue is no lifeless figure, but a powerful, vital touchstone of a nation's ideals. Now Dan French has his tribute too, in this exquisite biography that brings history to life for young readers.