Literary Nonfiction Series for Primary Grade Writers

These books are part of the Read and Wonder series published by Candlewick Press. The books are a blend of fiction and facts focusing mostly on animals. They can serve as good models for writing.

Braun, Trudi. (2002). My Goose Betsy: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by John Bendall-Brunello. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Meet a goose named Betsy who has a very special job. . . being a mother! Now in an affordable paperback format.

Text Level L

Butterworth, Chris. (2009). Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by John Lawrence. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Stunning pictures and engaging words. . . . An accomplished entrée to early science topics." 

Text Level L

Davies, Nicola. (2007). White Owl, Barn Owl: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Michael Foreman. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Few children now have access to the open woodlands and grasslands frequented by barn owls, but they can all enjoy the magic of the bird thanks to this lovely introduction.

Text Level L

Davies, Nicola. (2004). Bat Loves the Night: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Sarah Fox-Davies. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Follow Bat as she swoops into the shadows--and find out why Bat loves the night

Text Level M

Davies, Nicola. (2001). Big Blue Whale: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Nick Maland. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Equally majestic as the biggest animal that has ever lived--the Big Blue Whale

Text Level N 

Davies, Nicola. (2008). Ice Bear: In the Steps of the Polar Bear: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Gary Blythe. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Follow the path of the awe-inspiring polar bear as it strives to survive in an age-old Arctic habitat threatened by global warming.

Text Level N

Davies, Nicola. (2001). One Tiny Turtle: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Jane Chapman. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Young nature lovers will eagerly page through this book to learn about the fascinating life of the endangered loggerhead sea turtle.

Text Level N

Davies, Nicola. (2003). Surprising Sharks: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by James Croft. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

AN AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTABLE CHILDREN'S BOOK. Full of fun facts, here's a surprising book about sharks that kids can really get their teeth into.

Text Level N

Dowson, Nick. (2004). Tigress: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Jane Chapman. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

One of nature’s most magical sights emerges from camouflage in this evocative, informative story about a mother tiger in the wild.

Text Level N

Dowson, Nick. (2010). Tracks of a Panda: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Yu Rong. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

A giant panda and her baby set off on a search for a safe, sustaining home in this informative tale about an enchanting creature.

Text Level K

Doyle, Malachy. (2002). Jody Beans: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Judith Allibone. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
When Jody’s grandfather comes to visit, he brings along a packet of seeds for them to plant. Through spring, summer, and fall, Jody watches her plants sprout, flower, and grow lots of beans. Soon, as Jody’s parents await a new baby, Granda and Jody are picking the beans - and waiting for next spring

Text Level K

Frazer, Simon. (1995). The Mushroom Hunt: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Penny Dale. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

As the story unfolds, it follows a family of four as they seek out mushrooms on their walk through the woods. Interspersed through the story are facts for the curious. It concludes with a scattering of about a dozen samples of mushrooms with a comment about each.

French, Vivian. (2009). Caterpillar, Caterpillar: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Charlotte Voake. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

The text does an excellent job of describing the metamorphosis of a swallowtail butterfly, and the close-up vibrant drawings of each developmental stage are outstanding.

Text Level M

French, Vivian. (2003). Growing Frogs: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Alison Bartlett. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Follow along as an egg becomes a tadpole, a not-quite-frog, and finally a frog. RRRRIBBIT!

Text Level L

French, Vivian. (2006). T. Rex: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Alison Bartlett. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

A young boy encounters some fascinating facts -- and even more intriguing questions -- in this lively ode to curiosity.

Text Level M

French, Vivian. (2010). Yucky Worms: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Who would want to be friends with a wiggly, slimy worm? You can’t even tell which end is which! But there’s more to these lowly creatures than meets the eye. Kids are invited to find out where worms live, see how they move, and understand why gardeners consider them friends with the help of this humorous and informative look at an unappreciated — and fascinating — creature.

Text Level M

Hansard, Peter. (2001). A Field Full of Horses: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Kenneth Lilly. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Do you love horses? Do you love the way their noses are silky-soft but bristly too? And the way a horse's tail slowly swishes as he rests in the shade with eyes half-shut? Do you love to see them trot, canter, gallop, buck and rear?

Text Level M

Howker, Janni. (2002). Walk with a Wolf: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Sarah Fox-Davies. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Young readers will welcome this exciting opportunity to be a part of the pack.

Text Level N

Jenkins, Martin. (1999). The Emperor’s Egg: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Jane Chapman. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Try balancing an egg on your feet for two months in the Antarctic! The story of the world's most devoted dad.

Text Level O

Jenkins, Martin. (2001). Chameleons are Cool: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Sue Shields. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

The ability to change color, a sharp-shooting tongue, and skin covering your eyes--now THAT is cool.

Text Level M

Jenkins, Martin. (2003). Grandma Elephant’s in Charge: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Ivan Bates. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

An entertaining, educational look at the everyday life of a family of elephants - who never forget who's in charge. Elephants are the biggest animals on land, and they live in big families, too. So who can possibly keep them in line? Grandma! After all, she's been around long enough to know where all the best watering holes are, how to gather the tastiest food.

Text Level L

King-Smith, Dick. (2001). All Pigs are Beautiful: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Anita Jeram.  Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Oink! Oink! Pigs...beautiful? Who'd have guessed? 

Text Level N

King-Smith, Dick. (1997). I Love Guinea Pigs: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Anita Jeram. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

from Insect Detectives.

Find out why you should love guinea pigs too!

Text Level M

Voake, Steve. (2010). Insect Detective: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Charlotte Voake. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

"Gently encourages young readers to explore their natural surroundings and observe some of the more commonly found insects in it."

Text Level L

Wallace, Karen. (1998). Gentle Giant Octopus: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Mike Bostock. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Discover the mysterious, magnificent octopus! Now in an affordable paperback format.

Text Level M 

Wallace, Karen. (1996). Red Fox: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Peter MeInyczuk. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

An informative picture book allows beginning readers to follow a meadow fox on an average day. In smaller type along the bottom of the page, for older readers, is more detailed information-how, when trotting, for example, the fox leaves a straight line of prints. The whole is a fine blend of fact and factual fiction. A "Read and-Wonder" book.

Wallace, Karen. (2009). Bears in the Forest: Read and Wonder.  Illustrated by Barbara Firth. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Deep in a forest cave, a mother bear gives birth to two tiny cubs. Read the story of how they grow.

Text Level M

Wallace, Karen. (1994). My Hen is Dancing: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Anita Jeram. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Wallace presents interesting facts about chickens and their habits. The illustrations are excellent and the text informative. Did you know that a hen lays brown or white eggs, but never both? Information tidbits are scattered throughout the book. Part of the "Read and Wonder Series" - nonfiction picture books with a real difference.

Wallace, Karen. (1993). Think of an Eel: Read and Wonder. Illustrated by Mike Bostock. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Part of the Read and Wonder series, this book brings the extraordinary and mysterious life of an eel to light.

Text Level N

Minds as Rhizomes

I have been thinking about the development of  my company, Blueprints for Learning.  What follows are some initial thoughts about the business, the importance of relationships and kindness, and the primacy of individual and collective agency at the thinking and feeling levels of the work...

When I think about Blueprints and possible ways of mapping the business, I imagine something like this that attempts to show the infinite possibilites of connections:

minds as rhizomes (M.A. Reilly, 2013)

Blueprints a consulting business. When you hire us, you hire a team that can be designed based on specified and emerging needs and strengths.  We provide direct services for schools, especially those in inner cities and our work in helping to nudge achievement is significant.

I am joined by a cadre of very talented consultants and we are program-less.  We are a design business, not a program.

The more interesting plan we adopt is to follow the talents and intuitions of those we employ and those we serve.  Doing so leads to rhizomatic possibilities and increases the project's energy by locating the work in the present moment.

Our motto might be: We stand where we can see our feet. 

A few ideas that (in)form the work and ways of working:


I.

Learning is making and navigating pathways that are always local, always situated. There is no getting outside the system for a more global look, regardless of the technologies employed.

All viewing is local and deeply personal. As such kindness is required.


II.

In writing about the limitations of knowing the whole of a network in the form of an encyclopedia, Umberto Eco (1984) states:

Such a notion ... does not deny the existence of structured knowledge; it only suggests
that such a knowledge cannot be recognized and organized as a global system; it
provides only "local" and transitory systems of knowledge which can be contradicted by
alternative and equally "local" cultural organizations; every attempt to recognize these local
organizations as unique and "global" --ignoring their partiality--produces an ideological
bias (p. 84).

Partiality, when recognized is a strength.


III.

Where things break, new possibilities may emerge.


IV.

The ideas expressed in I, II, and III (in)form the decisions (to some degree) of the company so that breakage, slippages, and other (mis)haps are understood as emergent, not causal; as potential lines of flight; not effects.  We look for these breakages and in doing so find that these actions encourage naming, problem framing and solving--and alongside this, agency.


-----------------------


As we involve other consultants in the work and connect with teachers, principals, superintendents, and the children and their families--these multiplicities create a consciousness informed by ideologies that are familiar and not.  This is surely a gift.

A density emerges that cannot be traced, but can be lived in the present.  We think of this as minds as rhizomes.  The plural usage is important.  There is no single user mind. What we think of as my ideas is really a matter of collective agency that occur across minds, not within one. This is what makes the work transforming and powerful.

 The exponential growth of ideas occurs when we function rhizomatically.

On Emptying Your Brain: Walk

Walking clears your brain...

Waiting for the unexpected...

The End of January: A Few Images Made

A few images from the end of January...  

Winter Woods (M.A. Reilly, 2013)

Matters of Faith (M.A. Reilly, 2013)

Winter Night (M.A. Reilly, 2013)

Flight (M.A. Reilly, 2013)

Endings  (M.A. Reilly, 2013)

Night Study (M.A. Reilly, 2013)

The Random and the Intentional: Growing a Business Rhizomatically

  I. Rhizome

Utopia (M.A. Reilly, 2012)

Some days I feel as if I may have awoken in someone else's life--so blessed am I. For the last year I have been composing an educational consulting business (Blueprints for Learning: Designing Educational Futures) built on the foundation of an adult lifetime of work.  It is ongoing effort and I have never been happier or more satisfied.  20 consultants join me and we work in inner city schools alongside principals, teachers, and children. In our organization, everyone teaches and everyone learns. This is the closest we get to a motto. As I have been reflecting on the work at hand, I realize that several of the tenets that (in)form my work as an artist and writer are also tenets that shape this new business.

II. The rhizome forms centers.

I think of my business as a rhizomatic learning community that is fluid (think river flowing).  We act as a collective who dwell in the middle of things and the learning that emerges is informed by explicit and tacit knowledge. I so value the tacit. We resemble a sea of "middles” continuously formed and reformed by alliances determined by needs, interests, whim, playfulness, directions, questions, redirections, assessments, errors, and commitments. 

In contrast to more conservative designs, a rhizomatic business design understands the necessity of joining and rejoining and is inherently unstable by act and desire. Such thinking allows us to embrace error and in doing so allows significant risk making and taking, kindness, and successes.

It is a curious tension that arises when random and intentional acts are allowed, encouraged, designed, and desired.  By frequently embracing this tension, spaces of emptiness arise.  Whereas, I have intentionally selected consultants to work with me--their work is not dictated by me (what a foolish undertaking that would be). I have no program to sell and believe so much in the goodness and brightness of each individual, that I know that it is in the joining and rejoining of consultants alongside principals, teachers and children that creativeness arises.  It is this deep belief in people, in the importance of error making and problem framing, and the role of randomness and play that guides this business design.

III. Practicing Emptiness

As the CEO of Blueprints, there are spaces I design and some that arise by chance where purposeful emptiness is privileged. We know that we are often hired to design with educators ways that enhance and complicate children’s learning and do so with measurable joy. Given the kind and brilliant people I work with (both within the organization and within the schools where we teach and learn), I am confident that everyone will find interesting, unique and artful ways of filling that emptiness by naming, claiming or playing with it.  That in doing so, we will have multiple opportunities to join/rejoin and make sense of the work.

It is this practice of mindful emptiness where lines of flight that (in)form our work are occasioned.  Lines of flight give rise to seemingly inconsequential noticings.  Alongside these, more profound meaning emerges.  I see this occurring in classrooms where we are working at the teacher and student levels. These meanings produced, in turn  produce more lines of flight. An iterative design at that and yet one that will also break.

I appreciate the clarity that Martin Wood and Sally Brown bring to the concept of lines of flight. They write (2009): 

A line of flight is essentially a movement of creativity, a practical act or a way of living that wards off or inhibits the formation of ‘centres’ and stable powers in favour of continuous variation and free action. (from here )

IV. Having Nothing to Say

I’m learning the value of having nothing to say and the need to talk especially. I think of John Cage who so wisely told us:

This work with others is the rhizome. It is an art.  It leads into and out of powerful learning—that is often exponential as it does not follow along strictly linear lines, but instead occasions lines of flight that join and rejoin that which we could not have seen connected from where we once stood.

Dreaming About Spring (M.A. Reilly, 2012)

This is the process that leads to such intense and meaningful learning--such as the 9-year-old who earlier today used his fellow classmates' learning to explain important tensions Charles Darwin experienced when naming  emerging scientific findings alongside his religious beliefs.  This child wisely told us that it wasn't about one or the other, but rather about what these differences formed together that most mattered.  

Such is the rhizomatic moment when a community of learners recognize the lines of flight that lead to a collective understanding of something we had not named before.