nonfiction – Page 12

Marshmallow reviews How to Become a Straight-A Student by Cal Newport

Marshmallow is a young bunny who is always curious about how she can improve herself. Today she is talking to Sprinkles about a 2006 book by Cal Newport about being a good student: How to Become a Straight-A Student.

Sprinkles: So Marshmallow, I know you occasionally read non-fiction books that are full of advice. I remember, for example, that you reviewed Getting Things Done for Teens by David Allen, Mike Williams, and Mark Wallace and The Confidence Code for Girls by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. So I guess this book makes sense to talk about now because school is starting again, and it might be a good idea to think about how one can be a good student.

Marshmallow: Yes, exactly.

S: So tell me a bit about what this book is about, something more than the title of the book.

M: Well, I should first start with the full title. The full title is How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less.

S: Hmm, so this is about how to be a straight-A student in college actually.

M: Yes, but the strategies can probably apply to other school contexts. Which is why I am reading this. I am not off to college just yet!

S: Thankfully! I am not ready for that!

M: Me neither.

S: Alright, so tell me about the book then.

M: So Cal Newport is a computer science professor today, but when he wrote this book, he had just finished college. And he had sone really well, and he wanted to write a book about how he did so well. But he does not only talk about his own experiences. He interviewed and surveyed a lot of college students asking them about their study habits and time management choices that they made, and put the book together with all that data.

S: That sounds like a good premise for a solid advice book. So tell me about some of the main ideas.

M: One of the main ideas Newport is talking about is efficiency. So for example, he calls it pseudo-work when students are spending all night in a library but not working efficiently.

S: So I can see that there are inefficient study habits. But what are his alternatives? What does he suggest? How should one study efficiently?

M: He suggests making a schedule, taking smart notes, researching better, with big ideas in mind. And there are a lot more. There are a total of three parts in the book. The first part is titled Study Basics. Then there are a series of chapters under the heading of Quizzes and Exams. Finally there are several chapters under the name of Essays and Papers.

S: So basically he talks about a variety of ways to work more effectively and efficiently for different types of assessment tasks. That makes sense to me.

Marshmallow is reading How to Become a Straight-A Student by Cal Newport. — Marshmallow is reading *How to Become a Straight-A Student* by Cal Newport.

S: So the book is intended for college students. As a bunny who is still far too young for college, did you find the book off-putting or somehow inaccessible in parts?

M: No, not at all. Though it did make me a bit worried about how much work one needs to do in college.

S: Do you like Newport’s author voice?

M: Yes, he is confident but very relatable. I also liked that he emphasizes that you need to ensure that you have a social life, that it is possible to have a social life that complements good grades and academic achievement. So I like that. It is hopeful.

S: That’s good. So do you see yourself applying any of this advice in this coming school year?

M: I will definitely try. I have a nice planner now and I want to start with planning. And I want to figure out how I can study more efficiently.

S: These all sound great to me Marshmallow. So all in all, you seem to have enjoyed this book. How would you rate it?

M: I’d rate it 100%.

S: Nice! Okay, I think it is time for us to wrap up this review, which is the last one before schools start in our part of the world. So what would you like to tell our readers?

M: Stay tuned for more amazing reviews from the book bunnies! And I hope you all will have a lot of fun if school is starting in your part of the world too!

Marshmallow rates How to Become a Straight-A Student by Cal Newport 100%. — Marshmallow rates *How to Become a Straight-A Student* by Cal Newport 100%.

Caramel reviews Animated Science: Periodic Table by Shiho Pate and John Farndon

For his first review back from his summer break, Caramel wanted to talk about Animated Science: Periodic Table, a 2021 book illustrated by Shiho Pate and written by John Farndon. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Caramel reviews Animated Science: Periodic Table, illustrated by Shiho Pate and written by John Farndon. — Caramel reviews *Animated Science: Periodic Table*, illustrated by Shiho Pate and written by John Farndon.

Sprinkles: Welcome back Caramel!

Caramel: It’s great to be back!

S: Yay! Are you ready to talk about books again?

C: Always!

S: So you chose a nonfiction book to talk about today. Can you tell us what it is about?

C: It is about the periodic table, as its title says.

S: So what is the periodic table?

C: The periodic table is a way to organize the elements and the atoms.

S: Yes, you actually talked about it before, when you were reviewing The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray. Do you remember that book?

C: Yes, of course I do.

S: So how is this book similar ot or different from that book?

C: Well, it is similar because it talks about many different elements and their uses. There are special pages for some of the elements and some of the elements are together on one page, but they talk about each of the elements.

S: That is cool!

C: Yes.

S: Back then, you told me your two favorite elements were titanium and uranium. If you were to pick two new ones now, which ones would you pick?

C: That’s a tough question. But I found some new interesting facts. Can I tell you about them?

S: Sure.

C: For example, Gallium is a metal that melts very quickly, only at 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

S: That is a reasonably warm day in California, no?

C: Yep.

S: That sounds interesting, a metal that can melt at a temperature that we can survive in. Is that what you found interesting about Gallium?

C: Yes. Also the book has very cute drawings, and I like the one for Gallium. It is a melted gray blob and it is very cute!

Caramel is reading about Gallium in Animated Science: Periodic Table, illustrated by Shiho Pate and written by John Farndon. — Caramel is reading about Gallium in *Animated Science: Periodic Table*, illustrated by Shiho Pate and written by John Farndon.

S: So tell me more about the drawings then.

C: They make them very cute. All the elements have faces and they are different colors and some are wearing clothes.

S: That is funny!

C: Yep. Then there is a green cube that is silicon and he is being sliced up so people can make chips with it. It could be sad or scary, but the cube is looking very serious but not in pain. So maybe he is concentrating.

S: That could be!

C: Also I learned from this book that the Latin name for lead is plumbum, and that is why its abbreviation is Pb.

S: I did not know that!

C: Neither did I.

S: So the book is full of lots of new facts then, right?

C: Yes. So “factful” is one of my three words.

S: Okay, so what are your other words then?

C: Incredibly cute pictures.

S: Hmm, that is three words on its own. But alright, I think we can let it slip by. So do you think other little bunnies would enjoy this book?

C: Yep. Especially if they like cute pictures.

S: Okay, that sounds good Caramel. Let us wrap this up then. What would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel loved reading Animated Science: Periodic Table, illustrated by Shiho Pate and written by John Farndon and recommends it to all curious little bunnies looking to learn more about the world around us. — Caramel loved reading *Animated Science: Periodic Table*, illustrated by Shiho Pate and written by John Farndon and recommends it to all curious little bunnies looking to learn more about the world around us.

Caramel reviews Invented by Animals by Christiane Dorion and Gosia Herba

Every summer the book bunnies take the month of July off. For his last review before the summer break, Caramel chose to talk today about a fun book he read recently: Invented by Animals, written by Christiane Dorion, illustrated by Gosia Herba, and published in 2021. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Caramel reviews Invented by Animals, written by Christiane Dorion and illustrated by Gosia Herba. — Caramel reviews *Invented by Animals*, written by Christiane Dorion and illustrated by Gosia Herba.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, tell me a bit about Invented by Animals. It has an inviting subtitle: “Meet the creatures who inspired our everyday technologies.”

Caramel: This book has a lot of different animals telling us about what inventions or ideas for inventions they gave to humans.

S: What is that supposed to mean? Can you give me an example?

C: My favorite is an eagle telling us how his eyeballs work. And how well he sees.

S: Hmm, so it is not that the eagle itself has invented neat eyes, but humans have been inspired by how his eyes work.

C: Yes.

S: That makes sense. Are there any examples of the other kind, where some animal is doing something interesting or has invented something intentionally to solve a problem and the humans are inspired by it to do something themselves?

C: Yes. For example, the paper wasp chews up bark and mixes it with its saliva to create paper. That is one of the ways humans figured out how to make paper themselves. In fact today’s paper is made more or less in that same way.

S: I don’t think humans chew bark to make paper.

C: Nor do bunnies, Sprinkles, I know. But the idea is about the same.

S: I see.

Caramel is reading Invented by Animals, written by Christiane Dorion and illustrated by Gosia Herba. — Caramel is reading *Invented by Animals*, written by Christiane Dorion and illustrated by Gosia Herba.

S: I know you love your facts, Caramel. Did you learn new facts from this book?

C: Yes, a ton! Almost all of the book was new to me.

S: That is awesome, so you must have enjoyed the book immensely.

C: Yes, I did.

S: So give the a three-word description of the book then.

C: Colorful, factful, and nature-ful.

S: Hmm, why don’t we rephrase that and say, full of color, facts, and cool nature?

C: I can work with that!

S: Okay. What else can you tell us about the book?

C: I love the pictures! They are not quite anatomically correct; all animals have mouths on the front of their heads, and eyes and so on, and they are wearing clothes. Some even have shoes.

S: Hmm, so they are anthropomorphized, I suppose.

C: Exactly.

S: So how did that make you feel as a bunny?

C: Well, I have eyes and a mouth in the front of my head, too, so that works for me.

S: I guess those features make the illustrations more friendly and fun, right?

C: Yep. But I wished that they had some things about bunnies. It made me feel kind of excluded.

S: I see. But they could not have something from all animals. The book would be too long.

C: That’s true. But I still kind of wanted a bunny invention there.

S: I can totally sympathize.

C: They had an albatross even. Come on!

S: I understand Caramel. But other than that, you did enjoy the book, right?

C: Yep, very much so. Maybe they can write a second volume, and they can include a bunny or two in that one.

S: We can always hope. Okay, Caramel, this is a good time to wrap up this review. Is there something you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews! We will be back in August!

Caramel loved reading Invented by Animals, written by Christiane Dorion and illustrated by Gosia Herba, and recommends it to all young bunnies interested in learning more about the amazing creativity of nature. — Caramel loved reading *Invented by Animals*, written by Christiane Dorion and illustrated by Gosia Herba, and recommends it to all young bunnies interested in learning more about the amazing creativity of nature.

Caramel reviews Make Your Own Press-Out Spaceships by David Hawcock

Today Caramel reviews a recent favorite, Make Your own Press-Out Spaceships, by David Hawcock. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, as soon as you saw this book in a catalog, you wanted to get your paws on it. But it took us a while to get a copy. Was it worth the wait?

Caramel: Yes. It most certainly was.

S: So tell us a bit about the book.

C: This book has a lot of fun facts about space, and in between, there are special pages you push out and make spaceships with. As you can imagine, this made me very happy.

S: I can imagine. But I don’t have to. I saw you happily building a rover and a space shuttle already.

C: Yep. And next I’m going to build the purple spaceship at the end. I will call it the Dark Star.

S: That sounds cool!

C: It is!

Caramel is reading Make Your Own Press-Out Spaceships by David Hawcock. — Caramel is reading *Make Your Own Press-Out Spaceships* by David Hawcock.

S: So you said the book is full of facts. And we know you love facts and have a lot of them in your head already. Can you tell me one new fact you learned?

C: I learned about dark matter. Apparently it is “an invisible component of matter that makes up most of the universe.” According to the NASA website we found, “dark matter is composed of particles that do not absorb, reflect, or emit light, so they cannot be detected by observing electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is material that cannot be seen directly. We know that dark matter exists because of the effect it has on objects that we can observe directly.” That is pretty awesome!

S: I agree, it is pretty awesome!

C: I also learned that it takes Mercury eighty-eight days to orbit the sun, but it takes Pluto 247 Earth-years! That is kind of sad!

S: Yes, so if we lived on Pluto, years would probably not be too useful as units of time, right?

C: I guess you could use them to measure things that take a longer time.

S: But our lifetimes would be less than a Pluto-year.

C: Unless we would be different there, and our lives would last about the same number but in Pluto-years.

S: Those lives would be long!

C: Yes, and they would be excellent!

S: Okay, let us not get too carried away. So I know the book has cool facts and cool spaceship models, but when you remove the pages to make the models, what remains of the book? Do you still have something left over?

C: Yes. They were clever and put the model pages separately from the main book pages with the facts and the pictures. Did I tell you about the pictures yet?

S: No.

C: Okay, let me tell you now then. On every page there are a lot of colorful illustrations of astronauts and spaceships and so on. The book is really fun to look at.

S: That’s neat Caramel. So can you describe the book to me in three words?

C: Colorful, factful, and craftful.

S: Okay, I know I have accepted “factful” before even though it is kind of a stretch, but I have never heard of “craftful”.

C: Well, I created it so it now exists. You do know what I mean.

S: Yes, I suppose you mean that the book is a book of paper crafts.

C: Yep. You got it.

S: Okay, let us say it works then. So maybe this is a good time to wrap up the review. What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading Make Your Own Press-Out Spaceships by David Hawcock and made several of the spaceships already. Here he is posing with Rover the Rover and Kevin the Space Shuttle. — Caramel enjoyed reading *Make Your Own Press-Out Spaceships* by David Hawcock and made several of the spaceships already. Here he is posing with Rover the Rover and Kevin the Space Shuttle.