Beneath the Sun

by Melissa Stewart, Constance R. Bergum (Illustrator)

Overview

This lyrical tour of a variety of habitats offers young readers vivid glimpses of animals as they live out the hot season under the blazing sun.

When the sun is shining brightly, people put on sunscreen or scurry inside to cool off. But how do wild animals react to the sizzling heat?

Journey from your neighborhood to a field where an earthworm loops its long body into a ball underground, to a desert where a jackrabbit loses heat through its oversized ears, to a wetland where a siren salamander burrows into the mud to stay cool, and to a seashore where a sea star hides in the shade of a seaweed mat.

Constance R. Bergum's glowing watercolors perfectly capture the wonder of a hot, sunny environment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682632598
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	858,734
File size:	37 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Melissa Stewart has written more than 180 science books for children. Her books have won numerous honors, including CCBC Choices, Bank Street Best Children's Books, NSTA Recommends, Green Earth Book, and Parents' Choice Recommended awards. She offers live and virtual school visits as well as programs for educators.

Constance R. Bergum grew up in Montana and received an MFA in illustration from Marywood University. After a career as a graphic designer, she began illustrating children's books. She lives in Montana.

Editorial Reviews

"An engaging peek into how various creatures cope with the hottest of days. . . A well-designed, well-written book that offers readers a greater awareness of and sense of relationship to the other inhabitants in their environments."—Kirkus Reviews

"The short text tells just enough about each animal to make its story interesting, while the handsome watercolor paintings illustrate each species and its habitat effectively. A quiet, informative read-aloud choice for the dog days of summer."—Booklist

"Detailed watercolors on triptych, diptych, and full double-page spreads evocatively illustrate the creatures' fascinating phenomena."—The Horn Book Guide

From the Publisher

2014-02-26
An engaging peek into how various creatures cope with the hottest of days. Writing simply but informatively, Stewart takes readers through four different environments—a field, a desert, a wetland and a seashore—showing how some of the inhabitants of each cope during the hottest days of the year. Forging a connection with readers, the book begins by showing children in a suburban environment playing in the sprinkler and sipping lemonade. With a page turn, Stewart introduces the next environment, a field, and how some of its inhabitants—a woodchuck, an earthworm, a spittlebug and a caterpillar—cope with the heat. By including the children in the suburb, Stewart positions humans as simply one species of the many that inhabit the Earth—a notable and appropriate perspective. Bergum's pleasing, realistic watercolor illustrations include front endpapers that show the sunrise and rear endpapers that mirror them with dusk. The suggestion that the story takes place within the time frame of one day encloses it within comfortable confines familiar to all readers—another element that connects children to the subject. The framing of illustrations within the double-page spreads gives readers a sense of spatiality within the environment depicted. A well-designed, well-written book that offers readers a greater awareness of and sense of relationship to the other inhabitants in their environments. (Informational picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews