The Lerner Podcast Lerner Books

Author Cynthia Argentine shares details about her new nonfiction picture book, Night Becomes Day. 

Whether sudden or gradual, change is a constant in our world. Author Cynthia Argentine describes transitions including acorns sprouting, deserts blooming, canyons forming, and volcanoes erupting. Explore the transformative power of nature all around us.

Learn more, read an excerpt, and download a free teaching guide at LernerBooks.com. 

Music credits
"Farm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

Blake Hoena gives advice to young writers about finding things to write about, and dives into the inspiration and neat things he learned while writing the Amazing Inventions graphic novel series.

Discover true stories of invention behind coveted pop-culture objects—from sneakers to smartphones. With high-interest graphic novel art, these books profile the products’ creators and innovators, as well as the scientific or technical developments that made the inventions possible. The books also cover social history, revealing how people’s needs in a particular period led to creative solutions.

Titles include:
Cell Phones and Smartphones
Sneakers
The Electric Guitar
Video Games 

Learn more about Blake's books and read excerpts at LernerBooks.com. 

Music credits
"Farm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

Science author Kate Messner talks about her forthcoming book, Tracking Tortoises, and its predecessor, Tracking Pythons. These fascinating books share Kate's experiences as she follows scientists who are using radio telemetry and other tracking tools to learn more about animal species around the world. Both books include QR codes linking to videos that Kate took while she was in the field.

Tracking Tortoises
Galápagos giant tortoises. are fascinating—and endangered. They live only on the Galápagos Islands, a chain of volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Ecuador. These tortoises face threats from the humans who live on—and visit—the islands, as well as from Earth's warming climate. Join author Kate Messner on an a journey to the Galápagos Islands to see these incredible creatures up close and discover how cutting-edge technology is helping scientists to study and protect them. Page Plus links lead to videos of scientists at work in the field.

Tracking Pythons
Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia, so when one showed up dead along the side of a Florida highway in 1979, scientists wondered where it came from. No one knew the snakes had launched a full-scale invasion. Pet pythons that escaped or were released by their owners started breeding in the wild, and these enormous predators began eating every animal in their path. Today a group of scientists at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida is tracking Burmese pythons to find ways to stop their spread. Page Plus links lead to video clips and photos of the scientists working in the field. Delve into the science of pythons and their role as invasive predators.

Learn more about these and other new titles at LernerBooks.com.

Music credits
"Farm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

Scientists work hard in the lab and in the field to make important discoveries. But who are they really?
It turns out they are just like us! Scientists can be any race. And any gender. They can wear lab coats, jeans, or even tutus. And they are people who love to fly drones, make art, and even eat French fries!
Meet fourteen phenomenal scientists who might just change the way you think about who a scientist is. They share their scientific work in fields like entomology, meteorology, paleontology, and engineering as well as other interesting facts about themselves and their hobbies. An "if you like this, you'll like that" flowchart in the back of the book helps students identify science careers they might be interested in. Scan a QR code at the end of the book for a video of the scientists introducing themselves!

Lerner more, get a free teaching guide, and see inside at LernerBooks.com. 

Music credits
"Farm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

In the spring of 2018, Guatemalan American high school senior Milagros “Millie” Vargas knows her life is about to change. She’s lived in Corpus Christi, Texas, ever since her parents sought asylum there when she was a baby. Now a citizen, Millie devotes herself to school and caring for her younger siblings while her mom works as a housekeeper for the wealthy Wheeler family. With college on the horizon, Millie is torn between attending her dream school and staying close to home, where she knows she’s needed. She’s disturbed by what’s happening to asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, but she doesn’t see herself as an activist or a change-maker. She’s just trying to take care of her own family.

Then Mr. Wheeler, a U.S. Senate candidate, mentions Millie’s achievements in a campaign speech about “deserving” immigrants. It doesn’t take long for people to identify Millie’s family and place them at the center of a statewide immigration debate. Faced with journalists, trolls, anonymous threats, and the Wheelers' good intentions—especially those of Mr. Wheeler's son, Charlie—Millie must confront the complexity of her past, the uncertainty of her future, and her place in the country that she believed was home.

Learn more, get a sneak peek, and download a discussion guide at LernerBooks.com.

Music credits
"Farm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

With rhythmic, rhyming verse, this picture book follows two girls—one non-Black Puerto Rican, one Black—as they discover the stories their hair can tell.

Preciosa has hair that won’t stay straight, won’t be confined. Rudine’s hair resists rollers, flat irons, and rules.

Together, the girls play hair salon! They take inspiration from their moms, their neighbors, their ancestors, and cultural icons. They discover that their hair holds roots of the past and threads of the future.

With rhythmic, rhyming verse and vibrant collage art, author NoNieqa Ramos and illustrator Keisha Morris follow two girls as they discover the stories hair can tell.

Learn more, see inside, and download a free teaching guide at LernerBooks.com.

Music credits
"Farm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/