Need a book to help illustrate a food chain? Prefer something with colorful illustrations that will catch the attention of young readers and students? Then you should try This Is the Sun. Written in a cumulative fashion similar to "This Is the House That Jack Built," the text walks readers through the pieces of the food chain. Beginning with the sun providing energy for a tree to grow, other creatures such as insects and lizards are added to each spread until the entire cycle loops back around to a new tree sprouting in the sun.
Illustrations are a vibrant collage style and they add each new member of the food chain. Each new creature mentioned in the text is shown up close on the left-hand page, while the growing scene is shown on the right. The complexity builds from the sun shining over the planet's surface to a healthy ecology with each niche in the food chain filled. A final page shows the fox curled up sleepily next to the young sapling growing from the seed dropped from the original tree.
A free teacher's guide is available from the publisher's website; it includes discussion questions, experiments, and hands-on activities. The author is a former teacher with 16 years of classroom experience. She has two more books coming out in 2023. This Is the Sun is due for publication on October 4. - in English, Spanish, print and e-book formats.
I was lucky enough to win an advance copy in a giveaway at the U.S. Book Show.
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