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Our Universe
Earth: Ready-to-Read Level 1
Learn all about planet Earth in the third book in this nonfiction Level 1 Ready-to-Read series about the universe that’s perfect for kids who love science and space!
Our home planet is a lucky one. It’s unlike any other planet in space! Earth gives us life and protects us. Readers will discover fun facts about Earth in this Level 1 Ready-to-Read!
Our home planet is a lucky one. It’s unlike any other planet in space! Earth gives us life and protects us. Readers will discover fun facts about Earth in this Level 1 Ready-to-Read!
32 pages, Paperback
Published December 14, 2021
About the author
Marion Dane Bauer
188 books189 followersMarion Dane Bauer is the author of more than one hundred books for young people, ranging from novelty and picture books through early readers, both fiction and nonfiction, books on writing, and middle-grade and young-adult novels. She has won numerous awards, including several Minnesota Book Awards, a Jane Addams Peace Association Award for RAIN OF FIRE, an American Library Association Newbery Honor Award for ON MY HONOR, a number of state children's choice awards and the Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota for the body of her work.
She is also the editor of and a contributor to the ground-breaking collection of gay and lesbian short stories, Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence.
Marion was one of the founding faculty and the first Faculty Chair for the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing guide, the American Library Association Notable WHAT'S YOUR STORY? A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO WRITING FICTION, is used by writers of all ages. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages.
She has six grandchildren and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her partner and a cavalier King Charles spaniel, Dawn.
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INTERVIEW WITH MARION DANE BAUER
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Q. What brought you to a career as a writer?
A. I seem to have been born with my head full of stories. For almost as far back as I can remember, I used most of my unoccupied moments--even in school when I was supposed to be doing other "more important" things--to make up stories in my head. I sometimes got a notation on my report card that said, "Marion dreams." It was not a compliment. But while the stories I wove occupied my mind in a very satisfying way, they were so complex that I never thought of trying to write them down. I wouldn't have known where to begin. So though I did all kinds of writing through my teen and early adult years--letters, journals, essays, poetry--I didn't begin to gather the craft I needed to write stories until I was in my early thirties. That was also when my last excuse for not taking the time to sit down to do the writing I'd so long wanted to do started first grade.
Q. And why write for young people?
A. Because I get my creative energy in examining young lives, young issues. Most people, when they enter adulthood, leave childhood behind, by which I mean that they forget most of what they know about themselves as children. Of course, the ghosts of childhood still inhabit them, but they deal with them in other forms--problems with parental authority turn into problems with bosses, for instance--and don't keep reaching back to the original source to try to fix it, to make everything come out differently than it did the first time. Most children's writers, I suspect, are fixers. We return, again and again, usually under the cover of made-up characters, to work things through. I don't know that our childhoods are necessarily more painful than most. Every childhood has pain it, because life has pain in it at every stage. The difference is that we are compelled to keep returning to the source.
Q. You write for a wide range of ages. Do you write from a different place in writing for preschoolers than for young adolescents?
A. In a picture book or board book, I'm always writing from the womb of the family, a place that--while it might be intruded upon by fears, for instance--is still, ultimately, safe and nurturing. That's what my own early childhood was like, so it's easy for me to return to those feelings and to recreate them.
When I write for older readers, I'm writing from a very different experience. My early adolescence, especially, was a time of deep alienation, mostly from my peers but in some ways from my family as well. And so I write my older stories out of that pain, that longing for connection. A story has to have a problem at its core. No struggle
She is also the editor of and a contributor to the ground-breaking collection of gay and lesbian short stories, Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence.
Marion was one of the founding faculty and the first Faculty Chair for the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing guide, the American Library Association Notable WHAT'S YOUR STORY? A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO WRITING FICTION, is used by writers of all ages. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages.
She has six grandchildren and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her partner and a cavalier King Charles spaniel, Dawn.
-------------------------------------
INTERVIEW WITH MARION DANE BAUER
-------------------------------------
Q. What brought you to a career as a writer?
A. I seem to have been born with my head full of stories. For almost as far back as I can remember, I used most of my unoccupied moments--even in school when I was supposed to be doing other "more important" things--to make up stories in my head. I sometimes got a notation on my report card that said, "Marion dreams." It was not a compliment. But while the stories I wove occupied my mind in a very satisfying way, they were so complex that I never thought of trying to write them down. I wouldn't have known where to begin. So though I did all kinds of writing through my teen and early adult years--letters, journals, essays, poetry--I didn't begin to gather the craft I needed to write stories until I was in my early thirties. That was also when my last excuse for not taking the time to sit down to do the writing I'd so long wanted to do started first grade.
Q. And why write for young people?
A. Because I get my creative energy in examining young lives, young issues. Most people, when they enter adulthood, leave childhood behind, by which I mean that they forget most of what they know about themselves as children. Of course, the ghosts of childhood still inhabit them, but they deal with them in other forms--problems with parental authority turn into problems with bosses, for instance--and don't keep reaching back to the original source to try to fix it, to make everything come out differently than it did the first time. Most children's writers, I suspect, are fixers. We return, again and again, usually under the cover of made-up characters, to work things through. I don't know that our childhoods are necessarily more painful than most. Every childhood has pain it, because life has pain in it at every stage. The difference is that we are compelled to keep returning to the source.
Q. You write for a wide range of ages. Do you write from a different place in writing for preschoolers than for young adolescents?
A. In a picture book or board book, I'm always writing from the womb of the family, a place that--while it might be intruded upon by fears, for instance--is still, ultimately, safe and nurturing. That's what my own early childhood was like, so it's easy for me to return to those feelings and to recreate them.
When I write for older readers, I'm writing from a very different experience. My early adolescence, especially, was a time of deep alienation, mostly from my peers but in some ways from my family as well. And so I write my older stories out of that pain, that longing for connection. A story has to have a problem at its core. No struggle
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 5, 2022
Young readers get a broad view of Earth, everything from the position of its orbit around the sun to the various things found on its surface, to realize how amazing the planet is.
This book is geared to those readers, who have a basic handle on their reading skills, but aren't ready to take on too many words at once. There are only a couple lines on each page, letting the colorful illustrations take over the rest. The vocabulary is, for the most part, age appropriate, and for those words, which go above and beyond, there's a glossary with explanations. And this glossary, unlike many reads, is in the front of the books. So, readers can get a feel for the tough words before they hit the text. The text flows well and introduces the information broadly, while the illustrations help to make the written word and facts more understandable. At the end of the book, there are more direct and fun facts for readers.
A vast variety of information is covered. While the first pages take a peek at Earth's orbit around the sun, and then, moves into the change of seasons, the end heads on to the variety of life and experiences found on Earth like animals, cities, and plants. While some information was offered a bit too general and will need more explanation for readers to understand exactly what's meant, this does do a nice job at showing the large versatility of our planet and offer some simple science facts.
I received a complimentary copy and found this a lovely read for beginning readers.
This book is geared to those readers, who have a basic handle on their reading skills, but aren't ready to take on too many words at once. There are only a couple lines on each page, letting the colorful illustrations take over the rest. The vocabulary is, for the most part, age appropriate, and for those words, which go above and beyond, there's a glossary with explanations. And this glossary, unlike many reads, is in the front of the books. So, readers can get a feel for the tough words before they hit the text. The text flows well and introduces the information broadly, while the illustrations help to make the written word and facts more understandable. At the end of the book, there are more direct and fun facts for readers.
A vast variety of information is covered. While the first pages take a peek at Earth's orbit around the sun, and then, moves into the change of seasons, the end heads on to the variety of life and experiences found on Earth like animals, cities, and plants. While some information was offered a bit too general and will need more explanation for readers to understand exactly what's meant, this does do a nice job at showing the large versatility of our planet and offer some simple science facts.
I received a complimentary copy and found this a lovely read for beginning readers.
March 26, 2022
This level one Ready-to-Read book introduces basic facts about our planet's axis, rotation, natural history and inhabitants.
The cheerful illustrations appear to be done in pen and watercolor. They provide strong context for the concepts covered by the text and they make the book visually appealing for developing readers.
This is a good basic introduction to planet Earth for preschool and early elementary audiences. Though it's primarily intended to be read by a new reader who can sound out words, the clear writing style and bright illustrations would make it a nice nonfiction addition to a story time as well as a good classroom read-aloud.
Parents who wish to avoid political content and/or confusing messages that attribute human life to something other than God will want to know that the back inside flap of this book includes information about climate change and that the text identifies human beings as children of the Earth. I feel pretty confident that a quick conversation with my beginning reader will be enough to help her read this book with the appropriate understanding, and I plan to give it to her.
I received a finished review copy of Earth from Simon Spotlight in exchange for an honest review.
The cheerful illustrations appear to be done in pen and watercolor. They provide strong context for the concepts covered by the text and they make the book visually appealing for developing readers.
This is a good basic introduction to planet Earth for preschool and early elementary audiences. Though it's primarily intended to be read by a new reader who can sound out words, the clear writing style and bright illustrations would make it a nice nonfiction addition to a story time as well as a good classroom read-aloud.
Parents who wish to avoid political content and/or confusing messages that attribute human life to something other than God will want to know that the back inside flap of this book includes information about climate change and that the text identifies human beings as children of the Earth. I feel pretty confident that a quick conversation with my beginning reader will be enough to help her read this book with the appropriate understanding, and I plan to give it to her.
I received a finished review copy of Earth from Simon Spotlight in exchange for an honest review.
April 19, 2022
This book presents young readers with a solid introduction to Earth. Beginning with Earth's location in the solar system, Bauer moves on to giving readers a brief description of the rotation and revolution of the earth which leads to years and seasons. The formation of the earth's crust and the rise of the ocean are covered in the next couple of spreads. Life on earth and its ups and downs concludes the book. Additional facts about the Earth and climate change are included in the back matter. While additional back matter would have been appreciated, young readers will find this text interesting and informative. While the illustrations didn't particularly jump out at me in any way, they combine nicely with the text to create a useful beginning reader.
May 26, 2022
Perfect for beginning readers, this short science book on the Earth, provides a lot of fun facts in a short amount of space with suggestions at the end about how we can help save the Earth. A Glossary at the front orients children to new words in the book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews