Rowena Rae

★"Especially beneficial for children who thrive with interactive, multisensory learning experiences. With its approachable language, supportive visual aids, and engaging story lines, this book is highly recommended for any young reader who needs a little extra help on their reading journey."-- Booklist, starred review A decodable book featuring four phonics stories for striving readers, with special features to help children with dyslexia or other language-based learning difficulties find reading success. Join Meg, Greg and friends on vacation where they throw a birthday party on a train, rescue a sheep from a creek, volunteer for a wild night in the circus and compete in a rowboat race. Plus, take a peek at a few of Greg's vacation photos in a bonus mini story Meg and Greg: Train Day is the sixth book in the Meg and Greg series designed for shared reading between a child learning to read and an experienced reader. The four stories inside (plus a bonus mini story ) introduce long vowels using vowel teams (long a: ai, ay, a, a-e; long e: ee, ea, e, y, e-e; long i: igh, ild, ind, i, y, i-e; long o: oa, ow, old, oll, olt, ost, o, o-e; long u: ue, ew, u, u-e). In addition to the familiar comic-style kids' pages, highly controlled and decodable prose pages gently increase the amount of text that readers experience and provide even more opportunities to practice the reading skills previously introduced in Meg and Greg Books 1-5.

A decodable book featuring four phonics stories for striving readers, with special features to help children with dyslexia or other language-based learning difficulties find reading success. Meg and Greg are back to school and ready for fall fun Join Meg, Greg and friends as they plan an event for dogs at the fall fair, solve challenging clues in a scavenger hunt, complete their planned science-fair project and look after excitable kindergarteners at the pumpkin patch. Meg and Greg: A Handful of Dogs is the fifth book in the Meg and Greg series designed for shared reading between a child learning to read and an experienced reader. The four stories inside introduce different types of suffixes and prefixes (consonant suffixes -ful -ly -ment -s, vowel suffixes -en -er -es -est -ing -y, the suffix -ed and prefixes de- dis- ex- in- pre- re- un-) and the spelling rules for adding them to base words. In addition to the familiar comic-style kids' pages, Book 5 features new highly controlled and decodable prose pages to gently increase the amount of text that readers experience and to provide even more opportunities to practice the reading skills previously introduced in Meg and Greg Books 1-4

★ "Rae provides all the information readers want to know and] skillfully broaches the topic of anti-vaccination...An engaging and informative nonfiction text with all the facts about vaccinations. A must-have for middle school libraries." -- School Library Journal (SLJ), starred review Vaccination is one of humanity's most effective and greatest discoveries. Infections like the plague, smallpox and other deadly diseases have affected and killed people for thousands of years, but the invention of vaccines forever changed our relationship with these diseases. More recently the urgency of developing an effective vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic brought vaccination to the public's attention. Simmering tensions around vaccine hesitancy, misinformation and mistrust of science came to the forefront. Although an earlier form of protection against infectious diseases has been practiced for a long time, vaccines have only been around for 200 years. Why We Need Vaccines explores the history of vaccine discovery, the science of how vaccines work and the public-health achievements that vaccines have made possible. It also discusses vaccine mandates and inequality in access to vaccines on local and global scales. It challenges young readers to take responsibility for themselves, their families and their communities so we can all be part of the solution to take down infectious diseases. The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

A decodable book featuring four phonics stories specially designed to help children with dyslexia or other language-based learning difficulties find reading success. While Meg and Greg are visiting Greg's family on Stardust Island they find themselves searching for one lost or missing item after another Join Meg, Greg, cousin Martha and a puppy named Scarlet as they discover the thief who took off with a precious garnet ring at a farmers' market, find and catch a horse named Popcorn who got lost in a forest, save a surfer who fell from his board and got badly hurt and chase an escaped teddy bear dangling from a helium balloon at a fun fair. Meg and Greg: Scarlet and the Ring is the fourth book in the Meg and Greg series designed for shared reading between a child learning to read and an experienced reader. Inside you'll find four stories that focus on words with r-controlled vowels. For the first time in the series, readers will also be introduced to multiple spellings for a single sound. Praise for the Meg and Greg series: "A thoughtfully designed storybook adds another helpful tool to the box for readers who need support." --Kirkus for Frank and the Skunk "A unique approach to high-interest texts for reluctant burgeoning readers, this book offers phonics fun wrapped in serious research-based success." --School Library Journal for A Duck in a Sock "The stories offer both flashes of humor and plenty of action to drive the instructional intent." --Booklist for A Duck in a Sock

Salmon: Swimming for Survival introduces us to the dramatic life story of salmon. These fish hatch in streams, swim extreme distances out to sea, and then migrate home to where they were born to produce the next generation. But today their habitats and very survival are threatened by human activity. This book looks at the unique biology of salmon, their importance to many Indigenous communities, their cultural and economic impact and the vital role they play in ecosystems. With profiles from scientists, educators, fishers and more, learn about the people who are working hard to change the uncertain future of salmon and improve the chance that these iconic fish can survive for generations to come. The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Do you know your watershed address? We all have one, whether we live high up in a mountain, on an inland prairie or near the coast. A watershed is an area of land that channels rain and snowmelt into streams, rivers and oceans. Our lives are deeply intertwined with land and water and all the connections between them. Day-to-day activities--like brushing our teeth, eating a meal, getting a ride in a car or even using an electronic device--have consequences for our own or someone else's watershed. Over the centuries we've changed the land by farming it, cutting down the trees on it, digging into it and building on it. We've also learned how to control water--where it goes and how much flows. Upstream, Downstream explores the consequences of the pressures people place on watersheds and highlights some of the heroes making a difference for watersheds around world. The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

A decodable book featuring four phonics stories specially designed to help children of all abilities overcome language-based learning difficulties. Meg and Greg are off on a series of summer adventures around their neighborhood, along with some four-legged companions. The two friends pull off a bake sale despite back-to-back disasters in the preparations, save the day for Greg's mom when her ballet studio floods, rescue the neighbor's dog after he slips down a slope into a cove, and discover a lost cat with newborn kittens sheltering in a dangerous spot in the garden. Meg and Greg: The Bake Sale is the third book in the Meg and Greg series designed for shared reading between a child learning to read or struggling to read and an experienced reader, following Frank and the Skunk and A Duck in a Sock. Inside you'll find four stories that introduce one new phonogram (a letter or combination of letters that represent a sound) in each story. This book focuses on the "magic e" a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e, and u-e phonograms. The stories have special features to help a child with dyslexia or another language-based learning difficulty find reading success. Praise for the Meg and Greg series: "A thoughtfully designed storybook adds another helpful tool to the box for readers who need support." - Kirkus for Frank and the Skunk "A unique approach to high-interest texts for reluctant burgeoning readers, this book offers phonics fun wrapped in serious research-based success." - School Library Journal for A Duck in a Sock "The stories offer both flashes of humor and plenty of action to drive the instructional intent." - Booklist for A Duck in a Sock 

A decodable book featuring four phonics stories specially designed to help children of all abilities overcome language-based learning difficulties. Besties Meg and Greg are off to sleep-away camp for the summer Along with your standard camp activities (swimming and making crafts) the duo have a run-in with a skunk, sing a silly song about a king, go on a canoe trip that has one glitch after another, and make a mess in the lodge with a fresh batch of fudge Frank and the Skunk is the second book in the Meg and Greg series designed for shared reading between a child learning to read or struggling to read and an experienced reader, following A Duck in a Sock. Inside you'll find four stories that introduce one new phonogram (a letter or combination of letters that represent a sound) in each story: nk, ng, tch and dge phonograms. The stories have special features to help a child with dyslexia or another language-based learning difficulty find reading success.

Despite people using both natural and synthetic chemicals with (mainly) good intentions, some chemicals have had unintended negative consequences. Chemical residues have contaminated ecosystems the world over and are compromising the health of many ecosystems, animals and humans. The goal of Chemical World: Science in our Daily Lives is to introduce readers to basic chemistry and chemical history, and to show how chemicals are used for particular reasons but sometimes turn out to be harmful to environmental and human health. It invites readers to take a look at the world around them and ask questions about what's in their environment and how the things they use and eat every day can affect their own health and the planet's health. Chemical World: Science in Our Daily Lives explores some of the materials--all of which are made of basic chemical elements--that humans use or come into contact with in their day-to-day lives. Some of these chemicals are naturally occurring--clay, mercury, lead. Others have been synthesized by chemists during the past 150 years and used in a bewildering array of products ranging from roof shingles to toothpaste. Many chemical inventions, as well as naturally produced chemicals, have had profound effects on food supply, developing medicines and creating hosts of useful items for modern life. The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

A decodable book featuring four phonics stories specially designed to help children of all abilities overcome language-based learning difficulties. Meg and Greg are hanging out for the summer doing what ten-year-olds do--helping an injured duckling, finding a lost pet fish, saving ranch animals from a wildfire and catching a wandering sloth A Duck in a Sock is the first book in the Meg and Greg series designed for shared reading between a child learning to read and an experienced reader. Inside you'll find four stories that introduce one new phonogram (a letter or combination of letters that represent a sound) in each story: the ck, sh, ch and th phonograms. Each story builds on the previous ones by including words with the phonograms already introduced. In addition, the series has special features to help a child with dyslexia or another language-based learning difficulty achieve reading success.

Rachel Carson was an American biologist, conservationist, science and nature writer, and catalyst of the modern environmental movement. She studied biology in college at a time when few women entered the sciences, and then worked as a biologist and information specialist for the US government and wrote about the natural world for many publications. Carson is best remembered for her book Silent Spring, which exposed the widespread misuse of chemical pesticides in the United States and sparked both praise and fury. Carson’s personal life and scientific career were rooted in the study of nature. Using examples from Carson’s life and works, Rachel Carson and Ecology for Kids will introduce readers to ecology concepts such as the components of ecosystems, adaptations by living things, energy cycles, food chains and food webs, and the balance of ecosystems. This lively biography includes a time line, resources, sidebars, and 21 hands-on activities that are sure to inspire the next generation of scientists, thinkers, leaders, agricultural producers, environmental activists, and world citizens. Kids will: Collect a seed bank of local plant species Chart bird migration through their region Make birdseed cookies Model bioaccumulation and biomagnification Build a worm farm And more!