Book Talk: Hottest Coldest Highest Deepest

References

Jenkins, S. (2008). Down down down. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Jenkins, S. (1998). Hottest coldest highest deepest. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Jenkins, S. (2005). I see a kookaburra. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Jenkins, S. (2009). Never smile at a monkey. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Jenkins, S. Steve Jenkins Books Website.  About me, awards, books, making books, science. Retrieved from http://www.stevejenkinsbooks.com
          

Rationale for further exploration of Hottest Coldest Highest Deepest

The book, “Hottest Coldest Highest Deepest” opens with the questions “If you could visit any spot on earth, where would you go? What if you wanted to see some of the most amazing natural wonders in the world?” When we read this book, those first two questions quickly engaged our imaginations and we were immersed into interesting facts about the world that we live in. The pages are filled with paper collages that illustrate the natural world. Maps and diagrams helped us to visualize the extreme environments that are being explored on each page. We enjoyed the other books that we read as well, however this book is a fun and interesting read for all young and old. 

Awards

Down Down Down

-ALA Notable Book 2010

-2009 Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book

-New York Times- one of the eight most Notable Children’s Books of 2009

-2011 Beehive Book Award Nominee (Utah)

-2009 Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book Finalists

Hottest Coldest Highest Deepest

-Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children Honor Book 1999

-The Children’s Literature Choice List, 2000

-Children’s Literature Los Angeles’ 100 Best Books, 1998

-Recommended Literature: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve, 2002 California Department of Education

I See a Kookaburra

-Bulletin For The Center of Children’s Books’ Best of the Year

Never Smile At a Monkey

-Society of Illustrators Original Art Show

-Junior Library Guild Fall 2009 Selection

-NDLA Flicker Tale Children’s Book Award 2011

-The Original Art Show 2010

-2010-2011 Horned Toad Tales List

The Craft of Steve Jenkins: Illustrations

Steve Jenkins not only authors his books, he illustrates them as well.  On his website he explains, “There is a popular conception of the scientist as coldly logical, unmoved by beauty, lost in reams of data and numbers.  From this perspective, science is the opposite of art or poetry.”  When you look at a Steve Jenkins book, you will quickly notice that he sees science and the natural world as art and he strives to portray this view through his illustrations.  Every topic he presents is illustrated in detailed beauty – even topics you would not describe as “beautiful”.  One such example is his book Never Smile at a Monkey.  The book talks about surprising dangerous animals.  Each page presents an animal that can be dangerous and even deadly to a human being.  Did you know that the platypus is the only poisonous mammal? The information presented in the book is all about how humans can be harmed by nature, not necessarily a “pretty picture”.  Jenkins however presents each animal in a realistic and beautiful manner, which helps the reader to see the beauty in the animal but be aware of the possible danger.

The illustration medium used by Jenkins is collage.  He takes great care to create every illustration.  He spends a large amount of time researching images to use for his illustrations.  He uses illustrations from the Internet and books, and sketches and observations he makes in zoos, aquariums and museums.  He also takes great care in selecting the paper he will use to make his collages.  He searches and collects many different kinds of paper from all over the world.  He looks for paper that may have special qualities, such as hand made paper from Japan or paper that is directly from a piece of wood.  He may also selected papers based on the texture such as recycled newspaper and magazine paper.  The result of his attention to detail and creativity are illustrations that help to show young readers the beauty of nature.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science.” ~Albert Einstein

The Craft of Steve Jenkins: Genre and Writing Style

Steve Jenkins writes expository non-fiction children’s books.  Expository non-fiction is used to explain, describe, give information or inform about a particular subject area.  This genre often gives information about the real world and may include numbers, pictures and diagrams to help the readers to understand the facts. 

Author Steve Jenkins became interested in writing children’s books after his two children were born.  He was drawn to the idea of writing books about science and the natural world.  This interest came about after his young children started asking questions about the world around them.  In fact, many of his books started with a question from one of his children.  As he developed answers for his children, book ideas began to grow and his writing process began.

NON-FICTION DOES NOT HAVE TO MEAN BORING BY ANY MEANS.

On his website, Steve Jenkins states “There’s a commonly held view of science as boring and difficult, which has led to well-intentions but unfortunate attempts to make science interesting to children by presenting scientists as goofy and wacky – think wild hair, thick spectacles and a disheveled lab coat.”  When you look at a Steve Jenkins book, this is NOT the view of science you will see.  Jenkins presents science to children in interesting ways.  In his book Down, Down, Down, Jenkins engages his audience with phrases such as “In fact, more humans have walked on the moon than have visited the deepest spot in the sea” and “In this book we’ll descend from the ocean’s surface to the sea floor…along the way we’ll encounter some unusual creatures.”  In other books he uses his illustrations to pull his young readers into the text.  In his book I See a Kookaburra! Steve Jenkins uses vivid illustrations to teach his readers about the animals that live in various habitats around the world.  Each habitat is presented with spread that illustrates an example of the habitat, for example, the desert.  Hidden throughout the picture are animals that can be found living in this environment.  This allows young readers the chance to explore the picture and try to find where animals may be found in that habitat.  The second page is a spread that shows each animal without the habitat.  The purpose of this format was to make a game of searching for the animals.  Younger readers can enjoy searching for the animals and learning about the different animals that can be found in various regions around the world while older readers can spend more time learning about the specific animals.

As mentioned above, expository non-fiction involves giving information about the real world through the text and also through numbers, pictures and diagrams.  In his book, Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest, Jenkins helps his readers to visualize the natural world he is presenting by placing a sidebar on each page that compares this natural element to something else the reader may be familiar with.  As an example, the book talks about the tallest waterfall in the world.  The sidebar illustrates the difference in height between this waterfall and a well-known waterfall here in the United States, Niagara Falls.  These comparisons help the reader to see the intensity of the natural wonders that can be found on our planet.

“My own belief is that the more we understand about what the universe is and how it works, the greater our appreciation of the beauty and wonder of the world, of each other, and of being here to think about it all.” ~Steve Jenkins

Steve Jenkins Biography

Steve Jenkins was born in 1952 in Hickory, North Carolina. His father had become a physics professor and astronomer and served in the military before working on several science degrees. His family moved often and lived in various locations and wherever they lived, Steve kept a menagerie of lizards, turtles, spiders, and other animals. He also blew things up in his chemistry lab. His parents read a lot to him until he could read to himself. His interest in science led him to think he would become a scientist however he changed his plan and went to an art school in North Carolina to study graphic design. When Steve graduated he moved to New York to work in large advertising and design firms before meeting his wife Robin Page with whom he worked in their own small graphic design firm. Steve and Robin have made four children’s books together. They moved to Boulder, Colorado where they work in a studio attached to their home. They have three children, Page, Alec, & Jamie. Their children were the inspiration for Steve’s new interest in making children’s books himself. The questions that his children asked were the inspiration for many of their books.