January has always been a horrid time for me. The weather in Michigan is COLD (especially this year) and all I want to do is drink coffee and eat chocolate chip cookies, which makes for a less than desirable pant size. :) Oh well. Cream and sugar with that?
Okay, thanks so much to Rachel over at Penguin for sending me my first box of ARCs; it's awesome! Unfortunately, I am reading so much (in between finalizing grades) that I haven't been blogging! This upcoming book, 2030: A Day in the Life of Tomorrow's Kids(Dutton, March '09) was one of the upcoming picture books that was in my box. I just started a science fiction genre study today and this book was awesome! The whole premise is to let kids know what the future will be like after talking to "futurists" and scientists. They follow the "day in the life" of a typical (what looks to me like) teenager. From waking to sleeping and everything in between,authors Amy Zuckerman and James Daly have predicted an average day twenty or so years from now. The pictures are vibrantly colored with cartoon characters that look almost as if they stepped out of a manga, but not quite. My favorite possibility is the "Clean-a-rella", a robot that will vacuum and dust your home! Can't wait for that one! (Note to self: must get a Roomba) Because this book covered everything from going to the mall to skateboarding, all of my students were interested and it will give them a great jumping off point for starting some science fiction writing tomorrow.
Another viewpoint was from my almost 9 year-old who insisted that she read the book to me last night because she wanted to share "how cool" all of these future inventions were. She, of course, loved the talking dog. Overall, I think this book will have LOTS of appeal in many different age ranges. Teachers of the science fiction genre should definitely put this one on their list. As an added bonus, it will be published right on my daughter's birthday!
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