Non Fiction Monday: Things May Get Sticky!

I found Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum at the library this week. This is a super fun, yet informative non fiction book to share with any elementary-aged student. The illustrations are simple, colorful, and engaging. The book is written at about a end of 1st- beginning of 2nd grade level, so young or struggling readers would be able to decode this book easily. However, I think, since so many of us love bubble gum, the book would be engaging for upper elementary students as well (for a quick read). I can see this being used as a non fiction read aloud for K-2, or available for kids to read independently. This book would work for well a teaching unit on inventors/inventions.

Since I work with struggling readers, I always like to find non fiction text that these lower readers can read on their own, find engaging, and that will teach them something new.


From Good Reads:
Gum has been around for centuries. The ancient Greeks chewed sap from mastic trees. The American Indians chewed spruce resin. Men in top hats and women in puffy dresses chewed gum to cure things like stomachaches. Gum wasn't that exciting. But what if gum chewers could blow bubbles while chewing it? In the late 1920s a factory in Philadelphia was working on a top secret project. Month after month the workers experimented with different ingredients and formulas. And month after month all they had to show for their hard work was a big sticky mess. Would there be no bubble gum? Sometimes the best inventions come from the most unexpected places...Full of fun historical facts, Pop! is the true story of how bubble gum was invented.

Hardcover, 40 pages

Published May 4th 2010 by Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books (first published 2010)

I'm linking up:
The Nonfiction Monday Round-up on June 27, 2011 is at Wendie’s Wanderings.

Be Well! Read on!