June 29, 1999: Child's Science Experiment Goes Awry!

June 29, 1999 is a book of few words. The publisher recommends this book for children ages 5 to 8, but the impact of the book is remarkable, for younger children as well as older ones--like those of us who are approaching our golden years. Seriously, I know tweens who adore this book.

The illustrations are in vivid color, with simple yet non-condescending text moving the reader along. The theme of the book involves a science project: Holly wants to know if vegetables will grow better when floating in the air than rooted to the ground. She plants her vegetables in boxes to which she ties helium-filled balloons to hold them aloft. The next thing she knows, gigantic vegetables are falling from the sky all over the country! But Holly knows that she didn't plant some of the vegetables--like the arugula that fell over Ashtabula--so these giant veggies are probably not from her experiment. This realization leads to that wonderful discussion question: "If these vegetable are not Holly's, where do you think they came from?" Just remember to ask this question before you turn to the final page!

Activities and discussion topics to use with this book include:

• Identification of vegetables,
• Finding cities on a map,
• Container gardening,
  
• The scientific method,
• Validation of research.
  

See? Lots of creative uses can be found for this book, not only for young children, but for high school and college students, too.

If you have read this book and want to share your thoughts and how you used it with your own children or students, please share in the comments section.

Here is the reference information for this book:

June 29, 1999 by David Wiesner
ISBN: 0395727677
ISBN-13: 978-0395727676
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Paperback reissue: September, 1995

If you wish to purchase the book, click on the illustration above to purchase from Amazon.com .
It is also available at Borders.com and Barnesandnoble.com .