A Chip Off the Old Block by Jody Jensen Shaffer illustrated by Daniel Miyares*

Rocky wants to accomplish great feats like his family, but his parents remind him that he is only a pebble.  But he knows he destined to be a boulder!  So he sets out and visits his amazing family members who reside in the United States.
His family members comprise of: Aunt Etna, Uncle Gibraltar, Great-Grandma Half Dome, The Wave (his cousin), Dino, The Tower (his cousin) and Rushmore (his cousin). 
A fun ending!
**Lots of word play and puns.
I love that Ms. Shaffer explains more about each of this magnificent land forms and sites in the back of the book.
A fun book to incorporate when studying rocks/minerals.
*Highly recommend.
-Borrowed from the library.

Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman with help from John Niekrasz*

The Curious Parts and Pieces of the Natural World
Ms. Rothman explores  different categories of nature, from the ground (land forms) to the skies and everything in between.
This book is loaded with information coupled with beautiful illustrations.
A beautiful book.  Everyone who comes to my house lately has received a free book talk about it! 😄

Grand Canyon by Jason Chin*

I love Mr. Chin's habitat books.  In each book he features a young person with a vivid imagination.
In this book a young girl and a male adult hike the Grand Canyon, seeing the different levels and the wildlife in each ecosystem.
Beautiful illustrations.
Mr. Chin promotes evolution and an old world view (billions of years old) so it provides a great opportunity to discuss the different viewpoints on evolution/creation and how old the world is.
*Highly recommend.
-Borrowed from the library.

Sierra by Diane Siebert illustrated by Wendell Minor

In Emily Kissner's book Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Retelling, she discusses how to help students understand different text structures.
She recommends utilizing this book as an example of the "description text structure" (pgs. 56-57).  She also points out that this book can double as a model for visualizing.  As the teacher/parent reads the book aloud, he/she does not show the pictures but has the students/children draw what they imagine/visualize.
 Couplet rhymes describe the life within and around the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Beautiful descriptive language.
Strategies: main idea, summarizing, visualizing, figurative language-personification
Borrowed from the library.

Island A Story of the Galapagos by Jason Chin

Through beautiful illustrations and short chapters, Mr. Chin reveals how an island is born and how life comes in to inhabit it.
Warning/Points to discuss: He goes into Darwinism and evolution.  He also has an "old earth view".