Captain Kidd's Crew Experiments with Sinking and Floating

by Mark Weakland, Troy Cummings (Illustrator), Terry Flaherty (Consultant Editor)

Aye, aye, matey! Captain Kidd here, and Im on an adventure on the high seas. Ive always wondered why me boat floats but me treasure sinks. Follow me crew to find out all about sinking and floating!

Genres: Science, Childrens, Picture Books, Nonfiction

24 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

While earning a degree in the sciences, author/educator/musician Mark Weakland played drums and percussion with scores of Pittsburgh-based bands. He then went on to earn multiple teacher certifications and a master’s degree in education.

Mark expresses his creative side through music and writing. He is the author of eighteen non-fiction children’s books. Upcoming books, written as collaborations between Warner Brothers, Sports Illustrated Kids, and Capstone Press, include a set of Scooby-Doo (and mathematics) books, a set of Wile E. Coyote (and physics) books, and a set of hockey (shapes and patterns) books.

Other kid projects include an award-winning audio book, a poetry collection, and Jack Attack, his first YA novel. Mark’s books have received outstanding reviews from Booklist and Library Media Connection and won multiple awards, such as the 2012 Green Award for Sustainable Children’s Literature and the 2011 Eureka Nonfiction Children’s Book Award.

His academic book for teachers and administrators, Super Core! Supercharging Your Basal Reading Program with More Reading, Writing, and Word Work, will be published by the International Reading Association in January of 2014.

As a musician and songwriter, Mark has written and recorded music for both kids and grown-ups. His songs have won Parents' Choice and Children's Web awards and finished as finalists in The John Lennon Songwriting and USA Songwriting contests. Performing on drums, guitar, and vocals, Mark still records and plays with various artists and bands in Western Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[Elizabeth Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

i've only recently found Mark's writing ... i really enjoy his thoughts, his picked illustrator. well done. i read "The Lonely Existence of Asteroids and Comets", "DO-4U the Robot Experiences Forces and Motion", "How Heavy?", and "Captain Kidd's Crew Experiments with Sinking and Floating". all these are so fun. i am needing creative reads lately ... i enjoyed them so much!!

[Hayley Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy read science story identifying some key terminology for children. Gravity, buoyancy, density, volume and displacement. This could be useful to accompany science lessons involving this terminology and children could do similar tests in class to see whether objects float or sink.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book with good knowledge

Interesting book with some useful knowledge explained easily. Suitable for 5+ but probably easier to understand for slightly older children.

[Jeanne Mcpeak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disguised as a pirate story, this is actually a book explaining how objects float and sink. Buoyancy, density and volume are concepts taught in this book. The illustrations are also very cute. This would be a good story for an elementary school teacher to read to their class to go with a science lesson about floating and sinking.

[Shelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captain Kidd’s Crew Experiments with Sinking and Floating is a fun tale of pirates and their quest for knowledge in buoyancy, density, and volume. The colorful and cute illustrations perfectly compliment the informative text and would make for a fantastic read aloud in any elementary classroom preceding a “Will it Float??” class experiment.

[Julie Sigmund · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great use of vocabulary to explain floating and sinking. A lot packed in a little book.