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Children's Nonfiction How Things Work-are Made

This Is How a Ball Rolls

The Science of Wobbling, Bouncing, Spinning Balls

by (author) Heather Tekavec

illustrated by Suharu Ogawa

Publisher
Kids Can Press
Initial publish date
Jun 2025
Category
How Things Work-Are Made, General, General, Physics
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781525309687
    Publish Date
    Jun 2025
    List Price
    $21.99

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Where to buy it

Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 5 to 8
  • Grade: k to 3
  • Reading age: 5 to 8

Description

An innovative and fun guessing game book about sports balls and the physics behind how they move!

In this one-of-a-kind informational picture book, cleverly tongue-twisting descriptions introduce twelve different types of sports balls, and readers are encouraged to guess what they are. An accompanying block of text provides the answer and explains the science behind how the balls do what they do (hint: the fuzz on tennis balls is there for a reason!) and what makes them so much fun! The balls are listed in ascending order by size, from a tiny marble, a “clinking, plinking, bumping ball,” to a person-sized Zorb ball, a “slip-and-slide-inside ball.” Entertaining, playful and loads of fun to read aloud, this is a perfect STEAM pick for classrooms, and a great mashup of sports and science.

Bestselling author Heather Tekavec combines a high-interest topic, fascinating science and silly-sounding text to create the kind of book that young children will want to spend time with. Suharu Ogawa's irreverent, offbeat art is full of clever little details readers will delight in discovering. This book is a great accompaniment to primary grade science lessons on physics topics such as matter, motion, forces and inventions. The back matter contains explanations of the essential physics of balls and ball-related trivia questions.

About the authors

 

Heather Tekavec est tombée amoureuse de la littérature jeunesse alors qu'elle travaillait comme enseignante au préscolaire. Elle a publié neuf livres pour enfants. Heather vit à Cloverdale, en Colombie-Britannique.

 

Heather Tekavec first fell in love with children's literature while working as a preschool teacher. She has published nine books for children. Heather lives in Cloverdale, British Columbia.

Heather Tekavec's profile page

Suharu Ogawa is a Toronto-based illustrator. Her love for drawing started in a kindergarten art school after being kicked out of calligraphy class for refusing to convert to right-handedness. Formally trained in art history and cultural anthropology, she worked for several years as a university librarian until her passion for illustration called her out of that career and into the pursuit of a lifelong dream. Since then, Suharu has created illustrations for magazines, public art projects and children's books, including Why Humans Work: How Jobs Shape Our Lives and Our World in the Orca Think line. She also teaches illustration at OCAD University in Toronto.

 

Suharu Ogawa's profile page

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