Megan Stine
Author of Who Was Marie Curie?
About the Author
Image credit: img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk
Series
Works by Megan Stine
Still More Science Activities : 20 Exciting Experiments To Do (From the Smithsonian Institution) (1989) 21 copies
Games, Puzzles, and Toys: Hand on Science Activity Projects from the Smithsonian Institution (Hands-On Science) (1993) 5 copies, 1 review
It's a Twin Thing--The Sleep-Over Secret---How to Flunk Your First Date (TWO OF A KIND) (2001) 4 copies
Family Sports Adventures: Exciting Sports-Filled Vacations for Parents & Kids to Share (1991) 4 copies
Breaking Free 2 copies
¿Qué fue la era de los dinosaurios? (What Was the Age of the Dinosaurs? Spanish Edition) (¿Qué fue?) (2025) 1 copy
The Love Collection: " The Love Factor " , " Dating Game " , " Boy Crazy " Bks.8, 9 & 11 (So Little Time) (2004) 1 copy
A Fórmula da Confusão 1 copy
Two of a Kind, Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen, Books 9-11, Calling All Boys, Winner Takes All, P.S. Whish Yoy Were Here (2000) 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1950
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- editor
author - Relationships
- Stine, H. William (husband)
Stine, R. L. (brother-in-law) - Short biography
- Megan Stine is the Editor-in-Chief of Real U Guides and the author of more than 100 books for young readers including Trauma-Rama, an etiquette book for teenagers published by Seventeen magazine, and several titles in a series based on the popular 1990's television series Party of Five. A frequent writer of books in the enormously popular Mary-Kate and Ashley series, she is the best-selling author of Likes Me, Likes Me Not and Instant Boyfriend. She has worked with CBS and ABC in developing comedy and drama television pilots, and has written comedy material for a well-known radio personality in New York. When she isn't writing, she is a portrait and fine art photographer and a contributing photographer for the Real U series of guides.
- Nationality
- USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
The Who Is/Who Was series is incredibly popular amongst its target audience of upper elementary/lower junior high students, so I've been reading a few to see how good they are. Being as they all written and illustrated by different creators, there seems to be a great deal of variation in the quality of the finished product.
This biography of Michelle Obama is of a poorer quality than the other titles I've read in the series so far. For starters, it feels like this book is more Who Is Barack show more Obama? lite than it is Who Is Michelle Obama?. Obviously the First Lady's story is going to be wrapped up in the President's, but at times it seemed like there were a lot more details spent on him than on her. The author also mentions about five times that Michelle Obama is beautiful. While I happen to agree, this is a subjective opinion, not a fact. Furthermore, I think in a title designed for young children, the emphasis should be far more on intelligence, work ethic, and achievement rather than on physical appearance. To be fair, those are talked about as well, but hearing about Obama's good looks twice in the prologue before even mentioning those other qualities seemed like a serious misstep.
Like with other titles in this series, the book breaks up the main text with pull-out pages with other historical information. In other titles, these are often about contextual information that enriches the reader's knowledge, such as the civil rights movement. For this title, every single one is about another First Lady and her contributions to history. This is fine in and of itself, but they were showing up long before we got to Obama becoming First Lady. One even appears directly after the prologue and before the first chapter, which felt very jarring and out of place.
On the plus side, the book is broken down into short chapters, which makes for easy places to take a break, although it is a short enough read that advanced readers could probably finish it in one or two sittings. Back matter includes a bibliography (with books for a child audience starred) and timelines of Obama's life and the world at large. The illustrations included throughout the book break up the text, but they are so loosely sketched that they really add nothing to the overall experience. show less
This biography of Michelle Obama is of a poorer quality than the other titles I've read in the series so far. For starters, it feels like this book is more Who Is Barack show more Obama? lite than it is Who Is Michelle Obama?. Obviously the First Lady's story is going to be wrapped up in the President's, but at times it seemed like there were a lot more details spent on him than on her. The author also mentions about five times that Michelle Obama is beautiful. While I happen to agree, this is a subjective opinion, not a fact. Furthermore, I think in a title designed for young children, the emphasis should be far more on intelligence, work ethic, and achievement rather than on physical appearance. To be fair, those are talked about as well, but hearing about Obama's good looks twice in the prologue before even mentioning those other qualities seemed like a serious misstep.
Like with other titles in this series, the book breaks up the main text with pull-out pages with other historical information. In other titles, these are often about contextual information that enriches the reader's knowledge, such as the civil rights movement. For this title, every single one is about another First Lady and her contributions to history. This is fine in and of itself, but they were showing up long before we got to Obama becoming First Lady. One even appears directly after the prologue and before the first chapter, which felt very jarring and out of place.
On the plus side, the book is broken down into short chapters, which makes for easy places to take a break, although it is a short enough read that advanced readers could probably finish it in one or two sittings. Back matter includes a bibliography (with books for a child audience starred) and timelines of Obama's life and the world at large. The illustrations included throughout the book break up the text, but they are so loosely sketched that they really add nothing to the overall experience. show less
Could do without the speculative intro about how Native Americans must have felt/thought upon encountering Niagara Falls for the first time, but otherwise, a very informative book from the "Who Is...?" series: it covers a bit of geology, plenty of history (including the sometimes-deadly stunts performed at the Falls), and encouragement to visit.
Timeline.
Timeline.
Excellent and sophisticated children's book about the incredibly mysterious Easter Island and Katherine Routledge, the explorer who journeyed all the way to the ends of the earth to solve mysteries and provide aid to the inhabitants, who had been enslaved and had their population decimated by colonialism and exploitation.
This is a non-fiction book about Machu Picchu, Peru and its people, and its discoverer (Hiram Bingham). The writing is not too complex and the illustrations support the text well. There is a timeline of events around Machu Picchu that is quite helpful. However, the writing, or perhaps editing, could have been improved significantly, leading to misleading or sometimes incorrect information.
On page 7 is written that Machu Picchu is pronounced 'MAT-choo Pee- choo'; this is incorrect. The show more pronunciation (as told to me by a Peruvian guide, also noted on pronunciation guides) is closer to 'Ma-choo PEEK-choo'. The order of paragraphs and sections in the book sometimes makes the information confusing or misleading. On the rear cover, the book indicates that a garden of literally golden corn was in Machu Picchu, but in the book that garden is attributed to Cuzco not Machu Picchu. I'm not sure if there are other inaccuracies, but the ones I found made me hesitant to trust other points of the book. The author is also kind of harsh on Hiram Bingham too and casts the explorer's actions based on today's standards and knowledge; I think this could have been done better - highlighting Bingham's work and theories that did advance knowledge and giving better context to theories and actions that were later found to be incorrect. The timeline of the World at the back gives some context for discoveries and inventions, particularly around when Machu Picchu was discovered, but it's also a little weird in what is included... "2012 Superstorm Sandy strikes the northeastern United States". show less
On page 7 is written that Machu Picchu is pronounced 'MAT-choo Pee- choo'; this is incorrect. The show more pronunciation (as told to me by a Peruvian guide, also noted on pronunciation guides) is closer to 'Ma-choo PEEK-choo'. The order of paragraphs and sections in the book sometimes makes the information confusing or misleading. On the rear cover, the book indicates that a garden of literally golden corn was in Machu Picchu, but in the book that garden is attributed to Cuzco not Machu Picchu. I'm not sure if there are other inaccuracies, but the ones I found made me hesitant to trust other points of the book. The author is also kind of harsh on Hiram Bingham too and casts the explorer's actions based on today's standards and knowledge; I think this could have been done better - highlighting Bingham's work and theories that did advance knowledge and giving better context to theories and actions that were later found to be incorrect. The timeline of the World at the back gives some context for discoveries and inventions, particularly around when Machu Picchu was discovered, but it's also a little weird in what is included... "2012 Superstorm Sandy strikes the northeastern United States". show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 166
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 11,460
- Popularity
- #2,050
- Rating
- 3.3
- Reviews
- 53
- ISBNs
- 475
- Languages
- 13
- Favorited
- 1