Book Review: This is How a Ball Rolls

Make it a fun-filled ball-rolling and playing day when you read This is How a Ball Rolls by Heather Tekavec, illustrated by Suharu Ogawa.

This book talks about increasing larger balls, starting with marbles and moving on to juggling balls, tennis balls, soccer balls, basketballs, beach balls, balls that people can get inside (known as Zorb balls) and the largest sports ball in the world, the Kin-ball, to name a few. (It’s a Canadian invention that measures about 4 feet/1.2 meters tall but weighs only 2.2 pounds/1 kg. It takes teamwork to throw and catch it, and there are apparently 50 different games you can play with it.)

Each kind of ball is introduced on a two-page spread, with a little rhyme about the ball or the sport that is played with it, a longer text section about the sport and a little lead in to the next bigger ball.

At the back of the book you’ll learn about the science of balls, including elasticity, trajectory, aerodynamics and drag force. Each of these sections has a question you can ask kids as you read (such as which ball has bigger drag force, a marble or a beach ball?).

You’ll also learn about the fastest a ball has ever been thrown (it’s a baseball, thrown at almost 106 miles an hour, or 170 km an hour).

Kids will enjoy the fun illustrations and guessing which kind of ball comes next. You can talk about which balls you play with at school or at home, watch a video of people playing Kin-ball or learn about the history of the Zorb (which is Australian). Then head outside and play a game with a ball. And make sure you watch for the girl in the frog hoodie in every scene as you read.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2025 by Kids Can Press. Suggested retail price $19.99.

[Photo: Kids Can Press]

Growing Up Ladybug and How to Become a Butterfly are both by Stepanka Sekaninova and illustrated by Linh Dao, and they came out at the same time and are on similar themes, so let’s look at them together.

Growing Up Ladybug is narrated by Mariella, a seven-spot ladybug. She talks about the parts of a ladybug, where they live, different kinds of ladybugs, why humans love them, their defenses against predators and the life cycle of a ladybug.

The drawings are cute if not always scientifically accurate, it’s not in such a way that’s likely to confuse kids (who probably already know that ladybug mamas don’t push their larval babies around in strollers, for instance.

It’s a good general description of the life cycle of a lady bug and why we like having them around.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Similarly, How to Become a Butterfly covers the life cycle of a butterfly, starting with caterpillars eating burning nettle leaves. (Here Amanda is the narrator.) The book talks about a few of the more than 18,000 daytime butterflies in the world as well as other creatures that live in the meadow (there’s that ladybug again, along with crickets, bees and other bugs).

It also covers some of the enemies of caterpillars like wasps and spiders, and the defenses that caterpillars use to try to prevent being eaten. It illustrates how caterpillars grow and change as they molt and prepare to pupate, and what a caterpillar looks like before and while it is forming its chrysalis. And while the book uses the word metamorphasis it doesn’t really talk about what happens between the caterpillar forming a chrysalis and the butterfly hatching.

This butterfly is a peacock butterfly, and once it hatches the book covers the parts of a butterfly and the life cycle. It also talks about nocturnal moths (though it says nocturnal butterflies are “usually called moths” when moths are actually a different species) and what butterflies do at night.

I’m maybe a little hard on this book because my daughter is a butterfly expert from way back, but it is still cute and good for the very basic basics of the butterfly life cycle.

Both books would be fun additions to your bookshelf for younger kids starting to learn about different animals or who have an interest in insects.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Have you read?

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