The Impossible Rescue

The Impossible Rescue: The True Story of an Amazing Arctic Adventure by Martin W. Sandler tells the story of how eight whaling ships were ice-bound in Arctic waters off the coast of Point Barrow, Alaska, the most northern point in the United States in 1897.  That year the winter storms came early and it caught 300 sailors off their guard, locking the ships in thick ice with no way to escape.  The sailors had limited provisions to last themselves for what turned out to be nearly a year of being trapped.

The book goes on to tell how three men were appointed by President McKinley to go rescue the trapped sailors by trekking on land over 1500 miles through horrific terrain and freezing temperatures in the dead of an Alaskan winter using reindeer, sled dogs, and native peoples to carry thousands of pounds of provisions to Point Barrow before the sailors stave to death.  It was truly a race against time.

Sandler takes readers on every step of the journey providing first hand accounts of the rescuers, their journal entries, and vivid descriptions of raging blizzards, ice peircing cold temperatures, injured rescuers and animals, and the test of man's strength.  The book also includes black and white photographs throughout giving readers visual accounts of the men and women who were involved in the heroic rescue.  This is definately one unfortettable impossible journey!

Favorite Book Fridays: Steve Jenkins

I pretty much love everything by Steve Jenkins. It's pretty rare that I use non-fiction for story times, but his books are an exception.

Move! introduces different animals and the way they move in their own unique ways. The way an armadillo leaps straight up into the air when it is startled is a little different than the way a crocodile leaps toward its prey. It's hard to believe that the same word can be used to describe a jumping spider traveling through air as it spins its silk and a polar bear reclining on its back in icy waters: Float.

Any guesses what Actual Size is about? If you guessed that it shows the actual size of animals, you were right. See what it might be like to look straight into a great white shark's mouth. Compare the size of the smallest fish in the world (about 1/3 inch) to the largest moth (about 36 times that size!).

I bet you never knew a cricket has ears in its knees or a four-eyed fish can see above and below water at the same time. I didn't either, until I read What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?

Favorite Book Fridays: How Many Jelly Beans?

If your kid wants to know what a million looks like, How Many Jelly Beans?, by Andrea Menotti, is a must-see. Most counting books go to 10, and if you're lucky you may read one that counts clear to 20. This book just does away with 1 through 9 altogether and begins with 10. Two bickering kids and a cute little dog guide you clear up to the big ONE-OH-OH-OH-OH-OH-OH-OH-OH-OH. I have just one request for you if you choose to check it out: Be gentle with the gigantic fold-out page!

Favorite Book Fridays: New Favorites in Non-Fiction

Who doesn't love a puppet?

Puppets can be made with the most simple of materials- lonely socks, odds and ends of paper, even a napkin! 10 Minute Puppets is a book recently added to the juvenile non-fiction collection that explains clearly how to make a variety of silly, playful puppets. Some of my favorite ideas include little paper puppets that turn your fingers into dancing ballerina legs, sock puppet snakes, and folded paper lion puppets reminiscent of cooty-catchers. It was so inspiring to me that I thought we should probably have a puppet making workshop this summer. Keep a lookout for that. In the mean time, check out the book!

Another new non-fiction addition that caught my eye as I checked it in for the first time was How Cooking Works . It's a cookbook for kids that describes the science behind the recipes. Step-by-step photos and succinct instructions set up young cooks for success in the kitchen, and small notes answer such questions as why corns pops and why beaten egg whites become stiff. The delectable photographs of berry and whipped cream laden pancakes or oven fried sweet potato wedges make me want to race home and set my toddler up with a stool by the kitchen counter. I would hesitate to hand over the chicken or shrimp to younger chefs, though. The first recipe my little guy and I will be making? Savory cookies with cheddar cheese and rosemary. Yum.

How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous

I recently finished reading How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg.  Growing up, we learn snippets here and there of famous people such as King Tut, Cleopatra, Christopher Columbus, George Washington, and Albert Einstein to name a few.  We've learned why they are famous but rarely about their health and how they passed away.  While the topic of death isn't always pleasant, this book informs readers on the lack of medical knowledge at the time when these people lived and how doctors tried to treat them.  It's fascinating to learn what little medical knowledge existed back in those days to compared to today.  Simple ailments today were a real bear to treat hundreds of years ago.  To quote the text from the front book jacket, "From King Tut's ancient autopsy to Henry VIII's explosive demise to Albert Einstein's great brain escape, these pages contain all the gory details of the awful ends of nineteen awfully famous people."

I Can Cook!

Welcome to the I Can Cook! Series.  Since holiday cooking is upon us, why not spend some time with your child teaching them about foods from different countries?  This series of books geared for thrid to sixth graders make an excellent introduction to food traditions, cooking styles, common ingredients, cooking basics, and equipment while practicing safety in the kitchen.  Each book contains a country map to highlight diets and the food availabile in various regions, plus influencing factors for these dishes. Recipes in each book have kid appeal and list the equipment and ingredients needed, plus alternatives for those with special diets. Captioned, full-color photographs provide step-by-step directions. Each title contains up to seven recipes that include historical background, a beverage, and a dessert (yum!). There's even new vocabulary words highlighted in bold and quick facts that are scattered throughout. Each book concludes with a  popular food celebrations using some of the highlighted recipes and additional activities kids can do on their own or with their families.  Titles in the series include: American Food, Chinese Food, French Food, Mexican Food, and Middle-Eastern Food.

Meet The Collection Mondays: Young Adult Non-Fiction

Welcome to the world of Young Adult non-fiction!

To find your next favorite Young Adult non-fiction book, you first get to go on a treasure hunt through the adult non-fiction stacks. Shelved among adult materials, you can find excellent teen-oriented reads on many subjects.

DNA: Do you like your science with a lot of pictures? The Stuff of Life is a graphic non-fiction guide to genetics and DNA. Usually an overwhelmingly complicated subject to delve into, The Stuff of Life almost makes genetics seem simple.

DIY: Get inspired to sew your own plush dolls with Plush You, profiling artists who make everything from socktopusses (octopus sock monkeys) to felt eggs and bacon. Or crochet your own pepperoni pizza scarf following step-by-step instructions in Twinkie Chan’s Crochet Goodies for Fashion Foodies.

SPY: Perhaps you’ve always imagined having a life as an undercover operative. The Real Spy’s Guide to Becoming a Spy will prepare you for your ultimate career.

In addition to these gems, you will also find many other materials to support the educational, recreational, developmental, and informational needs of young adults from 6th through 12th grade. Whether you are writing a school paper, looking for some fashion tips, or interested in finding more information about your favorite skateboarder, the Young Adult non-fiction collection has something to offer. Come visit at the Young Adult reference desk, and we will help you navigate the non-fiction stacks to find the materials that best suit your needs.

Meet the Collection Monday: Juvenile Non-Fiction

The next collection I want to share is Juvenile Non-Fiction. It's shelved right next to the Juvenile Biographies in the back of the Children's Room, right by the story time room and family restroom.

The Juvenile Non-Fiction is catalogued according to the Dewey Decimal System. Each subject has its own unique call number. But don't worry, you don't need to know the call numbers to find what you want; just look it up in the catalog or ask your librarian and we will be happy to take you out to where you need to be.

You name it, we hopefully have it! Kids use this collection heavily for school assignments like state and country reports, animal reports, and science projects. They also use it just to satisfy their own interests. We have huge dinosaur, bug, and animal sections. Fairy tales and folk tales are also a part of non-fiction under 398.2. Just beyond that, we have books all about dragons, vampires, mythological monsters, etc. Kids who want to know about the Bermuda Triangle or Bigfoot will be happy to find the section devoted to the Unexplained. World records are a common request we get, and we have plenty to satisfy a kids' curiosity. Cookbooks, art books, magic, sports, history, big movie books (there is a huge book all about Vader, for the Star Wars lovers), Legos, I could go on and on.

Some of my favorites to recommend are the Eyewitness books. They have great pictures with a lot of accompanying text, and come in pretty much any subject area you can think of.A lot of the books are shared in an informational format like the Eyewitness books, but a lot of them also read like stories, especially in the history section.

Thinking about your next family vacation?

While summer vacation has come and gone, did you know that the Parents Collection located inside the children's room has a plethora of family oriented travel books?  It sure does!  You no longer have to drag the kids all the way upstairs to look in the adult non-fiction collection (unless you really want to!)  So if you're ready to plan your next family vaction or a weekend getaway, stop by the library to get a headstart on your next trip. We've got books for local adventures in Portland and Seattle, guides to Disneyland and Walt Disney World, major cities in the US, plus other US attractions.  We also have a handful of books with steps on how to make your next family trip just a little bit more successful and how to travel with baby too! 

Good Ol' Dewey

The Dewey Decimal System is the way our library and many libraries, including all in the Washington County system, categorize non-fiction books. Pretty much any subject you can think of probably has its own Dewey Decimal Number. If you find the call number of a book you want, chances are if you go out to the stacks, you will find more like it with the exact same call number or right around there. If the books you find in the the kids' section are too easy, you can even go upstairs, and using the same call number, find something that is a little harder.

Our fiction books, on the other hand, are generally shelved in alphabetical order according to the last name of the author.

Happy New Year (Chinese, That Is)

The New Year that most Americans celebrate follows the calendar of the sun. The Chinese New Year follows the phases of the moon, so it happens a little different time each year. This year it began on February 3. The celebration of the new year lasts for 15 days including parades, firecrackers, decorating with red, and getting and receiving money!

Just in time for the Chinese New Year, I read The Star Maker, by Laurence Yep. Eight-year-old Artie is the youngest of all the cousins, and somehow he ropes himself into promising to give everybody in the family firecrackers. Luckily, his favorite uncle, Chester, who was also the youngest in his generation, offers to help. But there is one problem. Chester has a little issue with gambling. Will Artie be able to fulfill his promise with his uncle's help?

Here are some other books about the Chinese New Year for all ages, fiction and non-fiction.

• My First Chinese New Year, by Karen Katz (Picture Book)
• Bringing in the New Year, by Grace Lin (Picture Book)
• This Next New Year, by Janet S. Wong (Picture Book)
• Xiaoshan Di Ya Shui Qian = Sam and the Lucky Money, by Karen Chinn (Chinese Picture Book)
• Happy New Year!: Kung-hsi Fa-ts'ai!, by Demi (Juvenile Non-Fiction)
• Celebrating Chinese New Year, by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith (Juvenile Non-Fiction)
• Chinese New Year Crafts, by Karen E. Bledsoe (Juvenile Non-Fiction)
• The Year of the Dog, by Grace Lin (Juvenile Fiction)
• Happy New Year, Julie: American Girl series, by Megan McDonald (Juvenile Fiction)
  

Share a Tale

Looking for a good story to share? Did you know that in addition to our great picture book collection, we also have a large section of folktales and fairy tales from around the world? Yep. They can be found in the Juvenile Non-Fiction collection under the J 398s. Whether you'd like to read the different Cinderella stories from around the world or you'd like to brush up on your fables, you'll find plenty of stories to explore. Here are some of my favorites.

Yummy by Lucy Cousins. Yes, the creator of the Maisy books has a fantastic collection of your favorite stories, complete with her illustrations. A great introduction for younger ones to some of these tales.

Borreguita and the Coyote by Verna Aardema. This tale from Mexico follows a clever little sheep as she tries to elude the coyote intent to have her for dinner.

Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young. When Mom goes to visit Grandma, a hungry wolf pretends to be the Grandma to trick the three little girls left behind. 

Food, Wonderful Food!

Tis the season for cooking...and baking....and candy making. Cooking as a family can be a lot of fun. It's also a great literacy skill. Not only do you have to read what to do, but you also need to understand how the numbers work with the recipe. We have lots of cookbooks for kids in our Juvenile Non Fiction section, J 641.5, with recipes from around the country and the world.

Cook It Together by Annabel Karmel. Yummy recipes with great pictures showing most of the steps.

Emeril's There's a Chef in My World by Emeril Lagasse. For a family looking for a culinary adventure, you could try some of the recipes from this book.

Ratatouille What's Cooking? A Cookbook for Kids. Everyone's favorite cooking rat presents some tasty French treats. Happy cooking!

Celebrating Everyday Animals & Plants

Endangered species are often in the news, but what about those wily, adaptable animals and plants that we see every day, like crows, squirrels, dandelions and ants? Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature's Survivors, written by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Beckie Prange, is a unique blend of poetry, facts, and gorgeous watercolored linocuts, singing the praises of beings that have managed to make it through millions of years. Read it with your young ones, and gain a new appreciation for common critters.

Swarms of Fantastic Creatures

What do you call a group of unicorns or sea horses or fauns? Author Jacqueline Ogburn decided to make up her own terms to refer to these and many other magical creatures. Add to that the beautiful ethereal illustrations of Nicoletta Ceccoli and you have an amazing book for your creature-loving youngster. At the end of the book Jacqueline shares a little information about each of the creatures mentioned, including their country of origin and their role in stories. Spend some time pouring over each of the rich pages of A Dignity of Dragons: Collective Nouns for Magical Beasts.

School's Back!

School's started, which means homework is right around the corner. In addition to the wonderful resources available in your library (books and librarians, of course), don't forget the awesome resources available from your online library (ebooks, magazine and journal articles, encyclopedia and more).  There are databases about countries and states (CultureGrams), science experiments (Science Online) and current events (Kids InfoBits). Unlike the Internet, these are all updated, fact-checked, accurate resources for your student to use. And as always, your librarians would be glad to give you or your student a quick how-to for these homework helpers.

Fact or Myth?

For Percy Jackson fans who have devoured all of the books in the series, might I recommend a dose of non fiction books about mythology?

A new(ish) series or Mythlopedia, if you will, offers four books with nothing but Greek mythology tidbits. Each covers a different topic of info, from Greek goddesses to mythological beasts. Great illustrations and an easy to read format makes this a fantastic way for kids and teens to find out more about all things related to the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece.

A Serious Subject

Over the last few years, I have run across many books for children about the Holocaust. You as parents need to decide when it is appropriate to teach your children about this horrific time in history. Here are some books that can help you with that, and some books for older kids who are interested in what it was like to live and die during that time:

Non-Fiction

• Hana's Suitcase: A True Story, by Karen Levine

• The Champion of Children: The Story of Janusz Korczak, by Tomek Bogacki
  

• The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust, by Karen Gray Ruelle and Deborah Durland DeSaix
  


• Anne Frank: Her Life in Words and Pictures from the Archives of the Anne Frank House, by Menno Metselaar

Fiction

• The Cats in Krasinski Square, by Karen Hesse (Picture Book)


• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A Fable, by John Boyne (Juvenile Chapter Book)
  

• Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry (Juvenile Chapter Book)
  


• The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak (Young Adult Book)
  

A Global Perspective

Books are a great way to introduce kids to the people of the world, with all their similarities and differences.  Use these titles as a way to start a conversation in your house about life around the world.

A Cool Drink of Water by Barbara Kerley. Water is everywhere. See how people gather and enjoy water around the world. Fantastic vibrant pictures and simple text tell the story. Talk about the different ways your family uses water throughout the day.

 

One World, One Day by Barbara Kerley. Kids around the world wake up, go to school, do chores and enjoy family time. What does your family's day entail?

Our Grandparents: A Global Album by Maya Ajmera, Sheila Kinkade and Cynthia Pon. Families are important no matter where you live. What special things do you enjoy doing with your grandparents?

What the World Eats by Peter Menzel. Everybody goes grocery shopping. See what a week's worth of groceries looks like to 25 families from 21 countries. What items from your list can you find in the pictures?

And the Winners Are...

The most dazzling awards event of the book world happened early Monday morning at the ALA Mid-Winter Conference. The winners were announced for a whole slew of awards.

And the Caldecott for distinguished illustration goes to Jerry Pinkney's The Lion and the Mouse!  This is a beautiful wordless book, making it great to share with all ages.  Two books received Caldecott honors: Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors by illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Joyce Sidman (I'll review this one later!) and All the World illustrated by Marla Frazee, written by Liz Garton Scanlon.

The Newbery, recognizing a book distinguished for its text and written for the 0-14 year old set, was awarded to When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. Mystery, family dynamics and time travel collide in this fantastic story.  Several honor books were named: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice written by Phillip Hoose, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate written by Jacqueline Kelly, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon written by Grace Lin, The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg written by Rodman Philbrick.

Other winners included....Benny and Penny in the Big No-No! written and illustrated by Geoffrey Hayes, the Theodor Seuss Geisel winner; Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream written by Tanya Lee Stone, the Sibert medal winner ; several Coretta Scott King Award winners and many more. Click here for a complete list, including "Notable" titles.