Blog Post
Library Lists: 10 Great Animal Books for Kids
by eapearce
Are you looking for cool facts about animals? Are you interested in seeing amazing, detailed pictures of animals and how they swim, run, climb, and eat? Here’s ten of the best designed, researched and illustrated books on animals for kids in grades K-8.
1. Bone collection: Animals: This book has detailed pictures and drawings of the skeletons of some of the world’s most fascinating animals! Study their bones to find out how they move and survive.
2. Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on Earth: Many animals can survive in conditions that humans could never tolerate. Learn about these animals and their special adaptations that allow them to brave the driest deserts, the coldest poles, and other amazing locations.
3. Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World: Animals have eyes of all different shapes, colors, and seeing-capabilities. Learn why different animals have such unique eyes and how they use them to gain information about what’s around them.
4. Amazing Giant Wild Animals: This awesome book features fold out pages of some of the longest, widest, tallest and heaviest creatures on Earth, allowing you to get a feel for their true size!
5. Actual Size: Steve Jenkins’ amazing paper-cut illustrations make this amazing book even more wonderful. Each page features part of an animal or a whole animal presented in its real-life size. You can see how animal shapes and sizes compare to your own body parts and to other animals!
6. Nocturne: Creatures of the Night: Amazing photographs of nocturnal animals take readers on a journey through the animal kingdom at night. Learn about the habits and habitats of forty different night-dwelling creatures.
7. Creature Features: Some animals have strange features! In this beautiful book, the animals themselves explain why they look the way they do, and why their seemingly unusual traits actually help them survive in the wild.
8. National Wildlife Federation’s World of Birds: This colorful almanac for beginning bird watchers is filled with over a hundred species, arranged by habitat. A must-have guide for those interested in learning about the birds we see in our backyards!
9. Animalium: Take a journey to the museum with this stunning book! Invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals are all featured in gorgeous illustrations in this virtual museum with exhibits open 365 days a year!
10. The Animal Book: This “collection of the fastest, fiercest, toughest, cleverest, shyest--and most surprising--animals on Earth” features over 300 types of animals and offers an easily comprehensible history of life on Earth. My personal favorite animal book for kids!
Still want more? Check out this more extensive list of great, kid-friendly books on animals!
Blog Post
Lift-the-Flap Board Books!
by manz
The library has many baby board books, with thick pages ready for babies and toddlers to handle. But sometimes you’re looking for the books that have peek-a-boo style flaps that the kiddos can lift up and explore! We have several of those.
This past week Ms. Amanda featured Guess What? - Food at storytime, and it’s great if you’re looking for a silly guessing story, even for preschoolers. AADL also has many more lift the flap books to choose from! Check out the list and see what might make your little one's reading time more hands-on.
Blog Post
Harry Potter: The Creature Vault
by PizzaPuppy
Already anticipating next year's release of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie? Antsy to get your hands on new Harry Potter reading material?
Harry Potter: The Creature Vault is a brand new companion book to the series, and is bursting with information regarding your favorite Harry Potter creatures. This enormous book is filled to the brim with behind-the-scenes information, including rare concept art and backstage photographs. Learn about dragons, acromantulas, hippogriffs, house elves and more with detailed profiles of each creature, including which books and movies each creature appears in. This stunning book delves into the process each creature took from page to screen, and details each stage of development. Also included are interesting filmmaking secrets from the set (did you know that Hedwig was played by at least 7 different snowy owls?). This mesmerizing collection is a must read for any Harry Potter fan. A word of warning: some of the early development pictures can get pretty creepy!
For more Harry Potter creature research, try the classic Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. For more behind-the-scenes action, take a look at Harry Potter Film Wizardry, one of my personal favorites.
Blog Post
Read Across America Day & National Reading Month
by manz
Today is Read Across America Day!
Read Across America Day was founded in 1997 “to promote the joy and importance of reading and to celebrate the birthday of beloved author Dr. Seuss.” It has become a nationwide event celebrated by schools, libraries and bookstores across the country. You just mind find an elementary school principal dressed up like Thing 1 or Thing 2, and some students may end up eating green eggs and ham for lunch. How wacky! How Seussy!
Did you know that there will be a NEW Dr. Seuss book coming out in July? The manuscript for Which Pet Should I get was recently found by his widow.
Be sure to check out your favorite Dr. Seuss titles and get some reading done! Hooray for reading! It's not just today, the entire month of March is National Reading Month.
Blog Post
Parent’s Corner: “Mom, I’m Hungry!”
by manz
Kids seem to be hungry all the time. Always wanting a snack or a juice box, even after they’ve just ate. How and what do you feed the kid who wants to eat all day? The Parent Shelf is located in the downtown youth area, and on this shelf you’ll find a variety of parent-child related books on a multitude of topics- including everything from food and nutrition to potty training to time-outs to homework. These books are available for checkout and can be found in the catalog when searching “parent shelf.”
Beating the lunch box blues: Fresh ideas for lunches on the go! is found on that shelf, and sounds like a great way to spice up the brown bag lunches if you’re burned out on spreading peanut butter on bread. For more titles, check out this list of great books featuring more fun lunch box ideas.
For additional food ideas and insight on dealing with food challenges, check out Food fights: Winning the Nutritional challenges of parenthood armed with insight, humor and a bottle of ketchup, and Whatever happened to dinner?: Recipes and ideas for family mealtime.
And of course here are even more food titles to help with meal planning and encouraging healthy eating habits.
Blog Post
New Picture Books With a Twist!
by manz
Sometimes new picture books come out that are presented in a nontraditional format. Here are three great examples of books that feature a messy story with interruptions, a story that’s read backwards and upside down, and story with a choose-your-own-ending.
A Perfectly Messed-Up Story
In this classically cute story by Patrick McDonnell, Louie becomes angry when the story in which he appears is ruined by messes from jelly, peanut butter, finger prints, and other things that do not belong in books. It’s quite funny! In the end he realizes that it’s still a good story – messes and all.
The Story Starts Here:
Little Wolf decides to do things his way, including starting his story at the back of the book instead of the front, wearing pants on his head, and playing piano with his toes. But at some point the book has to turn upside down in order to turn things right side up.
Milo and the Mysterious Island:
Milo wishes to see what’s beyond the horizon and he and the other mice build a raft and set off on a voyage. The book reads as normal, then you get to a point where there are split pages. One set of pages finishes the story with a happy ending, and the other set of pages finishes the story with a sad ending – you get to decide which one you want to read! Or of course you can read both. Written by Marcus Pfister, author of Rainbow Fish.
Blog Post
New and Unusual Animal Books
by evelyn
If you or your little one loves animals, we have some great new books in that will teach you all about them in a whole new way! You’ll want to look at all of these beautiful, bright, and fascinating books.
First up, check out Bone Collection: Animals, which offers realistic drawings of animals’ skeletons with explanations of how the bones fit together and what purpose they all serve. Mixed in with the skeleton drawings are photographs of the animals and lots of facts. I learned so much from this book! Did you know that kangaroos’ tails are heavy to support their weight during fights, or that even though fruit bats are only 15 inches long, their wingspan can be longer than 5½ feet? That’s taller than I am! Learn all about this and more in this beautiful book.
For an amazing look at how wildlife adapts, take a look at Chernobyl’s Wild Kingdom: Life in the Dead Zone. This brilliant book explains the disastrous 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion and explores the aftermath. This book details the recovery of plants and animals in the area, which was initially assumed to be impossible. The effects of radiation are explained in clear, detailed language, and photographs highlight the difference between animals living within the “dead zone” and without.
If you’re after beautiful illustrations and simple, informative text, look at illustrator Steve Jenkins’s new books, Creature Features: 25 Animals Explain Why They Look the Way They Do, and Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World. With a combination of true facts and big pictures, these books are perfect for younger readers.
Blog Post
Draw Paint Print like the Great Artists
by PizzaPuppy
With Draw Paint Print like the Great Artists, you can learn different art styles alongside your favorite artists throughout history! In this beautiful and fascinating book, the reader is introduced to more than 30 different famous artists and their works. From there, the book introduces each artist's favorite art techniques, and provides creative projects designed by the author in order to hone your newfound art skills. All of the activities include easy instructions and the activities themselves are both inspiring and a lot of fun!
With aesthetically pleasing content and formatting, Draw Paint Print like the Great Artists encourages artists of all ages and skill sets while leaving enough room for creativity and growth. For more information on these famous artists, look for An Eye for Art: Focusing on Great Artists and Their Work and Look Closer: Art Masterpieces Through the Ages.
Blog Post
New Non-Fiction for Kids: Inventions that could have changed the world... but didn't!
by eapearce
Over the course of history, a lot of people have changed the world. Of course, even more people have also WANTED to change the world… but it hasn’t quite worked out. The brand new book Inventions That Could Have Changed the World… But Didn’t! describes some of the toys, games, household and office aids, and general contraptions that have been thought up but didn’t quite succeed in actuality. From a combination pogo stick/helicopter to Toaster Bacon, this fun book is filled with goofy and fascinating inventions from the ages. Inventions That Could Have Changed the World also has interesting and easy-to-understand information about patents and tips for getting your OWN invention to succeed.
Interested in other books about inventions and inventing? Try 100 Inventions That Made History, The Story of Inventions, or Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women.
Blog Post
PreK Bits - "W" is for WHALES
by ryanikoglu
Ms. Rachel took a trip to the Arctic for tales of whales, igloos and Inuit people.
“A Whale Of A Tale” from The STORY VINE is an “oral tradition” tale about an Inuit boy who went for a walk.
"Okki Tokki Unga" is an Inuit rhythmic phrase we chanted while paddling kayaks “across the bay.”
Here ... The WIGGLES do their version of "Okki Tokki Unga"
KUMAK’s FISH is an original Inuit folk tale by Michael Bania.
If the list from Storytime is not long enough to satisfy your need for whale blubber, try more whale Tales:
KUMAK'S HOUSE by Michael Bania.
BURT DOW: Deep-Water Man by Robert McCloskey.
Also the recorded kit version BURT DOW: Deep-Water Man
This story was a family favorite when my sons were young. Every boat was the “Tidely-Idely” and we could always find “the pink of Ginny Poor’s pantry.”
BABY BELUGA in book format by Raffi. The song is on recorded CD BABY BELUGA and [">more songs by Raffi .
DOWN To The SEA With MR MAGEE another wacky tale!
COMMOTION In The OCEAN by Andreae Giles.
BREATHE by Scott Magoon.
FOLLOWING PAPA’s SONG by Gianna Marino.
LOOK INSIDE An IGLOO by Mari C. Schuh.
IGLOOS by Jack Manning.