If you want to know answers to more WHAT, WHERE, WHY, then this selection of new non fiction books will keep you happy for hours
Who has what? : all about girls’ bodies and boys’ bodies / Robie H. Harris ; illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott.
What? Where? Why?
The Kingfisher animal encyclopedia / written by David Burnie.
Big wig : a little history of hair / by Kathleen Krull ; illustrated by Peter Malone.
But why can’t I? / written by Sue Graves ; illustrated by Desideria Guicciardini.
George thinks rules are silly and refuses to keep them. Find out what happens when his babysitter arrives. Does he change his mind?
Not fair, won’t share / written by Sue Graves ; illustrated by Desideria Guicciardini.
Posy, Ben and Alfie have to share playing with a superdooper space station but Posy doesn’t want to share. Do the others get their turn? Read and see.
Who feels scared? / written by Sue Graves ; illustrated by Desideria Guicciardini.
Jack is having a sleepover at his house but he and his friends all hear noises and get scared. How does his father come to the rescue?
The Masai : tribe of warriors / written and photographed by Jonathan and Angela Scott.
Cattle are the centre of life for the Masai people of Kenya and Tanzania. In the past, young men would raid cattle to prove themselves as warriors and have to kill a lion with only a spear. What do they have to do today? Read this great book to find out and enjoy learning about a totally different culture. Great photos and easy text make this a great read .
Footballers / Adam Sutherland.
Did you know that Wesley Sneijder’s coaches blew a whistle and stopped training every time Sneijder touched the ball with his right foot? This was to help him practise with his weaker left foot. Learn heaps more about today’s greatest footballers from around the world in this new book. We also have other titles in this Celebrities Secrets series; Film Stars and Pop Stars are two of them.
Musical instruments for children : choosing what’s right for your child / Richard Crozier.
This book is really to help your parents understand why you want to learn a particular instrument, the kettle drum for example. It gives them advice on what really is the best instrument for your personality and all the tips on how to keep you motivated till you’re a world class performer!
If you’re studying terrorism and are year 8 or older then this book will be a great help. It focuses on USA campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and is written from the American perspective. Crammed full of facts with lots of maps too. The text is best suited to advanced readers.
The AWW cooking school for kids / food Director, Pamela Clark.
Another wonderful book to get you cooking! Mouth watering photos of every recipe and the steps involved make the cooking easy. My favourites are Caramel Banana Tart and Chicken and Mushroom Party Pies. Yum!
Spotlight on South Africa / Bobbie Kalman.
Apartheid is no longer a law in South Africa. Some people have better jobs with more pay but many are still living in shantytowns. This book gives a good overview of the country as it is today, with easy text and lots of great photos. The glossary at the back helps you understand some of the words you may not know. Good for projects. Look out for this SPOTLIGHT series as there are books on lots of countries you may want to study.
Life cycles / written by Sally Morgan.
If you want to know all about the life cycle of salmon then this is the book! There is a general section on life cycles covering many insects and animals then the remainder of the book is about the North Atlantic salmon. Wonderful photos and pictures help explain the text.
Big book of big animals / Hazel Maskell ; illustrated by Fabiano Fiorin.
Open the huge fold-out pages to see some of the tallest, longest and heaviest animals in the world. Great little facts about each animal add to the interest of this book. Lammergeiers, for example are huge birds of prey that eat bones. They often drop bigger bones onto rocks to shatter them into smaller bite-sized pieces. Who knew?
Children of the Dust Bowl : the true story of the school at Weedpatch Camp / Jerry Stanley ; illustrated with photographs.
This book is for older readers. It starts by describing the conditions of the farmers and settlers during the drought of the 1930s. Lots of photos help us understand the desperate conditions that drove them to travel across the country to California. The remainder of the book focuses on the efforts of Leo Hart, who founded Weedpatch School. The children from the dust bowl states, (Okie children) actually helped build it. Throughout are songs and stories from people who survived. They tell of the filth and heat and dust, of the meals of coffee grounds and apple pips, and of the prejudice and poverty encountered in the California promised land. “A powerful account of a desperate time” (Book cover)
How to do everything / written by John Woodward ; contributors, Francesca Baines … [et al.] ; illustrated by Tobatron.
How to do, make and explore just about everything! How to Do Everything is a fantastic and unique combination of reference material, fun facts, exciting activities and instructions for life. It covers everything from boiling an egg to making a movie so you’ll never be stuck wondering what to do again! So what are you waiting for? Get Busy! (Book cover)
How to beat your dad at chess / Murray Chandler.
This is a chess book for everyone, from eight to eighty, beginner to master. It explains the best ways to beat a stronger opponent by forcing checkmate. So if you want to do the Double Rook Sacrifice or the See-Saw or the Arabian Mate check out this book.
Most of us are either left or right handed but did you know that you are also left or right eyed? Well believe it or not most humans also have a dominant eye.
If you want to find out which is your dominant eye then this is what you need to do.
Hold your arm up and place your thumb and fingers together to create a hole or circle. (Hold your arm away from your body).
Now look through this hole with both eyes at a small distant object - such as a light switch on the other side of the room. Position your hand so the object is right in the middle of the hole and keep still.
Now close one eye. Did the distant object appear to move? If so, the eye you closed is your dominant eye. If not, your open eye is the dominant eye.
Open both eyes again and realign the hole and this time close the other eye. What happened this time?
You don’t normally notice this preference because your brain usually has no problem combining the separate images from each eye into one useful picture. Sometimes it might pay more attention to one eye, then the other, depending on which is more interesting or important.
Are all right-handed people right eyed?
No, but more people are right handed than left and more people have a dominant right eye too, so most right handed people are right eyed. But there are also lots of people with cross dominance (left eye, right hand and vice versa) but most of the time it makes very little difference.
You can find out lots of stuff about your body in The Surfing Scientist 40 Super Human Body Tricks. All you need is your body, some household items and an appetite for fun.
100 Most Awesome Things on the Planet is the title of this new book. It is divided into 2 sections – Awesome Natural Wonders and Awesome Human Creations. It’s not a huge book but has great photos and blocks of facts for each awesome thing. There is even an “awesome rating” for each entry. Some of the top rated awesomes are Grand Canyon, Monarch Migrations, Blue Whales, Solar Eclipse, Nanomachines, Blackbird(a plane), Spirit of Australia (a boat) and Bagger293. If you want to read more about these or see what the other 92 are, reserve a copy.
In history, and in legends, dragons were used to represent ideas.
Western dragons were a symbol of evil, or the devil. Scandinavian dragons symbolised greed or pride. But in China the dragon was a symbol of good luck, protection and fertility. Because of this, Chinese emperors used the dragon as their symbol.
Western dragons were not only used to represent evil. Dragon images were also used by kings and their armies on their war standards. They used the image of a dragon to represent power and strength.
In medieval Europe the images of dragons as representing good and bad existed at the same time. Churches had images of saints killing dragons to show good triumphing over evil. But they also had dragon gargoyles. These were stone water drains in dragon shapes, on the outside of buildings, to guard against evil spirits.
If you enjoyed this post and want to read more, you can find out more about dragons in The Dragon Companion: An Encyclopedia by Carole Wilkinson. This is an adult book, but it is okay for kids to read too. All the facts in this post were taken from this book.
Books written for kids about dragons that you might like to read are:
The Nargun and the Stars by Patricia Wrightson
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
The Indigo King by James A. Owen
Are you one of those people who can’t get by without asking a question? Well I’ve found a book for you! Why don’t you have a look at Ask Me Anything and have all the answers you need! It is a ginormous book full of every fact you ever wanted to know. It even dares you to ask any question, anything you like because it will surely have the answers. Why are most gases invisible? Why is blood red?Why does the wind blow? Want to know the answers? Then head on down the library and check out this book. Have fun!
Here’s something to do over the holidays-use the world’s most complex processor in the planet. Can you guess what that is? Well you are actually using it right now, you know, coz it’s your brain! Check out the book 40 Science Mind Benders another one in the Surfing Scientist series by Ruben Meerman. Challenge your brain and feel the accomplishment of getting the answers right. But don’t feel bad if you don’t, because it’s all for fun and something to try with your friends. Have fun with Egg Pickle or Ten Nails Puzzle and more.
Have you heard about Mark Inglis? The man who in 1982 had to spend thirteen and a half days huddled in an ice cave near the summit of Aoraki Mount Cook during a major storm.
The frostbite that he suffered during that time cost him both his legs below the knee but this did not hold him back. After being fitted with new artificial legs he went on to climb the highest mountain in the world – Mt Everest.
High-Tech Legs on Everest is a great story about everything Mark went through to achieve his goals included a day by day account of his climb on Everest with lots of interest bits he found along the way. And let’s not forget about those amazing high-tech legs that got him there.
Find out the insider’s scoop on how artistic illusions are created with this book. It’s called Trick of the Eye: Art and Illusion by Silke Vry. It was really fascinating how the artists can create depth and dimension by just using their brushes. What’s cool about it is you can have a go at recreating some of the illusions yourself. There are also some fun activities for you to do like eye tests which tests your ability to spot the hidden images in a picture. I had fun reading this I hope you will too!
What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio is a fascinating book.
The authors visited 25 families in 21 countries and recorded everything they ate in one week. That was 525 meals. Some of the countries visited were India, Mexico, Greenland, Poland, Mali, United States, China and Australia.
There are large photos of a week’s food spread out so you can really have a good nosey at what they ate. You may be surprised at how many brands you recognise. Some have lots of meat while others have many vegetables. Some are mainly packaged . They also calculated the cost per week which of course varied significantly depending on the wealth of the nation. There are lots of great photos of the families cooking and shopping plus features and facts on life expectancy, literacy and fast foods.
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