The Snake Scientist by Sy Montgomery

The Snake Scientist by Sy Montgomery, photographs by Nic Bishop Amber (9) loves animals and says she want to be a wildlife biologist. One problem I run into, though, is that it's hard to find good, interesting non-fiction animal or science books that are actually at her reading level. So many seem to be aimed at younger kids or teenagers. This one was perfect, though, one that we both learned from and enjoyed. The Snake Scientist is Bob Mason, a zoologist at Oregon State University. The book discusses his research projects at the Narcisse Wildlife Management Area in Manitoba, where in the spring over 18,000 red-sided garter nakes come out of their dens. For about six weeks each April and May, thousands of these harmless snakes awaken from eight months' sleep beneath the earth. They pour out of the pits like water—a river of writhing reptiles. At any of the three big dens here, you can see more snakes at a glance than...
Read More

From Amber’s Sketchbook

I'm showing a clay piece again this week instead of a drawing, but there's a reason. Amber had to turn in her first book report for the year this past week. She had to read a non-fiction book, which she loves, and she chose to make a model as her project. It's a pink dolphin, which I didn't even know existed when I was Amber's age (9). Amber really enjoyed the book she read, Encantado, which I've included below. She learned a lot, not just about pink dolphins, but also about other animals of the Amazon and the culture and customs of the people who live there. Encantado: Pink Dolphin of the Amazon  by Sy Montgomery Publisher's description: Welcome to a forest filled with water. In the wet season, the swollen Amazon becomes a looking glass into another world, where pink dolphins swim like something from a dream. In Peru they are called bufeo colorado—the ruddy dolphin. Their color ranges from white to gray to a vivid...
Read More

G is for Girl

Vicki of Reading At The Beach hosts A-Z Wednesday. Today's letter is G. This is one I read back in 2006. All I remember is enjoying it, but I've always been a Nancy Drew fan.   Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak This is the publisher's description. A plucky “titian-haired” sleuth solved her first mystery in 1930. Eighty million books later, Nancy Drew has survived the Depression, World War II, and the sixties (when she was taken up with a vengeance by women’s libbers) to enter the pantheon of American girlhood. As beloved by girls today as she was by their grandmothers, Nancy Drew has both inspired and reflected the changes in her readers’ lives. Here, in a narrative with all the vivid energy and page-turning pace of Nancy’s adventures, Melanie Rehak solves an enduring literary mystery: Who created Nancy Drew? And how did she go from pulp heroine to icon?    The brainchild of children’s book mogul Edward Stratemeyer, Nancy...
Read More