Secrets of Sound by April Pulley Sayre

by Carol2 Comments
by April Pulley Sayre (Suggested reading level: Grades 4-7) Amber (10) loves science, especially topics dealing with animals, and the Scientists in the Field series is perfect for her. Amber and I read this together and we both enjoyed this look at bioacousticians, scientists who study sounds made by mammals, insects, birds, frogs and other creatures. Squeaks. Wails. Whistles. Snorts. Songs. Drumming. Allover the globe, animals are making sounds, and these days, more than ever, scientists are listening to them. (pg. 7) Dr. Christopher Clark listens whale songs.  Katy Payne studies elephants' communication and their use of infrasound which is too low for humans to hear. Bill Evans listens to night migrating bird and has set up a website, oldbird.org, to help others listen from their own homes. Others work on projects studying hippos and kangaroo rats. The variety of information they collect and how they do it is fascinating. One thing they all seem to have in common, aside from their love of...
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Childhood memories

by Carol8 Comments
After years in Southern California he'd really feared that his childhood memories had become fragmented and magnified, taking bits and pieces of the things he'd like best and making them seem even better than they'd been. Ignoring the rain, he stepped out of the car and leaned on the hood, breathing deeply. Even the air was different here. It hadn't been just a kid's imagination. It was cleaner. Sweeter. Purer. (pg. 17, Montana Legacy by R. C. Ryan) I never run into that problem. I don't have many "childhood memories." Don't get me wrong. I had a wonderful childhood, I just have a terrible memory. Is there any place you lived or visited as a child that holds a special place in your heart? Did you ever go back? Did it live up to your memories? Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Play along. I cheated, but the rules are easy. Grab your current...
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The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill

by Carol10 Comments
The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill This mystery truly transported me to Laos in the late 1970s, an exotic place and time that was completely unfamiliar to me. The Communist Pathet Lao party has just taken over control of the country, and Dr. Siri Paiboun, instead of receiving the retirement he thinks he deserves, is appointed chief, and only, coroner. The morgue is poorly equipped and Siri often finds himself in conflict with his superiors and the system. Siri takes his job seriously, has to do the best he can for the dead who come to him, and not only because their spirits have a tendency to visit him in his dreams. Now, after months of quiet, Siri has three cases to deal with, the death of an important official’s wife, the discovery of bodies that could lead to an international incident between Laos and Vietnam, and uncovering the reason why the commanders of an Army base, located in...
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Game Night Poem

by Carol4 Comments
"Monopoly" by Connie Wanek We used to play, long before we bought real houses. A roll of the dice could send a girl to jail. The money was pink, blue, gold as well as green, and we could own a whole railroad or speculate in hotels where others dreaded staying: the cost was extortionary. At last one person would own everything, every teaspoon in the dining car, every spike driven into the planks by immigrants, every crooked mayor. But then, with only the clothes on our backs, we ran outside, laughing. "Monopoly" by Connie Wanek, from On Speaking Terms. Copper Canyon Press, 2010. I am an Amazon associate....
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The Ugly Duckling

by Carol5 Comments
"The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Andersen "The Ugly Duckling" story is one most of us know. A mother duck is sitting on her nest and all but one egg hatches. The ducklings are adorable, but the mother continues to sit on the last, largest egg, despite being told by another duck to leave it. Of course, the last egg hatches, and the young one is very large and doesn't look like the others, but he can swim and the mother declares "he is not so very ugly after all if you look at him properly." But his mother can't protect him from all the abuse he endures from the other farmyard animals and even the girl who feeds the poultry, so he runs away. One day he sees some beautiful white birds flying over head, but he does not interact with them. He is terrified by a hunter...
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