New Books

Hello,
I have some great titles that you might want to consider adding to your library.

Non-Fiction
• Jackson, Donna M. The name game. New York: Viking, 2009. Print. Explore the subject of names ranging from choosing the right name for a baby or your pet to naming traditions from around the world to the art of naming companies. One section that my students enjoyed especially is the section on companies that changed their names such as ‘Brad’s Drink’ changed to Pepsi-Cola or ‘Auction Web’ changed to ‘E-Bay’.
• Scott, Elaine. All about sleep from a to zzzzzz. New York: Viking, 2008. Print. Find out all you ever wanted to know about sleep in this book. Chapters include dreaming, sleepwalking, different kinds of sleep, nightmares, night terrors and how everything sleeps. Cartoonish illustrations help complete this short book.
• Hillman, Ben. How Strong is it? Singapore: Scholastic, 2008. Print. This is a book all about strength. How strong is a spiderweb? A trebuchet? Hair? A hurricane? A secret code? Glue? A black hole? Even more information is given here. Each item has a two-page spread with ¾ of the two pages dedicated to the photo and ¼ for the text. Good information is presented in a format that isn’t intimidating to the reader. Ben Hillman also wrote How Fast is It? and a brand new one titled How Weird is It? (I haven’t seen the last title. You might want to check that out before purchasing it.)
• Hatkoff, Juliana, Isabella Hatkoff, and Craig Hatkoff. Winter's Tail. New York: Scholastic, 2009. Print. You may have seen this young dolphin on TV who was rescued from a crab trap and lost her tail due to the great damage that was done. She learned to swim with a prosthetic tail made especially for her and has been an inspiration to thousands. This past October her 4th birthday was celebrated at the aquarium and through a live webcast. You can still view the 35 – 40 minute webcast online at www.winterstail.com. Other wonderful true stories of animals that have been rescued are Owen and MZee, Knut, Nubs, and Looking for Miza. These are picture books that span the age levels in your school. Through Winter’s website, you can also access websites for most of these other books.
• Bond, Rebecca. In the belly of an ox. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. Print. Two brothers, bird lovers, adventurous, photography buffs. That’s the start of the story of Richard and Cherry Kearton. This picture book tells some of the secrets and experiences of the brothers as they photograph birds, eggs, and nests and published them into British Bird’s Nests in 1895.

Picture Books
• Mohammed, Khadra. My name is Sangoel. Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2009. Print. A young Sudanese refugee and his family leave their homeland and travel to the United States where no one is able to pronounce his name. Sangoel solves this problem in a creative way and finally begins to feel at home.
• Blue, Rose, and Corinne J. Naden. Ron's Big Mission. New York: Dutton Children's Books, 2009. Print. The fictionalized account of a true incident tells how Ron McNair got his own library card. Blacks weren’t allowed to check out books but Ron knew the rules weren’t fair and stood up to them and got his own library card. Years later he became an astronaut and was on the fated Challenger space shuttle in 1986.
• Stuart J. Murphy has written a number of books about math fun. These are geared for the primary grades mainly and deal with how math is used in daily life. The titles listed below are a few from the collection. Titles and subjects include:
o Probably Pistachio – probability
o The Penny Pot – counting money using coins
o The Best Vacation Ever – collecting data
o Too Many Kangaroo Things to Do! – multiplying
o Divide and Ride – dividing
o Lemonade for Sale – bar graphs.


There you have about 20 new titles to think about. Have a good time choosing and have a great week.
Audrey