Ideas That Changed the World

Book Information
de la Bedoyere, Camille, ed. Ideas that Changed the World. New York, NY: Dorling Kindersley, 2010.

My Review and Summary
Interested in science or history? Check out Ideas that Changed the World, from Dorling Kindersley (publisher of the famous Eyewitness series). Ideas that Changed the World is filled with fast facts and interesting photographs about inventions and discoveries that have made history! This book is packed with the ideas that inspired creative inventors: the wheel, lasers, video games, GPS systems and cell phones.  Informative and action-packed, this book is appealing for learners of all ages!

My Notes
My brother-in-law, who is a mechanical engineer, pored over this book for at least half an hour! I introduced it to him because it had a page on the history of concrete (an area of specialty for his company), but he spent a good deal of time looking through the rest of it too!

I found the page on the invention of cash registers quite interesting, as they are quite sophisticated anti-theft machines. While working in a local museum a couple of summers ago, I actually created an exhibit featuring an early cash register -- the sheer weight of the machine was an anti-theft device in itself!

Excellent children's health websites

A few interesting and somber information services questions were posted to the American Library Services to Children email list about resources to help explain to children about health issues faced by their families. These issues were quite serious, and focused on car accidents and long term bed rest. In researching e-resources and website, I saw that there are comparatively few serious health online resources in this area appropriate for children, despite our society's growing focus on health.

An excellent website for children on health issues (varying in severity from nutrition to brain injuries) is KidsHealth at http://kidshealth.org/kid/. It's operated by Nemours, the organization that runs the Alfred I DuPont Children's Hospital. It features an online medical dictionary for children, whose definitions go far beyond the standards and include "biopsy" and "bruxism". In the category "Health Problems", the section on the brain was useful in answering the question on car accidents and their impact on the brain. The site presents the information using bright colours and drawings, and has fun quizzes and games to help kids grow their health knowledge. This website also has solid health information for teens and for parents too!

Additionally, www.aboutkidshealth.ca has a section just for kids that explains the functions of different organs in the body and health concerns, including diabetes, epilepsy and pain management. As in the Nemours website, it has a variety of kid-friendly online informational games, quizzes and animation/videos.

National Adult Literacy Database

Today, I discovered a data source whose focus is at the heart of many public libraries: adult literacy. The National Adult Literacy Database (a Canadian non-profit registered charity located at www.nald.ca) is an Internet-based source for information on literacy and essential skills in Canada. Here, you will find links to Canadian research in adult literacy, information on adult literacy training, and current adult literacy event information.

Discover!

ALSC help question results

Recently, I put out a question to the ALSC listserv, asking:

"Can you recommend a science fiction book at grade four reading level?

It has to have aliens. The vocab can't be too difficult, as the student is in ESL (though the reading level she is around the fourth grade). The student really likes art."

The ALSC community came through, and I have created a new page on this blog, above the post, displaying the results. Happy Reading!

The hidden agenda of bedtime stories - Parentcentral.ca

An excellent article on why we should read to children before bedtime. Night-time reading has a variety of benefits for children, including the development of cognitive skills, learning language, and understanding issues that they face day-to-day. To find out more, visit: The hidden agenda of bedtime stories - Parentcentral.ca

A few recommended reading lists from public libraries: http://www.stpaul.lib.mn.us/families/booklist-toddlers.html http://kidsspace.torontopubliclibrary.ca/genCategory15977.html http://kidsspace.torontopubliclibrary.ca/genCategory15746.html

Drop Everything and Read Silently, At Camp! Part 2

I thought I would add this as a follow-up post.

Offering an opportunity for silent reading/quiet activities was one of my best ideas for camp this week. It was a real treat seeing so many children, even those who proclaimed not to like reading, looking avidly through the books together that had been selected for camp, from Eyewitness-style non-fiction to sports books to mystery novels. I got requests for books during the week, and some campers even brought their own! Unsurprising to me, the Bone and Pokemon graphic novels were in demand! My supervisor and I felt that it was wonderful having the "library" brought to our campers at a municipal March Break camp.

Drop Everything and Read Silently, at Camp!

I wanted to add this brief post:

Partnerships between libraries and camps (March Break or summer) can work wonders. Today, I led a Drop Everything and Read Silently session at my camp, and it was amazing. It was boy-heavy, so we had plenty of nonfiction and fiction choices (I never thought I would top 50 books out of the library at a time, and have been proven wrong). Needless too say, it was a real success. Kids browsed books quietly, or played a quiet game. They even had additional requests for me, which I filled tonight. I am really pleased with the way it ran. They behaved so well that they scored an additional gym time session with extra time added on.Tomorrow, there will be a few graphic novels and magazines.

So, if your library does not have a formal partnership with your town's camps, you may wish to consider this as an additional outreach opportunity.