New Holiday Books

From the series Holiday Histories by Mir Tamim Ansary:

Arbor Day
Explores the history of Arbor Day, a day that is celebrated by planting trees, and discusses how and why Arbor Day was started.

Columbus Day
Introduces Columbus Day, explaining the historical events behind it, how it became a holiday, and how it is observed.

Presidents' Day
Introduces Presidents' Day, explaining the historical events behind it, how it became a holiday, and how it is observed.

Veterans Day
Introduces Veterans Day, explaining the historical events behind it, how it became a holiday, and how it is observed.

New YA Books

Poppy and Ereth - Avi
After a long, hard winter in Dimwood forest, Poppy the deer mouse finds new adventure thrust upon her while rescuing Ereth the porcupine from the mud.

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg - Rodman Philbrick
Twelve-year-old Homer, a poor but clever orphan, has extraordinary adventures after running away from his evil uncle to rescue his brother, who has been sold into service in the Civil War.

The Twilight Prisoner - Katherine Marsh
In an effort to impress a female classmate, high school sophomore Jack Perdu endangers both of their lives by taking her to New York City's Underworld, where those who died in New York reside until they are ready to move on.

Palace of Mirrors - Margaret Peterson Haddix
Fourteen-year-old Cecilia has always known she is the true princess of Suala, but when she and her best friend, Harper, decide to speed up her ascendancy to the throne, they find danger and many imposters who challenge her claim.

New Children's Nonfiction Books

Larousse Children's French Dictionary
Presents a French dictionary for children ages eight through eleven and contains twenty-two illustrated scenes, fifty dialogues, cultural information about the country, word games, vocabulary building, and more.

Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea - Steve Jenkins
Provides a top-to-bottom look at the ocean, from birds and waves to thermal vents and ooze.

First Thousand Words in Arabic - Heather Amery
Presents 1,000 common Arabic words accompanied by drawings.

May 2009 Newsletter

New Christian Education Resources Database

On April 9, a new database went online that helps users locate Christian education resources housed in the Centennial Library’s Curriculum Materials Center. There are over 700 items in the Christian Education Resources Database, which focuses on such resources as children's and youth Bibles, activity and idea books, Christian children's books, children's devotional books, and much more. Users may limit their searches to eleven specific publishers if desired. All new Christian education resources will be added to the database as they arrive in the CMC. Thanks go to Eric Svendsen and Kyle Linden of Computer Services for their work on this project.

Website of the Month

According to a recent issue of MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, "the nonprofit Curriki.org is a 3-year-old organization that offers a large collection of free and open source content and collaboration tools" for educators. Teachers can find a large number of customizable individual lesson plans, units of instruction, and even more than 300 full courses. The content is carefully screened by paid and volunteer experts. As textbooks become more and more expensive, and textbook budgets continue to decline, some schools are considering this type of open source collaboration as the answer to a growing problem.

New Materials

During April, nearly 90 new items were added to the CMC collection, including trade books, phonics resources for middle grades, and curriculum sets. Click here to see the full list.

Have a wonderful summer! This newsletter will resume in the fall.

New Children's Books

Elephants of Africa - Gail Gibbons
Details the habitats, physical characteristics, diet, offspring development, and behavior of the African elephant.

Moon: Science, History, and Mystery - Stewart Ross
The moon has always been a magical and mystical icon throughout human history. It is the only natural satellite of the earth and the second-brightest object in the sky after the sun. July 20, 2009, is the fortieth anniversary of the day that man first walked on the moon.

Slither and Crawl: Eye to Eye with Reptiles - Jim Arnosky
Explains how to identify venomous snakes and their harmless cousins, where to find a 200-pound lizard, how to avoid becoming an alligator's lunch and features snake fangs, alligator claws, and turtle shells--all life-size!

Watch Me Throw the Ball! - Mo Willems
Gerald the elephant tries to tell Piggie that ball-throwing is serious business, but Piggie just wants to have fun.

Emmaline and the Bunny - Katherine Hannigan
Everyone and everything in the town of Neatasapin is tidy, except Emmaline who likes to dig dirt and jump in puddles, and wants to adopt an untidy bunny.

The Swamps of Sleethe - Jack Prelutsky
A collection of poems with a planetary theme.

All in a Day - Cynthia Rylant
Illustrations and rhyming text pay homage to a new day, with promises for the future in its "perfect piece of time."





Panorama: A Foldout Book - Fani Marceau
Illustrations and simple text invite the reader to visit different places around the world, then to view the same scenes at night on the reverse of the fanfolded page.

The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry
The definitive anthology of children's poetry with beautiful illustrations.

The Sneetches and Other Stories - Dr. Seuss
Includes four humorous verse fantasies: The Sneetches, The Zax, Too Many Daves, and What was I Scared of?

Little Red Riding Hood/Le Petit Chaperon Rouge - Ana Lomba
The classic fairy tale retold in both French and English through text and on CD.

New YA Books

Scat - Carl Hiaasen
Nick and his friend Marta decide to investigate when a mysterious fire starts near a Florida wildlife preserve and an unpopular teacher goes missing.

The Amaranth Enchantment - Julie Berry
Orphaned at age five, Lucinda, now fifteen, stands with courage against the man who took everything from her, aided by a thief, a clever goat, and a mysterious woman called the Witch of Amaranth, while the prince she knew as a child prepares to marry, unaware that he, too, is in danger.

The Brooklyn Nine - Alan Gratz
Follows the fortunes of a German immigrant family through nine generations, beginning in 1845, as they experience American life and play baseball.

Creature of the Night - Kate Thompson
Bobby lives a reckless life smoking, drinking, and stealing cars in Dublin. So his mother moves the family to the country. But Bobby suspects their cottage might not be as quaint as it seems. And spooky details of the history of their little cottage gradually turn Bobby into a detective of night creatures real and imagined.

New Children's and YA Books

If I Stay - Gayle Forman
While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weights whether to live with her grief or join her family in death.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk High School - Jack Canfield
A collection of 101 stories for high school students written by other teens and by adults about their experiences in high school. All stories are true personal anecdotes covering a range of topics from funny and embarrassing moments to teen love and friendship, family issues, self-respect, and others.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk Relationships - Jack Canfield
A compilation of true stories written by teenagers, and by adults writing about their teenage years, focusing on teen relationships with parents, friends, crushes, boyfriends and girlfriends.

My People - Langston Hughes
Hughes's spare yet eloquent tribute to his people has been cherished for generations. Now, acclaimed photographer Smith interprets this beloved poem in vivid sepia photographs that capture the glory, the beauty, and the soul of being a black American today.

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 - Brian Floca
Here is the story of the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon -- a story of leaving and returning during the summer of 1969, and a story of home, seen whole, from far away by steady astronauts in their great machines.

New Nonfiction Books

From the series Looking at Nature by Bobbie Kalman:

How Does It Move?
Looks at the many different ways in which people and animals move.







What Are Natural Structures?
Simple text and photographs explore the forms and structures of animals and plants as well as landforms.

What Are These Animals Doing?
Simple text and photographs explore animal behaviors, such as hiding from predators, dancing, migrating, and caring for their young.





What Time Is It?
Explains what time is and how people tell time, and looks at different segments of time, focusing on a year of seasons.

Shel Silverstein, Poet - Rachel Lynette
Examines the life of poet and children's author, Shel Silverstein.

Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland - Sally M. Walker
This book reports on the work of forensic scientists who are excavating grave sites in James Fort, in Jamestown, Virginia, to understand the people who lived in the Chesapeake Bay area in the 1600s and 1700s.

Ed Emberley's Complete FunPrint Drawing Book
Instructions for creating a variety of shapes and figures using fingerprints and a few simple lines.

Transportation Technology - Brian Williams
Describes new technologies that are helping make road transportation, railroads, ships, airplanes, and space travel more efficient and discusses how transportation will change in the future.

Military Technology - Ian Graham
Describes new technologies that are helping make military aviation, land warfare, warships and submarines, intelligence, non-lethal weapons, and space weapons more efficient and discusses the implications these technologies have on current and future warfare.

New Teen Books

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk Middle School
A collection of 101 stories for middle school students written by other young teens and by adults about their experiences in middle school. All stories are true personal anecdotes covering a range of topics from funny and embarrassing moments, to teen love and friendship, to family issues and others.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk Tough Times
A collection of stories written by teenagers and adults reflecting on their teenage years, offering support and inspiration in tough times. Topics range from abuse to disease to death to self-destructive behavior.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk Getting in...to College
A collection of 101 stories for high schools students who are applying to college written by teens and by adults about their experiences applying to college. Stories cover everything from grade pressure, to peer pressure, to parental pressure, to SATs and ACTs, interviews and essays, filling out college applications, to waiting for the letters, dealing with good and bad news, wait lists, and alternative paths to college such as gap years.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk Growing Up
Collects anecdotes from teenagers about friendship, peer pressure, self-acceptance, family life, relationships, and overcoming obstacles.

Blinded: The Story of Paul the Apostle - Steve Ross
Saul of Tarsus is good at his job. He hunts down "Flesh Eaters," members of a strange and threatening religious sect that meets in secret and worships by eating and drinking the body and blood of their Lord. What happens when Saul discovers that's he's wrong? What happens when he becomes the Apostle Paul?

New Nonfiction Books

Larry Page and Sergey Brin: The Google Guys - Gail B. Stewart
A brief biography of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of the Google Internet Search Engine.

From the First Guide to Government series:

What's the Declaration of Independence? - Nancy Harris
What is the Declaration of Independence? -- The American colonies -- Unhappy colonists -- Taxes -- Taking a stand -- The Second Continental Congress -- Writing the Declaration of Independence -- Parts of the Declaration of Independence -- Signing the Declaration of Independence -- The Revolutionary War -- Celebrating the Declaration of Independence

What's the Constitution? - Nancy Harris
What is the United States Constitution? -- History of the Constitution -- The Articles of Confederation -- Writing the constitution -- Parts of the Constitution -- The amendments -- Why is the constitution important?

What's the Bill of Rights? - Nancy Harris
Simple text and illustrations provide an introduction to the Bill of Rights, discussing the history of the Constitution, when it was added, who wrote it, other amendments, and why it is important.

What Are the Amendments? - Nancy Harris
What is the United States Constitution? -- Why do we have amendments? -- How to amend the constitution -- The first ten amendments -- Other amendments -- Repealing amendments -- Why are the amendments important?