You have to love a book whose section on Collecting a Resource of Building Materials includes nature, supermarket, office supply store, waste leftovers, discards and extras, and scrounged parts. Get out some boxes to store the stuff you come across. Enjoy the Equipping a Basic Toolbox section, with tips about screwdrivers, pliers and the adjustable wrench.

Does your child know about different kinds of hinges? How about a turnbuckle? Think about bridges. There are beam bridges, arch bridges, and suspension bridges, and each one has an abutment, anchorage, and deck and more fun vocabulary and theory. Also you need to know about the universally versatile yurt, followed by all sorts of other tent structures.

The book can be used at all levels: text with history of building materials and methods, and lots of projects with suggested age appropriateness. And once the use of a material is explained, readers are encouraged to use it for original projects. The perfect age for this book is probably about 9 years, but it could be used as a great way to introduce younger children to the practical use of tools and materials, and the principles of structures, tension and compression, the elements of architecture, in a fun cooperative way.

In the Children’s area at the Library we have a World Languages section you might have missed. This is not the language learning area, but contains books in non-English languages. I counted 27 languages, alphabetically, from Arabic to Vietnamese, including Braille! Some are only represented by 1 or 2 books, others by hundreds. A number are bilingual, meaning that they are in English and another language, so a learner or speaker of either can enjoy the story while being introduced to the look and (maybe) sound of the other language.

Children are fascinated by different alphabets. Enjoy a book in Hindi and see the lovely flow of the script. Look at a Harry Potter book in Chinese and marvel at what the human brain can learn.

Read a bilingual book in Hopi or Navajo, get out the map and point out the southwest United States, talk about Haskell Indian Nations University right here in our town. How’s your Spanish? We have everything from Good Night Moon  to Diary of a Wimpy Kid , to Eragon.

Check out this list of children’s books in many languages!  The languages are arranged alphabetically.

Isn’t summer a time to relax? Apparently not for libraries. During June and July on a typical week the Children’s staff will provide 14 separate storytimes, clubs, performances, etc. for ages 8 months through 5th grade. School children in Lawrence will bring home a sheet with preliminary information for your planning phase, but be sure to check the website and pick up an actual paper calendar as the schedule solidifies. This year, because of our smaller space, the larger events will be in the Carnegie Building, so always check the location before you leave home.

The Carnegie was the library when I was a child. We walked in a lower entrance, now covered with lawn, on the east side directly into the lower level of the oldest part. I was horse crazy and remember checking out every book by Walter Farley (The Black Stallion and many more) from a pleasant librarian who was probably a young woman but I thought was ancient. The Farley books still are popular, and we are on our third library location.

By now there are well over 100 Eyewitness titles in 36 languages, and DK has a huge list of early readers and board books, all with that very clear style. Check out their website. The interesting thing about Eyewitness books is that they take into account that children learn in all sorts of ways, and that information need not be dumbed down as much as we think. Kids will pour over a picture and get so much more out of it than I, who look at the caption before the picture. But the images, always photographic, never silly cartoon art, respect my need for information. For print addicts, there is intelligent text, in varying sizes, with information about the picture. Just enough so that you can actually understand something important.

Title search DK Eyewitness gets you 145 titles in our online catalog. There are also Eyewitness DVDs, which are also beautiful, but you really can’t pore over a DVD. Some of the books now feature the great images on a Clip-Art CD, which we have fixed to the back inside cover for you to use.

Personally, I really think Eyewitness books shouldn’t be considered only children’s books. I am looking at Eyewitness Train. By the way what is a flange? Something to do with the plateway of a railroad track… Maybe I should read the larger print. I guess I thought I was too cool for that.

Patent knows her young readers are intelligent, and offers details that will hold attention and satisfy curiosity, without romanticizing those bygone times.Photographer William Munoz provides basic images that accompany the text without taking over, and a good selection of old photographs and paintings rounds out the history. As with many books published for “children,” this one is of interest to adults as well. The last sections cover the tragic era of white westward expansion, and horses in the lives of Native Americans today.

The Spanish brought horses to the New World for the first time in 1519, and within 250 years most of the Plains Indian groups had transformed into horse nations. They became completely involved with horses, as transport, as warriors, as strong spirits. For thousands of years before that, the dog had been the beast of burden, dragging the trailing poles of a travois with heavy supplies, skins and poles for tipis, and bundles of household goods, from camp to camp. As the skills to handle and use horses spread, people could travel farther faster, to trade or to a new campsite, or to scout out the enemy. Horses became a symbol of wealth, of inheritance, of celebration.

The ancestors of the horse were originally here in the Americas. They became extinct only about 7500 years ago, but by then they had traveled to other parts of the globe via the land that existed between what are now Siberia and Alaska. Long, long afterwards, domesticated horses, ridden by Spaniards clanking with armor, came ashore again, to change the lives of the native peoples forever.

Jared Diamond, in his book Guns, Germs and Steel, proposes that the presence of large domesticable animals made huge differences in the development of cultures. In North America, bears, moose, pronghorn or buffalo do not domesticate. Dogs can do just so much. When the horses came along, the native peoples lost no time figuring out how get and use them. It was clear to the conquerors that this was giving power to the enemy, and much effort went into keeping horses out of the hands of the locals, but there was no stopping it.

 What to expect when you’re expecting hatchlings, a guide for crocodilian parents (and curious kids)

What to expect when you’re expecting joeys, a guide for marsupial parents (and curious kids)

What to expect when you’re expecting larvae, a guide for insect parents (and curious kids)

by Bridget Heos, illustrated by Stephane Jorisch

“Congratulations, crocodilian parents-to-be! You have little ones on the way. They’re called hatchlings. Read this book to find out where to lay your eggs, how you’ll know when the babies are ready to hatch, and what you and your babies will do all day long. Whether you’re an alligator, caiman, crocodile, or even a funny-looking gharial, you’ll find answers to all your parenting questions here. But there’s one condition: don’t eat the book!”

This series of colorful books has a great way of introducing larger concepts while advising the crocodilian, insect or marsupial parents in a Q & A format: “Will anything eat my larvae?…Note to wood-boring beetles: Woodpeckers are not only noisy but also evil. They drill holes in trees, searching for your larvae. Then they eat the poor little things! Unfortunately this is all part of the food chain…..rest assured that many of your babies will manage not to be eaten….they’ll live to enjoy meal after meal of delicious—and nutritious—wood.”

This is the kind of nonfiction that is fun to read aloud to a pre-reader, and still fun for an older reader.  The illustrations are just right to accompany the amusing text. In the back of each is a glossary and a list of great books and websites to reinforce the new ideas.

All this past week we have been loading books onto big wheeled plywood-shelved carts, carefully in order, checking off and labeling each cart on a well organized list. Each cart gets wrapped in a frightening quantity of plastic wrap, put in the Beltman Group North American Van Lines truck by their friendly and competent guys, and taken over to 700 New Hampshire, also known to us as Free Borders.

There it is off-loaded, and shelved by more hard working library staff, intensely making sure everything is in order and arranged evenly on the shelves. Director Brad can be heard doing math out loud to figure out (again) how many inches of books should be on each shelf if there are x number of carts of a certain subject section, and y amount of shelves. Aaron and Tom the IT team are all over, setting up the phones, WiFi, staff computers, public computers, self checks, and so much more.

Of course sandwiched in there is the need to dismantle just the right amount and type of shelving and get it over to the 700 building before the books can be shelved. And before that there were hours of running through lists of books to separate the ones to go in to the “accessible storage” building in East Lawrence, and those to go to the browse-able shelves at our temporary library. 700 New Hampshire will be our home for at least a year and a half, while the Vermont St. library is totally remodeled and enlarged.

Fortunately for Lawrence families, the entire Children’s collection has gone to 700NH, none into storage. It feels small, but it is all there: the easy readers, picture books, chapter books, DVDs, CDs, etc. We are on the west side of the building, with big windows and pleasant seating areas. There is an event room at the back where there will be storytimes and programs, starting in February. Check the website calendar, and we’ll see you in the new space!

Charles Darwin and the Beagle Adventure, by A. J. Wood and Clint Twist. Flaps, foldouts and inserts make this fun to explore for the middle and upper grades.

Voyage of the beetle: a journey around the world with Charles Darwin and the search for the solution to the mystery of mysteries, as narrated by Rosie, an articulate beetle, by  Anne Weaver, illustrated by George Lawrence. Quite charming, for read aloud, and for maybe 3rd or 4th grade readers.

Animals Charles Darwin Saw: an around-the-world adventure, by Sandra Markle, illustrated by Zina Saunders. Shorter but still plenty of detail, for good readers.

What Darwin Saw: the journey that changed the world, written and illustrated by Rosalyn Schanzer. This is a large format, colorful book with very busy pages of pictures and boxes containing some of the best quotes from Darwin’s journals. A National Geographic publication.

Charles Darwin by Alan Gibbons, illustrated by Leo Brown. A large showy book, written from the point of view of a fictional young ship’s assistant to Charles Darwin. A good read-aloud for 5 and ups, or for middle readers.

One beetle too many: the Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin by Kathryn Lasky, illustrated by Matthew Trueman. Fun illustrations to the same timeless story. The title refers to the (true) story of Darwin trying to catch three beetles at once by putting one in his mouth, which is undoubtedly told in every one of these titles.

Reading books like these out loud, with plenty of animation, can let your child (and you) know that science is exciting, accessible, and relevant, carried out by nice people with drive and curiosity who get outside and work. It’s OK to read several, revisiting the excitement of the exploration, and emphasizing the understanding of how science is carried out, which will help your listeners throughout life.

The indoor explorers now are studying DNA and cell biology, which is very important, but scientists are also going to Antarctica, swimming the world’s reefs, and collecting still more new species of insects in the rainforests. Look for books in the Children’s collection about scientist/naturalist/explorers Jacques Cousteau, John Muir, John Wesley Powell, Jane Goodall, William Beebe, John Audubon, John Bartram, Sylvia Earle,  and Meriwether Lewis and William Clark…

This is what I suggest for fun family research:

Check out a copy of Snowflake Bentley from the Children’s Room. From the adult area find Snow Crystals by W. A. Bentley and W.J. Humphreys (1931, a reprint of the original Bentley publication), and Art of the Snowflake: a photographic album by Kenneth Libbrecht (2007), physicist and snowflake photographer. These are very usable by children for the same reason they are by adults, they are mostly pictures. Even a brief look through them will give a new understanding of snow. The rows and rows of snowflake photographs are stunning, and make you pause and try to see the myriad tiny differences. Libbrecht adds short comments and evocative quotations that can augment your group look through his book.  Martin’s Snowflake Bentley will confirm the fact that kids can have goals and intense interests that may seem absurd to their adults, but can make a difference in the world.

For the older child or the adult who wants to know more, Libbrecht also wrote The Snowflake, Winter’s Secret Beauty, which offers very readable interesting science and beautiful photograhs by Patricia Rasmussen. He even wrote Ken Libbrecht’s Field Guide to Snowflakes. How would you use such a thing? The library does not have it: you might want to Interlibrary Loan it and find out.

Supplement your family research by going to the Snowflake Bentley website and reading the bio, picking out the parts that might interest your child. And above all, have family fun.

Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer, John Grisham’s foray into writing for children, is along the same almost-old-fashioned lines. Eighth grader Theodore’s parents are lawyers, and rather than existing in a state of teen-age revolution, Theo is totally into law. He spends as much time as possible in the courthouse of his small town, where everybody knows him, and leaping on his bike and pedaling hard can get him around. But in this first of the Theodore Boone series, the crime is murder, and only Theo knows that the killer is about to go scot-free! Theo can be enjoyed by any age, and like John Grisham’s books for adults, the reader will come away with a more complete understanding of our legal system, because Theo really knows his way around.