A Peek at New Nonfiction

By Jan Pease

 Disappearing bees provide part of the plotline in one of my favorite episodes of “Doctor Who,”  “The Stolen Earth,” the 750^th episode of the incredibly long-lived British science fiction tv show.  A world without bees is unthinkable.  A new book, “Beehive,” by Jorey Hurley, provides information for very young children about bees.  This book is a good way to counteract scary stories about bees, which are often mistaken for yellow jackets.

What do you want to be when you grow up?  My answer is wise, kind, and good.  But the question really asks, “How do you want to make your living when you grow up?”  If you’re lucky, you will find something you love to do and take it from there.  This is the idea behind the book, “If you love cooking, you could be…” Different jobs in the food industry are described, such as cook, chef, recipe developer, and food stylist.  I think it’s interesting that the author, Elizabeth Dennis, explains the difference between a cook and a chef.   This book is unique because it’s a ready-to-read, level two book, perfect for beginning readers. 

 

A new picture book, “Veterinarians and what they do,” by Liesbet Slegers, is another career book on a very easy level.   Veterinary medicine is a very complicated field. My daughter used to wear a funny t-shirt that said, “Real doctors treat more than one species.”

I wonder if “Veterinarians and what they do” will inspire a new crop of very young people inspired to become doctors for animals.

Litchfield Library invested in two titles from National Geographic.  We purchased new copies of the “National Geographic Kids Atlas” and “National Geographic Kids Almanac.“  These books are easy to navigate and provide bits of solid information.  Sometimes you just need an almanac or an atlas, so

sometimes we just have to replace old ones.

Half a century ago, when I was a teenager, two complaints were made about my music.  One was, “It’s too loud! Turn it down!”    The other complaint was, “I can’t understand the words!”  A wonderful book has just been published by National Geographic, “Turn it Up! A Pitch-perfect History of Music that Rocked the World.”  Written by Joel Levy, this book claims to cover everything from Bach to Beyoncé.  Mr. Levy gives information about a wide range of musical subjects and covers it all in 192 pages.  Now days when I listen to the thump, thump, thump of bass outside my house, I say, “It’s too loud!”  If I’m trying to listen to singers, I hear myself saying “I can’t understand the words!”  What goes around comes around.   See you at the library!