By Jan Pease
Sun is shining, temperatures are rising, and the calendar
says it’s time to schedule school field trips to the library. The last spring story hour is May 10th. This has been a long, long winter, but story
hours have been a bright spot every week at the library. Story Hours will begin again June 12th.
Several interesting books have appeared on my desk here
at the library. Even if you don’t find
nonfiction books interesting, you might enjoy The Mystery of Darwin’s Frog, by Marty Crump. Illustrated with many colorful photographs
and drawings, this book explores a little known frog named for Charles Darwin,
who discovered it during his famous voyage on the HMS Beagle. The male Darwin’s frog carries its tadpoles
in its vocal sac. They are burped out
when they change from tadpoles into tiny frogs.
These very odd frogs are being studied to this day.
Another nonfiction title that reads like a novel is The Fairy Ring or Elsie and Frances Fool the
World, by Mary Losure. Frances was
nine when her family moved from South Africa to England because of the
war. A lonely little girl, she became
close to her cousin Elsie, who was fifteen at the time. Frances was sure she had seen tiny people in
her rambles alone the small stream near their home. Tired of the teasing they both received from
their extended family, Elsie and Frances took photographs with a box camera borrowed from Elsie’s father that
used glass plates for the negatives. The
girls never intended to fool the world about the fairies that they
photographed, but the world believed that the fairies in the photos were real.
No one creates nonfiction books as well as Seymour
Simon. He has written more than 250
books for young readers, all bringing science topics to life. His new book, Extreme Oceans, contains beautiful photographs and
interesting text as Mr. Simon examines
the oceans of our world. He
dedicated this book to the late Rachel Carson, whose book The Sea Around Us inspired him to become a writer.
Book seven in the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage, Fyre ,
brings this popular series to its conclusion. Ms. Sage brings back nearly all of the
characters who appeared in the first six books, and neatly wraps up the story
lines. The last section of the books,
“Endings,” tells the “rest of the story” of several characters, showing that a
novel can read like a nonfiction book.
Finally,
if you just have to read a zombie book, Darren Shan has another in his
Zom-B series, City. I skimmed it. Here is a line from the book: “I don’t need
to breathe, so I can chase you all day and never drop my pace.” Really?
This just proves that Litchfield Library has something
for everyone.
