First up: by Betsy Harvey Kraft.

I found this an interesting book to read, filled with great illustrations, about daring and persistence and faith in his design.    George Ferris tried time and again to get funding for his invention, and finally got it.   His observation wheel went up in Chicago for the World's Fair.    So many skeptics until acceptance came.

I can just imagine the wonder, the excitement and the fear that such a large invention would have rendered.   The first of it's kind.

People have copied his design since that day.   It's exciting to see all the different ones that have gone up throughout the world.   It's unfortunate how Ferris' wheel ended up but his invention lives on in Ferris wheels everywhere. 

Illustrator Seven Salerno did the Ferris wheel justice in his rendition of it.

This is a wordy picture book, so not one to hold up to read for story hour, but it's an excellent book to set with if you want to start a study on Ferris Wheels as it gives a good grounding into the determination needed by George Ferris to get it erected and used by the public.  A book study could easily be written for it as well and I'm contemplating doing that as it's a solidly good book.

Published by Henry Holt and Co. it is 9.45 x 11.24 · 42 pages and geared for ages 5-9 years.

Next, let me introduce you to a book ALL about Coyotes.   Coyote Moon by Maria Gianferrari.

Coyote Moon is book that to my 51 year old eyes need to be read in a well light room.  The books' colouration FITS really well in the life of a Coyote and when they are most active.   In this book we go with coyote mom as she heads out to find lunch for her brood of youngsters. 

Can she get a rabbit or a goose or ?????

I have to admit I was disappointed at what the coyote ended up catching.   As I read the book I was fascinated learning about the coyote, the lyrical sentences drew me in and caused me to want to know more about them, and then to basically have the coyote be called a chicken thief at  the end. 

I grew up on a farm.   And coyotes don't exactly have a good rap growing up, and I guess I just expected more from this book.   It's good to have that realism and I appreciated the end note by the author pointing out how very adaptable coyotes are to living in all sorts of environments.   Coyotes will make do wherever they find themselves.

I just wanted more.

It's a wonderfully illustrated book, the coyotes are portrayed realistically.   I don't want to leave you with the impression that I disliked this book because I liked it.   I just hoped for a different prey to be caught at the end.  Momma coyote took care of her family and this is what the book was about, could she find prey, could she use all her skills, knowing that she'd miss at least once, maybe twice until finally she achieved her goal.. food for herself and her younglings.

Good job momma coyote, excellent job in illustrating by Bagram Ibatoulline, pleasant and informative lyrical verse by Maria Gianferrari.  This book would be an excellent introduction to the study of Coyotes as it shows them in fine detail and in their environment, living their lives.

Published by Roaring Brook Press, it is 10.89 x 10.24  and runs 32 pages, geared for children ages 4-8 years.

These books were generously sent to me by Raincoast Books.

Did you know that it is shark week?   Yeah, I know, go figure that eh?   On my, resurrected old blog I recently posted about a book called "Shark Week".  Fascinating book, and I was thinking about how sharks also live in Coral Reefs, not just in volcanoes, or in the Arctic.    So I wanted to tell you about this neat little book called Coral Reefs, written by Jason Chin ...and I think that he is also the illustrator. 

I have to admit, when I started reading the book I thought it would be about a girl exploring the coral reef since she is pictured on every gorgeously illustrated page, and I was confused that it wasn't.   As I continued to examine the illustrations closely I realized that the girl in the images was holding a copy of the book Coral Reef itself.

Jason Chin has written a fact-filled, carefully illustrated book about the Coral Reef, based on his experiences visiting the barrier reef in Belize.

Check out the detail from the very first page.  See how the girl is reaching for the coral reef book?   (yes, I know, sometimes I'm slow on these details).  :)

The book proceeds telling us how corals grow.  

The coral just keeps growing and growing, ever expanding upon itself, providing food and shelter for 1,000's of marine life.   Can you imagine that Belize Barrier Reef is over 180 miles long, and the Great Barrier Reef system is over 1,400 mi long.

A whole web of life is connected to the coral reefs.

It's all a giant food chain that can be found in all the parts of the coral reef and the areas surrounding it like lagoon and the ocean beyond.

I appreciated that the author took time to talk about individual animals and how one might be able to hide from this animal by going to this part the reef, but while doing so needs to keep an eye out not to be trapped by another animal.  Showing how the grouper is helped by the gobies, and the gobies are helped by the grouper.

As the book progressed we learned how the coral reef is like a city with all the different parts interacting with each other, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in not so good ways, but always somehow interacting.

At the close of the book, we learned about some of the dangers coral reefs are facing and learned some additional facts about coral reefs.

Did you know that the coral reefs in Indonesia are the most diverse?  There was lots of good information provided for me in this book, even pictures with sharks in them (YEAH for shark week).   But it always amazes the diversity one can find in the coral reefs, from the coral itself which grows in many different ways, to the plants and animals that dwell in and around them.

Coral Reefs was provided to me by Raincoast Books.
It is 40 pages long, about 9 x 12 inches, a softcover picture book aimed at children 5-9 years old, but would serve well as an introduction to coral reefs for any age.

Jason Chin is the author and artist of the award-winning book Redwoods , which Kirkus Reviews called, An inventive eye-opening adventure." His work also includes illustrations for Simon Winchester's The Day the World Exploded . He and his wife Deirdre, also an artist, live in Vermont. 

If you are interested in learning about Coral Reefs, do yourself a favour and check out

What predicates this post being written?

The other day on facebook I commented on how I have my peas planted, and how my radishes and turnips are coming up.    I was surprised to get comments of "Boy you are early!"  "Wow.. .that's might early".   I often have things in the garden at this time of year.    I don't always tell people, but this year it surprised me at how many people commented on the earliness.

Hubby, in answer to my surprise said "but hun, you have raised beds.. it makes all the difference".

So know you what predicated this post.  :)    Be prepared to get some early gardening advice.

Early in the season... probably beginning of March I put up my hoop over one of the raised beds.  I did this so the ground would have a chance to heat up.   I blocked off the ends and just waited. 

Once the weeds started growing I knew the soil was warm enough.    I planted cold weather seeds such as spinach, radish, turnip and the like and then let the boards stay up until the seeds sprouted.

Now the boards stay off and I just watch for frost warnings.   I picked up some inexpensive frost cover at the local dollarama.

At the beginning of this week, after we had a good rain I planted my sugar snap peas.   The package will tell you to soak them, but I've learned you don't need to soak them if you just wait with on the weather.  Rain comes in the spring.  :)   I put my peas in.  YEAH!!!    Soon enough I'll have pea!!!!  The lad and I can eat them all before they even come in the house. :)  (and dad will shake his head at us).

oday as I was fussing about I noted I made an error in judgement.  I forgot to remove my seeds from a box before I watered our freshly bought mint!   ACK!!!   Wet seeds!

(guess what I got to do?)

Yes..you nailed.. I got to plant seeds that I wasn't anticipating planting today.  :)

I planted: more spinach, swiss chard, lettuce (two kinds), mustard greens, and Salad greens.   This is all for the bunnies except for what we steal for our own table.

I also planted some bush type zucchini.   These went into my short box raised beds that I reserve for plants that need their own space.

In my raised beds I plant close together, usually about 6-8 inches, but some plants simply don't do well with that type of spacing.  Those plants have short beds that they don't need to share.  :)   I planted the whole package of zucchini which we DEFINITELY don't need but they will hopefully come up and then my son can sell them to raise some dollars.  :)    We'll market them to the various homeschool groups around.   I certainly felt stupid getting the seeds wet so hopefully that didn't ruin them.

I keep a thin piece of plywood next to my short boxes so I can cover plants as they start to come up to protect them from frost damage.

The reason I plant closely is two fold.
1. It helps to keep the grounded shaded so they don't dry out as fast.  The nemesis of raised gardens is they dry out quickly.
2. It helps shade the ground so weeds don't grow as persistently because there is no room for them to spread their roots.

The Joy of raised beds is
1. they are MUCH easier to work and it's easier to work up one section at a time.  This keeps the job from being overwhelming.
2. It's easier to rotate what is going where.
3. If you get a diseased patch of dirt (it happens).  It's easy enough to spread that batch of bad dirt over the lawn, which gets rid of dips and divots in your lawn.
4. Lack of persistent weeds.  Twitch grass is SO not a problem in my gardens.
5. Adding growing room is not difficult.  You can use a hoop cage, screw in support poles and hang twine down for plants to grow up, or you can even build up (as in the case of layering potatoes)...
6. It gets me started earlier growing plants for the bunnies.  They adore my parsely/cilantro patch and have eaten from it twice already.   I have some clover, plantain and dandelions mixed in the patch as well.

Here in Ontario, where the season can be shorter than one wants, having raised beds helps me to extend the time I can garden and to take advantage of the cool weather crops by planting early. 

Do you have anything special that you do when you garden?

Giant Forest Hog (Hylochoerus meinertzhageni)is a HUGE hog... I tell yah..... My lad and I wanted to see what this shaggy hog looked like and were amazed at the sheer size of some of these hogs. 

The males are bigger than the females, they are a dark brown or black in colour covered with hair, this hair becomes more sparse the older the hogs get.   They have swellings below their eyes, which can get quite large in the males.  They have a bristle like mane which they raise when alarmed or excited.  They also have tusks.

Check it out:

This video below gives some good information about them.   Did you know that these wild hogs prefer to live in areas with a dense understorey, a large variety of plants and a good water source?

Giant Forest Hog is large wild hog weighing from 100 to 275 kg.  They are found only in Africa.   

Unlike most wild hogs, the African Forest Hog primarily eats grasses, sedges and herbage.   These plants may contain carrion or eggs, but they mostly eat the plants.   They engage coprophogia, which is the eating of feces.

They live in family groups of 6-14 animals, with a dominant boar.  Boars will fight when they first meet to decide heirarchy, thereafter they won't fight anymore as the loser will make himself scarce should the family groups meet up again.

These hogs are not threatened despite being localized in their populations and well-hunted.   Their numbers are not declining and they continue to create crop damage, carry swine fever and are part of the cycle for sleeping sickness.   Though according to this site, more people are starting to hunt them for food and so they are starting to disappear more quickly.

Even though these giant hogs damage crops, through their activities they help with dispersing plant species.   They keep to trails that connect their grazing grounds, latrines, wallow holes and anything else they use regularly.

If you click in the image below it will take you to a worksheet directly connected with this blog post.

Sources:
ICUN.  Animal Diversity. Ultimate Ungulate.   National geographic.  Wildscreen.

Imagine, if you could go behind the scenes at the zoo and see what the keepers and the scientists are up to with the animals?   Bridge to the Wild: Behind the Scenes at the Zoo will bring you into the world.

Book Synopsis:
Hear crisp sounds of the hornbill in the cool air.
Listen to the morning symphony that greets you as you enter the front gate.
Then, step onto a leafy path that leads to a secret world of animals, each of whom you won't want to forget, here at Zoo Atlanta.
Over five days we meet a menagerie of magnificent animals - pandas, elephants, gorillas, meerkats, flamingos and more - alongside the longtime animal lover, scientist, and researcher Caitlin O'Connell. With inside access to the guidance and knowledge of their beloved zoo caretakers and with stunning photographs, we are able to see the day-to-day marvels-and sometimes misfortunes-behind the animals' enclosures that often go unseen by the everyday zoo visitor.
In this example of narrative nonfiction at its best, O'Connell has created a bridge to wild, a rare chance to look beyond the zoo and to inspire guests to see for themselves just how special the animals we share our world with are.

My Thoughts:
I have to admit, my initial thoughts regarding this book were none-to-positive.  My goal had been to use it was a read-aloud with my 10 year old son.   It's not that sort of book.

I decided not to give up on it though to took to reading a chapter or two at a time and found it in the end to be quite enjoyable.

It was great to see the behind the scenes stuff.   How scientists have to work hard to not anthropomorphize the animals they are studying AND not let their own opinions influence them.. to the extent they set up blind studies.    How Meerkats are so territorial that to treat one you need to treat them all so that the sick one isn't booted out of the colony.   How some animals, despite being captive bred for a long time retain their wild characteristics which makes them easy to release into the wild.    Just fascinating stuff.

I am glad I persevered.

The copy I received was a reviewers edition.  It was chock-full of images in black and white.   The final copy will be in full colour, I can totally see it being a very interesting visual book filled with good commentary.

It is March break here in Ontario, and though most years I just push things through with my lad and ignore it, this year I decided we would do things differently.

We would do review materials, bible, and history.  The lad would do his private reading but I would cut him slack if he was at the end of a chapter.   We would also do outside the house stuff.  Drama day, lego, mad science, a movie etc...

Within that I would scatter in other things.... like planting seeds.  :)

This year I decided to mix things up abit.  Three different ways of starting seeds.   The green one was a dollarama purchase it has three layers.   The second is a holding tray that I normally put cups into, but decided to just straight plant, and the third a planter I picked up late last fall somewhere....all different ways to plant seeds.

The question is.. which method (if any) will work best.

We will be rotating which is closest to the window and which direction they are facing.

Another thing we are trying differently this year is how we labelled our seeds.  Normally I do styrofoam cups and we either stick a popsicle stick in them OR we write on the cup.   Then I just layer saran wrap over top and the seeds manage to come up just fine.

This year we wanted to try covering them with the plastic lids so the popsicle stick didn't work (too tall).  We problem solved for a bit but weren't coming up with a good solution until Dad came along and said "why not cut down the skewers and use address labels"?   Therein a solution was found.

We have learned it is not a perfect solution as the labels are splitting on us, but we hope it'll do until the plants are big enough to tell what is what and then we can put in popsicle sticks if needed.

 Next week I am hopeful to plant some seeds outside under our plastic wrap.. things like lettuce and radishes and what not.  Good for the bunnies, good for people too.  :)

What did we start?
Tomatoes - cherry and beefsteak
Peppers - hot, small bells, red bells, green bells
Five different types of flowers: cosmos, marva, marigold, zinnia and snapdragon
Yellow Cucumber
Dill
Chives
and one other thing that slips my mind.

We aren't done.  Friday we'll plant a few other things like cabbage, broccoli and the like.  The lad sells them in the spring for 50 cents each plant.  Styrofoam cups make them easy to transport.

Have you started seeds indoors at all this year yet?   If so, what are you growing?

My lad and I continue reading through a variety of books at night.  
Currently we are reading about temperate forests, a novel (just finished Weekends with Max and his Dad), my boy's read out-loud book (Currently learning about zebras), Mammals and a book on railroads.

Sometimes we read about items that spur on our interest.  Tonight we had to look up what the oldest trees were and discovered that most old trees are from the conifer family.  The oldest being over 5,000 years old, this news stunned my my lad.

We have also recently learned about Caracals and the 8th wonder of the world (built in Canada.. a railroad bridge).   Both of these items intrigued us, so I told the lad I'd research them a bit and see what else we can learn.

First up, the Caracal.   For those of you who don't know, a caracal is a type of wild cat. Check out the sheer beauty of these cats. 

Caracals are a wild cat living in Africa and Asia.  They eat a variety of local game such as Hyraxes, medium-sized antelope and deer, birds of all sizes, rodents, and reptiles.   In our mammals book we learned that they eat A LOT of birds, to the extent of killing ostriches. It is a very versatile and agile hunter and the size of the animal does not deter it from using it as a food source.  It prefers to live in dry woodland and savannah.   

Even though it has ear tufts like the lynx, the caracal is most closely related to the serval and the African golden cat. Other than it's facial markings, the Caracal is a reddish brown cat with no other markings.

The agility of these cats has had them trained by nobility to be personal hunting animals.   You can see the caracal's agility in the video below.

Next we move along to a bridge in Canada.

Once known as the Eighth Wonder of the World the Victoria Tubular Bridge was built in 1859 over the St. Lawrence River at Montreal.

In it's day the bridge was considered an engineering marvel.   It's an industrial bridge, not designed to be pretty in any way.  As such, it is still in use today... still providing safety for rail cars trundling over the river.

Did you know that people with penicillin allergies generally cannot work at a mushroom farm?   NO?   You didn't!   That is just one of the many fascinating facts about mushrooms that I didn't know before.

The reason people with penicillin allergies tend not to be able to work at mushroom farms is due to the sheer number of moulds that mushrooms are susceptible to.   Green and cobweb mould are the most common types.

Hmm.. what else did we learn?
Mushrooms can carry a variety of diseases, so growing them in a sterilized environment keeps them clean.  The farm we went to had a big fire a while back and since then moved away from wooden beds (which apparently are still quite common) to these metal beds we see here.

They were stacked I think about five high with about two feet clearance between each row.   The higher ones are accessed with a lift (more on that later).   Whitecrest only grows cremini and portabella mushrooms and these mushrooms can double their size in a 24 hour period.   I got the impression that if you buy these types of mushrooms any where in southwestern Ontario they are most likely from Whitecrest, just sold and packaged differently depending on the needs of the marketer.

Three pickings are taken before the bed is retired.   People often come on Monday mornings to pick up the leftovers as it makes a great bedding for gardens and what not.   Each picker has a number and puts it with the bin that they pick.   Not all bins are the same, depends on what the order is calling for.  

This section of the bed has been treated with salt.   It kills the mould and gets rid of "wet spots".     The picture beside is another illness mushrooms get, I just can't recall the particular name they used to describe it.   They have to keep a strong handle on mould because if they don't it can quickly overwhelm a mushroom farm.   That gets really expensive really quickly.

I happen to love mushrooms and made that fact clear to the presenters and they graciously allowed my son and I to sample their merchandise.   Mmmm... Fresh picked creminis... YUM!    We had a hard time restraining ourselves after we got permission to enjoy them.   I thought it interesting how many of the moms along didn't like mushrooms and the noses wrinkled at me when I (and my lad) enjoyed them.

Did you know that if you leave a mushroom in the sun for five minutes you will get your daily dose of Vitamin D?

You can even run them under a UV light (at least I think that's the light they used) and they will get 300% Vitamin D which will carry over into the store until they are purchased?   neat huh?

They are also investigating ways to make more use of mushrooms, from putting them into burgers, grinding them into a powder and adding them to breads, stews, soups, and other things.   They are such an excellent source of vitamin D that it's a great way to add vitamin D into your food.  And if you grind them up, seriously.. are you going to notice??

Above is the lift.  Each of the children in our group was able to enjoy a life up and down the racks.   My son tried hard to convince me to go on it but I'm not into heights and therefore declined the invitation.

Things my son remembers
1. It's not good to inject mushrooms with water
2. Whitecrest ships alot of it's mushrooms elsewhere to be used by other companies
3. mushrooms can pick up Salmonella from the ground

We were taken through the various sections of the plant.   From the growing rooms, to how they move the mushrooms from one part to another, the chilling room (if you change the temperature of a mushroom too quickly you will lose one week off it's life), to the packaging area.   It was quite a fascinating tour.  I have to admit, I hoped that they would send us each home with a package of mushrooms but it was not to be.  :)   It was a good field trip and if they do it again next year.. I'll happily attend (and munch on mushrooms again).    You do know they have only 19 calories in one cup right?

Jessica Loy has put together a delightful book called "Weird & Wild Animal Facts".  My 10 year old delighted in this picture book filled with facts about a large assortment of different animals.  It was our delight to review this book for Raincoast Books.

Imagine a book that presents facts on 14 different animals with tons of pictures and interesting facts provided in an easy to read font that draw the eye in.  

My lad thoroughly enjoyed this book.   When we got to the naked mole rat he exclaimed "I know this animal mom!"  He laughed when he learned that warthog groups are called "sounders".

The section he was MOST interested in though was on the Panamanian Golden Frog.  The last time he went to the zoo he took LOTS of pictures of these small, interestingly marked frog.     Did you know that one of these frogs has enough toxin to kill 1200 mice?    The comment received from my son was "We would have to keep them away from the mice if we ever got one as a pet right mom?".    My boy has a deep fondness for toads and frogs.  :)   They intrigue him to no end.

Each page comes with at least five good animal facts.    Pictures of real live animals are numerous.   The last three pages introduce new animals, provide a resource list as well as telling more information about each of the animals already talked about.  

It's a good book to learn about different animals such as the giant pacific octopus, Giraffe, Hippo, Jellyfish, Vulture and many more. 

Product Details:
Received: Softcover picture book
Title: Weird & Wild Animal Facts
Author: Jessica Loy
Pages: 37
Price: $20.50
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

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My son and I have spent that last couple of months working our way through this book one page at a time.   Learning different facts about the oceans... from the animals dwelling therein, to the different levels, to the ships crossing them, and even to the dangers currently facing our oceans.    We been amazed, stunned, shocked, and horrified at the different points throughout this book.  It's been a good read for us.  

My lad has asked copious amounts of questions and we've taken plenty of detours into the world of "google" as we searched out answers to his questions.

We learned about different boats and took the time to look them up.  Chinese junks, tirenes, and more
We looked up some of the different submersibles in use to study the oceans.
We were amazed at the different sharks in the ocean like this hammerhead.

I have to admit to being bothered by the evolutionary push in the book as well as the insistence on global warming being a fact.    I found myself skipping past a few pages that talked exclusively about such topics.   Both are theories and I wish they'd be treated as such, instead of as accepted fact.   But take away that, and boy, we learned a ton and had fun while doing so.   It's cool to follow new thoughts and ideas, and do outside learning on our own.  :)

We did some more learning about water as well.   I recently received this book from Raincoast books.   It's called Water is Water and is written by Miranda Paul.   What a delightful book!   It taught my boy that there is more to the water cycle than...

Water is Water: A book about the water cycle is a great book.  The illustrations by Jason Chin add so much depth and interest to the story line.  My son had fun looking for an animal in every picture.    Sometimes the animal followed from page to page, and sometimes they added a new animal...what could it be and what would the water be doing next?   It was SO well done.  :) 

Loved doing this book for a review.  :)  It's a short book with simple language, about 40 pages long suitable for children 6-9.   My son and I took turns reading pages in it, and just thinking about the different forms that water can take.     At the of the book we learn that a cat is 80% water, and other pertinent facts about water and the water cycle.    Nicely informative in a way that will speak into the lives of children and the precious resource that water is.

Some resources that may further your learning about water.  :)
Free Lapbook on the water cycle.
Free Water cycle notebook.
Worksheets onthe Ocean.