Some New Books for January

Tutankhamun
by Demi

This biography is about the Egyptian pharaoh, Tutankhamun, or King Tut, as he is widely known. Tutankhamun’s father was Akhenaten, and his mother was believed to be a queen named Kiya. He grew up in the city of Amarna, which his father was building. Tutankhamun had many brothers and sisters, and he loved his grandmother, Queen Tiye. He learned many things while he was growing up, including how to hunt and fight. When he was about nine years old, Tutankhamun’s father died, and he was crowned as the new pharaoh. There were two men, Ay and Horemheb, who ruled for him, and Horemheb was not very kind to Tutankhuman. He soon married Ankhesenpaaten. Tutankhamun died at age nineteen, and there are many who wonder how he died. Tutankhamun was secretly buried where Horemheb would never know, and the place was not found again until 1922 (3200 years later). How much could be learned about Egypt through all of the treasures found in his tomb? There are also great illustrations throughout the book.

The Dinosaur Tamer
by Carol Greathouse and illustrated by John Shroades

Back in the “old, old west” there was a cowboy named Rocky. When Rocky was very young, he was able to rope a Stegosaurus blindfolded. He was known as the greatest dinosaur tamer, and he helped out whenever there was a dinosaur problem. Then one day, a really big problem showed up. It was T. Rex. T. Rex was very tough, and he was bothering the townspeople. The townspeople called Rocky by beating his tune on the bongo drums. Rocky came as soon as he heard. He made a really big lasso, and then he threw it over T. Rex. Then T. Rex ran as fast as he could, dragging Rocky behind him. They crossed several states and parks together. Will Rocky be able to tame T. Rex? Can he stop T. Rex’s mischief?

Smile!
by Leigh Hodgkinson

One day, a little girl realizes that she has lost her smile. Since she is usually wearing it and enjoys wearing it, she cannot remember exactly where she left it. Her dad tells her she will just have to go and look for it. She looks under her bed and cleans her room in order to look for it, but she cannot find it there. Then she begins to wonder whether someone, such as the twins, stole her smile, but she decides that they have not. She looks where her mom told her lost things usually are: in the sofa, in her pockets, and the dog’s basket. Then she decides to play a game with the dog. In all of her searching where had her smile been? Will she ever be able to find it?

Family Huddle
by Peyton, Eli, and Archie Manning and illustrations by Jim Madsen

Archie was playing their favorite game, Amazing Catches, with his sons Cooper, Peyton, and Eli in the front yard. Peyton catches the ball, and then their mom, Olivia, comes to tell the boys to get ready and washed up to leave. When it comes time to leave, the boys sneak the football into the car. While they travel, the boys like to play the Numbers Game, where they name a player that wears a certain number. Their first visit is to Grandma Sis, and the boys join a game near the fire station later in the day. They even manage to score a touchdown by working together. The next day, the family leaves to visit the other grandparents. They say hi to their Gan Gan and PaPa. The boys even have some hand signals for plays, and they use one called the Post Pattern. When they get home from their visits do you think they will play some more football together?

Hobbies

Start a New Hobby This Month

What Can You Do with an Old Red Shoe?
by Anna Alter

This nonfiction book has many ideas for how to reuse everyday objects with new and very different uses. Some cool ideas include making an old flip-flop into a stamp, creating a favorite t-shirt that you have outgrown into a pillow, making jewelry out of buttons, and making a lantern out of tin cans. There are also tips at the back of the book for both children and parents on reusing and recycling, such as using a lunchbox instead of a paper bag, using glass or plastic containers for storing other things, or taking a bag with you to the park and gathering up trash or recyclables. There are also tips on recycling for the whole family.














Made by Me
by Jane Bull

This nonfiction book is about knitting, sewing, and embroidery. The first step is creating a workbox, and you can often do this with things you already have around the house. In your workbox you need a pincushion, yarn, thread, pins, needles, scissors, and buttons. The book teaches you the basics of embroidery, such as what thread to look for, how to design the patterns, and ideas for what fabrics to use for embroidery. There are also instructions for creating pouches, lavender bags, broaches, key rings, necklaces, and a doll. The book also shows you the basics of knitting, but it also shows ways of knitting without needles and with knitting dolls and your fingers. The book also shows how to knit a purse, hat, and pom-poms. There is a dolly pattern at the back of the book, if you would like to trace the pattern and create your own doll.















More Creative Crafts for Kids
edited by Alicia Zadrozny

This nonfiction books contains ideas for over one hundred projects including those made with recycled materials. The craft ideas include a bubble wrap crocodile, felt-covered notebooks, paper wig, Egyptian necklace, dragon puppets, and a little African village. There are also ideas for holiday crafts, such as reindeer, egg faces, and dough lanterns. Finally, there are craft ideas made from recycled items, such as paper houses out of old shoeboxes, spoon puppets made out of wooden spoons, city made of cardboard, macaroni, paper clips, etc, and string puppets made of toilet paper or paper towels rolls. Each craft has the materials that you will need listed at the beginning, and there are pictures of the steps of the creation process for most of the crafts.














Show Off: How to do Absolutely Everything One Step at a Time
by Sarah Hines Stephens and Bethany Mann

This nonfiction book breaks down different tricks, projects, experiments and stunts into steps to follow. These fall under Amaze, Investigate, Create, Explore, Cook, and Move. At the beginning of the book are the instructions for how to use the book. The book uses pictures, instead of words, to show you how to “show off.” There is also a list of tools that will be needed to do some of the tricks, projects, experiments, and stunts, and there is a list of symbols that you will see throughout the book. The Amaze tricks include making shadow puppets, tying a one handed knot, and slicing an unpeeled banana. The investigate experiments include squeezing an egg into a bottle, bending water with static, and writing in invisible ink. The Create projects include firing a pen crossbow, making a sea globe, and rolling up a duct tape rose. The Explore projects include setting up a solar compass, learning a dog’s body language, and drying and pressing flowers. The Cook projects include pulling taffy, baking stained-glass cookies, and folding fortune cookies. Finally, the Move stunts include building a go-kart, setting up a bocce match, and moonwalking. At the end of the book, there is more information about some of the experiments, tricks, projects, and stunts found within the book.

Penguins

If You Were a Penguin
by Wendell and Florence Minor

What could you do if you were a penguin? This picture books shows you all of the things that penguins can do, such as “flying” underwater, living on land and in the water, swim in both warm and cold places, and “toboggan” by sliding around on the ice and down hills on their tummies. There are many different things that penguins can do, but can you also do these things, as well? Can you be a penguin, too? At the end of the story are some fun facts about penguins.

Penguins
by Liz Pichon

The penguins at the zoo have a little routine of the things that they do every day. They swim, eat fish, play games, sleep standing up, and look at the people who are looking at them. Then one day, a camera is dropped by a little girl. A little penguin goes to look at it. The other penguins ask him what a camera is, and he tells them it is for smiling at. He soon talks the other penguins into taking some pictures together. They take several pictures together, but soon, the camera stops working. Little penguin puts the camera back where he found it. The next morning, the zookeeper finds the camera and takes it to the lost and found. Will the little girl who dropped her camera be able to find it? Will she be surprised when she sees all of the pictures that the penguins took? At the back of the book are the pictures that the penguins took while they had the camera.

A Penguin Story
by Antoinette Portis

Edna the penguin only sees the color white in the snow and ice, the color black in the night, and the color blue of the ocean and fish. She knows, though, that there must be other colors, too. While the other penguins are playing a game and hunting for fish, Edna is too busy looking for something that is a different color than she is used to seeing. They ask her to come after she gets tired of looking, but Edna never gets tired of looking. Then she decides to go looking for something else, and she finds it. She brings her friends to the orange buildings, planes, and outfits that scientists have. The scientists say hello to the penguins, but it is soon time for them to leave. The penguins help them pack up their things. One of the scientists gives Edna one of his gloves to keep, so she will have the color. Will Edna be able to find any other colors?

Penguins
by Seymour Simon

This nonfiction book tells you many interesting facts about penguins. Their nesting areas are called rookeries, and these rookeries can have thousands of penguin pairs standing very close to one another. There are seventeen different types of penguins, and some penguins can swim as deep as 1,500 feet to look for food. When penguins are babies, they do not have waterproof feathers like the adult penguins. So they have to wait until they develop these feathers to swim. There are many fun facts like these about penguins. There are also pictures of many of the different kinds of penguins. At the back of the book is a glossary.

January is National Soup Month

January is National Soup Month

The Cat Who Liked Potato Soup
by Terry Farish and illustrated by Barry Root

An old man and his cat live together, and even though he does not show it, the old man likes his cat. The old man lives on Chatterpie road, which is named for all of the blackbirds that perch there. The cat would not eat the birds, but she like his potato soup, which made him like her more. When they would go fishing together, the cat would sit at the front of the boat. One winter day, the old man brought home an electric blanket. The cat really liked to lay on the blanket, and she even had the old man bring her soup to her. The next morning, the cat would not go fishing with him. When she woke up, the cat noticed that the man had left. He had never left her before. She leaves the house through a window. When the old man comes back, he cannot find the cat anywhere. He realizes that he misses having her around. Will the cat come back?
















Surprise Soup
by Mary Ann Rodman and illustrated by G. Brian Karas

Their mother is in the hospital and will be home that night with the new baby. Daddy is in charge of making dinner, and little Kevie decides that they should make Saturday Soup for their family. Kevie, his older brother, Josh, and their dad gather ingredients for the soup. Kevie tries to help, but he opens all the different cans of beans that they have. Their dad decides to add them to the soup. Working together, though, they finally get all of the ingredients mixed in and cooking. The soup smells really good, but Josh and Dad say that it is missing something. Kevie tells them that it is sugar, but they do not listen to him. He tells them again, and they finally decide to add sugar to the soup. Will the soup taste good after they add the “secret” ingredient? Did Kevie’s mother have a little boy or girl?

Hammer Soup
by Ingrid and Dieter Schubert

Kate keeps her house clean and her garden weeded, and she does not like to share her vegetables. Then one morning she hears a banging sound. When she looks out, she sees a giant man building a strange looking house. Bruce invites her to have some dandelion tea, but she does not want any. She decided to fence in her garden. Bruce just goes fishing, while Kate works hard. He sometimes leaves surprises (like fish) outside her door for her, though. She continues to work hard gathering apples, but Bruce puts things off until tomorrow. In the winter, Kate’s house is warm, but Bruce’s house is cold and drafty. Then suddenly, a strong wind blows and destroys Bruce’s house. Kate decides to let him stay with her, but she does not want him to eat up all of her food. He tells her about Hammer Soup, and they decide to make it. He talks her into adding sausage and some vegetables. Will she put her food into the soup? Will they both enjoy the soup that they create with the hammer? What will they do about Bruce’s house?

Duck Soup
by Jackie Urbanovic

Max enjoys making different kinds of soup. He had made Fish Soup with Curry and Pickled Lemon, Squash Gumbo, and Cracker Barrel Cheese and Marshmallow Soup. All of these soups, though, had been created by others, and Max wanted to create his own recipe for soup. As he tries his soup, he knows it is missing something. Then he decides that it is missing chives, and he goes out to his garden to get some. After he leaves, his friends Brody, Dakota, and Bebe come to see him. They decide to try the soup, and they see that one of Max’s feathers is floating in the soup. Thinking that Max fell in the soup, his friends try to get him out. Will they be able to find him before they ruin his soup? Do you think that his soup will turn out okay?