Geo Librarian

IF YOU LIVED HERE: Houses of the World written and illustrated by Giles Laroche Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-547-23892-0 Grades 2 and up Reviewed from personal copy. Step into unique homes from around the world and discover the many fascinating ways in which people live and have lived. If you lived in the mountains of southern Spain, your bedroom might be carved out of a mountain. If you lived in a village in South Africa, the outside of your house might tell the story of your family. And if you lived in a floating green house in the Netherlands, you could rotate your house to watch both the sunrise and sunset. With intricate bas-relief collages, Giles Laroche uncovers the reason why each home was constructed the way in which it was, then lets us imagine what it would be like to live in homes so different from our own. Showing the tremendous variety of dwellings worldwide—log cabins, houses on stilts, cave dwellings, boathouses, and yurts—...

Goodness, it's been a whole week since I've added a new post.  Mostly this is because last week was crazy at school.  Testing is starting and everyone is stressed out.  Plus I had a workshop to attend dealing with the new Common Core.  It was quite interesting, but more about that later.  This week I'm hoping to finish up my Top books lists and post a giveaway, offering one of my readers any three books from any of my top lists.  We'll see if it actually happens. Today, I'm posting about a couple of books by one of my favorite nonfiction writers for children.  My school was lucky enough to have a Skype visit with Sandra Markle a couple of weeks ago.  She did some really awesome science experiments that the students really enjoyed.  Unfortunately, I had trouble with the technology. ARGGGGHHH! Sigh. Such is life.  Anyway, here are a couple of books that would be great to use as supplements to units on the history of exploration. Animal...