A Blizzard of Polar Bears - Alice Henderson

With winter temperatures here and snow on the ground in my part of the world, Alice Henderson's latest book, A Blizzard of Polar Bears, seemed to be a timely listen.

This latest is the second book in Henderson's Alex Carter series. Carter is a wildlife biologist. Her latest research posting takes her to Hudson Bay in the Canadian Artic to study polar bears. But someone seems bent on derailing her research - missing samples, break-ins, staff quitting and more. Why? 

I liked Alex as a lead character. She's dedicated, clever and a bit of a kick butt protagonist. She needs to be tough as she finds herself in more than one life or death situation. 

I was impressed by the detailed descriptions of Alex's research, methods, climate change and reasons why these studies are so important. It was only on looking at the author's bio that I discovered she is a wildlife researcher herself. The book benefits greatly from this insider knowledge. 

There are two threads to the plot with the first introduced in a prologue and the second in the Alex incidents. I wondered how the two would tie together? Well, they're tied together with lots of action! 

A Blizzard of Polar Bears is a different style of mystery and suspense, but one I quite enjoyed. If you've read Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon series or Randy Wayne White's Doc Ford books, you would enjoy this title. I'm sure there's more in store for Alex.

I chose to listen to A Blizzard of Polar Bears. The narrator was Eva Kaminsky. She's a talented reader that I've enjoyed in the past. Kaminsky's voice has a low, slightly gravelly, yet smooth tone. It's very pleasant to listen to. She enunciates well and easy to understand. The speed of reading is just right. Kaminsky really captures the danger and suspense of the plot with her voice, employing a staccato, clipped, tight voice that easily communicates the tension. She uses different voices for the characters.  Her reading has lots of movement, easily holding the listener's attention. Hear for yourself - listen to an excerpt of A Blizzard of Polar Bears 

(I'm always curious about the collective terms for animals. I had thought polar bears would be blizzard, but instead it is a 'celebration' of polar bears.)

It Can't Be True! Animals! - DK Canada

When my kids were younger, they adored the annuals that gave you lists of the biggest, the most and so on. DK Canada has a series called It Can't Be True! And the one that caught Little Guy and Gramma's attention was It Can't Be True! Animals! Unbelievable Facts About Amazing Animals.

Little Guy always has to peruse the cover before opening a book. And he was hooked by this one. Was that dog real and almost as small as a tennis ball!?

It Can't Be True Animals has divided the entries up into five categories: Skills and Senses, Unbelievable Bodies, Strength and Speed, Homes and Hideaway and lastly Growing and Breeding. The question and it's page number are listed under the headings. And guess what - yes, we had to find the smallest dog entry first. The listings made it easy to find. What we found was a color, enlarged picture of Milly the wee dog compared to the feet and forelegs of the tallest dog. A fast facts sidebar box gives more smallest and largest comparisons - cat and horse. The layout is attractive, not too busy but with lots to look at and talk about. The font size is varied with bold and colored text giving emphasis to the facts being presented.

Well, from that one entry, Little Guy really had the idea of the book and just started flipping through pages and stopping when a photo caught his eye. The photos were more attractive than the drawings for him - "it's real".

There's much to talk about as we stopped and looked at the ones that caught his eye. Take those comparisons and make a conversation out of the information given. I learned many things along the way as well. Little Guy loves to share snippets of information and this gave him a wealth of "Did you know..." pieces. What is the loudest animal? (A sperm whale) Many of the entries are more in depth than I would have supposed from the cover shot.

The books is printed on good quality paper, the photos are sharp and clear, the layout is attractive and engaging and the information is interesting and well presented. The format allows the reader to pick a page at whim and learn something new each time.

Gramm and Little Guy both both enjoyed It Can't Be True! Animals! (As did many of the adults who picked it up off the coffee table to have a 'quick look'.) Check out the page below for a closer look.

Forest Life and Woodland Creatures - DK Canada

Earth Day was officially April 22nd - but truly, we should celebrate every day. Little Guy likes to go on walks to find and look at 'interesting things." Now that spring is finally here, there's lots to see!

Recently, we perused Forest Life and Woodland Creatures from DK Canada before starting off on one of those walks.

The cover is inviting for little ones with lots of colours and pictures. Little Guy always likes to guess what's inside a book by looking at the cover.

The first few pages played right into our walk - the two main types of trees, who might live in trees, new seedlings just poking through, what animals might eat, insects, bugs and more.We were able to identify many of these on our stroll. And here's something Gramma didn't know! A squirrel's nest is called a drey.

There are nature crafts interspersed throughout the book. Leafy bugs using modeling clay and found nature pieces. Making a 'nest' with a paper plate and found nature material. An owl using pine cones and a few more. A recipe for berry ice pops is one we'll try closer to summer.

As always with DK books, the colours are bright, the layout is good with facts concisely presented. Pictures accompany the facts, giving a small one a starting point for what is being discussed. I found the pages to be a little thicker than normal - a good idea for a children's book, especially for one that might be taken outside.

Forest Life is an great introductory STEM book for the 3-5 crowd. Have a look at the excerpt below.  And check out the other titles in DK's 'Earth Love' list.

Celebrate Nature with DK Canada

I'm one of those people - I try to get my Christmas shopping done long before December. I love giving books as they give back.

Do you have a nature lover on your list? DK Canada has a great selection of books for both adults and children in their 'Celebrate Nature' boutique.

Peek and Seek, illustrated by Charlotte Milner caught my eye - and Little Guy's.

The cover is bright, colourful and has animal faces peeking through the cut outs on the cover. The title page lets you see who those face belong to. There are six 'find it' double page entries - birds,  monkeys, wolves, ants, fish and rabbits. Each entry asks the read to lift the flap or the fold 'to see'. On our first read through, Little Guy and Gramma guessed what we might find under the flap before opening it. What we found were intricately detailed drawings of each of the five animals presented. He had to look at the entire picture first And then we read the facts about each animal category that accompanies the images. Little Guy learned quite a bit from these snippets.

But that's not all you'll find under the flaps. Each panorama also has a 'seek and find' list that asks the reader to find other creatures hidden in the drawing. There are 28 to find on each double faced page. Depending on the attention span that day, we would find a few and come back the next day to finish the list. Little Guy really likes 'finding' books as he calls them. The last pages house an additional 'fact file' about the six animals.

This book stayed 'fresh' for a long time as there's much to see and do in Peek and Seek. This is a book that will be read many times.

As always with DK books, the colours are bright, appealing, there's much to learn and things to do. The book is in board book format only - it's quite sturdy. Which was good, as Wee Sis decided she needed to read it too. She's quite young, but she too was quite happy that she could find things too. (The larger images)

Peek and Seek gets a big thumbs up from Gramma and Little Guy. This would be an excellent addition to a 3-6 year old's library. Have a peek at the pages below.

The Bee Book with DK Canada

Earth Day is "the world's largest environmental movement" and is celebrated on April 22. But, really every day should be Earth Day. And one of the most important  players in our ecosystem. "At least 30% of the world’s crops and 90% of all plants require cross-pollination to spread and thrive, and here in Canada, bees are our most important pollinators."

I recently received a hive kit as a gift. I'm pretty excited to get started, but the instructions included were quite minimal. I just knew that DK Canada would have a book that would give me all the information I need. And they did - The Bee Book!

But before even getting to setting up a hive, you need to know more about the bees themselves. The first few chapters of The Bee Book give you just that - history, evolution, decline, species and an in depth look at honey bees that was absolutely fascinating."1 LB of honey takes up to 40,000 miles of flying to produce." " A worker can visit up to 2000 flowers a day." And did you know about the honey bee waggle dance?

How to attract bees is the next entry. Flowers (there are colour photos and descriptions of many varieties), vegetable garden plans,  houses (separate from hives),  the how and the whys.

Next was caring for bees. I had absolutely zero knowledge before reading The Bee Book. I was happy to find a box similar to mine explained. Where to set up and why. And dealing with the thing that does frighten me a bit - getting stung. Tools, equipment and care are covered. And let's not forge - you need to actually have bees to start - where to get them? There is much more to caring for bees than providing a hive. This seems somewhat daunting, but there are detailed, very clear instructions included.

And after all that hard work (more on the part of the bees I think!) - the harvest! Jarred honey, beeswax candles, beeswax polish, soaps and even some health remedies.

Am I ready to start my own hive? Well, I feel much more prepared now thanks to The Bee Book. But I'll be referring to it often! The Bee Book has detailed entries, colour photos and is well laid out with easy to read text boxes. (exactly what I've come to know and appreciate from all DK books) Check out the sample pages below.