Book Pick of the Week: Easy and Fun Paint Magic with Water

You can read it, you can paint in it!

A new children's activity book series called Easy and Fun Paint Magic with Water. In this series, just add water! These books provide a fun and mess-free painting activity. Using the provided paintbrush, simply wet with water and watch the colors magically appear on each black-and-white illustration within this kid's painting book as it comes to life.

There are four books in this series: Animals, Dinosaurs, Fairies and Friends, and Unicorns and Friends.

These would make lovely Easter basket gifts. Looking forward to checking them all out!

Here are two of the offerings:

https://bookshop.org/books/easy-and-fun-paint-magic-with-water-animals/9781641241724

https://bookshop.org/books/easy-and-fun-paint-magic-with-water-dinosaurs/9781641241731

A fun (and mess-free!) painting activity book for kids ages 3-6, Easy and Fun Paint Magic with Water: Animals features 12 simple and whimsical line art designs of awesome animals, from giraffes and kangaroos to iguanas, monkeys, camels, and more. Using the provided paintbrush, simply wet with water and watch the colors magically appear on each black-and-white illustration as it comes to life! With a stiff cardboard backing to prevent unwanted leaks, parents can rest assured while their children paint and have a blast using water to create stunning works of animal art! Each page within this kid's painting book comes with perforated edges so finished artwork can be easily removed and put on display.

Book Pick of the Week: The Screaming Hairy Armadillo and 76 Other Animals with Weird, Wild Names

Pre-order this great book that families will enjoy.

New from authors, former educators, and father-and-son team Steve and Matt Murrie comes THE SCREAMING HAIRY ARMADILLO and 76 Other Animals with Weird, Wild Names (September 15, 2020; Ages 7-10/Grades 1-5; $14.95), a quirky compendium of curious animal species with the most bizarre monikers.

Perfect for elementary-grade students who are learning remotely this fall, The Screaming Hairy Armadillo gives readers the scoop on taxonomy—the science of defining and naming organisms—and how taxonomists invent names. And there is even a free downloadable Educators Guide for extra learning opportunities!

What's in a name? This lively, illustrated celebration is jam-packed with creatures notable for their bizarre, baffling, and just-plain-funny names.

Meet the White-Bellied Go-Away Bird, whose cry sounds like someone screaming, "Go away!" Or the Aye-Aye, whose name means "I don't know" in Malagasy because no one wants anything to do with this bad-luck creature.

Some are obvious, if still weird––gues what the Fried Egg Jellyfish looks like. Others sound like an inside joke: It's easy to figure out what was on the taxonomist's mind when he christened a fly he discovered Pieza Pie.

Along the way you'll learn all about these curiously named animals' just-as-curious habits, appearances, and abilities.

Kindle Free Pick of the Week: Animal Energies

In many Native American traditions, animals are considered to be our older, wiser brothers and sisters. Their behavior can help us better understand ourselves, heal old wounds, adapt to new situations, or warn us of dangers. Animal Energies shows us how to interpret our physical and spiritual encounters with animals in ways that enable us to achieve balance in the natural world.

Colorfully illustrated and easy-to-reference, the book presents little-known facts about the habits of fifty-eight North American animals, including their strengths and vulnerabilities. By using these ancient animal energies, we are guided gently through life's challenges and obstacles. We may soar with the eagle and run with the wolves, yet even the earthworm has something to teach us.

This updated edition of Dancing Otters and Clever Coyotes includes more personal animal encounters and an updated foreword from the authors. Join them as they share what they've learned from Native American elders and from their own personal journeys, reminding readers of the inherent bond that humans have with all things in nature.

It's Sea Otter Awareness Week

If you didn't already know, Sea Otter Awareness Week 2011 will be celebrated September 25 - October 1.

Sea Otters are what we call a keystone species; that means if they disappeared from the earth tomorrow our marine ecosystem would be drastically changed.

This week bring the plight of the Sea Otter to the masses.

According to the Otter Project, in 2010 the number of dead otters was the highest since recording began in 1983.
"The number of dead pups last year and trend of increasing mortality of reproductive aged females is very unsettling," Brad Hunt, Program Manager of The Otter Project said.

"But there's great news," said Hunt, "Beginning this week the US Fish and Wildlife Service is holding public hearings that could potentially end the no-otter zone in southern California, a vast area of the otters' historic range. Ending the no-otter zone could give the entire population a needed boost."

Strange but true, by federal regulations, sea otters are not allowed to return to their historic range in Southern California.

There will be a public hearing in Santa Crux on October 6th at the Long Marine Lab on Shaffer Road.

For more information about ending the no-otter zone go to http://freetheotters.org