Summer can be the perfect time to enhance and expand one’s interests without the pressures of school and homework. What better way to investigate these interests than through books. Here are just the books waiting for great discoveries! These are great for ages eight through adult.
The first group of books deals with building and creating. They are all part of Klutz Publishing, which promotes “hands-on” experiences.
The Solar Car Book: A Complete Build-it-Yourself Kit, by Doug Stillinger, is ready and waiting for assembling with wheels, axles, motors and even a one-volt solar cell. This may be the beginning of vehicle rebuilding and inventing!
The Klutz Book of Animation, by John Cassidy and Nicholas Berger, is an eye-opening book dealing with the creation of animated videos. This book includes the basics of stop-motion animation and clay to create claymation videos. Move over Pixar!
Safety Pin Bracelets, by Kaitlyn Nichols, offers the ingenuity of those who love fashion and jewelry. Included is a vast variety of beads, safety pins and instructions. All you need is your own genius and imagination.
The next group of books offers the ingenuity of ways to use your pen and paper or computer to create your own story.
Fantasy: An Artist’s Realm, by Ben Boos, is actually a celebration to the imagination. Boos has the most amazing imagination and his exclusive and vivid illustrations fill pages and souls with a life of their own. There is no doubt that once navigating through these pages, which include a double-page fold-out of an intricate map, your mind will become invigorated to write and draw a magical land of your own.
Alienology, by Allen Gray, is part of the ongoing “ology” series. Now we’ll jump from fantasy to science fiction and enter into the alien world. This large book is filled with lift-the-flaps, fold-outs and much more as you enter a galaxy of imagination.
Story World: Legends of the Sea, by John and Caitlin Matthews, is a Create-A-Story Kit which is designed to help kids get their story moving into an interesting tale. This kit is actually a pack of 28 cards with an amazingly colorful and rich illustration on one side, and a list of ideas to get your creative juices going on the other side. This is one of several kits recently published. “Fairy Magic” is another recent publication.
This next group is rich with investigation and research to help understand the subjects addressed. There are two new books that deal with planets.
The Klutz Guide to the Galaxy, by Pat Murphy and The Scientists of Klutz Labs, is a hands-on book full of items to assemble that have to do with astronomy. Included are a build-it-yourself telescope and sundial, and star maps to help you locate constellations.
Explorers: Stars and Planets, by Carole Stott, is kid-friendly with a lay-out full of interesting facts. Between the photos and colorful illustrations and engrossing information, there’s much to learn here!
Now for earth exploration – Into The Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air, by Stewart Ross, and illustrated by the ingenious Stephen Biesty, won this year’s Boston Globe-Horn Non-Fiction Honor award. It takes 14 of history’s greatest explorers and deals with the background that led up to the event, the conditions and weather of the day, and the techniques utilized at the time. The text is fascinating but what will surely draw the reader in are the incredible unfolding cross sections of each expedition. This wide book could just inspire a future explorer!
And lastly, here’s a train book. Legendary Journeys – Trains, by Philip Steele, is an exploration of trains throughout history. This wonderfully packaged book has five pull-out pages which reveals longer train cars and informs the reader of details attributed to this mode of transportation.
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Holly E. Newton, M. A.
