“Help, my child is suffering from Summer Brain Drain!”
July 22nd, 2013
Liz · Staff Recommendations
Are your worried your child’s reading ability and math skills are melting away in the summer heat? Studies show that the average student loses at least one month of instruction during the summer break. The children’s room at the library has everything you need to keep your child’s brain active during the summer in a fun and engaging way.
Whether you’re sneaking in math while following a recipe from a cookbook, learning how to knit, exploring space through an Angry Birds book, or you have a reluctant reader whom you’re enticing with unorthodox books your kids will go back to school ahead of the curve and with more neuron connections to boot!
Eat your Math Homework : Recipes for Hungry MindsThis collection of yummy recipes and fun math facts is sure to tempt taste buds and make you hungry for more. Explore patterns in nature while you chomp on Fibonacci Stack Sticks. Amaze your friends with delicious Variable Pizza Pi! Wash down your geometry assignment with some Milk and Tangram Cookies. Topics covered include probability, Fibonacci numbers, tessellations, variability, and more.*
Kids Learn to KnitAfter introducing the basics of knitting, the tools, and the materials, the handbook starts at the beginning (the slip knot, broken down into four steps); casting on (three steps); the knit stitch (five steps); and binding off (four steps). Each simply explained step is illustrated with at least one clear, larger-than-life illustration. Knitters confident in the basics can proceed to sections on the purl stitch and the stockinette stitch, followed by six projects with detailed instructions, patterns, and colorful photos of the finished products.*
Angry Birds Space: a Furious Flight into the Final FrontierFour chapters take the readers deeper and deeper into space each one packed with Angry Birds, astounding space photography, and fascinating “Astrofacts” and “Space Data” features that surprise and enthrall. Join the birds as they observe robots on Mars, take a spin with the Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, visit where stars are born in galaxies far, far away, and look for life on strange new worlds.*
Ultimate Weird but TruePacked with 1,000 amazing facts and eye-popping photos that prove truth really is stranger than fiction. With a colorful, metallic cover, a kid-friendly design, and a wacky sense of humor, this stunning book will give kids a winning combination of smarts and fun. Flip through these boldly-designed pages and you’ll find hundreds of snack-size stories about weird animals, space vacations, wacky inventions, freaky weather, amazing feats, wild extreme sports, and more.*
Guinness World Records 2013From the highest jump on a pogo stick to the fastest dash in clogs, from the longest dog tail to the largest fuzzy dice–the most astonishing records from around the world can be found here! Guinness World Records™ 2013 presents the most amazing, inspiring, and wild record breakers ever. Filled with don’t-try-this-at-home human exploits, natural and technological wonders, incredible achievements in sports and entertainment, and much more, this fully updated edition introduces thrilling new records and incredible facts that will fascinate young and old alike.*
Oh, Yuck!: the Encyclopedia of Everything NastyKids love stuff that’s gross. From the liquids, solids, and gases–especially the gases!–or their own bodies to the creepy, crawly, slimy, slithery, fetid, and feculent phenomena in the world at large, kids with a curious bent just can’t get enough. Oh, Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty brings together, in one book, all the good things about some of the baddest things on Earth. Exhaustively researched and impeccably scientific, yet written with a lively lack of earnestness, Oh, Yuck! is an ants to zits encyclopedic compendium covering people, animals, insects, plants, foods, and more.*