The latest in non-fiction!

I just got some new books that I ordered.  I just love getting a box of new books.  It's like Christmas!  Even if I had to order them and pay for them myself.  Still exciting!  Anyway, the kids are going to LOVE these new non-fiction books I just got.

The first one is called "Snowy Owl Invasion: Tracking an Unusual Migration" by Sandra Markle.  I'm a big fan of Sandra Markle's work.  Her books are always thoroughly researched with lots of gorgeous pictures and super interesting text.  This one is no exception.  It's about what happened with snowy owls in the 2013-2014 season when suddenly people were spotting snowy owls in some pretty surprising places (like the Florida-Georgia border!) and in numbers not usually seen (like at the Boston Airport, where they typically remove 10-12 snowy owls per season, but that year, removed over 100).  She explains why scientists believe there was such a population explosion (no, I'm not going to tell you, you need to read the book!) and what the possible effects might be for snowy owls with global climate change.  Did I mention the photographs are a complete marvel?  If you've never had a chance to really get a good look at a snowy owl (I live in south Florida, snowy owls probably aren't coming here any time soon), these photographs will show you them in detail you never thought possible.  They are amazing.  Do NOT miss this book.

Here's a video from NPR about Baltimore, one of the owls in the book.

The second is called "Beauty and the Beak: How science, technology, and a 3D-Printed beak rescued a bald eagle"  by Deborah Lee Rose and Jane Veltkamp.  It starts off with a narrative story about a baby eagle being born and how it grew to adulthood and then was badly wounded-a bullet shattered her beak, leaving her unable to eat or drink on her own.  Luckily, she was rescued by a police officer, who took her to a wildlife center.   They were able to nurse her back to health, but without a beak, she would never be able to live in the wild.  Luckily, a raptor biologist named Janie (one of the co-authors!) and an engineer named Nate came together to help the eagle get a new beak.  What's really interesting about this story is the details of problem solving and how real live scientists don't always get things right the first time, but with persistence, they can figure it out.  It's also interesting that only about half the book is the wounded eagle's story, the rest of it is information about eagles with lots of QR codes to send interested researchers to find out more.  I think the kids are going to really like this one too!

Here's a video about it Beauty the wounded eagle!