Book Review: Going Full Circle

Join husband-wife team Mike Link and Kate Crowley as they hike around the world’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Superior. The couple adds adventure memoir author to their already numerous list of titles such as, naturalists, travel writers and parents & grandparents.  Their recounting of the five-month's long hike through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ontario is compiled in this award-winning, recent addition to the Water Library's collection, Going Full Circle: A 1,555-mile walk around the World's Largest Lake. Their walk is filled with personal observations, scientific information, and passages that are certain to connect readers to the awe and beauty of the Great Lakes region.  There is also an abundance of information available of their website: http://www.fullcirclesuperior.org which they use to continue their advocacy of fresh water resource issues.

Next up for this adventurous couple is a 4,500-mile trip by bicycle and boat along the Mississippi River to the Gulf.  

If you are a Wisconsin resident and would like to check out this or any other book, please fill out our book request form. If you are a UW student, faculty or staff, please request books through the Library Catalog.

Views of the National Parks

Screenshot taken from Views website's "Badlands" page

Views of the National Parks (Views) is a program of the National Park Service that presents the vast natural, cultural, and historical resources of our national parks through an info-laden, interactive website. Users can select a specific park and explore countless pages filled with maps, park history, and indispensable suggestions on how to plan your future visits.  Educators may choose to access the "Teacher's Lounge" and select lesson plans or explore suggestions of countless other park-related topics.  The site also offers users the option to navigate by choosing subjects related to our National Parks, such as Air Quality, Storms, and Paleontology. 

Take a moment and navigate around the website, experience the rich visual feast, and perhaps plan for your next summer vacation visit to one of our national treasures.

Book Review: Bird Songs - 250 North American Birds In Song

Hoot, hoot! Tweet, tweet!  Warble, warble! Chirp, chirp!

One of the highlights of Spring is opening your windows and hearing the birds sing outside.  We at the Water Library, have been enjoying those sounds outside our window as well.  We've even spotted a Great Horned Owl and Red Tailed Hawk perched in a nearby tree. 

The library has a number of books on birds, but we'd like to highlight one today that would be of great use for those wishing the could identify the nearby bird by the sing-song sounds its makes.  Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds In Song not only includes descriptive passages and photos, but an audio player that allows one to select the corresponding audio file and listen to the bird song.  They highlighted sections include Seabirds, Shorebirds, and Waterbirds, Forest birds, Woodland birds, and Open-Country birds.

Produced by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a world renowned resource, the fascinating book can lead readers and listeners of all ages to some wonderful discoveries.  Check out the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's website too.  Their Macaulay Library has a comprehensive collection of sounds made by the birds of North America.  Definitely worth

If you are a Wisconsin resident and would like to check out this or any other book, please fill out our book request form. If you are a UW student, faculty or staff, please request books through the Library Catalog.

Take Home Some Water Cinema

Wisconsin's Water Library has a large collection of DVDs on water related topics.  With a wide range of subjects, such as environmental advocacy, recycling, drinking water, the Great Lakes, oceans, shipwrecks, invasive species, and weather extremes, you're certain to find something that interests you.

So all are encouraged to check out a selection this summer!  

Browse the library catalog listings for all the DVD's in Wisconsin's Water Library's collection.

If you are a Wisconsin resident and would like to check out these DVD's or any other item, please fill out our book request form. If you are a UW student, faculty or staff, please request books or DVD's through the Library Catalog.

Celebrating Arnold Lobel

Arnold Lobel

Today, May 22nd is children's author and illustrator Arnold Lobel's birthday and we choose to recognize his tremendous gifts and contributions, particularly his poignant short stories involving fast friends Frog and Toad.   Their tales highlight the magic of true friendship while they together search for a lost button, eat too many cookies, share stories, go for a swim, and enjoy countless other adventures.  Throughout these stories, the more friendly and adventurous Frog discovers ways to engage the more irritable and serious Toad.  The successful way Lobel's stories highlight the capacity for friends to support, inspire, and build lasting friendships continues to resonate with readers of all ages.

In addition to authoring and illustrating his own books, Lobel illustrated the stories of countless other children's authors including works by Millicent E. Selsam, Jack Prelutsky, and Nathaniel Benchley.  Lobel's book Fables won the 1981 Caldecott Medal recognizing the year's best-illustrated U.S. picture book.

Cover of Lobel's first book circa 1970

The Water Library has a selection of Lobel's Frog and Toad books and audiobooks for check out.
Frog and Toad are Friends (1970)
Frog and Toad Together (1972)
Frog and Toad Audio Collection
This includes the stories Frog and Toad are Friends,  Frog and Toad All Year, Frog and Toad Together, and Days with Frog and Toad all read by the author.
The Frogs and Toads All Sang (2009)
A collection of ten short stories in rhyme featuring frogs, toads, and polliwogs, colored by his daughter Adrianne.

If you are a Wisconsin resident and would like to check out this or any other book, please fill out our book request form. If you are a UW student, faculty or staff, please request books through the Library Catalog.

Book Review: Boat Ride With Lillian Two Blossom

During our story time visits with the children at the Neenk Chungra Head Start program located within the Ho-Chunk Nation we have striven to include more Native American stories. On a recent outreach trip, we were able to share Patricia Polacco's wonderful  Boat Ride with Lillian Two Blossom. 

The story begins as a young boy named Will tries has hand at fishing and his sister Mabel begins asking him where the sun, wind, and rain all come from. Suddenly an elderly woman appears an promises to answer the girl's questions if she can be taken out on their boat for a ride.  What follows is a fantastical journey as they are swept up into the sky, and the woman, Lillian Two Blossom, keeps her promise and reveals the mythic sources of sun, wind, rain, and night.

The book is beautifully illustrated, full of vibrant colors, and was a real treat to share with the Neenk Chungra Head Start children.  Please consider checking it out and including it in your next story time!

If you are a Wisconsin resident and would like to check out this or any other book, please fill out our book request form. If you are a UW student, faculty or staff, please request books through the Library Catalog.

How About Building a Natural Pool?

 

Spring weather's arrival has gotten us thinking about outdoor swimming and trips to the lake, dips in the stream, or laps at the pool.  This short video (4:04) presents clear instructions on how one could build another option at home - a natural pool.  Using plants and animals to condition the water instead of chemicals, and inexpensive, readily available building products, these self sustaining wonders can be constructed at a fraction of the cost without the need for contractors and advanced engineering.  

What a great addition to your backyard!