About 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is water-covered. The vast majority of water on the Earth’s surface, over 96 percent, is saline water in the oceans. But it is the freshwater resources, such as the water in streams, rivers, lakes, and ground water that provide people (and all life) with most of the water they need everyday to live. Water sitting on the surface of the Earth is easy to visualize, and your view of the water cycle might be that rainfall fills up the rivers and lakes.

Just how much water is there on (and in) the Earth? Here are some numbers you can think about:

1. The total water supply of the world is about 333 million cubic miles (mi3) (a cubic mile is an imaginary cube measuring one mile on each side), or 1,386 million cubic kilometers (km3). A cubic mile of water equals more than 1.1 trillion gallons. A cubic kilometer of water equals about 264 billion gallons.

2. If all of Earth’s water (oceans, icecaps and glaciers, lakes, rivers, ground water, and water in the atmosphere was put into a sphere, then the diameter of that water ball would be a bit less than 1,400 kilometers across, a bit more than the distance between Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana.

3. About 3,100 mi3 (12,900 km3) of water, mostly in the form of water vapor, is in the atmosphere at any one time. If it all fell as precipitation at once, the Earth would be covered with only about 1 inch of water.

4. The 48 contiguous United States receives a total volume of about 4 mi3 (17.7 km3) of precipitation each day.

5. Each day, 280 mi3 (1,170 km3)of water evaporate or transpire into the atmosphere.

6. If all of the world’s water was poured on the United States, it would cover the land to a depth of 90 miles (145 kilometers).

7. Of the freshwater on Earth, much more is stored in the ground than is available in lakes and rivers. More than 2,000,000 mi3 (8,400,000 km3)of freshwater is stored in the Earth, most within one-half mile of the surface. Contrast that with the 60,000 mi3 (250,000 km3) of water stored as freshwater in lakes, inland seas, and rivers. But, if you really want to find freshwater, the most is stored in the 7,000,000 mi3 (29,200,000 km3) of water found in glaciers and icecaps, mainly in the polar regions and in Greenland.

Source: ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html
(Last accessed: 16 August 2010)

Check out the following books on water:

(All Rights Reserved, PowerKids Press, 2009)

Oceans of the World
by Sandy Roydhouse
Call Number: J English 551.46 ROY
Click here to check for item availability.

Water
by Geoff Barker
Call Number: Y English 553.7 BAR
Click here to check for item availability.

Water : Discover Science Through Facts and Fun
by Gerry Bailey and Steve Way
Call Number: J English 553.7 BAI
Click here to check for item availability.

Originally answered by Shahada Selamat
Associate Librarian
Children’s Services

Image is retrieved from:

http://www.elegantgoldbuys.com/page/1202355

Most of us have heard of Aesop’s fable: The Hen That Laid The Golden Eggs (in some versions, it is a goose). In real life, there are no animals that can lay golden eggs. However, there are blue eggs!

According to Henerson’s Chicken Breed Chart:  
Eggs can come in different colors, such as shades of white, creamy white, brown and blue, depending on the breed of the hen. The most unique egg color will be blue. The hens of Ameraucana and Araucana breed lay blue eggs.

Reference:
Henerson’s Chicken Breed Chart (http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html) Last accessed on 30 June 2010.

If you want to read more on the topic, here are books that you can check out at our libraries.

 
All Rights Reserved, Picture Window Books, c2004

The goose that laid the golden egg : a retelling of Aesop’s fable by LarocheMark White
Publisher: Minneapolis, Minn. : Picture Window Books, c2004.
Call No.: JP 398.2 WHI -[FOL]
Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, Children’s Press, 2009, c2008.

How an egg grows into a chicken by Tanya Kant
Publisher: New York : Children’s Press, 2009, c2008.
Call No.: JP 636.5 KAN
Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, Minn. : Millbrook Press, c2007.

Guess what is growing inside this egg by Mia Posada
Publisher: Minneapolis, Minn. : Millbrook Press, c2007.
Call No: J 591.4 POS
Click here to check for item availability

Here are websites for information on the topic:
Title: Egg
URL: http://animals.howstuffworks.com/animal-facts/egg-info.htm

All websites are last accessed on 30 June 2010. Please refer to the terms and conditions on the homepages for use.
For the availability of the above book titles, please check the library catalogue.

Ms Chen Luojia
Associate Librarian, Children’s Services

For those who celebrated Father’s Day a few days ago with your dads, you must be wondering how this special occassion started!

Well, some 4000 years ago, a young boy named Elmusu carved out a father’s day card on a clay tablet, wishing his father a long and healthy life. And in 1910, Miss Sonara Louise Smart Dodd, whose mother died at childbirth and was brought up by her father started the campaign to pay tribute to her father who brought up six children on his own. She succeeded in lobbying for this occassion to be celebrated and in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a Presidential Proclamation to declare the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day and this was also reiterated by President Richard Nixon in 1972 who helped to establish Father’s Day as a national occassion.

Sources:
History of Father’s Day -www.enidnews.com
History of Father’s Day-www.lankanewspapers.com

For books on dads, you can check out these books!

All Rights Reserved, New York, N.Y. : NorthSouth Books

Daddies by Lila Prap
Call Number: JP English PRA
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : NorthSouth Books
View item availability here

All Rights Reserved, New York, N.Y. : G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Your Daddy Was Just Like You by Kelly Bennett
Call Number: JP English BEN
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : G. P. Putnam’s Sons
View item availability here

All Rights Reserved, New York, N.Y. : HarperCollinsPublishers

It’s The Best Day Ever, Dad! by Brooke Shields
Call Number: JP English SHI
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : HarperCollinsPublishers
View item availability here

Posted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

Isn’t it strange that penguins have wings yet they can’t fly? If you ever wonder why they choose to waddle around instead of flying high, well, penguins cannot fly because their wings are too small and stumpy to lift them into the air. However, the wings which look like flippers are very good for swimming. Penguins are excellent swimmers and they are the only flightless waterbird. Other waterbirds like albatrosses, puffins, pelicans and gulls can fly.

Sources:
1) 100 Things You Should Know About Penguins by Camilla de la Bedoyere
Publisher: Great Bardfield, Essex : Miles Kelly, c2007
Call Number: J English English 598.47 DEL
2) Waterbird Fact Sheet: http://www.fws.gov

For more information on penguins, do check out these books!

All Rights Reserved, A & C Black, 2007.
Title: Penguins Of The World
Author: Wayne Lynch
Publisher: London : A & C Black, 2007
Call Number: English 598.47 LYN -[ANI]
Click here to view item availability

All Rights Reserved, PowerKids Press, 2010
Title: Swimming With Penguins
Author: Miriam Coleman
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : PowerKids Press, 2010
Call Number: J English 598.47 COL
Click here to view item availability

All Rights Reserved, Weigl Publishers, c2009
Title: Penguins
Author: David Whitfield
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Weigl Publishers, c2009
Call Number: JP English 598.74 WHI
Click here to view item availability

Posted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

Hiccupping is a sudden, unexpected intake of air that happens when the diaphragm spasms. The diaphragm may twinge when you eat too fast or there sould be some particles in the bloodstream that may irritate the organs near the diaphragm.

There are remedies for hiccups e.g., holding your breath, drinking water, etc. The reason that these remedies are thought to work is the view that carbon dioxide build-up in the blood will stop hiccups.

Also, people also believe that drinking water or pulling the tongue can stop hiccups becuase of the view that if the vagus nerve that runs from the brain to the stomach is stimulated, the spasms in the diaphragm can be stopped, thereby putting an end to hiccups. 

Sources:
[1] Title: World Book Encyclopedia
  Publisher: Chicago: Field Enterprises Educational Corp, 1917-
  Call no. R 031 WOR ( vol. 9)

2] Webpages on “Hiccups”
  http://www.emedicinehealth.com/
  http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/columns/?article=BN_Hiccups

For fun reads on hiccups, you can check out these books!

All Rights Reserved, Grosset & Dunlap, 2010
Title: I Can’t Stop Hiccuping
Author: Lauren Child
Call Number: JP English CHI
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Grosset & Dunlap, 2010
Click here to check item availability

All Rights Reserved, Raintree, 2010
Title: Twitches And Sneezes
Author: Angela Royston
Call Number: JP English 612.2 ROY
Publisher: London : Raintree, 2010
Click here to check item availability

All Rights Reserved, Picture Window Books, c2009
Title: You blink twelve times a minute : and other freaky facts about the human body
Author: Barbara Seuling
Call Number: J English 612 SEU
Publisher: Minneapolis, Minn. : Picture Window Books, c2009
Click here to check item availability

Posted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

ASK about Myths & Facts

Happy Birthday To You is the most frequently sung song in the English-speaking world. It was derived from the song, Good Morning to All, written in 1893 by sisters Mildred Hill (1859 -1916) and Patty Hill (1868 – 1946).

History of the song
Mildred and Patty Hill were both sisters who are known for their work on kindergarten education in Kentucky. In 1893, they composed a collection of songs called Song Stories for the Kindergarten. Good Morning to All was one of the songs.

A number of events, possibly birthday parties, followed which lead to the substitution of the phrase ‘happy birthday’ into the song. Historical accounts from Kentucky suggest that the first time ‘happy birthday’ was used was for a birthday party at the Little Loomhouse. A historical marker was erected here by the Kentucky Historical Society in 2009 to honour the origins of the song. See how it looks here.

According to news sources (see References), it was first copyrighted in 1936 by Summy Company, who published Good Morning to All. In 1988, Time-Warner Corporation bought over the rights. The current copyright expires in 2030.

References

Posted by Ang Mei Jun,Associate Librarian, Adult & Young People’s Services

(Image courtesy of morel mushroom hunting)

Toadstool is a common term for fleshy and umbrella-shaped poisonous fungi. The word toadstool was thought to have originated from the German word “todes” which means death.

Mushroom is the term usually applied to edible species of fungi. Scientists who study fungi, however, make no such distinction between toadstools and mushrooms as most of them can be poisonous.

Many toadstools and mushrooms in the wild can be poisonous and most of the poisonous types belong to the family, Amanita. The commonly encountered poisonous fungi include the death cap, (a mushroom often adorned with one to several patches of thin white veil tissues and has a white pallid stalk), the destroying angel, (a totally white and tall mushroom), and the fly amanita, (a yellow-orange mushroom). Consuming these mushrooms will result in nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, liver damage and death.

It must be noted however that all mushrooms and toadstools in the wild have to be consumed only with professional advice.

Sources:
Toadstool. (2007). Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from Grolier Online http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0291140-0
American Mushrooms: http://americanmushrooms.com

Read more about mushrooms and toadstools!

All Rights Reserved, London: Dorling Kindersley
Mushrooms by Thomas Laessoe
Publisher: London : Dorling Kindersley, 2000
Call No.: English 579.6 LAE
View item availability here

All Rights Reserved, London: Dorling Kindersley
The Edible Mushroom Book by Anna Del Conte
Publisher: London : Dorling Kindersley, 2008
Call No.:English 641.358 EDI
View item availability here

All Rights Reserved, Portland: Timber Press
Edible and poisonous mushrooms of the world by Ian R. Hall
Publisher: Portland : Timber Press, 2003
Call No.: English 579.6 EDI
View item availability here

Posted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

Image courtesy of The University Of Aberdeen
(http://www.abdn.ac.uk/)

Is the idea of vampirish bats real? Or do these blood sucking creatures belong in the dark gothic fiction world of Dracula and Twilight?

Well, there are bats that suck blood and they are aptly known as vampire bats.

A vampire bat bites other animals and drinks their blood. A vampire bat may bite a sleeping horse, cow, or even a person, without being noticed. First, its sharp teeth make a shallow cut. Then the bat simply laps up a small amount of blood and flies away. The chief danger to the victim, (unlike what most gothic movies and books suggest) is not loss of blood but rather infection. This is because vampire bats are known carriers of rabies, a   “fatal viral disease that infects domestic and wild animals and is spread through people through close contact with infected saliva”.

Sources

Land, B. (2008). Bats. (K. F. Koopman, Rev.). The New Book of Knowledge®. Retrieved September 6, 2008, from Grolier Online http://nbk.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=a2002420h
World Health Organization http://www.who.int/

For more information on vampire bats, do check out these books!

All Rights Reserved, New York: Power Kids Press
Vampire bats: hunting for blood by Barbara A. Somervill
Publisher: New York: Power Kids Press/Rosen Publishing Group, 2008
Call no.: JP English 599.4 SOM
Click here to view item availability

All Rights Reserved, New York; Londer: Kingfisher
Dangerous Creatures by Angela Wilkes
Publisher: New York; London: Kingfisher, 2003
Call no.: J English 591.6 WIL
Click here to view item availability

All Rights Reserved, New York: Power Kids Press
Vampire Bats by Emily Raabe
Publisher: New York: Powerkids Press, c2003
Call no.: J English 599.4 RAA
Click here to view item availiability

Extracted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

[My favourite wolf-boy will always be Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli of The Jungle Book, together with the Disney movie remake which I watched countless of times as a child: "Look for the bare necessities/ The simple bare necessities/ Forget about your worries and your strife..."]

Image is a picture of Baloo and Mowgli from Disney’s The Jungle Book 2 movie, and is retrieved from: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808413751/photo/462850

There have been reports about children being raised by animals, more commonly by bears and wolves.  According to ‘The Rough Guides to Unexplained Phenomena’, most accounts of wolf-children recorded since the early nineteenth century have come from India, mostly from the jungles of Bengal. One example would be the documented history of the Midnapore children written by The Revd J. Singh (Wolf Children and Feral Man, 1942), who had discovered and later on brought up the children. Singh was a missionary of the Minnapore Orphanage who made regular evangelical trips to the aboriginal tribes of his district. In 1920, people from a village reported to Singh about two small ‘ghosts’ with big eyes always walking with the wolves back to the den. After investigating, those ‘ghosts’ were actually 2 little human girls aged 1 & 1/2, and 8 years old respectively. Singh took them back with him to the orphanage. Unfortunately the younger one died within a year and she never spoke or walked upright however the other girl learnt to stand, eat human food and speak a few words under his care.

 Other accounts include the two Syrian gazelle boys reported in The Sunday Times, August 1973 and in London’s Daily Mirror, February 1971. One of them could run at 50mph with the gazelles and had superb eyesight and very sharp hearing. The other one would approach gazelles and lick their foreheads as though saying hello and showing that he recognizes them.

There is also the ostrich boy, Sidi Mohamed, who told his story, and is quoted by Armen from Notes Africaines (April 1945), about how he came upon an ostrich nest in North Africa at 5 or 6 years old and stayed there. The parent birds returned to the nest and they became used to him. For ten years, he stayed with them and survived by eating grass and learning how to match their speed in running. At night, the two ostriches would extend a wing over him as shelter. Sidi was found by hunters one day and returned to his parents. It took him a long time to readjust to human ways and he was always wishing for his old way of life among the ostriches.

Reference:
Rickard, Bob, & Michell, John. (2007). The Rough guide to unexplained phenomena 2nd edition. Strand, London WC2R 0RL: Rough Guides Ltd.

If you want to read more on the topic, here are books that you can check out at our libraries.

All Rights Reserved, Minn. : Stone Arch Books, c2010

Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book retold by Carl Bowen

Publisher: Minneapolis, Minn. : Stone Arch Books, c2010.

Call No.: J BOW

Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2001.

The wolf girls: an unsolved mystery from history by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple

Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2001.
Call No.: JP YOL
Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, Dial Books for Young Readers, c2005.

The boy who ran with the gazelles by Marianna Mayer
Publisher: New York : Dial Books for Young Readers, c2005. 
Call No: JP MAY

Click here to check for item availability

All websites are last accessed on 24 Feb 2010. Please refer to the terms and conditions on the homepages for use.
For the availability of the above book titles, please check the library catalogue.

Ms Sharifah A. Latif
Assoc. Librarian, Children’s Services

Which is which? Can you tell the difference?
Images courtesy of Seed Magazine (seedmagazine.com) and The Cellar Image Of The Day (http://cellar.org)

Turtles, tortoises, and terrapins all belong to a division of reptiles, called chelonians.

In general, turtles live in or near the water and have adapted to swim by holding their breath underwater. Tortoises live primarily in arid regions, built for storing their own water supply and walking on sandy ground.

Biologically, a tortoise is a kind of a turtle, but not all turtles are tortoises.

Turtles have flatter backs than tortoises, and may spend all or part of their lives underwater. They mate and lay eggs underwater or on the shore. During cold weather, they burrow in mud and go into torpor, a state similar to hibernation. Sea turtles migrate great distances. They are more often omnivorous, eating plants, insects, and fish.

Tortoises, however, live entirely above water, only wading into streams to clean themselves or to drink. In fact, they could drown in deep or swift current. Tortoises, unlike turtles, are mostly herbivorous, eating cactus, shrubs, and other plants that have a lot of moisture. They rarely migrate. Their shell forms a rounded dome, allowing the tortoise’s limbs and head to withdraw for protection.

Source: WiseGeek (http://www.wisegeek.com)

For more information on turtles and tortoises, check out these books!

All Rights Reserved, New York : Marshall Cavendish Benchmark
Turtles and tortoises by Renee C.Rebman
Publisher: New York : Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, c2007
Call No.: J English 597.92 REB
Click here to view item availability

All Rights Reserved, Irvine, Calif. : Advanced Vivarium Systems
Turtles & tortoises by Russ Case
Publisher: Irvine, Calif. : Advanced Vivarium Systems, c2007
Call No.: J English 639.392 CAS
Click here to view item availability

All Rights Reserved, Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press
Life in cold blood by David Attenborough
Publisher: Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2008
Call No.: English 597.9 ATT -[ANI]
Click here to view item availability

Posted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services