Kids ASK! about Pets & Animals

An elephant’s skin is about 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick. Its skin is wrinkled and extremely tough. Despite having a thick skin, the elephant can still get sunburns and insect bites. It often covers itself with dust and mud to protect its skin from insects and the sun.

Fun facts about the elephants:
- An elephant’s trunk has more than 60,000 muscles!
- A wild elephant drinks about 40 gallons (approximately 151.4 litres of water) daily.
- A male elephant calf will stay with its mother until it is aged about ten.
- Young elephants often eat the dung of other elephants to get useful bacteria that aid in digestion.
- A female elephant is pregnant for 22 months before it gives birth to a calf.

Sources:
1) Smith, Roland (1995). African Elephants. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Lerner Publications Company.
2) Niz, Xavier (2005). Elephants. Mankato, Minnesota: Capstone Press.
3) Bedoyere, Camilla de la (2007). 100 things you should know about elephants. Great Bardfield, Essex: Miles Kelly Publishing Ltd.

Books for thoughts: 

100 things you should know about elephants by Camilla de la Bedoyere.
Publisher: Great Bardfield : Miles Kelly, 2007.
Call No.: J 599.67 DEL

Endangered elephants by Bobbie Kalman.
Series Title: Earth’s endangered animals series
Publisher: New York, NY : Crabtree Pub. Co., c2005.
Call no.: J 599.67 KAL

Elephants by Kris Hirschmann.
Series Title: Animals attack
Publisher: Detroit, Mich. : KidHaven Press, c2006.
Call No.: J 599.67 HIR

You can check the availability of the above titles through our online catalogue.  
All book covers were extracted from www.bn.com.
Posted by Ms Adeline Tan
Librarian
Children’s Services

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If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment.

Our dear Singapore’s birthday is round the corner, so let’s wish her a happy birthday!! Wonder who’s the lucky ones whom managed to get the tickets to this year’s parade huh ** envious **

For this year’s theme songs and information, they can be found at the NDP website . For the past years’ theme songs as well as lyrics, I stumbled upon this website by the National Arts Council. Contains most of the theme songs and lyrics!! But please do go thru their useful information page for the terms and condition of usage and such.

Hmm, does any one else know of other good sites that features our country’s National Day theme songs and lyrics?

If you have any enquiries or comments, please drop us an email at ask@nlb.gov.sg and we will reply within 3 working days.

Posted by
Mr Justin Tan
Librarian
Adult and Young People’s Services

ASK! about Anything & Everything

Salt solutions (or saline) are often used as a wound cleanser. However, it seems that there is no consensus of what the impact of using saline actually is.

In this article, it was mentioned that there is no difference between the usage of tap water and saline in wound management.

 Below are some websites for further reading:

Water for wound Cleansing

Fact file: wound cleansing: sterile water or saline?

Normal saline for wound care

All websites last accessed on 18 July 2008.

[ASK! Editor: If you wish to share some of your remedies about healing wounds, you are  welcome to leave your comments ]

   Originally answered by Jillian Lim, Librarian, Adult and Young People’s Services.

Posted by Yen Yen Toh, Librarian, Adult and Young People’s Services

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ASK! about The Librarian

NLB recently took part in Disability Information Referral Centre’s (DIRC) Abilities Roadshow 2008, held at the National Library Plaza. The roadshow aimed to “create awareness of the various services for people with disabilities, offered by Voluntary Welfare Organisations in the Disability sector”.

We were there to celebrate the abilities of People With Disabilities. We wanted to promote awareness and demystify misconceptions by encouraging people to read related books. In 2007, NLB also participated in the DAPE fair.

The Abilities Roadshow 2008 was graced by Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan.

He delivered a speech, and also visited the booths set up by various VWOs. Children had fun at a colouring contest, and the crowd was also treated to performances by the Bishan Home for the Intellectually Disabled.

At NLB’s booth, many youths sat down without second thought to be adorned with NLB’s tattoos. Each organisation received a plaque from NCSS Chief Executive Officer Ms Ang Bee Lian for their commitment to serving people who are disabled.

The NLB public libraries have lots of disability-related books.

Why are some people deaf? How do blind people read? Are autistic children shy? How do you explain disabilities to a young child?

These were some of the many questions participants at the roadshow asked at NLB’s counter. Through our suggestions, they found their answers in the books at our booth.

Some books featured at the roadshow can be found in our booklists, Understanding Disability Part 1 and Understanding Disability Part 2, which can be found here.

During this event, we not only promoted disability education to the public, but took the opportunity to hobnob with other members of the special community.

We thank DIRC for the opportunity to be showcased alongside the other VWOs.

Posted by Ang Mei Jun,

Librarian, Adult & Young People’s Services

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ASK! about  Performing Arts

There’s a lot of hype now about Japanese anime, like D-Grey Man, Hellgirl and so on. You can probably rattle off a longer list than me, but what about Japanese films? Do you still remember the horror hit of 1998, The Ring by Hideo Nakata, and scenes of the creepy long haired woman crawling out of the tube? Simply hair-rising experience of many of the movie-goers then.

Besides The Ring, there are several other Japanese films that cover diverse themes, such as:

Tokyo Godfathers by Satoshi Kon (2003)
Call No.: Other 791.433 TOK
Location: Film Village, library@esplanade

Three homeless friends find an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve and try to locate her parents.

Hana & Alice by Shunji Iwai (2004)
Call No.: Other 791.4372 HAN
Location: Film Village, library@esplanade

Hana and Alice are inseparable friends until Mark, a cute boy they spot at a train station, comes between them. Tricking Mark into believing that he is suffering from amnesia, Hana claims that she is his girlfriend. A baffled Mark struggles to regain his memories as he is drawn to the prettier Alice. When their bond deepens, the girls’ lifelong relationship begins to fray, propelling them apart.

Bushi no Ichibun / Love and Honor by Yoji Yamada (2006)
Call No.: Other 791.4372 BUS
Location: Film Village, library@esplanade

A look at the relationship between a young blind samurai (Takuya Kimura) and his wife (Rei Dan), who will make a sacrifice in order to defend her husband’s honour.

Onna ga Kaidan wo Agaru Toki / When a Woman Ascends the Stairs by Mikio Naruse (1960)
Call No.: Other 791.4372 ONN
Location: Film Village, library@esplanade

The widowed Keiko manages a hostess bar in Tokyo’s Ginza district. She remains faithful to the memory of her husband and supports her mother, brother and his son. The smiling mask she wears allows her to make a living, but the pressure to sell herself is unrelenting. Her business is failing and she must decide whether to raise the money to buy her own bar, or marry one of the admiring affluent patrons.

To celebrate Japanese films (and reward you for squeezing your scholarly juices), the library@esplanade has partnered with the Embassy of Japan and the Singapore Film Society to give aways tickets to the Japanese Film Festival 2008 (22 - 31 August). For more information, see here.

Contributed by Goh Peck Keong, Librarian, Adult & Young People’s Services

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If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment.

Kids ASK! about Anything & Everything

I have always dreamed of seeing the Northern Lights, not quite a possibility from this part of the world. You need to be quite far up north to be able to see it or south if the Southern Lights are your cup of tea. So… what exactly are the Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis?

The Aurora is caused by collision of atoms and molecules from gases with charged particles that exist in the Earth’s magnetic field. The light of the Aurora falls in the range of blue, green and red and should not be mistaken for sunlight. The different light colours are a result of the nature of the atmosphere at different altitudes as well as the slower speed at which oxygen emits light. Oxygen takes nearly a second to release green light and up to two minutes to release red light. However, if the oxygen molecule collides with another molecule, the energy from the initial collision with the charged particle is passed and no light is emitted. Combinations of gases present also give rise to different coloured light displays.

At lower altitudes, the atmosphere is a lot more dense and a high density means the oxygen particles are not given a chance to emit light due to the higher possibility of colliding with another molecule and the ones likely to be responsible for the emission of light would be nitrogen, which gives the Aurora its pink. Therefore, when we look at a whole Aurora light display, the colours higher up would be from oxygen which is red and green, the middle greenish and white (from a combination of oxygen and nitrogen) and at the lower edge, pinkish.

The Aurora is not still. It moves, like a soundless sheet of light across the sky. The movement is caused by the Earth’s magnetic field being compressed by solar wind (streams of charged particles from the sun) forming distortions in the magnetic field. These distortions are responsible for the patterns and movements of the Aurora.

By the way, the Southern Lights are known as Aurora Australis.

Reference:
1. Akasofu, Dr. S. (2003). Frequently asked questions about the aurora. Retrieved July 21, 2008, from Asahi Aurora Web site: http://asahi-classroom.gi.alaska.edu/aurfaq.htm
2. The Aurora Australis - Southern Lights. Retrieved July 22, 2008, from Antarctic Connection Web site: http://www.antarcticconnection.com/ antarctic/weather/aurora.shtml

If you want to read more about the Northern Lights, here are books you can check out at our libraries.

For Children:

Image retrieved from www.amazon.com

Northern lights by Deborah Underwood
Publisher: San Diego, Calif. : KidHaven Press, c2004
Call Number: J English 538 UND

Image retrieved from www.bn.com

Earth by Elaine Landau
Publisher: New York : Children’s Press, 2008
Call Number: J English 525 LAN

Image retrieved from www.amazon.ca

Earth’s journey through space by Trudy E. Bell
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Chelsea House Publishers, c2008
Call Number: Y English 525 BEL

All websites are last accessed on 21 July 2008. 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.

Answered by Felicia Chan,

Librarian, Children’s Services

Just a week ago, there’s an interesting enquiry posted at our Public Library website. This enquirier uploaded a picture of a cloud formation at the website and had asked for identification of it.

(Remember the good-o-days in secondary school whereby our Geography teachers asked us to identify the various clouds.. I can only remember there’s one cloud “pattern” called cirrus cloud, the rest of the names I obviously have returned back to the teacher already)

Any help to shed light on this would definately be appreciated though.

If you have any enquiries or comments, please drop us an email at ask@nlb.gov.sg and we will reply within 3 working days.

Posted by
Mr Justin Tan
Librarian
Adult and Young People’s Services

Kids ASK! about Anything & Everything

According to the Wikipedia entry on Mass Rapid Transit, the “Ang Mo Kio, Jurong East and Tanah Merah stations were built with a third middle track for off-service trains to stop at before they return to their depots, but the last two are now used as termini for the North South Line and the Changi shuttle respectively.” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Rapid_Transit_(Singapore) ) , last accessed 09 July 2008.

In addition, according to SMRT, the stations with three tracks are interchange stations. For example, Jurong East station has three tracks - one heading towards the north (Marina Bay via Woodlands), one to the east (Pasir Ris) and one to the west (Boon Lay). For the Ang Mo Kio station, it acts as a holding stop for trains which are faulty and hence withdrawn to the Ang Mo Kio train depot.

For enquiries relating to SMRT bus and train services, the public can contact SMRT via their general enquiries hotline 1800-3368 900 (operating hours Mon - Fri, 7.30 am - 6.30pm.

Want to know more about trains and train tracks? Here are some recommended books:

Trains on the tracks, by Kathryn Smithyman and Bobbie Kalman
Publisher : New York : Crabtree, c2007.
Call No. : JP 625.2 SMI

C is for caboose : riding the rails from A to Z, by Traci N. Todd
Publisher : San Francisco, Calif. : Chronicle Books, c2007.
Call No. : JP 385 TOD

Bullet trains, by Charles Hofer
Publisher : New York : PowerKids Press, 2008.
Call No. : J 385 HOF

Train, by David West
Publisher : Oxford : Raintree, c2007.
Call No. : J 625.2 WES

Riding the rails : rail travel past and present, by Jane Shuter
Publisher : Oxford : Raintree, c2004.
Call No. : J 385 SHU

All websites were last accessed on 9 July 2008. Please check the websites’ homepages for the terms and conditions of use.
All images were extracted from www.amazon.com and www.bn.com

For the availability of the above book titles, please check the library catalogue.

Posted by Galvin Soh
Librarian
Children’s Services

Found this post interesting? What do you think? Post your comments.
If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment.

Kids ASK! about Pets & Animals

Moths are positively phototactic, which means they are attracted to light - porch light, your headlights or your campfire. While there is no definitive explanation for this phenomenon, there are some interesting theories.

Some types of moths are known to migrate, and it is possible they get the navigational clues from the night sky. A moth’s up-down orientation might depend in part on the brightness of the sky relative to the ground.

Some scientists suggest that moths use the moon as a primary reference point and have the ability to adjust their flight paths as the Earth’s rotation causes the moon to move across the sky.

Thus a moth’s attraction to an artificial light or to a fire could be related to orientation, and lead to disorientation — the moth was not “expecting” to actually get to “the moon” (the light source) or to be able to fly above it, so confusion results.

Source: Howstuffworks “Why are moths attracted to light?”. Retrieved on 2 July 2008, from Howstuffworks website: http://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/question675.htm

You can also listen to the audio clip, “Why are moths attracted to flame?”, at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12903572, where Dr. May Berenbaum (http://www.life.uiuc.edu/entomology/faculty/berenbaum.html) was interviewed by the National Public Radio station.

Here are some recommended library books on moths:

The life cycle of a moth by JoAnn Early Macken; reading consultant, Susan Nations.
Publisher: Milwaukee, WI : Weekly Reader Early Learning Library, 2006
Series Title: Things with wings
Call No.: J P 595.78 MAC

Moths by Fran Howard
Publisher: Mankato, Minn. : Capstone Press, c2005
Series Title: Pebble plus. Bugs, bugs, bugs!
Call No.: J P 595.78 HOW

Night science for kids : exploring the world after dark by Terry Krautwurst
Publisher: New York : Lark Books, 2005, c2003
Summary: “Provides ideas and activities for discovering what changes in the world after dark, including the arrival of moths and owls, fog, and the stars.”
Call No.: J 591.5 KRA

Where did the butterfly get its name? : questions and answers about butterflies and moths by Melvin and Gilda Berger ; illustrated by Higgins Bond
Publisher: New York : Scholastic Reference, c2002
Series Title: Scholastic question and answer series
Summary: “Presents information about the physical characteristics, habitat, behavior, and life cycle of butterflies and moths in question-and-answer format.”
Call No.: J 595.78 BER

All websites were last accessed on 2 July 2008. Please check the websites’ homepages for the terms and conditions of use. All book summaries were taken from the book descriptions. All images were extracted from www.amazon.com, www.scholastic.com and www.bn.com.

For the availability of the above book titles, please check the library catalogue.

Originally answered by Ms Noriahni Binte Ismail
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

Posted by Ms Elizabeth Lee
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

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If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment.