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

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

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

Image is retrieved from: http://www.clarkplanetarium.com/blog/cosmic-quiz-lets-talk-about-star-colors

Yes, many stars shine in different colours and the colours vary depending on the outer layer of the star’s temperature.  The hottest stars are usually blue-white.

According to ‘Explore: One encyclopedia, a world of knowledge’:  ”All stars look white to us because their distance makes them dim. Stars a little cooler than the Sun are yellow and even cooler ones are orange or red. Some stars also look red because their light shines through dust clouds.”

Reference:
Callery, S, Gifford, C, & Goldsmith, Dr M. (2008). Stars and Star dust. (2008). Explore: one encyclopedia, a world of knowledge. London N1 9XW Basingstoke & Oxford: Kingfisher: Macmillan Children’s Books: Macmillan Publishers Limited.

[1] - Singapore science centre- omni theatre- the observatory. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.sci-ctr.edu.sg/ssc/otmovie.jsp?type=8&root=82&parent=82&cat=110

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

All Rights Reserved, N.Y. : Weigl Publishers, c2010

Stars by Edward Willett

Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Weigl Publishers, c2010.

Call No.: J 520 WIL

Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, Disney Press, c2009.

Wonderful world of space by Andrew Fraknoi

Publisher: New York : Disney Press, c2009.
Call No.: J 520 FRA
Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, Weigl Publishers, c2007

Constellations by Frances Purslow
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Weigl Publishers, c2007.
Call No: J 523.8 PUR

Click here to check for item availability

All websites are last accessed on 27 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

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

February is a month of clelebrations with sweets and all things nice. But after feasting on candy on New Year’s and Valentine’s, have you ever wondered what goes into the yummy delicious candy?

Well, candy is made of supersaturated sugar or sucrose.

When you cook up a batch of candy, you cook sugar, water, and various other ingredients, (depending on the flavour of the candy) to extremely high temperatures. At these high temperatures, the sugar remains in solution, even though much of the water has boiled away. But when the candy has been cooked and begins to cool, there is more sugar in solution than is normally possible. The solution is said to be supersaturated with sugar.

Supersaturation is an unstable state. The sugar molecules will begin to crystallize to solid . Stirring or jostling of any kind can cause the sugar to begin crystallizing.

The fact that sugar solidifies into crystals is extremely important in candy making. There are basically two categories of candies - crystalline candies (candies which contain crystals in their finished form, such as fudge and fondant and noncrystalline candies (candies which do not contain crystals, such as lollipops, taffy, and caramels).

The ingredients and procedures for noncrystalline candies are specifically designed to prevent the formation of sugar crystals, because they give the resulting candy a grainy texture.

Here are more books about candy that you can check out!

All Rights Reserved, Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley Pub., c2005
Candy making for dummies by David Jones
Publisher: Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley Pub., c2005
Call No.: English 641.853 JON -[COO]
Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, Portland, Or. : Collectors Press, c2003
Candy : the sweet history by Beth Kimmerle.
Publisher: Portland, Or. : Collectors Press, c2003
Call No.:English q641.853 KIM -[COO]
Click here to check for item availiability

All Rights Reserved, New York, NY : Assouline, c2005
Candy by Delphine Moreau
Publisher: New York, NY : Assouline, c2005 Call No.: English 641.85309 MOR -[COO]
Click here to check for item availability

Posted by:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

Image is a picture of a ctenophore / comb jellyfish taken from ‘Green-eyed Frederick’s Memoirs from Dauphin Island’ blogpost. It is retrieved from: http://www.mwra.com/harbor/graphic/comb%20jelly.jpg

Bioluminescence is the ability in some animals to create their own light, through chemical reactions in their bodies.

According to The Usborne Book of Knowledge:  ”Animals use it to communicate with each other, to find mates, to catch prey or to defend themselves. For example, glow-worms light up their bodies to attract a mate. Many deep sea fishes produce light for defence. Comb jellyfish release clouds of brightly-glowing particles when they are being attacked by a predator. The particles temporarily blind the attacker, providing a chance for escape.”

Reference:
Peterson, Tom. (2008). Light Messages. (2008). The Usborne book of knowledge. Saffron Hill London England: Usborne Publishing Ltd.

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

All Rights Reserved, Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2006.

In the deep sea by Sneed B. Collard

Publisher: New York : Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2006.
Call No.: J 572 COL

Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, KidHaven Press, c2005.

Creatures that glow by Kris Hirschmann
Publisher: Detroit, Mich. : KidHaven Press, c2005.
Call No.: J 572 HIR

Click here to check for item availability

Glow worms: magic lights by Lanka Devi Sinniah
Publisher: Selangor, Malaysia : Ilmiah Publishers, 2004.

Call Number: J 572 SIN
Click here to check for item availability

All websites are last accessed on 11 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

 

On 4 February 2010, MP Irene Ng along with guest-of-honour, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, launched the first of her 2-part biography on former minister, S. Rajaratnam. The first part, which is devoted to the memory of S. Rajaratnam and his enduring vision, is titled ‘The Singapore Lion’.

Sinnathamby Rajaratnam (25 February 1915 – 22 February 2006), better known as S. Rajaratnam, was Singapore’s first foreign minister. He held the post for 15 years from 1965-1980, and held the post of deputy Prime Minister from 1980-1985.

In 2007, the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) was renamed as S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) to honour his contributions for Singapore.

Currently, there is an exhibition on S. Rajaratnam at the National Library Building on level 10. It will run from 4 February to 4 May 2010.

Has Mr Rajaratnam written any books?

He has published a number of books. You can find the locations and availabilities of the books by following the links below:

1) S.Rajaratnam on Singapore: From Ideas To Reality

2) S. Rajaratnam: The Prophetic and The Political

3) Preserving Non-alignment

 There are more books by S. Rajaratnam. Go to searchplus.pl.sg and type in S.Rajaratnam for more results.

Where can I find out more about S.Rajaratnam?

1) S. Rajaratnam

2) The voice of a nation: S. Rajaratnam

3) Raja: From Minister To Citizen 

4) The Singapore Lion

One little trivia about Mr Rajaratnam: Did you know that he penned our national pledge in 1966 after Singapore gains her independence on 9 August 1965?

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

Found this question 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

The Austrian-born Hermine “Miep” Gies, along with her husband, Jan, and several coworkers risked her life to help hide the Franks and four other Amsterdam Jews from 1942 to 1944. Besides giving them cover, Gies and the others would “put on their most cheerful expressions, bring flowers and gifts for birthdays and holidays,” wrote Anne. After Nazis raided the annex, Gies retrieved Anne’s diary for safekeeping.

Following Anne’s death in a concentration camp in 1945, Gies gave the diary to Otto, who alone survived and published it in 1947. Sharp-minded until the end, Gies remained forever entwined with the young girl whose spirit she preserved for history.

(Source: ProQuest
MIEP GIES 1909-2010 SHE SAVED ANNE FRANK’S WORDS
Michelle Tauber. People. New York: Jan 25, 2010. Vol. 73, Iss. 3; pg. 111)

Check out the following books:

(All Rights Reserved, Holiday House, 2009)

The Anne Frank Case : Simon Wiesenthal’s Search for the Truth
By Susan Goldman Rubin
Call No: J English 940.53 RUB
Click here to check for item availability.

(All Rights Reserved, National Geographic, 2007)

Anne Frank : The Young Writer Who Told The World Her Story
By Anne Kramer
Call No: J English 940.53 KRA
Click here to check for item availability.

(All Rights Reserved, Evans, 2010)

Anne Frank : Her Life
By Marian Hoefnagel
Call No: J English 940.53 HOE
Click here to check for item availability.

Originally answered by Rosjihanah Mon
Associate Librarian, Children’s Services