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This month's themed art is Family.  I thought I'd share some animal moms and their families.

Nature has a way of being cruel and being kind, here are a few fun facts where you can decide, if it is a trick or treat!

-Bats are the only mammals that can fly

-A flamingo can only eat when its head is upside down.

-If a kangaroo’s tail is lifted off the ground it is unable to hop. They use their tail for balance.

-A baby shark is ready to go fast when it is born, so that the mother shark doesn’t eat it.

-An owl can’t move its eyes, but it can turn its head 270 degrees.

-The cassowary is a beautiful bird and is predominately a vegetarian, but it can tear holes in flesh like Swiss cheese.

-The orca has no natural predator in the sea and they hunt in groups just like wolves do on land.

-Rhinos amble through the African Savanna and thickets of dense plants filled with ticks that attach to the rhinos and make them itch! The tick bird rides along while eating the tasty treat!

-The vampire squid is a creepy ocean creature that squirts glowing goo from its arms.

Find these facts and many more in Arbordale’s For Creative Minds sections! Take a look while you are eating your trick or treat loot!

Whenever one person grabs a book and curls up in bed or on the sofa, the rest of the family inevitably follow. ... So we chose our favorites individually and then agreed on one shared family favorite.

Where would the world be, if Baby Bear’s wish came true and all the pollen was to disappear? Well, many of his forest friends would be without food, and the bees and butterflies would have no reason to hop from flower to flower. That is why this week is pollinator week!

Why do we celebrate pollinators? These insects and animals are a vital part of our shaping our diet. Without pollinators many of the fruits and vegetables that we eat would not grow, not to mention… honey! The services of pollinators cannot be easily replicated by human farming practices and some plants, like almonds which are entirely dependent on honeybees would not be around anymore for us to enjoy.

In recent history, scientists have seen a drastic decline in the numbers of honeybees, monarchs and bats. Each of these species plays an important role in our lives. Whether it is the pollination of flowers by the monarch, bananas by bats, or blueberries by honeybees, humans are very reliant on pollinators and there are many things we can do to conserve these important creatures.

On Friday June 19^th the Pollinator Week Festival is being held by the USDA on 12^th Street in Washington DC! If you can’t make it to the nation’s capital, but would like to learn more, visit the pollinator site, and also read a few of Arbordale’s books about pollinators.

It’s been a while since I updated! Time to do so, and I’ll begin with a Halloween piece I worked on recently. The main piece and closeups are below. I can always add and tweak, but there is a time to call an illustration “Done!” Happy Halloween, everyone!

By Peter C. Doherty

A recent New York Times editorial by author David Quammen highlighted the seriousness of the current Ebola outbreak in Guinea, but made the point that there is no great risk of any global pandemic. That’s been generally true of the viruses that, like Ebola, cause exudative diathesis, or bleeding into the tissues, and present with horrific symptoms. There’s a whole range of such infections caused by a spectrum of different virus types. These pathogens are generally maintained asymptomatically in wildlife “reservoir” species, including fruit and insectivorous bats, monkeys, field mice, and various other rodent species. Breathing dust contaminated with dried mouse feces can lead, for example, to infection with the Sin Nombre hantavirus that caused a recent outbreak in Yellowstone National Park. Others (like Ebola) may “jump” across to us from bats and are then transmitted between people following contact with contaminated human blood and other secretions.

Ebola virus virion.

From the pandemic aspect, the most dangerous we’ve seen to date is the SARS coronavirus that, in 2002, came out of nowhere to kill some 800 people in the Asia/Pacific region and also caused cases in Toronto. Spread via the respiratory route or by hand-to-face transmission following contact with contaminated surfaces this virus would, if it had emerged prior to the 19th century development of the germ theory of infectious disease, have gone on to cause a continuing human problem. As it was, once the virologists had identified the virus and worked out its mechanism of spread, instituting rigorous sanitation procedures (especially hand washing) and practicing  “barrier nursing” (latex gloves, face masks, disposable gowns) with afflicted patients led to the disease essentially “burning out” in humans. Authorities in the Middle East are, though, keeping a close watch on the closely related MERS coronavirus, which has caused a few human cases and may be maintained in nature as an asymptomatic infection of Egyptian tomb bats and camels. Could the MERS-CoV be the source of  “The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb”?

Even in the absence of specific antiviral drugs and vaccines, modern science protects us by defining the problem so that public health and medical professionals can take appropriate counter-measures. Still, though such viruses do not generally change their mode of transmission to spread readily by the dangerous respiratory route (we can’t choose when and where to breathe!), the basic message is that the price of freedom (from such infections) is constant vigilance. That’s why government agencies like the CDC and the US Public Health Service are so important for our defense. So far, the “worst-case” pandemic scenario for any hemorrhagic fever virus is that portrayed in the movie Contagion. Hopefully, a catastrophe of such magnitude will remain in the realm of fiction, but we do need to keep our guard up.  The much more immediate and likely pandemic danger is always, so far as we are aware, from the influenza A viruses.

Peter C. Doherty is Chairman of the Department of Immunology at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, and a Laureate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of The Beginner’s Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize: Advice for Young Scientists, Their Fate is Our Fate: How Birds Foretell Threats to Our Health and Our World, published in Australia as Sentinel Chickens: What Birds Tell us About Our health and the World, A Light History of Hot Air and Pandemics: What Everyone Needs to Know.

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Image: Ebola virus virion. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The post The Ebola virus and the spread of pandemics appeared first on OUPblog.

        

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Bats at the Library by Brian Lies Another inky evening’s here- The air is cool and calm and clear. Can it be true? Oh, can it be? Yes! Bat Night at the library! Join the free-for-all fun at the public library with these book-loving bats! Shape shadows on walls, frolic in the water fountain, and …

5 Stars Desert Baths Darcy Pattison Kathleen Rietz Syvan Dell Publishing 32 Pages      Ages 4 to 8 ………………….. Inside Jacket: As the sun and the moon travel across the sky, learn how twelve different desert animals face the difficulty of stay clean in a dray and parched land. Explore the desert habitat through its animals [...]

……………………… Kathleen Rietz Illustrator, Desert Baths with author Darcy Pattison ……………….. Please welcome to Kid Lit Reviews a prolific children’s book illustrator and fine artist Kathleen Rietz. She is here to chat with us about herself and her new book with Darcy Pattison titled Desert Baths. Hi, Kathleen, let’s start off with what first interested [...]

Halloween has always been a fun time of year for me. I love dressing up in costume. It's very much like creating the characters in my stories, only in costume I become a character for real. In fact, I bring some costume pieces along with me when I do school visits and help the students devise new and interesting characters.

So today's post is a collection of interesting Halloween(ish) news I've unearthed of late.

Of course, you know I love libraries, so how cool is a haunted one? That's right, in Deep River, Connecticut, the public library (a former home built in 1881 by a local businessman) has not just one ghost but many. Wouldn't that make for some interesting storytimes?

The American Library Association's GREAT WEBSITES FOR KIDS isn't too scary, but there are a frightfully wonderful number of cool places to visit there. Take for example this website on BATS--the kind that fly in the night. That's kind of spooky.

Or try National Geographic's CAT site. Have you ever seen a cat skeleton?

So I admit, Math was always a little scary for me. That's why I've included this site here called COOL MATH--An Amusement Park of Math and More. Check it out for puzzles, games, and Bubba Man in his awesome Halloween costume.

4 Stars
Into the Pumpkin
Kinda Franklin
Schiffer Publishing
No. Pages: 48 Ages: 4 to 11

It’s Halloween Party time again and the witches, bats, ghouls, ghosts, black cats, scarecrows, ravens, and spiders have come together for the annual bash. Questions remain. Where should they have the party, in the graveyard or the pumpkin patch? Will they dress up or go as themselves? Take a ride on a witches broom to find the answers to this year’s Halloween party.

You will hop on the witch’s broom for a journey like no other. Each creature of the night has a part to play. The bats are letting all know about the party, the ghouls are planning the treat or treating. The witch mails out invitations. Is she not a little bit late, or does she have magic on her side? Everyone has a job to do, right down to the scarecrow, who is the host of the night’s ball.

The biggest question, it seems, is where to hold the party. In the graveyard, the haunted castle, or the pumpkin patch. I like the haunted castle. It has great character standing amidst the ghosts. The graveyard is the spookiest and the pumpkin patch says nothing about the Great Pumpkin, so for me, it must happen at the haunted castle. Once the party is over, and the raven has sung all he came to sing, the witch sends us back home by way of the pumpkin patch. It is quite a journey on this Halloween night.

Told in rhyming verse, the Halloween party plans are whimsical. There is nothing here to scare a little one. The illustrations have a ghoulish, haunted feel, yet are bright and fun. It is the illustrations that make this book for me. I like the orange cast of Halloween and the feel of spider webs and wisps of clouds covering each illustration. This lends a feeling of motion and emotion to each picture.  All the fall colors of Halloween are there. The oranges, yellows, whites, browns, and especially the blacks come together in delightful ways. The ghosts are dancing in a circle and I can hear the music as they twirl.

The text is a poem broken down verse by verse on the pages and illustrated by the author. She has made an unusual book with a familiar theme. Most of the lines roll right off the tongue in the lyrical way I enjoy. I think the illustrations are what make this book a winner. Anyone who enjoys Halloween will delight in Into the Pumpkin. I see this book as a family favorite, visited each year alongside the Great Pumpkin and treat or treating.

Into the Pumpkin is party planning that will not frighten a soul. To those of you who collect picture books for the fantastic illustrations, this is a must have. The illustrations are wonderfully enchanting. Into the Pumpkin could have just as easily have been dark, ghoulish, and frightening; the thing nightmares are made out of. Ms. Franklin chose to go the opposite direction and made a story any child can enjoy at any age. Into the Pumpkin is a Halloween winner.

Into the Pumpkin

Author/Illustrator: Linda Franklin   website
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing   website
Release Date: July 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7643-4183-0
Number of Pages: 48
Grades: Pre-K to 6
Ages: 4 to 11
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By John D. Altringham 2011-12 is the International Year of the Bat sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme. Yes, that’s right – we are devoting a whole year to these neglected and largely misunderstood creatures. Perhaps if I give you a few bat facts and figures you might begin to see why.

They've been to the beach. They've patronized the library. And now, Brian Lies' adorable bats are going to watch--what else?--a baseball game. The third installment in this highly appealing series is full of charm, visual humor and--if you are a Red Sox fan--a couple of in-jokes for your reading pleasure. One of the reasons the bat books are so much fun is the opportunity they provide for sight

For the October 2009 issue of Click magazine (part of the Cricket/Carus children’s magazine series), I was asked to created some cartoony bat to accompany and article entitles, “Inside Caves”. The bat is giving a tour of his cave-home, and wearing appropriate attire to what he’s talking about at each juncture of the article. A [...]

I’m struggling to make a “cute” bat. Maybe there’s no such thing, eh?

This piece was inspired by a real life event. I woke up early one Sunday morning to what I thought were the cats chasing a mouse. But it was no mouse. It was a bat, which flew directly into my face. And left a nifty scratch down my cheek. Spooky, for sure!

Okay, enough with the bats already! I did want to post this piece, though. (From this sketch.)

Incidentally, the second bat tested negative for rabies. And we've gone around and bat-proofed the house as best we can. (But, come on, an old house has lots of holes...) At least we know they're not nesting in the attic-- both were random.

Here's our next homebuilding project.

We had another bat in the house this morning. (Just when you had asked, Elizabeth! Go figure.) I was enjoying my coffee and a book this morning at 5:30 am when all of the sudden this little guy came swooping in from the screened-in porch and flew around the downstairs. I screamed. (I really never scream about anything but there's something about swooping bats that gets to me.) (Okay, well, I think it's the wingspan, even though he looks so tiny in the picture.) He finally came to rest in the corner of a living room beam, where the hubby trapped him in a container. So, another call to animal control today to send him off and have him tested.

Holy infestation, Batman! I think we may have an issue.

Don't worry, I'm not suffering any post-bat trauma or anything-- just having fun drawing them!

This was for my daily exercise, though it did take longer than 15 minutes. (I think the point is to draw or write for at least that time, right?)

I was thinking about one of my favorite Dr. Seuss stories while drawing this, called What Was I Scared Of?, from this book. It's about a child who's afraid of "a pair of pale green pants with nobody inside!" They meet under different circumstances and the child is terrified until he realizes "That I was just as strange to them as they were strange to me!" After that they are friends.











From The Sneetches and Other Stories, by Dr. Seuss

I sometimes wonder if Dr. Seuss wrote his stories more for adults than for kids. (Check out The Sneetches to see what I mean...)