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Balloon Trees, the new title from Sylvan Dell, written by Danna Smith and illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein, reveals that the rubber that makes up balloons, balls, tires, shoes and many more things actually comes from trees! What other surprising things do you think trees give us?

The house you live in may be made from wood from trees; that’s obvious, but did you know that that house is filled with gifts from trees also? Do you like that your parents are less grumpy in the morning when they have their coffee? You can thank the coffee arabica tree for that, a 20 foot evergreen that grows in warm climates of the world. A cup of hot cocoa has made a long journey from cocoa trees along the equator to reach your kitchen. Maple syrup, cinnamon, fruits, nuts, and many more delicious items also come from trees.

Ever wonder how jelly candies get so goopy and great? Check the ingredients and you’ll find “gum arabic” in the list. Gum arabic is hardened sap from an acacia tree, and it’s used in foods like desserts to lend its goopy texture to them. It is also a key ingredient in glues, paints, and many other products that manufacturers want to make ‘slimy,’ ‘goopy,’ or ‘jelly.’

“Cellulose” is part of the ‘skin’ of trees, and when manufactured it can become “Rayon” clothing to make our own skin warmer. Cellulose is even an ingredient in foods and beauty products, lending its texture to them to make them ‘thicker’ or ‘heavier.’ When fat is removed from some “diet” or “fat-free” products, cellulose is often added to try and make the food ‘feel’ the same in a person’s mouth as before. 

Trees also give us many kinds of medicine, such as aspirin, and even the first medicine for fighting malaria, “quinine.” If you’ve read our book, The Most Dangerous, you know how harmful the mosquito-spread disease malaria can be. Without the discovery of quinine from Peruvian trees, malaria would have harmed that many more people, and maybe even changed world history! Soldiers in WWII that fought in the Pacific jungles took quinine everyday, and it helped the building of the Panama Canal, and the Dutch and English to build their historical empires!

Of course, this is only the beginning of the gifts that trees give us. Say “thank you” back, by planting a tree, or at least reading a Sylvan Dell book under the shade of one!

Quick! What’s behind you right now? Did you peek over to see desks, the wallpaper, students, books, or toys? Were those objects there even before you looked at them? Are they there now, even though you’re reading this instead of seeing them? As strange as it sounds, some scientists believe that nothing exists definitely until someone measures it, such as you did with your eyes and ears. These scientists work in a field of science called Quantum Mechanics.

In the early 1900s, smarty-pants scientists like Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Werner Heisenberg studied, experimented and argued over the question of what light was made of. Light was very mysterious to scientists at the time, because in some experiments it acted like a wave, similar to the invisible radio and magnetic waves all around us. In other experiments though, light acted like a particle, a solid object like a Pop Tart, a textbook, a penny, a skyscraper… Anything that’s in one place and that weighs something is a particle. It didn’t seem to make sense for something to be an invisible wave and a solid particle at the same time, but in test after test, light was both! You might think it was time for these scientists to turn in their labcoats and get new jobs… this was too hard to figure out! Instead of giving up though, the scientists continued experimenting and studying the subject until they found a solution: light is a wave until it gets observed, then it becomes a solid particle!

This was huge news for scientists. If light acts like this, then other solid objects may not be so solid after all too. The scientists studying Quantum Mechanics presented this thought-provoking possibility: that that the world is actually a wave of possibilities until we observe it, then it becomes the solid place we can feel, touch, taste and smell. It’s a bit like hiding trash under your bed: if you can’t see it, it’s not there!

I had heard before that teens don't really care much for blogs, but this NYT article explains why. If you write for teens, it has some great information on teen tech habits, so check it out.

Interesting stuff.

There's an interesting article up at the L.A. Times online about the depiction of teen girls in movies. Girls have more grit these days, and Valley girls are out is the short of it. We like grit here, so good news, right?

Read the whole thing here.

On a mystery-related note today: check out this article on how the FBI is using social networking sites to investigate suspects. They're using Facebook photos and Tweets to check alibis and find evidence of robberies--how very innovative of the Feeb people. And for us mystery writers: there's another new way to create an alibi for your character. He was tweeting at a ballgame.

As you can imagine, lawsuits and civil liberties protests abound. And you may want to check your list of Twitter followers--Bob Jones may not be your friend at all.

Still. Interesting story material, huh?

Just a quick interruption of the YA Edgar Extravaganza (!) for an interesting article in the LA Times discussing why adults read YA. The short of it: because it's more fun.

But then we already knew that, right? Right.

1. More than half the bones found in your entire body is located in your hands and feet.

2. We are all colorblind at birth.

3. Blood is actually and organ.

4. When born we have 350 bones but when fully grown we only have 206

5. Research has shown that guilt damages your immune system. Spell check won’t let me type the reason why. 

6. We are basically water bags, 70% of our body is water.

7. We take about 600,000,000 breaths a lifetime.

1. More than half the bones found in your entire body is located in your hands and feet.

2. We are all colorblind at birth.

3. Blood is actually and organ.

4. When born we have 350 bones but when fully grown we only have 206

5. Research has shown that guilt damages your immune system. Spell check won’t let me type the reason why. 

6. We are basically water bags, 70% of our body is water.

7. We take about 600,000,000 breaths a lifetime.

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Have you ever thought about how things were in the 1500’s compared to now?  Here are a few facts you may not know about.

1. Where did the saying “dirt poor” come from?
2. How did the saying “bring home the bacon” get started?
3. I am sure you have heard “raining cats and dogs”, but where did it originate?
4. Where did the tradition of brides carrying a bouquet of flowers at a wedding come from?
5. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water,” sounds peculiar right?  Well how did this saying get started?
6. What do you think their food customs were like?

Now, let’s see if you got the answers correct!

1. “Dirt poor” was when poor people had dirt floors.  Those that had money were able to obtain something to cover the dirt, but those that were poor were stuck with the dirt.
2. The more wealthy people were able to buy pork, and when visitors would come they would hang up the bacon to show off.  The owners of the meat would cut a little piece off to share with their guests who weren’t as financially endowned.
3. In houses that had thatched roofs, they had straw piled up high with no wood underneath, is where they kept their animals.  When it would rain it would become slippery and the animals would sometimes fall.
4.  Back in the 1500’s, people would take a yearly bath.  A wedding would usually take place in July because the bride would take her yearly bath in May, and so by July she would not smell too horrible.  To help cover up the smell, the bride would carry a bouquet of flowers when they got married.
5. When they took their yearly bath in the 1500’s,  they took them in a big tub filled with hot water.  They would not empty the water out until everyone was finished.  The man of the house was first, followed by other males and older sons, then the women and children.  They kept the babies until the end, when the water was at its dirtiest.  It was said to be so dirty that they could lose someone in it, and there was born the saying.
6. The wealthy people were able to buy plates made of pewter.  Food with lots of acid would cause some lead to get into the food, which caused lead poisoning.  Needless to say, for about 400 years, tomatoes were considered poisonous. 

Another interesting fact about food:

Bread was divided by status.  Workers got the burnt bottom of the bread.  Family members got the middle of the bread.  Guests got the top, or the upper crust of the bread.   

Image Source

Have you ever thought about how things were in the 1500’s compared to now?  Here are a few facts you may not know about.

1. Where did the saying “dirt poor” come from?
2. How did the saying “bring home the bacon” get started?
3. I am sure you have heard “raining cats and dogs”, but where did it originate?
4. Where did the tradition of brides carrying a bouquet of flowers at a wedding come from?
5. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water,” sounds peculiar right?  Well how did this saying get started?
6. What do you think their food customs were like?

Now, let’s see if you got the answers correct!

1. “Dirt poor” was when poor people had dirt floors.  Those that had money were able to obtain something to cover the dirt, but those that were poor were stuck with the dirt.
2. The more wealthy people were able to buy pork, and when visitors would come they would hang up the bacon to show off.  The owners of the meat would cut a little piece off to share with their guests who weren’t as financially endowned.
3. In houses that had thatched roofs, they had straw piled up high with no wood underneath, is where they kept their animals.  When it would rain it would become slippery and the animals would sometimes fall.
4.  Back in the 1500’s, people would take a yearly bath.  A wedding would usually take place in July because the bride would take her yearly bath in May, and so by July she would not smell too horrible.  To help cover up the smell, the bride would carry a bouquet of flowers when they got married.
5. When they took their yearly bath in the 1500’s,  they took them in a big tub filled with hot water.  They would not empty the water out until everyone was finished.  The man of the house was first, followed by other males and older sons, then the women and children.  They kept the babies until the end, when the water was at its dirtiest.  It was said to be so dirty that they could lose someone in it, and there was born the saying.
6. The wealthy people were able to buy plates made of pewter.  Food with lots of acid would cause some lead to get into the food, which caused lead poisoning.  Needless to say, for about 400 years, tomatoes were considered poisonous. 

Another interesting fact about food:

Bread was divided by status.  Workers got the burnt bottom of the bread.  Family members got the middle of the bread.  Guests got the top, or the upper crust of the bread.   

Listen to Book Bites for Kids, LIVE on blogtalkradio.com today at 2:00 central time.

Our guest today will be Judith Shahverdian, author of The Amazing Adventures of Captain Bootsie Bear and His Fearless Crew.

Judith will be calling in to the show from the Lake Como area of Northern Italy.