CELEBRATE BATS during INTERNATIONAL BAT WEEK and during The Whole Year

 

Bat Week is an annual international celebration of the important role of bats in nature. While we often think about bats during the weeks before Halloween, we need to be aware of their critical role in the ecosystem during the whole year. You can learn more at the Bat Week website. 

You can also learn about bats in my book BAT (Morrow Junior Books, 1996) illustrated with close-up photographs by Richard Hewett, now available as a digital book on Amazon.There are more than 950 species of bats in the world today. This book focuses on two species of bats found commonly in the United States--the big brown bat and the Mexican free-tailed bat.

Bats play an essential role in the balance of nature-eating millions of insect pests nightly and pollinating hundreds of different types of plants. Yet unfounded superstitions and fear, plus the destruction of their habitats, are endangering many species of bats the world over. The clear text and forty up-close full-color photographs highlight bats' unusual physical characteristics and present a fascinating view of their day-to-day life and behavior.

Learn some cool facts about bats and other animals in this issue of the National Geographic newsletter.

LIVING FOSSILS now available in Paperback!

LIVING FOSSILS: Clues to the Past (Charlesbridge, 2016) is now available in paperback! Hurray! I'm glad to have a paperback edition that will help expand the audience for this book. The book is still available in hardcover and as a digital book (Kindle) as well.

Meet the coelacanth, horseshoe crab, dragonfly, tuatara, nautilus, and Hula painted frog. All are living fossils, or modern-day animals that very closely resemble their ancient relatives. Why have they changed so little over time, while other animals evolved or went extinct? Using contrasting "then" and "now" illustrations, veteran nonfiction writer Caroline Arnold alternates between a prehistoric creature in its native environment and its contemporary living-fossil counterpart.

Prizes and Awards

NYPL Recommends: New Nonfiction for Kids Bibliofile July 15, 2016 CRA Eureka Silver Award, 2016

CAROLINE ARNOLD E-BOOKS on AMAZON

I have recently updated my webpage listing of my e-books so you can find them all in one place. Take a look and click on the links!

All of my CURRENT BOOKS are available as e-books from the publisher and online at Amazon and other ebook platforms.

Many of my OUT-OF-PRINT books are getting a new life as ebooks. Most (42 titles) have been published by StarWalk Kids Media. An addition 9 titles have been published by me, Caroline Arnold Books. All the books have been redesigned with a contemporary look for today's readers and updated. They are available on Amazon as Kindle books and in some cases for Nooks and I-Readers.

Almost all of the books I’ve written for CHARLESBRIDGE including Hatching Chicks in Room 6 are available as e-books.
The 16 titles I’ve written and illustrated for PICTURE WINDOW BOOKS (Capstone), my Animal World and Day and Night series, are also available as e-books from the publisher.
Plus, you can find Your Skeletal System (Lerner) and The Geography Book: Activities for Exploring, Mapping, and Enjoying Your World (Wiley) as e-books on Amazon.

LLAMA is Now Available at StarWalk Kids

Llama offers youngsters a close-up view of these gentle, elegant-looking natives of the high Andean plateaus. They are used to transport goods in places where cars and trucks cannot go, and their wool is woven into beautiful, warm clothing.

My book, LLAMA, originally published by Morrow Junior Books, is now available as a digital book at StarWalk Kids and also soon at Amazon as a Kindle book. It is illustrated with captivating photos by Richard Hewett. I am thrilled to see this book available again.  Through the month of July you can read all of the books in the StarWalk Kids catalogue for free.  It is a great opportunity!

PTEROSAURS: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age now available at StarWalk Kids

One hundred million years ago, the skies were filled with enormous flying reptiles. With wing spans up to nearly forty feet, pterosaurs were one of the dominant life forms on earth.  My book, PTEROSAURS: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age, originally published by Clarion, is now available as a digital book at StarWalk Kids and also soon at Amazon as a Kindle book.  I am thrilled to see this book available again.  Through the month of July you can read all of the books in the StarWalk Kids catalogue for free.  It is a great opportunity!

BOOKLIST Review of Pterosaurs

Gr. 2-4. After tackling megalodon, feathered dinos, and woolly mammoths in three previous books, Arnold and Caple add another extinct creature to their repertoire. This solid overview of "the only reptiles ever capable of powered flight" covers pterosaurs' ancestry, their peculiar physiology, theories about their behavior, and major fossil discoveries, frequently making abstract facts concrete through vivid comparisons: "If your arms were built like the wings of a pterosaur, your little finger would be more than 3 feet (1 meter) long!" Descriptions of about 20 of the more than 100 different pterosaur species known today round out the text. Caple's neatly labeled watercolors emphasize clarity over drama, but her subjects' exotic physical oddities (hairy, batlike bodies; toucan-bright beaks; bulbous, gaudily colored crests) will draw kids into the diorama-like tableaus.

GIANT SHARK Now Available in Kindle Edition

My book Giant Shark: Megalodon, Prehistoric Super Predator with striking illustrations by Laurie Caple is now available as an Kindle e-book on Amazon. It is published by StarWalk Kids Media and is also available in the StarWalk Kids library.  Originally published by Clarion Books (2000), the hard cover edition is now out of print.  This has always been one of my most popular books so I am thrilled to see it available again.

For millions of years, a massive shark more than twice as huge as the modern-day great white shark cruised the depths of the ocean, attacking and devouring prey. Fossil remains reveal megalodon to have been more than fifty feet long, with razor-sharp teeth, each the size of a human hand, and jaws so large it could swallow prey larger than a common dolphin. Fluid, detailed watercolors accompany this clear and accessible account of one of the most incredible creatures to inhabit our world.

KINDLE: More of My Books Now Available for Your Kindle

StarWalk Kids has now published nine more of my books on Amazon Kindle, all from my animal series illustrated with photos by Richard Hewett.  With new formatting and updating, these out-of-print books are getting a new life as digital books, perfect for your computer and other digital devices.  I now have a total of 20 titles available for download as Kindle books. The books are also available through the StarWalk Kids subscription program.
Look for these new titles:
HIPPO
KANGAROO
ELEPHANT
ZEBRA
BAT
FLAMINGO
LION
KILLER WHALE
CAMEL

Zoo Animal Series Now Digital

These six books in my Zoo Animals series were published by Carolrhoda (Lerner) in 1999 but have been out of print for some time.  I am always sad when my books go out of print so I am thrilled to have this series available again, now in a digital format.  The new versions, published by StarWalk KidsMedia, can be downloaded from Amazon for your Kindle.  They are also in the StarWalk KidsMedia catalogue available for school and library and home subscription.  They are perfect as read-alouds for young children and to be read alone by children in the primary grades.

The books in this series are illustrated with wonderful photographs by Richard Hewett.  We spent many hours together at zoos watching animals and waiting for just the right moment to take a picture. It is important to have LOTS of patience when photographing animals. You can't ask an elephant to "just turn a little more this way, please!" Even though the photos look as if we were close to the animals, we were always safely on the other side of a fence or inside a vehicle. Richard used a telephoto lens to make the animals seem close-up. While he took pictures, I watched and listened to the animals and took notes that later helped me to write the books.

Click on the links below for the Amazon pages for these books.

•  Playtime for Zoo Animals  
• Mealtime for Zoo Animals
• Splashtime for Zoo Animals
• Noisytime for Zoo Animals
• Sleepytime for Zoo Animals
• Mother and Baby Zoo Animals

You can go also directly to Amazon from the book pages at StarWalk KidsMedia or you can find the links to the books on my website www.carolinearnold.com .

New Life for OP Books at StarWalk Kids Media

At StarWalk Reader, the child can choose the reading mode--Read to Me, Let Me Read, or Auto Play

I was delighted by the launch of StarWalk Kids Media Digital Library last week and to see many of my out-of-print books getting a new life. Nine of my books are currently in the catalog and more will be added in the coming year. The books have been redesigned with a contemporary look for today's readers and can be used in a variety of ways–to read alone, to listen to, or on auto-play.

All of the StarWalk Kids titles will also available on Amazon as Kindle books.  You can search by title on Amazon or link directly from the StarWalk Kids catalog.

StarWalk Kids Media was co-founded by children's science author Seymour Simon and Liz Nealon, the former Creative Director of Sesame Street.  I have known Seymour for many years, since the days when we both published at Morrow Junior Books. The catalog of StarWalk Kids includes books by Seymour Simon as well as by David Adler, Stephanie Calmenson, Joanna Cole, Doug Cushman, Diane deGroat, Johanna Hurwitz, Kathryn Lasky, Stan Mack, Doreen Rappaport, Hudson Talbott, Laura Vaccaro Seeger and more.  Read more about StarWalk Kids Media in this excellent article in School Library Journal.

The books are available via the browser-based StarWalk Reader, which works on most devices, including desktop and laptop computers, tablets, smartphones, and interactive whiteboards. It’s anytime access—students with an account can log in from home or anywhere they have an Internet connection. And multiple users, whole classes, can read the same title simultaneously.

Designed for classroom use, the books accommodate note taking and highlighting. Educators can search for books by author, title, keyword, subject, Lexile level, alphabetic reading level, and Common Core (CC) State Standards links. An especially handy feature for younger users is the ability to navigate by thumbnail images of each page, which appear along the bottom of the Reader. “Teaching Links” match each title to relevant CC standards and provide suggested activities.

Caroline Arnold titles now available at StarWalk Kids:

• Sun Fun
• Playtime for Zoo Animals
• Mealtime for Zoo Animals
• Splashtime for Zoo Animals
• Noisytime for Zoo Animals
• Sleepytime for Zoo Animals
• Mother and Baby Zoo Animal
• Wild Goat
• Tule Elk

Sun Fun Activity Book on Kindle

SUN FUN: An Easy Read Activity Book by Caroline Arnold.  Here is the perfect book to inspire activities to do with your kids, grandkids, or students, on a hot summer day! 
     Did you know that you can tell time by the sun, cook with the sun, and make pictures with the sun? This book for children ages 5 to 9 has ten fun activities that use energy from the sun, including making a sun clock, shadow puppets, and sun reflectors. From an ice cube race to learning how to watch a solar eclipse, this book uses easily found materials and simple directions to learn about the sun and solar energy.
     I wrote and illustrated this book in 1981.  Many of the projects were ones that I did with my own children and their friends (who became models for my drawings for the book.)  The book has long been out of print but is now available in digital format as a Kindle book on Amazon.  Although images on Kindle are only black and white, if you download the book to your phone or computer, the pictures will be in color.  Have fun and stay cool!
You can preview the book in this video on YouTube about how to make a sun clock. 
     Illustration note:  This book was illustrated back in the days of preseparated art.  I had only three colors to work with--black, red, and yellow--and had to create a separate drawing for each color.  I worked on a light table to make sure that the images for each color would line up (or register) when the pages were printed. In the printing process, the colors combined to make the final image.