Showing posts with label ebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ebook. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

WHEN MAMMOTHS WALKED THE EARTH: Meeting Wooly Mammoths in the Natural Science Museum, Bergamo, Italy

Wooly Mammoth models at the Natural Science Museum, Bergamo, Italy.

In 2002, my book WHEN MAMMOTHS WALKED THE EARTH was published by Clarion Books. It covered the worldwide occurrence of mammoths, from the wooly mammoths that wandered much of the northern hemisphere during the last Ice Age to the huge Columbian Mammoths, like those whose skeletons are displayed at the George C. Page Museum in Los Angeles, where I live. On my recent trip to Italy, I visited the Natural Science Museum in Bergamo, where I encountered models of a wooly mammoth mother and her calf. It was like meeting old friends. As I looked out into the foothills of the Alps behind Bergamo, I could image herds of mammoths just like these models that wandered Italian valleys as prehistoric people began to make their homes here.


The hardback edition of WHEN MAMMOTHS WALKED THE EARTH is out of print, but you can find it as an ebook on Amazon. Or you can look for the print book in your library!

Growing to weights of 10 tons and distinguished by enormous curling tusks, mammoths were the largest land animals of the Ice Age. In this meticulously researched, clear, and accessible book, award-winning nonfiction author Caroline Arnold describes the natural history of mammoths, highlighting their physical features and adaptation to the environment. Laurie Caple’s stunning, scientifically accurate watercolors complement the text and provide an intriguing look at these huge creatures.(Amazon)

 

Monday, June 23, 2025

ALA COMBINED BOOK EXHIBIT: Look for SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL!


This year the annual American Library Association convention is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and, as usual, the exhibit hall will be filled with publishers' booths promoting all their latest books. You can find my memoir SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL: Growing Up in the 1950s at Northeast Neighborhood House in the Combined Book Exhibit, Booth #1838, which features independently published books. Although my book is for adults, I think it will be of interest to teachers and librarians who know me as a children's book writer. The roots of my career can be found in my childhood.

Click HERE for a map of the exhibit floor and Booth #1838. You can find both the paperback and ebook of SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL in the Combined Book Exhibit booth. For an ebook preview of the first chapter of the book click on the link on the Combined Book Exhibit webpage for the book.

Book Description

A chronicle of children's book author Caroline Arnold's childhood living at a settlement house--from nursery school and after school clubs to summers at camp. A window into life at mid-century and Caroline's future as a writer and illustrator.

Book Review 

"The narrative presents a wealth of historical information as well as an insider's view of an uncommon subject matter." BookLife Prize review

Monday, May 12, 2025

EASTER ISLAND: The Perfect book to read during AAPI HERITAGE MONTH


The month of May is Asian American Pacific IslanderHeritage Month, celebrating the community’s contributions to the cultural, social, and political fabric of this country. It is the perfect time to read my book EASTER ISLAND: Giant Stone Statues Tell of a Richand Tragic Past (Clarion Books, 2000.)

You can find it as an ebook, EASTER ISLAND: Giant Stone Statues Tell of a Rich and Tragic Past is available as an ebook on Amazon. You can also look for it in your library.


Easter Island is the most remote inhabited place on Earth. It is located in the easternmost corner of the large triangle of Pacific Islands known as Polynesia. The first European visitor to Easter Island was a Dutch sea captain, Jacob Roggeveen, who landed there on April 5, 1722. In the tradition of his time he named his “discovery” for the day of his arrival which was Easter Sunday. Today the island is known both as Easter Island (Isla de Pascua in Spanish) and Rapa Nui, a Polynesian name given to it in the 19th century by Tahitian sailors. Both the people and the traditional Easter Island language are known today as Rapanui.

The scale of the Easter Island statues is enormous.

As we look at Easter Island today we see examples of humankind’s most amazing artistic achievements. We also see records of some of its darkest moments. Much remains to be learned about its earliest inhabitants who came to the island in about A.D. 400. We know that they were farmers and fishermen, and that as they shaped the land to fit their needs they gradually used up many of the island’s limited resources. In many ways Easter Island is a model for the world we live in today and is a reminder that natural resources must be used wisely.

Giant statues called moai were placed on platforms called ahu.


Wednesday, January 29, 2025

LUNAR NEW YEAR: The Year of the Snake--Time to Read Books about Snakes!


Today, January 29, 2025, marks the beginning of the New Year on the lunar calendar and is celebrated by the Chinese and many other people.

Much like the snake sheds its skin, 2025 marks a year when individuals and communities can let go of old patterns and embrace innovation. The Year of the Snake serves as a call for thoughtful action and strategic change.

A number of my books for children have snakes in them. In 1991 I published SNAKE, illustrated with photos by Richard Hewett, featuring a Rosy Boa that was used in educational programs at the Los Angeles Zoo. It was one of my most popular animal books. The hardcover book is out of print, although you still may be able to find it in some libraries. (LAPL has six copies.) The ebook of SNAKE is available at Amazon and other ebook outlets.

People have long been intrigued by snakes, and today they are one of the most popular attractions at any zoo. But in the wild, some species are now endangered-because the snakes are hunted for sport or profit, or because their habitats are being destroyed. Filled with forty intriguing photographs, Snake is a delightful first look at these slithery, scaly, limbless reptiles.

Rosy Boa





Tuesday, October 15, 2024

SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL Now at the SCBWI BookStop Site

SCBWI BookStop page for SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL

The SCBWI BookStop site launches today!  Find SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL on my SCBWI BookStop page! It is in the section of YA books. (Like many books written for adults, it crosses over to YA readers.)

Thanks to the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators for helping me to promote SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL, my memoir about growing up at North East Neighborhood House in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The site includes information about the book and links to my social media sites.  A button on the BookStop page allows you to go directly to Amazon to purchase SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL (paperback). The book is also available as an ebook on Amazon.

The promotion will be live on scbwi.org from October 15 through December 4, 2024. It is a perfect opportunity for holiday shoppers, including on Cyber Monday. Buy your copy today!

"Settlement House Girl is engaging, tracing Arnold’s growth from a young girl to an adult journeying into being a writer in her later life, but it’s also a valuable contribution to the social history of 20th-century America, offering urban history enthusiasts a wealth of information about the daily lives of families living in mid-century cities. The detailed accounts of Arnold's experiences provide a unique glimpse into the fabric of community life during this era, highlighting the interactions and shared experiences that defined the settlement house environment." BookLife/Publishers Weekly


Saturday, December 9, 2023

MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE, NOW AVAILABLE IN SPANISH


My book, My Friend from Outer Space, has now been translated into Spanish and is available on Amazon. Mi Amiga del Espacio is available in both paperback and as a Kindle ebook.

With many thanks to my brother Tom Scheaffer, who for many years was a bilingual Spanish teacher in an elementary school in California, and to my daughter Jennifer Arnold and her husband Humberto Gutierrez Rivas, a native speaker from Chile.

Here is the description of the book in Spanish:

"Sherry es mi vecina. Ella dice que viene del espacio. No le creo."
Sherry y su amiga van al espacio en un cohete de cartón. ¿Realmente van al espacio? ¿O simplemente están fingiendo?
Este libro ilustrado es para niños de cinco a doce años.
Publicado originalmente en inglés con el título 
My Friend from Outer Space (Amazon, 2023).
Traducción por Thomas Scheaffer y Humberto Gutiérrez-Rivas.


Tuesday, November 14, 2023

SCBWI BOOKSTOP: Buy your copy of My Friend From Outer Space here!

The holidays are here! Purchase a wonderful book by SCBWI members. Find amazing stories in our members’ novels and picture books, and discover intriguing nonfiction – all make great gifts for the kids and young adults in your life and also for you! Go to https://www.scbwi.org/bookstop to browse, buy, and enjoy a new book.


I have created a page for my book
 MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE on the SCBWI BookStop site. 


At my BookStop page you will find links to Amazon where you can buy the book (paperback and Kindle), to the YouTube book trailer, and to my website where you can find more information about the book and its inspiration.

BookStop goes live to the book-buying public on Tuesday, November 14 through December 22. The goal is to give new books by SCBWI members the exposure they deserve during peak holiday buying season.
Check it out and leave a comment!





Wednesday, July 19, 2023

TA DAH! New Book! MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE


                                    HOT OFF THE PRESS!

MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE

By Caroline Arnold

Illustrations by Paige Arnold

Published by Caroline Arnold (Amazon) July 2023

ISBN 9798399935614 Paperback $9.99

ASIN B0CB9BXWLC  Kindle ebook $6.99

“Sherry lives next door. She says she comes from outer space. I don’t believe her.”


In this graphic picture book illustrated with colorful anime style art by Paige Arnold, two girls travel to the planet Tinbambam in their cardboard box space ship. But do they really go to outer space? Or are they just pretending?

This is a new version of MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE originally published by Franklin Watts, 1981, (OP), now rewritten and newly illustrated.

I am so excited to have this book available again after 43 years! Children will always like to pretend. It is a story that will never go out of date.

Get your copy now!




Saturday, July 30, 2022

TAJ MAHAL NOW AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK AT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY WITH HOOPLA


My book Taj Mahal (Lerner Publishing, 2007), the story of the monument in India built more than 300 years ago, has long been out-of-print, but you can now read it as an e-book through Hoopla at your local library. If you have a library card and your library participates in Hoopla, all you have to do is register for Hoopla. (It's free.) You can then "borrow" books and read them on your computer or other device. I use Hoopla at the Los Angeles Public Library. (Hoopla is also a great way to download movies.)

I was inspired to write the story of the Taj Mahal after a visit to India in February 2000 when I went to Agra and saw the Taj Mahal. The text is a collaboration with my friend Madeleine Comora, who had also been to the Taj Mahal and was fascinated with it's history. The beautiful illustrations, in the the style of Indian miniature paintings, are by Madeleine's husband, Rahul Bhushan.

The Taj Mahal is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular buildings of the world, renowned for its architectural magnificence and aesthetic beauty. It is a rare book that can do justice to such a structure, but the grace and elegance of Rahul Bhushan's work captures the culture and the people that created the magnificent building. The story is a beautiful one, telling how Shah Jahan achieved immortality for himself and his departed wife, Mumtaz Mahal, by fulfilling her wish for a memorable tomb. The building itself is so exquisite that the Taj Mahal is more than an expression of one man's love for a woman; it has become a symbol of grace and beauty and a monument to universal love.



Wednesday, November 10, 2021

THE ANCIENT CLIFF DWELLERS OF MESA VERDE on the November SCBWI Recommended Reading List


I am pleased to have my book THE ANCIENT CLIFF DWELLERS OF MESA VERDE featured on this month’s SCBWI recommended reading list in the nonfiction section. Each month, SCBWI features books written and illustrated by its members. And every month highlights a new theme that will foster discussions, activities, and enjoyment!

The theme for November is Native, First Nations, and Indigenous Heritage, featuring books that celebrate the diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and acknowledge the important contributions of Native people. On this list, you will find fiction, nonfiction, Own Voices books, bilingual books, and more. So pick up a book and become immersed in this rich culture.

THE ANCIENT CLIFF DWELLERS OF MESA VERDE is available as an ebook from Amazon. It was originally published by Clarion Books in 1992. 

My first visit to Mesa Verde National Park was on a family vacation when I was fourteen. We pitched our tent on the edge of the mesa and, like the ancient Anasazi, cooked our meals over an open fire. It was easy to imagine our campsite as a place where the Anasazi might have tilled the ground to plant corn and beans or hunted with bows and arrows for deer or wild turkey. As we looked into the canyon below our campsite we could see Spruce Tree House, a complex of square buildings that had been built into the cliff wall one thousand years ago. Protected from wind and weather by the overhanging rocks, they looked much as they had when they were new. My brothers and I delighted in scrambling up and down the ladders of the cliff dwellings and investigating the open rooms. I also spent hours inside the park museum learning about the people who had once lived at Mesa Verde. As I viewed the fine baskets, intricately decorated pots, carved stone and bone tools and other artifacts, I wondered about the ancient Americans known to us as the Anasazi and about why they had abandoned their homes around 1300 AD. 

When I returned to Mesa Verde thirty years later with Richard Hewett to research and photograph our book, I discovered that even more ancient sites had been excavated and opened to the public. I was intrigued by the archeological process--how people discover evidence of ancient cultures and how they figure out what it means. The buildings and household objects that the Anasazi left behind are like pieces of a puzzle, which reveal what life was like on that high tableland over a thousand years ago.

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

EL NINO: Stormy Weather for People and Wildlife, Now available as an E-Book

My book, El Niño: Stormy Weather for People and Wildlife is now available as a Kindle book on Amazon. For readers age 10 and up.

Drought in Southeast Asia, brutal storms in Australia, and spring-like temperatures in the northeastern United States--all of these seemingly unrelated events are caused by El Niño. Disrupting weather all over the globe every three to seven years, El Niño is second only to the change of the seasons in its influence on the climate.
El Niño is the name given to the unusual increase in ocean temperatures along the Peruvian and Ecuadorian coasts that is part of a larger pattern of changes in wind and weather throughout the Pacific region and beyond. With El Niño come violent storms and upsets in the global food chain that dramatically affect both humans and wildlife.
With the use of photographs, charts and maps, this updated edition of El Niño: Stormy Weather for People and Wildlife makes clear how this remarkable weather pattern is formed, how scientists track it, what its effects are, and why following its path is of such importance.

Originally published by Clarion Books as a hardback book in 1998, El Nino: Stormy Weather for People and Wildlife is an Accelerated Reader book. You can look for it in your library.

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

THE WRITING PROCESS: Six Questions Exercise

When Mammoths Walked the Earth is available as an e-book on Amazon
I recently cleaned out my files and found various materials that I had used when teaching my class in writing for children in the UCLA Writer’s Program. Here is a writing exercise called “Six Questions.”

When I started researching my book When Mammoths Walked the Earth (Clarion, 2002) I ended up with a jumble of facts about these huge prehistoric animals that lived in the Ice Age. My job in writing the book was to line up the facts so they made sense. So I asked myself a few questions: Who were the mammoths? What did they look like? Where and when did they live? Why were they unique? How do we know about them?
Asking questions is a technique I use that helps me focus on what my book is about and this helps me figure out how to organize the information. The six basic questions are who, what, where, when, why and how. Try answering the following questions about your subject. Your answers will help you shape your story. (Although my focus is on writing nonfiction, this exercise works for fiction too.)

Who is your book about? Who or what is the main subject or character of your story?
What does your subject look like? What is unique or special about your subject’s appearance?
Where does the main character live? Or, where does the story take place? In other words, what is the setting of your story.
When does the story happen? That is, what is the time frame?
How does the main subject behave? How is it adapted to its particular way of life? Or, what is the main action of the story?
Why should we be interested in your subject? What makes it compelling?

Note: When Mammoths Walked the Earth is out of print but available as a Kindle book on Amazon.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

SHADOWS ON A WALL: The Autobiographical Writings of Lester Lewis Scheaffer (edited by Caroline Arnold) now an ebook at Amazon

My father's memoir, SHADOWS ON A WALL: The Autobiographical Writings of Lester Lewis Scheaffer, is finally up at Amazon as an ebook. (I am the editor.) These are poems and essays about his family, growing up in Kenosha, Wisconsin in the 1920s and 1930s, and a few stories about his life as a settlement house worker. If you enjoyed reading his story, Celebration at Tea Lake (about the memorable family celebration of my parents' 13th wedding anniversary) that I recently posted at my travel blog (The Intrepid Tourist), you may enjoy reading his other stories too.
The title of the book comes from a quote by Wallace Stegner, saved by my father in a folder he called "food for thought."
I was reminded of a remark of Willa Cather's, that you can't paint sunlight, you can only paint what it does with shadows on a wall. If you examine a life, as Socrates has been so tediously advising us to do for so many centuries, do you really examine the life, or do you examine the shadows it casts on other lives? Entity or relationships? Objective reality or the vanishing point of a multiple perspective exercise? Prism or the rainbows it refracts? And what if you're the wall? What if you never cast a shadow or a rainbow of your own, but have only caught those cast by others?
Wallace Stegner, THE SPECTATOR BIRD, p. 162

My father passed away in 1994. Here is the editor's note I wrote when I published a paper copy of the book in 1996:


            My father, Les Scheaffer, began this project in the late 1980's after the completion of his book Lutie and Mercy Ann, A Story of the Lockridge-Gibson Family 1875-1918, an historical account of the lives of his maternal grandparents.  The new book was to be a collection of his writings about his own life--poems, essays and stories--that focused on his family, childhood, school and early social work experiences.  Some of the pieces had been written as part of a creative writing class at the College of Marin, others were occasional pieces and some were created specifically for this project.  Two of the stories are about Camp Bovey, perhaps the greatest achievement of his life.  He once wrote, “But if there was a contest I think I would win: Camp Bovey, seventeen summers!  That was my great luck and my great love.” 
            From the earliest years of his life my father was a saver and keeper of records.  Many of his writings include excerpts from diaries, letters and notebooks or were inspired by them.  In all the pieces in this book as well as his other creative writing he always had the support and encouragement of my mother who was his “in house” editor and critic.  Some of the later stories are about experiences they shared.
            Born in 1914 at the beginning of World War I, my father’s life encompassed the Great Depression, World War II, the Vietnam War and tumult of the 1960s, moving from the Midwest, to the East Coast, back to the Midwest and finally to California.
            When my father died on May 1, 1994, he had made the final corrections on most entries but he had not yet begun assembling the book.  That job has fallen to me.  Not knowing exactly how he planned to organize the book, I have chosen to arrange the pieces chronologically and by theme.  Although I have listed myself as editor, I have changed as little as possible.  I have made a few spelling and punctuation corrections and, in a few cases, I’ve changed some words for clarity.  As far as I could tell he had not yet selected a title for the book, so I borrowed Shadows on the Wall from the Wallace Stegner quotation that he had chosen to be part of the book under a category he called “Food for Thought.”  The “shadows” in this book are vivid and multifaceted and tell us a great deal about the man that was my father.  We are fortunate that my father had the desire to tell the stories of his life and that he had the gift of telling them so well.  This book is a portrait of what it was like to grow up in a small Midwestern city in the 1920's and 30's and a glimpse into the lives of settlement workers just before and during World War II.  But that is not why he wrote it.  He wrote this book “for the kids” so that we might know a little of what made him the person he was.  For that I am glad.
                                                            Caroline Scheaffer Arnold
                                                            October 1996
 

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

TWO MONKEYS by Peter Breugel

Two Monkeys by Pieter Breugel
When I was researching my book Monkey (Morrow Junior Books, 1993), I ran across this unusual painting by 16th Century Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder depicting two red-tailed macaques chained to a windowsill overlooking the harbor in Antwerp. My book, illustrated with photos by Richard Hewett, depicts the same species and follows the growth of a young macaque at the Los Angeles Zoo.
A friend just sent me the link to an article about the painting, which is currently on exhibit in Vienna. The panel is one of 28 paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (only 40 of his works are known to survive) on display in a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
No one knows what might have inspired Pieter Bruegel to choose the monkeys as his subject in this small painting or what they signify. However, the red-tailed macaques, native to the forests of west Africa, surely must have been as fascinating and exotic to the citizens of Antwerp as they are to visitors to the zoo today.
My book Monkey is out of print in hardcover but available as an ebook on Amazon.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

The ANCIENT CLIFF DWELLERS of MESA VERDE now at STARWALK KIDS

THE ANCIENT CLIFF DWELLERS OF MESA VERDE, my book about the Anasazi, Native Americans who inhabited the cliffs and mesa tops of Mesa Verde, Colorado, a thousand years ago, is now available again as an e-book at StarWalk Kids. It is illustrated with beautiful photographs by Richard Hewett. You can also find it at Amazon as a Kindle book.  This book was originally published in 1992 as a hardback and paperback book by Clarion Books and may still be available in your library.  I am thrilled to now have it as an ebook as well!

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde
Grade 4-6-- Sharply focused and dramatic full-page, full-color photographs are an outstanding feature in this book on the Anasazi people of the American Southwest. Mesa Verde serves as the backdrop and focal point. Photos of the spectacular cliff dwellings can be found throughout, but there are also pictures of archaeologists at work and many of the artifacts that have been found there. Chapters include a description of the discovery of the area by ranchers in the late 19th century and the development of the area into a national park. Readers will also see how painstaking archeology has re-created the probable scenario of how people lived when the area was at its height of development and various theories concerning the fate of the Anasazi. An engrossing introduction to the culture, the place, and the time, and how we have learned about them. --David N. Pauli, Missoula Pub . Lib . , MT