How important is water to humans and other animals? This title explores many of the features of water, including where it can be found and the benefits it has for all living things.

Explains evaporation and condensation, various forms of water, and the importance of the water cycle.

Fascinating introduction to the world of single-celled organisms recounts the feeding, reproductive, and defensive strategies employed by an array of curious creatures: amoeba, paramecium, suctorian, hydra, others. Easy-to-understand language, 37 illustrations.

Describes the origins, characteristics, and uses of water.

A water ride like you've never experienced before, featuring the cutest drop of water in all of precipitation. Meet Drop. She's water! And she's seen a thing or two. Yep, even dinosaurs; she's four and a half billion years old, after all. Everywhere Drop flows--and she flows everywhere--she keeps things moving, making life on earth possible, and having a great time doing it. (Have you ever plummeted from a rain cloud? Or took a thousand-year nap in a glacier? Drop knows how to live right.) With delightful panache and a steady stream of funny one-liners, Drop takes readers on an adventure through the water cycle and beyond. Filled with irresistible artwork, funny asides, and a steady sprinkle of kid-enticing facts, Drop is the story about water you never knew you were thirsting for. "Splashy and original." —Kirkus "A stand out from others of its type." —SLC “An endearing, conversational introduction to the water cycle.” —PW

How can you help students find meaning in informational texts and become independent strategic readers and thinkers? Nonfiction Reading Power gives teachers a wealth of effective strategies for helping students think while they read material in all subject areas. Using the best children's books to motivate students, Adrienne Gear shows teachers how help students zoom-in, question and infer; find the main idea, make connections, and transform what's on the printed page. Key introductory concept lessons for each of the five reading powers provide valuable insight into the purpose of each strategy. The book also explores the particular features of nonfiction and offers lists of key books organized around strategies and subject areas.

Armed with only his rifled musket, Kimber M. Snyder was credited with leading the charge to release Civil War prisoners. One of four fighting sons of a young widow from the hills of Pennsylvania, Kimber decided it was time to go and rescue his fellow soldiers. Tied to trees in the middle of winter, Snyder led a group of men out of their tents to commit this daring deed. However, what made this action so remarkable was that this rescue was not aimed at the Confederates, but at his Union officers! And the prisoners were not southern Rebels, but rather boys from back home, who had refused to forage for food in the middle of winter without shoes and coats. The armed confrontation between the enlisted men and the officers led to Kimbers arrest. The court martial trial that followed was a mixture of truth, lies and conveniently forgotten testimony that led to his acquittal and later, a promotion. This book follows the history of Kimber M. Snyder from his familys early years in colonialPennsylvania to his service in the Civil War with the 78th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Included are vivid descriptions of the 78ths military service and their involvement at such major battles as Stones River, Chickamauga and Picketts Mill. In addition, there are new insights and interpretations of the regiments role at the latter two battles, where they have been criticized by some for their performance. By using casualty figures and Union and Confederate records, a new light is shed on the 78ths fighting record. While this book is a story of Snyders life and those of his wife and children, it is also the tale of Henderson and Union Counties in western Kentucky and Posey County in southern Indiana, where the veteran tried to eek out a living, while raising his family. Court transcripts, battle reports, census returns, diaries, family lore and years of old newspaper articles are used to illustrate the last half of the 19th century. The Gilded Age excesses of this era escaped the Snyders grasp, as it did with so many others in the lower Ohio River Valley. Presidential and local politics, high profile trials, the weather, farm prices and the everyday happenings of the region are detailed as the Snyders along with many others, blended into the rural landscape, but more importantly contributed to the building of the country we know today.