December 11, 2011
If your family has either an iPad, Nook Color or Nook Tablet, you can have a free Seymour Simon eBook called FUN FACTS ABOUT PETS!
Last year, Barnes and Noble wanted to create a bonus for people who bought their new Nook Color. They asked Seymour to write an eBook that they could give away free as a gift to all their customers. That was Seymour’s first eBook, and the title is perfect - the facts are really fun! For example, did you know that dogs’ feet sweat? Or that a pot-bellied pig can open the refrigerator?!
Here is a sample page from the book, which also has "Read to Me" narration.
FUN FACTS ABOUT PETS is free not only for the Nook Color and Nook Tablet, but you will also receive it when you download the "Nook Kids for iPad" app. So, if you have any of these devices, be sure to check out this 48-page book. It is a gift to you from Barnes and Noble and Seymour Simon!
Posted by: Liz Nealon
December 11, 2011
There was a full eclipse of the moon yesterday. Those of you on the west coast of the U.S. got a rare treat, as the lunar eclipse happened just at sunrise. Photographer John Harrison took this magnificent shot of the red moon above San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge in the blue morning sky.
These images are from Asia, where photographer Humza Mehbub shot a series of images of the lunar eclipse from Lahore, Pakistan. He started photographing Earth’s shadow slipping across the moon at 5:30 p.m., and continued photographing until 7:30 p.m. in Lahore, when the eclipse hit its peak and the moon glowed a deep orange.
I wasn’t able to see it because I live on the Atlantic coast, where it happened during the daytime and was not visible here. Did any of you photograph the eclipse? If you did, send in your photos - I’d love to see!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 8, 2011
Forty-nine penguins rescued from an oil spill off New Zealand have been nursed back to health and were released back into the ocean on Tuesday by wildlife rescuers and local schoolchildren.
Don’t you love this photograph of Little Blue Penguins running back into the ocean?
They were fitted with microchips, so that researchers can track the progress of their recovery.
The birds released Tuesday are among 343 little blue penguins that have been cleaned of oil since a cargo ship ran aground on a reef off the coast of New Zealand on Oct. 5 and spilled some 400 tons of fuel oil. More than 2,000 sea birds died in the spill. Fortunately, marine life experts from New Zealand, Australia and the United States worked together to save the animals who returned happily to the sea this week.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 8, 2011
Niskayuna, New York is a wonderful mix of rural farmland and urban history. I drove around photographing on a very chilly but beautiful December morning, when Seymour Simon was in town to visit the Craig, Rosendale, Hillside and Glencliff Elementary Schools.
We hope that all the great students and teachers in Niskayuna enjoy this video, but we think others might like it as well. Have you studied the Erie Canal in school? It runs right through Niskayuna and you can see pictures here.
The great music in this video, by the way, is from the NBC Television show THE SING OFF, performed by the University of Rochester Yellow Jackets.
Click Here to view this video, which is called "NISKAYUNA: A BRIGHT DECEMBER MORNING." Enjoy, and happy holidays!
Posted by: Liz Nealon
December 7, 2011
The Tokyo car show opened this week, which means we get to see what are called "Concept Cars" - automakers imagining what cars of the future look like, and what they will be able to do. I love new technology and gadgets, so this is always fun for me.
This year, everyone is talking about Toyota’s Fun-Vii. Vii stands for "vehicle interactive internet," and the car functions like a "smartphone on wheels." The doors of the car are touchscreens, so that drivers can change the way the car looks, communicate with people in other cars, and connect to the Internet while they are driving.
Imagine being able to call up a photograph on your phone, click it, and suddenly your car is wrapped with the photo.
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Or how about you touch the door and video text with the friend who you are meeting?
Perhaps best of all, they imagine that this car will have autopilot, with a virtual reality "co-pilot" who not only drives the car but also reads you your text messages, finds the nearest ice cream shop, or corrects your route when there is traffic ahead.
No one is actually making these cars right now - but it is not quite science fiction, either. Concept cars are based on the technology that engineers are developing right now, so they are almost like a glimpse of the future of driving.
What do you think? Would you like to have a car like this one? Why?
I wasn’t kidding about liking Cool Cars.
I even wrote a book about them!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 7, 2011
Yesterday, as my wife Liz and I were out putting holiday lights on the bushes in front of our house, we came upon this garter snake sunning itself in a bed of dry leaves that were caught in the branches. He was so quiet that I reached forward to see if it was alive. Sure enough, it slithered away, out of sight. I spotted it there again this morning, though. This must feel like a cozy spot!
What is surprising is that normally, in December, this snake would already be down in a den below ground, sleeping together with hundreds of other snakes for the winter. Once the weather cools down to normal winter temperatures, that is what it will do.
OK - WRITERS, ARE YOU READY? Write a few sentences describing the snake on the bush. If you like, you can put yourself (the writer) in my place and describe finding the snake. Use comparisons to describe how the snake looks in amidst the branches. Maybe ask a question that the reader will be thinking about as he or she looks at this photograph of a snake in a tree. Use as many descriptive details as you can to describe what the snake looks like, how it felt to find it in such an unexpected place, or even how you think it was feeling when humans showed up!
Post your writing by clicking on "comments" at the bottom of this blog. I am looking forward to reading what you write!
Note to Teachers and Library Media Specialists: I have created a Guide called “Writing Exciting Nonfiction,” which you can download by clicking on this link. It outlines different techniques that I use in my writing, and includes many examples from my books. I have posted it so that you can use it with your students. Please let me know if it is helpful, and share any other feedback about how we can make this blog a productive tool for you to use in exploring and encouraging nonfiction writing with your students.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 6, 2011
Sunset colors on Mars are the opposite of what we see here on earth. When the fading sunlight filters through Earth’s atmosphere, the yellow sunlight gradually appears to be various shades of red and orange. When the Martian atmosphere filters the sunlight, the sunset glows blue. The rest of the sky looks red because Mars’ atmosphere is full of powdery dust that reflects the sun’s light, giving the planet the distinctive red color that we see from here on Earth.
Isn’t this a magnificent image? It is the work of multimedia artist Michael Benson, who takes images captured in deep-space by NASA and the European Space Agency, and digitally processes them to create beautiful pictures like this one.
He is going to publish a book of all his work next year, called PLANETFALL. I can’t wait to see it!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 4, 2011
Entomologist (bug scientist) Mark Moffett, who works at the Smithsonian institution, traveled all the way to New Zealand to try to find a Giant Weta (Deinacrida heteracantha).
He found one, all right - what he claims is the largest insect ever found…..or at least, the heaviest. Moffett says: "I did not measure anything but the weight. I’ve seen a walking stick nearly 19 inches long in Sarawak, Malaysia, but it weighed next to nothing." The giant weta weighed in at 2.5 ounces (71 grams) - that is as much as three mice!
These huge insects are members of the cricket family; their genus name, Deinacrida, is Greek for terrible grasshopper. They are vegetarians, which is why Moffett offered her a carrot. "She enjoyed the carrot so much she seemed to ignore the fact she was resting on our hands and carried on munching away. She would have finished the carrot very quickly, but this is an extremely endangered species, and we didn’t want to risk indigestion."
Photo: Mark Moffett / Minden / Solent
I have always been fascinated by big bugs. If you are, too, you can read more
here!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 3, 2011
This week we ran a contest called BUTTERFLY or MOTH? for students in the Niskayuna, NY school district, where I was visiting. We showed two photographs, side by side, and asked you to tell us which was a butterfly and which was a moth…..and give three reasons why. We had 256 students and classes leave comments on the blog with their answers. Wow!
How did we come up with a winner among the many correct answers? The winner was randomly chosen by a true random number generator on the website www.random.org. First we listed all the entries on page after page, in order of when they were received. We had 256 entries, so there were 16 pages of entries with 16 entries on each page. Then we used the random generator, first to pick a page number and then to pick a number on the page. The winning pick was Alexandra L. in Class 4V at Glencliff Elementary School.
Alexandra wrote:
Insect A: moth
1. Moths rest with their wings open.
2. They do not have a club on their antennae.
Insect B. Butterfly
1. They rest with their wings closed.
2. They have a little club on their antennae.
The class pick was a little different. We put each class entry on a small slip of paper, put all of the class entries into a paper bag and then I put my hand into the bag and picked up one of the slips of paper without looking. The winning slip of paper was Mrs. Robitaille’s 2nd grade class in Hillside Elementary School. They wrote:
Insect A is a moth. We know this because the moth’s wings are dull, the moth’s wings fold back, and the antennae are feathery. Insect B is a butterfly. We know this because its wings are folded up, its wings are colorful, and it has a bulb at the top of its antennae.
Congratulations to both winners. You will receive your signed copy of BUTTERFLIES in the mail this week. More than that, congratulations to everyone who entered the contest! All of your entries have been posted as comments on my blog. Look for your name and your entry on my website, www.seymoursimon.com. Some of you put your comments on stories other than the contest story, so if you don’t see it there, you’ll probably find your comment under another blog story.
Keep in touch by telling me what book of mine you’re reading and what subjects you like the most!
I had so much fun talking to you last week; did you enjoy my speaking? Tell me one thing you remember from what I said!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 2, 2011
As our regular readers know, there is a new SCIENCE JOKE or RIDDLE every Friday on the homepage of SeymourSimon.com. This week’s joke: Why is a dog’s tail like the inside of a tree? Click here to see the rest of the joke.
And since it’s New Joke Friday, we thought we’d let you in on some exciting news. 
Seymour Simon and his very funny illustration partner, Dennis Kendrick, have just published a funny, new eBook called SILLY ZOO ANIMAL JOKES AND RIDDLES! It is available right now for the Nook Color, Nook Tablet or the "Nook Kids for iPad" app, and it will be in the iBookstore before the holidays.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
