My adventures with Nellie Cashman

I just had an adventure with Nellie Cashman without leaving home. Nellie has a chapter in Women Explorers by Julie Cummins.  Nellie's  explorations
took her from Ireland to Boston and out to the American West. She worked as a cook in Nevada while she learned how to prospect for gold. Then she went to the Canadian North and staked a claim there. When she heard that men in a mining camp were starving, she and some fellow prospectors
went to their rescue. Nellie nursed the sick men back to health.  Next she  moved to Tombstone, Arizona and opened a restaurant. Although the book says Nellie Cashman's Restaurant is still open, it closed a couple of years ago. Cafe Margarita is at that site now.

 This book has chapters on other women explorers readers will enjoy learning about.

The Scooping Method For Swimming

On a recent visit to my pool, I saw a grandmother coach her small grandson. She performed a basic freestyle stroke with her arms while standing  in the pool while she kept saying "scoop, scoop." I commented to her that I liked what she was doing. "It is very good for boys," she said. "Because they perform the same movement when they play in the sandbox."
Sounds like it might be good for girls too.


Read Cork & Fuzz: the Swimming Lesson by Dori Chaconas. This easy-reader level 3 title shows what happens when Cork, a muskrat, teaches his friend, Fuzz, a possum, how to swim.

Here's a sample  as it appears on page 28: "Fuzz!" Cork yelled again. "Paddle!" Fuzz paddled. "Kick!" Cork yelled. Fuzz kicked. Paddle! Kick! Paddle! Kick!

The context of this passage is that Fuzz accidentally fell into the water and  is afraid of it. Parents of children who are afraid of water could use this passage as a discussion point.

Gold Medal Swim

The Summer Olympics are nearly here and my favorite events are the swimming events: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and the individual medley, a combination of all four.



Gold Medal Swim from the Jake Maddox sports series is a fictional account of competitive swimmers preparing for a freestyle competition. From the illustrations, it appears to be geared for the high school crowd although it is aimed for a younger audience.  

I give it high marks for its portrait of competitive swimming. Here is a sample:
"For the next two hours, Sam helped Julien practice swimming  laps. He showed Julien how to be sure to roll his whole body with each stroke."

Body roll is very important in freestyle.   The crawl is another name for this stroke.

Katniss and me

I share an interest with Katniss Everdeen, the plucky heroine of the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. We both like swimming. Katniss was taught to swim by her father. I learned at summer camp.
 Here's Katniss: "I just remember diving, turning somersaults, and paddling around...Floating on my back...staring at the blue sky..." (Catching Fire, p. 34.)

Like Katniss, I have felt the muddy bottom of a lake between my toes.

When I go to my pool this summer I will do what I call "The Katniss workout."  This one is backstroke only. Using my swimming fins I will do a round of backstroke kicks. Using my pull buoy, I will work only my arms.
Doing the complete stroke will finish things.

Join Katniss and me this summer! For tips, view this video.

A Place for Bats

Now that summer beckons, I am walking around the lake by my house. It is approximately 2.7 miles and takes me 45-50 minutes, depending on how fast I walk. Today I saw a turtle resting. I don't know what species of turtle it was but I stopped to watch it until it got tired of being stared at and crawled back into the lake.

  This week's topic is not an animal I really want to get close to. A Place For Bats by Melissa Stewart. This book tells you about different types of bats  as well as what people can do to coexist with them.


   Here is a sample: "When people build bat boxes that are the right size and shape, bats can live and grow."

The illustrations by the artist, Higgins Bond, enhance this book.

Police Dog Heroes

For dog lovers everywhere, here is a title that should appeal: Police Dog Heroes by Linda Bozzo. Chapter One introduces the reader to K-9 Lucky, an officer with the Edison, New Jersey Police Department. Here is a sample of an arrest Lucky made with his human partner, Officer Shawn Meade: "Officer Meade hooks Lucky back on his leash. This time the man follows the officer's orders. He lies down on the ground."

  This book gives other information,  such as  the best breeds for police work and how they are trained.   In many cases, retired police dogs are adopted by their handlers.

Kennewick Man

Imagine that you found a skull along the bank of the Columbia River in
Washington State that turned out to be 9,500 years old? Read all about this in
Mysterious Bones: the Story of Kennewick Man by Katherine Kirkpatrick. In addition to the skull, the rest of the skeleton was recovered but years of litigation ensued before scientists could study it.

  Their initial finding was that Kennewick Man was not related to any living Native Americans.