Excavate Some Excitement With Summer Reading!
Do you remember the first time you saw a picture of a dinosaur? This year's Summer Reading theme is "Unearth a Story" and features the "formidable lizards" in its' prehistoric aesthetic. I coordinate the Adult Summer Reading Program at the Hickory Corner Branch, and have been doing a considerable amount of unearthing of my own while planning--searching through boxes upon boxes of books in search of summer reading prizes, digging through dinosaur-themed titles for our promotional materials, and looking for some below ground titles for this very blog post. Come along as we "unearth" some books from our catalog and crack open this planet's cellar door:
Burrow into the world of geologists and uncover 4.54 billion years of history in Strata: Stories from Deep Time. This book is split into four geological events: the rise of oxygen, the ice age, the introduction of mud, and the "hothouse" of the Mesozoic era. Much like counting the rings inside a tree stump, big sections of Earth’s history can be uncovered through stratigraphy.
Quote: "Today the planet's crust consists of some twenty plates that float above the mantle. Those plates grind past and sometimes slam into or drift apart from one another, creating mountains and valleys and everything in between." - page 58
Take a journey around the globe and learn about "the world's living wonders." Atlas Obscura: Wild Life covers the varied, fantastic wildlife across our planet: the flora and fauna. From the rainforests to the tundra, to the ocean depths and more. Filled with beautiful photographs and novel facts.
Quote: "Wood rats have been practicing this nightly hoarding ritual for millennia, which is why many people call them 'pack rats'...When tucked safely inside caves, amberat deposits can last for tens of thousands of years. Paleontologists saw out chunks of them to analyze and find cross sections of the past, each carefully curated by the ancient rat. Pollen grains, leaves, needles, and even whole mummified flowers can be stuck within the middens. All help paint a picture of the American deserts millennia ago." - page 207
Types of minerals, layered rock, volcanoes, cave systems, dinosaur fossils, fault lines, and more can be found in this extra-wide tome filled with glossy photos and scientific backstory. Did you know emerald is a "variety of the mineral beryl" and so is aquamarine? That "Tanzanite" is named for Tanzania because it's the only place in the world where this gem can be found? Or how refraction gives moonstone its unique appearance?
Quote: "Apart from the preservation of an organism's hard remains by way of burial in sediment, there are some less common ways in which fossils can form. Of these, petrification is the most frequent. Here, the original organic structure is impregnated by underground water containing dissolved minerals which solidify, literally turning it into rock. Usually the replacement is silica, sometimes in the form of precious opal". - page 110
Deep dive into the prehistoric underwater world of "ancient sea reptiles" and their "diverse anatomy, impressive behaviors, and fascinating evolutionary history." Filled with photos and artist's renderings of these long-ago behemoths of the depths.
Quote: "An evolutionary trend seen repeatedly in Mesozoic marine reptiles is the change from a system where much of the body and tail are undulated from side to side to one where the body and tail are relatively inflexible, propulsion being provided by the tail's specialized end section....this transition occurred in ichthyosaurs, thalattosuchians and mosasaurs as they took to life in the open ocean, evolved larger size and became speedy cruisers adapted to cover distance at increased efficiency." - page 37
You too can cover the distance of your own yet-to-read list by signing up for our Adult Summer Reading Program. Pick up a Summer Reading log at your local branch or download and print one at home from our website. Participants can enter a raffle for a chance to win prizes. Mercer County Library System’s Summer Reading Program runs from Monday June 15th – Saturday August 8th.
-Lauren C
Hickory Corner
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