Packing For Mars
by Mary Roach
Many people are obsessed about living on Mars, but do they really know what they're getting themselves into? In Mary Roach's wildly entertaining and fascinating book, you'll learn everything you ever wanted to know about space travel, and some things you'll wish you hadn't. From toilet training to space sickness, crash simulations to astrochimps, and from sandwich cubes to zero-gravity sex, space travel is surreal, alarming and not for the faint-of-heart. But at the same time, it could be an amazing experience.
Highly recommended.
Flying To The Moon
by Michael Collins
Michael Collins was the astronaut in the command module while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were walking on the moon. Collins goes into great detail about the history of space exploration, his astronaut training, and his space flights. However, for a book meant for young readers, he's not very expressive as a writer. His explanations tend to be long and overly scientific, turning what should be an interesting read into a rather tedious one. His writing only perks up when he talks about his spacewalk, which was made challenging by his long umbilical tether.
Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut
by Mike Mullane
Mike Mullane was among the first astronauts chosen to fly in NASA's space shuttle program. He completed three space missions as a payload specialist aboard Discovery and Atlantis. He begins his story while lying naked on a table, giving himself an enema. It's just one example of the great lengths he went to in order to become an astronaut. He was so determined to fly in space, he was willing to do anything to make it happen. His tales of arrested development military pilots working with feminist pioneers like Sally Ride and Judy Resnik, are hilarious, entertaining, and sexually explicit. He vividly describes the various indignities astronauts suffer before and during space travel, the overwhelming fear of space shuttle launches, and the emotional toll on astronaut wives and families. He's also brutally honest in his criticism of NASA's ineffective leadership, which led to the Challenger and Columbia disasters. But what really stands out are his descriptions of earth from space and the thrill of fulfilling a lifelong dream.
An excellent book that really tells you what it's like to be an astronaut. Highly recommended, this is a book for mature teens and adults.
Discovering Canada's Government
by Daniel Francis
Emphasizing active participation in public decision making, this textbook introduces children to the three levels of government, and tells them about the electoral process, the legal system, and the concept of Canadian citizenship. Easy to read and understand, the book is a good resource for home and school libraries.
Who Runs This Country, Anyway? A Guide to Canadian Government
by Joanne Stanbridge
A comical duo — Zoe, a student documentary filmmaker and Nathan, her slightly clueless sidekick — guide readers through Canada's electoral and governing process. They explain the different levels of government (municipal, provincial/territorial, federal), how the election process works and what happens during parliamentary proceedings. They also provide a brief summary of the monarchy and show how a bill gets passed.
Lively prose and interesting photos make for entertaining and informative reading.
Mediterranean Lullaby
These soporific lullabies, sung in Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, Lebanese, and Morrocan, will send even the most restless sleeper into dreamland. Quiet, soulful, even slightly mournful, parents will nod off too.
Sleepy Sky Lullaby
performed by Eddie Douglas
Douglas' soothing collection of poems and nursery rhymes will lull little ones and parents into a good night's rest. His melodies bring new life to well-known verses such as the Latin-tinged Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the gentle Star Light, Star Bright and a liltingly charming version of Hey Diddle Diddle.
His interpretation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Swing begins and ends with the twittering of birds, evoking, as all Douglas' songs do, the fond images and memories of childhood, children, and the children we once were. Especially touching is Carry Me, whose verses magically convey all the love and security that comes with being a parent.
After a steady diet of 
, by Loris Lesynski