With Independence Day just behind us, all that we stand for as a country is very much on our minds. The popular movie, "Pearl Harbor", has many of us thinking about the wars that our loved ones have fought in to help keep our country free. But here is a book that has a wonderful compilation of many stories from all over the world to help teach our children the opposite of war. "Peace", edited by Ann Durell and Marilyn Sachs, is a book full of compassion, resolutions, patience and above all, love. A librarian who was upset about there being too many books about war and not enough about peace, began a campaign for a book on the subject. The stories were written by many award winning authors and the subject matter concerns all parts of the world as well as many different cultures. There is a simple yet deep poem about an Arab and a Jew exemplifying which is which , an uplifting story about a white girl and an African American girl who have disagreements that need to be solved, a story involving the peaceful Eskimo’s dealing with the Russians invading their land, a young Japanese American imprisoned in a barn during W. W. 11, and these are just a few of the stories and poems in this inspiring book. Each story begs to be discussed after reading it! A wonderful read aloud for anyone nine and up.

Technology has made huge advances and there’s a new book just out describing these amazing feats! "Scientific Visualization, The New Eyes of Science", by Christopher W. Baker, is one of the most amazing non-fiction books of late! Through the process of computers, scientists can now see what the human eye has never before seen. By transferring the data onto the computer screen, and color enhancing this information to enable the eye to see all of the different elements makes for breath-taking pictures. These pictures need all of the different colors to allow us to understand all of the differences that are taking place right before our eyes. For instance, there is the most incredible picture of a cylinder with sonic waves passing through a fluid and then hitting the cylinder. By creating different colors to relate to the waves, not only are you witnessing the brilliant flow of the sonic waves, but you are able to see the vibration within the cylinder. This probably doesn’t sound as awesome describing these pictures on this page. But, trust me, anyone with or without a scientific leaning, will pick this book up and be completely amazed at what we can do now in this area. There is a picture of what I thought was Saturn, but after reading the description, found that it was a black hole moving through space. There is a full page picture of the space shuttle which illustrates with different degrees of reds and yellows signifying the "many forces that build up along it’s surface as it hurtles upward through the atmosphere." I think everyone of all ages could learn from this book!