Learningisland: 800 books

Sara Josephine Baker grew up questioning everything. She also grew up doing a lot of things that only boys were supposed to do. She mostly did them with her father and younger brother.Then when she was sixteen, Jo's world fell apart. Her father and brother died within months of each other.Jo...

"Dem Bones, dem bones, dem dry bones." You've heard the song. But what really are bones? Are they living things? Or are they just piles of stuff that got hard? The quick easy answers are: Things in your body, yes, and yes. Bones are the levers in your body. They attach to your muscles so...

Mary Patten was 19 years old. She had been married for three years. Her husband was Joshua Patten and he was a sea captain. One day in 1856 her husband got a new job. A company wanted him to sail a cargo from New York to San Francisco. "We have to take the job," he told Mary. "But I...

The Dead Sea is a salt-filled sea which sits on the border between Israel, Jordan and Palestine. It is 31 miles (50 km) long and 9 miles (15 km) wide at its widest point. It is one of the world's saltiest bodies of water. At 997 feet (304 metres) deep, it is the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. Fed...

George Washington was our first president and the father of our country. Many books and articles have been written about him, and his life has been studied thoroughly. We are also aided in knowing him by the many records he kept about his life, his farms, and his purchases. With all that information,...

Roman gladiators have captured the interest of many modern people. We look at the practice of fighting to the death for a crowd's amusement as horrifying. But who were the actual gladiators and what do we really know about them? Do you know: How did gladiator fights start? Were all gladiators slaves...

Joe Oman was railroad tower man near the small station in Arcadia, California. Joe's job was boring. All he did was pull levers to signal the trains, and there were only a few trains a day. Then one day in October, 1911 Joe's job became very exciting indeed. A freight train lost its brakes and headed...

One day Tommy Turtle got up early and took a bath. After he was all clean he sat down and ate his breakfast of turtle mush, which he didn't like. Then Tommy decided to go out for a walk. He walked up the street and around the corner and down the block. He ended up at the park. Tommy Turtle walked...

What is a Monarch Butterfly? A monarch butterfly has five stages of its life. First it is an egg. Then it hatches to become a larva. A larva looks like a tiny worm. The larva grows into a caterpillar. The caterpillar then wraps itself in a green cocoon. When it comes out of the cocoon, it is a butterfly. Find...

I never thought my mum’s bad memory would lead me to another case. It was Friday evening. Mum had spent the afternoon gardening in the front yard and was enjoying a well deserved cup of tea. Dad was helping me with my homework. I would have been happy to leave it until bedtime Sunday night. Dad...

Simon sat at his desk in his room, doing homework. A tapping on the window distracted him. He looked up and saw Lisa and Jack. Simon went to the window and opened it. “What are you doing here?” he asked. “How do you know where I live?” Lisa ignored his questions. “Do you want to come out...

Courtney Case, the Australian detective solves the case of what happened to a football that was kicked on the school yard. It went up to the roof, but now it isn't there! The ball is nowhere to be found. How can Courtney figure out what happened to the football, or did it really escape into the Bermuda...

“Are you ready for our trip tonight?” Simon’s mom asked.“Mom, it’s a cemetery.”“I know. Isn’t it exciting?” Mom’s face lit up. “Lots of famous people are there.”“But only dead people live in a cemetery,” said Simon.“Now, Simon. You know there’s no such thing as ghosts,”...

Ask most adults who Typhoid Mary was, and they'll tell you a lie. They'll tell you she was someone who killed hundreds of people. Maybe even thousands. They'll tell you she was a woman who knew she had a deadly disease and didn't care that she spread it to others. But is it true? No. Most of it is...