Jeannie Meekins: 172 books

Noses are wonderful things. They help us breathe. They are lined with mucous and hairs called cilia, which trap germs and tiny particles that can make us sick. They generate quarts (litres) of snot. They let us smell flowers and freshly baked foods. They also warn us of dangers from fires, rotten...

Titan was the first moon of Saturn to be discovered. It took another six years to find the next moon. Since then, 53 definite moons have been found around Saturn. Another nine moons are considered provisional. More study is needed to confirm that they are proper orbiting moons.Titan is covered in...

Was Mercury bigger in the past?How did Venus change the way people saw the world?What is happening to Mount Everest, the highest place on Earth?Does Mars have seasons?Is there a surface to the planet Jupiter?Who discovered Saturn’s rings?What is strange about the way Uranus spins?What is the coldest...

There are eight regular satellites in orbit around Jupiter. These are moons that formed within the gravity field of Jupiter. They were formed at the same time and out of the same material as the planet itself. They have circular orbits and orbit in the same direction as the planet.The four largest...

Our eyes are round objects that sit at the halfway point of our head. They are about one inch (25 mm) in diameter and come in a variety of colors. They allow us to see all the wonders of the world and beyond. We still don’t understand exactly how they work in transforming light into color and objects,...

In our galaxy, there are stars and solar systems. There are comets, asteroids and a whole lot of solid material. There is also a lot of space between star systems. We call this space between star systems the Interstellar Medium. In this area, there are great clouds of gas and dust. They can range...

The Hudson River was once thought to be a great northwest passage that went through America and joined the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Instead, a canal system opened up the center of America to settlement. The Hudson has spectacular valleys and dangerous waters. Land shifts have changed the...

Paul Revere lived in the 1700s. He was a goldsmith and silversmith. He was also a messenger and a spy.Paul and his friends spied on British soldiers. Doctor Joseph Warren was one of Paul’s friends and he sent Paul lots of messages.Paul would ride rode a horse to other cities and pass on the messages...

Water once covered most of Florida. It created vast sawgrass prairies, eerie swamps and smelly mangrove forests. The area was considered useless and impenetrable, full of poisonous snakes, alligators and mosquitoes. It is more than that. The Everglades is a wonder of nature. It is a blending of ecosystems...

Paul Revere lived in a time when America was not yet a country. It was a colony of England. The people were British subjects and lived under British laws. British soldiers enforced the laws in Boston and other colonial cities.Paul Revere was a patriot. He believed America should be a free country.Read...

When was Mercury discovered? Does Mercury have a magnetic field? How big is Mercury’s atmosphere? Was Mercury bigger in the past? Learn the answer to these questions and many more fun facts in this 15-Minute Book. The closest planet to the sun is Mercury – a tiny, hot, lifeless ball of...

Was Mercury bigger in the past? How did Venus change the way people saw the world? What is happening to Mount Everest, the highest place on Earth? Does Mars have seasons? Is there a surface to the planet Jupiter? Who discovered Saturn’s rings? What is strange about the way Uranus spins? What is...

On January 7, 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei turned his newly developed telescope to Jupiter. He discovered four objects orbiting the giant planet. It took him another night’s observations to clearly distinguish between two of them.He called them “The Medicean planets”, after the Medici...

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...