Suggested Background Reading

 

 

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ATLAS
OF THE WORLD


A key resource for information and maps on all locations around the Earth.


 

By Debra Frasier

On the Day You Were Born
Welcomes each child to the every day miracles of planet Earth -- sun, moon, rain, tides, North Star, and the circle of people awaiting each child.

A Birthday Cake is no Ordinary Cake

Special ingredients required! For this recipe you will need 365 sunrises, a robin's song, plenty of shade, 2 crisp leaves, and a few shivers in this celebration of each circle around the Sun. A birthday story for any age.

 

 

LONGITUDE
By Dava Sobel

Learn about John Harrison, an English clockmaker, who solved the Longitude Problem by developing a clock that would keep precise time at sea. With that clock, sailors could know what time it was on board and at home when a single event took place on board (i.e. when the sun reached its highest point in the sky). And by knowing the difference in hours and minutes between the two times, they could then calculate their longitude.(More)


 

The Man Who Made Time Travel
By Kathryn Lasky

This dramatic picture-book tells the story of the quest to measure longitude, one of the most perplexing scientific problems ever. While the scientists of the time were all looking to the stars, a clockmaker named John Harrison dared to imagine a different solution: a seafaring clock that solved the Longitude Problem and changed the world.(More) (Age Range: 9 to 11)

The Man Who Made Time Travel
 

SEA CLOCKS
By Louise Borden

Before the late 1700's, ships were often lost or shipwrecked because there was no reliable method to determine longitude at sea. England's Parliament offered a huge reward to anyone who could develop a proven way to measure longitude. Learn how John Harrison solved the "longitude problem" by developing a special clock, and changed history and science forever. (Age Range: 7 to 10)