Showing results by narrator "Maria Pendolino" in All Categories

Finn is bored! She is stuck inside with her family because of the cold weather. While she tries to convince her family to go to the zoo, her brother tries to teach her about global warming. When Finn is skeptical, her father decides to take the whole family to the zoo to teach them about greenhouse gases and their effect on Earth.

What animal makes the best pet? A tiger? A grizzly bear? A T-Rex? A killer whale? Or a puppy? Learn why all but one of these animals make great pets and all the things you need to do to properly care for your special pet!

The McNaughton family is living during the influenza pandemic of 1918. The family sees how the disease affects other families in their neighborhoods and community until their own family begins to fall ill. As each family member comes down with the flu, they all must take care of one another and fight to stay alive. One child, Anna, takes comfort in her father’s arms one night after she takes a turn for the worse.

Hope is trying to take care of her younger siblings, but a vengeful ghost is making their lives difficult! He puts holes in their fishing nets, scares off their customers, and even throws their furniture! How can she get rid of him for good?

When a young pirate buys a peacock instead of a parrot for his captain, the whole crew laughs. Will the peacock be a good addition to the crew? The crew of the Finicky Fin can’t catch a break when the new peacock seems to cause nothing but trouble, and now the ship is being attacked by a giant sea monster!

Take a deep breath in, breathe out, and read on to learn some simple yoga moves that will help you start out the day! Learn all about different yoga poses like Heart Pose, Downward Dog, and Cobra in this step-by-step guide for a quick yoga session.

Anna and Jim find a baby seal trapped in a fishing net on the beach after a storm. With the help of their parents, the two siblings are able to get the seal untangled. But where is her family? See how this family helps Sally the seal, return to her parents!

Go on an adventure with Polly as she learns how to use special names to categorize shapes! Any closed, flat shape with at least three straight sides is called a polygon. Did you know a quadrilateral—or a shape with four straight sides—can have several names? You can call one a parallelogram, a rhombus, a trapezoid, or even a square! What shapes can you recognize?

Have you ever heard of a bug hotel? There are some insects that help plants by spreading pollen and improving the soil, but they don’t always show up in every garden. To help encourage them to move in, some gardeners build little houses for them!

Have you ever wondered how insects defend themselves from predators? Some, like the stick insect and katydid, use amazing disguises to help blend into their surroundings! Others, like wasps, hornets, and some caterpillars, use a painful venom to discourage attackers. If you were a bug, what sort of defense would you use?

If you take a hike on a warm summer day, you'll see bees collecting nectar, foxes feasting on fruits and berries, and more! Learn about what animals do in the summer to get ready for the long winter ahead.

Tamitha is watching a horror movie marathon when there is a strange knock on her door. After finding a vampire outside, Tamitha is forced to turn him away. Now she must spend the rest of the night battling the vampire's silly attempts to come into her house. After many disguises and ruses to get inside, Tamitha finally agrees to allow him inside. Will she regret her actions? Will she be able to finish her horror movie marathon? By the end of the night, Tamitha finds a new friend and the vampire finds a new lease on life.

Have you ever wondered what happens to your food when you drop it on the ground? Do you ever wonder why your toy doesn’t break when it falls to the ground? This story helps you learn about the different experiments that scientists have conducted over the last few decades to see what happens when something is dropped! From raindrops to pennies, this story answers any questions you might have about dropping things. You will finally be able to answer the question of whether the "5-second rule" really works!

Did you know there were several women and girls who worked as spies during the Civil War? Thanks to the voluminous hoop skirts and petticoats they wore, their clothing made it very easy to hide messages and smuggle them to the soldiers. Take a look at some of the women who served as Civil War spies!

During the rainy season in the marshlands, Alligator has almost nothing to eat. When the dry season comes, Alligator digs a hole in the pond and waits for the animals to return. Without Alligator and her hole, there would be far fewer animals living in the marsh.

How do you know that spring is finally coming? The geese, of course! All you have to do is look for the V-shape in the sky and listen for all that honking as they migrate back from Canada!

When the henhouse becomes haunted by a ghost, it's up to one brave chicken named Carmenella to get to the bottom of things. The farmer doesn’t understand her, and the cat doesn’t want to get involved. Carmenella wants to sleep in the nice warm henhouse instead of outside. What will she do to fix this dilemma?

When your fairy godmother is the most proper person in the entire kingdom you had better be on your best behavior, especially if you want dessert! What’s a girl with an itchy nose to do? Until she learns proper sneezing manners, she can’t have any cake. Of course, this isn’t just any cake—it’s the best chocolate cake in the entire kingdom. Perhaps there’s a spell book around that can help.

Have you ever seen a fractal? You probably have, and just didn’t know it! These repeating shapes can happen anywhere, whether in nature or in math—it’s easy to make one out of a series of lines and triangles! Follow along and make a fractal of your own in a fun craft.

The idea that physical exercise is good for men and women alike is something we take for granted today, but people didn’t always believe this was true. There was a time when exercise was not considered proper or healthy for women. Thanks to athletes like Annette Kellerman, women have come a long way since then.