It’s the First Day of Kindergarten, Chloe Zoe!

Chloe Zoe is starting kindergarten! Full days of school for a full week. Chloe Zoe has a new backpack and matching lunch box and is so excited to see her best friends Mary Margaret and George. On the first day of school, Chloe Zoe discovers Mary Margaret is in a different kindergarten class. Will kindergarten be any fun without her best friend?

It’s the First Day of Kindergarten, Chloe Zoe! by Jane Smith

Publication Date: July 1, 2016

Types: Children’s, Fiction

Hardcover: 32 pages

Publisher: Albert Whitman &. Company.

ISBN-10: 0807524581

ISBN-13: 9780807524589

Biography

Jane Smith earned her BFA in picture from Columbus College of Art & Design. Upon graduation, she worked as an art director for a children’s novelty book publisher in Los Angeles. Jane currently creates artwork for a variety of publishing and licensing clients (委托客户) at her beach house in California, where she lives with her husband and daughter.

When we are kids, we don’t know what we will overcome. At the age of thirteen, I fell ill. This illness lasted three years and I missed a lot of schooling. Doctors tried their best to help me as much as possible, but in the end this was something I just had to be used to. I felt little hope in life. However, in my junior year of high school, I had a turning point. I discovered my gift for writing and then I realized if I continued to let this problem hold me back, my dream would never come true. So my state of mind changed. Going through the difficulty also gave me the strong desire to write. Writing what mattered most to me helped me overcome what sickened me.

During my freshman and sophomore (高中二年级的) year I did not learn much due to illness. So I became focused and determined and actually completed high school in two years instead of four. At the close of my junior year, I had straight A’s and became an honor roll student. Seeing what I had accomplished, I realized that having disadvantages doesn’t mean it is impossible to achieve success.

By becoming a writer, I’ve become a reader. While performing community service at the library, I read to those who are less fortunate and unable to read. From pre-school children to the elderly, I enjoy my time reading to people of all ages. It is pleasing to see the awesome expressions on their faces as the words become a vision in their minds. Giving back is one of the greatest gifts you could give in life. It inspires me to write something people can learn from.

In Kenya, blind students and those with poor eyesight were still using Braille books for their studies until recently.

Kenyan schools for the blind are now beginning to use technology that provides material in an audible (可听见的) form. This has expanded possibilities for the students and taught them new ways to communicate with technology.

17-year-old Lucas Mwanzia has been attending computer classes at the Thika School for the blind for the past two years. He is in the eighth grade now. He started school at a later age because of his poor eyesight. But using the new technology, he can search the Internet for biology class. He says the technology bas opened doors that once were closed and Braille books are costly and you have to spend a lot of money to buy one. With computers, the books are available at little or no cost.

Zachary Muasya was born blind. He is now one of the school’s teachers. He has been teaching the students how to use the technology for about two years now. He says the technology opens up possibilities that can level the playing field for his students. “Assistive technology equips the learners with many skills that really make them independent in life,” says Muasya.

The assistive technology costs$1,000 to set up. But a non-governmental organization called InAble has provided it to the schools at no cost. Peter Okeyo, the program manager at InAble, says blind students using the technology may still face difficulties when they move to higher education. He says students who have used the technology through high school might not have it at the university they attend. Those students might have difficulties if they have to go back to Braille, he adds.

Four out of Kenya’s 11 schools for the blind are using the technology. InAble says it will provide the financing for the remaining schools to join the effort.

Herman Melville, the writer of the famous whale story Moby Dick, wrote that humpback whales (座头鲸) were “the most light-hearted of all the whales.” They swim in ocean areas close to land and are active at the surface often jumping out of the water and coming down with a great splash. They are intelligent animals and can be seen working together as they hunt masses of small fish. And, if you listen closely, you might even hear one singing.

Marine biologist Jim Darling has studied the songs of humpback whales for 25 years. While recording whale song on a boat near Hawaii, he invited author Douglas Chadwick to experience diving with a humpback. In the water, the way Chadwick heard the whale’s songs changed completely. “Suddenly, I no longer heard the whale’s voice in my ears. I felt it inside my head and bones.” He clearly sensed the whale’s silent awareness of him. The 13-meter-long giant looked him over curiously, but never harmed him.

The whale then swam under the boat. It pointed its head down to the ocean floor and, with flippers (鳍) extended out to its sides, began to sing. Up in the boat, Darling recorded the whale’s song. Such songs may be long and complex, lasting for 30 minutes or more; they are perhaps the longest songs sung by an animal.

Darling says that only male humpbacks sing, but for unknown reasons. It was previously thought that they sang to attract females, but scientists showed this was incorrect when they played recordings of whale songs in the ocean and no females came around. Another idea is that male humpbacks compete with each other using songs, just as other male animals do using antlers (触角).

In addition to their long and mysterious songs, humpbacks make a variety of other sounds as they communicate every day. When alarmed by enemies such as killer whales, or when the feeding 1s especially good, the sounds they produce can be louder than an airplane engine.

During the days of heavy whale hunting, the world humpback population was reduced from an estimated 125,000 to around 6,000 animals. Thanks to laws against hunting, humpbacks now number perhaps 30,000 animals altogether. The constantly moving humpbacks are very difficult to count. However, it now seems that this mysterious singer will continue to sing for years to come.