NONFICTION MINUTE - The Nonfiction Minute The Nonfiction Minute

• A Man of His Word

  on April 30, 2021 at 4:00 am

  Jim WhitingThe Running Encyclopedia      When he was a young man in his mid-twenties, future Roman leader Julius Caesar was voyaging across the Mediterranean Sea. Pirates swarmed over his ship. They took him to their base on tiny Farmakonisi Island, which lies off the coast of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), and held him for ransom.    When he learned how much the pirates we [...]

• Meet Earth's Incredible Gliders

  on April 29, 2021 at 4:00 am

  Sneed B. Collard III​Connecting Scientists and Kids ​           Have you ever seen a lizard hurtling over your head? How about a frog sailing down from the tree tops? I’m not making these animals up. They belong to one of earth’s most astonishing groups of animals.&nbsp [...]

• The Town Turkey

  on April 28, 2021 at 4:00 am

  Aline Alexander​NewmanWildlife Truth Teller   One warm, August day in 2020, Mark Eddy, of Old Forge, New York, spotted two wild turkeys in his backyard. Hmm, thought Eddy. Whitetail deer wander all around this Adirondack village. But turkeys? They're rare. Still, this pair of gobblers began showing [...]

• The Battle Hymn of the Chicken Pox Troopers

  on April 27, 2021 at 4:00 am

  Vicki CobbThe Master Chef of Kids’ Hands-on Science ​How does a virus cause a disease? A virus is not a complete living thing. It is like a free-floating nucleus of cell.  It doesn’t “grow” but under certain conditions it can make a copy of itself or reproduce.  It invades the cells of other living things to use the internal structure of the host cells to re [...]

• Everything is Connected: The Butterfly Effect and the Wolf

  on April 26, 2021 at 4:00 am

  Dorothy Hinshaw Patent   Nature’s Animal Ambassador      Have you heard about the “butterfly effect,” the idea that one small change can bring about big changes over time?  This idea is important in the study of ecology, which deals with the interactions of living things and their environments.  Each element of an ecosystem has its place.  When one element is eliminated, it affects everything else.     The [...]