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celebrates 18 Texas this week! Welcome to the shelves:
Metroplex Monsters (The History Press) by Jason McLean
The Killer Outdoors by Jodi Linton Books
Mia and Nattie: One Great Team! by Marlene M Bell, Author, Grace Sandford (Illustrator)
Nightmare by Chad Nicholas
The Rule Of All (Amazon Publishing) by Ashley Saunders & Leslie Saunders
High Skies (Ren Hen Press) by Tracy Daugherty
In The Loop (Trinity University Press) by David R. Johnson
The Lone Star Speaks (Bancroft Press) by K. W. Zachry & Sara Peterson
One Good And Deadly Deed (ECW Press) by Dudley Lynch
Hog On A Log (Scholastic) by Janee Trasler Studio
Forget This Ever Happened (Holiday House Books for Young People) by Cassandra Rose Clarke
Wall Disease (The Experiment) by Jessica Wapner
Poetic Remedies For Troubled Times (Andrews McMeel) by Taisia Kitaiskaia
The Zealot And The Emancipator (Doubleday Books) by H. W. Brands
Twins (Graphix Books) by Varian Johnson, Shannon Wright (Illustrator)
Perkin's Perfect Purple (Little, Brown Book Group) by Tami Lewis Brown Author, Debbie Loren Dunn, Francesca Sanna
Good Dog (Rizzoli) by Randal Ford, W. Bruce Cameron
The World Is A Book, Indeed (LSU Press) by Peter Lasalle
For more October new releases, please visit bit.ly/LoneStarReviews
All over the country, daily newspapers and metro sections have thinned as revenue streams have dried up. For the education beat, this has left journalists responsible for covering impossibly large areas—and more reliant on college newspapers.
CONTRACT CITY (Bancroft Press) is "engaging, suspenseful" dystopia w/ "a sharp female protagonist"
http://fwdrv.ws/1K2cyPU
Author Peter Mehlman 'It Won't Always Be This Great' on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show 10/15 3 pm ET click here
http://bit.ly/hcjblog
Chapter 29 Biology Lesson
While they are waiting for their Biology teacher to come in, Eileen rests her elbow on her desk, anchors her chin at the carpal of her hand, and completely intrigued by Tak-Meng’s eyes. I wonder how heavy those thick glasses are, and his eyeballs are enormous, and almost pop out of his eye sockets. Then she heard,
“Stand up!”
“Bow! Good afternoon, Ms. Ho.”
In her abrupt movement to spring up to greet her teacher, Eileen clashes her ribs against the edge of her desk and utters an evanescent, “Ai-yaw!”
Ms. Ho hangs a poster with a big eye on it in front of the podium before she turns to her audience, “You are all very blessed that you can see. But there are people who are not quite as fortunate and they are blind.” Instinctively, all her students blink their eyes, some cover one eye with one hand, stare directly into the poster, and then switch to the other eye and look hard into the poster to make sure that they can see the details of the eyeball painted on the poster. After her students performed her calculated movement, Ms. Ho continues, “Our eyes are windows to the world around us. Now our eyes are very delicate structures. Have you been in a very dark room?” She pauses for her students to respond. Eileen raises her hand, “Ms. Ho, I tried to read after my parents turn off the light in our house, but all I could see is darkness.”
“That’s right; we cannot see in a dark room because our eyes need to be activated by light in order to see. Now, let’s take a look at the poster. In the front of the eye are two very important structures that allow light to enter our eyes. These two structures are the cornea and the lens. In the back of our eyes are many light sensors that we call receptors; they are like your TV antennae that receive signals, and these sensors are called the rods and cones. The rods allow you to see in dim light so you can distinguish the silhouette of objects and not bump into things, while the cones allow you to see colors and fine details of an object. Both kinds of receptors are activated by light bent or refracted by the cornea and the lens.” Ms. Ho pauses again to look at her students. “Now, I want you to read on the section about the cornea and lens, and then tell me what you learn.”
Ms. Ho then walks around the classroom to monitor her students’ reading. While most students are lip-reading, Cheng-Tien reads his book aloud. When he gets to the phrase, ‘cornea is composed of five layers’, he raises his hand and declares, “Ms. Ho, the cornea is built like an onion,” Ms. Ho is amused by Cheng-Tien’s analogy and solicits him to vindicate himself, “Interesting perception, why onion?” Cheng-Tien sits up and references to what he just read from the textbook, “Because the book says that the cornea is dome-shaped and it has five layers. Well an onion is dome-shaped and it is made up of many layers.”
“But,” Kee-An raises his hand in objection to Cheng-Tien’s opinion, “all the layers in an onion are the same, but each of the five layers in the cornea are different.”
“And each layer has a different function,” concurs Chi-Cheon.
“And each layer is of different thickness.” Lawrence Tang interjects and then stands up and bows his head to receive his invisible ovation.
Ms. Ho is glad that her students are engaged in learning although they didn’t wait to be called before they speak. “Excellent, you are quick learners. Now, can someone tell me which layer is the thickest?”
“The stroma; it comprises about 90 percent of the cornea’s thickness.” Cheng-Tien explains; then he turns around to gather the imaginative approbation from his classmates.
Ms. Ho acknowledges Cheng-Tien with a smile and continues to prod her students. “Now, from your reading, which layer is most important for vision?” She waits and is about to explain to her students when Eileen shoots up her hand. Ms. Ho nods, and Eileen stands up, bows and says, “The Bowman’s layer; because it is composed of collagen, which is a protein; and damage to this layer will result in scars.”
“And if the scars are located in the center of the Bowman’s layer, it will cause loss of vision.” Cheng-Tien chimes in.
“Because light can no longer pe*****te the cornea once scar is formed,” Eileen clarifies for Cheng-Tien despite his rudeness toward her, and sits down. Alicia Ong and Connie Leung watch Eileen’s embarrassment with glee. Ms. Ho wants to both wring Cheng-Tien’s neck because of his insolence, and to applaud him because of his aptitude. She lowers the pitch of her voice and enunciates, “Both explanations are correct.” Then she drop her voice by another octave and addresses her students, “Remember always wait until your classmates finish voicing their thoughts before you chime in,” she looks directly at Cheng-Tien.
Ms. Ho then goes back to her poster and points at a structure on the back of the eye. “This layer is called the retina, and this is where the rods and cones are located. Most of the cones, however, are located at the center of the retina.” She moves her meter-stick between the cornea and the retina. “Now, if there are scars at the center of the cornea, light will not be refracted on the center of the retina, and thus loss of vision.”
“Ms. Ho,” Kee-An interjects, “my father is an ophthalmologist at Queen Mary’s Hospital. He told me that loss of vision can be corrected by cornea transplant.”
“Great point, Kee-An; but remember that cornea transplants are only feasible when the donor dies. Meanwhile, not all blindness is caused by cornea injury.” At this moment, a hand from the far left corner in the back shoots up. Ms. Ho quickly scours her brain to recover the student’s name; “Yes, Peter P**n, you want to say something?” Peter P**n rarely volunteers to anything in class; he is so quiet that it’s almost as if he does not exist. Peter stands up and in a barely audible tone recounts, “Ms. Ho, my mother lost her eyesight a few years ago, and since she couldn’t see, she was homebound for three years. A few months ago my grandfather died. Before he died, he donated his cornea to my mother, now she is able to see and she has a job and is bringing income for our family.”
Instantly, everyone’s breathing is put on hold and the entire classroom falls in dead silence; every student turns to look at Peter with empathy at his courage to share such personal story. For a fleet second Eileen thought she saw tears in Ms. Ho’s eyes, but Ms. Ho quickly blinks her eyes and endorses, “Thank you Peter that’s an admirable revelation, thank for very much for sharing. Your grandfather is a magnanimous man.” Then resuming her teaching she inquires, “Besides cornea, the lens is also a common cause of blindness; anyone knows why?”
“Me!” Kee-An raises his voice. He stands up with one hand scratching his tie up and down and the other hand pushing back the bangs of hair on his forehead; he explains, “Lenses are composed of crystalline, and are important for bending light and focusing images on the retina. The lens is resilient and it changes its shape to accommodate the distance between objects and our retina, so that our eyes can see objects of various distances from us. Light passes through the cornea, focused by the lenses and received by retina. A group of muscles called the ciliary body adjusts the shape of the lens like two springs holding to either ends of a rubber ball. When we look at a nearby object, the muscles are tensed, and the lens becomes plump and short to focus the object on the retina. When we look at distant object, the muscles are relaxed, and the lens becomes flat and thin to focus the distant objects on the retina.”
Cheng-Tien shoots up his hand and waves impatiently; Ms. Ho raises her hand to gesture him that she is aware that he wants to say something, however, she wants him to wait until Kee-An finishes what he has to say. But Cheng-Tien keeps his hand up in the air and as every second ticks on, his patience wears thinner. Finally just before Kee-An finishes his last word, he stands up from his chair and says, “Ms. Ho, the way the ciliary muscles work is very similar to adjusting a telescope, isn’t it?” Ms. Ho wants to pause and give Cheng-Tien a lesson on manner. But when she glances at her watch, she changes her mind, so she simply gives him a cold look and continues, “Cheng-Tien, it’s similar but not identical. The adjustment of your lenses for distances is known as accommodation, and is an involuntary function.”
“Ms. Ho, what’s an involuntary function?” asks Chi-Cheon, who is Cheng-Tien’s best friend. Pressing her hand against her chest, Ms. Ho answers, “Involuntary means an automatic action. For example, your heart beats, the beating continues whether you are thinking about it or not; sleeping or moving around.”
Tak-Meng shoots up his hand. After Ms. Ho acknowledged his request, he stands up and asks, “Ms. Ho how does the lens cause blindness?” Ms. Ho acknowledges Tak-Meng’s question and then turns to her other students for their thoughts, “Anyone wants to answer Tak-Meng’s question?”
Johnson Tam raises his hand. As soon as he gets Ms. Ho’s approval to speak, he stands up and begins his narration, “My grandfather had cataract surgery a few months ago. The ophthalmologist explained to my grandmother that the lens in his right eye is cloudy and is no longer able to refract light, therefore, no image is formed on the retina, and that’s why grandfather could not see. But the ophthalmologist said he would put a new lens into grandfather’s eye to replace the cloudy one. After the surgery my grandfather has a new lens in his eye and he can see very well.”
“Wow Johnson that is an excellent demonstration. Thank you for sharing such personal experience with us. I am glad that you learn something from your ophthalmologist and your grandfather is regaining his eyesight.” Ms. Ho beams with delight to find her students are learning so well.
“Ms. Ho, do we always see things in its actual size?” Eileen wants to know.
“No, for instance when we cry, we see things bigger than their actual sizes. You can test this on yourself, next time when you cry, do not wipe away your tears, but look straight down on something, and record what you see.”
At that moment, the bell rings. After Ms. Ho dismissed the class and walked out of the classroom, Cheng-Tien taps on Eileen’s shoulders and entreats “Pinch me.” Surprised at his request, Eileen questions him, “Excuse me, Cheng-Tien, what did you say?” “I said pinch me and make me cry, I want to test Ms. Ho’s statement. I’ll give you a candy for pinching me.” “You ask for it!” “Ai, ai, yaw!” “Pinch harder! “AiYAW!” I don’t see my candy gets bigger; I only see a ‘distorted’ candy. Oh, wait a minute, hey, it is indeed bigger, but I have to get really close to get the effect!”
Eileen swiftly snatches the candy from Cheng-Tien’s palms, spins around, tosses the candy in the air with her left hand and catches it with her right hand. She unwraps the candy, spins around to take a quick glance at Cheng-Tien and asserts, “It’s a normal size candy! Thanks!” She pops the candy in her mouth.
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