What’s Glowing at Your Neighborhood Bookstore?

 Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis is one of my absolute favorite bookstores for kids. It has a wonderful selection of books for young readers, and adults can find and/or order titles for themselves too. One of the main attractions is the charming family of animals that call the bookstore home. Besides this cat and the friendly fowl, visitors will discover a lizard, a chinchilla, a ferret, an assortment of birds, a new manx kitten, even a tarantula (in a terrarium, of course). On the store’s website, you can even click on the Meet the Animals tab!

In the store’s bathroom is a fish tank over the sink where a mirror would ordinarily be. It’s stocked with tiny bioluminescent fish, who are among the subjects of Bioluminescence: Nature and Science at Work (cover at right), Marc Zimmer’s new YA title from TFCB this fall. So far, this glowing book has garnered a Booklist star and is a Mackin Best of the Best science book. Learn more about how and why animals glow and how scientists are putting bioluminescence to work to discover more about and find cures for disease. And be sure to visit GFP, Marc’s fabulous site about the green fluorescent protein!