"Ten Rules for Living With My Sister" by Ann M. Martin; Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan; $16.99

The author of "The Baby-sitters Club" series offers a heartwarming, funny story of sisterhood and also a snapshot of what it's like for a family to live in a New York City apartment in this humorous book.

Pearl's older sister Lexie is in eighth grade, is popular, has a boyfriend, gets good grades and seems to be everything Pearl is not. Everything Pearl does seems to drive Lexie crazy (especially when Pearl visits Lexie's room wearing her underwear).

But when Pearl's beloved grandfather Daddy Bo is injured in a fall and has to move into Pearl's room, the girls have to share a room and Pearl tries to figure out how she can better understand her sister. But it isn't always easy!

-- Jean Westmoore



The Herschell Carrousel Museum, 180 Thompson St., North Tonawanda, will be open from noon to 4 p.m. today and Friday, featuring winter or holiday-themed crafts and other activities. Cost is $2.50-$5. The museum will close for the season beginning Saturday. For information, call 693-1885 or visit



Have you ever made a tabletop volcano? What do you use to give the volcano its pop? You use baking soda and vinegar, of course! When you mix vinegar and baking soda, a chemical reaction takes place. The acetic acid in vinegar -- stuff that gives vinegar its sour taste -- reacts with the sodium bicarbonate (a compound in baking soda) to form something entirely different -- carbonic acid. Carbonic acid breaks down into carbon dioxide and water. The escaping carbon dioxide gas creates the bubbles you see as they overflow like a gushing volcano.

-- Time Book of Why