Stump the Librarian

Who Asked: Jacob
NaNo-novel: Space Monkey’s Revenge

Answer: You could actually see what it would look like for yourself. All you would have to do is take a trip to the Netherlands. There, you can find a theme park called the Madurodam. It is a 1:25 scale model of a typical Dutch city. And, in 2002, it went solar. Overall, it still looks like a normal city.

However, there are several ways of handling energy concerns using solar

Who Asked: Matthew
NaNo-novel: Ghosts of the Mind

Answer: The Bible was written by around 40 men over the course of approximately 1,600 years (there is some debate about this, but for the sake of simplicity, we are going to go with what is in the traditional canon). Given the course of history —including the Jewish exile and the apostle’s missionary “tours”—these books were written in a number of different places.

Who Asked: Eragon Moon
NaNo-novel: As yet untitled

Answer: If you mean in the same field or at the same farm, the answer is yes. There are a number of commercial berry farms, such at the one called Barbie’s Berries, which has a nice aerial photo of what such an arrangement looks like.

The trick, though, would be having ripe fruit from all three types of berries at the same time. In the geographic location

Who Asked: Lauren
NaNo-novel: Ten Indians and Some Kerosene: A Mystery

Answer: I know this is probably going to be disappointing, but the answer is not much. The “Drying of Fuels” article asserts that kerosene can be concentrated by running an electrical current through it to remove water. But if you are hoping for something dramatic, like an explosion, then electricity is not the way to go.

Who Asked: Celebrity Guest-Stumper, Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies and Midnighters series, and of Peeps and The Last Days
Novel: Leviathan (out in 2009)
About the Book: The setting is 1914, when the simmering conflict between

Who Asked: Micah
NaNo-novel: Undecided

Answer: This is a really interesting question, and I’m glad you asked it, because it sheds a bit of light on the research process.

If you were hoping for the name of an individual, I’m sorry. Stairs have been around for a long time, and that information has been lost. The Staircase: History and Theories asserts, “Stairs, ladders, and ramps entered the thesaurus of building components in prehistoric times.” Apparently, the first stairs were created accidentally. The same resource says,

Who Asked: Sabrina
NaNo-novel: Undecided

Answer: Oh, wow. This is a very broad question. After all, the Encyclopedia of the Sword has 720 pages. I recommend that you consult that volume if you need more information than I am able to give here.

Below, you will find a sampling of swords:

The Highland Claymore (Origin: Scotland)—This sword reached up to six feet in length, and came in two

Who Asked: Alicia
NaNo-novel: Undecided

Answer: It’s hard to identify any one source of inspiration for the Lord of the Rings books. Perhaps, you mean the first inspiration. Langford writes, “The road to Middle-Earth began in the late 1890s when seven-year-old Tolkien, fired by reading the Nordic legend of Sigurd killing the dragon Fafnir in Andrew Lang's Red Fairy Book, tried to

Who Asked: Christi

NaNo-novel: She Didn’t Say

Answer: We are hard-wired to like music. The Harvard Gazette says, “Babies come into the world with musical preferences. They begin to respond to music while still in the womb. At the age of 4 months, dissonant notes at the end of a melody will cause them to squirm and turn away. If they like a tune, they may coo.”

Telegraph Magazine Online reports that the inner ear is the only organ to reach full adult size by 24 weeks. The article goes on to say, "Music

Who Asked: Celebrity Guest-Stumper, Pete Hautman, author of a number of young adult novels, including Godless, Rash, Sweet-blood, Invisible and All In.

NaNo-novel: An untitled novel in process about a girl who steals cars.

About the Book: Excerpt: "I stole my first car just after