This step-by-step cookbook includes preparation and safety tips which are helpful to young and inexperienced bakers and will hopefully prevent disappointing cake failures.  Necessary kitchen pans and utensils are pictured and labeled so bakers can locate what is being described in the recipe directions.  Common ingredients and good baking techniques are also clearly described with helpful pictures to illustrate.  Finally on page 17 we get to the first of 6 luscious-looking cake recipes.  With step-by-step full color pictures and beautiful shots of the well-presented final product, I have the impression that even the novice baker could not fail (provided he or she can read the directions).  This would make a nice first cookbook.  This book circulates constantly in our library.

Exciting and festive, this picture book will be a nice addition of our Christmas collection.  Reminiscent of The Polar Express, a young boy has a magical Christmas Eve adventure including a ride on Santa’s sleigh.  In the end, he discovers that the love of family is much more important than the wishes on his Christmas list.  The illustrations are captivating, exciting, detailed and lovely.  Bright colors and plenty of texture make the characters and story come alive.  Students will enjoy reading this book.

I enjoyed this beautifully illustrated and joyful version of the Christmas story.  The story of Jesus’ birth is places in context of the God’s presence in every human birth.  Our Catholic elementary students will appreciate this book and it will make a lovely read-aloud at story time.

What I loved most about this picture book was the illustrations which are colorful and bright, with an eye-popping 3-D effect at times.  With lots of darling details and facial expressions, the pictures are very engaging.  The mousie love story is sweet as well with the classic boy gets girl theme.

This wonderful science experiment book for elementary readers gives some background information regarding various creatures from nature from bugs to pets.  It asks good questions to consider and observe and offers easy ideas for viewing nature purposefully.  There is an index as well as a table of contents, glossary and page listing additional related resources to read.  I liked the accessible and common sense nature of these projects and activities.  I predict that this book will circulate well in our elementary school library.

Suzanne Bloom’s illustrations are colorful, vibrant and fun.    The text and storyline of this book are simple (a little too simple) but highlight several action words which could be useful for a discussion about verbs.

This book about friendship, prejudice, and justice features twelve-year old Dit who is anxious to meet the new postmaster’s son, rumored to be his age.  In Moundville, Alabama in 1917, Dit and the townspeople are surprised when the family arrives and the child is not only a girl, but she and her family are Black.  It doesn’t take long for Dit to realize that “Emma” is the best friend he’s ever had.  She’s smart, devoted to him, and trustworthy.  Reminiscent of  “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a Black man is wrongly sentenced to a crime (yes, murder, but in self-defense) and condemned to hang.  Dit and Emma set out to free him.  In a voice similar to Scout Finch’s, sprinkled with humor and bits of wisdom, this story is one of the best I’ve read this year.

I am a big fan of Lynne Jonell–she has the ability to write and develop interesting, clear characters and exciting action.  And this book, The Secret of Zoom, is no different.  Christina is very protected, not allowed outside and especially not to talk to any strangers who may show up at their house.  Her mother had been killed in an accident and her eccentric scientist father doesn’t want to take any chances in losing her, too.  However, as you may have guessed, a smart, bored, lonely child will find a way out and find what secrets her father is protecting her from.  Christina meets an orphan boy, Taft, on her adventures, and together they are able to spy on Lenny Loompski’s mines and why her father is so terrified of him.  The children from the orphanage, those who can sing well, are taken to the mines to use their voices to release the ‘zoom’ –the most valuable and dangerous of all substances.  Loompski thinks nothing of risking the children’s lives in order to get more zoom.  Christina and Taft are very heroic as they work in rescuing the orphans.  This book has a little bit for everyone.  Librarians should add this as a first purchase to their collections.

A nonfiction title describing the adaptations of the animals that help them survive in the Gates of the Arctic National park,  expertly disguised  as a picture book. With gently flowing text, and wintery cold illustrations you will enjoy the facts you are learning about many of the arctic creatures.  Includes glossary, author note of his adventures, and further sources for study.

Vermont is part of the America the Beautiful – third series. Reading it was almost like reading  a travel brochure or going on a mini-vacation, if you like to visit all of the museums to find out about the history of a place. But plan your trip well, because “instead of the normal four seasons, they have usual winter, winter, still winter, and mud season.” (pg. 18)  Vermont is more rural than urban and they still gather on the first Tuesday in March, throughout the state, for Town Meeting Day.  The WOW sidebars were quite interesting – “In 2007, there were 20 American cities with larger populations than the entire state of Vermont!” (pg. 73)

This book is so all inclusive it will make the hardest part about writing a state report ‘what not to include’. The book is divided into: Land, First People, Exploration and Settlement, Growth and Change, More Modern Times, People, Government, Economy, Travel Guide, and Project Room.

Reading this book was almost as enjoyable as eating some of Vermont’s famous BEN & JERRY’S Ice Cream.

Vampire legends grew out of people in the 1600 and 1700s trying to make sense of unexplainable deaths, mixed with the unexplainable changes death brings to a body. “Today we know that vampires don’t exist”  because we know about contagious diseases, how hair and nails appear to grow after death when in reality it is the skin tightening, and we know about the bloating caused by internal gases building up in a decomposing body.

Vampire creatures from around the world are briefly touched upon: Hindu – Kali, Chinese – chiang-shin, Africa – asasabonsam, Australia- yara-ma-yha-who, Aouth America – asema, Malaysia – penanggalan, and Mexico – chupacabra.

“The belief in real vampires is long gone, But thanks to books, TV shows, and movies, vampires are more popular today than ever.

I was hoping for more specific detailed legends, but this should fill the niche for those readers who need high interest go match their  low reading level.

Vampire Basics 101, should be the subtitle of this book. In four quick and to the point sections, author Thomas Kingsley Troupe has covered the basics of vampirehood: they are cold to the touch, have no reflection, have sharp fangs, are afraid of silver, dislike garlic, can change into a bat, and a stake through their heart is lethal. And at least seven different times , he referred to this information as  “stories” .

Illustrator Oksana Kemarskaya’s earth tones and broad brush strokes set just the right mood.

I love this book.  It is very good about how Jessica feels when she is bullied and what she can do.  I like that she talked to her mother.  And she was told to talk to someone at school.  Best of all-I liked that she stood up to the bully.

Nice pictures-very simple-not to distract from the content.

This is a cute humorous book written in rhyme.  It highlights exotic animals that you don’t usually hear about.

The pictures are great, I love the expressions on the animals faces.

In Breathing, the reader hears the story of first love as told by a 15 year old girl, Savannah Georgina Brown. Set in a small North Carolina town, Savannah normally spends her summer vacations babysitting her younger brother and his best friend, working part time at the public library, reading trashy romance novels while swinging in her hammock, and hoping that she doesn’t have another hospitalization for her severe asthma. This particular summer things change dramatically when she meets a cute surfer, Jackson, who is in town to visit his cousins. The romance between Savanna and Jackson concerns Savanna’s mother but when Jackson stays by Savanna’s side during a hospitialization, the mother grows to appreciate Jackson and his devotion to her daughter. ‘What if the guy who took your breath away was the only one who could help you breath?” is a notable line of the novel that refers to Savanna’s ‘love at first sight’ experience of meeting Jackson and also commends him for the support he gave her while she was ill. Jackson and Savannah are separated by his having to return home to another city, and the reader listens to their long distance phone conversations and Savannah’s worried discussions with her mother and brother during the time she and Jackson are apart. This book may appeal to teenaged girls who like romance stories. It is a ‘feel good’ story, but Savannah’s Southern dialect and especially her bad grammar grated on this reader.

Two books from the same series Exploring Space, The Hubble Telescope and NASA are level 3  of their 5 level scale and follow similar formats.  One or two sentences per page with large font; full color photos are used throughout and most span both pages.  Because of the science background, the vocabulary is more pretty complex for the type of audience it is written.  Pronunciation guides would have been helpful.  Simple research at an elementary level or upper grade ELL students might find these books useful.  Additional selection for most libraries.

“Brazil is the largest country in South America… borders ten other South American countries. Only Ecuador and Chile do not touch Brazil.” (page 5)

Large applies to Brazil in so many ways.

1) World’s largest tropical rain forest

2) ” Amazon River carries more water than any other river”

3) ” Amazon region has a greater variety of plants and animals than any other place …”

4) 200 native tribes, about 50 are unfamiliar with the modern world

5) soccer – Brazil has always been in the World Cup

6) Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statute is one of the world’s largest statues

Considering Brazil’s size it is hard to wrap my mind around the fact that most of its population lives near the coastline.

The Cuba  I knew about before reading this book consisted of Fidel Castro and the Cubans who escaped his revolution to Miami, Florida.

Now, I know a Cuba  where well kept 1950 vintage U.S. cars are still driven daily due to the U.S. Embargo imposed after the Fidel Castro came to power.  I know a Cuba where the government owns the farms, stores, and most of the restaurants (and a black market as its result). A Cuba where every family is given a yearly food rations book.  And a Cuba where the government promises everyone a job, though it might not be in their field of study.

Author, Walter Simmons, does an excellent job of stating the facts without bias.

On the lighter side, Cuba is the home of the world’s smallest hummingbird and one of the smallest bats – Cuban bee hummingbird & Cuban butterfly bat. Other topics covered include ‘Daily Life’, ‘Going to School’, ‘Playing’, ‘Food’, and ‘Holidays’.

A delightful and varied collection of poems, ranging from traditional nursery rhymes and the works of famous authors such as Shakespeare, to the original works of children (youngest age 2).  The poems are gathered into chapters that focus the reader on different traits often found in poetry, and roughly corresponding to Howard Gardner’s Intelligences: one chapter for word choice, one for poems that convey descriptive visual images, one that plays with the sound of words, etc.  The illustrations will draw kids in, the poems written by other children makes this a source for inspiration, and the organization makes it a tool for instruction as well.

An eight-year-old girl, frustrated with the experience of multiple moves in her short life, contrasts her own new-home transitions with the experiences of her grandmother, who has only lived in two homes in her 65 years.  The water-color illustrations are beautiful and genuine.  The text is a little rambling and the point seems a little unclear.

The illustrations are gorgeous!  The text introduces the reader to how to say hello in ten different languages.  Each of the cultures represented by those languages is beautifully captured in the dress of the characters.  I especially like that the book does not present these languages in the context of world travel, but in the context of a little girl’s walk through an urban neighborhood, greeting people she knows — reminding us of the diversity within our own communities.

A fun and informative book that answers the “why?” of an assortment of bodily functions — sure to capture the curiosity of many elementary school students.  The table of contents lists all the questions the book addresses, from “Why do you get hiccups?” to “Why do you throw up?” and “Why do you yawn?”  One to two pages answer each question with clear and complete explanations, including both the physical mechanics part of the why and the evolutionary advantages offered by each human trait.  Be prepared for protests from any parents who are of an anti-evolutionary mind-set, as the book explains that humans are not only evolutionarily related not only to chimpanzees and other primates, but all other animals including fish and bacteria.

The book design is better than its content.  It’s visually appealing and bills itself as “first-hand accounts of war from those who lived through it.”  But the text actually included few quotes from primary sources.  It included chapters about various individual who fought in a variety of capacities, for both sides during the American Civil War, but it was a bit dry.  Idid like that glossary terms were defined right on the pages in which they were used, as I know students are unlikely to actually make use of the glossary in the back.  Even though it claims to be a Reinforced Library Binding, I don’t trust the smooth finish of the cover to wear well.

I was disappointed.  I know this author has been popular among adults for a long time.  I think he needs to stick to what he knows best.  His narration for kids was stilted.  The characters did not ring true.  And it was boring.