This is a charming beginning reader book with darling illustrations! This story has Mouse and Mole set in a wintry scene in the woods where there are many activities for them to participate in and has the story ending with them in front of a cozy, warm fire sipping a warm drink, eating cookies, and gazing out the window and deciding that it is a Winter Wonderland.  Great addition to an elementary library for 1st-3rd grade readers.

This nonfiction book gives detailed information about cell phones and communication history.  It contains a great timeline, starting in 1746 with Jean Nollet proving that electrical signals move fast, and then progressing on to 1837 with the invention of morse code and the telegraph, and 1962 the first satellite, and now (2009) there are over 4 billion cell phones in use worldwide.  A nice synopsis of telephone communication is given through the context of  history.  This book is complete with an index, glossary, and additional resources.  Recommended for the technology section of your library.

Another great beginning reader chapter book by Cynthia Rylant and her charming characters Mr. Putter, Tabby and Mrs. Teaberry and Zeke. This adventure takes the four of them out on a cruise aboard a wooden ship, complete with a white bearded captain.  There was a small amount of conflict as Zeke didn’t want to let go his his grip on the mast with his teeth, but when offered a small toy ship, he decided to let go and keep his toy to sail in his waterdish back home.  Great Addition to an elementary library.

This is a great book with real mathematic tricks!  A great hook for intermediate math students.  The table of contents includes mind games, calculator magic, dice, magic numbers, etc.  The directions are stepped out so that a teacher or student can follow the instructions and leave another person or group through an activity.  This reviewer worked through the tricks in this book and they worked!  This is a recommended addition to an elementary or middle school library.

This glossy paged book is noted for the colorful photographs throughout every page.  There are great photo’s of humans interacting with dogs in positive ways.  The table of contents include choosing a puppy, taking care of your retriever, grooming, clipping nails and helping people as a service dog.  Each page has a paragraph of information as well as Fast Facts in a separate caption.  In the back of the book, there is a glossary, and index.

It’s 1918 and 15-year old Rosalind, who is British, is living in India with her mother.  When WWI ends, her strict father returns, unhappy with Rosalind for her spunkiness and interest in India gaining its freedom from the British.  Rosy calls on her own courage several times throughout the book — as she is shipped off to England, alone, for a better education, to sneak off to listen to Mahatma Ganhdi speak, and to give courage to her Aunt Louise who is bullied by Aunt Ethyl.  Gloria Whelan’s writing style once again invites you in to the inner thoughts and struggles of the protagonist, while learning political history and Hindi vocabulary.

This book is about a Little Princess and her greedy appetite for birthdays! The Little Princess discovers she isn’t happy with just having one birthday a year, so she asks for another and then another and then another. Pretty soon Little Princess has a birthday every day of the year. Soon, she sees this isn’t such a good idea. The presents, cake and guests get crummier with every passing day and birthday! She soon realizes how special just one birthday a year is. The presents, cake and guests are amazing! A popular series in Great Britain that has even been made into a children’s television series, this is a really nice picture book that has a cute story line and cute illustrations to go along with it.

This is a nonfiction book about harvesting apples in a picture book style. The book reads along like a story with drawn illustrations, but teaches children about apples and their harvest. A family travels to an apple orchard and partakes in the apple picking process. The boy and girl help tell the story with their speech bubbles. The book teaches about the different kinds of apples, storing them, the worms that can be found in them, and that they are used for pies, games and cider. At the end of the book there are directions on making a dried apple wreath, a glossary, more books to read, Internet sites, and index. This is a nice, simple book to pull out in the fall when apple season is starting, but I didn’t find the information and illustrations to be too intriguing.

This book is about a little zebra named, Ollie. Ollie loves everything about Christmas. The book talks about all the things he loves at Christmas time, like crinkly paper, tinsel and string. This is just a cute book that is fun and has great water color illustrations. The pages are thick and it is a good smaller size for little hands. It is a cute, little book that is a nice addition to the Christmas section in an elementary library.  There are other books about Ollie, including I Love My Dad and I Love My Mom.

This biography would best fit middle schools, although I will place it in my elementary library.  This isn’t a typical hero worship type of biography.  Michael Phelps is looked at objectively, regarding both his big Olympic wins and his trouble with alcohol and marijuana through some poor choices.  Students will learn the consequences and also how this athlete apologized and picked himself up to continue with his swimming and other work.  It also speaks of his ADHD diagnosis and his parents divorce, which weren’t through bad choices, but big issues for him to deal with while he excelled in his sport. Overall, a strong book and is recommended as an addition to your sports section or biography.