Here is the inspiring account of ten men and women who dedicated their lives to protecting the nation’s natural heritage.  Who popularized birdwatching…or introduced the study of birds in North Amerca?  Who pushed a president and a nation into setting aside vast preserves of land? Who did the same for the Florida Everglades?  Who opened the world’s eyes to the dangers of pesticides?   Well known, and lesser known figures are included .  Interesting black and white photographs, sidebars, resource lists and a survey of environmental issues round out this topic.  The text is accessible to researchers, as well as leisure readers.  Twenty one activities, such as bird feeders, a compost pile, plaster casts of animals’ tracks, tests and studies of the greenhouse effect and acid rain connect students with hands-on learning.  Excellent Resources and Index in Back Matter. Lovely  publication!

Author, William R. Sanford presents a well-rounded mini biography of  Geronimo in nine short chapters.  Sanford describes the historical time and  events which shaped the man the world would come to know as Geronimo. For example, in Chapter 1 – Massacre in Mexico , Sanford states,

” For centuries the Mexicans had captured his [Geronimo] people and made them slaves. The Apache struck back… raiding became a normal way of life.” Geronimo’s mother, wife, and three small children were killed while he was away. “For the rest of his life, he would seek revenge.”

When the Apache homeland came under the United States control the Apache didn’t fare any better. The U.S. Army and the Apache had numerous encounters. Geronimo talked with various U. S. leaders, tried to live peacefully by white mans rules, but the white way of life never rested well with him. Geronimo surrendered four separate times, but fear of being hanged usually lead to his leaving the reservations.

Sanford uses footnotes to site his direct quotation, which are referenced in the back of the book.

The book is an easy read, with lithographs by Frederic Remington and  photos from the time, all of course, in black and white. But the lack of color in this book leaves it lack luster. This could be easily be relieved by using color around the title of each chapter, instead of  white text surrounded by black and gray.  The map on page 10 and the photo of Arizona on page 11 could be in color, instead of black and white. AND what about the gray smudges that run across the bottom of most of the pages? Add a little brown tint perhaps?

The book’s cover is in color, but is not appealing.

The same photo of Geronimo was used three times (p. 15, 32, and 37) in three different sizes and three different portions cropped out of the picture.

Finally, the word Apache is misspelled on page 47, the “h” was omitted.

A simple choice to play outside is the apparent cause of disaster in Foreman’s picture book.  In only a sentence or so per page, the story shows the havoc that can ensue when a boy meets a rambunctious dog.  Throughout the tale, the boy states in the narration that these are all horrible turns of events.  At least, until the end.  This story has many strengths, including its relative brevity and its rollicking rhythm (while not in rhyme, the repeated use of the title words give the text a driving pace).

However, there are a few things which could be improved. The pictures themselves are of varying sizes, sometimes taking up just a small portion of the large pages, sometimes filling an entire spread.  While the text is extremely conducive for large group sharing, the smaller-scale watercolors would be difficult to see from any significant distance.

Although this title has weaknesses, children will enjoy the bright colors, fast-pacing, and wild build of events in the story.  This is a fun take on the formula made famous by Laura Numeroff in If You Give A Mouse a Cookie, and will be a fun addition for many libraries.

It’s Saturday and Froggy woke up early wanting to go out and play.  His mom wants him to go back to bed.  He heads over to a friend’s house only to find him gone, so is another friend, and another, until finally, Froggy is sad because all of his friends have gone somewhere.  Froggy’s dad has planned a play date for Froggy with Frogilina, and they are all going to the movies.  Froggy decides that since he really wants to see the movie, he’ll go, but he isn’t happy about having Frogilina tagging along.  Frogilina happens to be a little imp; she throws popcorn at Froggy at the movies, she’s kisses him as if he’s the Frog Prince, and she takes a bite off the bottom of Froggy’s ice cream cone so it drips all over him.  It’s the worst play date ever!   The whole business of a little boy and a little girl being friends and playing together is still a bit disconcerting–even kindergarteners don’t know what to think.  The girls giggle and look at the boys.  Kind of an awkward book for kids.

In this beautifully illustrated book, Miss Maple (think the size of Thumbelina) collects and nurtures orphaned seeds of all kinds.  She travels all over during the summer and collects the seeds, keeps them throughout the year, and when spring comes she launches them where they will thrive.  The illustrations are water color with some black ink outlining.  The voice of the story is calming and soothing.  The scenes of Miss Maple in her tree house make you want to be there.    Could be a great resource if tied with plant/seed science units.

Miss Fox is a teacher whose students see her several times with a police officer, including going into the police station.  They assume that Miss Fox has done something to get herself in trouble.  The rumor mill begins.  When the students see a brochure for Hawaii, they think Miss Fox is going to run away.  It’s nice to see how loyal they are to their teacher.  However, at the end, Miss Fox and her fiance announce their engagement and plans for their wedding and honeymoon in Hawaii.  The kids are relieved to find that their teacher isn’t a criminal.  It’s a simple story about how gossip can hurt someone.  Although for this message, I prefer Madonna’s book, Mr. Peabody’s Apples.

This is a fascinating little book, explaining a lot of very complex ideas in clear, understandable text.  After a brief explanation of the history of exploration, it goes on to describe the many challenges that must be tackled to achieve interstellar exploration within the next 100 years.  The team that has gathered to study this possibility includes scientists, engineers, doctors, businesspeople, etc. The book manages to make clear just how difficult such a prospect, while still inspiring confidence and hope that it will be achieved someday.  My only gripe with the book is something I’ve been noticing in a lot of non-fiction lately: a “timeline” that really isn’t a proper timeline at all, but just a list of dates of significant events.

This is a good, solid little book, which sticks to it’s focus.  It describes the many different types of public office for which candidates must be elected, and explains all the things involved in running a campaign, from fundraising and getting petitions signed to political parties and rallies and commercials.  It did a very deliberate job of making sure to balance photos of Democrats and Republicans, famous candidates and candidates for smaller, municipal offices.  It did state that, “The first U.S. president elected by secret ballot was Grover Cleveland in 1892,” which leaves the reader wondering, how were they chosen before then?

As a general rule, I like this series of books.  This one did have a lot of good solid information, clearly explained, but I found it’s definition of minerals somewhat unclear/contradictory: in one place it defines minerals as inorganic substances found in the earth, which are not alive and “do not come from plants or animals.” Yet elsewhere in the book it states that many foods contain minerals, including fruits and vegetables, eggs and dairy products.  No where does it offer an explanation for this contradiction.  I’m afraid students will find it confusing.

I guess it’s adequate, but I was not overly impressed with anything other than the binding.  I didn’t like the textbook style assignments/questions given throughout, interrupting the text, and I thought the text could have been more clearly stated.

This series seems to be some misguided attempt to morph library books with text books.  It really is a clearly written book about a topic of high interest to many students.  I would recommend it if they hadn’t gone and stuck a bunch of textbook assignment questions at the end of every chapter.  These will be a turn-off to students, and are unlikely to be used by teachers — they don’t enhance the book, but instead detract from its appeal to recreational readers.  Another thing: I’m tired of books that list a sequence of dates along a line and call it a timeline — when I was taught to make timelines in elementary school, it was a requirement that the distance along the line be representative the of the time it was attempting to illustrate — when the same distance might represent one year or seventeen years along the same line, it’s missing the point of a timeline.

I’ve been a fan of this series for years: the cartoonish illustrations, and the short blurbs of information make history accessible, and non-threatening, and the way the series emphasizes all the miserable, unpleasant aspects of history, putting the reader into the position of first person, is a draw that hooks a lot of otherwise resistant readers.  As much as I like the series in general, there have been some titles over the years that I thought failed to live up to their titles.  This one did a great job of showing just how difficult life was for pioneers heading West.  Plus, I love the sturdy bindings on these books.

Every kid who has ever had the dinner-table show-down with their parents over some vegetable they refused to eat will enjoy this tale.  Even when Martha’s parents insist that green beans are good for her, Martha knows they’re really bad.  She’s proven right one day when a gang of personified green beans dressed as hoodlums from the wild west arrive in town, reeking havoc on anyone who ever said, “Eat your green beans.”  When they take Martha’s parents hostage, she’s delighted at first with her new freedom to stay up late and eat whatever she wants.  When she decides she really does miss them, and decides to rescue them, the only way to set them free is to eat all the marauding beans.

What a fun, fabulous book!  Fifteen different fairy tales have each inspired two poems, representing different points of view, focusing on different elements of the story.  For example Cinderella laments in one poems about how much smarter it would have been to wear more comfortable shoes, while her step-sisters brag in the other about how they taught her everything they knew.  A variety of poetic forms are used, and paragraphs in the back provide background on the different variations in these familiar folk tales. This would be a great tool for helping teach students not only about poetry, but about point of view and expanding on familiar tales.  It’s sure to inspire some fabulous creations by the children who enjoy it.

The whole premise behind this book is completely lame.  It doesn’t describe any of the adaptations these animals make that allow them to survive extreme cold.  It’s simply an illustrated list of animals who do live in cold climates.  But the format in which it is presented borders on false: each page simply states an animal that can survive at a given temperature and then asks the question whether any animal exists in colder climate (the first page starts with an Arctic bumblebee that survives 40 degrees — even us wimpy humans in our mild Pacific Northwest climate survive colder than that every winter).  As you turn the page, the pictured thermometer drops a few more degrees, and another animal is declared to survive even that temperature.  The polar bear is described as surviving -34 degrees — you’re telling me if the temperature drops to -35 degrees all the polar bears drop down dead?  Given that many of the animals listed live in the same geographical areas, I’m guessing they must survive together.  After the last animal listed (the Siberian husky at -75 degrees), the repeated question as to whether any animal can exist in a colder climate is answered with, “Perhaps. Who knows what could exist in colder climates?”  I’m thinking man’s study of the temperature ranges in different parts of our world, and the animals who live in those regions is pretty vast, do data probably does exist as to what is the coldest part of the planet and what kind of animals live there.  The whole thing is just bad science, badly written.  The illustrations are nice, but they’re not enough to rescue the poor text. Don’t buy it.

I love this pair’s work, and this one does not disappoint.  The illustrations are fabulous and draw the eye, and the text is simple yet fascinating.  We all have the understanding of what little humans are able to do on their first day of life (and just in case young readers aren’t sure, the first page reminds us).  Each page in this book is dedicated to a different animal describing it’s first day.  The selected animals are wide-ranging, from the familiar to the exotic, from those born helpless to those who are independent from the start.  Though the few sentences on each page are just enough to tantalize, detailed paragraphs in the back of the book offer more detailed information on each animal, including what part of the world it inhabits, and it’s typical birth size and weight.

A clever little story about a pig and an alligator who share the same birthday.  When they stumble upon each other, the alligator captures the pig and thinks it’s his lucky day, as he ponders the birthday feast the pig will provide.  But the clever piglet outsmarts the alligator at every turn, manipulating events so that all the alligator’s plans turn in his own favor.  A twist at the end lets us know that the clever pig has been plotting all along, as a true trickster character.  A delight.

It’s beautiful and it’s sentimental and sweet, without being cotton candy sweet.  The text declares Christmas to be a quiet time, and then goes on to list a variety holiday situation that bring on different kinds of quiet, from the sneaky quiet of not wanting to get caught looking for presents, to the chastised quiet when you’re in time out after getting caught, to the quiet awe of lighting up the tree.  The illustrations are soft and charming and add meaning to the two-three word phrase on each page.

Fans of the other Scaredy Squirrel books will be drawn to the illustrations, which are very much in line with the character of the other books, but I am afraid they may be disappointed as they start reading, because there is no actual story to this one.  It is instead a Christmas manual, written from the perspective of Scaredy Squirrel, filled mostly with lists, outlining his views on mistletoe, fruitcake, gifts, etc. Visually appealing, but lacking much in the way of substance.

South Dakota is one in the completely revised America the Beautiful series. This book is divided into 9 chapters before the projects, timeline, glossary, fast facts, biographical dictionary, and resources found at the vary back of the text.The nine chapters include: 1- Land, 2- First People, 3- Exploration and Settlement, 4- Growth and Change, 5- More Modern Times, 6-People, 7- Government, 8- Economy, and 9- Travel Guide.

“FARMING AND RANCHING ARE STILL BIG BUSINESS IN THE STATE, BUT THE AVERAGE WORKER IS MORE LIKELY TO BE FOUND IN A FACTORY , OFFICE BUILDING, OR STORE THAN ON A FARM.” Banking and credit cards are big business in South Dakota because of the changes in the state banking laws.

South Dakota has the Black Hills with its gold, Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial. South Dakota, also, has numerous museums and memorials for Native American history, mining,  and air and space.

This book is filled with charts, graphs, maps, and photos which will aid students in attaining the Common Core Standards .

The Indigo Spell is the third book in the Bloodlines series, following the very popular Bloodlines and The Golden Lily.  Fans of the series will find familiar characters as well as new ones in this suspenseful adventure.  As with the previous books, The Indigo Spell features the paranormal with witches, vampires and Alchemists. Themes of friendship, romance and betrayal will keep the reading rapidly flipping the pages.

Steamy romance and danger will thrill the reader and have her watching the calendar for the release of the fourth book, The Fiery Heart, due out in November, 2013.

Tennessee is one in the third series of AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL books. This book is divided into 9 chapters before the projects, timeline, glossary, fast facts, biographical dictionary, and resources found at the vary back of the text.The nine chapters include: 1- Land, 2- First People, 3- Exploration and Settlement, 4- Growth and Change, 5- More Modern Times, 6-People, 7- Government, 8- Economy, and 9- Travel Guide.

There is a great combination of vivid detail and a dense, concise overview of facts and information on Tennessee*. Tennessee’s history is a microcosm of the early history of eastern North America / United States. I found it interesting to read about this area in time in relation to one of the thirteen colonies. Tennessee is unique in having had the State of Franklin, the Watauga Association, the Trail of Tears, and the Civil Rights Movement’s death of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Author Barbara A. Somervill’s prose flowed keeping my attention to the end of the paragraph, before venturing off to read the added side bars.

* contributed by T.K. Owens

“You’re traveling through another dimension not only of sight and sound but of the mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead–your next stop, the Twilight Zone!”  This book is an adaptation from Rod Serling’s original script. Read the book and then watch the episode on HULU !

On a flight from London to New York, there are a few passengers exchanging pleasantries and small talk, when for some unknown reason the plane begins to accelerate. Then Rod Serling, sitting in a passenger seat on Flight 33, says, “The plane is simply going too fast, and nothing within the realm of knowledge…or at least logic… can explain it.”  The plane lurches and is still accelerating, fasten your seat belts sign goes on, the captain makes a calming and reassuring intercom announcement, navigation and radio are both out, one passenger is oblivious, one passenger is sensing danger, and another passenger is clowning around with impossible scenarios. The pilot descends below the cloud cover to look for landmarks. Finally they are in contact with Laguardia, BUT this plane has traveled back in time to 1939. The pilot retraces his steps and the plane travels even further back in time to the days of dinosaurs. Once again, the pilot retraces his steps, this third time (is not the charm) they arrive in the future… a fourth try to get back from the ‘Twilight Zone.’

Here is a story dealing with the complexities of friendship. Two friends both sign up for the BIG RACE. They both want to win. How wiill Sox honestly help his friend Tab improve Tab’s running time when the outcome could cause Sox to loose the race. At the story’s beginning Sox is the faster runner.

As it turns out, friend helps friend to be his best. First, Sox helps Tab train for the race.  Then, Tab helps Sox make it to the finish line after Sox is injured in a fall during the race.

Includes discussion questions and an activity.

Young Scooby-Doo fans will enjoy solving this mystery by studying Duendes del Sur’s illustrations. They will also enjoy seeing Velma, Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, & Scooby-Doo, plus 15+ other words in rebus form during the reading of the story.

The gang is out in the field helping Velma’s Uncle Ted find dinosaur bones for the museum when the previously discovered bones disappear. Scooby-Doo to the rescue!