John Wallace’s illustrations make a perfect match for Marion Dane Bauer’s simple information on snow for young readers. Clouds in winter are made of ice crystals. The ice and dust in the clouds grow “so heavy that they drop from the cloud.” (13) The colder the air, the smaller the snow flakes and vice versa. “Each snowflake has six sides.” (20)

Page 31 contains six “Facts about snow” which are more complex than the previous information. This includes, ” People used to think it was impossible to find two alike, but a researcher named Nancy Knight once did find two snowflakes exactly alike.” (31)

John Wallace’s illustrations make a perfect match for Marion Dane Bauer’s simple information about wind for young readers. The earth spins, so air moves creating wind. Heated air rises, colder air falls trading places. “We call this movement ‘wind’.” (11) Birds, seeds, kites, sailboats, and windmills all use wind. Very quickly moving air can cause storms.  We can’t see wind, only its effects.

Page 32 contains four “Facts about wind” which are more complex than the previous information.

John Wallace’s illustrations make a perfect match for Marion Dane Bauer’s extremely simple information on clouds. One of the three types of clouds most youngsters will relate to are fog and their chilly breath on a cold morning. There are cirrus clouds, “That means ‘curl’.” (10)” Stratus. That means ‘layered’ or ‘spread out’. “(12-13) “Cumulus. That means ‘heap’ or ‘pile’. (18)
Clouds consist of liquid or frozen water. Clouds cool the earth during the day and keep the warmth in the atmosphere at night (like a blanket). The water in clouds is the same water as back in dinosaur days.

Page 32 contains 5 “Facts about clouds” which are more complex than the previous 30 pages.

John Wallace’s illustrations make a perfect match for Marion Dane Bauer’s extremely simple telling of the water cycle for very young readers. Sentence length ranges from three to eight words. There is usually one sentence, in a large font, to a page. The plot: it is hot, plants wilt, a cloud , water droplets unite, droplets get heavy, and fall to earth. Repeat.

Page 32 contains six “Facts about rain” which are more complex than the previous 30 pages.

Have you ever wondered who invented the cookie? This book discusses the history of the cookie. It starts with how the cookie was started, then how they came to America, and then how the cookie became popular. It gives a lot of interesting tidbits about how cookies became a part of celebrations and the most popular cookie. It ends with a bit of baking science, a recipe and a short quiz.

This book is a part of the History of Fun Stuff series. It is billed as a Level 3 Ready-to Read book, but the text is long and lacks text features. Several of the famous people or companies may not be recognizable to a younger audience. Students who are interested in the history of sweets will enjoy the fun facts and history of the cookie.

Bertie looks and acts like all of the other giraffes. They do the same thing everyday. One day Bertie oversleeps and realizes that he was all alone. As Bertie wanders around lost and unsure what to do, he sees Blue, a creature just like him, only blue. Blue says that he can lead Bertie back home. As Blue and Bertie walk to his home, Blue shows Bertie things he had never noticed before like birds and rare flowers and helps Bertie see things in a different way. When Bertie joins his heard, Blue sadly turns to leave because he does not belong. Bertie tells Blue that he does belong and Blue helps the heard see things a little bit differently.

A sweet story about acceptance, being a good friend and looking at things differently.

Maggi and Milo return in another adventure. This time Maggi and Milo are having a staring contest when Maggi’s mom suggests going to the park. Maggi wonders why they should go and mom replies, “Because it’s Tuesday and the sun is shining and you might make a new friend.” Maggi doesn’t think she needs new friends because she has “Milo, the Mammal of All Mammals.” They go to the park to discover that dogs are not allowed. Maggi’s mom says she will stay with Milo while Maggi goes to play. Maggi introduces herself to a group of children and soon they are playing. Maggi decides that she wants to walk Milo because he looks bored. The other children want to walk him too. Maggi says that it is expensive and sends them to look for roly-polies, sticks, acorns, dandelions and three leaf clovers. She decides that they look like they are having fun collecting things for her, so she decides to join them. Maggi leaves the park having made new friends, but with her best friend of all, Milo. This is a fun story about making new friends.

The illustrations are colorful and engaging. The characters in the book reflect a multicultural group of friends.

Edith Houghton was said to have been born with a baseball in her hand. If she wasn’t playing baseball, she was watching baseball. In the 1920s at the age of 10, she tried out for the new all-female team, the Philadelphia Bobbies. Even though she was only 10, she made the team and even became the starting shortstop. At thirteen, she had the opportunity to travel to Japan with the Bobbies to play against men’s teams.

This wonderfully told story depicts a lesser known piece of baseball history. The illustrations compliment the text. The end of the story includes a note from the author with pictures of Edith Houghton and more information about women in baseball.

David Milgrim uses multiple combinations of 19 words, plus 4 sound effects over 30 pages of illustrations to tell an adventurous story of Otto, the robot, who wants to visit his robot family on another planet. Otto builds a rocket pack to fly home, but on his test flight something goes wrong. It flies right, left, up, and down before crashing. Otto’s monkey and elephant friends are happy to see Otto safely back with them. The end, for now.

Young emergent readers will feel a great sense of accomplishment being able to read an entire story/book by themselves.

Eloise once again gets her Nanny on board for her latest project. This time it is building a snowman in Central Park, even before Eloise eats breakfast.

Eloise makes a standard snowman: 3 snowballs, 2 eyes, 2 stick arms, and a twig mouth. “But something is missing.” Back to The Plaza to fetch a large carrot for a nose. But something is not right. Back to The Plaza to have the “best tailors” make “a hat, a coat, a scarf, and gloves.” After the snowman is dressed, it’s back to The Plaza. Now, Eloise commissions a wooden house for the ‘dashing’ snowman. Back to The Plaza, for breakfast.

Cute in a pretentious sort of way that only Eloise can pull off.

Tomie dePaola’s recognizable art style gives this telling of making a snowman, sledding, and making snow angels before going inside for hot cocoa in front of a roaring fire all the soft cozy comfortable delight of the winter’s first heavy snow fall in easy to read format, co-written with Jim Lewis.

The last house on Candy Cane Lane does not have a single decoration because this one house can not afford any. How the little girl who lives there wishes they could have decorations, too. Then one night, batten down the hatches, there is a December blizzard on its way. In the morning, the little girl rescues a damaged outdoor choir boy decoration from a dumper to use in her yard, only to have her father put it back in the trash. At the dump, the choir boy befriends a plastic reindeer with a broken antler and a plastic ghost. Off they go to find the little girl at the end of Candy Cane Lane. They pass super highways, woods, shopping malls, and factories without luck. Then they discover a factory that makes Christmas decorations for displays. The choir boy, reindeer, and ghost are invited inside by a sugarplum fairy who’s never been outside the factory. The sugarplum fairy shows them a Santa assembly line, where the Santas are all identical. Next, the sugarplum fairy leads them into a room of “rejects.” “There was a Santa with a green coat, a camel with three humps, wise men without gifts, and a snowman who looked melted.” The choir boy tells them about the little girl on Candy Cane Lane who will “love” them all. Off they go, even though they do not know the way. The giant from the factory helps out by throwing the choir boy riding the reindeer with the broken antler up into the sky where they catch an updraft. Soon they land on the little girl’s roof and “the giant helps deliver the rest of the ornaments safely…” The little girl thanks her father ” ‘ This is the most wonderful Christmas I could ever imagine!’…And all the ornaments agreed.”

Author and illustrator, Scott Santoro has worked on such movies as The Lion King, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and Gnomeo and Juliet.

In Book #3 of Eddie Red Undercover, Edmund is back working for the New York City Police Department after a bomb was delivered to a police station with the note “1-Eddie will know what this means” attached. (1) “Last spring I worked for the NYPD because of my photographic memory and ability to draw almost perfect character sketches.” (2)  The police tell Edmund as little as possible in an attempt to protect him, but Edmund and his friend Jonah realize this case is  dangerous because they have assigned a body guard for Edmund. The police have also put Detective Bovano undercover as a teacher in Edmund’s expansive private middle school- Senate. Det. Bovano is in every class with Edmund using the name Mr. Frank, but this is OK with them because Mr. Frank is a better chemistry teacher than their regular chemistry teacher.  Jonah and Edmund keep working the clues, but which items are clues and which are not? Are some items just coincidence? Are they working one case or two?         As the plot unravels, it is revealed the villain actually had five bombs planted throughout the city. While Jonah and Edmund are using the computers at the public library, Edmund receives a text from an unknown someone saying, ” You’re looking in the wrong place… The answer is on the map. Gold. Stolen treasure. ”  Jonah and Edmund try to decode the clues and solve the case without Bovano because once they tell Bovano, Edmund will be off the case.   In the meantime, Senate Middle School is having a school carnival which the boys are working. While there, Edmund finally gets some alone time with a particular girl as they go into the “Maze”. The villain kidnaps Edmund from inside the “Maze” wanting his memory and art ability to sketch the basement of the art museum to be used in a future museum robbery. Jonah uses a clue from Edmund to locate his whereabouts and has the Senate Middle School marching band parade down the street outside the hotel where Edmund is being held as a diversion. Then, Edmund uses the birthday gift Jonah gave him , a mace pen, to get away from his kidnapper. Bovano arrests the villain Lars at the airport at the same time the unknown texter sends Edmund the text, ” ‘ You ruined everything.’ ”  (184) “THE END”

Eddie has included three pages of  “HOW TO BE A CRYPTOGRAPHER”. This gives the reader tips on how to break codes.

Based on a true story, The Only Road tells of a 12 year old boy’s escape from Guatemala to the United States to join his older brother.  Fleeing the drug lords who have killed so many in his community, including his cousin, Jaime fears that he will be next, and that he has no choice but to flee his country and try to make it to his brother in New Mexico.

Jaime faces many challenges: hoping trains and hoping he doesn’t fall under the wheels, surviving crossing the desert, watching for and fearing that he’ll be captured by the Border Patrol.

This is a gripping story that tells of a boy’s bravery as he seeks a better life in the US.

Set in the rural, off the grid community of Rowan’s Glen in the Ozark Mountains, this mystery is the story of a romance, suspense, and horror. Twenty years earlier a teenage girl had been murdered after being crowed the May Queen at the annual Glen’s May Day celebration. Now, all these years later, animals are being found brutally murdered.

Who is killing the animals? The same person who killed  the May Queen? What is causing the dark omens that seem to settling all around the Glen? Is this year’s May Queen in danger?

The plot is intriguing, as is the setting. But not all plot pieces fit together. And the ending is complicated and somewhat convoluted.

WAX is a eerie, creepy story of the Grosholtz Candle Factory in Paraffin, Vermont. A seventeen-year-old girl, Poppy Palladino, makes a disturbing discovery in the back room:  dozens life size, realistic wax sculptures, crafted by a very peculiar old lady.

Frightened by this discovery, she rushes away in her car, only to have a wax figured teenage boy jump naked from her trunk! She tries to return him to the factory, but it is destroyed in a mysterious fire.

As she and the wax boy, Dud, try to solve the mystery of the fire, she begins to notice that citizens of the town of Paraffin are looking more and more waxy. Why is behind this? What evil is lurking?

For those who like mysteries and creepy stories, this is a good choice.

The Unexpected Everything is Morgan Matson’s fourth book (you may know her from Since You’ve Been Gone). A Junior Library Guild selection, The Unexpected Everything is the story of a prominent US Congressman’s daughter whose summer internship and future plans are tossed into the wind by a scandal that rocks his career and blazes across newspaper headlines and cable news airwaves.

Andie, aged 17, has lived, since her mother’s death from ovarian cancer, under the microscope of her father’s staffers, who have made sure that she’s never done anything to embarrass him in the eyes of the public. But now, a campaign finance scandal is embarrassing Andie, and results in the revoking of her spot in a prestigious Young Scholars Program summer internship at John Hopkins.

Driving to the home of the doctor who withdrew his letter of recommendation, in a failed effort to be reinstated in the program, Andie stumbles upon a run-away dog, catches his leash, and then comes face to face with his dreamy owner, Clark. Clark, not much older than Andie, is a nerdy, homeschooled writer, who published his first novel at age 14.

The storyline evolves into a funny and entertaining romance. Here is an excerpt of Clark’s attempt to ask Andie on a date:

“I was just . . . trying to get a sense of your schedule.” He blinked, like he’d just heard himself, and I could see the tops of his ears were starting to turn red. “Wow, that sounded creepy. I didn’t mean that in, like, a weird way. I think I’m making this worse. Oh god.” He took a breath, then swallowed hard. “I was wondering, you know, what you do. At night.” He stared at me in horror after he said it, like he couldn’t quite believe the words had come out of his mouth. “Oh, man,” he muttered, closing his eyes behind his glasses for a moment. “This isn’t going well.” I had to bite my lip to stop myself from smiling wide.”

Although this novel is 519 pages long, each one is a page turner. Even reluctant readers will enjoy this story of friendship, family, romance and, of course, dogs.

Ashley Bryan uses a primary source document as the foundation of his moving picture book about the lives and dreams of slaves.  The document, the Appraisement of the Estate that occurred after the death of Cado Fairchilds.  Written in first person free verse, the book starts with Mary Fairchilds describing the estate and her plans to sell it after the death of her husband.  Her poem is followed by Bryan’s portrait of the 11 estate slaves superimposed on an image of the original appraisal document.  Each slave’s story includes a portrait, a poem about his or her life as a slave, and a poem and illustration of his or her dreams.  Bryan’s poetry highlights the cultural roots and humanity of the individuals listed in the otherwise unemotional primary source document.  The book ends with a transcription of the appraisal document leaving the reader with the powerful knowledge that the slaves would be sold, but not knowing what was to happen to them.

Anchored by a primary source document, this is a powerful book humanizing the slave experience.

Learning to share is one of the essential social skills young children need to master.  Just like with Bear and Hare, some kids find the concept easier than others.  Simple repetitive text and expressive illustrations make Bear and Hare Share! a good starting point for discussion around sharing.

Bear and Hare take a walk and see some neat stuff that they both want.  When Bear asks to share, Hare responds with a vigorous “Mine!” Bear doesn’t care and still shows his affection for Hare.  After their tug a war over a balloon pops the balloon, bear wanders out of the story.  Now Hare doesn’t care and heads off to a bee hive enjoy honey on his own.  When the bees chase him away, Bear is there to comfort him.  Reluctantly Hare offers to share his jar of honey.  The reader isn’t sure if Hare has really learned to share since the last page shows Hare holding the jar away from Bear rather than sharing.

Thick pages make the book easy for young readers.

The mysterious Theodore lives in a dark, quiet cave and all that can be seen of him is his eyes.  One after another, a bird, a wolf, and a tiger all disturb Theodore. He is not really hungry, however, so he tells each of them, “I will not eat you.”  Theodore is finally becoming hungry when, with a, “raaaar,”a boy gallops up to the cave on a stick horse . Theodore bellows, “Don’t bother me, pesky boy, or I will eat you.” When the boy does not go away, the snout of Theodore the dragon finally emerges from the cave.  A run through the woods leads to a fall and laughter.  It’s hard to eat someone when you’re laughing.  Now Theodore’s cave is still quiet, but Theodore is no longer hiding in the dark – he’s outside playing.

A fun story celebrating imaginative play.

Edward is a very particular pig. Whether at home, outside, or at school, he always avoid anything messy.  This means he also misses out on jumping in leaves, playing kickball in the mud, science experiments and art.  One day while organizing an art shelf rather than painting, the shelf falls and paint is everywhere!!  At first devastated, he finally embraces his messiness and the next day participates in art, science, kickball, and leaf jumping.  After all, he can always clean up afterwards.  The rather bland story line makes this an additional purchase for most collections.

As the rest of Botsburg powers down for bedtime, Bitty Bot breaks all the bedtime rules with his power tools; “Banging bolts and welding wing.  Clanging cogs and tubes and springs.” When his rocket is complete, he zooms through space to touch down on the moon.  There he takes in the sights and joins an alien party.  His battery is finally running low and sets off from the moon in his rocket.  Will he reach home and bed before his systems shut down?

Cute characters, rhyming text and fun language make this a creative alternative the standard bedtime story.

Once upon a menacing time, after their mother’s disappearance, Hensel and Gretel chose to empower themselves by learning ninjutsu.  When their father is also dragged away, they set off through the dark woods leaving a breadcrumb trail.  Caught off guard at the fox’s corn bread house, Hensel is also plucked up and shoved into a pen.  Greta then squeezes down the flu with ninja like silence and speed to snatch her mother out of the stir-fry pan while Hensel picks the lock to escape the pen.  The book ends with their vow to rescue, protect, and defend until bird-napping comes to an end.

Santat’s illustrations clearly portray both expression and motion.  This is the third title by these authors to pair martial arts with a retelling of a classic fairy tale.   A fun addition to any collection.

Best in Snow contains breathtaking winter photographs.  The sparse text powerfully describes the winter snow cycle. Starting with a freeze, a breeze and a cloud, the snow then sails and settle, shapes and dusts. Once the storm is over and the sun shines, the air warms and then the snow softens and melts. Until…another freeze, another breeze, another cloud. Back papers describes in more detail the science behind each poetic phrase and contains a further reading list. Use to support a winter theme or in a science unit focused on the water cycle.

Starting at age 2 when he could finally reach the seat, a young boy celebrates the litany of vehicles he has mastered.  Rhyming poetic first person text reinforces the joy and accomplishment the boys feels with each year and each new vehicle. The boy’s wide eyed glee can be seen on each page, whether running a big backhoe at 3 years old or plowing snow at 6 years. In each picture, the boy is accompanied by a turtle, pig, and penguin. Finally, at age 7 the boy has “got a bedroom like a parking lot,” and the reader sees and understands the imaginative play behind the story.  The continuation of his love of vehicles year after year culminates with his statement that, “when I grow up…. with any luck, I’ll drive a truck.”  A sure hit with young vehicle lovers.