In book 3 of the Infinity Ring series, Sera, Riq, and Dak travel to the year 1850 in the state of Maryland.  Their mission is to fix a break in the time continuum that has something to do with the Underground Railroad and Harriett Tubman.  With Riq being of African descent, he is immediately captured . . . → Read More: The Trap Door

Letting Go is the story about three hens who believe that a fox is up in an apple tree throwing the apples at them.  They get hysterical because they are afraid the fox will come after them next.  They run to get the rooster, but when he is almost hit by an apple, he runs . . . → Read More: The Loopy Coop Hens: Letting Go

Emily Rodda is a master at characterization and the making of a hero.  Her heroes are not beautiful, strong people, but someone who is ordinary, like you and me.  In reading her first book of her newest trilogy, The Golden Door, you connect with Rye, her new hero.  Rye lives in Weld, a walled city . . . → Read More: The Golden Door

The hoop genius is James Naismith, a high school gym teacher, with a class of rowdy boys that no one wanted.  Naismith tried all sorts of games but to no avail.  His boys were beat up and bandaged from the physicality of the games.  Until one day he remembered a game from his own childhood . . . → Read More: Hoop Genius: How a desperate teacher and a rowdy gym class invented basketball

This is a young child’s board book with lift the flaps and pop-ups.  It has bright, colorful illustrations that are well-balanced and visually pleasing.  The characters are introduced the very first page, with Mr Croc and five of his friends.  On each succeeding page, Mr Croc is invited to come and play and each time . . . → Read More: Come and Play Mr Croc

As explained in the introduction by the author, John Yeoman, these folktales are not the common folktales frequently told, but are the older, oral folktales once told somewhere around the world by a storyteller long ago.  The folktales mostly contain magic and it’s either the underdog or the innocent who are the victors.  As the . . . → Read More: Quentin Blake’s Magical Tales

This book gives a synopsis or brief biography of the important people on both sides of the American Revolution, along with an image of what the person looked like.  As a teacher of the American Revolution to fifth graders, I appreciate the format in which the people are laid out as either Patriot, British, or . . . → Read More: Leaders and Generals of the American Revolution

As part of the series, Asian Animals,Tigers gives a brief synopsis of how the continent was formed, the many languages contained therein, countries, culture, and people.  There is a map of where the tigers actually live in Asia and how their habitat is shrinking due to change.  The author mentions that there used to be . . . → Read More: Tigers

This short book covers alot of information–everything you wanted to know about energy, and then some.  Using aliens as the ‘spokespeople,’ this book covers the different forms of energy, where they come from and what they are used for.  Also covered is using and saving energy and taking care of our earth.  Broken into four . . . → Read More: Aliens and Energy

Just as the title explains, this is basically a travel journal featuring the highlights of various places across Australia, such as the Great Barrier Reef, the desert, the rainforest, and so on.  Random anecdotal phrases strewn across each page.  Difficult to grasp all concepts as I am unfamiliar with the Australian animals, but would be a . . . → Read More: To the Top End: Our Trip Across Australia

In this first graphics version of a non-fiction book, illustrations and diagrams effectively show the various types of volcanoes, the causes of eruption, the effects of an eruption, and safety tips in case of an eruption.  This is a great beginning earth science book.  It looks as though all titles in this series are about . . . → Read More: Volcanoes!