Cultural diversity is explored in this 7″ x 8″ photo essay of ethnic dress: parkas in northern Canada’s cold places,a  lavalava in the Cook Island’s hot places,  a turban in Morocco to protect your head from sun and / or blowing sand, uniforms on school children in Cuba, colorful skirts as children’s playwear in Peru, and kimonos in Japan and kilts in Scotland on special days for dressing up.

Includes: world map with in set mini-photos of the clothing from the six continents (minus Antarctica) color coded for quick reference to continent / country of origin.

Lexile: 470 L

Little hands explore the triangle shape in photos of plastic ( car lot) pennants, an Egyptian pyramid, tortilla chips, recycle icon, yield sign, cut sandwiches,and  a musical triangle instrument along with a 5 word sentence in this 6″ x 7″ book.

Little hands explore the circle shapes around them through photos of bicycle tires / wheels, the sun, a pie, cereal (ex. Fruit Loops), basketball and basketball hoop, a cake, a pizza with sliced olives, the lenses of binoculars, and with a single accompanying 5 word sentence.

Size: 6″ x 7″

Colonial jobs were jobs done by hand because electricity had not yet been harnessed.The two-page spreads include Jabs at home ( weaving and candle making), miler (grinding grains into flour), blacksmith (shoeing horses, making nails, tools, and cooking pots), cooper ( making wooden barrels and containers), carpenter and cabinetmaker ( built buildings, and furniture), cobbler and tanner (making and repairing leather shoes, belts, and saddles) , milliner ( sold fabric), wigmaker, and trading with the Native Americans.

Each job description is given in a paragraph or two, along with “Words to Know” side-bars, and trivia – “Did you Know?”

Includes museum and/or websites.

Paul Thompson takes on a tough person to research — little is known about Billy the Kid (also known as William H. Bonney, Billy Bonney, Kid Antrim, or Henry McCarty) and very few photographs were ever found of him.  Billy first got in trouble with the law at age 15 when he shot and killed a blacksmith following a card game.  Billy spent much of his short life on the run, even escaping from jail. 

While the reading level of this biography is appropriate for middle school and even younger, I wonder how interested students this young would be with all of the detail and names of other outlaws the author brings forth.

When 3 eyed, 3 legged, no armed, and extremely long tongued Snorp, the window washer, gets a day off work he asks his  no eyed, very big nosed friend Moopy to teach him how to snowboard.  After, Snorp learns a variety of skills from Moopy, he finds out of accident,  he hasn’t learned how to stop.  Snorp’s  tongue gets stuck to the metal of a moving chairlift when trying to stop.

Lexile: 220 L

Combine bully Troy Perkins as he transforms into the evil Pape3rcut, nerdy Chip Stone and his superhero alter ego Rockhead, his nerd friend Spencer with his secret sidekick identity as Scissorlegz in a graphic novel format and the reader has a recipe for comic book escapism. All puns are intended as super villain and superhero (plus sidekick) duel at Banner Elementary School in a classic game of ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors.’

Includes: glossary, 3 fictitious full-page “Advertisements” ( pg. 15, 29, 36) , and questions and prompts.

Lexile: GN 240 L

The 8″ x 7″ size of this book fits nicely into small elementary hands. The top 2/3 of each page is a full color, close-up photo of the active bug being described in the one sentence  below the photo.

“Most bugs get their food from plants.” (p. 6) while others suck blood, “eat poo”, or eat other insects / bugs.

Includes the “How Big?” page showing actual size of 4 different bugs.

Lexile: 430 L

Hans Solo and his first mate Chewbacca, hired by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker to take them to Princess Leia, recently apprehended by Darth Vader.  Princess Leia is transporting the Emperor’s secret plans for the Death Star to rebel leaders.  Content and vocabulary target an older audience (Grades 4 and 5), when in fact the Star Wars fans at my school hover around the first and second grades.  Illustrations of characters resemble the movie actors which is helpful to the comprehension in moving the plot forward.  Sophisticated language is used which makes this not necessarily a selection for reluctant or struggling readers.  The detailed illustrations can clutter the page at times, therefore the reader requires a more familiarity with graphic novels and dialogue format in order to navigate through the text.  Some comic violence appears in the form of generic gun zapping.  Best that this title is a hardback, as multiple circulations are predicted even with the described drawbacks.

In this Rookie Reader, a small girl goes fishing with her grandfather. After trying three different kinds of bait she concedes and goes home having simply caught a cold.

Lexile: 160 L