This gorgeous non-fiction book grabs the reader’s attention from the moment you spy the amazing color photography on the cover. The page size is large and each one features several full-color undersea photographs of sea creatures recently discovered during research studies around the world. The photos are complimented by well-written text about each creature, how they were discovered including descriptions of the undersea technology used, what’s happening in the surrounding environment and the ecosystem and much more. The final pages of the book features a glossary, index, source notes and bibliography, and a list of resources to learn more. Readers may also find the labeled photos of the scientists quoted in the book to be an interesting reference especially because their research location around the world is also noted. I’m confident that our students will enjoy this book and that it may inspire future marine biologists. I highly recommend this book.

This very informative book covers vegetarianism in its many forms.  Teens will enjoy the  interesting anecdotes about famous historical figures and  modern celebrity vegetarians,  in additional to practical advice on the how-to’s associated with becoming vegetarian.

Parents will approve of the emphasis on meeting nutritional guidelines while following a vegetarian diet.  Much attention is paid to the various reasons people, societies or religions follow vegetarian diets.  Caution is even given to warning signs for eating disorders and what to do if you suspect a friend or family member is afflicted.

Several recipes are included, as well as contact information for other resources on vegetarianism.

This is a graphic novel.  It is a quick read.  It is not clear on right and wrong and good or bad.  The discussion questions at the back might help children clearify some of these problems in the book.  i thought the part about the author was more interesting than the actual story.  The suggested activities and creative writing projects sounded very fun at the end.  The story is OK.  The part after the story is better.

Following the death of her best friend, Stephanie, Maya and her family move to Spores Ferry, Oregon to start anew.  Her new life transitions into a magical world when a fairy flies into her room, and an odd group of acquaintances at school keep hush-hush about the world they live in.  Maya has a strange encounter with one of them who shows her a small, glowing egg, which needs a “host” so it can survive.  He places it on Maya, and it becomes part of her flesh.  Maya keeps this new dimension of her life a secret from her family as she learns more about he portals and thresholds of her now new world.

It’s difficult for me to read alien-fantasy stories, but I would not hesitate to recommend this book to 4-6 graders looking for a fantasy book.   Personally, I found some of the writing immature (“Rowan tapped his fingers…in a rhythm more complex than an ATM code.”) I see that there’s a sequel, “Meeting,” due out August 4.

Melody is not an ordinary 5^th-grader.  In fact, she is brilliant – she has a photographic memory, synesthesia, and a passion for words and music.  Unfortunately, she’s stuck.  Stuck in a wheel-chair, stuck in her own mind, and stuck in a boring class for students with disabilities.  Melody has cerebral palsy, and she has never been able to speak, walk, or demonstrate the brilliance of her mind.  Draper writes in the voice of her main character, and does an incredible job at frankly expressing the frustrating experience of having an immense amount to say and no way to say it.  Some of the secondary characters come across as stereotypes (the mean popular girl who is mean for no reason, the sensitive and sweet but shy friend, etc.), but Melody herself is fully-realized and real.  Some of the slang Draper uses already feels a little dated (“tight”, “the bomb”), but her intention of helping readers understand that kids who are born with disabilities are still just kids comes across well.  A fantastic book for helping upper elementary school aged kids appreciate what it means to have cerebral palsy, as well as what it means to be a sympathetic friend.

“Throughout the world, habitats face many threats…However, the most harmful threats are caused by human activity, such as clearing forests and polluting beaches with waste.” (page 5)

In 30 pages author- Natalie Smith- describes fresh water, marine, forest, grasslands, tundra, and desert habitats. The text is strategically placed over full page photos of each habitat. With each turn of the page Smith includes either an “Eye-Opener” or a “Question Time?” thought provoking paragraph, usually dealing with how people are endangering habitats.

The importance of protecting habitats clearly comes through without sounding preachy!

There is one mix-up on the map’s key on page 16. The two colors representing tropical rainforests and temperate forests are reversed.

More a tribute to the power of music than a traditional biography, Golio’s book reaches into the mind of a young child first discovering a passion.  Steptoe’s rugged but expressive mixed media collage paintings set the stage for Jimi’s less-than-perfect childhood in Seattle in 1956, and Golio’s words express the innate desire for beauty and creation dwelling within the young artist.  As Jimi graduates from one-stringed ukulele to guitar, the art in the book becomes more abstract and fully textured, mirroring the musician’s rise to fame.  While the book itself stops before his death and doesn’t discuss a lot of Jimi’s personal life, the back of the book contains a “More About Jimi Hendrix” section, an author’s note, an illustrator’s note, and a list of resources, all of which go into more detail about the musician’s life and untimely death.  This makes the book appropriate for younger children who love music, and older kids who are interested in the life of an icon.

Has your head ever felt too full of knowledge?  Maybe you should try a good sneeze!  While shopping with his mother in the grocery store, a little boy sneezes so hard he forgets his own name.  He also sneezes out the memory of his mom’s name, facts he learns in school, everything he ever knew about dinosaurs, and more.  Lucke’s brightly colored, surreal, mixed-media paintings capture the hilarious disgustingness of the boy’s situation, and the text whimsically changes colors as he sneezes away his knowledge.  This book is perfect for a story time read-aloud, and the grotesque nature of the illustrations will definitely appeal to young boys.

Willow has opinions – unfortunately, her voice is too soft for most people to hear them.  When her teacher asks her whether she’d like apple or orange juice, she quietly answers apple, but receives orange!  Fortunately, Willow’s resourcefulness helps her find an effective way to make her voice heard.  With creative use of font size and simply expressive art, Button and Howells create a straightforward story about overcoming shyness.  The boldly colored characters crisply stand out against the white page, and Willow’s transformation from meekness to confidence is highlighted by the literal growth in size of the font.  This is an uncomplicated and sweet story that can help children find their own voice.

Entertainment Tonight/Us Weekly/People Magazine rolled together with a coming of age story about three teens from three backgrounds – high profile teen pop star whose a recovering addict, daughter of a movie producer who has struggled with weight, and a small town girl who is hired to be the assistant to the rival of girl #1.  Readers who like the drama a Hollywood will most likely enjoy the drama in this book.  De La Cruz creates characters who develop throughout the story, with twists and turns here and there to keep the book interesting, even though the overall resolution is apparent via the title.  The opulence of the rich and famous is flaunted heavily, but the real emotions and realities shine through the three main characters particularly well.  Set in the south of France during the Cannes Film Festival, this is a fun read for those who like to live vicariously through the above magazines.

With a little paper, glue, and other household items, you can make math jump off the page and into the real word with this title.  It covers an expansive range of facts and theorems, each with explanations, craft projects, puzzles, factual tidbits, real world connections, and glossaries.  While they make a good attempt of explaining some very complicated subject matter, much of it would still benefit with some adult supervision and may be beyond many in it’s age range, i.e. Hyerbolic Paraboloids for instance. All in all though, the book does an excellent job of pairing  math with kid friendly experiments and real world comparisons.  An excellent teacher resource for those children who utter, “When will I ever use this?” . Includes instructions and website access to print the activities if needed.

The title is a small glimpse of the POW!er of this book.  Small in size, but full of punch, this 48 page wonder covers the origin of comics, debuts of the main characters throughout comic history, changes in comics due to changes in societal norms, as well as the changing audience for comics in their various forms — including brief pages on comix, indies, manga, and other graphic novels.   Full of interesting tidbits, this book would be suitable for elementary through high school libraries.  Paragraphs of text are in a very small type font that would be hard for younger elementary, though the full color, glossy page comic art filled pages will definitely make it a page turner in it’s own right.  This is probably an additional purchase unless there is a comic assignment or huge draw to graphic novels in your school as there is in mine.

Jackie’s Gift, by Sharon Robinson, is a wonderful true story about the Robinson family’s first Christmas in a new home with new neighbors.  Young Steve Satlow loved baseball, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and believed that “…Jackie Robinson the best player the Dodgers have ever had, black or white…”  When the Robinsons move in down the street, despite other neighbors attempts to stop them, Steve can’t wait to meet him.  Two interesting topics are handled with utmost respect.  The racism of Steve’s neighbors is explained and compared to racism Steve’s grandparent experienced as Jewish immigrants so that Steve can relate first-hand.  Then, after bringing a Christmas tree to Steve’s house, the Robinsons learn that Steve’s family is Jewish.  Steve’s parents find room for the gift in their home and hearts despite their religious beliefs.  The water color illustrations are just gorgeous as they give the feeling of “history” to the story.  This is probably a must have for most elementary libraries that strive to represent multiple perspectives on December holidays.

This for-girls-only novel is book 1 in the Lucy B. Parker series.  It’s hard enough being an insecure sixth grader.  Lucy also has to deal with the fact that her divorced parents are seriously dating other people.  To top it off, her future step-sister is Lauren Moses, the hottest teen star in the world.  Written with plenty of humor, author Robin Palmer shows the best of both worlds — Lauren’s Hollywood life full of limos, movie offers, and celebrity friends, and Lucy’s hum-drum life with awkward moments and the feeling of being ignored by her family.  Like many 12-year olds, Lucy’s emotions change as quickly as a newborn baby’s.       On the downside, it’s disappointing to see a book for pre-teens lose its wholesomeness as Lucy’s mother moves in with her boyfriend and Lucy’s father accidentally gets his girlfriend pregnant.  Where are the role-model families anymore with a happy, wholesome values?

This second book in the “Lucy B. Parker” series continues the story of a dramatic sixth-grader who has been dealt the ultimate challenge:  she’s about to become step-sisters with Hollywood’s hottest teen star, Lauren Moses!  Insecure Lucy writes letters to TV advice celebrity Dr. Maude, as she struggles to adjust to the fact that her mother ignores her now that she has a new man in her life, and Lauren is living a golden life with TV movie offers and living in the limelight.

The book is hilarious.  Lucy is fixated on the premise that everyone is supposed to have 3 crushes:  one local, one celebrity crush, and one long distance/vacation crush.  Not knowing how you tell when you have a crush, Lucy says, “I felt a weird tingly feeling in my spine when I heard him talk.  I wondered if I was getting spinal meningitis, which is this weird disease that I had seen on a program on the Discovery Channel once.”

On the down side of the book, I wonder if this book will become dated quickly, as it uses very up-to-date lingo (BFF, iTouch, iPad, and a reference to Family Guy).  As an adult reading this book, I tired of Lucy’s obsession of getting her period, her bra size, and the way she constantly talked in the format “…because (a) blah blah blah, and (b) blah blah blah, and (c) blah blah blah.”  I felt all of these were overdone, but may be enjoyed by a pre-teen.

A beautiful non-fiction book that encourages young students to observe the world around them and make predictions.  The format throughout the book repeats a similar four-page sequence:  the first two-page spread includes a close-up detailed photograph of some part of something in or around a pond, accompanied by the repeating question, “Look very closely.  What do you see?”  When the reader turns the page after making their guess(es), the see a full-page color photo that answers the question, along with information about that plant or animal.  The photos are gorgeous, the information is interesting, and the layout is fun.  It would make a good read-aloud for young students, and a good solo-read for older elementary students, useful both for curriculum connections and for recreational reading.

Wow! This book is fabulous!  I never thought I would be so fascinated with squid.  I think this book exemplifies non-fiction at its best:  it is full of information, but it’s not just stated or explained — the author truly is a storyteller.  I would love to check out other works by this author.  The book begins with the days when sailors returned from sea with unbelievable stories of encounters with monsters that those on land could only imagine.  It traces the development of early legends and the first maps that marked the unknown expanses of oceans with captions decreeing, “Here there be monsters.”  It continues to connect the dots between reported sightings and early evidence of a creature that only recently (and rarely) has been observed alive.  It does an excellent job of capturing the drama and the unfolding nature of scientific discovery, and reminding us that there are still mysteries that modern science has yet to fully uncover.  A fascinating read that fosters a sense of wonder.

Part of the Scientists in the Field series, this book centers around the issues involved in trying to protect and preserve the seahorse population, focused primarily on that in the coral reefs in the Philippines.  It does a good job of addressing the interconnected concerns of the biology of the seahorse itself, the health of its coral reef habitat, the needs of the community who make their livelihood from fishing these waters, and the wider world where seahorses are sought out for aquariums and medicines.  It does not over-simplify the issues, or support one cause at the expense of the others, but rather seeks to find ways to achieve sustainable balance that benefits all.  The photographs are absolutely lush.  The text understandable, but dense — definitely intended for older students.

Another title in this popular series that focuses on the unpleasant and sometimes downright gruesome aspects of history as a means of capturing students’ interest, this one tells about the primitive medical treatments used during the Civil War.  The book contains a lot of information, but is very readable and not intimidating: colorful cartoonish illustrations and small blurbs of information help to draw the reader’s curiosity.  A good selection of Non-fiction for recreational reading, as well as curriculum support.

It’s a cute book with brightly colored illustrations that tells of young Frog’s excitement over the pending visit of Goose and Gander with their new baby Gosling.  From the time Rabbit tells him the news, Frog is anxiously awaiting their arrival, only to be distressed when they arrive at how much crying the young Gosling is doing.  Though others try lots of ideas (hungry? tired? diaper?) to calm Gosling, it’s Froggie’s singing and dancing that eventually turn the crying into laughing.  It’s cute, and it will be a helpful book for young families with new arrivals that siblings need to learn to cope with, but there’s nothing super special/unique/creative to really say you need to have it if you’ve already got other new-baby books in your collection.

This book is a poem.  As such, it’s hard for me to say exactly what it’s about:  I’ve read it three times, and I’m still not sure how to describe what exactly it’s trying to say, but then, that’s kind of the nature of poems.  The illustrations are soft, and the text is lyrical, and the ideas give the reader things to ponder.  It is a book of simple beauty.  My first hesitation was to wonder whether children are really going to appreciate it, but then I decided I was underestimating kids.  Certainly not all kids are going to love this book, but I want to think some will respond to it.  Definitely a good tool for a poetry unit.

This popular character is back, sharing all her favorite things about Halloween, from the slightly skewed perspective of a farmyard hen.  The bright, simple illustrations are full of scenes that will be familiar to young children, but the text is full of Minerva Louise’s silly mistaken understandings of what she sees around her:  she thinks the children setting out tombstone decorations are planting a rock garden, the trick-or-treaters are farmers bringing feed-buckets to the house, and the children bobbing for apples have been working so hard they’re drinking down the water bucket.  Young children will laugh and delight in showing off their superior understanding as they correct Minerva Louise and explain what is really going on.

I think every child (and adult for that matter) should read this book.  First of all, the illustrations are fabulous.  Most importantly, the statistics it shares does a really great job of capturing a snap-shot of our planet, giving readers a real perspective as to where they fit in the world and how many other people out there share things in common and have very different experiences than our own.  Using the concept of shrinking the world population down to a village of 100 people, while keeping all ratios/percentages in tact, this book looks at a variety of statistics for the human race.  Each two page spread is dedicated to a different topic of the human experience (e.g. ages, languages, education, etc.), and using the village concept, it shares what percentage of the people on the planet fit different categories within that topic.  For example, the religion page tells us that if the world were a village of 100 people, 33 would be Christians, 21 Muslims, 13 Hindus, etc.  Throughout the book, historical perspectives are offered as well, telling how the make-up of the global village has changed over time.  Told in very simple language, it brings some of the great complexities of our world into comprehensible perspective.  A fascinating and valuable book for any library.

A great book for getting kids interested in our legal system, and setting them up to become fans of John Grisham’s adult books. At first I was skeptical of the idea of a “kid lawyer,” as not being realistic, but the title character actually comes across as both believable and likable.  Of course not actually a lawyer himself, Theodore is the only son of two lawyers, fascinated with the law himself, planning a future as either a lawyer or a judge, and friends with all the folks in and around the courthouse in his small hometown.  Well-known by his peers as someone knowledgable about the law, he does have friends and acquaintances approaching him for varied legal advice, but the bulk of the story centers around a big murder trial. Theodore becomes privy to some information that could be crucial to the outcome of the case, but he must find a way to let it be known without betraying the confidence of a friend.  Keeping in mind the youth of the target audience, who might not be completely familiar with various aspects of the legal system, the author manages to incorporate a bit of legal instruction in very understandable terms. I’m wondering whether this will be strictly a stand-alone novel or if it will be the beginning of a series — would love to read further adventures of this great character. Highly Recommended.

This early chapter book, based on the childhood of Tomie DePaola, shares the experiences of a second-grade boy during World War II.  Many of the events are common events of growing up in any time (e.g. having a big brother who is a bully, performing in a play, taking music lessons, etc.), and yet sprinkled the ordinary experiences of growing up are the effects of war on those at home:  grieving for a cousin who died, the flags with stars that people hung in the window to indicate sons or daughters who were fighting, gas rationing, etc.  Because it is all told from the perspective and in the voice of a young student, it is a wonderful way to expose young children to history in a way that makes it something they can relate to. Because it is based on the author’s actual experiences, it really rings true in the telling.