The pictures in this book are wonderfully delicious and fun.  It is written in rhyme with lots of beginning reader words.  The rebus style will involve even pre-readers and get them familiar with many easy read words as they follow along.  A fun read for young children about something they love.

This book introduces us to the large variety of pizzas.  It is a quick read that young children will get involved in.  The rebus style is fun and will be great for beginning readers.  The vocabulary in the book is repetitious with early read words.

A fun, fast and delicious read.

This is a story young girls would enjoy.  It was fund and mysterious.  It was a great example of learning to appreciate others, at home and school.  It was a great example of kids learning to get along and learn to like each other.

The Daytona 500:  The Thrill and Thunder of The Great American Race by Nancy Roe Pimm will appeal to readers from a variety of backgrounds and interests.  Pimm deftly outlines the history of NASCAR by specifically focusing on the annual Daytona 500 race.  She accomplishes this by recounting stories of colorful characters, fierce rivalries, and Cinderella stories pulled directly from the archives of the race’s colorful past.  The accessibility to the sport of NASCAR, the Daytona 500, and to some of its important historical characters is perhaps the book’s greatest strength.  Pimm creates an effective non-fiction narrative that caters to those that are new to the sport, while at the same time, providing those that are already familiar with NASCAR and the Daytona 500 with pieces of interesting trivia.  Those that are new to the sport will have their understanding increased via careful explanations of racing vocabulary and a glossary of terms.  The author also effectively uses stock photographs to support the context and readability of the text.  The combination of pictures and simple, everyday language make the book an option for ELL readers.  The book provides a solid introduction to the sport of NASCAR and its history by focusing on one of the sport’s most famous and prestigious race: The Daytona 500.  While the text is geared toward the young adult male audience it does not actively exclude populations of other demographic groups.  The stories of ingenuity, innovation, and vitality contained in the pages seem endemic to the sport of NASCAR.  The book harnesses some of that energy and depicts the Daytona 500 as a truly unique experience deserving of the title “The Great American Race.”

This book is a combination biography/history book/craft book which may be best used in a homeschool situation.  With alternating font types and sizes, one to three paragraph blurbs about George Washington will appeal to the reader who has a hard time reading too much text in one sitting.  Black and white whimsical drawings and glossary boxes are included on each page. Interesting, little-known details about his life are included, such as the fact that his actual birthday is February 11th, but in in 1752, the British corrected their calendar and added 11 days to the year, making his new birthday February 22.  This book would be best-suited in an elementary library.

This biography of Hilary Duff gets high marks from me because, as a teacher-librarian looking for positive role models for our students, this author stresses Hilary’s commitment to community service and compassion for people down on their luck.  Hilary has been involved in the “Blessings in a Backpack” program, designed to send food home with students on the weekend, to ensure that they have enough to eat.  She’s also actively involved in USA Harvest, Food for a Friend, Kids With a Cause (KWAC) in which students help students, and relief to Huricane Katrina victims.

The author details Hilary Duff’s TV, movie, and music career successes, especially between the years 1998 and 2003, but is also honest about her flops and poor reviews in more recent years.  There are plenty of colorful photographs and a helpful timeline for anyone who chooses this book for biography book report.  This book is a bargain at $9.95 for a hardback as are the others in the “Celebrity with Heart” series.

This book is about four children who have moved into a large old house with their step-mother and father. When their new step-sister, Amanda, comes to live with them strange things happen.  Amanda has a love for witchcraft and the occult.  She starts to teach David, Jamie and the twins about these things and has them pass tests and initiations.  They hold a seance.   The house seems to be haunted. but David suspects Amanda.

The book was good.  I thought it was a little creepy but it didn’t go too far.  It held my interest and was well written.

This is book one of a new graphic novel series, all done in black and white.  There are two main characters, plus a dog.  Megan is new to Chicagoland having moved for her dad’s job.  She has to take summer school and has some doubts about it.  Raf is a guy who works at his mom’s pet supply store.  Megan loves haiku poetry and Raf is a computer nerd. Megan starts school and right off the bat she realizes that all the students and staff are robotic.  She doesn’t cooperate eating her lunch, which contains the daily hypnotic control supplement, so the principal abducts her to inject her so she too will become robotic and complacent.  She texts Raf an SOS and he comes and with the computer program he’s developed erases the principal’s evil program, which in turn, erases it from all the students’ and staffs’ memories.  Everyone goes back to normal.  In the process, they rescue the lab dog on which experiments had been conducted.  The dog is able to speak to humans and Raf takes him home.  The dog, named Bradley, comes up with the idea of them opening a detective agency.  Fast paced, kind of weird and creepy, but sure to be a winner.  Look forward to the next installment.

In the late 1800’s, the U.S. Life-Saving Service built stations along the eastern coastline, especially the coast of North Carolina.  The islands off the North Carolina coast, called the outer banks, was notorious for shipwrecks.  This service, the precursor to the U.S. Coast Guard was on the lookout for shipwrecks during periods of bad weather.  Their job was to save crew and passengers.  In 1896, there was an all African-American crew manning the station at Pea Island.  These surfmen, along with a civilian boy and his horse, rescued the crew and passengers of the U.S. Newman (approximately 10 people).  Novel is based on a true account.  In 1995, nearly 100 years later, an eighth-grade girl was researching the event and wrote a letter to then President Bill Clinton requesting that these men be awarded (post-humously) a gold medal for bravery in the rescue of the survivors of this ship.  Semi interesting, not much detail.

Little Shrew Caboose is one of those ‘feel good’, someones taking care of you books.  Little Shrew Caboose is the smallest in the family and as such, is the last in line when they all head out foraging for food.  One day he happens to get lost but learns how to take care of himself and get his own food and learn to swim, all while escaping from danger.  He finds his way back where he has earned the right to be the first in line, the engine.  Bright, fresh, cheerful colors give the story optimism.  Young children will enjoy the feeling of accomplishment by Little Shrew Caboose.  The story has a limited audience.