This is a terrific biographical series about 6 powerful women in history.  The series includes:  Cleopatra, Agrippina, Mary Tudor, Catherine De’Medici, Marie Antoinette and Cixi.  The text is well-written and presented in a reader-friendly format with lots of interesting pictures and paintings of people, places and artifacts from the period.  I enjoyed how the illustrations and pictures helped put the information in context and brought the time period and settings alive.  The text is written at Accelerated Reader level 6.8 (1 point) which is perfect for the target audience.  When presented in a fascinating format such as this book, our middle school students are eager to read biographies.

Novelist Courtney Sheinmel explores the life of a middle class 7th grade girl who learns that the life she knows has been purchased with someone else’s money.  Carly, a 7th grader at Preston Day School, finds out who her friends are after her mom pleads guilty to embezzlement.

The story line is not filled with drama, but steadily walks through a girl’s life that gets turned upside-down.  This would be a good book for girls who are more serious and who don’t have a perfect life.  This author has also written Sincerely, Positively, and My So-Called Family, all of which will appeal to readers who are working through family problems.

(By Jaime Kenny)

In this classic nursery rhyme, the gingerbread boy escapes from the oven and runs away from the old woman, old man, cow, horse, threshers, and mowers, until finally outwitted by the fox and ends up as all good gingerbread boys do.  I hadn’t read this book for many years, at least 15, and I wish that the illustrations had been updated prior to its re-release.  For instance, the old man and old woman are wearing such outdated clothing–kids think they are pilgrims.  Then, who’s heard of a thresher and a mower–the non-motorized kind, that is.  Stopping to explain to kids that people used to do this work using old-fashioned tools and no machines was a history lesson in itself.  In the gingerbread boy’s chant, I changed the word boy in the fourth line to man, so that it would rhyme.  It sounds awkward.  Kids are still fond of the story.

In this third installment of the trilogy, The Joy of Spooking, unanswered questions and the general weirdness of the town of Spooking and it’s inhabitants are explained.  It is Joy’s last year at grammar school and she has never felt like she has fit in with the kids.  Needless to say, she’s ready to leave.  Her opportunity comes sooner than she expected, however, when she is offered a starring role in a horror movie to be filmed right there in Spooking.  In addition, it seems she is just perfect for the movie as it is based on a novel by her favorite author, E. A. Peugeot.  No need for special effects in this thriller as the horrors become all too real.  The movie gets canceled due to unforeseen curses.  Eventually, Joy solves the mysteries and the questions from books one and two.  Mr. Phipps, the villainous political brown-noser, who seemed on the verge of destroying Spooking in books one and two, actually becomes an empathetic character and a hero, of sorts.  He is actually the grandson of Peugeot and his dismal disdain is the result of a witch’s curse bestowed upon his grandfather and all his descendents.   Joy solves the curse by burning the witch’s portrait, releasing her victims.  These books need to be read in order and not as a stand-alone.  Bracegirdle writes with an abandon that gives the reader freedom from conventionalities our society imposes upon us.  These books were originally publishing with an illustration of Joy of the cover–not a good likeness.  They have been reissued each in it’s own bright colored-cover with black silhouettes depicting the specific theme of the book.  These new covers make the books much more popular and kids don’t overlook them as they had before.  Well done.

This is the 3rd book in the Liberty Porter, First Daughter series.  Although I enjoyed the illustrations, which are both relevant to the story and entertaining, I gave this book an “additional purchase” rating due to the writing style.   I found the story line to be weak and the character dialog to be distractingly “cutesy” and unrealistic.  I did enjoy the author’s perspective on what it might be like to be a young daughter of the US President as well as the opportunity to learn more about the Georgian culture.  I don’t plan to purchase more of this series for my school library.

Fall is in the air along with leaves and the “dong, dong, dong” of the school bell, when old Mr. Putter decides he would like to go back to school for a day. The first grade teacher agrees to have Mr. Putter and his cat – Tabby and Mrs. Teaberry and her dog – Zeke come for show-and-tell.  Tabby and Zeke spring into riotous action inside the first grade classroom when the school bell sounds.

Illustrator Arthur Howard provides action packed cat and dog sequences and wonderful facial expressions for both pets and people!

What starts with Katie sneezing develops into the flu and a couple of days of missed school and friends. Katie does not understand when her mother tells her, “I think you have a bug.” Or “how can I feel cold and hot at the same time?” But with pills, sleep, a story from mother, a song from father, soup,and phone calls from her school friends she gets better.

Includes: Table of Contents, Glossary, Discussion Questions,  Writing Prompts, a recipe with variations, and www.facthound.com.

When Coach Kong announces there will be a field day next week, Hubie and his friends begin their Amelia Bedelia mistakes, jumping to conclusions, and misconceptions of what the field day will truly be like. Hubie tries to become ‘fit’ in one week by answering a TV ad and by going to a health food store. Then the crazy nightmare the night before the event. And finally on field day, the two teams compete neck and neck the entire time until it ends in a tie. EVERYONE is a Winner!

Two or three, large font, sentences on the left page inform the young reader of facts about the (possibly life-size) turtle on the right right page. 20 facts are presented about this variety of turtle.

Includes: Table of Contents, Glossary, Index, and www.FactHound.com.

10 classic Grimm Brothers fairy tales each presented with one or two rough charcoal sketches. These are not the cute Walt Disney with fluffy bunny versions, but the truly evil stepmother and truly noble king version. Here kindness is rewarded with kindness and evil is rewarded with evil in THE END.

Includes: The Frog Prince, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin,  Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Shoemaker and the Elves, and Tom Thumb.

In SNOW WHITE, the envious stepmother eats what she thinks is Snow White’s lung and liver brought to her by the huntsman. And in the end, she (the queen / stepmother) is “forced to put on the red-hot shoes and dance until she dropped dead.”

In THE FROG PRINCE– Originally Named The Frog King, the princess’s father tells the princess she must keep her promise to the frog, “He who helped you in your trouble should not afterward be despised by you.” In her anger, “She threw him (the frog) with all her might against the wall. ‘Now will you be quiet, horrid frog.’ ”

In CINDERELLA, there are no glass slippers, pumpkin coach, fairy god-mother, or the clock striking midnight, but there is a white bird at her mother’s grave side who gives her the dresses and slippers for the ball. The stepmother in this tale advises her own daughters to cut off their toes  and trim their heels with a knife to get the slipper to fit, for once they are queen, they will have no need to walk.

This biography combines descriptive and interesting text with illustrations and photographs of Egyptian relics, treasures and land.  Hatshepsut, the first female Pharaoh, is a fascinating figure of ancient Egyptian history and is well-depicted in this book.  Boys as well as girls will enjoy this book, an observation proven when my 12 year-old son saw it on my reading table and devoured the book in minutes.  Providing plenty of information for curious students as well as those writing a report, I expect this book to circulate well.  I did not find an Accelerated Reader test to date but perhaps that will be created later.  The other books in this series include:  Artemisia of Caria, Sorghaghtani of Mongolia, Qutlugh Terkan Khatun of Kirman, Isabella of Castile, and Nur Jahan of India.

The series is titled The Thinking Girl’s Treasury of Dastardly Dames but I think this book would appeal equally to boys and girls.  The biographical information about Mary Tudor is presented with engaging and interesting text, drawings and photographs.  The cover art is appealing and grabs the reader from the beginning.  This series reminds me a bit of the Wicked History series in terms of bringing historical figures to life in a way that young people become intrigued and want to read more.  I anticipate this book will circulate well and draw readers to pursue other non-fiction and fiction books about the subject and time period.  I was not able to locate an Accelerated Reader test for this book.

This is a terrific 32 page non-fiction book about Mexico.  The text gives a nice overall review of Mexican life with a few pages covering each of the following:  history, climate and soil, farming, culture, religion, major local holidays, regional cuisines and a quick review of the way Mexican food is featured around the world.  The pictures are bright and good quality, featuring the beauty of the land, towns, foods and peoples.  Colorful text boxes add interesting information throughout and recipes are sprinkled in to allow the reader to taste a bit of authentic and traditional Mexican dishes.  The only disappointment I felt as a reader was at the end of the book when the author features Taco Bell with text and a photo, noting the chain’s expansion around the world.  I felt this could have been left out as it seemed more of an advertisement than relevance to Mexico.  Regardless, still an R* book.  Our middle school students will find it very useful for their reports.