The association between the name of Hershey and chocolate is so strong, it is hard to understand Milton Hershey’s first candy business was with caramels.  The highlights of Hershey’s life begin with his birth in 1857 and his first businesses making caramels in Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York.  In 1893, he saw chocolate being made and spent years looking for a correct recipe for his chocolate.  As his businesses grew, he added homes and towns for his employees.  He and his wife established a school for orphand boys.  He provided jobs, gave to charities, supported education, and made aailable cultural opportunities.  Since the camera was invented about the same time of Hershey’s life, most of the photographs are  black and white.  They are well chosen to complement the text.  Included is a timeline, chocolate facts, a glossary, an Abdo website with extra information, and an index.  this biography is an ample introduction to Milton Hershey.  Recommended for libraries.

Young readers learn the basic process of how honey is made starting from when a bee first visits a flower.  The book has bright colors, large close-up photographs and simple text.  A brief glossary includes pronunciation cues.  Also included is an index.

General basic information on volcanoes at best. The color photos were the best part of this book.

As a Washingtonian since the mid 1950s, I could not get past the two errors dealing with the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens. On page 26, it is stated, “Hot ash led to fires.” And on page 27 it states, ” Forests were destroyed by lava, which hardened into rock.” Sorry, but no! The mudflows and the force of the pyroclastic blast / flow leveled and destroyed the forests.  Please check with the U.S. Forest Service.

I , also, take issue with the definition for the word ‘dense’ in the glossary on page 31. The glossary states – “dense heavy compared to other objects of the same size.” The Microsoft Encarta College Dictionary defines dense as, “tightly packed…very thick…”

The old adage – A picture is worth a 1000 words – is certainly true for the spectacular color photos of eight different ‘infamous volcanoes’ erupting, each one distinctly different. Each volcano is accompanied by a paragraph of text dealing with the when, where, and what of each.

The XTREME FACTS factoid/trivia found on each 2-page spread takes this volcano book from plain facts to awesome dramatic facts!

George Beard & Harold Hutchins have written yet another book much to the displeasure of their school principal. As a teacher-librarian, I don’t particularly mind the use of bathroom humor (pee, doo-doo, toilet paper, & poop), if it gets the usual non-readers, especially boys, to read, but their principal. George and Harold’s third epic novel has plenty of it,too. It, also, has quite a few phonetically spelled words: unforchenetly, invenchon, rearanging,  and new clear power plant. But George and Harold did write it themselves and without the use of computers either, from the look of the of the hand-written text. Thanks to  George and Harold, I won’t be able to look at cases of disposable diapers again in Costco without (giggling and) recalling the towns people using them when all of the toilets were stolen, THENCE the title of the book.

Includes 10 flip-o-rama animated cartoons.

Mike Thaler, once again, has Hubie all in a tither because ” I have to take a computer class this year.” Hubie’s imagination runs wild over over all the computer terms he’s heard: cursor, bites, lock & keypad, boots, monitors, pixels, ram, search engines, computer crashes, The Hacker & The BLOG,  and virus to name a few. “It all sounds very dangerous to me.”  Reality sets in on the last five pages as Hubie begins his computer class with his wonderfully friendly/helpful teacher Miss Pluggins.

I especially loved Jared Lee’s illustration of Hubie in a STAR WARS scene to accompany Thaler’s text “… or fly into hyperlink and hang out at a space bar.”

This short book gives the quintessential dates and mandates behind the battles the reader usually thinks about  dealing with World War II. Four chapters follow the Setting the Scene: The Last War? : Ch. 1 – The Beginning, Ch. 2 – The European Theater, Ch. 3 –  The Home Front,  Ch. 4 – War in the Pacific, followed by Map of the Events – What Happened Where? , The Story Continues: New World Powers, and Influential Individuals, Timeline*, Living History, Resources, Glossary, Index.

The concise timeline* helped but events in order from Europe to Japan to Pearl Harbor to Europe and back to Japan. This book filled in some missing pieces for me. Example: In 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to “Europe first… defeating Germany first. They would then move on to Italy and Japan.”  And how many days between  dropping the first atomic bomb, the second atomic bomb, and the Japanese surrender.

Professor Von Skalpel lives in Monster Manor with some unique and interesting creatures. Professor Von Skalpel tries out his new monster glue and creates a new monster that ends up losing its body parts all over the place because the glue is not affective. Add in a grumpy and selfish wolf man and the manor creatures start to complain! However, Professor Von Skalpel invents a new glue and creates a nice, new monster named Momo who straightens out the wolf man. Although the plot is simplistic, it is a fun read with the doctor’s Transylvanian accent, a skeleton with a lisp, and quick, silly humor. This series is a great option for reluctant readers.

When four 12 year old kids accept the challenge to individually join the candy making contest to create the best candy of all time, they are in for a big surprise as they become friends and learn how their lives have intertwined in the past. They also learn of secrets that each one has been holding on to. Logan, the candy maker’s son has severe scars covering his face and arms. Miles, who has unique “allergies” to row boats and the color pink, has been dealing with a death of a young girl. Daisy has been a child spy her entire life and has been hired to steal the candy maker’s secret ingredient. Phillip, the snobby, rude kid (who is ultimately responsible for Logan’s scars)must deal with his business-oriented father who is preparing a hostile take-over of the entire candy factory. If only it were that simple…  Although the story has a fun plot, I believe it could have been condensed, leaving out many insignificant details.

Is Amelia a secret agent, like she says she is, or does she just fall into all of these situations involving ‘evil geniuses and criminal masterminds‘? Whichever the case, she saves the day, A LOT! Did I forget to mention she is still in grade school?  In Book #2, she solves three cases: The Case of the Zombie Cows, The Case of the Perilous Pipe, and The Case of the Creepy Cakes. The ‘zombie cows’ are part of a plot to take over the horse racing world. The ‘perilous pipe’ is a plot to use THE PIPED PIPER’S pipe to hold the school children for ransom. And the ‘creepy cakes’ is a plot to make the general public all over-weight so two twin sister, former super models, will be able to get back into modeling.

English author and illustrator- Michael Broad successfully pulls off Amelia’s secret agent ploy with illustrations on every page.