This is the traditional story of little Red Riding Hood who disobeys her mother and talks to strangers in the woods.  In the end little red is alive and grandmother is found alive.  but the wolf dies of fright.

This is a great book of gun safety. There is a lot of information on the correct use and handling of guns.  I like the golden rules of guns, remember to treat every firearm as if it were loaded.  Your gun should only be loaded when you intend to fire it.  There are guns around, we have military and hunters so children see guns and should know the safety of guns.

I like the pictures that go with the text, they are bright and easy to look at.  The information is good and tells many things that a person should know about a gun. There is a glossary and a web site in the back of the book.  There is a table of content in the front of the book.

This picture book is a fairy tale about a king who wouldn’t sleep because he was worried about finding the perfect prince for his daughter.  Many princes came to court the princess and were turned away.  Finally, a simple farmer outwitted the king by tricking him into counting sheep.  The king fell asleep and the princess married the farmer and lived happily ever after.  The story was cute and the illustrations were very entertaining.  The illustrator used a cartoon-ish style and the expressions on the characters were humorous.  The drawings were detailed and brightly colored.  This book will appeal to my many young students who love princess books.

This picture book is a fun twist on the Snow White and Cinderella fairy tales.  The classic story lines for both fairy tales are told in letters written between Snow White and Cinderella, who are pen pals.  The language and style of the letters make them believable as written between young girls hopeful to be rescued from their wicked step mothers by a handsome prince.  The ending is fun, a double wedding for these princesses.  The illustrations are colorful, detailed and engaging.  This book is a great read-aloud.

This is a wordless picture book filled with pages of detailed illustrations depicting several mysteries at once.  The setting is a park on a sunny day where a kid’s birthday party is in progress.  All the characters are animals dressed and behaving like humans.  The illustrations comically tell the stories of the progression of the birthday party, a stolen necklace, the baking of the birthday cake and several other sub plots.  There is a group of mischievous monkeys, a tantruming party guest, and some very suspicious-looking rats.  This book could be enjoyed by a wide range of ages since reading is not required and the clues for the various mysteries range from obvious to subtle.  I think it is one that children would pick up again and again to discover some new detail each time.

This is a wonderful informative book about the out door sport of hiking.  There are wonderful things to see along the way.  Through the forest and into the meadow.  You don’t have to travel far to find a trailhead.  You have to prepare for all possible conditions to be ready for a hike.  Water is very important when hiking.  When you hike you should leave no trace that you were there.

There is a glossary in the back with a “To Learn Move” page.  There is also an index and in the f ront is a table of content.

Thomas Fleming freely admits that there will be confusion as he tries to explain the philosophical shifts in the theory of socialism in his book of the same title from Marshall Cavendish’s Political Systems of the World series.  Classical definitions of socialism, communism and liberalism will are used, which means that a liberal believes that everything can and will be done to achieve liberty, or independence from the government.  What is currently described as being a “democrat” in the United States is really more of a socialist – society ensuring fairness among all people.  Fleming begins his history lesson with Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s dissection of Plato’s ideas as unmanageable, Christianity’s influence, and the rise of Utopias.  When the US colonists declared independence and the French Revolution put the world’s elite classes on notice, the hope for new mindsets by which to inspire rose again.  This ebb and flow continues through the historical timeline of this book reaching a crescendo of sorts in the late 19th and early 20th century.  The United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden are 3 focal countries for discussion purposes in the text. The constant question of political vs economic means justifying the ends is raised again and again.  The comparison table of socialism and other governments in the back is particularly helpful.  Students will need to ignore their “Americanized” concepts of liberal vs. conservative and instead go back to history to learn how these concepts came about.  Not many pictures or sidebars to glamorize the topic, this book is good for advanced students at the high school level and above.

Basic general information is presented in eight chapters: #1 What is a Biome?, #2 Landscape and Climate of the Coniferous Forest, #3 Plants Growing in the Coniferous Forest have Adapted, #4 Animals Living in the Coniferous Forest have Adapted, #5 Environmental Threats, #6 Biodiversity at Risk, #7 The Future of the Coniferous Forest, and #8 Conservation Challenge. Each chapter averages 4 pages in length, generously sprinkled with labeled photos of coniferous forest animals, “Words to Know” which match the glossary section word for word, “Word Exploration”, and “Did You Know?” trivia.

The ratio of picture to text appears to be equal. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the readers will love this form of information!

This is a collection of 16 illustrated poems, each about a different bug.  My favorite aspects of this book were the wonderfully colorful and descriptive illustrations and the facts section in the back about each of the featured bugs.  I thought the poems were OK, but may not really engage a young reader.

This is a fun retelling of the classic Gingerbread Boy story.  This book is set in the southwest where Arana the spider is making gorditas one day.  One gordita comes alive, and runs off across the desert.  She encounters a series of local critters who would like nothing more than to gobble her up, but she’s faster.  She does meet her match in the wise owl, Buho, who outwits her and eats her for lunch.  The illustrations are beautiful and exciting and the author uses spanish words for each of the animals to name them.  There is a recipe for gorditas in the back as well as an English/Spanish glossary.  I really enjoyed this fast paced story, familiar yet new.  I’ve had repeat requests for it at story time so it appeals to the kids as well.

Pakistan is a country book from the Enchantment of the World series recently published by Scholastic.  I chose it because I’m updating our collection of country books.   I researched the various country series available at this time and found that this series best met my needs for my K – 8 school library patrons.  The photographs are beautiful, engaging and relevant to the clearly written and organized text and there are thematic maps, timelines and graphics to further enhance the reader’s research.  A wide variety of topics are covered, including history, wildlife, climate, government, topography, culture and customs, national and international politics, religion, education, cuisine, and current issues.  There is a table of contents, index and further resources page.  I also enjoyed the “Meet the Author” pages which was interesting.  With Pakistan in the news so much in recent years, it is great to have a resource for those students who are interested in knowing more about this amazing country and it’s people.

This non-fiction book offers exercises for teens that develop athleticism related to various sports.  Each chapter focuses on a different part of the body (feet, legs, hips and core, upper body and arms) beginning with the demands of particular sports and relating the exercises to developing the strength and speed to excel in those sports.  The exercises are presented clearly with step-by-step instructions, a list of necessary props as well as some possible modifications.  The importance of staying hydrated, warm up and cool down, and safety are emphasized and explained throughout the text.  The photography is engaging and related to the text.  Sports stars as well as teens of various ethnic backgrounds are featured.  There is a table of contents, index, glossary and resource pages.  This book was well-written and engaging.  I think it will be an asset to our students who enjoy sports and will encourage healthy physical activity.

Six different items are described using proximity, temperature, and texture. Clues for each item are given on the left page (7″ X 7″) . The extra long (7″ X 14″) folded right page has 4 pictures for the reader to choice from before opening the fold (gatefold) to reveal the answer.

Items include: toy bunny, building blocks (Lagos), water in the bath, fridge, soap, and tree trunk.

Descriptions include: soft, hard, warm cold, slippery, and rough.

Large, simple child-like colorful illustrations which explore a child’s environment command your attention.

Six different items are described using sounds, actions, and setting. Clues for each item are given on the left page (7″ X 7″) . The extra long (7″ X 14″) folded right page has 4 pictures for the reader to choice from before opening the fold (gatefold) to reveal the answer.

Items include: rain, telephone, radio, airplane, vacuum cleaner, and bird .

Sounds include: drip, ring, la,whoosh, buzz, and tweet.

Large, simple child-like colorful illustrations which explore a child’s environment command your attention.

Six different items are described using shape, color, and texture. Clues for each item are given on the left page (7″ X 7″) . The extra long (7″ X 14″) folded right page has 4 pictures for the reader to choice from before opening the fold (gatefold) to reveal the answer.

Items include: a ball, a cat, a cheese sandwich, a cupboard, a flower, and Dad.

Large, simple child-like colorful illustrations which explore a child’s environment command your attention.

Fortunately, Unfortunately is a crazy adventure featuring many of the fantastic settings kids dream about.  In only a sentence or so per page, the story (and our intrepid hero) ricochets through the ocean, an alien spacecraft, a pirate ship, a dinosaur-populated lost world, and more.  Each scenario has an upside and a downside, and one or the other usually propels our protagonist into the next environment.

This story has many strengths, including its relative brevity, its rollicking rhythm (while not in rhyme, the repeated use of the title words give the text a driving pace), and its mix of appealing settings.

However, there are a few things which could be improved.  The adventuring child, as well as his mother and grandmother, are all extremely anthropomorphized monkeys, for no apparent reason.  In contrast, our pirates (the only other humanoid characters) are entirely human.  There is no obvious purpose for the ape-ish appearance of the starring character, and in a tale that is already fantastical, making our introductory characters of a non-human species is unnecessary and worse, distracting.

The pictures themselves are of varying sizes, sometimes taking up just a small portion of the large pages, sometimes filling an entire spread.  While the text is extremely conducive for large group sharing, the smaller-scale watercolors would be difficult to see from any significant distance.

Although this title has weaknesses, children will enjoy the bright colors, fast-pacing, and dramatic setting(s) of the story.  This is a fun take on the familiar “good-news, bad-news” genre, and will be a fun addition for many libraries.

Students are hearing a lot about “the economy.”  Abdo Publishers has a series called Economy in Action.  This book helps students and guides teachers in an introductory understanding of economic systems.  In each two page spread, questions such as, “What is an economy?”, “How does an economy work?”, or “What are the three main types of economies?” are explained.  Grasping the concepts means understanding the specific economic vocabulary (capital, allocate), which is covered in an ample Glossary.  Traditional, Free Market, Managed, and Mixed Economies are all discussed.  The author acknowledges that probably no economy would work best for all societies given the diverse resources, cultures and priorities.  A couple of interesting Economic Exercises are included at the end, as well as Websites and Index.  For a book attempting to represent a global discussion, the choice of having two pages of photographs with females wearing hijabs was notable.  The first prominent photo was welcomed in a book with a multicultural subject.  The second prominent photo left me wondering…why?

This is a wonderful addition to your  A TRUE BOOK collection.

The text is full of important generalized information, but it is the full-color photos with their specific information and bits of trivia that will keep the reader going.  An example from page 24, “A single maple tree loses 600,000 leaves every autumn.”

Contains 5 chapters: Forest Features, Forest Life, Hard Times, Forests in Danger, and Conservation.

Also contains: True Statistics, Resources, Important Words, Index, and About the Author.

“You can count faster when counting by tens. Let’s count by tens while these monarch butterflies get ready to fly south…” introduces this counting  / science book for young readers.

Each two-page spread contains a number line, counting by 10s to 100, running cross the bottom of both pages, plus an addition sentence (0+10=10, 10+10=20, 10+30=40, 10+40=50 and so on), with the focus number of that page highlighted. The foreground of each page spread has 10  large monarch butterflies to count.  The background has 10 monarch butterflies gathered per tree with the number of trees increasing by one with each  page turn. The sets of ten are distinct  and easily counted. ( I counted them all.)

Each turn of the page contains:  1) a butterfly action, 2) a science statement, and 3) “Count the monarchs by tens:  …”

The glossary adds to the science information presented in the book: examples- antennae, proboscis, and (wing) scale.