Ghost declares, “I HATE EVERYTHING! His ghost friend listens and asks him if he hates sweets, dressing up, and cakes. Ghost does not. Through his friend listening ghost realizes maybe he doesn’t hate everything.
The illustrations feature adorable, expressive ghosts and vivid pictures on bright backgrounds. A great story for dealing with a bad day and strong emotions.
Evie and her pet cat, Sasha, are on the way to the pet parade. While at the parade, Evie decides that her pet is boring. She sets off to persuade her parents to let her get a more exciting pet. When she finds a snake in her backyard, her parents let her keep it. But a snake for a pet was not what Evie was expecting. And as she learns about her snake, she learns that maybe not all animals are meant to be pets.
Inspired by the author’s childhood of catching a wild garter snake and keeping it as a pet. He notes that there are now laws in some states to protect wild snakes and it is better to get a snake from a reputable source.
Another book in the Crayon series by Drew Daywalt. Duncan’s crayons have disappeared again. This time the crayons have set out to make friends. White crayon no longer feels invisible since meeting the chess set and filling in as the missing queen. Blue crayon’s problem of being short is solved when they find a doll who’d lost a head and they team up. Each crayon’s story is told as a letter from that crayon.
A young girl moves to the United States from Bangladesh. She does not know many English words and this makes it hard to make friends. She meets Lily and they start to play together. Even though they don’t speak the same language, they become friends.
Based on the author’s own experience of moving to the United States at five and not speaking English.
The back matter gives an author’s note and some games that can be played without words. The end papers include pictures with words in English and Bengali.
In the state of Meghalaya in India, there are bridges or Jingkieng Jri created from the living roots of rubber fig trees. The War Khasi-Jaintia weave the roots together to make bridges for the community to be able to cross the mountainous area they live in. The Living Bridges last for hundreds of years and withstand the monsoons in the area.
This book follows a young boy on his way to learn to build a Jingkieng Jri. He notices the insects and birds that make their home in the bridge, but also the damage that is happening to the bridges from littering and people stealing the sap. He decides that he can take action and teach others to clean up the bridges.
The back matter includes information about living bridges, a glossary and pronunciation guide, photographs of a Living Bridge and a bibliography.
Who meows? A cat meows. Who gobbles? A turkey gobbles. Each spread features a full page illustration of the animal making that makes the noise while the next page includes a simple sentence stating the animal that makes the noise and a question for the next sound and animal. The pictures feature animals with open mouth as if they are making the noise. The animals featured would be familiar to young readers (cat, turkey, owl, bear). The back matter features a fact about each animal’s sound. This could be an interactive read aloud when read as call and response.
This series encourages readers to express their style through crafting. Whether they are creating their style through accessories, room decor or nails, this series has step by step instructions on crafting and creating their style. Each book focuses on a different style element and includes eight crafts with instructions. The crafts use common items around the house and encourages the reader to reuse things when crafting. Material and tips are included with the step by step instructions as well as factual information pertaining to the craft. A glossary, index, and resources to learn more are included at the back of the book.
Books reviewed in this series: Fashion, Accessories, Nail Art, Room Decor, Jewelry, and Hairstyles.
A guessing game about poo? Each book in the series features a different biome and has pictures of scat and has the reader guess the animal the scat belongs to. Turn the page to find out the answer and facts about that animal and what it eats. The photographs give you an up close look at the poo. There are several facts on each page inside different text boxes and captions. Vocabulary that may be unfamiliar to the reader is in bold and is included in the glossary at the back of the book. This is a humorous, fun look at animal scat. The warnings to not touch poop is an appreciated addition. Geared towards 1st – 3rd graders, this is sure to fly off the shelves.
The titles reviewed in this series: Poo Down Under, Poo In the Desert, Poo At the Zoo, and Poo in the City.
This series geared towards 1st through 3rd grade asks if you can identify an animal by a body part. Can you guess an animal by looking at its feet? Each book in this series looks at a different body part and has the reader guess the animal from three choices. The next page gives the answer along with information about that animal and how that body part is important to them. The information is provided in different text boxes around the page with bold text and a glossary at the back. There is quite a bit of text per page which may be better for 2nd and 3rd grade.
This series geared toward Kindergarten through third grade readers compares two different adorable baby animals. Throughout the books, the similarities in the animals physical characteristics and behaviors are highlighted. The text is simple with two sentences on a page. Bold text highlight words that may be unfamiliar to the reader and a glossary is included in the back of the book. The colorful photographs include labels pointing out the characteristics of the animals. There is a brief photo synopsis at the end asking the reader which baby animal is cuter and includes a website where the reader can vote for their favorite. This series currently has 16 different book.