Sophie Mouse is excited for the upcoming Maple Festival.  She and her friends, Hattie Frog and Owen Snake, are especially looking forward to the ferris wheel.  During the week leading up to the festival, Sophie’s Mom’s bakery assistant is away visiting friends and the the bakery is extra busy getting ready for their booth.  Sophie volunteers to help her mom and comes up with some fun new recipe ideas.

The day of the festival, Sophie heads out to explore all the new attractions.  At the top of the ferris wheel with her friends, she notices no one is at her Mom’s bakery stand.  As soon as she can, she heads over to check in with her Mom.  To help attract customers, Sophie creates a sign using a large maple leaf.  Soon there is a long line waiting for the booth’s yummy baked goods.  By the end of the day, the bakery stand is empty.

Large font, simple words, and some supporting illustrations make this a solid transitional chapter book for second and third graders.  This series does use diverse and complex sentence structure not found in many transitional chapter books, making it stand out.

This Zoom into Sharks title includes information on the body, habitat, food, and life cycle of the sand shark.  Content is thin due to the simplistic text.  The short sentences and simplified concepts at times created their own confusion.  For example the information on their head shape, “They have flat heads.  Their heads are cone shaped.” seems to contract each other due to lack of explanation.  Photographs of sand sharks in various poses are sure to grab the interest of young shark fans.  The photographs, however, do not always directly support the text.

Abdozooom links are accessible with a QR code on the back of the book.  Abdozoom, an online research database for young learners is only available with a paid subscription.

Using simplistic language and short sentences, the book explains the purpose, history, construction and repair of dams.  The purposes given for building dams focuses mostly on how dams help or provide for people. The book does not give any examples of how dams can harmful to people or the environment.  The book supports new NGSS standards for engineering concepts.

Contains a simple Table of Contents and a Glossary.  No index

This title details the many unique adaptions that make the beaver such a successful builder of both dams and lodges.  The book specifically addresses the physical, social and behavioral characteristics of the beaver and how those characteristics allow the beaver to construct impressive structures.  Short sentences and graphically appealing set-up makes it a good choice for young readers. Text is supported by color photos, a map and a diagram of a lodge.  Includes a table of contents, true/false quiz, and glossary but no index.

For most children, the wildebeest is one of the less recognized African safari animals. In this title from Abdo’s Animal Migration series, the wildebeest’s migration is detailed through lens’ of the animal’s life cycle, season and location.  Cause and effect ties the movement to the change in grass which is directly tied to rainfall.  With simple words and short sentences, Wildebeest Migration details the interconnection of the wildebeest and its environment.

Contains table of contents, map, glossary, and index.  Abdokids online link includes a video (2:41 long), text, activities, and additional links.  Two of the three additional links are way above the reading level of the book.

Dav Pilkey’s third installment in the Dog Man series is a, “tale of oppression…a tale of redemption…a tale of rebirth…a take of hope…a tale of two kitties.”  The three story lines of Dog Man, Petey the Cat, and Mecha Flippy converge when good comes out on top.  Petey’s clone, a kitten joins the story, but refuses to take up his creator’s evil.  The story ends with Mecha Flippy in jail but turned to the side of good by the friendship of the kitten. Petey has escaped the Police Chief and is off to create more havoc.

Step by step direction on drawing the characters is at the end of the book.  Also included is a comic explaining the benefits of reading to a pet.

Sure to be a hit, especially with reluctant readers.

Fall is here and Carlos and Carmen play in the colorful leaves Mamá and Papá are raking into a pile.  Papá makes a deal; Carlos and Carmen help rake the leaves and he will help them learn to ride a bike – with only 2 wheels. Carmen goes first.  She pedals and wobbles and falls into a big pile of leaves only to bounce back up with a wobble and a laugh.  Carlos’ wobbly effort end up with a crash in the leaf pile and the need for a band-aid.  With lots of practice, by the end of the day Carlos and Carmen can pedal fast and steer.  Then it is Papá’s turn to learn!!

Spanish words are interspersed and repeated in the text.  At the end of the book there is a Spanish-English glossary of all Spanish words.

The Carlos and Carmen series is an engaging latinx beginning reader series that incorporates cultural experiences in the everyday life of young children.

Carlos and Carmen go shopping with their grandmother for the perfect piñatas for their birthday party.  Finally in the 3rd store Carlos chooses a dinosaur piñata and Carmen chooses a elephant piñata.  When they get home, Dino and Ellie take part in many imagination filled adventures.  In bed at night, Carlos and Carmen lament the fact that their piñata friends will be smashed at their birthday party.  The next day their grandmother shows them how to cut out a square and use ribbons, scissors and tape to make door to let out the piñata prizes.  Now their piñatas will survive their party.  Hugs all around.

Spanish words are quite naturally interspersed in the text.  Spanish-English glossary in the back of the text.

This is a fun engaging story with young latinx characters celebrating their cultural heritage.  In the story the characters solve a problem of today by relying on family and the cultural expertise of their elders.

It was summer and Hank was bored and lonely. No one was using his pet-sitting business.  When the new kid in town stops by to use his services, Hank is thrilled.  Hank will be pet sitting for an escape artist sheep named Elmer.  That night the sheep does escape the garage, but not to get away, but to come find Hank.  After the sheep wakes Hank yet again, Hank finally settles down on the hay in the garage with the sheep.  Tommy arrives the next morning for his sheep and is impressed with Hank’s success.  Hank’s business has found him a new friend.

This beginning reader title adds a goofy twist to the kid friendly topic of pets.  Young readers can identify with Hank’s desire to earn money and his loneliness when his friends are away for the summer.

Black holes, by there very nature cannot be seen.  The only information about black holes is from observing how other objects in space behave around them.  This book details many of the devices that are used to collect information about black holes.  It also discusses the evolution of black hole theories over time.  The complexity of the concepts mentioned make this a book for a student with some prior knowledge of black holes and a basic understanding of cosmology.

The book contains a number of amazing illustrations and diagrams that imply they are showing a black hole.  These illustrations and diagrams, however, portray astronomers theories which don’t always agree with each other.  It is only in the last 2 chapters of the book that it clearly communicates that what is considered “knowledge” of black holes is in truth only theories and that aspects of these theories are continually being supported or disproved as more data is accumulated.

I feel the scope of this book is too great for its size. Ideas and concepts are mentioned in passing and not adequately explained.  Either focusing on current black hole theory, how black holes were discovered, or the tools and technologies used in the study of black holes would be more appropriate for this age level and allow for more clarity.  I also found the glossary entirely inadequate.  It includes the word “merge” yet not things like binary, gamma ray, or jet bursts.