Sabrina Sue, the chicken, is infatuated with going to the moon after seeing it one moonlit starry night. Her farm friends try to talk her out of it. Sabrina Sue struggles with if she should stay safe or go on her adventure to the moon! She does her moon research, gets in great physical shape, and goes to the rocket for her adventure. She loves the moon. Then returns to earth to tell all of her farm friends about it and show them her moon rock.
Submitted by Mary Pong
The Shawnee people are keeping their culture alive. The Shawnee originally lived in the Ohio Valley and today their reservations are in Oklahoma.
Sonneborn writes about the Shawnee’s contact with early Europeans. Sonneborn continues with their life today with their traditions seen especially during Pow Wows. The Shawnee are in a fight to keep their language alive. They have developed a language app and a website. This fight began during the days when native children where taken away to boarding schools.
The book ends with a glossary, index, and the child safe website – www.factsurfer.com where the official Shawnee websites are linked.
Submitted by Mary Pong
It is about time a new children’s book with up-to-date information on recycling has been published! Jennie Romer explains what happens to the items we place in our recycling bins and promptly think we’ve done our part. Most paper, glass, metals, and #1 & #2 plastics are easily recycled because there are buyers for these materials. Other items may or may not be recyclable depending on the local area where a person lives and depending upon whether there is a buyer for the sorted out items.
Romer describes how the recycling is sorted with the help of Christie Young’s illustrations.
She goes onto to mention “wishcycling” – ” placing non-recyclable items into recycling bin because you hope they’ll windup getting recycled anyway. (Unfortunately, this doesn’t work!)” ( 37) I’m guilty of this.
And Romer finishes with everybody “can’t do all these things ( reducing, recycling and reusing) all the time. Try your best, and do what you can!”
Submitted by Mary Pong
Liz Sonneborn presents excellent information about the past and present Hopi people – the “people who live the correct way”. The Hopi live in present day northern Arizona which is a very dry arid land. The Hopi have devised unique ways to successfully live in this climate, in balance with nature, but present-day draught/climate change is making it more difficult.
The book informs about traditional and present use of the Hopi’s resources, the Hopi’s introduction to European contact, their government, and their use of both English and the Hopi languages.
The book includes: a timeline, glossary, index, and a safe internet web site- FACTSURFER.COM- for further information.
Submitted by Mary Pong
WOW! What a fantastic introduction to geology! What a conversation starter! BIG watercolor pictures of volcanoes, dinosaurs, coastlines, mountains and valleys, flora and fauna, past and present life all having a connection to rock is some way or other.
This book is simple and yet profound! Rocks are all around us, perhaps we should start to think more about them.
Submitted by Mary Pong
The Earth’s “ONE OCEAN” is explored by five bio-zones in this take off from the BBC television show OUR BLUE PLANET. The five bio-zones sections: The Deep, Life in the Lost City, Life in the Balance, Superhero, and Worlds Colliding are explored with the hope the reader will become so enthralled they will join in the fight to protect THE OCEAN which is so important to our existence on this planet.
The five bio-zones are described by area/location, then stories of the life from the zone are shared, followed by inhabitants of the zone beginning with the deepest zone going to the shallowest zone. The author’s use of figurative language makes this more for entertainment than for a reference piece. “In the MIDNIGHT ZONE there are creatures that wouldn’t be out of place in your nightmares…” ( 6). The text in each section goes from giant titles, to regular size 12-ish print, to size 8-ish print. The smaller the font the more specific the information.
There is no Index or Glossary to help with animal and plant names in bold set type through out the book. The world map on pages 3-4 shows seven specific locations marked with a red dot, but only six of them are mentioned by name within the book. If I were the red dot for the ‘Mariana Trench’ I would feel slighted because its name could so easily have been mentioned in the section “THE DEEP”.
Submitted by Mary Pong
Fourth grader, Sparrow, has a way of getting carried away that leads to problems. I kept thinking about a very young Maria Van Trapp from the SOUND OF MUSIC in How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria when reading this book. Like Maria, Sparrow does not go looking for trouble, she is just exuberant and ‘problems’ happens. Sparrow’s parents are trying their best using “Positive Parenting” skills and key phrases without getting too upset, but Sparrow finds this frustrating because often she is only looking for answers to life’s immediate situations.
Sparrow and her parents have just moved into a duplex style house. Their elderly neighbor Mrs. LaRose enjoys caring for Sparrow for the short hour while both of Sparrow’s parents are at work. Mrs. LaRose and Sparrow are outside watching a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. “Unfortunately, when Sparrow got excited, things tended to go wrong.” (4)The two of them were doing a dance of the butterflies in the backyard, when they crashed into each other. Mrs. LaRose falls to the ground breaking her hip. The story begins with the sound of sirens as the ambulance arrives for Mrs. LaRose. Mrs. LaRose’s only immediate concern is for her seven cats. Sparrow promises to take care of the cats. AND the domino effect has begun. How will Sparrow care for the seven cats when the first day of school is tomorrow? What will the consequences be when Sparrow tells her new classmates the seven cats are hers? Who will watch Sparrow after school until her parent gets home now that Mrs. LaRose is in the hospital? How will Sparrow be able to keep Mrs. LaRose’s daughter from taking the cats to the animal shelter?
Life’s situations have a way of working out. Sparrow’s situations are realistically normal and readers will be able to see this, and perhaps even be able to identify with them.
The chapters range from five to eight pages in length with twenty-five pencil illustrations sprinkled throughout the story. The illustration of Sparrow and her mother in a loving embrace on page 170 will warm your heart in this heartfelt moment of connection between mother and daughter.
Submitted by Mary Pong
“Every night a little girl and her daddy built dreams out of paper, scissors, and glue.” So begins story of an extra special relationship between a father and daughter that ends suddenly with the death of the father.
The little girl does not understand the concept of death and continues waiting for her father’s return. Eventually she destroys the last unfinished project they were working on together.
‘ “I miss Daddy,” said the little girl. “I do too,” said Mommy. “But Daddy is still with us, even when we can’t see him. We can meet him in our dreams and take him with us as we create new memories.” ‘
Some time later, the little girl starts to rebuild the destroyed project with the help of her mother and daddy looking on in her dreams.
Submitted by Mary Pong
“When Granny died, there was a hole in our family. Remembering her helped us fill it.” So begins this loving story of how a young boy uses the cane once used by his Granny to keep her close to him.
Ashley Barron’s layered cut paper images show how the young boy uses his imagination and the cane to create a tent, a butterfly net, a beach umbrella, a fishing rod, a stick horse, a flagpole, a knight’s sword, a flying broomstick, a sea monster, and a rocket ship all with Granny looking on. “When Granny died, she left me a world of adventures…”
Submitted by Mary Pong
Bob, the cardinal, has anxiety about trying new things until Eagle confides “He can take mini chances!” Bob decides to follow Eagle partway up the mountain. Little by little, Bob stopping several times, deciding to go a little farther each time, until Bob arrives at the top of the mountain. “The view is out of this world.” Now, Bob decides he will go back and try each of the activities he passed on with his friends Flamingo, Pigeon, and Crow.
Bob discovers, “Sometimes you don’t know what you’re missing… until you take a chance.”
Submitted by Mary Pong