Wow! Fabulous! Amazing! Totally cool! Every library should have this book.  It is basically a history of our understanding of our place in the universe.  The main story is told in first person, from the perspective of the collective human race, beginning with the earliest observations seeming to indicate the earth was flat and the sky a dome above.  It continues on, explaining how further observations led to more and more complex models of the universe, and in so doing shows how knowledge comes to be, as something that grows rather than something stagnant.  On every page, captioned diagrams, photos, and illustrations help to explain the thinking of the times.  It ends not with our current understanding of the universe, but with the questions still to be answered.  It’s a beautiful book, sure to spark curiosity and wonder.

Informative blurbs at the beginning and the end of the book tell about the man who was Davy Crockett, and about the time period in which he lived, and how legends grew out of the truth of the time.  Sandwiched between these blurbs is a tall tale describing how Davy wrestled to the death a gator who was longer than two steam ships, and had been terrorizing the Mississippi River until he met his match in Davy.  It’s a great example of voice, being told in a folksy drawl that sounds like an old-timer rocking on a front porch somewhere telling the tale, full of colloquialisms that suit the era.

Very readable.  Very informative.  Does a good job of recognizing many ways in which the roll of president was shaped by George Washington, and many ways in which the young country was still feeling it’s way at the time of his presidency.  We so often hear in today’s politics people arguing about what the “founding fathers” believed, but this book does a good job of illustrating how much disagreement their was among the founding fathers, and showing that George Washington purposely set out to make sure he would hear from opposing sides before making his own decisions:  the idea of the President having a cabinet of advisers was not in the Constitution, but was instituted by Washington, and has continued ever since, for this purpose.

Okay, I can’t say I’m a fan of encouraging students to think they can wait to the last minute to do their homework, and many of the projects suggested are really more activities than experiments, but they’re still (mostly) good activities, with solid science behind them, and the section after each activity where it lists ideas to, “Keep Exploring — If You Have More Time!” really do offer solid experimentation ideas to extend the initial activities. Also, even though the series is arranged around biomes, and this one claims to explore Temperate Forests, most of the activities are really applicable to anywhere one finds deciduous trees, not necessarily forests.

A good, solid biography of Columbus, it neither glorifies nor vilifies the explorer.  In addition to sharing the facts of Columbus’s life and adventures, it shares many of the misconceptions that have surrounded the explorer, debunks them.  But it does so in a very balanced approach: while shooting down the notions that Columbus “discovered” America, or proved the world was round, and acknowledging his mistakes and failings and cruelties, it also recognizes his talents as a navigator and the lasting impact he had on bringing Europe and the Americas together.

This is not a stuffy science book that’s getting weighed down with such things like the scientific process or school-like topics in which to organize the projects.  This is just science for the fun of it.  All the projects use simple-straightforward materials easily found.  The directions are easy-to-follow and not terribly time-consuming.  There are “icky explanations” offered for each project that explain the underlying science or broader applications.  But mostly they just look fun.  Entertainment for the scientifically minded.

A good beginning text about the Navy Seals in Spanish.  The text is limited to 1-2 sentences per two-page spread, accompanied by large, full-color photos that support the text.  The information is simple and straightforward.  Though the text is limited, the information is solid, although admittedly, more of an introductory text to spark curiosity rather than truly quench one’s thirst for knowledge.

La Llorona is a famous Mexican legend, and is a worthy selection to be included in school libraries, and if your library already has other versions, this one would make a reasonable addition for offering different versions of the same story.  In particular, this one is useful in introducing students to reading script formats.  But if you are only going to have one version of the folktale in your library, I wouldn’t recommend this be the one, as the script version can be a bit confusing, with sometimes Older David speaking as narrator, as he tells the story as a memory, and sometimes Younger David speaking within the memory.  And it’s got a story within a story, which is another useful literary device for teaching, but in combination with everything else going on in this story, it just adds to the muddled feeling of the retelling.

It’s a worthy topic, and the collection of photographs brings it to life, making it real for students.  I just wish the writing was stronger.  It’s adequate.  All the facts are presented.  I just wished they had been strung together more coherently, to actually make a story of the events.  It’s like they were constructing the text to fit the formatting (it all fits very nicely into outlined text boxes, with titles over each paragraph), instead of designing the formatting to enhance the story.

It’s your basic don’t-give-up-on-your-dreams story, in Spanish.  Santiago dreams of becoming a performer, but at the audition for the school play he freezes.  When he confesses to his dad that he didn’t get the part, dad tells him not to give up on his dreams, so he keeps practicing on his own time, which makes him ready to jump in and save the day when the lead in the play is suddenly ill.  It’s fine.  It’s a good little story, with a good message. Just perhaps a bit of a cliche.