This is a lively tale about Nadine, a boastful cow who claims she isn’t afraid of anything. Her skeptical friends ask if she might be afraid of lightning, or the woods? “Not me,” bragged Nadine and she heads for the woods to prove her point. The book, written in rhyme, describes Nadine’s adventures (and misadventures) in the woods; as darkness draws near, Nadine dashes for home to a hero’s welcome.
This whimsical bedtime story follows the antics of an octopus as he helps a boy get read for bed with a bath (in egg salad), teeth brushing (with paint), and monsters in the closet. This quick and silly book will be enjoyed by young children, as well as the adult reading the story!
Ankylosurus is one of six book’s in Smithsonian’s Little Explorer Series. The book provides a thorough description of the dinosaur, its behavior, and its historical significance. Lively illustrations will captivate young aspiring paleontologists. The book includes an index, glossary and recommendations for additional reading and internet resources.
Mike Evans, AKA Dino-Mike, is the young son of world renown paleontologist Stanley Evans who are currently on a dig in Montana. When Mike finds the actual work involved in the dig tedious and boring his father suggests, ” Why don’t you go explore the other dig sites…but be back before dark…” (p. 19) Soon Mike is off in the nearby forest chasing down a mysterious girl. The girl, Shannon, is out hunting a real T.Rex, which Mike is having trouble understanding since, “they went extinct more than 65 million years ago!” (p. 31)Shannon reveals a boy, Jeff, has brought the T.Rex to this time. ” ‘ He thinks dinos should never have gone extinct. He’s trying to save them by introducing them into different time periods. Unfortunately, he doesn’t realize how much damage he’s doing or how many people he’s putting in danger. That’s why I’ve come back here to stop him…’ “ (p. 76) Shannon and Mike come up with a plan tricking both Jeff and the T.Rex into one of Shannon’s high tech gadgets capturing them both. After Shannon slips off with Jeff and the T.Rex, Mike comes across a nest of dinosaur eggs just as his father is looking for Mike for dinner. It seems the T.Rex was storming around the area looking for her long lost eggs.
The story line is fast-paced and clever. Franco leads the reader along willingly, just like Shannon does Mike. There is just enough dinosaur information to make the young would-be dinosaur aficionado think he is in the know, mixed in with new dinosaur trivia to grab and ‘wow’ the reader. The dinosaur jacket Mike’s father gave him is pretty amazing, as well, with its high tech gadgets. Add all this together with Franco’s numerous black and white story sketches and this new series should sprout wings and take off!
Includes a sewn binding, glossary, and Dino Facts about T. Rex.
A few years ago, building secret fairy houses was quite the rage. Little girls loved using natural materials to build these hideaways outside. However, I haven’t seen the interest in this for quite some time. In Ocean Secrets, fairy houses built on or near the beach are part of the story, but not to the point of having a series named for them. This book has a big variety of subplots: friendship between two tweens, a much-loved older home’s questionable future, lobster pots being stolen, mysterious lights in a closed-down hotel on an island, underwater fairy houses, taking care of wildlife, and working together to beat the thieves. The storyline itself is interesting but the audience it is written for is confusing. The vocabulary is at about a fourth grade reading level and the fairy house bit is interesting to second graders, many of the subplots are appropriate for second-graders but the thieves have guns and are not so appropriate. It’s just kind of a conundrum as to who this story is meant for.
Tree Frogs is one of the 50 books in the Animal Safari series of non fiction books for emergent readers. The cover photograph reels the reader in with its big red-eyed, larger than life tree frog. Once inside the book, the two-page spreads contain two large font sentences on white, opposite the larger than life photo on the right. The book is divided into four sections: What are Tree Frogs?; Climbers; Hunting and Hiding; and Males, Females, and Babies.
The nine bold type vocabulary words included in the book’s text and defined in the glossary include: amphibians, gills, pads, and predators. Three different habitats are pictured in small insets when the rain forests are mentioned. The tree frogs’ prey of moths, crickets, and flies are also given small insets. A very brief mention the life cycle from egg to tadpole to adult living in trees is mentioned without using the term life cycle in the last section of the book.
Includes an index and www.factsurfer.com web address for further information and pictures.
The series title: Super Cute! nails it! Baby Orangutans is one of the 25 books in this series of non fiction books for emergent readers. The cover photograph reels the reader in with its big eyed (life-sized) baby orangutan face. The baby might be smiling, too. Once inside the book, the two-page spreads contain two large font sentences on a patch of white, overlay the photo.
There are three, four page sections in the book: Orangutan Infant!, Life with Mom, and Learning from Mom. The seven vocabulary words in bold type can be found with their definitions in the glossary at the back of the book. These include: ” bond – a close connection”, comfort, grooms, and rain forest. Page 6 states, ” The infant acts a lot like a human baby. It sucks its thumb for comfort.”
Though this book is more picture than words, it does inform the reader the mother orangutan shows the baby how to build a nest for sleeping and how to find food, among other activities.
Includes an Index.
Lights, Camera, Perry? is an abridged version of the Disney Channel show Phineas & Ferb, episode ” Perry the Actorpus” from season 3, but with easier vocabulary used. If your patrons are fans of the TV show they will be able to follow the plot more easily than if they do not watch the TV series. This is partly due to the way TV segues jump so quickly and partly due to the abridgement of this story.
The story revolves around Phineas and Ferb’s entering Perry the platypus into a contest to be Totally Tools spokesanimal and Perry won. Now there are Totally Tools ads posted all over town with Perry the platypus wearing a fedora. By shear coincidence, this is Perry’s disguise when he is fighting evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz as Agent P. Temporarily, Agent P ( Perry) is replaced by Agent S (Sergei the snail) in the latest fight against Doofenschmirtz and his latest invention the Mustache-inator.
Meanwhile, Phineas and Ferb’s sister Candace attends a retreat- “Stop the Busting” in her attempt to be nicer to her brothers. Candace is making headway until she is informed the machine she is using was created by her two brothers. Smash! Candace eliminates the machine.
In the meantime, Perry’s picture in the Totally Tools ads around town have been replaced using Sergei’s photo in Perry’s place. Now Agent P is back on the job.
Shadow Squadron is “- a top-secret special missions unit. Assembled by the United States’ Joint Special Operations Command, the unit was comprised of elite soldiers from the Navy SEALS, Green Berets, Army Rangers, and the Marine Special Operations Regiment…From one end of the world to the other, the team had showed up wherever the US government required military intervention but couldn’t act openly for tactical, political, or legal reasons.” (p.12)
Carl Bowen sounds like he has a recipe for middle school-aged boys who want modern day adventure! The story is just shy of 100 pages, written in five chapters, has nine full-page color-graphic illustrations, uses military jargon / lingo – “boots on the ground”, and begins each chapter with what appears to be classified computer screen intelligence listed as “com chatter”.
As this book in the series begins, Shadow Squadron is introduced to its newest member of the team, who just happens to be a woman. They are briefed on a ‘blind’ mission which will be taking them to Northwest Africa to rescue Senator Barren’s kidnapped son. Once Shadow Squadron locates Jack Barron, they find out Jack has not been kidnapped, but instead wants to use money from his trust fund to pay protection money to keep a village safe. Shadow Squadron sends Bubaga’s band of slavers away from the village. Fearing Bubaga’s retaliation on the village, Shadow Squadron makes a big show of leaving the area, only to ready themselves to defend the village and stop the protection racket. Once Bubaga is defeated at the village, the Shadow Squadron hands their intel over to the local Malian Army. The Malian Army will stop the slave ring and graciously take the credit because the Shadow Squadron was never really there.
Includes: Author Debriefing with questions and answers and a 12 page preview of another Shadow Squadron book – Dark Agent.
This 6.5″ X 7.5″ counting book is one of the BEST I have ever wanted to use with young children!
The top 2/3s of each page captures the word “Nature” from the book’s title with a bright, colorful, close-up look of an item from nature just begging to be counted by the young reader: mushrooms, bird’s eggs, acorns, tulips, dewdrops, icicles, and 14 more.
Below the photo are two sentences. The first sentence includes the name of the item to be counted. The second sentence states the number of items to be counted. “Lotus seeds grow in a pod. This pod has 13 seeds.” (p. 16)
Below the sentences is a thee part display: gives a display of dots, followed by an “equal sign”, followed by the numeral, followed by an equal sign, followed by the numeral written as a word. *** = 3 = three
Finally, across the bottom of each page is a number line from 1 to 20. The numeral for each page is highlighted with an arrow pointing to it from below. YES, this book does count to twenty!
The only down side of this book would be the color selection for the book’s front cover. Mauve and pinks while attractive to an adult might not make the book jump out to the young reader.