Kids are interested in robots, especially young boys.  This book specifically addresses some of the robots used in the space program, and there are many.  At the end of the book are questions for critical thinking skills which use the common core, a great help for teachers.  The text is simple and directly explains the photo on the accompanying page.  I hadn’t realized Voyager 2 has been travelling through space for over 35 years–it’s amazing.  Students will enjoy this book and it’s photos and, who knows, it may lead to the creation of a future space robot.

Brach is a famous magician who owns and performs in the Abracadabra Hotel. However, the Great Theopolis challenges Brach to a magic contest, and the winner gets ownership of the Abracadabra Hotel. The Great Theopolis does an extreme magic trick, and if Brach can’t figure it out, then he will lose his hotel. With the help from Charlie and Ty, Brach gets the help he needs to keep t

The book is factual, but in a random way. The premise for the story is Ms. Patel’s primary grade class is going to have a visitor from a raptor center at school that day. Ms. Patel introduces her class to eagles by using a one dollar bill. The students are familiar with the U.S. symbol of an eagle in the Great Seal on the back of the dollar bill. From there, chapter one is more about symbols than about eagles themselves. Chapter two is about the eagle visitor in the classroom from the raptor center. It also answers the title question by saying,” ‘Didn’t you say he was bald?’… The bald part of its name comes from the word piebald. It means ‘having white marks. ‘ ” (p.15)  Chapter three has the class learning  “bald eagles live only in North America.” (p. 18)

The story text is written in an irregular font to represent a person’s handwriting. The sidebars , which give most of the factual information in this book, are in a test font, much like TIMES.

This should be a hit with your dinosaur lovers who have a sense of humor.

“Dear Santa, What did you use to pull your sleigh before you had reindeer?  Love, Jilly   X   X   X, ” so begins this humorous, totally preposterous account of Santa using dinosaurs to pull his sleigh before the days of reindeer. With each of the twelve page turns a different type of dinosaur is hitched up to Santa’s sleigh, while displaying comically a characteristic of said dinosaur. Dinosaurs include: Triceratops, Parasaurolophus, Pterosaurs, Velociraptors, Giganotosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex, Maiasauras, Styracosaurus, Stegosaurus (my favorite- with their back plates strung with Christmas lights and tinsel garland ), Gallimimus,

Apatosaurus, and Ankylosaurus, Zephyrosaurus, Nodosaurus sharing the last page.

Young readers will learn pictorially and through easy text the difference between ‘before’ and ‘after’ in this part of the Exploring Opposites series.

Two or three sentences appear on the 9″ X 11″ left page opposite the full page photo on the right hand page. This occurs seven times, then the reader is given two attempts to correctly fill in two blanks using the word ‘before’ or ‘after’ in the four pages entitled – “You Try It: Before and After?”

Includes: facthound.com

word count:116

As three old ravens sat on a branch, completely bored, one of the ravens remembers back and tells the story of how he had teased and bullied a newly hatched little raven, sharing his regrets about his choices as he spoke. He explained how he challenged the little raven to fly to the moon, and how he watched the little raven fly towards the moon, wishing he had stopped him. He stated how the ravens found the little raven the next morning lying in a hedge and how they hoped to see signs of life in him. When the raven regained consciousness, the old ravens invited him to play and noticed he had a silver feather from the moon. With bully awareness being a significant issue in schools, this book would be a great read-a-loud.

There is a focus on popular, interesting and unique birds and their many facts contained in this book. Facts such as birds physical description and the function of each description, nesting, eggs and chicks, as well as record breaking facts, makes this book quite intriguing. What makes this book unique is the comparison of different birds beaks, feet, eggs, etc. Color photos cover each page spread. A table of contents, glossary and index are included as well as a free digital companion book about birds to download.

Readers will be very informed after reading this book from scientific classifications and physical description of killer whales to their pod life, echolocation, sleeping and dangers encountered. One full color photo page accompanies each page spread.

This book does a great job of delivering basic and fun dolphin facts from their classification, pod life, hunting and eating to baby care and play activities. Color photos dominate each page spread. This book contains a table of contents, glossary and index. A free download about dolphin rescue stories is available.