I recommended this book for third grade and up because I believe the information presented is so clear and understandable.  Kathy Allen gives suggestions of how, when, and why to use your cellphone and also gives examples of consequences for not following those suggestions.  Opportunities are given for discussions of what is the right thing to do in a given situation, as well as safety precautions to take.    Anybody new to a cellphone will benefit from reading this book.

This is a cute story about a dog who gets an outfit and is embarrassed. He is teased by the other dogs. Then he sees Dart who has an outfit and is not fazed by it.  In fact Dart seems to be better because of his outfit.  And Dart likes Zorro’s outfit!  They play together and have a great time.  Zorro decided that the outfit wasn’t so bad after all.

A chronology of Plains Indians using their love for horses as a key vehicle to their successful life on the Great Plains of North America.

This book is refreshingly presented from the Plains Indians side of history. Presented with vintage photographs by Edward S. Curtis and Walter McClintock, along side artifacts and present photos by William Munoz.

Eight chapters beginning with Chapter 1- Living in the Dog Days  tells of life on the plains before Columbus and the Spanish bringing horses to North America. Dogs pulling travois were used to help the people follow the herds before horses were introduced to America.  Chapter 2- The Miraculous Horse tells of the ill treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards. The Indians were frightened of these never before seen animals at first. Over the years, horses broke free from the Spaniards in some places and in other places the Indians acquired horses after driving the Spaniards off. The horse would now slowly work its way across the Plains as wild horses or by being traded between tribes. Once this began, Plains life became more mobile because horses could travel further, faster, and carry more with travois and dogs could carry. Chapter 3-More Than a Hundred Years of Horse Culture tells of  buffalo hunting, war horses,  horse-stealing raids, and the white encroachment of the Plains.  Then, in  Chapter 6-Tragedies Strike and Chapter 7- Life Between Two Worlds deal with separating the Indians from their horses. Much of this history is about Indians without their horses.  “The authorities believed that Indians without horses would be easier to control…” ( p. 65)  Indians are now on reservations, children are going to boarding schools, and some Indians are earning money performing in Wild West Shows around the country and in Europe. Chapter 8- Indians and Horses Today brings us to 1934 with the appointment of a new commissioner for Indian Affairs and the passing of the Indian Reorganization Act. Indians are allowed to own horses again. This leads up to the year 1986 when THE BIG FOOT Memorial Ride is begun in memory of the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890.  The book closes with, “As they continue their efforts to keep their culture vibrant and meaningful in today’s world, the Plains tribes will always be sure to include their most important animal partner– the horse– in their plans and in their dreams.”  (p. 93)

In this series, a brother, sister, and best friend are members of a club, the Spotlighters, who consider themselves detectives.  They’ve had some experience in solving mysteries and work well together.  The story doesn’t say how old they are, but middle school age seems to fit by their actions.  In this episode, there was a famous artist who had lived in their town.  He loved puzzles and riddles and had left clues for his only daughter to find his treasures.  Unfortunately, she died young and the mystery was left unsolved.  With nothing to go on except the daughter’s diary, the Spotlighters put together the clues to piece it together.  There is some conflict with the ancestors of this artist not cooperating, and the possibility of ghosts in the cemetery, but the three friends test their various theories.  I enjoyed this book because it seemed to fill a need for students who read at a lower level than what their age would indicate.  The cover art of the book shows older kids, not young kids, which would also appeal to middle-schoolers.  The characters are believable and resourceful and the dialog is appropriate.  The story moves quickly and kids won’t get bored.  This would be a great addition to both elementary and middle school libraries.

What I thought was going to be a fractured fairy tale of the Frog Prince turned out to be much more.

This tale of being half frog and half human blends itself nicely into the graphic novel format.

While Pete enjoys living in the swamp with his frog father, he doesn’t always fit into the total frog lifestyle – he’s at least 10X bigger than the other frogs, plus he wears clothes. Then unexpectedly while his tongue is shooting out to catch a fly, it sticks to a speeding car and Pete finds himself in the city. Now Pete finds himself in a middle school trying to fit in scholastically, athletically, and at lunch socially. When Pete is revealed as half frog/half human he jumps through a window and finds himself at the edge of the trash-filled school pond. Suddenly, but effectively, Pete springs into ‘reuse’ , ‘reduce’, and ‘recycle’ mode. The students help Pete clean up the pond for  happy ending.

Some of the boxed time signatures are off and there is a misspelled word on page 7  (loose, should be lose).

Includes: Visual Questions.

Let me start by saying, “I work at a Native American school.”  That said, skip this book and go directly to the first and fourth web site listed on page 40 of the book. If by stories they mean bits of trivia, then this book is just ‘OK’, but if by story they mean tales that will engage the reader, this book falls flat.  Most of the stories are mere crumbs, four maybe five sentences, leaving the reader wanting more which is never given. There are five page long  ‘retelling(s)’  but the artwork on the opposite page looks more Eastern-European than Native American. Each turn of the page usually brings a photo of an artifact of something associated with Native Americans, but often as not, it is not tied to a story or legend. Four times the book tries to link American Indian myths with similar myths in other cultures: Africa, China, and Scandinavia , but each time they are grasping at straws.

American Indians are too vast and too diverse to be effectively covered in 47 pages.

Delightful picture book by Neil Flory. Drawings are cute and would surely appeal to the average 5 to 7 year old. The storyline is about a giraffe named Geri, the shortest giraffe who ever lived. Geri’s height causes all sorts of problems when Bobo the baboon tries to take a photo of the herd. Find out how one herd of giraffes learns how to get EVERYONE to fit!

Nice, large illustrations, good binding, make for a quality, informative book about making good food choices.  The first chapter discusses the “picky eater” and has he father taking his son to the locally grown organic section of the grocery story to shop for foods that are right in nutrients.  Chapter two brings to live the five food groups and even discusses sugar and how little and why you would want in your body.  Later in the book, food choices for lunches, desserts,  and snacks are examined as healthy choices.  There is a formulaic procedure listed in the back on how to create an energy lunch, complete with glossary and further resources.  Recommended, mostly because it’s challenging to find quality books with new nutrition information.

This book has many great features which include photos, captions glossary, index, a timeline and more.  The one piece that caught my attention and earned my praise was the feature called: Today’s persepctive.  It included that often overlooked piece of how we view history differently through the lense of time.  Fox example, the section which told about Pearl Harbor included that American’s felt that it was a “sneak attack” by the Japanese.  However, now historians are saying that is was more a critical intelligence failure on the part of the US.  They felt Japan wasn’t capable of pulling off an attack.  It was a disastrous error to underestimate Japan.  I like how the book is open to new ways of viewing history, and for this reason am recommending it.

A catchy title, nice graphics for lower readers which need high interest, very enticing topics, but probably not the content to support the average  student led science project.   This book could be used to motivate students who aren’t interested in science or completion of an experiment and need encouragement which allows them to use topics or language that isn’t necessarily appropriate or allowed in a school setting.  Topics such as poop, snot, smelly sneakers are used as subjects in the 11 experiments provided.  Although this isn’t the book most teachers or parents will grab, there will probably be some lower readers and challenging students who will enjoy looking through the book.