This book presents philosophy in comic form, covering from the time of the Ancient Greek philosophers to the present.  The concept is excellent as the graphic novel format really does force the author to boil down the concepts to the essence which is an excellent introduction for students.  Due to mature content, this book is not appropriate for an elementary/middle school library but would be great for high school.

Glitch is book 7 in the Aldo Zelnick Comic Novel series.  Highly illustrated and comical, this story is set just before Christmas when Aldo is implementing his master plan to maximize his gift receiving.  “G” words are featured in the storyline and defined in a glossary at the back of the book.  Students enjoy this series and ask for the next letter in the series as they work their way through them.

Women have long been overlooked or underrepresented in the history books.  This collection of biographies about female explorers is a positive step toward recognizing these courageous women and their contributions.  The ten women explorers who are featured, with four pages of text and illustrations each, include Louise Arner Boyd, Nellie Cashman, Ynes Mexia, Lucy Evelyn Cheesman, Annie Smith Peck, Alexandrine Tinne, Delia Julia Denning Akeley, Violet Cressy-Marcks, Freya Stark and Daisy Bates.  These mini biographies give a snapshot of each woman’s life and accomplishments, written in well-organized text which is easy to read and understand.  There are several colorful and expressive illustrations for each biography which compliment the text nicely.  I learned a lot reading this book and discovered heroes I was not familiar with before.

Bad Kids:  The naughtiest children in history explores laws and punishments from ancient to modern day societies.  The author’s writing style is very tongue-in-cheek and humorous, while sticking to historical facts on the subject.  Several famous characters from history around the world are featured including their notorious childhood behavior.  This book is easy to read and engaging with comical illustrations, historical portraits and photographs as well as artwork to support the subject matter.  I would recommend this book for 4th grade and up due to some violent content.

This beautiful book about Ancient China covers a variety of topics including the Silk Road and early trade, the early Yangshao and Longshan civilizations, Chinese philosophers, ruling dynasties and emperors.  The Great Wall of China is mentioned.  Chinese inventions and other achievements are outlined including the development of a writing system, bronze and iron for use as weapons and tools, Chinese medicine, fireworks, wheelbarrows, umbrellas and the discovery of silk. There is a timeline for major events in history as well as a glossary, index, table of contents and further resources page.  The illustrations and photographs are beautiful and the backgrounds for each page are tasteful and not distracting.  The text is clearly written and organized.  I highly recommend this book.

This Justin Bieber biography is chock full of photographs, graphics, and facts about Justin’s life to date.  The text is clearly written and employs current “hip” slang throughout which might help with engaging young readers.  Although the recent photographs are good quality, the older ones of Justin’s childhood tend to be blurry.  I think Bieber fans will enjoy this book.

This is a non-fiction book about Alligators from a wonderful animal series that is packed full of interesting facts about habitat, diet, behavior, appearance, predators, characteristics, mating habits and raising the young.  Environmental and human hazards are also explored.  There is a habitat map as well as an index, glossary, quick facts page and a page for further resources.  These books are well-written and full of beautiful and high quality color photographs of alligators in their natural habitat.  I highly recommend this book.

This is a non-fiction book about Black Bears from a wonderful animal series that is packed full of facts about habitat, diet, behavior, appearance, predators, characteristics, mating habits and raising the young.  Environmental and human hazards are also explored.  There is a habitat map as well as an index, glossary and page for further resources.  These books are well-written and full of beautiful and high quality color photographs of bears in their natural habitat.  I highly recommend this book.

This was a great picture book all about the life of pirates.  The facts were interesting but not too scary for young readers and the illustrations were funny and full of rich detail and color.  There was a fold out page depicting a cut-away view of the interior of a pirate ship which students will really enjoy as well as a page with a pirate song, one with a pirate game, a quiz about pirate facts and a game to match pirates and their hats.  This exciting and interactive book is sure to be enjoyed by our elementary readers.

This chapter book for young readers (AR ATOS level 3.7) is about 2nd grader, Gooney Bird Greene who is quite an eccentric, confident and intelligent character.  She leads the class in a geography project before President’s Day vacation to explore the various travel plans of students in the class.  A few students who were bragging quite a bit about their plans learn to be more humble and appreciate fun activities closer to home.  I found the characters in this book to be unbelievable at times, particularly Gooney who presented as more knowledgeable than the teacher.   In addition, the editing was sloppy, with sections of text repeating on pages 19-20 and 25-26 which can be confusing to young readers.  I’m a big fan of Lois Lowry’s work but consider this book just an “additional purchase” if you want to complete the Gooney Bird set.