A brief and simple introduction to ten monsters and creatures from legends is presented in this 32 page book.  Each has a page with a quick definition and illustration.  Fact boxes connect several creatures with literature as well as providing additional information.  Highlighted terms are defined on the page as well as in the glossary.  Information is skimpy but may encourage one to seek further information.   The layout contains large illustrations that are colorful and eye-catching.  This short book on mythical beings is sure to attract reluctant readers.  Includes glossary, books  for further reading, a facthound internet site, and index.  Publisher kid’s site provides related games and activities.

This short book covers alot of information–everything you wanted to know about energy, and then some.  Using aliens as the ‘spokespeople,’ this book covers the different forms of energy, where they come from and what they are used for.  Also covered is using and saving energy and taking care of our earth.  Broken into four chapters, each chapter cleverly portrays science concepts in ways that young students will understand.  This book should be included in every science kit which teaches about energy.

“Author and illustrator Doug Cushman hams it up in this hog-wild homage to classic monster movies.”

The poems build and build on the horror of the renown ‘creature’ only to be dashed to pieces by the last 2 lines which are groaners.

Among the 17 creatures are: Frankenswine, The Mummy Pig, The Werehog, Porker From the Black Lagoon, Abominable Snow Pig , Pigzilla, and Pig Kong.

The piggy portraits are deliciously hammy.

Reminiscent of and dedicated to poet Jack Prelutsky.

The Furies stem from Greek mythology and are represented by three sisters who guard and judge those who arrive the gates of Hades, and torture for eternity those who had commited crimes.  Famous Greek myths are told to explain this vengeance.  Greek gods were both benevolent and naughty, but it mattered not who you were, judgment day would come and it would do no good to plead for forgiveness.  The stories are rivoting and as it is pointed out, Greek mythology is still as strong today as it was thousands of years ago.  It is the basis for much of our language and appears in much of media.  This book is an excellent addition to any library collection as it does such a good job of explaining all the confusing relationships.

Just as the title explains, this is basically a travel journal featuring the highlights of various places across Australia, such as the Great Barrier Reef, the desert, the rainforest, and so on.  Random anecdotal phrases strewn across each page.  Difficult to grasp all concepts as I am unfamiliar with the Australian animals, but would be a good companion for someone who has been there or is writing a report about Australian.  The BEST parts were the extravagantly beautiful watercolor illustrations–the details and colors were absolutely brilliant.  Loved the art!

This is a fairly small book in size, the cover measuring 7.5 inches across and 8.5 top to bottom.  Photos take up less than half of each page, with the rest devoted to explanations of various landforms, parks, rivers and lakes, mountains, vocanoes, just to name a few.  The amount of variety is welcome as are the explanations, however, the jewel of the book are the dazzling photographs.  I wish that this book were much larger, with larger photos, to see all the detail each photo captures.  The clarity of the pictures is amazing, I just want a bigger impact.  (Photo credits are listed on last page.) This book is great for schools and science.

In this first graphics version of a non-fiction book, illustrations and diagrams effectively show the various types of volcanoes, the causes of eruption, the effects of an eruption, and safety tips in case of an eruption.  This is a great beginning earth science book.  It looks as though all titles in this series are about natural disasters.

Lou and her mom take their annual summer vacation to visit Memaw in the country.  Mom misses Richard and Lou misses Tristan, but both meet new guys.  Memaw invites an old classmate, Clem Fiffer, of mom’s to dinner in order to strike up a romance.  Clem, an obnoxious teenager is now an obnoxious, well-to-do doctor, and it doesn’t go so well.  Lou’s friend, Paul, is artistic and musical, as well as understanding.  Both are happy when summer is over and they can get back home.  This is an interesting style of story in which each set of pages is like a new chapter, but no transitions.  The story line is engaging and girls will enjoy the camaraderie Lou has with her mom.

This is a strange story with a surprise ending.  The girls are very different and not very tolerant of others who are different.

The pictures are lots of fun.  They were my favorite part of this strange little story.

This is a story of a girl, Precious Little, who lives at the circus and wants to fly.  Her friends Fat Chance, and Tough Luck encouraged her to try to fly.  They threw a rope across the lucky dip (I don’t know what the lucky dip is).  Precious Little stepped out onto the rope.  She fell into the lucky dip and came out flying.(I am not sure what happened at this point).  She flew around for a while, then she fell back to the earth and Fat Chance and Tough Luck caught her.  The End.  I was confused as to what this was about.

I loved the pictures.  They are wonderful to look at, with so much detail.  I like the way the words swirl around the pages.  The upside down page confused me for awhile.