From Scholastic, this book is all about the life cycle of the fascinating sea horse. With wonderful photographs and interesting facts, this is sure to be a hit in elementary libraries. The book starts out explaining what a sea horse is easily explaining their characteristics. It then talks about sea horses courting, babies being born and then growth into adulthood. There is also a glossary, learn more and index. I like that the facts are simply stated but easy to understand. The accompanying photos are beautiful and amazing. This is a great animal nonfiction book.

This lovely biography of Howard Thurman is a graceful and spiritually grounded depiction of an intelligent, determined and talented young man who grew into an inspiration for those who love peace and equality in the 20^th century. I’m glad to know more about Mr. Thurman and am happy to share this biography with our elementary aged students. The illustrations convey the story well with special attention given to facial expressions and object texture. The afterword was also well-written, explaining and analyzing the great and on-going impact of this incredible man upon the American Civil Rights movement and leaders.

This is a unique picture book about a poor mouse who lives under the floor of a castle where a princess and her many cats enjoy a life of luxury and splendor.   The mouse has the idea to bell the cats, with a nod to Aesop’s fables, so that he might know where they were and avoid them to enjoy the amenities of the castle.  In the end after many failed attempts, he befriends the princess and she bells the cats.  I especially enjoyed looking at the illustrations, which are beautifully detailed with rich texture and colors.

This step-by-step cookbook includes preparation and safety tips which are helpful to young and inexperienced bakers and will hopefully prevent disappointing cake failures.  Necessary kitchen pans and utensils are pictured and labeled so bakers can locate what is being described in the recipe directions.  Common ingredients and good baking techniques are also clearly described with helpful pictures to illustrate.  Finally on page 17 we get to the first of 6 luscious-looking cake recipes.  With step-by-step full color pictures and beautiful shots of the well-presented final product, I have the impression that even the novice baker could not fail (provided he or she can read the directions).  This would make a nice first cookbook.  This book circulates constantly in our library.

Exciting and festive, this picture book will be a nice addition of our Christmas collection.  Reminiscent of The Polar Express, a young boy has a magical Christmas Eve adventure including a ride on Santa’s sleigh.  In the end, he discovers that the love of family is much more important than the wishes on his Christmas list.  The illustrations are captivating, exciting, detailed and lovely.  Bright colors and plenty of texture make the characters and story come alive.  Students will enjoy reading this book.

I enjoyed this beautifully illustrated and joyful version of the Christmas story.  The story of Jesus’ birth is places in context of the God’s presence in every human birth.  Our Catholic elementary students will appreciate this book and it will make a lovely read-aloud at story time.

What I loved most about this picture book was the illustrations which are colorful and bright, with an eye-popping 3-D effect at times.  With lots of darling details and facial expressions, the pictures are very engaging.  The mousie love story is sweet as well with the classic boy gets girl theme.

This wonderful science experiment book for elementary readers gives some background information regarding various creatures from nature from bugs to pets.  It asks good questions to consider and observe and offers easy ideas for viewing nature purposefully.  There is an index as well as a table of contents, glossary and page listing additional related resources to read.  I liked the accessible and common sense nature of these projects and activities.  I predict that this book will circulate well in our elementary school library.

Suzanne Bloom’s illustrations are colorful, vibrant and fun.    The text and storyline of this book are simple (a little too simple) but highlight several action words which could be useful for a discussion about verbs.

This book about friendship, prejudice, and justice features twelve-year old Dit who is anxious to meet the new postmaster’s son, rumored to be his age.  In Moundville, Alabama in 1917, Dit and the townspeople are surprised when the family arrives and the child is not only a girl, but she and her family are Black.  It doesn’t take long for Dit to realize that “Emma” is the best friend he’s ever had.  She’s smart, devoted to him, and trustworthy.  Reminiscent of  “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a Black man is wrongly sentenced to a crime (yes, murder, but in self-defense) and condemned to hang.  Dit and Emma set out to free him.  In a voice similar to Scout Finch’s, sprinkled with humor and bits of wisdom, this story is one of the best I’ve read this year.