Photographs of castles, knight’s armor, artifacts, and artwork from the Middle Ages fill this book on knights and castles.  Text is large and in different fonts on the page.  Many words are large and bold.  Some of them are in the glossary, some are defined on the page.  Both focus the reader’s attention to that section.  Knights, who they were and what they did, are defined and described.  Photographs illustrate armor and weapons.  Photographs and medieval artwork show details of castles and help explain the design.  This is a good beginning resource for those wanting to know about a knight’s life in the middle ages.  Much information is packed into 24 pages – just enough to whet the appetite of young readers.

Outstanding watercolor illustrations portray the emotions of a cat before, during, and after his boy’s family moves from a house to an apartment.  The cat was quite comfortable living in the house with its many hiding places and windows with birds and waiting in a sunny spot for his boy to come home from school.  When the family moves to an apartment, the cat is miserable and hides.  Gorgeous paintings show a variety of points of view from the cat’s perspective.  As the cat begins to accept the new home with less hiding places, it notices the apartment has windows with lots of birds – and settles in a sunny spot for the boy to come home.

When Mama raccoon gets sick and has to stay in bed, Papa and the kids happily take of Mama’s jobs.  Told in rhyme, Papa and the children discover they are exhausted after just one day of cooking and cleaning  up after themselves.  When Mama feels better and is ready to get out of bed, Papa and the kids rush around madly to tidy the house.  Mitra Modarressi’s delightful watercolor paintings are colorful and filled with details as Dad and the children begin to make messes that grow larger and larger as the day progresses.  Cute story of role reversal!

Beginning readers can learn about unique homes build by Native Americans in the southwestern United States.  In simple sentences written in large font, homes made by the Pueblo Indians are described.  Excellent photographs show pueblo villages from early days to present.  Ink and watercolor illustrations depict life in and around pueblo homes.  Photographs show bricks drying in the sun and being used in walls.  Originally, doors were only in the roof, accessible by ladders which could be pulled up to keep out others.  Today, pueblo homes alsohave doors in walls.  A bibliography of books for further reading and a facthound Internet site is in the back with the glossary and index.

The Paypal email is marked “urgent.”  They need an information update.  But “updating” his information left one American teen with someone in Spain deducting money from his bank account.   This book is full of such cautionary tales, and good information about what to do and what not to do, in order to stay safe online.  Real stories from real teens will interest young readers far more than vague warnings; and though I felt I knew most of the rules for online safety, I didn’t. 

By the time I finished this book I had learned a lot about identity thieves, cyberbullies, and the sexual predators just waiting for that naive someone who will send a picture of themselves standing in front of their house or school, a sure tip-off to where they live.

The internet is part of our lives, and it’s sad that we need to know what’s in this book.  But in order to stay safe, we do need to know.  A glossary, contacts for where to get help, and titles of other books on the subject are a nice addition.

A Walrus World is another of Carolyn Arnold’s well-done and informative non-fiction books on animals.  Beautiful cut paper illustrations delight the reader as the life of a walrus is described from calf to adult.  Additional text boxes give furtherl information throughout the narrative story.  In the back is a map showing where walruses can be found, Fun Facts, a glossary, other books to , Internet sites, an index, author information, and a list of other books in the Animals series.  Recommended addition to any elementary library.

A girl and her grandfather plant a special garden to help her Nana feel better.  They design a garden with plants that are at their best at night.  As they work on the garden, they notice the variety of animals that are drawn to this special spot.  In the margins are facts about planning a garden, plants to use, and night animals.  The colorful and creative artwork is done by children of the Children’s Cancer Hospital at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas.  Additional gardening facts are in the back with a glossary, websites, and a paragraph about the author.  The individual artists who contributed work to the book are also in the back along with information about the Children’s Art Project.

This is the traditional story of the town mouse and city mouse. Little country mouse, Timmy Willie ends up visiting the city where Johnny Town-Mouse lives. Timmy can’t wait to get back to his home in the country and when Johnny Town-Mouse visits the country where Timmy Willie lives, he can’t wait to get back to the city. This is the original story, just with new illustrations. It is in a larger size than the traditional Beatrix Potter books, but I find that to be part of their charm. Really the pages look so similar, with a large amount of white on the page and a similar style of illustrating, there is little difference between this and the original book.

Wendy Rasmussen has taken the traditional Beatrix Potter story and retold it adding her own illustrations. In this  story,  Benjamin Bunny finds his cousin, Peter huddled in poor clothing outside of Mr. McGregor’s garden. Benjamin convinces Peter to go back into Mr. McGregor’s garden to get his clothes back. Among adventures eating the garden, getting trapped under a basket with a cat on top and getting rescued by the old Mr. Benjamin Bunny, the two rabbits end up safe and back at Peter’s rabbit hole. This is the original story, just with new illustrations. It is in a larger size than the traditional Beatrix Potter books, but I find that to be part of their charm. Really the pages look so similar, with a large amount of white on the page and a similar style of illustrating, there is little difference between this and the original book.

From the World’s Deadliest set of books, this one showcases deadliest jobs. Chapter 1 discusses deadly jobs. The book then goes into three chapters: “Sort of Dangerous” (truck driver), “Very Dangerous” (police officers) and “Extremely Dangerous” (fire fighters).  Each showcased dangerous job has facing pages of photos, explanations and a deadly fact about the job. The book will be good for boys with its great photos and subject matter. The book has a low reading level, but pretty high interest level. It would be a great set for elementary libraries. It is perfect for those reluctant boy readers.