This children’s story of Curious George recycling and re-using items from the trash is told in both English and Spanish. The Spanish teacher at my high school states that it is very well-translated. It is always fun to read about George’s adventures and readers can pick up some useful expressions.
The Boy Who Touched the Stars by Jose M. Hernandez
The Spanish teacher at my high school read this book and said she noticed a few verb tense errors and minor translation omissions.However, she says the story is great so the few errors are definitely forgivable and will likely go unnoticed by the average reader. José M. Hernández’s true story is inspirational and he shares a wonderful message on setting goals, working hard to achieve those goals and never giving up. The story is told in both Spanish and English. She states that she will be recommending this book to her high school Spanish students.
Of Dust and Blood The Battle at Little Big Horn
The author used the viewpoints of a scout for the 7th Calvary and a Indian brave to lay out the tragic tale of mutual destruction that occurred during the June 25, 1876 Battle of the Greasy Grass/Little Big Horn. The dialog rings true and the artwork is very striking. This “slice of life” story, in graphic novel form, shows the vulnerable longings, memories, hopes, and dreams of these two fictional characters amid the historical battle led by General George Armstrong Custer and Major Marcus Reno, and Lakota Chief Sitting Bull, and warrior Crazy Horse. Told in a politically balanced way, the book includes a map, an “After the Battle” account of what happened to the surviving characters, notes from the illustrator on the process of drawing the horses, and a bibliography of the numerous histories and biographies used in the authors’ research. A quick read famous battle that shows in brutal details the horrors of the Indian Wars.
Secrets of the Casa Rosada
When sixteen-year-old Martha arrives in Laredo, Texas to meet the grandmother she has never met, she is shocked to learn that she has a large, extended Mexican family, and that her grandmother doesn’t speak English. Of all the many moves Marth’a mother has made, from Boston, to Atlanta, to Memphis, this move to Laredo was the biggest shock of all.
Laredo, Texas, was like no other place Maria had seen. Signs on businesses were in Spanish and houses were colorfully painted. It was hot, dry, and the lawns were brown. It didn’t seem possible that her mother, who made every effort to look as white as possible, could have grown up here. To make things worse, it turned out that the family was not on a vacation, as her mom had said. Her mom abandoned her there, didn’t say where she was going, but just left. As shocking as this could have been, deep inside Maria had been expecting it.
Suddenly Martha must deal with a way of life that is completely foreign. Her grandmother didn’t speak English, so communication is difficult, and she was not the typical, sweet grandma who dotes on her grandchildren. Even weirder, it turns out that her grandmother is revered as a healer, or curandera.
At her new school, Martha can’t be anonymous like before because everyone knows she’s Doña González’s granddaughter. To make matters worse, there is a girl who has it out for her and makes things miserable. As Martha struggles to adjust to her new life, she can’t help but wonder why her mother left Laredo. And why does this girl hate her so much? No one is willing to discuss it, so she’ll have to unravel the secret herself.
Mr. Wolf’s Class: Mystery Club
Mr. Wolf’s class have a few mysteries they’d like solved. #1 Where did their teacher (Mr. Green) from last year go, #2 what happens to all the playground balls that go over the fence at recess, #3 why don’t they have lockers like they did last year, # 4 why do things keep disappearing from the students’ cubbies, #5 who is and isn’t going to Randy’s birthday party, and #6 one student is always running a new survey question?
The students form a club to solve their school mysteries. As the students work on one mystery, they usually discover at least part of an answer to one of the other mysteries.
By the end of this graphic novel, they discovered Mr. Green is now occasionally working for his daughter in her pizza parlor since he retired. Mr. Green is working the night of Randy’s birthday party at the pizza parlor. While at the birthday party, one of the students returns most of the missing playground equipment he found when he jumped the fence after school, and the biggest mystery might be the rats who are taking the students things at school and then using the items for their own birthday party under the floorboards.
Even though the characters in the book are animals, wearing clothes walking on their two hind legs, readers will be able to identify with the problems, dilemmas, and solutions these students are facing in their school. Well, hopefully not the rats. 🙁
Ruby & Rufus: Love the Water!
Goslings Ruby and Rufus love the water in their cute little red and white bathing caps. They love diving and swimming- through rain, wind, and sun everyday. They discover they enjoy the pond when it is frozen , too, with their red and white striped inner tube.
This book glows with the innocence of youth. The simple fun of learning about their immediate world with their own youthful skills of observation.
The minimal background art is perfect for very young listeners to observe the goslings’ antics without being distracted by too much scenery.
Gondola to Danger: a Miss Mallard Mystery
This Robert Quackenbush story, with the 1983 copyright, is being republished in the QUIX – FAST *FUN* READS series.
World famous ducktective Miss Mallard is in Venice, Italy, when a famous painting is stolen. The local police ask for her help. After seeing the crime scene, a museum guard hails a gondola for Miss Mallard to use. As Miss Mallard follows the clues around Venice, her gondola is very slow. Often Miss Mallard sees a masked duck El Ducko, the suspected thief, along the gondola’s route. Slowly, but not as slow as the gondola, Miss Mallard reasons the gondola’s slow speed is part of the art thief’s plan to convict El Ducko and escape with the painting. She leaves the gondola behind with the help of the masked duck and catches the thief – the museum guard- in the nick of time.
The story unfolds in five large font chapters with black. white, and gray illustrations of Miss Mallard’s journey through the waterways of Venice on almost every other page.
Comes with a glossary and five discussion questions at the end of the book.
UFOs are Alien Aircraft Overhead?
There are nine chapters in this book in the Science Fact or Science Fiction? series. They cover the topic of UFOs or Unidentified Flying Objects very well for this age group.The topics include: crop circles, Roswell, Area 51, abductions, Project Blue Book, the Condon Report, conspiracy theories, popular television shows and movies, and numerous sightings. The sightings are especially of interest because one is from Washington State and another is from Oregon.
The book states facts, such as, Kenneth “Arnold thought the objects might have been new military aircraft. But the US War Department thought Arnold had imagined the aircraft.” (5) The book mentions a few famous people ( Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, and NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin ) who have reported seeing UFOs and that artwork and literature from ancient people have referenced seeing flying celestial objects.
“The United States, Canada, and other countries have kept records of UFO sightings over many years.” (9) 90% of them can be explained as human-made objects or common atmospheric events.
The reader is asked to decide : to believe or not to believe.
The book includes an index and free online nonfiction resources.
Llama Llama Mess, Mess, Mess
It’s got all the pleasing characteristics of other Llama Llama books, including rhythm and rhyme and fun illustrations, as well as a worthwhile message it’s trying to convey to to young children — in this case the importance of everyone lending a hand with the tidying up chores. When mama ask little Llama to stop playing and to make his bed, he starts off shaking his head, because all he wants to do is play, until he takes some time to image what life would be like of mama also refused to clean and just wanted to play. The problem lies with the lack of any sign of dad in this scenario, and the implication that if Llama doesn’t help all the cleaning responsibilities would fall upon his apron-clad mama: it just smacks of 1950s stereotypes.
Froggy Picks a Pumpkin
If you have a lot of fans of the Froggy books, it might be worth purchasing this one to expand your collection, especially if you’ve also got classes who do pumpkin patch field trips, which is what this one is about. It tells about Froggy and his friends searching for pumpkins as part of a pumpkin picking contest, with prizes for assorted traits (biggest, smallest, prettiest, etc.) And even after dropping his pumpkin at the end of the search, smashing it to bits, Froggy still gets a prize — for ugliest. I’m just a bit tired of the whole everybody-gets-a-prize thing.