Early, young readers who want a minimum amount information about Kwanzaa will find two sentences opposite a large color photo dealing with Kwanzaa in this book. If they study the photos carefully they will gain an understanding of the material aspects of Kwanzaa, such as, wearing African dress, the lighting of the kinara (special candle holder), and some of the other seven symbols.

The Adbo Kids Online Free Online Multimedia Resources given at the end of the book include an audible song, downloadable word search and maze, and a coloring page from PBS’s ARTHUR celebrating Kwanzaa.

Reviewed by Joni B.

The Angel Thieves, by Kathi Appelt, tries to intertwine several sub-stories using the Bayou as a character that remembers all the people who have traveled along it.  It reads a bit convoluted.

I think the story would have been better if the author chose one of the stories: either the Slave on the run with her young daughters in 1845, or the young man looking to do something good rather than helping his dad steal marble Angels from cemeteries. Throwing the trapped Ocelot in conveniently  for the character, Cade, to save feels too easy.

I did like the relationship between Cade, his dad, Paul and Mrs. Walker. The forged family worked for me. 

Everything was going along wonderfully until she broke up with Alex! Why do that troupe? In Eileen Cook’s You Owe Me A Murder, Kim is desperate for a friend while on the flight for school trip to London. Her ex-boyfriend Connor and his new romance are on the same trip. When she meets Nicki, a native Londoner, on the plane and divulges her frustrations, Nicki takes note of Kim’s list of “Why he deserves to die”. One day into their trip Connor falls or is pushed into a train. Shortly after, Kim receives contact from Nicki that her part is done and now it’s time for Kim to murder Nicki’s mother –quid pro quo. Why wouldn’t Kim just tell the police? The complications continue as Kim falls head over heels for Alex. Most of this story clips at a fast pace and there are twists readers won’t see coming. Aside from that 2 page part where some editor probably told Cook to have the main characters break up, this book is a winner for those psychodrama-loving teens in your library.

By: Alexander Yates

Reviewed by OHS Student, Chhaya W.

This book is based on a disease that has split the world into two: the wicked and the true. Now it’s up to a young, teenage girl to find out the truth before she, too, is buried beneath the lies of the past. The wicked are immune to the disease and have the key to a cure. The true live in isolated communities trying to keep themselves safe. This science fiction novel moves quickly with an interesting plot

The writer has a great storyline, but I wish he did better with the ending; it felt unresolved. I was also hoping for romance, because of the cover image; there was none. I guess this is an example of why we shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover!

Here are ten scenes between a mother and a toddler as they go through their day noticing the differences between them. The toddler is little while the mother is big. The mother throws the ball while the toddler catches it. The toddler is up on the slide while the mother is down at the bottom of the slide.

While the only words on the page are the pair of opposites, the illustrations make it so easy to create a dialog between the child being read to and the reader.

Alice Melvin’s textured paper cut outs with movable joints bring these scenes to life! They are charming!

“Kakapo [a green New Zealand parrot] was crazy about karate.” She practiced daily at the dojo. The only move she was not able to do was the flying kick, after all, kakapas do not fly. Soon Kakapo was ready for her next karate advancement test. This test was for her black belt. At the test, Kakapo proceeded perfectly through all of the kicks, jumps, and blocks. Her final test would be a flying side kick. She would not even try it. Then, the senseis asked her to do a jumping side kick. Kakapo was puzzled. She had never heard of one before. She reasoned it out. Did it. Then, realized the senseis had tricked her into doing a flying side kick, simply by renaming it. Kakapo had earned her black belt.

Here is a child’s version of “A rose by any other name”.

All of Stacy Curtis’ action karate illustrations bring back my memories as a parent of a student of tae kwon do. Good memories.

Frankie and Maya are in the audience of the town magic show. Frankie had read all kinds of magic books in preparation for the show, even the hard ones. Then, Frankie and Maya practice a few magic tricks of their own before preforming them in front of their families. “In a lot of ways, magic was like inventing. There was a lot of science behind magic tricks. Magicians often came up with new tricks, and they had to test and retest them, like when inventors designed inventions.” (19) In true story book fashion this is leading up to the school’s talent show and Frankie wants to preform a magic act with Maya as her assistant. When the two go to audience, Maya has such stage fright the trick does not work. Mr. Winklesmith, at the magic shop, advises Frankie if you cannot get Maya’s hands to stop shaking, figure out how to do it with hands shaking. Frankie will use her inventor skills so Maya will be able to help with the trick no matter how much her hands shake. Frankie does not reinvent the wheel. She builds upon the apparatus her kindergarten buddy uses, in class, to hold the playing cards needed for their math game. Once Frankie’s new device works for the magic trick, Frankie adds glitter and magical glitz to it. In the mean time, Maya has learned a new mantra from their friend Ravi, “I’m going to be fine.” Repeating it over and over and over again.

Frankie and Maya’s magic tricks are a big success at the school talent show. And two of Frankie’s former teachers ask her to make them the same device for use in their their classrooms.

After the story, there are two sections to help with STEAM /STEM projects. The first one is “The Design Process- Something Old into Something New” and the second one is “Your Turn to Be the Inventor”. Both are child friendly bits of advise on how to get the inventive juices running.

Frankie Sparks, Third Grade Inventor is a new series to get young readers, especially girls, interested in STEM.

Frankie’s teacher announces, ” ‘we are going to research different kinds of animals, because we are going to get a class pet.’ ” (10) Frankie already knows the perfect animal because her Aunt Gina is a rodentologist. Frankie knows the class pet should be a rat. Now Frankie needs to state her case to her class. Ms. Cupid, Frankie’s teacher, insists the entire class go through the research process. This irritates Frankie because she KNOWS she already has the perfect pet and grudgingly does the research.

When Maya, Frankie’s best friend, does not agree with a having rat as the class pet, feelings are hurt. How come everyone else in the class does not agree with Frankie’s knowledge, especially Maya?

Then, Frankie comes up with an obstacle that could rule out having a rat. One of the parameters for the class pet is it must be “able to be alone for the weekend” and rats need/want fresh food daily. Here is where Frankie’s talent as an inventor excels. She invents a food storage system the rat will be able to open on its own so the rat will have fresh food daily over the weekends. Frankie’s first model does not work correctly, but she continues to work on it until it does.

Frankie’s parents and friends help her to see her other classmates’ points-of-view, but it is not easy.

Third grade emotions run the gambit, making this a very believable story.

After the story, there is a short section on the ‘design process’ and “Your Turn to Be the Inventor!”.

Abigail Haas weaves a web with past and present narration of days in Anna Chevalier’s life, surprising readers with the twisty roads during Anna’s trial for the death of her best friend, Elise. Anna is on a spring break trip with Elise and others when Elise is murdered. Haas plays on readers’ empathy for the main character during the flashbacks thrown between accounts in the trial. She keeps readers second-guessing who the murder is — could it really be Anna after all? What teens will like is the mystery, the lies and the love triangle. My hunch is that the love triangle had more time devoted to it but editorial cuts were taken as Haas’s focus is on Anna’s psyche overall. Can she handle the pressure? Does she deserve to be on trial? Ominously re-titled from its original Dangerous Girls published in 2013, I’ll Never Tell’s new cover will probably hook new readers who like mystery.

Ollie couldn’t wait to go outside to play with her toy bunny. Finally the rain stopped and they went out to splash in the puddles. A wind came and a petal landed on the bunny’s nose which twitched and the bunny came alive. Ollie chases her bunny through the story on a great adventure until at last it is finally time to return home and her bunny becomes a toy again.