Freedom Of The Press by Duchess Harris is a very informational book about the first amendment. It tells about important things the press has covered and things they weren’t allowed to cover. There is a part about crimes committed at Watergate that eventually caused a president to resign from office. There was information about several different people’s ideas on whether or not newspapers should be censored. There was a section about libel and what it is. There were parts about freedom and protecting people’s rights now as well as in the future. The book has many features including a table of contents, a timeline, a facts page, a glossary, an additional resources page, a source page and an index. It also had a bunch of pictures and was written in a way that made the book easy to read. The book seemed very accurate and thorough and had a lot of important information and text features. It had a bunch of call out boxes and information about the smaller topics that were mentioned. If you like learning about rights throughout history I would recommend this book to you.

Review by Janelle

Mimi is so small, she sometimes thinks she should be called Mini. Mimi is frustrated of the things she cannot do because of her size. Her friends and family try to cheer her up by sharing all the positive things about being small. Mimi tries to focus on those positives, but can only find a few examples on her own. One day when her Dad gets her after school, he has a surprise to share – a new baby sister. Now that Mimi is the big sister and she reassures her tiny sister that one day, she’ll be a big too.

Sweet watercolor illustrations help portray Mimi’s frustrations and joys. A good title to encourage self-esteem and self-acceptance.

From tree to sea, from sun to stones and from bees to whales the natural world around us can teach us valuable lessons on how to live. These messages from nature are shared through both words and pictures.

  
'A baby bird shows me how not to be afraid
to spread my wings and fly.
I'll never find out how high
I can soar unless I try.' 

This beautiful book shares uplifting and encouraging messages while celebrating the natural world. A lovely read aloud and a great support for Social Emotional Learning lessons.

Melia spends her days measuring, testing, reading, and observing as she creates things in her lab. Jo spends her days singing, crouching, leaping, whirling, and twirling while she expresses the world around her creatively through the arts. They seem to have nothing in common and at first aggravate each other, but together they turn out to be a dream team. Jo’s unconventional creative thinking inspires Melia to look beyond what is right in front of her. The pairing of scientific thinking and creative thinking leads to inventive solutions.

A good title to support the STEAM movement. Also encourages the acceptance of others and the benefits of working together.

An introduction of the role of coal in energy production past and present. The book begins by identifying coal, where it is found, and its uses. It continues with an historical explanation of the invention of the steam engine and its reliance on coal. The invention of early steam engines is then tied to the current use of steam turbines to create electricity using coal. The book concludes with the fact that coal creates pollution and that scientists are working to create new coal power plants that are better for the environment.

Large font and simple sentences make this book easy for young students to read. The flow between topics lacks smooth transitions, particularly the significance of the invention of the steam engine. The Table of Contents only includes three entrees, All About Coal Energy (all the text), Think About it (a 2 page spread with one question), and the Glossary.

Starting with Nina Simone singing a lullaby to her baby, the story is told as if Nina were telling her child about the role of music and segregation in her early life. The white and black keys are a metaphor of the relationship between white and black Americans. At 12 years old, Nina showed her resolve when she refused to play when her mother was made to leave the front row of her concert when white people arrived. The story-like quality and the short concise message make this complex concept accessible to younger children. It reinforces the fact that the struggle for civil rights involved many amazing leaders from all walks of life.

If the reader of Greenglass House was intrigued by the house’s various elements and wants some background to the house itself, this may be the book for them.

In September 1810, Lucy Bluecrowne’s father bought a huge house on top of a hill overlooking a river. There her father planned to keep Lucy, her Chinese half-brother Liao, and her Chinese step-mother Xiaoming safe while he was off at sea. However, this was not to be. A pair of time-travelers looking for a conflagrationeer and a special ironmonger / weapons maker put Lucy and Liao in harms way.

The time travelers go back and forth through time wheeling and dealing with a supplier for their evil buyer/employer. If they fail, they will suffer greatly in reputation and physically. Then there are the innocents – Liao and Lucy who might not want to travel time for crooks.

As the story weaves in and out of time various features of the Greenglass house are recounted, to the reader, and why the features are in the house in the first place.

Winifred, Fred for short, finds herself being picked up from school by Children and Youth Services and taken into foster care. Fred finds herself miles away from Philadelphia, in Lancaster, with a women she does not know, Margery, and a non-stop barking dog in the neighbors yard. Fred’s mother has been arrested for stealing someone else’s prescription drugs from the drug store where she works. Fred is a ‘glass is half full’ kind of girl where her mother is concerned and believes her mother’s story that it was all a misunderstanding, an accident. Mom will be in jail for awhile and so Fred will be in foster care for at least a month. Fred soon finds herself standing up to a bully and getting suspended from her new school on her first day, helping another girl (Delia AKA Lardvark) who is being bullied by the same girl, and the inhumanely treated dog (Toby) next door.

All the characters are so well developed with intriguing backstories slowly spooned out over the course of the story readers will not want to put this book down! Why is Margery so understanding? Why does the neighbor treat his dog so poorly? Why does Larkvark allow the daily bullying to continue?

“Maybe everyone hid pieces of themselves until it was safe to bring them out and show them to someone else.” (180)

Bionic Eyes by Christine Zuchora-Walske is a informative book that tells the reader the history of projects for blind people going from glasses to brain implants. I would say this book is a good book for 5 year olds and higher who like science stuff. It will also teach kids and other people how bionic eyes were created and upgraded. The book has many things like a links page, a contents page, a timeline, a glossary, an index and pictures to go with that stuff as well. If you need further help, this book has definitions for items that they talk about, they have reference pictures for you to understand how the things work, they even have details about every date found out about the objects they talk about. The facts in this book are very accurate. I highly recommend this book as a learning and informational book. I would honestly give a 5 star rating on this book.

Review by Ryan

The book Creative Podcast Producers by Heather C. Hudak is about the history and usefulness of Podcasts in today’s modern world. This book explains why podcasts are so important and how they became a huge part of our world. It explains more about technology and what goes into making a podcast. This book is jam packed with information, bright pictures, a detailed timeline and an essential glossary and index. This book is great for students who are interested in such subjects and it’s an easy read. This book is well written and very informative, but it’s not a very entertaining book. I liked reading it and learned a lot from it. I would recommend it to those students who are very interested in the topic, but not just reading for fun because it is not very exciting. This book is very motivational and encouraging to young people. They can pursue their dreams and become something even by themselves. It’s a very positive and useful book that I recommend reading because it’s very interesting and a good read.

Review by Jessie