Review written by OHS student, Lia K.

Eighteen years ago, two princes, heirs to the kingdom of St. John del Mar, were kidnapped and murdered by the rivaling kingdom of Mondrago. Three friends, Elias, Mercedes and Ulises were all deeply affected on a very personal level. So what happens when maps show up hinting that the little princes are in fact alive just hidden? Should the friends go searching for the truth, even if it’s the most dangerous path?

You should read this book because the writing was phenomenal. The plot amazing. It left me on my toes wondering what happened at every turn. It also switched narratives without using first person, which was great!

This book starts with discussing the danger of floods, then defines what a flood is and identifies different types of floods.  It concludes with ways to protect people and property from floods.  Simple text and color photographs make this is good choice for young readers.

Glossary contains Tier 2 academic vocabulary (absorb, bank, evacuation, raging) but not the Tier 3 domain specific vocabulary introduced in the book, specifically levee, fluvial flood, coastal flood, or flash flood.

The bulk of this book focuses on weather and ends with a two page spread explaining climate and climate change. Information is communicated in a visually appealing and stimulating way with small chunks of text interspersed with diagrams and illustrations.

My reservations with this book are two fold: the title implies a greater focus on climate.  The interdependence and differentiation between weather and climate are only addressed briefly at the very end of the book.  Secondly, I found some of the factual information misleading or even incorrect.  For example it claims that absolute zero is the coldest possible temperature (p. 12) which scientifically is incorrect.  While it is true that lightening can be hotter than the surface of the sun (p. 21), both the sun’s atmosphere and all other layers of the sun far exceed the temperature of lightening.

Despite these reservations, I still recommend this book as an appealing informational text on weather.

Contains an explanation of exactly how hurricanes and tornadoes happen, real life examples, as well as discussing the potential impact of climate change on future storms.  Information is provided in small text blurbs, usually with a heading and supporting image.  Since this title focuses on the extreme storms, it would fit best as supporting material of a larger unit study.

Eye catching pictures, some of which appear to be digitally generated, are  often not attributed to any specific weather event creating misleading images.  When attribution is given, it is immersed in text so would only be evident to someone who reads the whole text.  Diagrams and maps add important supporting information.

Includes Table of Contents, Index, and Timeline

Large font, simple words and sentences, and colorful photographs makes this a good title for young readers.  Topics include the body, habitat, food, and life cycle of the sturgeon. Bold red vocabulary words are defined in the glossary.  Key concepts are introduced, but then not clearly explained (such as barbels and omnivore).  Quick Stats section provides the average weight of the beluga and shovelnose sturgeons and then compares them to everyday household objects – a refrigerator and a book.  Online Resources can be accessed from abdobooklinks.com and include educational sites with information appropriate for older readers.

Includes Table of Contents, Glossary, and Index.

Jeff Mack has a new series-  Mr. Monkey.  Mr. Monkey is visually appealing slap-stick. Since this is book #2 , the numeral two is replaced with the icon of two banana. The end-papers are filled with the images of two bananas.

Mr. Monkey is learning to juggle: tennis rackets, an umbrella, and a brief case. Ooh! Ooh! Mr. Monkey receives a new email. “DEAR MR. MONKEY , PLEASE VISIT OUR SCHOOL AND DO YOUR TRICK. SINCERELY, THE LIBRARIAN” Mr. Monkey packs his car, then realizes he has forgotten his pants. “OOPS.” (red face)

Mr. Monkey’s trip to school is filled with traffic, an accident with a cow, rain, snow, then a blizzard, and finally a ski jump. Once Mr. Monkey arrives at school his juggling items gets creatively used by a crossing guard, a PE teacher, and the principal until nothing is left for him to juggle once he reaches the stage. “OOH… IT’S SHOWTIME!” Quickly Mr. Monkey exits the stage. He comes back with a cow. “He lifts. He tosses. He catches the cow!” When another cow comes to see what is happening, it is tossed, too. When the librarian comes on stage to check out the act, she is juggled with the two cows. The audience loves this act.

Smiles and giggles are guaranteed with each “oh” and “oops”.

A sturdy binding and some nice color photos are not enough to be worth almost twenty dollars. With only one or two brief sentences per page, this book is so thin on information, both its audience and purpose are severely limited.

It’s not a bad book. I actually learned quite a bit, given that it’s been more than 20 years since my college astronomy classes, and this is an ever changing branch of science. It’s got a good sturdy binding and current information.  The trouble is that it’s hard to judge who the target audience is. Follett lists it as interest level 3-6, and reading level 6.5. It looks designed for younger readers, but it deals with some pretty sophisticated science. In order to make sense of it, the reader must already have some understanding of protons and neutrons and atoms and quarks and plasma, as only some of those words rank a place in the glossary, and then the definitions are pretty minimal. Also it’s guilty of my pet peeve about timelines: listing chronological events horizontally does not a timeline make, unless the spacing along the line represents the passage of time. In this one, two inches once represents less than half a million years, and later on the same line represents 8 billion years. Ugh!

I would probably only have given this an “Additional Purchase,” even if it was better than it is. Given how little interest my students generally show in reading authors’ biographies, it would have had to be something truly exceptional to get a Recommended from me.  But it’s not even well-written, On the first page it describes Sendak’s work as “realistic,” which doesn’t jive at all with the rich fantasy worlds he is famous for creating. On the next page it tells us that,  “The Brooklyn Bridge is the most famous landmark in Maurice’s hometown.” Never mind that I might argue that the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building might outrank the bridge — no comment is offered as to how New York landmarks are relevant to the person or work of Maurice Sendak. On the page where the text is trying to convey that WWII impacted our author by showing him that the world could be a scary place, the accompanying picture shows everybody smiling and having a grand party to celebrate the end of the war — doesn’t exactly convey scariness.

It’s got a good message and cute pictures. An apple-growing mouse lives next door to a bee-raising bear, and all live in happy, helpful harmony until one of the bees stings the mouse and misunderstandings grow into an all-out feud between neighbors. Throughout, the bees and the trees remain above the squabble, continuing to help despite the argument, which is eventually brought to an end by near disaster. It’s a fine little story, but I found it a bit pedantic.