With surname like hers, the young heroine in Lianne Oelke’s debut novel, Nice Try, Jane Sinner, certainly has good reason to have, when it hits, a crisis of identity regarding her faith in light of her family’s strong religious beliefs. Feeling like a fraud, Jane makes a failed but public attempt at ending it all, only to find herself still alive and politely asked to leave her high school so she won’t provide a bad example to her fellow students.

Determined to somehow make a new start and find her true self, Jane reluctantly enrolls in the ersatz Elbow River Community College and auditions for a reality show in which, to her surprise, she is cast. Called “House of Orange” in homage to the vintage orange shag carpeting in the house, the online competition features other quirky characters vying to win money and a car by outlasting each other: the last resident wins. Under the constant scrutiny of the HOO camera crew and the student producer, Jane keeps a journal of her progress and her tactics to survive, sparing herself nothing in the way of truth. Her journey is engrossing and humorous, taking the reader along for the bumpy ride of finding love, her voice, her backbone, her hope and herself.

Set in Canada, this book is satisfying, worthwhile and highly recommended for Young Adult readers ages 14 and up.

Eye of the Storm is a well researched and skillfully written description of a NASA’s critically important project to study the dynamics of Hurricane Intensification. The text is oriented toward intermediate readers. Scientific jargon is either replaced with concise plain language or clearly defined so as not to be off-putting. The book begins with a human interest story relating to the experience of a Staten Island family that chose to ride out Hurricane Sandy at home. Due to reports designation Sandy as a Category 1 storm, the lowest level of sustained wind, this choice seemed sound. Unexpectedly, Sandy suddenly intensified and completely devastated the area where the Dresch family lived. The mother lived, but the father and daughter perished. The NASA project, the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) drone was implemented to study the way hurricanes form and build strength. In this way, forecasts can be much more useful in determining emergency response needs and accurate evacuation requirements. The book is a well-balanced combination of the science of cyclonic storms, the technology NASA is using to study them, and the people performing the work. This is supported by excellent photography and detailed graphics. The politics surrounding these devastating storms is also examined. Eye of the Storm is a compelling treatment of this valuable NASA project and is recommended.

Learn about the King Cobra – it’s habitat, appearance, defense, hunting, and lifespan.  Short, simple sentences make it accessible to young readers.  Dramatic photographs are sure to attract snake fans.

The facts seem to lack organization and photographs do not always directly support content.  Contains a simple Table of Contents, Glossary, and Index.  Only two of the three recommended booklinks worked.

Sophie Mouse is excited for the upcoming Maple Festival.  She and her friends, Hattie Frog and Owen Snake, are especially looking forward to the ferris wheel.  During the week leading up to the festival, Sophie’s Mom’s bakery assistant is away visiting friends and the the bakery is extra busy getting ready for their booth.  Sophie volunteers to help her mom and comes up with some fun new recipe ideas.

The day of the festival, Sophie heads out to explore all the new attractions.  At the top of the ferris wheel with her friends, she notices no one is at her Mom’s bakery stand.  As soon as she can, she heads over to check in with her Mom.  To help attract customers, Sophie creates a sign using a large maple leaf.  Soon there is a long line waiting for the booth’s yummy baked goods.  By the end of the day, the bakery stand is empty.

Large font, simple words, and some supporting illustrations make this a solid transitional chapter book for second and third graders.  This series does use diverse and complex sentence structure not found in many transitional chapter books, making it stand out.

This is a lovely story about neighbors helping neighbors. The opening pages show a sign, with little tear-off phone number strips, stating “BUILD UP NEIGHBORS       Fix a neighbor’s house together!”

Wilson’s grandmother’s house needs some fixing up. Wilson tells all the things he will do to Gigi’s house one day, a fresh coat of paint the color of the sun. To which Gigi replies,” ‘I will like that but today, you are all the sunshine I need.’ ” Wilson tells the ice cream truck vendor how he will fix Gigi’s windows, so they will open to let in the breeze. A fence, so Gigi can have a dog for companion. Wilson will fix the balcony, the chimney for the fireplace,  and the leaky roof Wilson mentions to the librarian. Wilson will have Gigi’s piano tuned. Finally, Wilson tells his teacher and classmates about planting flowers for Gigi.

” ‘One day.’ said Wilson… ‘one day is here!!’ ” In three glorious, untexted, double-spread pages, Gigi’s neighbors all come together to repair her house.

A Junior Library Guild Selection

The old song you learned as a child will take on a fresh new life of enjoyment as Gris Grimly’s whimsical illustrations fill your field of vision.  Large bulky farm animals with skinny legs, a hundred year old barn leaning in several directions, gnarled trees, old split-rail fences, and a weather vane all precariously being held together by make-shift repairs.

Old farmer MacDonald happily tours his farm in his knee-patched bib-overalls as he tends to his chickens, turkey, ducks, donkey, pigs, caw, and sheep. When they all return to the barn, low and behold there is a bear inside “E-I-E-I…OH! With a GRR-GRR here, and a GRR-GRR there Here a GRR, there a GRR, everywhere a GRR-GRR…Old MacDonald had a farm…E-I-E-I-O”

Includes piano score with lyrics and some of Gris Grimly’s family farming history.

Have you ever wondered what it was like for the civilians of France during World War II? I have.  The Bicycle Spy gives us glimpses of the ordinary day-to-day life in France, in 1942, along with the focal story of secret resistance to the German occupation army.

Marcel discovers his parents, town bakers, have him delivering bread to his aunt and uncle with a written coded note inside it. Resistance?

The Tour de France has been canceled due to the war but the school boys still race their bikes with each other. At school, the new girl, Delphine, talks her way into Marcel and Arnaud’s bicycle race after school. She wins. Delphine and Marcel become bicycle riding buddies. Delphine brings a scrap book of the Tour de France to the old barn where she and Marcel meet after bicycle rides. Later, in the barn, Jewish and Resistance secrets are shared between the two of them after German soldiers have shown up at their school.

The plot thickens as Marcel’s family help Delphine’s Jewish family escape from France. As much as Marcel’s parents want to keep him safely in the dark from their Resistance work, it is not possible. Marcel delivers messages for them on his bicycle under stressful conditions : carrying notes past German check-points, unfamiliar routes, a time sensitive message that arrive too late, and his bicycle getting a flat tire. All the while Marcel keeps his tired legs pumping the bicycle pedals comparing his efforts to the ordeals of riding a bicycle in the Tour de France.

Then one day, Delphine and her family are gone. Months later, a letter from Portugal arrives. No message, just a picture of a girl riding a red bicycle with a cat in the basket torn from a magazine.

“While inspired by real events and historical characters, this is a work of fiction…”

It includes a time line of World War II in France, a short history of the Tour de France, and a glossary of terms – mostly French.

This zebra book isvery thorough in covering the very basic facts about zebras such as their habitat,their body size and stripes, their food, and their babies. Their is an additional fact page in the back along with a glossary, index, and an online address link. Large, beautiful photographs accompany each page spread and support the information found on the page.

John was ten years old when his dad brought a baby orangutan home from Indonesia. John loved Raja like a little brother, but soon his parents divorced. John and Raja were separated for years until his father went bankrupt, having his home reposessed which meant Raja could no longer live with him. John decided to fly out to see Raja before he was sent to a zoo, only to find a very large, strong, and depressed Raja that had been locked up in a trailer in his father’s back yard. Raja was then taken to a zoo where he was locked up in a small cage. John takes an opportunity to break Raja out of the zoo, and find a way to escort Raja back to Indonesia. Unfortunately, John finds out the protected land there has been put in danger by the crooked government, which leaves John with a very large decision. Should he leave Raja, free to live in his natural habitat, where corporations are burning multiple acres and the food sources necessary for Raja’s survival, or allow him to be caged and depressed for the rest of his life? The author, Eliot Schrefer, traveled to indonesia to research the problems that orangutans face in their homeland. Readers will have many questions answered from this fictional book that has truths woven throughout. They will also be left with many more questions regarding a serious world issue.