For the past 15 years, our school has seen a huge influx of immigrant children, coming from countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Russia, Japan, China, Thailand, Figi, India, Ethiopia (and other African countries), and lately, many from Saudi Arabia. These children arrive as non-English speaking and extremely shy. Who wouldn’t be? As this book shows, these kids are quiet, sad, observant, and bright. It would be extremely difficult to leave family and friends and a familiar culture to go live where to don’t know anyone, everything is different, and you can’t even be understood. But as this book points out, communication comes in different forms, and even though the differences in people are dramatic, there still are similarities enough to bridge the language barrier and to form friendships. This book provides very simple ideas to use as discussion points for those classrooms who have a non-English speaking student. This book should be in every elementary school library.

Peter Pan is the classic story of a boy who never wanted to grow up. Word for word, this edition is the same as the original, first published in 1911. Here are the differences: first, the cover art is more child-friendly and depicts a boy child in a tree, hands on hips, looking over a ship in the harbor. Secondly, the size is more appropriate for a child’s hand, and measures 5.25″ x 8″. Thirdly, there is a glossary at the back which explains some of the unique (outdated) vocabulary. Fourthly, there are suggested activities for children who want to play at being Peter Pan. And, lastly, and most interesting to me, was the information at the end which explains J.M. Barrie’s life and motivation for writing Peter Pan. He must have been such a kind man to have adopted the orphaned children that gave him inspiration for Peter’s ‘boys.’ Also, the information that Barrie gave the Peter Pan copyright to the children’s hospital so that long after his death the hospital would continue to earn money to help the children was simply amazing. This is a wonderful and cherished story told by a man too good to be true. I wish there were more like him.

In the land of the midnight sun in a time when the earth was young and light disappeared entirely from the earth, an orphan boy watched a Shaman repeat the same ineffectual chants and charms in an effort to return the sun.  While often treated poorly, the boy was still determined to make a difference for his people and begged his aunt for help.  She sends him off with a magical raven cloak and snowshoes to find the light.  After a long journey, he comes upon a man shoveling snow over a ball of fire and with every shovel full, the light was concealed.  The boy steals the light and transforms into a raven to escape back to his village bringing day to his people.

The voice of an oral storyteller can be heard in the language of the story.

Katie Woo hears hear Dad play the piano and she wants to make music too.  She tries the piano and all her friends’ instruments, “but I’d like to play something of my own,” she says.  She finds her own instrument in the sounds she enjoys around her and discovers the drums are her own way to make music.  The repetitive testing and discarding of musical instruments gives the text predictability for young readers.  Showing a Chinese American girl exploring the world around her, this is a great series to diversify your early reader collection.

Includes a Glossary of Musical terms, discussion questions and writing prompts, directions to make a Chinese drum.

Communities may come in all sizes, however, all need helpers that contribute to make it a special place. This book provides an insight into these types of jobs, what training or education they require, and scope of duties for each job. From Police Officers, to Doctors or Dentists the people that work in these positions are helpers that make our towns and cities special, safer, and a better place for all indeed. Jokes and tips accompany each page through this interesting insight of jobs in our communities. This book includes a glossary; index; questions with answers; a list of books for more information: and
web sites for further research.

This story of finding a special gift full of inspiration, a gift from the heart, for her mother, Celeste rides on the wind of her dreams into the sky. She rides on the wind and finds such patience and kindness from the sun, moon, and the stars she simply sparkles with delight all through the night. At last it occurs to her the perfect gift was in her flower garden the whole time.

This book is not so much about octopuses* as it is about how the information about octopuses is gathered. At first, this is a little disappointing because the word “Octopus” is in fact larger on the front cover of the book than the word “Scientist”. Plus, there is a photograph of an octopus filling the front cover space. The big colorful photographs of the underwater creatures entice the reader to explore the small font text set around them in three columns. This is not a book many intermediate grade readers would choose to read, but definitely would choose to look through.

Information about octopuses is scattered throughout the book, as it is revealed by the scientists in their long time intensive search for the information. If nothing else, this book demonstrates the slowness of science research. The research team most be formed. The team in this case is well-rounded:  a psychologist, an environmentalist, a behavioral ecologist, and an underwater photographer, all with scuba skills. They want “to find how octopuses decide what to eat… while avoiding being eaten themselves.” (4) They spend much of their time looking for the right locations. Noting where there are octopuses, as well as where there aren’t octopuses. They want two sites for comparison, and a possible third site. Searching for the sites takes up much of their allotted time in this distant location. “For most of our first week, it’s been two steps forward and one-step back–promise and revelation, then disappointment. True, we’re making progress. But it’s been punctuated with frustration.” (38)

Their first study location contains 3 octopuses. The group goes through their protocol and procedures. They survey the habitat, administer the ‘personality test’, and identify the remains of the prey consumed. They will eventually be doing this at the other two sites, all while working underwater. Being underwater has its own problems. Salt water is corrosive to their gear, sound travels faster through water and your hearing is muffled, objects appear larger under water, you have no sense of smell, and you and your work are being jostled by the sea surge.

• *” The plural of octopus is not octopi… it is incorrect because it mixes up two languages. Octopus is a Greek word… Adding i to the end of a singular noun is a Latin practice.” (11)

If you have small children of your own, you may have experienced their feelings at new situations. Author, Ana Crespo, has taken these experiences one at a time and written about them from a small child’s point-of-view in her “My Emotions and Me”  series of  books. On the front cover of each book in the top right-hand corner, there is a ‘Mood-o-Meter’ with the emotion this particular story will be exploring. In J.P. and the Polka-Dotted Aliens,  the emotion is that of being mad.

Little J.P. is happily playing with his monkey mask, in the park on the spaceship big toy, until two little girls in polka-dotted dresses come along. Then, he is mad. J.P. does not like the little girls invading his space, who he sees as polka-dotted blobs, decorating his spaceship with flowers. “I almost screamed. I was so mad,” says J.P. as he stomps his feet. “Then I remembered I am a fun monkey.” Soon the monkey and the aliens are getting along. “We had a fancy outer-space tea party.”

This book could be used by an adult and a child to open up a discuss on being upset, to recall with a child when he was upset and how it was resolved, and because it is written at such a beginning reading level it could be read again and again by the child himself.

Pre-schoolers and young children can transition from being mad to happy again in a short amount of time. Ana Crespo includes her own take on this in “A Note to Parents and Teachers from the Author.” This is taken from her own life experiences and research she has done. She states she is not a behavior specialist of any kind.

If you have small children of your own, you have experienced their feelings at new situations. Author, Ana Crespo, has taken these experiences one at a time and written about them from a small child’s point-of-view in her “My Emotions and Me”  series of  books. On the front cover of each book in the top right-hand corner, there is a ‘Mood-o-Meter’ with the emotion this particular story will be exploring. In J.P. and the Giant Octopus, the emotion is that of being scared.

Little J.P. has never ridden through a drive-thru car wash. Since there is a large octopus on the car wash’s sign and J.P. has been playing about being a shark, J.P. imagines the darkness inside the car wash is part of the ocean. He imagines the flexible scrubbing arms inside the car wash as those of a giant octopus. Fear and terror fill J.P. as his view of the world is covered up with the foaming soap, scrubbing arms, and the scritching scratching sounds. “I almost cried. I was so scared.”  With the loving support of his pet dog sitting next to him,  J.P. states, ” Then I remembered I am a brave shark. I showed my big shark teeth… I made some sharky sounds.” Soon the ride was over. “The giant octopus just wanted to play.”

This book could be used by an adult and a child to open up a discussion on fear, to recall with a child when he is fearful, and because it is written at such a beginning reading level it can be read again and again by the child himself.

Ana Crespo includes her own take on this in “A Note to Parents and Teachers from the Author.” This is taken from her own life experiences and research she has done. She states she is not a behavior specialist of any kind.

Leigh Walls cover illustration of a Cretaceous mosasaur swimming with its mouthful of pointed teeth grabs the viewers attention and screams, “Pick up this book!” I did. I had a hard time putting it down. Dinosaurs are to time travel as Jurassic Park is to Time Machine. What a combination. Hasn’t every dinosaur loving person always wanted to see a real living breathing dinosaur? Here is a book to live just that life vicariously!

It all begins with “Great-Grandpa Pierson, nicknamed ‘Mad Jack’, invents a Chronal Engine”… (time machine), but it can only be operated by remote control. Nate and Brady’s father has “spent most of his days and nights working on it and obsessing over it.” (3) The remote is called a Recall Device and Nate and Brady stumble across one in 1985 (their present time) and active it, traveling back to the Cretaceous Era.

Now the story goes back and forth being told first by Nate and then by Max. Max is Nate’s nephew from our present time. Uncle Nate is now a physicist.

Uncle Nate tells Max and his friend Petra,  “I need you to return to the Cretaceous, find me, and help me get back here. To 1985, actually…I can’t tell you a lot…I don’t think you’ll change the past by knowing what you’re going to do…The less you know, the better. (19)

Nate and Brady transported, in a bass boat, to the Cretaceous by the Recall Device. The Recall Device is dropped into the murky water. When Nate dives into the water to find it so they can return home to 1985, he is bitten by a mosasaur.

Meanwhile, Max and Petra have materialized at Mad Jack’s old island Cretaceous getaway. They begin looking for Uncle Nate, when an unknown someone secretly takes their Recall Device.  Then, while Max and Petra are down on the dock Mad Jack’s generator explodes catching the getaway on fire. Max and Petra quickly rescue as much of the stored supplies as they can before the fire consumes the buildings, taking the supplies down to a canoe at the water’s edge.

As Nate and Brady leave the mosasaur area heading for a narrow channel “on a fallen tree that bridged the channel, was a girl.” ( 43) Mildred, a time traveler they do not know, is looking for Max’s sister Emma. ” ‘My father used to work with Mad Jack Pierson but became afraid that he was becoming unstable and that leaving a time machine in his hands was dangerous. So my father sought out a person from the future who was important in the development of Mad Jack’s Chronal Machine.’ “(53) Mildred gets into the bass boat. Off in the distance they see the smoke from the burning getaway and head toward it.

Max and Petra are paddling their canoe when they encounter triceratops in the water. Their canoe cap-sizes, but they are able to rescue most of the canned food they’d brought from the getaway. Then, they see the bass boat and flag it down.  Brady and Max, two generations of Pierson, enjoy their banter back and forth about the dinosaurs they are encountering. The group decides to find a safe place off of the river to spend the night because it is getting dark. They build a fire in part to cook a fish that Nate has caught earlier in the day and to ward off dinosaurs in the night. They take turns standing watch. Talk around the fire is hard for Max because he is faced with the dilemma of whether or not to tell his Uncle Brady what he knows about Brady’s future. In Max’s future, Uncle Brady has already died. Will Max change the course of history if he tells Brady about his death and Brady then chooses a different path? For now, Max won’t tell Brady anything about the future.  In the morning, both groups, now one, take-off to find great great grandfather’s steamboat which should have a Recall Device on it. Otherwise, they are all trapped in the Cretaceous.

Anyone who has ever been out in the wild knows that anything can happen and often will happen. So it goes as Max, Petra, Nate, Brady and Mildred travel down river in the bass boat.  A herd of hadrosaurs begin to cross the river only to fall prey to the alligator-like deinosuchus in a feeding frenzy. Soon the bass boat and its occupants are being knocked around, when Max and Mildred get thrown from the boat. They make it to shore, but loose sight of the bass boat, which now has a damaged propeller, as well. The two groups each try to establish a plan to rejoin, but which group is further up river? If that isn’t bad enough, a T. rex shows up in Max and Mildred’s path. Max and Mildred are able to back away from the T. rex when a Deinosuchus distracts the T. rex.

Back on the river, Nate, Brady, and Petra come across a VW Beetle left in the Cretaceous on Max and Petra’s last trip there.  Night is falling, each group makes a bonfire to use to cook with, frighten away dinosaurs, and as a signal for the other group. Nate, Brady, and Petra will be walking in the morning because they have discovered a leak in the bass boat. It is now sinking.

Mildred’s true colors emerge after she and Max find the steamboat. On board the steamboat is “a prototype large-scale Recall Device”. (130) Mildred hits Max over the head with a piece of driftwood, then uses the Recall Device without him. Max finds a USB flash drive in the backpack he’s been carrying. It triggers a memory of the VW Beetle, which has a USB drive, and Max sets off to find the VW. He comes across an ankylosaur waving its club-like tail,  he skirts around  it only to find 2 Nanotyrannus. Just as Max gets out of their range, he runs SMACK into Brady, Nate, and Petra.

Back together again, Petra leads the way back to the VW Beetle, Max uses the USB flash drive, and finds directions to a Recall Device. Knowing where the Recall Device is doesn’t mean it will be easy to return back to the present. There are still T. rex to deal with and Nate’s injured leg is giving out, plus he has a fever. Finally, they make it to the Recall Device. When they activate it, it disappears without them.  A T. rex once again has them in its sights. “At that moment, there was a flash of light and a booming sound. In the middle of the creek bed, axle deep in water, a Hummer appeared and turned, blocking the giant theropod’s path. Grandpa Pierson’s Hummer.” (165) Kyle gets them into the Hummer and back to the present.

The story doesn’t end there because Nate needs to get to a hospital,  the T. rex is transported to the present along with the Hummer, there is an old letter from Mildred yet to be read, and one from Uncle Brady, as well.

There may just be another story brewing from great great grandpa Pierson’s Chronal Engine. Readers will just have to wait and see.