Graphic Novel
Four short episodes with villains, heroes, Jedis, Jabba, Aurra Sing and Obi Wan Kenobi. Stories of battles and run away battle droids.
Star War fans will quickly snatch up this book.
100 Scariest Things On The Planet
Photographs, short informative text and a scare factor rating (1 scared face icon is a little bit scary all the way to 5 icons which is totally terrifying) will make this a top favorite for students. Scary things include: the Grand Canyon glass skywalk, the CN Tower, aliens, cliffs of Moher, mummy tombs and ghosts, to name just a few. Small blocks of information make it easy to pick up and read non-sequentially and skim over items that the reader may have little interest in. However, the layout makes this a highly engaging book, so I’m am not sure that much, if any, information will be skipped over.
Rocky and Daisy Go Camping
Rocky and Daisy are Owen’s dogs. They do everything together.This year they are going to go camping with Owen and his parents. The family sings in the van as they drive to the camping spot. Owen and the dogs will be sleeping in a tent, play in the water at the beach, play with a ball, go hiking and gathering firewood, before cooking hot dogs over the fire.Thunder in the night scares Rocky and Daisy, so Owen takes the dogs and himself to sleep with his parents inside the van. The End.
Melinda Melton Crow has truly captured a trip to go camping. AND Mike Brownlow’s illustrations are charming and energetic.
Total word count = 432.
Hugo Movie Companion: A Behind the Scenes Look
This behind the scenes look at the making of the movie includes pictures of the set, biographies of the actors and producers and historical notes. Interesting is the side-by-side comparison of the book sketches with the created sets. An informative look at how a movie and scripts are created.
Rocky and Daisy Go to the Vet
Owen’s dogs Daisy and Rocky like to go for rides in the family van to the beach, the dog park, and the pet store. This time “the van stopped. Daisy sniffed. “Oh, no,” she said. “We are at the vet!” Daisy and Rocky began to tremble.” (p. 14)Rocky and Daisy try to escape. Then Dr. Jay petted them, scratched behind their ears, gives them doggy treats, and a shot “they didn’t even notice.” (p. 27)
Melinda Melton Crow has truly captured a trip to the vet. AND Eva Sassin’s illustrations are charming and energetic.
Total word count = 443.
Luz Sees The Light
A graphic novel about a young girl, Luz, who lives in the city. Luz decides that the old, abandon lot down the street is the perfect spot for a community garden and park. She gathers friends and neighbors to help make the dream of a community park come true.
Sepia toned panels. A bit preachy, but overall a good message about environmental stewardship. Practical advice on how to start a compost pile is also given in a seperate section at the end of the story.
Dragonbreath: Revenge of the Horned Bunnies
Danny Dragonbreath is excited about going to summer camp this year. That is until he finds out his younger cousin, Spencer, is going too. The disappointing news is tempered by the fact that his two best friends,Wendell and Christiana, will be going too. Things start looking up even more when the group has a mystery to solve. Who is stealing the jackalopes from the camp?
A mix of graphic novel and heavily illustrated text, this series is a student favorite. Funny, witty and an imaginative escape. Highly recommended.
There’s A Fly Guy In My Soup
A boy had a pet fly.
Right from the very first sentence we know that Arnold will take us on a whimsical adventure. After all, how many people relish the idea of a pet fly?
The boy’s name is buzz, which is very convenient for Fly Guy as he can easily pronounce his best buddy’s name!
This is book #12 in the series. We find Buzz and his family are on vacation. As the family goes to lunch at the hotel restaurant, Fly Guy goes to lunch in the hotel trash. Gross humor ensues (he is a fly of course) that most kids will find very funny. After he gets all yucky and covered with garbage, he decides he needs a bath. The unfortunate use of a diner’s soup as his bath cause a lot of commotion and mess.
Young readers cannot get enough of Fly Guy and Buzz. Like the other titles in this series, this book will also be in high demand.
Drops of Life
The first thing I noticed were the beautiful illustrations in this book. It is was initially drew my attention.
Secondly, I was drawn in by the message described on the back pages. Here I learned about an organization called ENO (Environment Online) that helps spread awareness and knowledge about sustainable development. This online environment allows students around the world to share their learning with our global community. This piqued my curiosity and thought this would be a wonderful resource for teachers and students.
And lastly, once again from the back page, I learned that this story is a well-known children’s play that has been performed in over eighty countries.
With all these positive attributes, I felt I really should have liked this book more; however, I found it to be choppy and unremarkable. It is easy to envision this as a play by the way it is written, but it makes for stilted reading. Perhaps something was lost in the translation, but as I was reading through this I couldn’t help but feel as if the dialogue is something that the students themselves would have created. For this reason, I think students may like it as a play, but will have a difficult time being engaged for reading pleasure.
W is For Wapitit! An Alphabet Song Book
K Mister Ka the Koala
Mister Ka the Koala
Has four kids
Armani, Tapio, Mo and Pol
Armani Ka, Tapio Ka and Mo Ka
and Pol…..
he hates being called Pol Ka
This book is full of fun word play and child like imaginings. It comes with a music CD which is very nice to have, but certainly not necessary for the book to be enjoyed. Each letter is given a two page spread of pencil and watercolor drawings. The last pages contain the alphabet, A-Z, titled let’s sing it again.
Catchy tunes, silly stories and engaging illustrations will make this a favorite of teachers and students alike.
