This is an encyclopedia with entries on cat people, dog people, succubus, demons and werewolves from all over the world in life, literature and film. Each entry is followed by a list of sources.  There is an entry on Enkidu, the world’s earliest recorded manbeast. There are entries on Bella Legosi’s Dracula and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. There is an entry on Navajo werewolves, or “skin walkers.” Considering the abundance of books and movies about vampires, werewolves and demons in the last several years, this is sure to find an audience in a high school library.

The story of Quincy Moves to the Desert is told from Quincy, the horse’s point of view. His best horse friend, Beau, tells him that they will travel from New York to the desert of New Mexico.  Beau is older and more experienced than Quincy, who is also new to the farm.  Beau narrates the trip with information about different breeds of horses in different states.  They all seem to be doing something different and unique.  Luckily  a map is included in the story and a wonderful website!  http://www.quincythehorse.com/

This book demonstrates how the tongue is not the only tasting organ, but that different species have different ways of tasting.  These different ways include feet, tentacles, skin and legs.  What is pretty amazing are the numbers of taste receptors different species have, usually many more than humans.  The content of this book is fine, but if there had been actual high resolution photographs included, rather than illustrations, this book would have rated a recommend.

Taking a trip to the pumpkin patch?  Don’t go without first reading this story-in-rhyme count down book on the whole field trip experience.  Start with counting down from 20 name tags…17 orange things on the bus…12 pets in the petting zoo…11 bees are making honey (I’ve never seen a hive that sparse.)… three bites of pumpkin pie…one pumpkin song to sing.  And what well known count down song do all adults know?…99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall…of course!  (Twenty Pumpkin Pies on the Wall)   Bright and lively illustrations complete with corn maize and tractor wagon ride, will appeal to the the kindergarten and first grade crowd.

Aunt Amarga, the last witch on earth, is afraid that some of the secrets of the lives of witches will be lost if she does not hand over the Witches Handbook to to her niece and nephew.  “What is a witch or a warlock?  begins the handbook, but then  the flow quickly shifts from a question format to a rather large section (most of the book) on describing famous witches and warlocks from fairytales  (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel and Merlin) in “tongue in cheek” fashion.  Twice as many Unknown Witches and Warlocks are described using sophisticated humor.   Switch back to question format for “When were there more witches?”  Shift again to a discussion of brooms and flying styles, witches and animals, potions and spells, Halloween and the witches’ sabbat.  Back matter includes a a word search, riddles, spot the seven differences, and spell-removing pancakes.  I think this book misses its intended audience with it’s more adult word choice, and pages and pages describing unknown witches and warlocks.  The lack of flow and odd mixture of content reminds me of what might be thrown into a witches caldron…a little this…”eye of newt”…and a little of that…”toe of frog.”  Whimsical and colorful illustrations are charming and kid appealing.

Wow! This book is fabulous! Just like it’s companion book, “Mirror Mirror,” this book is a series of Reverso poems based on fairy tales, some obvious and familiar, others more obscure.  Reverso poems are two side-by-side poems that use the exact same words, but by reversing the order in which the lines are written and changing punctuation, they completely alter the meaning of the text (often reversing the meaning entirely).  I was grateful for the paragraphs in the back which offer brief synopses of the fairy tales on which the poems are based, as some were unfamiliar to me.  The illustrations and bright and eye-catching and really contribute to setting the two poems against each other. I think this kind of play with words would have applications at all age-levels.  A treat!

Large sized, nonfiction book, with quality photographs make this book about alligators, a winner.   Basic information about habitat, birth cycle, and thankfully a world map locating them on our planet, and included in this book.  In the back an index, glossary, and Fact Hound internet sites exist.  In visiting this site, there was age relevant additional information about this animal.  This is a really nice extension for students wising to research more information about this animal.

Recommended for elementary  libraries.

Very Large photographs make this book a great addition to a library.   This would make a good read out-loud book, shared with a whole group.  The book is organized to be read as an interactive game.  The picture of an animal’s habitat on one side, and four photos of animals on the other.  There is a hint to help the reader (s) guess which animal lives there.

This would make a great support book for a science unit on animal habitats.

ARG! Most definitely NOT recommended.  I’m not even sure I want to put it in my library.  It does have some nice features – great photos, a consistent layout, basic information outlined for struggling readers, with extra information added for those interested & ready to read a bit more.  I was almost ready to forgive it for being guilty of my biggest pet peeve with books written for early readers — when in their efforts to keep the text simple they oversimplify to the point of inaccuracy.  On the page about macaque monkeys, it states that, “During the winter, they warm up in hot springs.”  While this is certainly what is depicted in the photo chosen for the book, it cannot be said of all macaque monkeys, as they don’t all live where there is winter, let along where there are hot springs near by.  Then they compounded their mistake by putting a true/false quiz in the back, designed to test students’ comprehension of their reading, when they come right out and ask students whether it is true or false that, “Macaque monkeys warm up in hot springs.” Of course, their answer key declares this to be a true statement, even though it’s not necessarily so. Ugh!

Given that it’s trying to cover the animals, weather, industry and landscape of an entire (and very diverse) continent in only a few simple sentences per page, it doesn’t do a bad job.  I only found one place to object to it’s oversimplification: when the sentence, “Other people live in villages,” is immediately followed by, “They grow rice on farms,” it implies that all villagers are farmers, which of course is not accurate.  But over-all not bad, just basic.