The opening poem on the inside front flap – Let’s Play Ball! begins the inspired collection of poems all about baseball.  Florian takes the reader from opening season warm ups to end of season reminiscing. There is a poem for every player position – pitcher, catcher, first, second and third baseman, short stop, right fielder, umpire and base stealer among others.  He even includes a poem about the fans (on the back cover) and one about the baseball itself.  Baseball lovers will envision that the poems were written about them.  After all, what pitcher wouldn’t want to be known as the “scourge of all hitters / the starter of slumps” and how many hitters would be happy to consider themselves as “strong…mean..with eyesight quite keen”?  This book would be great to use as an example for students to model their own themed book of poetry.

Florian creates the artwork in “gouache watercolors, oil pastels, colored pencils, and pine tar on primed paper bags”.  This mixed media combination gives a wonderful organic feel and texture to the illustrations. My favorite is the illustration for “A Baseball”.  Here Florian depicts a baseball unraveling at the seams.  The red lacing forms words to help explain why it’s falling apart.  The words “hit, smash, crash, pound and drive” say it all.

Florian has hit a home run with this delightful book!

Authors of this self-help book are both Harvard graduates who have crafted a fine book of guidelines for parents, students and school staff for how to succeed in all the many aspects of college/university choice and acceptance.  Any student in 10th or 11th grade ought to examine this book with their parents at their side because it provides so many practical and proven tips on testing, ratings, applications, essays, recommendations, visitations–just to name a few.  Each chapter begins with key points that will be covered, and there are highlighted text boxes that show examples of various points throughout.  A rather exhaustive book, my suggestion to readers is to break it down and refer to various chapters as needed:  pre-college planning, preparing an essay, how to prepare for the interview, what makes for a good recommendation and how to garner one, etc.  Humor helps break up the intellectual tone of the book, i.e., ice cream colleges and “No-No” topics for essays.  I disagree with the authors’ remark that there is a ton of financial aid available due to recent economic cut-backs.  Resources, sample worksheets that can be printed and written on and an index are included.

2013 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winner

A group of funny, colorful birds will amuse children as they learn the concepts of up, down, tall, small and high.  Readers are introduced to the comic antics of the birds in three separate
chapters.  Children will delight in the simple text and the colorful drawings. Long’s use of few words and repetition will allow the beginning reader to feel confident in their emerging skills.  With less than thirty words used throughout the book, it is the illustrations that carry the story lines and in a way that will make the reader smile  and want to reread the stories.  The book is an interactive, lift-the flap style, printed on heavy weight pages (similar to board books).  School and public libraries may still want to reinforce the three lift-the-flap pages though, as this book will get a lot of circulation.

Primary, nonfiction book which explains the importance of Memorial Day, as celebrated by the people of the United States, to honor the people who served in the armed forces.  Honored are the ones who gave their lives, and also those who currently serve.  There is a suggestion to write a thank you note to people who currently serve.  Great photos in this book.  Recommended.

Very informative book about the Mars mission of the Exploration Rover Mission.  Eleven full chapters with photos, captions,  and lots of text, probably best fit at the Middle School level, but all will find this an enticing and informative piece.  We get a peek into the emotions of the scientists as they wax and wane with elation and defeat with the progress of their amazing robotic devices.  History, science, and human drama all in one beautiful coffee table worthy book!