The book begins by explaining that the many different ways animals move are made possibly by their different shape, size and in some cases unique legs, fins, wings, or tentacles.  The remainder of the books covers walking, leaping, swimming, climbing, flying, rolling, and jetting.  Each mode of movement begins with a 2 page spread illustrated by 1 animal and how it moves.  The following 2 pages show 5 to 6 examples of how other animals accomplish the same movement.  Each animal is accompanied by an explanation using a unique synonym for the described movement.  For example, walking is described with marching, strolling, tiptoeing, and waddling.  Rolling is described as whirling, tumbling, somersaulting, wheeling.  A basic description of each featured animal and its habitat is included at the end of the book.

Flying Frogs and Walking Fish is another winner for Jenkins.  A definite choice to support the NGSS.

A young boy enjoys dressing up as animals, and his friend Camille loves math so much some days she talks only in numbers.  Finding the right animal is tough for the young boy.  With the help of his friend Camille, he settles on dressing as a frog.  Thrilled with his costume he decides Camille should also dress as a frog.  While Camille agrees to help make a costume, she soon loses interest in the long process and reverts to her love of math.  Frustrated, the young boy yells at Camille to stop wiggling.  Her feelings hurt, Camille picks up her things and goes home.  Now all alone and feeling lonely, the young boy makes a list of the Pros and Cons of Being a Frog and decides to find Camille and apologize.  No matter where he looks he cannot find Camille, only numbers.  Just as he’s about to give up, he hears the sound of Camille’s frog feet approaching.  The books ends with an apology and a hug.

A sweet story celebrating how friends can be unique and very different from each other and still be friends.

In this introduction to computer programing, Data Duck leads the exploration through how computers work.  The second half of the book explains how computers do a range of tasks from searching and sorting to pictures and sound.  The text and animated illustrations  work well together to convey each topic.  The explanations throughout the book use analogies kids can understand.  For example, organizing files is compared to cleaning your room and files are compared to books in a library.  As new concepts are introduced, Data Duck provides clarifying details or reminders of previously covered topics.  Questions and activities are on odd numbered pages with answers in the endpapers.  While there is no actual instruction on how to program, this is a solid choice for intermediate age students; providing an age appropriate and informative introduction to the inner workings of computers.

Includes Table of Contents, Extension Activities, Words to Remember (glossary), Activity Answers, and Index.

The wrath and tyranny of the Sleeping Prince is crashing down upon Errin’s world.  All of Tregellan is going into a defensive lock down mode but Errin’s greater concern is to take care of her ailing mother, whom she believes has “Scarlet Varulv,” a mysterious disease that takes over her mind and body during the full moon in such a way that she attacks Errin and leaves her limp and lifeless the rest of the month.  With her father dead from an accident partially cause by Errin’s bad judgment and her brother abandoning the family without explanation,  Errin sole survival tactic is to sell the apothacary remedies she was being trained to do before her world crumbled.  Befriended by a hooded, white-haired male who always seems to show up at the perfect time, Errin not only continues her quest to release her mother from the afflicting disease while getting wrapped right into the center of battle with the Sleeping Prince.  Reminiscent of myth and full of lore, chases, heartbreak and tension, this is sure to please any reader who likes a twisted good vs. evil story.

Note: This is book 2 of a series though it was previewed as a stand alone.  It has a different point of view/narrator than the 1st book, The Sin-Eater’s Daughter.  There are times in the last 80 pages where the background of the 1st book would help.  Ultimately a library would probably pick up all three as most readers like the full story.

Seventeen-year-old Ryan Poitier Sharp is a daredevil whose passion is skydiving at her father’s diving school, living life on the edge with confidence and wild abandon on and high above the Mojave Desert. Daughter of a vibrant Caribbean mother, a veteran father with PTSD, she is also blessed with a Caribbean grandmother who has shamanistic Obeah (voodoo) magic in her loving bones. Ryan fully inhabits her ‘rum and clouds’ skin, glorious curls and careless beauty in reckless ways without apology, making love to her sweetheart, Dom, and caring deeply for her gay friend, Joe. However, when suddenly thwarted by her father in her wish to make a dangerous group dive, she takes LSD at a party and everything about her changes, mysteriously and for the worse. How she and her loved ones deal with Ryan’s frightening change, trying to discover the roots of her new darkness, makes up the body of the book, which is definitely for older young adults, since it has explicit sex scenes, descriptions of self-harm, suicidal struggles and family tragedies brought on by hallucinations. Tracy Clark has explored an unusual theme in Mirage, taking a metaphysical journey through what is either devastating mental illness or a ghostly possession understood only by Ryan’s heroic shaman Grandmother, who teaches her to reclaim her being, soul and sanity by bravely singing ‘the song of her life.’

In this realistic fictional novel, JT, a teen who is not able to afford college, wants to get out of his dead-end town in Florida. His boyfriend Seth suggests driving to New York to participate in the Miss Drag Teen Pageant. The two guys and their friend Heather encounter various characters along the drive that help JT discover his drag persona and, in doing so, himself.

JT and Seth are very relatable characters in the book. Some of the drag queens portrayed in the novel are interesting people that one would like to meet in person. The writing flowed and the text was easy to read. This book will definitely hit the mark with LGBTQ readers and those who enjoy reading coming-of-age books. This a fun and poignant read.

— Faith E.

The Boreal Five – five friends how grew up on the same street, each quirky in their own teenage way but bonded through life’s events.   Suddenly they are cut to four as a classmate, also from Boreal street, guns down one of them during a presentation in English class.  Each of them has bullied the at one point or another over the years.  Though stopped and now locked up, they wonder if it could have been them.  Rem — our narrator– is even more tied into the mess as his scientist mother is now doing experiments on the gunman via probes inserted into his brain.  Rem is asked to come converse with the gunman so they can watch his brain react.  So begins Tattoo Atlas.

This story is very multi-layered.  School shootings make way for ethics in scientific research, which take a side seat at times to examples of outed and closeted gay students as well as the death of an enlisted brother, not to mention the betrayal in a mother/son relationship.   A psycho thriller at heart, Tim Floreen’s characterizations are what make this book so interesting even as it is soooo far fetched.  But where it falls miserably short is in the point of the title of the book.  Rem keeps a sketchbook that he calls his Tatoo Atlas but it never really ties dramatically into the story.  This reader kept waiting for an ingenious weaving of the plot to the atlas but it never came to a fruition that would make it worthy of the naming of the book.  And the tooth — the tooth swap at the end was too much!   Any editor should have axed that one line.

In as much as this could be a recommended read for high school students, the flaws weigh heavily on this reviewer.

In this realistic fiction novel, teenager Rakmen’s little sister died. His anger led him to nearly flunk out of high school. His parents are on the verge of divorce. The only place Rakmen feels kind of feels supported is in a grief support group meeting. He meets one of his teachers and her daughter at one of the group sessions. This leads to Rakmen’s parents sending him on a trip to the Canadian wilderness with his teacher and her daughter. In these surroundings, he is able to canoe, camp and find himself.

The author’s writing is such that the reader is able to feel the emotions of the characters which made the novel exceptionally captivating. Although it is a sad book, the journey of Rakmen’s self-discovery made the book a very moving novel. I give this book a 3.5 – 4 (out of 5) boxes of Kleenex rating. For those who enjoy reading realistic touching fiction, this is a good one!

— Natalie S.