Too often our students’ understanding of the civil rights movement is limited to the big names of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and maybe Ruby Bridges.  This would be a solid addition to any library collection to broaden the picture we offer our students.  Told from the perspective of a young boy reminiscing about his father’s store, this book tells about Harlem’s National Memorial African Bookstore, and the roll it played as a community gathering place.  It also stresses the importance of spreading knowledge through literacy and discussions to empower people to bring about change.  The end papers and the main body of the text are sprinkled with words of wisdom from a man who had little formal schooling himself but knew the power of learning.

A solid little book that pacts a reasonable amount of information into the constraints of an early reader, clearly outlining the distinguishing characteristics between two easily confused animal groups.  Before reading this, I couldn’t have told you what the difference was, but now I know.  The book addresses traits such as size, tails, noses, family behavior, and intelligence.  It also offers a map showing regions in which both types of animals live, and discusses the relationship both have to humans as fellow primates.  It’s got a solid binding, all the usual non-fiction text features, and color illustrations that support the text.

Yes, the photos are “super cute!” just as the cover proclaims.  And as a beginning reader, it has a certain draw, as it only has a sentence or two per page, supported by the photos.  But because it is an early reader, the information it provides is minimal.  Although, hey, I did learn that a baby giraffe is taller than me when it’s born.  That was interesting.  And it does have a good sturdy binding.

Beautiful color photos illustrate this scientific success story of bringing back this species of monkeys from approaching extinction to a viable population.  Crossing fifty years of concern and study and attempts and failures and more attempts, the book teaches about the needs of golden lion tamarins, about the growth of environmental science, about the interrelationship between animals and their environments, and about how humans can impact that relationship, both for ill and for good.  It honestly shares the complexities of trying to release animals born in captivity into the wild. It’s a book to inspire.

Wow! Fabulous! Amazing! Totally cool! Every library should have this book.  It is basically a history of our understanding of our place in the universe.  The main story is told in first person, from the perspective of the collective human race, beginning with the earliest observations seeming to indicate the earth was flat and the sky a dome above.  It continues on, explaining how further observations led to more and more complex models of the universe, and in so doing shows how knowledge comes to be, as something that grows rather than something stagnant.  On every page, captioned diagrams, photos, and illustrations help to explain the thinking of the times.  It ends not with our current understanding of the universe, but with the questions still to be answered.  It’s a beautiful book, sure to spark curiosity and wonder.

Informative blurbs at the beginning and the end of the book tell about the man who was Davy Crockett, and about the time period in which he lived, and how legends grew out of the truth of the time.  Sandwiched between these blurbs is a tall tale describing how Davy wrestled to the death a gator who was longer than two steam ships, and had been terrorizing the Mississippi River until he met his match in Davy.  It’s a great example of voice, being told in a folksy drawl that sounds like an old-timer rocking on a front porch somewhere telling the tale, full of colloquialisms that suit the era.

Very readable.  Very informative.  Does a good job of recognizing many ways in which the roll of president was shaped by George Washington, and many ways in which the young country was still feeling it’s way at the time of his presidency.  We so often hear in today’s politics people arguing about what the “founding fathers” believed, but this book does a good job of illustrating how much disagreement their was among the founding fathers, and showing that George Washington purposely set out to make sure he would hear from opposing sides before making his own decisions:  the idea of the President having a cabinet of advisers was not in the Constitution, but was instituted by Washington, and has continued ever since, for this purpose.

Okay, I can’t say I’m a fan of encouraging students to think they can wait to the last minute to do their homework, and many of the projects suggested are really more activities than experiments, but they’re still (mostly) good activities, with solid science behind them, and the section after each activity where it lists ideas to, “Keep Exploring — If You Have More Time!” really do offer solid experimentation ideas to extend the initial activities. Also, even though the series is arranged around biomes, and this one claims to explore Temperate Forests, most of the activities are really applicable to anywhere one finds deciduous trees, not necessarily forests.

A good, solid biography of Columbus, it neither glorifies nor vilifies the explorer.  In addition to sharing the facts of Columbus’s life and adventures, it shares many of the misconceptions that have surrounded the explorer, debunks them.  But it does so in a very balanced approach: while shooting down the notions that Columbus “discovered” America, or proved the world was round, and acknowledging his mistakes and failings and cruelties, it also recognizes his talents as a navigator and the lasting impact he had on bringing Europe and the Americas together.

This is not a stuffy science book that’s getting weighed down with such things like the scientific process or school-like topics in which to organize the projects.  This is just science for the fun of it.  All the projects use simple-straightforward materials easily found.  The directions are easy-to-follow and not terribly time-consuming.  There are “icky explanations” offered for each project that explain the underlying science or broader applications.  But mostly they just look fun.  Entertainment for the scientifically minded.