Excellent introduction to the history of the Washington Monument .  Discusses a short history and geography of Washington , D.C., and then tells about the lengthy time it took to build and complete it, and how it was built.  Includes pictures, glossary, more books to read and critical thinking questions using Common Core.

Have you ever had the feeling of frustration when you almost reach your goal?  In Absolutely Almost, Albie has that frustration all day every day.  He almost gets it but not quite.  The frustration turns to pain when his parents don’t understand why things are so hard for him, and that’s just at home.  Their expectations for him are high and they compare him to themselves and how they did at school.  There’s an ideal he can never live up to yet hears every day.  At school he is constantly teased and bullied because he doesn’t ‘get it’.  He isn’t one of the ‘cool’ kids, for sure, and he doesn’t even have a friend.  He is suspended from an elite private prep school because he doesn’t meet their rigorous academic standards (this is in NYC), and starts anew in a public school.  Once there, it’s the same thing all over again, but another throw-away kid, one with a defect, such as a stammer, becomes a lunch companion.  Albie’s life, as seen from his perspective, is a sad one indeed.  The book is sometimes funny to read, but it’s more sad when you realize Albie is just one of the many kids in schools who have trouble learning in the traditional way, and is unpopular because of it, and whose best friend moves away.  Life is a continual struggle for them.  Albie’s in fifth grade and because his parents have busy jobs, he has a nanny named Calista.  Albie thinks he’s too old for a babysitter, but Calista becomes much more than that.  Calista is the first person to really listen to Albie, to learn of his fears, and she gives him the confidence and strategies to overcome those fears and to learn to speak up for himself.  This is such a touching story, and Albie is a likeable character, that this book would make a great classroom read aloud with followup discussion on bullying,  and how to handle stress and painful situations.

When the late night talk show “Stranger Than Fiction” starts talking about a devil-boy that sneaks into the bedrooms of young girls and steals their dreams in a small Appalachian Mountains town, Violet thinks she might have located her missing boyfriend, River.  River hasn’t been heard from since he left last summer and now it’s Christmas.  Thus begins a road trip that will takes Violet and her friends from the Appalachian Mountains to the North Carolina coast and then to Colorado.

This is a haunting thriller that suggests that the devil may be found in 17 year old River Redding and maybe his half-brother Brodie.  This is the sequel and supposed conclusion to Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.  The ending makes me suspect that there might be yet another book in this series.

Willa’s story begins like an ideal family.   With a blended family from two separate economical situations, her stepfather Jack and his ex-wife seemed to want to ‘do what’s best for the girls’ – the ‘girls’ being Willa’s two stepsisters. Willa, the main character, slowly explains the real story.

Willa lives with her mother, stepfather, and two stepsisters. Always feeling left out, Willa cuts herself to relieve the stress she feels in her home. Willa’s mother has worked hard to give her a good family life, but her past comes back to haunt her. Willa’s biological father murders his current wife and their children and is coming for Willa, but he is caught and killed by the police. The horrible deaths of her family shakes Willa’s world and she is not sure who she is anymore.  With this the family explodes going separate ways.

Willa goes in search of herself when she travels to Texas to attend the funeral of her sisters and there she meets her brother.  During this story Willa learns heartache and truths about her family.  She learns to be thankful for what she has but also how to stand up for what she needs.  The story ended in a good place and made the reader feel like Willa would go on to be a well-rounded person because of her experiences.  It made me think it could be real.

– review by Jodie T.

Henwyn is a cheese-maker’s son who isn’t so adept at making cheese, but longs for heroic adventure.  After being left in charge of cheese making and making a total mess of things, Henwyn is kicked out of his village.  He strikes out looking for Princess Elunid, of whom he has heard was captured by a giant and aims to rescue her.  The stories he heard of her were decades old and she isn’t the young princess she once was.  Henwyn hooks up with Skarper, a goblin who was also tossed out of his clan, and together they make plans to break into a fortress which was long ago boarded up by an evil king but is said to contain riches beyond the imagination.  Fighting goblins and boglins, they both find the adventure they’ve only dreamed of.  Lots of action and clever twists, and the ending quite different than expected.  There aren’t any illustrations but the descriptions Reeve has given are more than enough to paint a vivid  picture in the reader’s mind.

Author, Roland Smith, brings his Crypid Hunters saga to a conclusion with this the fourth book in the series. It begins with a recap of the characters, followed by “The Crypid Hunters Saga so Far…”  which is wonderful, if you, like me, have been waiting for a year between book publications.

The revelation of the previous books’ unanswered questions takes place over the course of five days. Day one finds Marty, Grace, Ted, Dylan, Wolfe, and Luther all heading down to the jaguar preserve in the Amazon to finally locate Marty’s lost parents after their helicopter crash. On day two, we are introduced to FBI Agent Crow (from Sasquatch , copyright 1998) who hitches a ride on the trip down river to the jaguar preserve. Meanwhile, Wolfe heads out into the forest looking for the helicopter crash sight and is captured by three indigenous blow pipe carrying natives. Day three finds Luther looking for some fun on the edge of the jaguar preserve when he, also, is captures by three indigenous blow pipe carrying natives. Down river Noah Blackwood has given Yvonne and her three mercenaries the go ahead to kill Ted and Crow making it look like an accident. By day four, Luther finds himself in a guarded native hut with Wolfe looking for possible ways to escape, which doesn’t seem likely, as they are unfamiliar with their forest surroundings. Meanwhile, Marty, Grace, and Dylan misdirect Yvonne and her crew away from them by using newly found tracking devices which Marty has attached to his dragonfly robot. Then Marty, Grace, and Dylan track down the dinosaur hatchlings so Noah can’t get his hands on them for his private collection of exotic animals and crypids. And finally on day five, Noah Blackwood’s secrets reveal him to be linked back to a World War II research facility deep in the Amazon rainforest. There Noah has been cloning people : natives, his daughter(s), and himself in a bunker which Marty’s parent stumbled upon (three books ago) and their helicopter shot down to keep it a secret. Marty’s develops a plan to rescue Wolfe and Luther from the bunker by having Grace, Dylan, and the hatchlings ‘accidentally’ get captured and taken into the bunker so that he can learn the gate code to the electrified fence surrounding the bunker using the dragonfly bot. More twists follow, but the reader will be pleased with the ending.

In this day and age of urban and apartment living, the best part of this 11.25″ X 9.5″ book might just be the photos showing how immense farms can be.  The canned and frozen corn in the grocery store comes from fields in Minnesota (and other states). The wheat in your bread comes from North Dakota, cotton from Georgia, and oranges from California.

Each of these four crops has four pages devoted to it. The two  left pages are full-page photos of the crop itself and then the crop being harvested. While on the right page states the farms’ location and what the crop is used for is stated in 2 or 3 sentences per page.

This book is presented in several levels. Across the top of each page (which appears to be old parchment paper) in hand-script type is the author’s telling of Geronimo’s life story as if written by Geronimo in a journal (hence, the book series title – Hero Journals). Another level consists of actual Geronimo quotes set in italics, yet another level of actual photographs with captions set in an old typewriter looking font, another of modern pencil  drawings, and 6 ‘Document It’ insets instructing the reader how to create their own journal.

The reader comes away with a well rounded view of Geronimo’s life in chronological order from childhood, which includes aspects of daily Apache life and culture.

” Since the 1850s, more and more white settlers have come to Arizona. We traded with them peacefully at first, but after gold miners started to attack us, we raided their settlements, too. The U.S. troops were already wary of us. The tensions eased during the Civil War, beginning is 1861, because all the troops disappeared east to fight their own people. But now they are returning in greater numbers, and life is getting tougher for the Apaches.” ( p. 26) This taken from Geronimo’s supposed journal. While it is well written, there are definite terms an Apache of this time period would not have used: Arizona, 1850s, and Civil War. While I understand why the author did this, I hope young readers do not confuse the ‘journal’ enters with Geronimo’s actual words.

Geronimo is presented as a warrior fighting to preserve his peoples’ way of life. “When Geronimo surrendered, General Miles agreed that the Apaches would be allowed to return to their home in Arizona after two years as prisoners. But the U.S. government held them as prisoners of war for 27 years, and their lands were taken. The Apaches were not charged with any crimes and had no chance to plead their innocence in courts of law.”  ( p. 35)

Abdo’s Checkerboard Animal Library is a favorite of my students.  In this series, many breeds are discussed where you learn exciting and interesting facts.  The full-color photos and easy-to-read-text make it quite user friendly.  Each book explains information about the dog family, in general.  We learn, in this text, that Portuguese Water Dogs were bred to work on fishing boats, helping fishermen catch fish, by “herding” fish into nets.  They also help retrieve lost fishing gear.  Answers to questions about what they are like, their coat and color, size, care, feeding, etc…are covered in each of the two-page spread sized chapters.  President Obama and his daughter, are featured walking their Portugese Water dog, Bo.  Back Matter includes Glossary, Websites, and Index.