I found this series to be very attractive, beautifully designed, but somewhat weak on substance.  The binding is sturdy, the cover is shiny, the text is interspersed with attractive photos and illustrations, and vocabulary words are defined in the margins.  All of these are nice features.  But I thought the information was somewhat lacking in depth.  Right away in the first chapter it tells us that modern historians must rely on archaeology and the written accounts of Spanish invaders and native Incas who were educated by those invaders after the 1500s, because the Inca people left no written records. The author even uses the words “cloaked in mystery” to describe the early history, but then the text goes on to assert as fact many details from ancient times without ever backing up for the reader how we know what we think we know.  I would have liked to have seen more frequently phrases such as, “[such and such] evidence indicates…”  Also, the designers of the book are guilty of one of my current pet-pieves for non-fiction text features:  a “timeline” that is really just a sequence of events written horizontally, where dates are evenly spaced without regard to how much time separated them:  two inches in one place represents 500 years, and in another place along the same line, the same two inches represents only 25 years.  In elementary school, I was taught that the distance along a timeline was supposed to be a visual representation of actual time.

This book was surprisingly readable.  I confess that I put off reading it for a long time, because I didn’t expect it to be interesting, but once I started it, I read it rather quickly. It basically tells the story of how the U.S. Constitution came to be written, including the problems with the Articles of Confederation, the people who gathered to improve upon it, and the many arguments and compromises that went into its creation.  Appendices in the back include the text of the Preamble and the Bill of Rights.  I was rather surprised that it did not include the text of the Constitution itself — that would have made it easier to reference when various articles were discussed.

There was no department of children’s services in the middle ages.  After being threatened by the innkeeper his dad sold him to for beer, Will Sparrow runs off and must make his own way in the world any which way he can.  He meets (and often finds himself cheated by) many interesting characters along the way, as he fills his belly by foraging, thieving, and teaming up with assorted hucksters at market fairs.  I love Karen Cushman’s books in general, and I would count this one among her better ones: there’s something about rooting for a kid on his own, wondering what it would be like to find yourself in such a situation, that works as a great way to draw young readers into the genre of historical fiction.  The depictions of the setting will draw students in and help them imagine a time period far-removed, about which they may know little.  I’m a fan.

Flutter is a powerful story about sisterhood, survival, and love that I’m sure will stay with you for a long time!  As Mama prepares to have her baby, sisters Dawn, Maple, and Beetle all prepare to welcome baby sister Lily.  The story is told by middle sister Maple .  When Baby Lily arrives too early and with a heart that does not work quite right, Maple knows it’s up to her to find a miracle that will save Baby Lily.  In searching for “the miracle” sisters Dawn and Maple encounter real dangers and realize a thing or two about miracles..and about each other.  There is plenty of adventure in this book to hold the interest and attention of any reader.

With kids growing up watching more reality TV than other programming, it’s no wonder The Daughters series would be picked up by a publisher.  And with a name like Philbin attached to it, Poppy took a chance.  Does is matter that teens probably don’t know who Regis Philbin is?  A little, because as one reads The Daughters Break the Rules, Carina, who narrates this second installment of the series, finds is frustrating to be known as “the daughter of a billionaire” because of the assumptions that are constantly made.  But Philbin is realistic in her portrayal of these three teen starlet children living in NYC.  While Carina is at first crushed when her father cuts her off from her lavish spending habits, a reader can clearly see that she’ll rebound.  She can make it on $20 a week.  But I really like the fact that Carina is allowed to become part old self and part new self by the end.  Her vision of the world is much more broad, thanks to a love interest from a different “league”, but she clearly loves her high end lifestyle and embraces that again with new respect for others.  This can be read as a stand alone.  If the other books follow the same plot line but with different narrators, I can imagine the story might get uber predictable.  7th – 10th grade girls into fashion and drama will enjoy this flighty, fast paced read.

The author, as a young boy, was always on the search for heroes like Babe Ruth, Leonardo da Vinci, Harry Houdini, etc.  However, his inspiration for this book came from Bob Dylan’s search for “his guiding star.”  Bob was raised in a mining town in Canada, where his Jewish family ran a business.  Since he neither wanted to mine or run a business, his passions kept drawing him to music, to the disappointment of his parents.  After being kicked off stage for being too loud at a school talent show, Bob was determined more than ever to “be a music star one day…even bigger than Elvis…and show them all.”  Inspired by Woody Guthrie, who could make people think and feel, Bob learned all of Woody’s songs and hundreds more.  He practiced so diligently that he could now rivet his audience.  When he heard that Woody was in the hospital, he went to see him.  He sang Woody’s songs and put a smile on that weak and tired face.  Their friendship opened many doors for Bob Dylan,  and the rest is history.  The accessible narrative is peppered with quotations from Dylan’s own writings, his biographies,  lyrics of songs, and interviews, all of which are notated in the Back Matter.  The Author’s Note ends with…”Finally, if we could all meet our heroes–even in our imagination–maybe we’d understand our own stories better and who we really want to be.”  Bright, bold illustrations in acrylic and oil  captivate the reader just as much as the story line.  All in all, a beautiful book!

Watercraft engineering becomes  the avenue for student inventors, scientists and artists to test their creative ideas with The Motorboat Book.  A myriad of concepts can be learned in a natural, hands-on way, such as buoyancy and density, chemical reactions, energy and energy  transformations, forces and motion, hydraulics, electric cirucits, just to name a few.  First, one needs an “ocean” in which to test the boats.  Contruction models for large, small and tiny oceans give the reader many options.  A variety of hulls are described , as well as 21 ways to propel that boat.  Pumps, to move water, submarines, projects suggestions round out the contents of this rich resource for  building motorboats.  Written in a “How To” format…materials needed and steps to take…prolific black and white photographs support the reader in following the instructions.  My only wish is that the photos were of higher quality, instead of fuzzy amateur snapshots…with poor lighting that, in a few cases, makes it even hard to  figure out what you are looking at.  I wanted this book for our collection because kids could get a lot of great ideas for their Science Fair projects.   And water play is universally fun!

This is a fasinating  book about robots.  The pictures are very fun to look at.  The book tells about the robots that are in space and what they are learning from them.  Robots can help us learn so much about the planets.  They can help repair a space station and much more.  There is much information in this book that it was

This is a good book that has great pictures.  There is a lot of great informative text that teaches about the stock cars.  There is a lot of explaining on how the cars are put together and transformed into race cars.  The book describes the tracks and the length and shape of tracks. There is a glossary in the back, and an index.  There is a table of contents in the front.

Jessie and Evan Treski are in the same 4th grade class together. Jessie, Evan’s overachieving sister, has decided to publish a school newspaper by Valentine’s day. Mysterious candy hearts with unique messages on them start to appear in students’ desks. The poetry assignment encourages Evan to write a secret poem about a girl in class. Jessie decides to survey the class about their crushes and is determined to publish all the secrets in her newspaper, unaware of how she could hurt everyone involved. This is an entertaining mystery. Each chapter starts with a word and its definition that pertains to the chapter it precedes. After the story the reader will find a copy of Jessie’s newspaper, a list of poetry terms and their definitions, and 10 poems. Fun read. This is book #4 of the Lemonade War Series.