Because our sixth graders learn about Ancient China in their Social Studies book, I thought this book would help link Ancient China to the present.  Based on the title, I was expecting the book to enlighten the reader to the many inventions and practices we still use today.  While this is true, the laundry list of inventions that are named on page 4 pretty much cover this.  The rest of the book repeats these inventions (kites, dominoes, umbrellas, the martial arts, ice cream, matches, gunpowder, and fireworks), with just a few more additions (wheelbarrows, block printing, paper, and planting crops in rows).  Nicely done is a “Then” and “Now” comparison at the bottom of each page, linking the past to the present, but overall, their isn’t enough research provided.  Perhaps this book is simply too meant for a younger audience, leading to my disappointment as a middle school librarian.  It’s use in the middle school would be to offer it to ELL or Special Ed students as a general overview, or to be read aloud at the beginning of the Ancient China unit as an introduction to life in Ancient China.

This 2011 publication  is sure to please young Seattle Seahawks fans.  Brimming with colorful photos, football statistics, and the history of the franchise, readers will learn how difficult the early years are for a new team.  Play-off picks (good and bad), the changeover in coaches and players, and missed opportunities tell the story from 1972 when the construction of the Kingdome began, to 1974 when Pete Rozelle awarded the franchise, to 2006 when the Seahawks went to the Super Bowl, through the 2010 season.  The reader learns that when the team played their first season in 1976, names were put on their helmets to help the players learn each other’s names.  Sidebars with interesting anecdotes, a timeline of important events, Quick Stas, and Quotes all help round-out the quality of the book.

In order to teach young children about how the Pilgrims first lived when coming to this country, this book might be adequate.  However, if you take away the title page, table of contents, map, glossary, and so on, there are 12 pages of colonial homes facts and info and eight pages on Native American homes, the first of which is a tipi, used by western coastal Indians, not the eastern tribes as first seen by the colonists.  Yes, it is difficult to understand how people who were so incapable of taking care of themselves came here in the first place.  However, I would have enjoyed seeing some of the actual houses and communities built by the early pilgrims that are still standing today.  Pretty remarkable endeavor for not knowing what they were doing.  Book does not contain much useful information.

If used to teach about the Pilgrims and Native Americans and introduce the concept of ‘Thanksgiving’, this book will explain it all.  Very elementary and basic, this book covers the time when the Native Americans helped the European settlers learn to fend for themselves.  It’s hard to believe that people would actually come over to a new land and not know how to fish or hunt. I appreciate the fact that no comment was given about the relationship between the colonists and the Native Americans.

This book will work for showing primary age students what pilgrims wore when they first came to the New World.  But in later grades (still in elementary school), students study the American Revolution, and the language and illustrations are too young for such a study.  The limited vocabulary is somewhat redundant because it explains the meaning of the word just after using it in such a way that it is clear what it means.  I think kids will be bored.  Did colonists have clothes that were pink, red, green and blue?  When did the king allow them to make their own cloth?  This book will work for the young and the curious, but not for students who are actually studying that time period.

Can you imagine being the adopted only child of two orphans?  Isabelle Beans knows it’s very hard not to know who she is and who she came from, but it explains a lot.  Like why she doesn’t have any friends, why she seems to get into trouble, why she’s lonely, why she has trouble fitting in.  After being sent yet again to the principal’s office, she falls into a closet and travels down through a tunnel.  Here is where the story seems a bit like Alice in Wonderland and Hansel and Gretel.  Isabelle comes to another world where she encounters children running away from home, afraid that the witch will come and eat them. They live in a camp, much like Never Never Land.  Instead of running away from the witch’s direction, Isabelle runs towards the witch’s house.  Instead of encountering a typical witch, she finds an older woman who gathers herbs,  medicinal plants and roots for the villagers’ ailments.  This couldn’t be the wicked witch could it?  Is Isabelle a witch, too, because she understands this woman and her herbs?  This is a place where she finally feels at home.   A confrontation between the runaway children and the woman answers some questions, but asks many more which Isabelle needs answered.  An interesting adventure sure to keep the reader wondering.  Those who love fairy tales will enjoy this book.

Example, after example, after example of an interjection (“Oh, no!”, “uh-oh!”, “The jerk”) accompanied by rough whimsical color sketches.

Delightful! It will definitely grab the readers attention!

I first read Encyclopedia Brown in the 1970s, so I was interested in how they stood the test of time.

The opening of the book still explains why Encyclopedia Brown is called that and how his father is the chief of police  of Idaville. The 10 cases Encyclopedia Brown solves are copy written 2010 and so are new. I was able to solve a few of the cases myself: having to do with military time, dates- B.C., and the differences between the  seasons in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Both, he and I did this through the powers of observation alone. No computers or cell phones required (or even mentioned). And he still only charges a quarter!  The solutions to the cases are in the back of the book.

The illustrations have been modernized several times over the years, much as Betty Crocker’s image has been over the years.

STILL TOTALLY ENJOYABLE!

In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Movie Prequel: Defiance Volume 2 the Autobots and the Decepticons are philosophically divided over whether they should continue their passive ways or aggressively attack those who attacked them.

This is issue number 2 of four. There is a very short summary of the previous episode on the title page before the graphic novel begins. I almost missed it. True graphic novel readers, might not have this same problem. True fans would probably not have any trouble telling the Decepticons from the Autobots, either.

The Demon Queen: This book was just plain weird. A boy who comes from nowhere, who has no parents and no homeland just happens to be fostered in the town where a mother and her daughter Honor relocate after a terrible tragedy in Indonesia that claims the life of  Honor’s father. And Honor just happens to be the gateway for the mother of all evil goddesses to enter the world and take over.  And the only one who can stop her is Jesse, the boy with the mysterious past.  I kept thinking that the plot sounded familiar, like some cheesy movie I had seen on the SciFi channel. I picked it up because I was interested in having a story based on a mythology other than Greco-Roman, but this is so out there that it will be a hard sell to my high school students. Some middle school boys who are into weird monsters and fighting might go for it.