A simple science reader for young students, this bilingual text explains the traits that define the distinction between living and non-living things.  Examples familiar to young students are given, and the text is accompanied by color photos to help illustrate key points.  It seems to be a smaller version of the Pebble Plus series: similar format, but smaller size.  I find something is lost in the smaller books — if the same titles were available in both, I would recommend the larger format over the smaller.

Bright, comical illustrations and simple, direct text join to tell the story of how big black Crow makes friends with smaller, brighter birds hanging out on the electrical wire.  At first the little birds are scared of Crow and will have nothing to do with him.  Determined to make friends, Crow tries to paint himself to look like the others, only to frighten them more.  In the end, the little birds decide they like having Crow around, crediting him with scaring off the big colorful birds he was pretending to be.  In the end they like him for himself, and Crow must decide whether or not to tell his new friends how their friendship really came about.  It’s a charming book.

This is a story of adjusting to change.  Set in the days of horse-drawn buggies and homesteaders moving west, it tells of Elsie, a happy young girl growing up in Boston.  After her mother’s death, her father decides to seek change by moving Elsie and himself to a sod-roofed home on the prairies of Nebraska.  Elsie has a hard time adjusting to the change, and her only comfort comes from singing to and with her pet canary.  She keeps herself confined to the cabin, afraid to explore her strange new surroundings, until one day when her canary escapes — in rushing after the lost bird, Elsie comes to discover many delights in her new home, making it feel like her home at last.  It’s a sweet, gentle story.

I know Dean Koontz is a famous novelist, and apparently (according to the flyleaf) there have been several other Trixie books before this one, but I’m afraid I wasn’t as impressed as I wanted to be.  The theme is one that kids can relate to: how long a week seems when your best friend is gone.  The pictures are cute.  The ungrammatical parts are probably done on purpose for some reason, but they didn’t really seem to add to my experience of the characters or the story, and I tend to think if you’re putting improper grammar in front of kids there ought to be a good reason for it.  There probably was, but I couldn’t discern it.  It’s trying to read like a poem, but I didn’t find the flow to read all that smoothly.  Over all, it was fine, but not I wasn’t wowed by it.

The purpose of this book is to be a counting-by-fives book, and as such it does a nice job.  It’s got cute pictures of ladybugs, each with five spots on it’s shell, and a new ladybug joins each page, as a domino-style counter in the corner helps the reader count by fives.  The target numeral is hidden in the picture on each page (kids love hunting for hidden elements in the pictures).  It uses rhythm in the repetition of the counting on each page.  In addition, it has another features which could be used as teaching tools, such as alliteration and a repeating adjective-noun-verb-object sentence pattern which could be used in language lessons.  Unfortunately, the bilingual aspect of the book seems to have been a bit of an after-thought and is somewhat clunky at times:  the alliteration is lost and the sentence structure/rhythm don’t work as well.

Another good choice in the Pebble Plus series.  Like the other books in this series, this title features full-page color photos to support the text, a high-interest non-fiction topic for students, text which is accessible to early readers (large font, with just a few simple sentences per page), and solid information.  This particular title begins by describing some typical features of hip-hop dance and goes on to instruct students in some simple moves.  I particularly like that the photos that accompany the text feature other children.

I pretty much like all the books I’ve seen in this series.  I like that it uses large full-page color photos to support the text and capture student interest.  I like that they choose high-interest non-fiction topics to spark students’ curiosity.  I like that they provide sound information in non-threatening format (large font; only a couple of sentences per page) that is accessible to early readers.  I like that “bilingual” applies to all parts of the book, including extra text features (glossary, index, etc.) and not only the body of the text.  And I like the sturdy bindings.  In this particular title, I do wish they had made the connection between hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones in body of the text and not only in the glossary, as many students tend to skip reading the glossary, but might be interested in that bit.  The only thing that keeps these from an R* rating is that because they target emergent readers, it means you’re not getting a huge amount of meat for your buck.  Still, it’s definitely Recommended.

I generally avoid lift-the-flap books in the library, just like I avoid pop-up books, because they’re not likely to have a long life.  So that is already one mark against getting a recommendation, and in addition, this has a very limited audience: strictly preK-K.  Each page has a Who __________? question (e.g. “Who wears a carrot for a nose?” with the answer revealed when the reader unfolds either the top or bottom half of the page.  The illustrations are cute, and it’s kind of fun to see how some of them shift with the unfolding of the flap, so that saves the book from an NR rating, but the best I can do is to call it an “Additional Purchase.”

This graphic novel is an exciting introduction to a classic Arabian tale.  The illustrations are expressive and colorful and the layout makes the story easy to follow.  Students come into the library looking specifically for graphic novels and I’m sure this one will circulate frequently.  AR level is 2.6 but content is young adult (5th grade and up).  Additional great features at the end of the book include discussion questions, writing prompts, a glossary, short articles about real hidden treasures in history as well as an introduction to the One Thousand and One Nights folktale collection.

I chose to review this 32 page  juvenile non-fiction book about Miniature Schnauzers because we have one at home.  I found myself laughing in recognition some of the time and disagreeing some of the time.  One statement said that Schnauzers make a strange howling sound when they don’t want to comply with a command.  However, we find our mini does that when he’s excited and wants our attention.  A section on grooming noted that minis should be professionally groomed at least twice a year.  At the rate Schnauzer fur grows and because they don’t shed, this breed of dog would be a shaggy mess if left 6 months without grooming.  Schnauzers should be groomed about every two months.  Just nuances but noticeable to an owner of this breed.  Every dog is different so some of the sweeping generalizations aren’t necessarily accurate, while other tendencies seem more typical of the breed.  Overall this is a good resource and the pictures capture the Schnauzer expressiveness and personality.