By Charles Schulz et al.
This compilation of original and new Peanuts comics would be a nice addition to any library. Comics consist of “The Beagle Has Landed, Charlie Brown!”, “Plane and Simple”, “Food for Thought”, Have Dish Will Travel”, and Charlie Brown’s Star”. All the gang are here. It is a nice introduction to a classic that some students may have never known. This book is recommended as an extra purchase.
Alicia Z. Klepeis explores the 8,867 square miles Central America’s Belize. Klepeis uses snapshots of Belize’s location, landscape, wildlife, people, school and work, play, and food. The 32 pages just give a quick overview of what this country has to offer with two or three paragraphs of text per topic accompanied by half a page-spread of color photos.
There is a problem with text boxes set on top of photos that do not match the picture in the photo, though the photos follow along with the information in the main paragraph on the page. On page 14 the photo is of a thatched house while the box talks about Mennonite communities. On page 17 the photo is of a painted mural, while the box talks about colorful clothing. On page 19 the photo is of a guided tour by horseback, while the box talks about Belizeans working in other countries. And on page 25 the photo is of a dance group on Garifuna Settlement Day, but the box talks about Maya Deer Dance. The photos are labeled correctly. It is the inset text boxes that are problematic and could cause confusion on the part of the reader.
I continue to find the TIMELINE in this “Country Profiles” series confusing to the eye with its segmented lines stating facts above and below the actual timeline leading to the events’ locations on the timeline. It might be better to print the statements on a slant with a single line segment drawing the eye to the timeline location.
The BELIZE FACTS on pages 28-29 provide good visual graphics to show the flag, where people live, their work, important cities, main exports, and unit of money.
Factsurfer.com provides more information with safe internet.
Submitted for Annette McQueen by Mary Pong
Children with parents in the military do face unique challenges. In When Your Daddy’s a Soldier, the feelings and experiences of a young boy with an active duty father are portrayed in an age appropriate way. The strong connection between a soldier and his young son is clearly shown in both the text and illustrations. The additional emotional burdens that fall on all members of a military family are also addressed. This book belongs in collections that serve children of military families.
While about 80% of active duty service members are male, the way this story is told excludes both the female service members as well as the daughters of service members. Female characters (in particular mothers) in the book are portrayed as not coping well.
Dianne White, Author, Felicita Sala, Illustrator
Children adventure out at dusk to see the world in a different way. These siblings discover things in the dark that are beautiful and mysterious and thus diminish their fear of the nighttime. This is a beautiful story with folk style art in which the rhythmical text blends in a way that young readers would enjoy.
Written by Reese Witherspoon, Illustrated by Xindi Yan
Betty is a whimsical go-getter who is always on the move. When she is getting ready for a playdate she realizes that her dog, Frank, really needs a bath. This is where things go a little crazy. In her attempts to clean Frank, Betty makes things messier than ever. But when her friend, Mae, arrives with even better ideas, success is in the future. This book shows that even the best laid plans can go not as planned but that with resilience and ingenuity, one can be successful.
By Jas Hammonds
Reviewed by Arianna S.11th grade
The overall concept of this book was a good one, although the execution of it could have been better. Avery Anderson was a high school girl who was up and moved to Washington D.C. with her mother to live with her severely ill grandmother. Tensions were high due to Avery’s mother and her grandmother having past issues that were never talked about or resolved. The anticipation of finding out the past of Avery’s mother and her grandmother’s past makes this fictional mystery worth reading for those who like slow burners. This book was relatively easy to read, with the content and the way it’s written. This book had many things going on and at times the plot would jump around to the point where some topics or ideas in the book seemed pointless.
Clouds in varying shapes, sizes, and colors are shown in this book for emergent readers
Big beautiful color photos of clouds high in the sky and low to the ground let young readers see this weather/climate phenomenon.
There is a 3 step graphic on “How Clouds Forms” (p 15) , a “Question” ( What shapes do you see in the clouds?”) [p21], and a graphic “Cloudy Day Activities” chart (p 19) . Four science vocabulary words, appropriate to the topic (example- droplets), are given in the glossary each with a definition and color photo.
There is more information available on-line through Bellwether Media’s safe “factsurfer.com” website.
Submitted for Annette McQueen by Mary Pong
I’m sorry to say I didn’t like this one as much as I hoped to. The illustrations are fun and bright and silly, and fans of the other Henry Duck books will pick this one up and the young readers may be more willing to take it as it is, but I was hoping for something a bit more. On the very first page, when Henry’s friend Clara phones to ask him to help him with a chore that evening, but forgets to wish Henry happy birthday, any reader with much story experience is likely to already be predicting that the day will end with a surprise party at Clara’s house (spoiler alert, it does). Henry’s day proceeds as a series of pizza deliveries, as all his friends and family seems to have sent the same gift, until his table literally collapses under the weight of 14 pizzas (funny perhaps, but less than believable). Bummed that he didn’t get to enjoy any of his gifts, he trudges to his friend’s house where he is indeed surprised with a pizza party. The whole middle part of the story just seemed like filler, disconnected to the beginning and the end, except that he did get pizza after all.
Eight little rhyming phrases accompanied by large simply drawn pictures young children will recognize.
“i love you wind i love you trees i love you honey made by bees” might depict nature, while “i love you food i get to eat i love you friends i get to meet” might depict an every day occurence?
The phrase’s rhyme but do not relate well to each other by topic, other than gratitude.
Submitted for Annette McQueen by Mary Pong
Written and Illustrated by Lea Decan
This lovely book follows the adventures of a housecat who wanders to different place every day of the week. While there is only one owner for this adventurer, many know the cat well. Every day is a different experience with a different neighbor. This is a great book to introduce days of the week. The art is bold and appealing. All cat lovers would enjoy this book. As it seems oriented to such a young audience, I would recommend it as an extra purchase.