Eleven year old Ben McBain loves football and has the skill and passion to be a great quarterback.  The problem – he is small.  The coach is an ex-NFL player who selects his own son Shawn to be quarterback.  The problem – Shawn is inconsistent, moody, and although he doesn’t want to disappoint his dad, does not want to be a quarterback.  Ben exhibits more maturity than most eleven year olds but the reader is drawn into the game and relationships between friends, teammates, and family.  Mike Lupica’s skill creating interesting characters incorporated with knowledge of the game results in an action packed quick read.

Third grader Ellray Jakes seems to continually mess up.  In this book, he is taking care of the class goldfish during spring break when his little sister overfeeds it and it dies.  Although Ellray is worried about what his classmates and teacher will say, he takes the blame.  The situations are realistic and conversations are believable.  The class bully is Cynthia, who tries to look perfect while accusing Ellray of causing all sorts of problems.  Ellray speaks up for himself even though he does not seem to be heard.  His character is revealed in pieces throughout the book.  Black and white illustrations and occasional font changes add to the interest and fast pace.  This is a good beginning chapter book for both reluctant readers and those who enjoy a good story.

What is there to say? It is Twilight. The wish fulfillment of many teens. The book begins with background on the author and the next chapter focuses on how the idea for the series came to her in a dream. The remaining chapters are about the actors and their roles, the settings for the movies and how the books were adapted to screenplays. An oversized book filled with glossy photos that fans of the series should love, but I do not think it is a necessary purchase.

Recommended only as additional purchase

This reference on how to get scholarships for college is easily accessible and a guide any graduating senior should be able to read and follow. The book includes chapters like “Find the Best Scholarships You Can Win, Avoid Scholarship Scams, Create Stunning Scholarship Applications, Secrets to Writing Winning Essays,” and more. Each chapter begins with a page that list what you will learn in that chapter. There are lists that have boldface subtitles, sidebars, clipart – lots that will make this book not appear too intimidating to teens. I particularly like the section in Chapter 2 “Find the Best Scholarships You Can Win” that advises student how to choose the right scholarship for them, such as heeding the words of the sponsors and being realistic about how good you are. This practical guide is a book I wish more seniors would read.

Here is a speculative tale of a day in the life of a pterosaur. Ancient life-like dinosaurs are placed (perhaps by photo shop) into photos of lush tropical and evergreen forests, and rocky valley stream beds. Up-close physical appearance of texture on creatures is shown for skin, hair, and feathers. Predators and prey are shown as they co-exist, first hunting and then being hunted themselves.

Most readers will probably skip the last page of author’s notes where it states: “Many pterosaur fossils are found near seacoasts…are also found far away from the sea. They may have lived in inland habitats or migrated or flown great distances, as we show in our story.    The action in this book is inspired by an astonishing fossil discovery in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Canada.”

When I think of  eggs, I usually start with those of chickens. The same is true in this book, before it branches out to other farm laying fowl: , turkey, ducks, guinea fowl, pigeons, and geese. Then, it branches off to birds in the wild: swallow, robin, crow, black bird, owl, and ostrich. Followed by reptiles in soft leather-like shells: snakes, turtles, and crocodiles. Followed by: dragonfly, lady bug, louse, spider, mosquito, slug, cod, flying fish, ray, oyster, mussel, shrimp, and crab.

BEFORE all of this branching though, through the use of transparent pages, three different cross sectional views of a chick developing and growing inside of the egg will be ooooh and ahhhed over by the young and older reader alike.

The book closes with pictures of eggs prepared to be eaten by people: fried eggs, sturgeon eggs, salmon eggs, hard boiled eggs, and a chocolate Easter egg.

Printed on heavy board pages on a metal spiral binding.

Albert may be the smallest mouse with the smallest bag at the outset of the story, but by the end Albert has the biggest bag.

Early math skill of big, bigger, biggest and small, smaller, smallest work their way through this story as three young mice retrieve food from the humans’ kitchen in which they live.

Includes adult directed “FUN ACTIVITIES” .

Washington readers, please note, the content consultant for this book  is from the Burke Museum at the University of Washington.

Following the format of “A TRUE BOOK” this book begins with “Find the Truth!” A challenge to see which of the two statements is true or false as you read through the book’s five chapters.

Not all fossils are of dinosaurs. Examples of fossils found in hard rock: footprints, bones- though rarely a complete skeleton, worm tracks, scaly skin texture, amber. Examples of fossils found trapped in tar, ice, or sticky tree sap: hair, skin, bones, muscles, and internal organs. Many animals did not become fossils because conditions were not correct or their bodies did not have “hard parts to leave behind[ slugs, jellyfish].”

Includes a “Timeline of Life on Earth” on pages 34-35. This would have been visually helpful when reading pages 12-14, perhaps a cross reference could be added for this.

If your school population likes the fun, cute side of Halloween or no Halloween at all, then this is not the book for you!

“In Britain, Ireland, America, Canada and now more and more countries, children- and grown-ups too- try to come up with their best disguises as witches, vampires, and other scary creatures, which haunt our bad dreams.”

This European written and published book has some hits and misses when it comes to the practice of Halloween in Washington State.

‘Sweets’ or candy = hit , covering a door with jam as a trick = miss, painting a cat green as a trick = miss, carving pumpkins = hit, making Halloween soup out of the carved pumpkin’s insides = miss, costumes and/or face make-up = hit, Halloween parties with themed food = hit ( but ‘devil’s pizza & death cake’= miss), and home-made paper Halloween decorations( with directions) = hit.

There is a little pre-Christian history included about the Celts.  “In the last century, the Irish took Halloween to America.”- but the illustration looks more like the 1700s than the 1800s, but this book was first published in 1998. And, there is a little history about the origin of the ‘pumpkin lantern’.

Unique creatures can be found in this book! Eleven animals are featured including the horned lizard, aye-aye, and red lipped bat fish. Full page color photos cover each page spread along with four to five sentences of general information for each animal. Young readers will be surprised while reading! This book includes a table of contents page, glossary, index and resource page.

This is a quick peek at the United States Air Force. Amazing full page photographs of military members, their vehicles and missions, as well as three to four sentences of information is on each page spread. A table of contents page, glossary and index as well as resource information is included.

BMX fans will enjoy learning about the achievements of 12 selected famous BMX riders including Dennis McCoy, Dave Mirra, Mike Dominguez and Randy Stumpfhauser. It is a quick read with approximately three sentences on each page spread. The page layouts are attractive with full page photos, red accents and an eye catching font to introduce each rider’s name. This book includes a table of contents page, glossary and index as well as other reference pages.

This book is a great introduction to the life cycle of a butterfly. What separates this book from the others is its amazing, nearly full page photographs that completely spell out the literature on each page. This level 3 reader is an early-fluent reader with 4 to 5 sentences on each page spread. It includes a table of contents, glossary and index, as well as other resource pages.