Coast Guard rescue swimmers endure rigorous training in extreme conditions and are highly prepared to rescue people in dangerous situations.  Trainees are both male and female, must pass extensive physical trials for endurance and swimming, and learn how to perform effective first aid.  Swimmers have specialized gear to help keep them safe while rescuing victims and often train in extreme conditions.  I was exhausted after reading how prepared a rescue swimmer must be and was not surprised to read that only about half of the trainees graduate.  This book is highly engaging and has photographs of active training scenarios.  Glossary, index, and a factsurfer internet site included.  Two of the three recommended books are written at a similar reading and interest level, the third is a bit higher.  Other books in the series are: “Bomb Squad Technician”, “Deep Sea Fisherman”, “Lumberjack”, and “Smoke Jumper”.

Children can easily get separated from their family or group.  This is a “self-help” book written for young children but applicable to everyone.  Scenarios include a carnival, walking to school, a store, a field trip, a beach, and the woods.  Each one has a “safety tip” box.  A list of basic rules and procedures are included along with a fun way to memorize a phone number.  This is well written without being scary.  Recommended books for further reading are similar in reading level and directed toward young children.  Also included are a short glossary, index, internet site and a paragraph about the author.  Anara Guard has written other “What if…” books in the Danger Zone series.  Titles include:  “What if a Stranger Approaches you?”, What if there is a Fire?”, and “What if You need to Call 911?”  Each of these titles could generate essential conversations between adults and children on safety.

22 free verse poems take one back to the 1860s and life on a cattle drive from Texas to Kansas.  Dan Burr’s realistic digital paintings are an excellent combination with Harrison’s descriptions of life out west living under the stars with 3000 longhorn cattle.  Sometimes humorous, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes candid, these poems give insight to the hard life of a Texas cowboy.  Words like hardened, rugged, tough, and grizzled just begin to describe life on the Chisholm Trail but can’t conceal the pride the cowboys had as they endured every aspect of their job.  The poems depicting life during this period in our history are geared toward upper elementary or middle school readers wanting to experience the tough life of a wrangler.

Danny is not the most popular kid in school. In fact, he is a bit of a geek. Unfortunately things get in his way of success, like the new kid, Ty Randall. Ty seems perfect. He is handsome, serious and dedicates his time outside of school to worthy causes which is everything Danny’s not. Danny’s jealousy of Ty gets out of control, and he sets up Ty to fail in the school talent show. But when the show rolls around, Danny regrets his choice and makes the sacrifice himself, protecting Ty from the embarrassment. Illustrations throughout will entice reluctant readers.

When Tara makes the trip to stay with extended family in Willow Falls, she loses all her cash forcing her to accept an odd job from an odd woman in an odd antique shop. While working for this woman, Tara makes new friends, has adventures, and makes connections with people from her parents’ past. All her hard work pays off as her job comes to a close in a big way on her 13th birthday.

Years ago, a young girl named Dodie played with her little sister and sled dog pups. In short chapters sprinkled throughout the book, her story is told.

Present day, twelve year old Tee, her father and younger brother, Jack are on an extended stay in Nome, Alaska. While Tee’s father is busy with research, she and a new friend, Quin, take walks enjoying the snowy scenery. They are repeatedly disturbed by an aggressive shadow of a ghost dog. At one point, a sudden blizzard traps the girls in a shack. The mysterious ghost dog leads the way to a long time resident, Dodie. Together the girls and Dodie put pieces of the mysterious puzzle together discovering the truth about the ghost dog and the death of Dodie’s little sister. Elizabeth Cody Kimmel creates an adventure with an intriguing mystery that demands the reader to get answers.

Jack is easy to forget.  He doesn’t make friends easily, and his own parents seem to ignore him on a regular basis.  Then, one day, he goes to spend the summer with relatives in a small town in the Midwest.  In this town, the very walls of the house where he’s staying seem to respond to his presence.

What follows is a wide-ranging tale which combines elements from The Schwa was Here (Shusterman) with a contemporary interpretation of ancient Gaia myths (though Gaia is never named).  The story starts strong, with suspense and foreboding dripping from short chapters describing the experiences of several different characters.  Barnhill attempts to combine classic elements (a small town setting, an ancient destiny, a small group of heroic kids) with more contemporary touches (a skateboard, occasional turns of phrase).  Unfortunately, it doesn’t entirely work.  The reader gets the feeling that a more experienced writer might have told the story in a more effective way.  The (very appealing) cover of this title foretells the climactic revelation in such a way that when it comes, it is not a surprise.  There are sophisticated themes here, but also plot holes — and overall, things don’t quite gel.

National Parks have not been around forever.  There were many steps required to create a protected lands system in the United States.  Theodore Roosevelt played a pivotal role during one of those important points in history.  This book tells the story of one camping trip which influenced Roosevelt’s passionate advocacy.  In the middle of a busy trip across the states, President Roosevelt spent several days with the naturalist John Muir, camping in the land which would become Yosemite National Park.  This is an approachable piece of a much larger story, told in simple, concrete terms.  The men are referred to using their childhood nicknames, and the story is told chronologically, with short paragraphs on nearly every page.  The text is complimented by full color illustrations, which are surrounded by white space until the men enter the wild land, and which then engulf the pages.  Mordicai Gerstein’s depictions of redwood forests and Yosemite Valley are particularly stunning.  This is a lovely story spotlighting a little-known piece of history in a way that will be approachable and engaging to young and old alike.

The format is attractive in this series of books.  Good use of color and graphics, without having the color be a distraction instead of an enhancement.  The captions, and pictures are distributed in good coverage.    As with most new non-fiction books, this has a great resource list in the back to further your learning.  The only change I would make would be to tone the font size down a little.  Making the font BIGGER doesn’t make it EASIER to read.  I think the size should honestly reflect the level of the reading, and in nonfiction books of substance, it will be higher.  Recommended.

This is a fabulous science book with experiments related to weather and geological activity on our planet.  The experiments come with a short story introduction based on a real event, and then supply an experiment with a supply list, step by step instructions, and some simple pictures drawn by the illustrator.  Just the right amount of information is given to spark interest, get a student going on an activity and create results.  Recommended.

This is a fabulous book about a strong female character who writes political news for a newspaper, during a time when women weren’t allowed to participate in politics.  Of course Mercy had to use a pen name, but her work stirred a lot of emotion, debate and rhetoric for the masses to contemplate.  She was 75 years old the first time she penned her name to her work!  She did much to record the history of our revolution in the United States.  Recommended!

Starcross was a delightful read!  Reeve has the rare gift of being able to weave together big vocabulary and complex themes in a manner easily accessible to young audiences.  At it’s core, Starcross, is the story of what would happen if Victorian era Britain was able to colonize the solar system.  What I was most impressed with was Reeve’s ability to weave together the Victorian cultural motifs and sci-fi elements.  My favorite example of this is the novel’s villains, the Moobs, mind-controlling, time-traveling alien invaders disguised as top hats.  Even the sci-fi elements reflect the historic beliefs of Victorian Britain: space ships are literal ships, and the vacuum of space contains breathable air.  The book also plays as elaborate parody of colonial politics: a major plot involves a French spy working with the United states to upset British intergalactic supremacy.  Starcross acts as a serious reflection of the values and beliefs of Victorian England, playing them for absurdity merely by altering the setting.

The whimsical pros are captivating, it’s a great story, and it contains a treasure trove of knowledge about Victorian England made more accessible for the fictional elements.  This is the type of book needed to instill in young readers a lifelong love of the written word.  My only critique is the characters are fairly generic, never taking on much of a life beyond their setting.  It’s also worth noting this is a sequel to Reeve’s previous book, Larklight.

Jordan Beaudry, Washington Reading Corps

Beginning with a Cherokee Indian legend about copperheads, facts are presented about this fascinating reptile.  Their habitat, coloring, types of copperheads, and how they hunt fill this 32 page book.  Highlighted terms are defined on the page as well as again in the glossary.  Fact boxes provide extra details.  Photographs are large, colorful, and show features of each type of snake.  Glossary, index, and books for further reading are in the back.  A facthound internet site and a publisher site provide further information and activities.

Ramona loves to play beach volleyball and dreams of playing in the Olympics.  When a developer plans to build on their court, Ramona must learn how to be a team player instead of just a skilled one.  Each chapter has black and white illustrations.  In the back are: a glossary of volleyball terms, brief information about the author and illustrator, discussion questions, writing prompts, two pages of beach volleyball facts, other Jake Maddox stories, and two internet sites for further information and activities.

Karri, the bouncing koala, is peacefully relaxing at home in the bush when a gang of scruffy, homeless cats move in.  The small animals and birds are frightened so Karri is elected to ask them to leave.  The cats have no place to go so they decide to play a football game – the winners get to stay, the losers must go.  Although Karri’s team wins, Karri offers to help them find a new home.  They find a successful solution by getting food from humans and by giving friendship in return.  This amusing book is a sequel to “The Koala Who Bounced”.  Good message of teamwork vs fighting.

“A kiss means I love you, a wave means hello, a smile means I’m happy, a tug means let’s go!”  Beginning with these simple, rhyming lines, young children see large, vivid photographs of peers using body language to illustrate actions and emotions.  This colorful book would be easy to read one-on-one or with a group.  Photographs fill the whole page, the text fits nicely.  Words aren’t always necessary to convey a message!

Diane deGroat and Shelley Rotner work together as author-illustrators in this creative and humorous book about a baseball game for dogs.  Homer, a golden retriever, sneaks out one night to play a championship game with his team, the Doggers, against their rivals, the Hounds.  Well-chosen photographs and digitally drawn uniforms portray the game and emotions of both teams.  This book is full of visual humor and word puns.  Whitey is literally “walked” to first base, Lucky hits a “droolball” that splashes over his bat.  Players watch from their “dog-out”.  The end-pages show baseball cards of both teams showing positions and breeds.  Readers of all ages will enjoy looking at all the doggy details in this amusing baseball story.

Brian Selznick grew up drawing, painting, sculpting, and watching movies – just the thing for his imaginative mind!  Thinking he would work in film or the theater, illustrating and writing children’s books was not one of Brian Selznick’s plans.  This very readable biography tells of Selznick’s introduction to children’s books and illustrating for himself and others.  It contains colorful photographs as well as some of his drawings from his own stories.  Information presented is complete without being too wordy.  Books in this series are a good resource for reports as well as being an enjoyable way to read about people who create popular books.  Glossary, index and website are included.

This book is divided into two parts based on two Hannah Montana episodes on the Disney Channel.  The story for part one tells of Miley Cyrus trying to help her tom-boy girlfriend, Lilly, become more feminine.  Pat two is about Lilly spending all of her time with new boyfriend, Lucas.  Miley discovers Lucas has an extra girlfriend and can’t get Lilly to believe her.  Included are photos from both episodes.  Those who enjoy watching the T.V. series will probably also enjoy reading books in this series.

Sula and her mermaid friends have a chance to sing for Princess Rowena.  The princess is trying to get assistance to help others rebuild after a storm.  Sula learns of a missing singing shell that has the power to cause storms or calm waters.  When her friends become trapped by surging water, Sula decides to try to locate the missing shell.  The text is large and there are many black and white illustrations within the pages.  The story line in rather bland, but young readers who are mermaid fans will probably seek out these Sula books.

With a focus on food, one learns about the history, climate, religions, and cultures of Nigeria, a diverse country with many ethnic groups.  Many of the staple foods came from trading with other countries.  Because running water and electricity in rural areas is rare, food is often prepared in traditional ways.  There are recipes included but most of this informative book describes how food is prepared, which foods and spices are used together, and how it is eaten.  Full-color photographs show meals and typical activities.  This is a terrific resource for anyone wanting to know about Nigeria as well as the variety of foods prepared for meals.

Beginning with a short quiz to check prior knowledge, chapters start with describing each position, defining the terms, and telling how the game is played.  An illustrated map of the playing field shows how to set up and mark the area.  Soccer is a physical game and the benefits of the activity  as well as how, when, and what to eat is given.  Also included is a recipe for a snack and a craft.  Large, full-color photographs show girls at play.  Other books in the series are guides to basketball, softball, and volleyball.  Recommended books are written at a similar level.  Glossary, index, and facthound internet site are included, along with one from the publisher including projects, games, and more.

With a history as herding and guard dogs, this breed is now one of the ten most popular in the United States.  Devoted and friendly, they can also be protective so obedience training is necessary.  Attention is given to caring and feeding this large-size breed.  Enough information is given to help one decide if this dog is a good fit for one’s family.  Glossary, index, and ABDO website are included in this 24 page book.  Many full-color photographs show these intelligent dogs at rest and at play.

Once a person or family decides to get a dog, attention must be given to choosing the right kind for the home.  This book introduces characteristics, needs, and where to find the best match for the family.  Information for caring for, feeding, housebreaking, the importance of grooming and exercising, and how to prevent some problems are all mentioned in this comprehensive 48 paged book.  Additional fact boxes provide further information and hints to help one make good decisions when choosing a dog for a pet and becoming a responsible pet owner.  Full color photographs show a variety of breeds although name of each breed are not included.  This is a great over-view.  Recommended for anyone trying to decide if owning a dog would fit into one’s family.