It’s a sequel the The 14 Fibs of Gregory K., but it works well as a stand-alone story. I haven’t read the first book, and there were just some hints in this one that made me suspect there was more that had gone before, but no holes that left me confused. It tells a story that will be dear to many students’ hearts: a seventh-grade boy who is feeling overwhelmed by the amount of time he must spend on homework, and the personal pursuits he’s missing out on, decides to take on the system in protest. I really liked that the characters all seemed believable, and his journey was not entirely smooth. The ending was satisfying without being unbelievable.

I am using one blurb to share about three ABDO Kids books, as they all come from the same publisher and author, and they share several characteristics.  They have a large format with full color photos that dominate each two-page spread so that they are visually appealing.  The text to accompany each photo is limited to a few sentences in a large font, so as to not be overwhelming for young readers, yet the information is not weak.  The text is simple and straightforward.  The topics are ones of interest to small children.  The binding is sturdy.

I am using one blurb to share about three ABDO Kids books, as they all come from the same publisher and author, and they share several characteristics.  They have a large format with full color photos that dominate each two-page spread so that they are visually appealing.  The text to accompany each photo is limited to a few sentences in a large font, so as to not be overwhelming for young readers, yet the information is not weak.  The text is simple and straightforward.  The topics are ones of interest to small children.  The binding is sturdy.

I am using one blurb to share about three ABDO Kids books, as they all come from the same publisher and author, and they share several characteristics.  They have a large format with full color photos that dominate each two-page spread so that they are visually appealing.  The text to accompany each photo is limited to a few sentences in a large font, so as to not be overwhelming for young readers, yet the information is not weak.  The text is simple and straightforward.  The topics are ones of interest to small children.  The binding is sturdy.

Not too bad as a craft idea/instruction book.  The space rover looks pretty cute.  But pretty limited on actual science.  Mostly it’s a product placement advertisement to encourage kids to by art supplies.

Accessible text, but not weak on information, this book provides solid information on four animals known for their migration patterns (Wildebeests, Monarch Butterflies, Leatherback Sea Turtles, and Arctic Terns).  Each chapter also offers a “Compare It” page, sharing information about lesser-known migrators.   Color photographs and highlighted captions are used throughout to support the text and add visual appeal.  It’s got all your basic non-fiction text features, and packs in solid information without being overwhelming or dry.  Did you know that Arctic Terns migrate all the way from one pole to the other and back again every year?!

It’s a bit weak on substance, but then it would be, given that there’s no real scientific understanding of dreams, other than knowing that everyone has them and they seem to be important to brain functioning.  The book shares some of the ancient beliefs different cultures held about dreams, dream theories developed by famous psychologists 100 years ago or more, and some common themes that seem to pop up in many people’s dreams with theories about what they may signify.  It offers an idea for creating a dream journal to help readers remember and ponder their dreams.  The basic take-away from the book is that it’s fun to think about and everyone can decide for themselves what they think their own dreams might mean to them.

Well, any kid who got really excited by the snot in the title may end up being a bit disappointed, as the text is not quite as slimy as it claims to be.  But the science is there, and well-explained to cover a wide range of things related to breathing, from snoring, to asthma, to assorted diseases.  The cartoonish illustrations are engaging, and the diagrams help explain the text, and the information is broken up into small enough blurbs to keep it from being too dry and overwhelming, even if it’s not quite as slimy as one might have hoped.  And it’s got a good sturdy binding, too.

I like this book.  I think it encourages kids to be careful observers who look closely at the world around them.  There is actually very limited explanatory text in this book.  Most of the information is conveyed through simple, yet detailed diagrams.  The topics covered are everyday objects with which students are already familiar, and of which most would have opportunities to examine close up in person as they study the book.  Obviously the information is not in-depth, but basic scientific principles are illustrated through the workings of these everyday objects such as flashlights and toasters and paper airplanes and toilets, etc. It’s a book that invites careful study as one really looks at the pictures, and perhaps then really looks at the things around us.

It’s a bit dense and dry for many students to read it by choice, though I guess that really curious future electrical engineer might.  The information is sound, and fairly clearly stated, with diagrams and analogies and references to common everyday examples to help illustrate the principles involved.  Probably best suited to the middle school level.

It’s not something kids are going to choose to read on their own, but it could be useful to teachers for civics lessons.  It’s a series of short stories set in an imaginary town where the city council keeps setting laws rather hastily, without considering all the implications of their decisions.  As ramifications arise, they are required to consider why certain rights must be maintained.  It may be a bit pedantic, but the scenarios are such that they illustrate rather significant civic principles in terms students can relate to.

It’s obviously written as an early-reader non-fiction, as the text is rather stilted and the information rather shallow.  The part I found a bit jarring was the bits in the “Good to Know” blurbs that rather disjointedly referenced the United States:  when discussing the flag of Guatemala, and the quetzal that is depicted upon it as the national bird, they add a sentence stating that the Eagle is the national bird of the United States;  when describing the many volcanoes that make up the terrain of Guatemala, the blurb tosses in that, “There are volcanoes in the United States too.  Most of them are in Hawaii and Alaska.”  I am guessing that this is somehow intended to build connections between American readers and the country they are reading about, but it felt out of place and unnecessary and disruptive to learning about Guatemala, the topic of the book.  Wouldn’t it be more useful to leave it to the readers to build their own connections?

A solid choice for those readers who enjoy both bugs and random facts.  It’s illustrated with a combination of color photos and cartoon-like drawings.  It’s organized by type of insect, with brief blurbs of interesting info.  Accessible for those kids who like to turn to a page randomly and read about something that caught their eye, without being overwhelmed by the need to delve into a long sequential narrative.

Boy howdy, this book is full of cowboy lingo (properly defined in a specialized glossary), as it tells the story of a black cowboy from Pendleton, OR, who wowed the crowds even while facing the prejudices of his day.  It’s a picture book biography that culminates with the bucking bronco competition of the 1911 Pendleton Round-Up.  After the first Native American competitor disqualified himself on a tricky ride, and the white competitor road an exciting ride where some spectators saw a disqualification, but the judges said they didn’t, George was the third and final competitor.  His spectacular ride had the crowd of 15,000 spectators roaring their approval.  But when the judges announced the white competitor as first place winner, and George as second place, the crowd went silent before erupting into boos.  Though the judges decision was final, the local lawman snatched George’s hat off his head, cut it up into pieces and started selling off pieces to the crowd at $5 each, and in the end they collected more money for George than the value of the official prize, and George was declared the People’s Champion.  The story is well-told, accompanied by oil paint illustrations, and several pages of further information are offered in the back, to fill out the biographies of the main characters, and to share the difficulties of doing research about a time when not many records were kept on ordinary folks.  A good choice.

I chose this book based on the title and the appealing cover, and then when I did a quick flip through the pages, I worried that, at 70 pages, it was too long, with too much too much text per page for elementary students to stick with.  But then I started reading, and decided it’s a good choice after all.  Though there is a lot of text per page, it is accompanied by engaging cartoon like illustrations to draw the reader in, and it is written in a very personable voice that makes it feel like the author is just chatting with the reader.  It is accessible and interesting, and I ended up finishing it all in one sitting before going to bed, even though I didn’t think I was originally going to be that interested.  Besides being interesting, it’s actually relevant to things students encounter in their personal lives: mosquito bites, lice, athlete’s foot, poison ivy…

A good, thorough, look at the research being done about our Moon.  It begins with the 1969 moon landing, takes a brief dip into ancient theories and myths, and then continues on through the information gained from the Apollo missions and on through current studies being investigated, before going on to speculate about future studies and the prediction that humans will return to the moon within the next 50 years.  The text is accompanied by beautiful photos and artists’ renderings and diagrams.  My one critique for the layout would be that in more than one place two-page sidebars interrupt the main flow of the text, so that a reader finishes one page mid-sentences, has to skip ahead two pages to continue and then backtrack so as to not miss out on the other information.  It seems to me that could have been better planned/organized.  As much as I liked the book, I am at a K-4 school, and I believe the information is a bit too dense for my age group.  I would really recommend this for a middle school or high school library.

It’s a beautiful story, beautifully illustrated.  Inspired by a true story of the transformation of San Diego’s East Village, the story begins with a little girl who likes to paint and color and draw:  the opening page is a rather dark, very gray drawing of an urban neighborhood, with the one bright spot on the page coming from a peek into the little girl’s bedroom window, hung with her artwork.  On her way to and from school in this rather gray neighborhood, we see her passing out her bright, colorful drawings as gifts to those she passes by, and she tapes one to the side of a building.  Then one day she meets an artist studying the picture she hung upon the wall.  They introduce themselves, he shares his brushes and paint, and together they begin painting a mural.  As they work, more and more neighbors come to join in and the project grows until the whole neighborhood is beautiful.  Throughout the story, the tone of the illustrations gradually change, adding more and more color, until the final page is full of color, with a lone gray building on the far edge of the page, inviting the reader to imagine to the project going on and on.

This really has quite a substantial amount of information for a Rookie Reader.  Each two-page spread is dedicated to another idea for practical things individuals can do to help keep the planet clean.  It begins with a page dedicated to “invisible” garbage, encouraging kids to walk or ride bikes to places nearby to avoid contributing to air pollution and taking showers instead of baths to avoid wasting water.  It goes on to suggest growing one’s own food, composting, using reusable containers, donating things you’ve finished with, recycling, etc.  It ends by sharing some real-life stories about ways some creative things others have done to get their communities involved in this effort.

This is a beautiful and inspiring book.  The poem is a celebration of triumphs.  Even as it discusses atrocities in our history, it honors those who survived those atrocities, as well as those who didn’t.  The illustrations are stunning, full of humanity.  The text of the poem, combined with the illustrations, evokes emotion and sparks curiosity. In the back of the book are informational pages, sharing names and brief biographical blurbs of those depicted, as well as short explanations for various historical moments mentioned in the poem.  It is a book to springboard readers into further explorations.

What a beautiful book to celebrate one of humanity’s great scientific achievements.  The end pages at the beginning and end of the book provide just-the-facts context, with diagrams, sequences of events, data, and further information about America’s first trip to the moon.  In between, the story is told.  The text is poetic, and the illustrations help to convey the wonder and humanity of this shared experience to readers who are too young to have shared in it themselves.  A great book to inspire future scientists.

It’s a bit of an odd book.  It its way, it is a book of triumphing over loneliness, I guess.  It tells about a lonely turtle who knows only his own shadow, but decides one day to crawl out of his shell and make renovations to it.  What starts out as a new paint job leads to building a deck with a fireplace, and then planting a garden with a pond, and eventually moving on to building an entire town on the back of his shell.  This draws a whole community of other critters who decide to move in and Turtle isn’t lonely anymore.  The artwork is aiming for child-like, and is really quite successful at that, but the problem with children’s artwork is that it’s often difficult to see what they are actually trying to convey, and in that regard it failed to serve the telling of the story, I thought.

It’s fine, but not as good as I hoped it would be.  For one thing, since it tells me that the telescope came first, shouldn’t the subtitle be “from the telescope to the x-ray”?  The information is brief blurbs about assorted human inventions related to the ways we see, organized by topic, and roughly chronologically.  The accompanying illustrations are cartoonish.  There were a few confusing bits:  each two-page spread, dedicated to a particular topic, has some kind of connect-the-dots trail running through the illustrations, and it took me a few pages to figure that indicates the reading path if you want the information chronologically; if you read following the typical left-to-right, top-to-bottom order, it sometimes comes off a bit disjointed.  There are a few times the illustrations seem a bit disconnected too:  next to the blurb describing the first x-ray, in 1895, as one the inventor took of his wife’s hand, the illustration shows a chest x-ray being taken of a woman wearing shorts? In 1895? Really?

The social class system is very hierarchical in 1960’s Swaziland and especially at Keziah Christian Academy, a boarding school that Adele is sent to each year. Adele is a model student, studying extra Bible verses, following all of the rules, and making sure she knows how to maneuver in the game of remaining “on top” at her school. But things are changing and Adele has to deal. Her peer group is shunning her. Then she is assigned to room with Lottie, a girl far below her in status. But Lottie is rich in many other ways that Adele will slowly discover. A story of self-discovery and friendship, When the Ground is Hard was excellent. This is perfect for literature circles in schools as it will lead to discussions on social class, trust, family, peer pressure and growth. Hopefully, this story will be discovered by award committees.

Kasie West’s Maybe This Time is the teen Hallmark Channel version of a romance – squeaky clean with over the top “almost” moments–9 to be precise. Over the course of a year, Sophie Evans ends up at events in her small town only to be frazzled by big city-born Andrew Hart, son of the once-famous chef Jett Hart. Jett is working to help Sophie’s best friend’s family catering business gain more traction. Andrew doesn’t have a choice in working for his dad. Sophie attends these events as part of her job working for the local florist. Sparks fly at first like iron sharpening iron, but readers can see early on where this will go. While Sophie thinks she has interest in another boy, that is dropped within 6 months, but it will take the entire year for Andrew and Sophie outwardly admit their romance to each other. This is sap, sap, sappy! And some readers will love it! Totally appropriate for middle school too.

Fractured fairytale, story within a story, feminist critique, moral compass — all of these describe Jennifer Donnelly’s Stepsister. This frame story begins with Isabella, one of the evil step-sisters of Cinderella, known in this remake as just Ella, finding herself going to the ultimate extreme of cutting off her toes to fit her foot into the glass slipper. Blood everywhere, the Prince does realize that this is not his Princess. Jumping back to earlier times, readers see the pressure that would push Isabella to the extreme, mount as the stepmother is exacerbated about her daughters marrying well by being pretty enough. Isabella’s conscience is given a voice when Donnelly creates Fate and Chance, who game each other, putting bets on Isabella’s choices. This reader is not sure Fate and Chance needed to make an appearance, but aside from that, Donnelly has created a work of fiction that is thought-provoking about the importance society puts on “beauty” and hoping that Isabella will one day still get the Prince she deserves.