A brief overview of the bichons frises dog breed. Each page contains photographs and one to sentences about the breed. There are several text features used throughout the book including bold words, glossary, map, and an index. Students who love dog books may be interested in this book.

This book is a fascinating up-close look at dragonflies. The photographs are large and bright allowing us to look at dragonflies in more detail. There are photographs of the different stages of dragonfly life. While the book does not use bold or colored words to highlight key words, it does include a glossary at the back and an index. There are also text boxes that have “xtreme facts”. Students interested in dragonflies and insects will enjoy this book.

There are four chapters to this nonfiction book: clouds, water vapor, condensation, and stormy weather. Each page has several pages and photographs to go along with the text. It is a very simple look at the formation of clouds. There are several text features that are used as well as QR codes and a website at the front of the book to find more information. I visited the website, but found the information to be sparse and more teacher and parent friendly than kid friendly.

Each page of the book takes a number from 1-10 and talks about something in nature for that number. “Here is one moon in the night sky. See the hawk flying high with its two wings spread wide.” Some pages include good to know boxes with information about the nature item on that page. The book topic is geared towards a younger age, but the amount of text on the page would make the book a better read aloud.

A nonfiction book from the series Native Americans gives us just a small overview of the Ojibwe. There are many text features used such as captions, text boxes, bold words, maps, timeline and a glossary. Each page has one to two paragraphs of information. At the end there is a few pages about their fight for their land.

What can you make? This book has colorful illustrations and rhyming text. It encourages exploration and creating whatever you can think of with the objects around you. It ends with the girl building a playground for all of the neighbors to share.

Charlotte is back, but this time everyone in the forest is sick with a mysterious illness. Charlotte is determined to find out why everyone is sick, but when the doctors come they tell her she is too little. Charlotte decides not to give up and goes through a scientific process to come up with a cure. 

A nighttime city storm creates a beautiful lullaby. The rhythmic text soothes the worried child in the story making the storm not as scary as he thinks it is. And finally it soothes the child to sleep.

The illustrations in this book are vibrant and flow beautifully with the text.

Definitions of Indefinable Things is a both heartbreaking and humorous novel about three teens, Reggie, Snake, and Carla. Reggie suffers from depression, and the realistic portrayal of how she lives with depression makes this a powerful story. Reggie protects herself from being hurt by keeping others away from her. But then she meets Snake. As she is drawn to him, the reader expects that this relationship will pull her out of depression and add stability to her life. But then we learn that Snake’s ex-girlfriend is seven months pregnant!

The book will cause you to worry about Reggie, and will also make you laugh. This is an very good book. Recommend.

Hiding is the story of a lovesick teen-aged boy who goes for a walk one night, and sneaks  into the basement of his ex-girlfriend’s house.  He’s trapped overnight because of the security system. When the family leaves in the morning, the main arrives, and he spends the day avoiding the maid while investigating the house he never visited when he and the girl were dating. He finds the house to look perfect and unused, and suspects that the girl wasn’t ashamed of him, but rather of her cold, unwelcoming home. The story is told from inside the boy’s head, and the teenager style of talking may wear on the reader. Twists in the story line may keep readers engaged, but the main plot, gets lost in the multiple plot lines. It was hard to maintain focus, and I did not enjoy this book.

Growing Up on the Playground Nuestro patio de recreo was reviewed by the Spanish teacher at my high school. She notes that the title of this book is an example of how sentences do not need to be translated directly, word for word. In Spanish the title says, “Our playground” yet its meanings are still very similar to that of the English title. The kids in the story start out playing in a certain part of the playground and with every progressive grade they do something different until their last year of elementary school when they have to leave to allow other children to experience and grow up there, too. It is “our playground” because they grew up on it as school children. The main character, Ana, takes it a step further by becoming a teacher at that school when she returns an adult. As a teacher, she brings it full circle by introducing new kids each year to the playground, where on it, too they will grow up and make their own. It is a lovely story, written in both English and Spanish. She recommends it. 

The Spanish teacher at my high school read El doctorcito and she feels that this this book is very culturally relevant for immigrant families and first generation Americans. Written in both English and Spanish, it tells the story of Salvador, a little boy, who accompanies his Salvadorean grandmother to a walk-in clinic because she feels more comfortable having an interpreter with her to help with the English language. Grandma is very proud of Salvador because he is a good student and they talk about what profession he would like to go into one day. Grandma gets dressed up just to take the public transportation to the clinic. When they arrive Salvador is surprised by how long the line is to see a doctor, and he noted the different people who needed help, loud children, coughing, etc. and even a lady who was crying. When Salvador’s grandma checks in they learn that there are no doctors there that speak Spanish. The doctor they see is very abrupt and assumes that grandma was Mexican. The experiencing was very upsetting for Salvador’s grandmother. He does not want her to ever go through something like that again. He imagines a clinic where doctors spoke English and Spanish, and realizes that he wanted to be that doctor someday. She thinks that all immigrants and children of immigrants can relate to needing or helping with language interpretation and being judged and misjudged by others, and she highly recommend this book.

Mi Papi Tiene Una Moto by Isabel Quintero is completely in Spanish. There are no translations included, but the Spanish teacher at my high school read this book and noted that most students who have studied Spanish for a couple years should be able to understand most of it. In addition, they can pick up new words and expressions. The book is beautifully written and the illustrations are attractive and helpful for comprehension. She liked how the places the girl and her father visit represent many communities that she has visited, where Spanish is the primary language. They show the culture and relationships that neighbors and shopkeepers have with one another. The book also portrays the people as hard working, often tired after a long day of work, but still they stay positive and the girl’s dad always makes time to take her for a ride on his motorbike to visit the people in their community. She highly recommend this book to readers of all levels of fluency in Spanish.

The Spanish teacher at my high school read this book and state that it is very well translated. She appreciated the note from Gina Rodriguez, the voice actress for the Carmen Sandiego animated TV series. She stated that “if you set out to be the best version of yourself, you cannot possible go wrong.” This she felt was Carmen’s motto. The teacher notes that this book definitely made her appreciate this character more.

This children’s story of Curious George recycling and re-using items from the trash is told in both English and Spanish. The Spanish teacher at my high school states that it is very well-translated. It is always fun to read about George’s adventures and readers can pick up some useful expressions.

The Spanish teacher at my high school read this book and said she noticed a few verb tense errors and minor translation omissions.However, she says the story is great so the few errors are definitely forgivable and will likely go unnoticed by the average reader. José M. Hernández’s true story is inspirational and he shares a wonderful message on setting goals, working hard to achieve those goals and never giving up. The story is told in both Spanish and English. She states that she will be recommending this book to her high school Spanish students.

Mr. Wolf’s class have a few mysteries they’d like solved. #1 Where did their teacher (Mr. Green) from last year go, #2 what happens to all the playground balls that go over the fence at recess, #3 why don’t they have lockers like they did last year, # 4 why do things keep disappearing from the students’ cubbies, #5 who is and isn’t going to Randy’s birthday party, and #6 one student is always running a new survey question?

The students form a club to solve their school mysteries. As the students work on one mystery, they usually discover at least part of an answer to one of the other mysteries.

By the end of this graphic novel, they discovered Mr. Green is now occasionally working for his daughter in her pizza parlor since he retired. Mr. Green is working the night of Randy’s birthday party at the pizza parlor. While at the birthday party, one of the students returns most of the missing playground equipment he found when he jumped the fence after school, and the biggest mystery might be the rats who are taking the students things at school and then using the items for their own birthday party under the floorboards.

Even though the characters in the book are animals, wearing clothes walking on their two hind legs, readers will be able to identify with the problems, dilemmas, and solutions these students are facing in their school. Well, hopefully not the rats. 🙁

Goslings Ruby and Rufus love the water in their cute little red and white bathing caps. They love diving and swimming- through rain, wind, and sun everyday. They discover they enjoy the pond when it is frozen , too, with their red and white striped inner tube.

This book glows with the innocence of youth. The simple fun of learning about their immediate world with their own youthful skills of observation.

The minimal background art is perfect for very young listeners to observe the goslings’ antics without being distracted by too much scenery.

This Robert Quackenbush story, with the 1983 copyright, is being republished in the QUIX – FAST *FUN* READS series.

World famous ducktective Miss Mallard is in Venice, Italy, when a famous painting is stolen. The local police ask for her help. After seeing the crime scene, a museum guard hails a gondola for Miss Mallard to use. As Miss Mallard follows the clues around Venice, her gondola is very slow. Often Miss Mallard sees a masked duck El Ducko, the suspected thief, along the gondola’s route. Slowly, but not as slow as the gondola, Miss Mallard reasons the gondola’s slow speed is part of the art thief’s plan to convict El Ducko and escape with the painting. She leaves the gondola behind with the help of the masked duck and catches the thief – the museum guard- in the nick of time.

The story unfolds in five large font chapters with black. white, and gray illustrations of Miss Mallard’s journey through the waterways of Venice on almost every other page.

Comes with a glossary and five discussion questions at the end of the book.

There are nine chapters in this book in the Science Fact or Science Fiction? series. They cover the topic of UFOs or Unidentified Flying Objects very well for this age group.The topics include: crop circles, Roswell, Area 51, abductions, Project Blue Book, the Condon Report, conspiracy theories, popular television shows and movies, and numerous sightings. The sightings are especially of interest because one is from Washington State and another is from Oregon.

The book states facts, such as, Kenneth “Arnold thought the objects might have been new military aircraft. But the US War Department thought Arnold had imagined the aircraft.” (5) The book mentions a few famous people ( Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, and NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin ) who have reported seeing UFOs and that artwork and literature from ancient people have referenced seeing flying celestial objects.

“The United States, Canada, and other countries have kept records of UFO sightings over many years.” (9) 90% of them can be explained as human-made objects or common atmospheric events.

The reader is asked to decide : to believe or not to believe.

The book includes an index and free online nonfiction resources.