Reviews
The Clown in the Gown Drives the Car with the Star: A Book about Diphthongs and R-Controlled Vowels
“Cleary does a masterful job of explaining such potentially dry topics as ‘long vowel sounds with consonant digraphs’ and ‘inflectional endings’ by using comic, incongruous situations to get his point across. . . In his introduction, Cleary states that:… View →
Sammy Spider's First Shavuot
In this addition to the series, Sammy the spider learns about Shavuot, which “celebrates the time when God gave the Torah to Moses.” He watches as the Shapiro family makes blintzes and reads parts of a small Torah scroll. The brightly colored paper-collage illustrations have… View →
The Schoolchildren's Blizzard
“On My Own History series. A fluent text retells the story of Nebraska heroine Minnie Freeman, who led the students of her one-room schoolhouse to safety during the deadly snowstorm of January 12, 1888. An excellent companion to Carla Stevens and Margot Tomes’s Anna,… View →
The New Kid
“In the new Real Kids Readers series, [this]. . . book tell[s] [a] simple, realistic stor[y] and [is]illustrated with full-color photographs of contemporary children from diverse backgrounds. . . Hood’s story is about a new kid, Sid, who acts silly and irritates the teacher View →
Butternut Hollow Pond
“Heinz describes the course of the day from dawn to night in a pond. The food chain, and the many close escapes involved in animals’ attempts to eat one another, provide narrative momentum and some suspense. The warm, detailed illustrations encourage the reader to… View →
Book of Styling: An Insider's Guide to Creating Your Own Look
“Our fave tip: ‘Follow the rule of Accessory Three: no more than three types of accessories at any one time. You’ve probably seen the head-to-toe bauble look, but that easily can make you resemble a Christmas tree loaded down with ornaments.’’—People… View →
The Erie Canal
“These attractive books use high-quality photos, illustrations, maps, and diagrams to take students to some of America’s most famous landmarks, providing information about the history, construction, and significance of each one.” —School Library… View →
The Hoover Dam
“These attractive books use high-quality photos, illustrations, maps, and diagrams to take students to some of America’s most famous landmarks, providing information about the history, construction, and significance of each one.” —School Library… View →
The Capitol Building
“These attractive books use high-quality photos, illustrations, maps, and diagrams to take students to some of America’s most famous landmarks, providing information about the history, construction, and significance of each one.” —School Library… View →
The Gateway Arch
“These attractive books use high-quality photos, illustrations, maps, and diagrams to take students to some of America’s most famous landmarks, providing information about the history, construction, and significance of each one.” —School Library… View →
The Empire State Building
“These attractive books use high-quality photos, illustrations, maps, and diagrams to take students to some of America’s most famous landmarks, providing information about the history, construction, and significance of each one.” —School Library… View →
The Golden Gate Bridge
“These attractive books use high-quality photos, illustrations, maps, and diagrams to take students to some of America’s most famous landmarks, providing information about the history, construction, and significance of each one.” —School Library… View →
My Anxious Mind: A Teen's Guide to Managing Anxiety and Panic
“According to the authors, one in 20 teens in the U.S. suffers from extreme anxiety. If you know one, you could do a lot worse than handing over this reassuring manual. Short enough to read in a couple sittings and imbued with an optimistic tone that rarely talks down, the book… View →
Hanukkah Moon
Isobel is going to spend Hanukkah with her aunt Luisa. She is a little worried because her aunt has only just come from Mexico and Isobel wonders if her aunt will know ―how we celebrate Hanukkah here.‖ Her father tells his daughter that at Aunt Luisa’s house she will get to celebrate the View →
Frank, Who Liked to Build: The Architecture of Frank Gehry
This biography of a famous Canadian-American architect is presented through freeform illustrations that grab your attention the way his buildings do. Energy jumps off each page, with the book’s combination of evocative words and emblematic works. Author… View →
A gentile grandfather tells his Jewish granddaughter the story of Jethro (Moses’s Midianite father-in-law) and his Jewish grandson, Moses’s son Gershom. The parallels between modern-day family and the biblical one are effective, but the storytelling is confusing. An… View →
It's Spring!
“From the Celebrate the Seasons series, which includes It’s Fall (2001), this brightly illustrated picture book offers sensory impressions and childlike experiences representative of spring. Writing in first person from a boy’s point of view, Glaser proves an astute… View →
Crafts from Your Favorite Children's Stories
“Children will like these 20 imaginative projects. . . Each one is covered in a two-page spread, with a materials list followed by a numbered list of steps. The directions are clear and well illustrated with cartoonlike watercolor art. . . As a supplement to storytelling or for… View →
Greetings, Asia!
“These titles focus on each continent’s natural features, highlight many of its animals, and present a brief overview of the people. Useful information is presented in an enjoyable style. Different size fonts and background colors are used to break up the text and add… View →
The Bat-Chen Diaries
This book is a selection of diary entries, writings, poems, and drawings of Bat-Chen Shahak, a 15-year-old Israeli girl who was killed by a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv in 1996. Although she died at a young age, Bat-Chen left be-hind a lot of herself, as the reader can see through her… View →
Death in the Donner Party: A Cause-and-Effect Investigation
Grades 1 – 3, Grades 4 – 5: This nonfiction book gave me a much better understanding of how the Donner Party ran into so many problems as they were immigrating to California. They first decided to take Lansford Hastings shortcut which was suppose to take 350-400 miles off… View →
Lemonade for Sale
“These books will add a breath of fresh air to beginning-reader collections. The stories center on a group of friends who live near a small park in an urban neighborhood. The events and dialogue reinforce the “Real Kids” in the series title and will strike a chord… View →
Drop by Drop: A Story of Rabbi Akiva
“How lovely to have this jewel-colored picture book to share the love story of Rachel and Akiva with elementary-age children. The man who became a famous sage at the end of the first century was too poor to attend school, and started his work life as an illiterate shepherd. And… View →