Reviews
Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow: A Compost Story
“Clear, vivid photos give this simple introduction to composting a realistic look that makes the process look downright doable.”—Booklist View →
Goal!: The Fire and Fury of Soccer's Greatest Moment
“[A] large amount of information is contained in this slim, engagingly readable book.”—School Library Journal View →
Benno and the Night of Broken Glass
“[W]hat truly distinguishes this book is the striking multimedia artwork composed of paper, fabric, and drawn images in hues of olive, brown, and red. Interesting angles, textures, and patterns add to the visual effect throughout. . . . [T]he message of terror and sadness that… View →
Does an Apple a Day Keep the Doctor Away?: And Other Questions about Your Health and Body
“On each two-page spread questions are answered in a succinct, clear, and understandable manner. In addition, further-related information is provided. The illustrations, a mixture of photographs and cartoons, will grab students’ attention.”—Library Media… View →
Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow: A Compost Story
“Clear, vivid photos give this simple introduction to composting a realistic look that makes the process look downright doable. . . It’s good to find a book that treats worms, mold, and rot in a matter-of-fact way, without exploiting the ‘ick’ factor.” View →
An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank
“By any measure the 1913 murder of teenage Mary Phagan was an ugly incident, just as by any measure the lunching of Leo Frank, a Jew, for the crime was equally horrific. Elaine Marie Alphin directs the story to a teen audience—teenagers being conspicuous players in the drama—and… View →
A Tale of Two Seders
“Cis’s delightful acrylic paintings beautifully complement the text. . . [A] realistic, contemporary story.”—School Library Journal View →
Hamster and Cheese: Book 1
“Children can look and guess for themselves about the clues and red herrings the book presents. The humor in the characters’ personalities and dialogue makes this a lively and entertaining book.”—Publishers Weekly View →
Dino-Baseball
“Wheeler and Gott already proved they have a winning formula with Dino-Hockey (2007) and Dino-Soccer (2009), and there’s plenty for dinosaur/sports fanatics to enjoy in this latest installment . . . Gott nails the drama of high-stakes game with a series of… View →
“This book presents eighteen paintings illustrating the volume’s theme of action in art. Works include Lichtenstein’s Blam, Rivera’s The Conquest of Mexico, and Bruegel’s Children’s Games. Each piece is described through… View →
Blue Everywhere
“What a nice concept! . . . These will be a very bright and colorful addition to the 535 section of your collection.”—Library Media Connection View →
Dino-Baseball
“Wheeler includes on-the-field plays as well as typical baseball-crowd fun like a manager’s tantrum, a seventh-inning stretch, and a visit to the snack bar. Gott’s illustrations are masterful at catching the leaping, running action of the battling behemoths and giving… View →
The Punctuation Station
“The young audience will enjoy learning the concepts as they pore over the details in the cheerful, wittily detailed cartoon art. . . . [O]verall, this offers a fun entry point to the rules of punctuation.”—Booklist View →
Hot Pursuit: Murder in Mississippi
“In this short, gripping book, the authors juxtapose chapters that are fictional, centering on this tense decision, with chapters that explain the background of the segregated South and the civil-rights movement. The photo-realist style of the full-color illustrations ratchets up… View →
Does It Really Take Seven Years to Digest Swallowed Gum?: And Other Questions You've Always Wanted to Ask
“[S]cience and mathematics don’t come in a much slyer package, and an engaging layout with full-bleed pages, dynamic photos, and cartoony drawings makes it all the more fun. This is a rare sort of book that will add pizzazz to science classes.”—Booklist View →
Do I Need It? Or Do I Want It?: Making Budget Choices
“Few books about money issues aim for a very young audience, and this title in the new Exploring Economics series does it well in a friendly, interactive, question-and answer format about getting money, spending it, and saving it. . . . [P]ractical options and the hands-on examples View →
Alien Expedition
“Oddities abound in this convoluted but humorous adventure.”—The Horn Book Guide View →
Are You Ready for Spring?
“This series deserves to be in every school and early childhood classroom. Both books are winners.”—Library Media Connection View →
Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow: A Compost Story
“Composting is being incorporated more and more often into elementary school life on a classroom basis or as a program incorporated into school lunch programs. This book, which focuses on home composting, is a nice, mostly pictorial description of the process from the addition of… View →
The Horrors of Andersonville: Life and Death Inside a Civil War Prison
“Combined with photographs and illustrations, the firsthand accounts and quotations make a compelling, interesting book. Numerous sidebars offer intriguing stories about hospital gangrene and surgical fevers, distribution of rations, escape attempts, and cleanliness issues such as… View →
The Meeting: Book 1
“Quality translation and art production, along with a hardcover binding that lies flat, are details that suggest this book can be a popular mainstay in collections for a long time. A delight on many levels, it is also big enough to share with small groups and detailed enough to… View →
Hamster and Cheese: Book 1
“Yue’s graphic panels, colored by Hi-Fi Design, make the most of the comic potential and extend it with plenty of visual slapstick. Middle graders will close this and ask right away for Detective Pants’s next caper.”—Kirkus Reviews View →
Noah's Bark
“The amusing, understated text has the flavor of a traditional folktale, well complemented by Rogé’s naïve paintings with flattened perspective and muted colors. The illustrations have a dark, moody atmosphere with gray skies and driving rain, offset by the folksy charm of the… View →
The Meeting: Book 1
“Tharlet’s uncluttered, fluidly brushed watercolor scenes are easy to follow as the young folk squabble about games and other issues but eventually come together over plans for a big moving-in party. . . . it’s hard not to warm up to characters named Bristle and… View →