Reviews
Uranus and Neptune
“. . . Miller points out many intriguing features. . . Sidebars offer historical anecdotes, fact summaries, and even a few simple science experiments. . . the art imparts a captivating sense of ‘being there’ that elevates these offerings above the standard run of… View →
Jellies: The Life of Jellyfish
“Gorgeous full-color underwater photos and a simple, readable text provide a fascinating introduction to some little-known and often unheralded marine organisms. Less detailed than Elizabeth Gowell’s equally spectacular Sea Jellies (Watts, 1993; o.p.), George’s… View →
Kathy Ross Crafts Letter Shapes
“These attractive books present hands-on projects to accompany phonics and letter recognition lessons. Shapes presents a craft activity based on each letter of the alphabet. . . The layout is friendly to nonreaders, including illustrations of the materials needed. . . Overall,… View →
Christmas Presents Kids Can Make
“Ross offers 29 handmade gifts for children to create for their families and friends. Most of the materials can be found in the home and often involve recycling items (old felt-tip pen caps, film canisters, laundry-bottle caps, Christmas catalogs). . . Although there are a… View →
Animal Antics: The Beast Jokes Ever!
“Filled with puns and wordplay, the quips are packed with child appeal. Whimsical and bright cartoon illustrations appear throughout the book.” — School Library Journal View →
All New Crafts for Valentine's Day
“Colorful, child-friendly,watercolor paintings take readers step-by-step through 20 easy crafts. The materials needed are easy to find and are show at the beginning of each spread. Most projects involve cutting and gluing. Some also require simple drawing and hand lettering a… View →
Pattern Fish
“A clear and effective teaching tool.” —School Library Journal View →
Our Big Home: An Earth Poem
“A joyful celebration of the Earth with the important environmental message that we share the planet not only with all the various people of the world, but with the plant and animal worlds as well. The loosely rhymed poem describes water, sun, soil, air, wind, sky, night, and… View →
A Fruit Is a Suitcase for Seeds
“. . . carefully worded information. . . cleverly presented book.” —School Library Journal View →
It's Winter!
“. . .an exemplary exploration of a season. . . Swan’s beautiful cut-paper artwork is colorful, crisp, and stark. . . Make room on your shelves for this fresh offering.” —School Library Journal View →
Kathy Ross Crafts Triangles, Rectangles, Circles
“This is a delightful book to enhance understanding of basic geometric shapes; its design is attractively whimsical without sacrificing practicality. With the help of well-drawn, colorful, cartoon-like illustrations, the projects are easy to produce. Children will enjoy the… View →
Star-Spangled Crafts
“Ross is well-known for her creative craft books and this one is no exception. Here she offers ideas for 22 activities, with clear, step-by-step instructions that use commonly found materials. Colorful illustrations set against lots of white background enhance the text along… View →
The Snowflake: A Water Cycle Story
“A beautiful take on the water cycle. Waldman traces the journey of a single drop of water throughout the year, with each month receiving its own spread. The real stunners here, though, are the dazzling, cool-tones paintings that convey the wonders of nature with delicate… View →
Sisters Against Slavery: A Story about Sarah and Angelina Grimké
“. . .clearly written dual biography. . . Finely detailed pencil drawings accompany the text. Students will find useful report information here, and there is rich material for class discussions.” —School Library Journal View →
Crafts From Your Favorite Bible Stories
“Clever crafts constructed from common, inexpensive materials. The 27 topics, with Scriptural notations from the Old and New Testaments, include Noah’s ark, Sara and baby Isaac. . . Jesus walking on water, the ascension, and Paul escaping from prison in a basket. . . These View →
Fabulous Frogs
“This picture book has a fun, simple text replete with froggy sounds and a rhythm and rhyme or near-rhyme that give it a pleasant, poetic flavor. The book presents the life (from mating to birth to growth) of a common frog while featuring illustrations of the leopard frog, spring View →
Spectacular Spiders
“A young girl admires the work of a garden spider living in her backyard and describes its physical and behavioral characteristics. Focusing on the arachnid’s use of spider silk, she tells how it constructs a web to catch insects, employs a ‘dragline’ to escape… View →
Dilly's Summer Camp Diary
“This visual and verbal delight brings to life the emotional ups and downs of three weeks at sleep-away camp. Dilly, who was convinced she would love camp, finds that its not exactly as she’d envisioned. Eventually, her interest in frogs helps her to overcome the rough… View →
It's Spring!
“A companion to the author’s It’s Fall (Millbrook, 2001). The excitement of spring is in the air as a boy explores the world around him. Cut-paper illustrations enhanced by hand painting give a three-dimensional look to the scenes. A double-page spread of a torrential View →
Danger at Sand Cave
“Realistic drawings dominated by shades of gray and brown depict the clothing of the period and add clarification to the text for readers unfamiliar with caves, shafts, and lanterns. This adventure will appeal to beginning and reluctant readers.” … View →
The Copper Lady
“. . .A good introduction to historical fiction, offers a story about one of our national symbols from an interesting point-of-view.” —School Library Journal View →
The Fall of Constantinople
“Iranian Revolution is the stronger of these two books. It begins with background on the role of Islam in Iranian history and describes the 20th-century conflict between the Iranian Shahs who wanted to embrace Western culture and the ultraconservative clerics, such as… View →