Reviewer: Carol Steen, Columbia Valley Gardens Elementary
Rubin, Adam TITLE: Dragons Love Tacos RATING A
PUBLISHER: Penguin PRICE: $16.99
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3680-1 INTEREST LEVEL: K-2 ILLUSTRATOR: Daniel Salmieri PAGES: NA
Dragons love tacos but do not like spicy salsa, so do not put salsa in the tacos. It goes on to tell how to give a party for a dragon.
REVIEWER: Tracy Robinson, Kessler Elementary
Rupp, Rebecca TITLE: After Eli RATING: R+ PUBLISHER: Candlewick Press, 2012 PRICE: $15.99
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5810-6 INTEREST LEVEL: 9 - 12
ILLUSTRATOR: NA PAGES: 245
After Eli is one of those amazing little books that packs a great deal of content in a small package. Rupp imbues Daniel Anderson with a voice that is utterly genuine, and in so doing creates a host of unforgettable characters who learn to cope with grief, growing up, and finding themselves—at least those who were lost find themselves. There are also some truly heart-warming characters who, at the tender age of their teens, seem to know exactly who they are, and have no shortage of wisdom to share. The Anderson house is gutted when Eli Anderson is killed in Iraq. Danny describes his father as someone who was either negative or a nonentity in his life; Eli took on a surrogate role, teaching Danny what “really” goes on in life. When Eli died, his their mother died, too, so Danny is now adrift trying to figure out where he fits into the world. He is saved by the unlikely entrance of a new family of neighbors who lease the oldest house in Danny’s neighborhood for the summer. Danny’s first introduction to the quirky family is through Journey and Jasper—two twins who are slightly off and who constantly make hilarious comparisons. It is their older sister, Isabelle, that is Danny’s undoing. As the summer progresses, Danny gets a job with his brother’s best friend, finds a new best friend himself, and goes berserk in his older brother’s shrine of a bedroom. The characters and dialogues are rich and unforgettable. In the spirit of the twins—Jasper and Journey—if this book were comfort food, it would be a warm, creamy bowl of macaroni and cheese made from scratch because it would be smooth and completely satisfying.
REVIEWER: Jodi Kruse, R. A. Long High School, http://krusereviews.wordpress.com
Rusch, Elizabeth TITLE: The Might Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of … RATING: R
Part of the Scientists in the Field series. This amazing text takes the reader along the journey that lead to the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity landing on Mars. The story begins with background on the lead engineer, Steve Squyres, and what drove him to repeatedly send plans to NASA after they had rejected his submissions for eight years. It then shows the process of creating and building the rovers as well as the problems that came up along the way. Finally the rovers are launched and successful. Again depicting how this group overcame obstacles in their path, it shows the routes that Spirit and Opportunity took along Mars and some of the brilliant photographs they sent back. The rovers were only expected to last three months. Spirit lasted nearly six years and Opportunity was still going strong at publication. This rich text is balanced with beautiful photographs that really enhance the story. I do wish the main text was written in larger font as its small size may deter some readers.
REVIEWER: Debby Iverson, Coweeman Middle School
Rustad, Martha E. H. TITLE: Animales en invierno/ Animals in Winter RATING: A+
Animals in Winter is an extremely simplistic book done in English and Spanish. Photographs are colorful and engaging, however at only 24 pages the book was very short and left me wanting more. I liked the glossary, but the words were not explained or even highlighted in the main text. Perhaps the glossary should have been in the front of the book for better comprehension.
Reviewer: Rhonda Lowe, Castle Rock Elementary
Saldin, Erin TITLE: The Girls of No Return RATING: R-
PUBLISHER: Scholastic, 2012 PRICE: $17.99
ISBN: 978-0545310260 INTEREST: 7 up
ILLUSTRATOR: PAGES: 352
15 year-old Lida is sent to a school/camp in the middle of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in northern Idaho to figure out her problem, her “thing” the camp calls it. Once there she ends up in a battle of wills between two girls. One is Boone, a tough, in-your-face-, solitary, girl who starts off by cutting off Lida’s hair in the middle of her first night there. The other is rich, beautiful, self-centered, manipulative Gia. Although this book received four starred reviews, all of the characters seemed stereotypical for the first half of the book. I could not understand Lida’s attraction to Gia, who seemed such an unlikeable girl. I was frustrated with Lida’s issue being kept from the reader. I thought the supervision of the girls was ridiculously lacking… these are troubled girls. Yes, this all builds to a one night camping experience where the emotions and conflicts between the girls explode. The debut author handles this perfectly and the rest of the book is tightly written. However, the first half of the book is tedious and the characters were difficult to care about.
Reviewer: Patti Tjomsland, Mark Morris High School
Schaefer, Lola M. TITLE: Airplanes in Action RATING: R
Airplanes in Action is a great non-fiction book describing the history of airplanes and all of their parts. Young readers interested in vehicles will love the close-up photographs of large jets, and this book will increase their knowledge of the evolution of airplanes. This book has great vocabulary development and is well organized by topic under bold
Scheunemann, Pam TITLE: In the Kitchen RATING: A
PUBLISHER: ABDO Publishing Company PRICE: $17.95
ISBN: 978-1-61714-966-5 INTEREST LEVEL: 1st-3rd
ILLUSTRATOR: PAGES: 24
Using the kitchen as the setting, this book aims to teach about prefixes and suffixes. I liked the concept of this book, and it could be used as a tool when teaching such a unit, but I do have some suggestions. One feature that I would find helpful when working with kids is to have a table where they see all of the words discussed in the book with their prefixes, suffixes and what each word means. It explains it throughout the book, but for me it would make even more sense to then see these words again broken down like the example at the beginning of the book. I did like the Match It Up section at the back of the book as a review.
This is an Eye Spy book using different 100 day things such as 100 dollars, 100 dots, 100 beans, 100 colors etc. This would be a fun thing to incorporate the 100th day of school.
This selection simply explains the role of the senate, as well as, the other two branches of government. It is a good first look at how our country works. The pictures show people in the current administration and are great for recognition, but will become outdated with time. As an introduction to government, it can be useful in the classroom.
ISBN: 978-1-59643-543-8 INTEREST LEVEL: Pre-K-K ILLUSTRATOR: same PAGES: 30
This is the story of one girl’s restless night. Lucy can’t sleep. What do we do when we can’t sleep, count sheep? Lucy tries many things to sleep until finally she is tired and sleeps until dawn. This story is great for those children that are still learning positional words such as in, around, up, and down. While I think that the text is suitable and helpful, I did not like the format of the pictures. On many of the pages the pictures are smaller than the page and floating in many different angles, or are several pictures in circles on one page on a colored background. I think that a faded bubble is nicer is young children’s books. This random picture placement deterred from a reading flow.
REVIEWER: Tyra K. Smith, Head Start/EHS/ECEAP
Schwartz, Heather E. TITLE: Cool Engineering Activities for Girls RATING: R
Girls Science Club series. This text provides 10 engaging activities from creating a paper table to baking s’mores in the sun. It gives clear step-by-step instructions for each project and explains the science, focusing on engineering, behind each one. The color photographs show girls making the project as well as what it might look like when completed. I appreciate that the photos include older girls as well, making it more appealing to the middle school audience. Boys would enjoy many of the projects as well, but won’t pick it up due to the title.
REVIEWER: Debby Iverson, Coweeman Middle School
Sheimmel, Ayssa TITLE: The Stone Girl RATING: R PUBLISHER: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012 PRICE: $16.99
ISBN: 978-0-375-87080-4 INTEREST LEVEL: 10 - 12
ILLUSTRATOR: NA PAGES: 212
Sethie is determined. Sethie is disciplined. Sethie is also optimistically in a relationship with a young man who is unworthy of her, but she knows if she were just skinny enough, just confident enough, Shaw would love her without acting like they have to hide their relationship. Shaw does love her enough to take advantage of Sethie’s willingness to have sex with him and her willingness to risk the trespassing charges that would come if her mother’s landlord found out that Sethie was taking Shaw and his friends to the vacant apartment next door for their rendezvous and pot smoking hang out. Sethie’s mother is a high-powered, beautiful professional who is in a little bit of competition with her daughter. Sethie’s loyalties are tested when Shaw introduces her to Janey. Janey is everything that Sethie wants to be. Janey’s parents are obscenely wealthy, but spend very little time with her. This makes for a great deal of freedom for Janey. Sethie can’t help but envy Janey’s figure—a figure that Janey seems to maintain effortlessly in spite of the junk food that she consumes. When Janey shows Sethie how to make herself throw up, Sethie has one more trick to add to her repertoire for those days when she can’t help but consume more than just a couple of pieces of food in the day. Sethie becomes even more conflicted when Janey—in spite of Janey’s friendship with Shaw—seems determined to set Sethie up with a college guy. This story, told from the point of view of an omniscient narrator, is like watching a train wreck that the observer is powerless to stop. That combination of helplessness and prescience creates a tension as young women recognize how destructive Sethie and Shaw’s relationship is and how skewed Sethie’s perception of herself has become. The language and sexual encounters are more explicit, so this is a book recommended for more worldly readers; however, it does an excellent job of portraying a young woman who desperately needs a friend and a reality check. It appears to be based loosely on the author’s life experience, which infuses the story with an authenticity that will capture the imagination of young adult readers.
REVIEWER: Jodi Kruse, R. A. Long High School, http://krusereviews.wordpress.com
Sheinkin, Steve TITLE: Bomb: The race to build-and steal- the world’s most dangerous weapon RATING: R+
