Archive for 2012

Ivy and Bean Make the Rules

Written by Annie Barrow

Illustrated by Sophie Blackall

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Hooray for Ivy and Bean!  The latest book in the series has Bean feeling left out as her sister Nancy goes to camp.  At Girl Power 4-ever, she gets to do so many cool things.  Bean has to sit at home.  Mom tells her she can go to the park by herself, if that helps.  It doesn’t.  But when Ivy comes over, Bean sees that they can make their own camp, a better camp, because they can do anything they want.  Ivy’s mom got new curtains so they use the old ones to make a tent (with the help of duct tape).  They make up a great name: Camp Flaming Arrow.  They set about doing camp things – like crafts.  A friendship bracelet craft turns into an escape trick as the strings get wrapped around both arms of both girls.  They have so much fun that some kids visiting their grandmother join them.  The nature study has them searching for the dangerous Komodo dragon which attracts another boy who is bored of soccer camp.  At the end of the week, Bean had way more fun than Nancy.
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Infinity and Me

Written by Kate Hosford
Illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska

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Infinity is a big subject to tackle in a picture book. In the author’s note, she points out that as soon as kids learn what infinity is, they use it all the time. So a picture book seemed like a logical way to explore some of the ideas kids have about infinity. Uma, the young narrator, begins her musing about infinity after she sees the starry night. Certainly there seems to be an infinite number of stars and it makes her feel very small. She asks her friends about infinity. Charlie says it is a number that goes on forever. Samantha said the infinity symbol on its side is like a racetrack she can drive on forever. Everyone uses the word ‘forever’ and that becomes difficult for Uma to deal with. Then Grandma snuggles with Uma under the stars and her love stretches to infinity.
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The Knight, the Princess, and the Rock: A Classic Persian Tale

Written by Sara Azizi

Illustrated by Alireza Sadeghian

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As an ancient civilization with a rich heritage of storytelling, Persia is a wonderful place to find material for children’s books. This beautiful little tale proves it. The story itself is certainly simple enough for third graders to understand and embrace. This may be a candidate to read aloud in a classroom, though. The concepts of kings, knights, and magic may need a little discussion.

When a knight is sent on a mission to rid farmlands of destructive wild boars, he finds himself in enemy territory. This does not prevent him from falling in love with the princess of the land he’s in. The enemy king discovers the knight’s presence and imprisons him in a deep hole covered by a magic rock. The princess is also banished. She is able to keep the knight alive with food passed through a hole. Finally, help arrives from the knight’s home. Through love and prayer, the help frees the knight. The knight and princess return to his home, where they are married and live a happy life.
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The Royal Treasure Measure

Written by Trudy Harris
Illustrated by Ivica Stevanovic

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King Balbazar’s kingdom has made a mess of measuring. Curtains are too long, robes are too short, and no one knows how to solve the problem. So King Balbazar decides to hold a contest to create the official unit of measurement for the kingdom. The question is, who will measure up to the task?

The books includes narrative as well as dialogue. The narrative is written in four sentence poetry style with rhyming which will engage young children. Readers will enjoy this quirky story and find it very funny that the people in the kingdom use everything from sausages to spoons as a way to measure things. The Royal Treasure Measure is perfect for a read aloud with young children, especially when learning about poetry. This book contains easy-to-understand rhyming sentences.
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A Topps League Story: Book Four: The 823rd Hit

Written by Kurtis Scaletta
Illustrated by Eric Wright

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Teddy “Bear” Larrabee, a slugger on the Pine City Porcupines, gets his 823rd base hit on his birthday, August 23—and it’s a home run! The Bear is a big believer in the power of numbers, so he asks Pines batboy Chad to retrieve the ball from the stands. There’s only one problem: the crabby fan in the ballpark who caught it. Chad really wants to keep the Bear happy and slugging, so he’s just got to figure out what the fan would be willing to trade for that 823rd ball.

The 823rd Hit is a book in a Topps League Story series. The book features the adventures, and misadventures, of the Pine City Porcupines and their two batboys: Chad, an avid baseball fan with a huge baseball card collection, and Dylan, who doesn’t know a thing about the sport. The fictional series has a unique twist: Chad solves problems by using information from Topps cards of real figures from modern baseball history.
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Waga’s Big Scare

Written and illustrated by Samuel Hiti

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This scary monster is not for the faint of heart!  Waga may be small, but he has the biggest scare. Right now, however, Waga is sad.  He has lost his scare and can’t remember where he left it.  Time is running out.  If he does not find his scare by morning, he will disappear forever.  So he starts looking: at the monster parade, in the creepy woods, in a dark, dank cave, even the graveyard.  Suddenly, he remembers, but the sun is almost up.  He jumps into a drain pipe, squeezes through the plumbing, and comes up the kitchen sink.  He goes through the dining room, down the hallway, into the bedroom and under the bed.  Because he left his scare – under your bed!
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Madam and Nun and 1001: What is a Palindrome?

Written by Brian Gable

Illustrated by Brian Gable

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This clever book not only demonstrates what a palindrome is, it does so with a rhyming text.A palindrome is “a word, phrase, sentence or number that is the same when read forward or backward.” The words are obvious and easy to spot, but the phrases can be quite tricky and always intriguing. For instance, “test set” does not seem to fit the pattern but, once it is broken down, the pattern becomes clear. The puzzle becomes an obsession and has readers looking for palindromes everywhere.
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Butterfly, Flea, Beetle, and Bee: What is an Insect?

Written by Brian P. Cleary
Illustrated by Martin Goneau

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The author of the Words are CATegorical series has done it again.This time he brings us Butterfly, Flea, Beetle, and Bee: What is an Insect? which is part of the new series Animal Groups are CATegorical. The book introduces readers to the world of insects in a clever, rhyme filled, funny manner. The insect names are written in color which makes for easy identification. The colorful illustrations make this book a fun read for any 3nd grade student. The story is zany enough to keep kids engaged and informative enough to provide a learning experience at the same time. The illustration style along with the fun approach to what could otherwise be creepy, off-putting, and gross, makes insects seem interesting and makes a fan out of even the most squeamish third grader.
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Snakes

Written and illustrated by Nic Bishop

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Magnificent, crisply detailed photographs make possible the difficult feat of looking at snakes with unbiased eyes. Nic Bishop, the author and illustrator of the book, does not gloss over the many dangerous snakes that exist; it is just that the photographs show the reader the beauty and diversity of this misunderstood species of reptiles.

Only some snakes are dangerous, but all snakes share basic common features. The author presents this information in an interesting manner. If you were a snake, he tells us, you would be about four times longer than you are now, and only a few inches thick. The book draws in third grade readers with such imagery. “..if you were like many snakes, you would only have room for one large lung.” Wow! How do they breathe with just one lung?
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Body Actions

Written by Shelley Rotner and David A. White

Outstanding Science Trade Book 2013 from the National Science Teacher’s Association and the Children’s Book Council (click for more info)

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Your body is incredibly well-designed! Rotner’s and White’s book is an easy-to-understand book about the major organ groups of the body. With large, real pictures and clearly written text, this book is well-suited for a third grade class as a read-aloud, especially in a small group setting. Students will find the illustrations overlaying the photographs easy to understand; the ear bones illustration is especially helpful. The x-ray of teeth is also enlightening because students reading this book will be in full swing of tooth loss and replacement, so they will marvel at the sight of the adult teeth growing beneath the baby teeth. For students who are hungry for more information, there is a glossary and a section that further describes the body’s systems.
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