Archive for January 30, 2013

Going Home: The Mystery of Animal Migration

Written by Marianne Berkes
Illustrated by Jennifer DiRubbio

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Stories surface from time to time about pets traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles to find their way back home. Even humans have an uncanny ability to find their way home. But what if you had more than one home? Your home could even be someplace you’d never seen before.

Going Home is told in pleasing rhyme. Readers may want to read aloud each page to get the full effect. This is listed as “A Share Nature With Children Book.” Berkes includes information about animals from loggerhead turtles to monarch butterflies to manatees. Other animals discussed are ruby-throated hummingbirds, Pacific salmon, Canada geese, California gray whales, caribou, the Arctic tern, and emperor penguins.
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I Like Mixed-Breed Dogs

Written by Linda Bozzo

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I Like Mixed-Breed Dogs is one book in the “Discover Dogs with The American Canine Association” series. The mission of the ACA is to provide dog owners with the educational support they need for training, caring for and raising healthy pets.

Mixed breed dogs are special pets because each one is different than the other. Often times, mixed breed dogs are available for adoption, maybe older than puppies and may require special care.
This book teaches young people all about mixed breed dogs in a language they can understand. The purpose of the book is to educate children who may want a dog for a pet. The books sets out to let kids and their parents know that owning a dog is a very big responsibility and it is a long term commitment that the entire family takes on.
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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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Tim Tebow

Written by Jeff Archer

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Even people who don’t follow football have heard of Tim Tebow. For one thing, he’s famous for dropping to one knee on the football field and praying. It’s now called Tebowing. But who is the man behind the quarterback? This volume of the “Amazing Athletes” series attempts to answer that question.

Born in the Philippines and moved to the United States at the age of three, he returned to Asia with his family each summer to work at the orphanage they started. He is known for being home schooled. Despite that, he was allowed to participate in team sports at the local high school, where he was a fantastic player. He worked so hard that his college strength coach limited the amount of weight lifting he was allowed to do. He was the first college sophomore ever to win the Heisman Trophy. When he entered the National Football League (NFL), he was one of the first to point out that he had a lot to learn from the more experienced players. He tries to give back to the fans in many ways. His religious faith is very important to him.
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Bloodsucking Creatures

Written by Ron Knapp

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Load up a book with the ‘ouch’ facts, the ‘yech’facts, and the ‘oh yeah?’ facts. Do away with the blah. Add to that mix magnified photos of the bloodsucking creatures and you have an instant readership – second and third grade readers who delight in the icky and gross and awful.

The vampire bat on the cover looks like it is on its way to the next meal source – you. We learn that the only real vampires in the world are these tiny (three-inch long) vampire bats. Count Dracula with his red cape is a figment of our imagination.
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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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It’s Snowing

Written and Illustrated by Gail Gibbons

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In It’s Snowing, Gail Gibbons delivers dozens of facts about snow with cheerful illustrations. Third grade students will read about the precipitation process of snow from evaporation to snowfall.

Though the book does not lend itself to be read aloud from cover to cover, portions of it would, and there are plenty of comprehension activities to use with this book. One of the most enlightening parts of this book is about each continent’s snowfall. The most interesting fact is that Antarctica has less snow fall than any other continent! In response to the initial read of It’s Snowing, students may write a list of ten facts that they learned or remember. Students may also respond to a number of journal prompts: What do you do when you have a snow day from school? Would you rather have more sunny days or snowy days? Why? What is your first memory of playing in the snow? If there is a snow day this school year, what do you want to do?
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