12.10.09
The Prometheus Project: Trapped by Douglas E. Richards
The Prometheus Project: Trapped
by Douglas E. Richards
(DNA Press)
Getting scientific principles across to kids is tough but Richards succeeds in doing just that in The Prometheus Project: Trapped. The best part is that it all takes place within a fictional story.
Ryan and Regan may be many things but they are not happy campers. Their family has moved cross-country to an isolated home where they know no one. Their parents work all hours. The kids are bored. Bored. BORED. Is it any surprise when they get into trouble?
The trouble they get into arises when they decide to see what it is their parents are up to, breaking several different codes to bypass a variety of high-tech forms of security. Good thing too because the two interfering children manage to save the day in an alien city.
How does the author pull off the teaching aspect without having it be preachy? Ryan and Regan observe facts, make theories, test them and then revise as needed. They live the science involved and make it work for them. Readers learn about the scientific method without a single lesson being involved.
POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT:
I have to admit – I cringed when it became obvious time travel was involved. Time travel presents a host of difficulties for the author but Richards makes the solution work within the story, setting up the possibilities well in advance so nothing seems jarring.
An excellent choice for science loving kids or those who love daring adventure. Want to know more? Check out the author’s site.
–SueBE
11.26.09
Duck for Turkey Day by Jacqueline Jules
Duck for Turkey Day (AR 2 .6 )
by Jacqueline Jules
illustrated by Kathryn Mitter
Happy Thanksgiving! I’m not a huge duck fan but as someone who is having Italian roast beef for Thanksgiving, I had to check this out.
In school, the focus on Thanksgiving seems to be the turkey — the teacher even calls it “Turkey Day.” What will people think, worries Tuyet, if they find out her family is having duck instead? It worries her so much that she gathers up her money to try to buy a turkey at the grocery store.
This mission fails but Tuyet still has a great holiday, playing with her cousins and enjoying dinner with her extended family. That said, she ends up crying at school as she tells her teacher that they didn’t have turkey like everyone else. One-by-one her classmates speak out and she discovers that many of them had something different too — tofu turkey, enchiladas, lamb and even roast beef.
No matter how your family celebrates, this is a book that can help young readers see what the holiday is really about. It can also act to support a child whose background may be different from how they perceive mainstream US culture. You can even get a preview by checking out the book trailer on the author’s web site.
–SueBE
11.19.09
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (AR 5.2)
by Jeff Kinney
(Amulet Books)
Dog Days is the fourth book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.
the book start out when Greg is on his summer vacation. He is an “indoor” person but his parents are forcing him to spend more time outside — ugh!
My favorite part of the book is when he is going to the mall so that his parents can get him a “make up gift” because his Uncle’s dog ate his birthday cake and then puked it up candles and all. At the mall, they go to the pet store and Mom gives him and his two brothers each a five dollar bill. Roderick, his older brother, had his eye on a snake but had to rethink that because it cost too much. Greg gets an angel fish and Roderick gets a fish too. Bad news for Greg! According to Greg, Roderick picked this fish out because it was aggressive.
I think this book will be good for people who are dealing with some problems during their summer vacation because Greg goes through a lot of funny problems. I also think this book will be good for people who like dogs a bit.
These books are really, really funny. They’d make really good Christmas presents, especially book 2 which includes Christmas.
–Guest Reviewer (10 years old), son of SueBE
11.05.09
Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle . . . by Nan Marino
Neil Armstrong is My Uncle & Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me (AR 4 .1 ) by Nan Marino
Roaring Brook Press
Tamara Ann Simpson doesn’t know why no one else can see it. Muscle Man McGinty is a liar and a braggart. The last straw comes when he challenged every single kid on Ramble Street to a kickball game. Kickball is serious stuff and Tamara is sure that, at last, Muscle Man will get what he deserves.
In the summer of 1969, everyone is focused on two things. The upcoming moon walk and the war in Vietnam. These events seem distant to Tamara as she tries to get by without her best friend, Kebsie. A foster child, Kebsie moved away while Tamara was out of town. Tamara takes her frustration out on Muscle Man, the next foster kid to hit the neighborhood.
Laugh out loud funny lines alternate with tear jerker moments as the realities of imperfect families and the fragility of life come home to Ramble Street.
Tamara Ann may not always be likable but she is 100% realistic. The reader too will wonder why every other thing Muscle Man says is a lie and why the adults seem so tolerant. All will be revealed.
An excellent choice for a kid who may be having problems dealing with not so nice feelings and situations.
–SueBE
10.28.09
Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Little Hoot (AR 1. 8 )
by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
illustrated by Jen Corace
Like many kids, the biggest problem in Little Hoot’s life is bedtime.
No matter how tired he is, no matter how much he wants to go to bed, Little Hoot’s parents make him stay up late like a good owl should. They force him to ponder, they make him stare and then there’s all that playing. It is more than enough to exhaust any young owl.
I wouldn’t say that this is a good bed time book — you can expect a lot of objections to Little Owl’s behavior as your own would-be-night-owl hoots and hollers about wanting to stay up late. But this book is fun and funny, both because of the role reversal between parent and child but also because of Corace’s simple but wonderfully expressive ink and watercolor illustration’s.
Pick this one up to share with the young reader in your life and be ready to laugh out loud.
–SueBE
10.17.09
Hello, Bumblebee Bat by Darrin Lunde
Hello, Bumblebee Bat
by Darrin Lunde
(Charlesbridge)
Don’t let the title fool you. There is really and truly an animal called a bumblebee bat. The size of a bumble bee and the weight of a dime, this rare animal flits across the skies of western Thailand.
Published for ages 4 to 8, this book is definitely short and simple enough for the younger end of this range but there is enough information to hold the attention of bat loving 8-year-olds too.
Delivered in a Question and Answer format, readers learn about the bat’s small size, how it finds food, what it must stay safe from and where it lives.
Patricia Wynne’s watercolor, ink and pencil illustrations are just a touch cartoony. Don’t panic — the effect is just enough to give our little bat friend personality but doesn’t detract from the accuracy of the illustrations.
Thanks to my grand-dad, who took me into the mines to see bats up close, I’ve been fascinated by them for years and years. I would have latched onto this book in a heart beat.
–SueBE
10.14.09
Alibi Junior High by Greg Logsted
Alibi Junior High*
by Greg Logsted
(Aladdin)
13-year-old Cody Saron knows five languages and has two black belts. He can identify a variety of weapons and knows how to fade into the background. None of this prepares him for his greatest challenge –
Junior High.
Cody has grown up alongside his father, a CIA agent who travels the globe. When things get too hot, Cody is sent to live with his aunt and have a normal life. But how normal is it if the only person you can be yourself with is your new neighbor, an ex-Ranger, wounded in Afghanistan?
Logsted has nailed the stresses that make up junior high. Bullies in the form of both classmates and teachers, insane schedules, fashion faux pas and more.
What made the book for me was that Cody may be trained as well as his CIA father but he is still a real 13-year-old. Sure, he can kick butt, but when he doesn’t know where his father is, he worries, he’s tongue-tied when talking to the girl he likes, and he has no idea how he is going to work around the rules made up by a seemingly deranged adult world. The adults are not the heroes, everyone makes mistakes. In short, this book may be Jr. James Bond but it is very real.
Whether your kids call 7th and 8th grade junior high or middle school, hand them a copy of Alibi Junior High.
–SueBE
*I checked this book out from the library.
10.09.09
The Elevator Man by Stanley Trachtenberg
The Elevator Man by Stanley Trachtenberg*
(Eerdmans)
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Nathan wants to be an elevator man – operating the controls, opening the sliding door and holding the elevator for someone special. When his apartment building modernizes, they replace the elevator with one that is shiny and new and full of confusing buttons. Everything that Nathan loved, including the elevator man, is missing.
Not to worry. The elevator man has moved on to his dream job, leaving the shiny new buttons for an up-and-coming new elevator operator – Nathan.
This book an old-time feel that is hard to describe but the heavy black lines and bright colors of Paul Cox’s illustrations add to this feel.
An excellent choice for quiet reading and story time where old dreamer and young dreamers alike can share the story’s magic. Trachtenberg captures perfectly the feeling many children have that the adults are, yet again, missing what is truly important and fun in the world around them.
–SueBE
*And, yes, this book was an advanced copy provided to reviewers by the publisher.
10.08.09
Don’t Squeal Unless It’s a Big Deal by Jeanie Franz Ransom
Don’t Squeal Unless It’s a Big Deal
by Jeanie Franz Ransom
(Magination Press)
We’ve all been in a class just like this. Mrs. McNeal had nineteen students which meant that she had nineteen tattletales. Name calling. Noise making. Poking. Anything and everything means a trip up to the teacher’s desk to tattle on someone. Mrs. McNeal can’t even sip her cup of slop in peace. Finally she and the students have a little talk in which she explains (again) when it is ok to tell on someone and when it is not. Lucky for her, the students are paying attention and put it into action that very day.
Yes, the book teaches a lesson but it does it in a humorous way that even kids can appreciate.
I bought this book myself.* It is my second copy because I gave my first copy to a teacher in my son’s school. She had the tattling-est class full of kids on the planet and I thought it might help bring home the point. It did and she was much relieved.
An excellent gift book for teachers as well as something to read to the kids at home when it has been one of those days when they keep calling for Mo-o-om.
–SueBE
*The FCC now worries that book bloggers may be misleading people if we do not divulge when we review a free ARC (Advanced Readers Copy). Could I only be giving positive reviews as a result of gift books? Hardly, but I will try to remember to tell you where the books come from.
