Reviews
Nightmare Plagues
There are six books in this series, each describing a common and life-threatening disease in a way that young readers will appreciate. Each has a reading level of about fourth grade but an interest level up through the middle school grades. Each volume is exactly 32 pages long and… View →
Series Made Simple
From wind power to green buildings, the subject matter covered here explores the ways in which technology is being used to address environmental issues. Each book contains three chapters that give readers an overview of the topic, basic concepts, and possibilities for the future, often… View →
Series Made Simple
A highly interactive series that makes clear many basic math concepts. Readers will immediately recognize ideas like weighing and measuring as math topics but may not realize that sorting and guessing are also math-related actions. Each page combines bright photos and simple text.… View →
Series Made Simple
Simple explanations are paired with relevant illustrations to bolster confidence in emerging researchers. In addition to basic facts about the causes and effects of natural disasters, each volume includes a map where they are most likely to occur, plus several historic or contemporary… View →
Series Made Simple
Simple sentences detail the typical experiences of an animal’s day. Alligators, for example, shows the reptiles nesting, hunting, basking, and swimming and notes physical characteristics like “long claws.” Text focuses on one or two main activities, without trying to cover every aspect.… View →
Series Made Simple
These basic reptile introductions offer judiciously selected facts coupled with strong visual content to appeal to early readers. Spare text offers a couple of sentences per page, with simple vocabulary. One or two features of each animal are highlighted over multiple pages. In Horned… View →
Series Made Simple
These early readers supply basic overviews of natural disasters. Each volume starts with a “You Are There” scenario to engage interest by describing a specific event. Meister then offers simple explanations of why and where such disasters are most likely to take place and… View →
Series Made Simple
Imparting just a few tantalizing morsels of information about various kinds of large-scale infrastructure, these primary-level introductions combine particularly vivid photos with comments that are simply phrased but not entirely generalized. In Bridges, for instance, Pettiford… View →
Series Made Simple
Excellent photographs support basic information written at a beginning reader level. Titles focus on a few key areas, such as wasps‚Äô nests and stingers, rather than trying to cover too much for new readers to absorb. Most books describe the activities of a single insect, though… View →
These titles all have boldly colored page layouts. Full-page photographs draw readers in and show detailed parts of the title animals, their predators, food, eggs/babies, and habitat. Most page spreads consist of controlled vocabulary, emergent reading text. Each book begins with… View →
Series Made Simple
With simple sentences; sharp, uncluttered photos; and just a handful of facts, these animal profiles are generally on target for the intended audience of new readers. Each book narrates one day in the life of the animal, introducing basic behaviors within the story. Iguanas, for… View →
Series Made Simple
In these bright introductions for emergent readers, close-up photos of delighted looking children using their senses in easy to understand ways “Eli smells his stinky feet. Ew! He knows he needs a bath.” accompany short, explanatory notes in large type. Though the amount of… View →