Reviews
School Library Journal Review of Titanica
Young Titanic fans will reach for these six volumes that cover almost every facet of the ship and its sinking. In Last Hours, for example, several diagrams and cutaways illuminate the various inner workings and levels of the boat and how exactly the iceberg damaged the vessel. Kids will… View →
A Book and a Hug Blog Review of Poop Detectives
Want to go on a poop hunt? Grab your coat and let’s go see if we can find some poop. Maybe we’ll get lucky and our scat dog will find tiger poop or rhino poop or even whale… Yes, filled with plenty of pictures of poop ranging from the prehistoric human poop to the View →
Booklist Review of Disguises, Explosions, and Boiling Farts: Bizarre Insect Defenses
In riveting close-up photographs, a dozen insects display—or, in stomach-churning detail, actually demonstrate—a range of natural defenses, from mimicry and camouflage to venomous spines, poisonous foam, and squirts of formic acid. The content caters to thrill seekers (the Exploding… View →
Booklist Review of Becoming a Zombie
Walkers, shamblers, revenants—doesn’t really matter what they’re called, since they’re not real, right? Well think again: this entry in the Zombie Zone series (4 titles) wastes no time explaining just how, exactly, zombies could be possible. The book opens with a narrative-style… View →
Booklist Review of Discovering Titanic's Remains
Searching for the remains of the Titanic in 1985, Robert Ballard and his crew watched their monitors while guiding underwater cameras along the ocean floor almost two-and-a-half miles beneath them. They spotted the ship’s enormous boilers first, then chairs, china, and clothing, and… View →
Geo Librarian Blog Review of Welcome to the Coral Reef
This gorgeous book about coral reefs makes for an interesting read, but the real winner is the amazing illustrations that give the reader a glimpse into a fascinating animal habitat. With coral being a living creature it makes sense that coral reefs are always growing. The problem is… View →
Geo Librarian Blog Review of Axolotl
Bearport does such a nice job with these short nonfiction books. With gorgeous photos balancing out the straight-forward text, young readers can focus on the the information in the book rather than the book itself. Axolotl’s are a kind of salamander that looks a lot like a fish.… View →
Geo Librarian Blog Review of Deadly Mine: Libby, Montana
This book presents the shocking story of a town brought to it’s knees by the very thing that helped make it possible. Mining is a dangerous profession, but when miners carry home a poisonous dust, mining becomes deadly for everyone. Not only is the story eye-opening but it carries… View →
Geo Librarian Blog Review of Ghastly Gothic Mansions
Eleven mansions and their ghostly stories are presented in this rather fascinating book. A photograph of each location along with a brief description of the events that supposedly happened their give the reader just enough information to make him/her wonder about their reality. This is… View →
These new additions to the Hello, America! series are of somewhat uneven quality, and the constraint of their very introductory reading level often shows. Each book provides a small amount of historical context for its featured structure and the person it is meant to honor, and includes… View →
This zippy title lives up to its series name, Nature’s Superheroes (5 titles), as Kenney presents a variety of awe-inspiring, “super” hummingbird facts. Hummingbirds’ abilities, such as flying backward, are presented as “powers,” which feels exciting but not hyperbolic, because facts… View →
This title in the Building Character series (7 titles) uses short, direct sentences to relay examples of kids responding to instance of bullying in helpful ways, such as saying “Stop” or walking away. Vocabulary words (“bully,” “tease,” “cyberbully,” “buddy”) are highlighted in the text… View →