Reviews
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
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 →
School Library Journal Review for Down & Dirty: The Secrets of Soil
What’s Soil Made Of? provides an overview of organic components, rock weathering, animals living in soil, and different types. Animals focuses on excretion and decomposing bodies and mentions how earthworms and larger animals loosen soil. Plants mentions vegetation that grows… View →
School Library Journal Review for They Don't Belong: Tracking Invasive Species
Covering multiple aspects of a fascinating topic, each title in this excellent set examines a single invasive species. Each selection opens with a current example of the animal’s impact and then traces the history of its arrival and provides reasons for its proliferation. The writing is… 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
Each book introduces the class of animals in question before moving on to two chapters, each of which focuses on a different “biggest” animal. Basic info, with an emphasis on size, is provided. The authors employ child-friendly comparisons: school buses, cars, and average child or adult… View →
The Amazing Structures series is a quality primer on the basics of reading nonfiction texts, with big, bold added facts. This edition deals with the basic physics that po View →
Booklist Review for Guatemala
Ready to do some armchair traveling? This entry in the Countries We Come From series lets readers explore Guatemala’s cities, landscape, ruins, and more. The first thing readers learn is that Guatemala is colorful, busy, and warm. Vibrant photo illustrations support this claim,… View →
Booklist Starred Review - Asteroid Hunters
In 2004, astronomers discovered a huge asteroid predicted to collide with Earth in fewer than 30 years. That discovery forms the backbone of this installment in the Get to Work with Science and Technology series, which follows agencies and scientists who study asteroids and… View →
Booklist Review for Florida's Burmese Pythons
Burmese pythons aren’t native to Florida, yet their numbers are rapidly increasing in the Everglades. This installment in the They Don’t Belong: Tracking Invasive Species series uses a narrow focus on the Burmese python to illuminate concerns about invasive species in general.… View →
The Horn Book Guide Review for Abandoned! Towns Without People
Despite a rather sensationalized title, this series is genuinely fascinating. Each book traces the history of a now-deserted town, explaining its population boom, possible reasons for decline, and what each abandoned place is like today. With interesting historical and contemporary… View →
The Horn Book Guide Review for Rocks and Minerals
Concepts such as rock composition, formation, and erosion are investigated through a series of activities that, while popular classics, are at time weak analogies for geological concepts. The structure of the activities, however, encourages observation, data collection, and analysis.… View →