Reviews
I read and reviewed the Disaster Zone series, which included separate books for hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards. droughts, earthquakes, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed all of these books, probably most of all because of the incredible photography and illustrations/infographics. Each book in… View →
The Horn Book Guide Review for Out of This World
Limited facts about objects in the solar system are presented in simple sentences for beginning readers. The two-page illustrations feature images of the planets, the sun, and occasionally spacecraft on eye-catching starry black backgrounds. A chart comparing the featured body to earth’s 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 →
I read and reviewed the Disaster Zone series, which included separate books for hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards. droughts, earthquakes, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed all of these books, probably most of all because of the incredible photography and illustrations/infographics. Each book in… View →
I read and reviewed the Disaster Zone series, which included separate books for hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards. droughts, earthquakes, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed all of these books, probably most of all because of the incredible photography and illustrations/infographics. Each book in… View →
I read and reviewed the Disaster Zone series, which included separate books for hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards. droughts, earthquakes, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed all of these books, probably most of all because of the incredible photography and illustrations/infographics. Each book in… View →
The Horn Book Guide Review for A First Look at America's Presidents
K-3. First Look at America’s Presidents series. Each highly abbreviated biography of a US president uses a variety of visual and textual elements arranged informally on pages designed to look like cork bulletin boards. The brief, uninspired narratives are supported by photographs on… View →
Booklist Review for Franklin D. Roosevelt: The 32nd President
This brief biography condenses the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt into 24 pages of facts and full-color photos. The first double-page spread summarizes the “tough times” America experienced while FDR was president. From there, each successive two-page topic takes View →
Booklist Review for Welcome to the Forest
In this entry in the Nature’s Neighborhoods: All about Ecosystems series, close-up photographs of fly larvae, acorns in the midst of sprouting, curious raccoons, and pine cones greet readers. Keeping the focus solidly on a deciduous, temperate forest, the splashy page layouts help young… View →
Wretched Ruins
The topics of the Scary Places series may seem familiar—castles, cemeteries, haunted houses—but the format elicits a surprisingly expansive reach. Each book is divided into 11 two-page spreads, and while this doesn’t allow for a lot of depth, it does inspire the authors to cycle… View →
Mars
The Out of this World series offers books on significant objects in the solar system, including the sun, the planets, and dwarf planet Pluto. A subset of the publisher’s Little Bits! First Readers series, the books have short main texts with a relatively simple vocabulary and a formulaic View →
School Library Journal for ¿A dónde van en invierno?
In this series, the authors cover hibernation and migratory patterns of six different animals in a tidy and fascinating package. In Las golondrinas comunes, readers are introduced to the barn swallow and its migration to the South; in Los pequeños murciélagos café, they… View →