Reviewed by: Stacy Gjovik

This story is the first children’s book for writer/photographer, Jim Mastro and Norbert Wu. The story’s illustrations are photographs taken by Norbert Wu. I found this book to be stunning. The photographs were stark yet breathtaking at the same time. The illustrations definitely reflect a high quality of visual elements and the use of black as a background color really offset the pictures in an amazing way.

Not only are the photographs wonderful, the text compliments them very well. There is a reciprocating relationship between text and illustrations. The text flows from one page to the next through its introduction of characters.

I found this text to be very inviting and I did not predict that it was going to be that way. The front cover just does not do the text justice. I guess that’s why that saying was invented, “Never judge a book by its cover!”

I think this book would be an excellent resource in any classroom. It would make a great addition to science curriculum. It also fits in very well inside the Alaskan classroom because we share a lot of the same wildlife and the same seasons of light and darkness.

Reviewed by: Cheryl Schweigert

Anthony Browne, award winning author and illustrator, immediately has the reader interacting with him, his family, and works of art during a visit to a museum. Harmoniously connecting the unfamiliar by using familiar patterned language and illustrations, the personable writing style invites the reader to share the day that changed the author ’s life.

The illustrations are detailed, use line, color, and repetition to emphasize dominance of each main idea. Paintings and drawings use of color and line centers us, as we follow each visual subplot connecting readers to art.

Teachers will appreciate this book to teach predictions, inference, and text-to-self connections in literature. This book can also be a resource for a study of England, history, and art.

Reviewed by: Rebecca Greeley

This sweet book tells of the plight of poor Humphrey, who just wants to find a place to play. As he wanders through the house, we see through the beautiful illustrations, the viewpoint of a toddler. This is a fun book to read because Humphrey often mistakes common household items for new toys. The humor and fun for the preschool child reading this will be in seeing how Humphrey interprets his world. He ends up in the warm, cozy kitchen, underneath the table, close to his mother. This would be an excellent preschool/kindergarten book.

Title: Octavius Bloom and the House of Doom
Author/Illustrator: Erik Brooks
Published by: Albert Whitman and Co.
ISBN: 0-8075-5820-6

Reviewed by: Tammy McAlister

Octavius Bloom is a lively character that kids will enjoy. The story is told in rhyme and kids will love to read along as it is read aloud. It is an excellent book to use for oral reading fluency.

The illustrations are bright and colorful. They capture the reader’s attention and provide good support to the text.
This book would be a good book to use when working on oral reading fluency because the rhyming text begs to be read aloud. It would also be good to use for teaching rhyme. There is a grammatical mistake in the book—the word “then” is used for “than.” This book could be used to do a grammar scavenger hunt for the mistake. It would also be a good book to use to illustrate the trait of voice in writing.

Reviewed by: Barbara Ragan

In Doug Wechsler’s (1995), Bizarre Bugs, we get a glimpse at why being bizarre is a good thing. Chapters organize this informational book very well although, it is curious why there is not a table of contents. This is a shorter book and it discusses some out-of-the-ordinary bugs. The chapters are organized by interesting subject areas such as, why bugs are bizarre, how they avoid enemies, strange bug parts, and weird life cycles. The photographs are extraordinary because they are large, detailed, and full of color. The text supports the pictures on each page and definitely makes the text more interesting.

The headings that accompany each chapter are very humorous and inviting to the reader. Throughout the text there are several bolded words that go along with definitions in the glossary section. The writing style definitely engages the reader and it is obvious that O’Brien is passionate about the subject matter. There is no bibliography of sources in this book, which seems unusual since some of this information must have come from secondary sources. A bibliography would have been really helpful, especially if a teacher was teaching a unit on insects.

This book has some exceptional literary and artistic elements. It would be more appropriate for intermediate and advanced students, because the text has difficult words. However, the information and pictures would definitely appeal to primary students, and could be introduced and read by a teacher, parent, or older student. This book would be an excellent addition to a unit on insects. The humorous nature of the text makes it appealing to children, because it’s not dry, repetitive information. This book would really appeal to any age group.

Reviewed by: Shanna Johnson

This story has wonderful illustrations depicting the true adventures of the biographical characters mentioned. It begins the story saying that “girls” cannot succeed at becoming a pilot. Throughout the U.S., I do not believe that this is a concern anymore however; the story opens the idea for introducing exceptional biographies of women. This would be a great opening book for a unit; there is not enough information for more than just a perk of attention to make you wonder…and go do more research. This would be great for the sixth grade level, and working with the genre of biography and autobiography. As a science teacher, it did peak my interest and a lot of the information could be used during a unit about the history of flight to create timelines, or other related activities. Yes, this book has potential for enriching curriculum.

Title: Oceans
Author: David L. Harrison
Illustrator: Cheryl Nathan
Published by: Boyds Mills Press
ISBN: 1-59078-018-3

Reviewed by: Leslie Zibell

This book reflects high literary and aesthetic qualities. The plot is strong and easily followed. The setting is strongly defined and the author uses descriptive language, like that illustrated in the following excerpt:
“Squawk!” screeched a toucan with a long beak. “Thrills and excitement are the things that we seek! Let’s hop on a train or a bright shiny bus. A change in routine means adventure for us! ”

The illustrations reflect a high quality of visual elements and support the text. The pictures throughout this book were beautifully done, with rich, bright colors that utilize all the space on each page. The pictures also had a 3-D look to them. I read this book to my four-year-old son and he loved the pictures. They were full of detail and he spent a great deal of time just looking at them.

This book can be enjoyed on it’s own however, some of the vocabulary can be enhanced by a knowledgeable educator (be it a parent, sibling, teacher, etc. ).

This book has potential for enhancing the curriculum in the areas of writing as it is written in a form that mirrors poetry. It is a great example of sentence fluency, word choice, organization, and presentation. There are several examples of good vocabulary including metro, toupee, and emu.

I rated this book overall as a 3 (on a scale of 0-3, 3 being the highest) because not only did I really enjoy reading it, my four-year-old son really enjoyed having it read to him.

Reviewed by: Sharon Sherk

This is a fantastic book that takes the reader on a search following a mysterious set of tracks through the snow.

My young students liked this book very much because they could identify with the main character on her trek investigating tracks in the snow! They loved the rhythm and rhyme of the text. They enjoyed reciting over and over again, “Tracks in the snow, tracks in the snow. Who made the tracks? Where do they go?” This delightful book is full of basic comprehension sight words that they could recognize and read easily. They also loved the beautiful scenes created by the artist using Prismacolor watercolors for this book.

Reviewed by: Paul Johnson

This book reflects high literary and aesthetic qualities with wonderful characterization. This story promoted inference and critical thinking skills. The illustrations captured your attention quickly. The story was easy to follow and could be related to math (ratio and measurement), science (uses of materials to make “new” puppets), and social studies through the use of history (the warlord’s and bandits of China). It has a wonderful potential to ask inferential questions. This book has not received an award yet, but it can only be a matter of time!