Galileo's Leaning Tower Experiment Author(s): Wendy MacdonaldIllustrator(s): Paolo Rui Additional review: World Geography, World History, science... and some creative fictional characters as well! All in a beautiful information Picture Book. Read more about Galileo's Leaning Tower Experiment
Black? White! Day? Night! Author(s): Laura Vaccaro Seeger Here's a clever picture book about opposites! We loved it so much, the kids told me this had to be a picture book of the week. Each page has a one-word question, such as "alike?" Each page has one or more cut-out windows, showing a picture–in this case, several "alike" diamonds. Flip the page and the picture of an opposite concept is shown: the little "alike" diamonds were actually all part of several very differently-shaped snowflakes! Read more about Black? White! Day? Night!
Mozart, the Wonder Child Author(s): Diane Stanley No need to introduce young Mozart or kids biographer extraordinaire Diane Stanley, but this brand new biography has a twist: she wrote the whole book as a marionette play! The pictures look as if his whole life is a show, with characters suspended on strings. Expect the usual detail-rich, high level writing that comes with her wonderful biographies. Read more about Mozart, the Wonder Child
What Bluebirds do Author(s): Pamela F. Kirby We picked a full bag of mostly new picture books from the library as we don't visit it as often as during the school year. Several new publications were examined by my review team – our children. Some were bold, creative, large and colorful. Fiction, informational, biographies: we read many different books over a number of days. In my mind as I hear their comments and listen or watch their reading enjoyment I run my own elimination process. Read more about What Bluebirds do
Insects Author(s): Sandra MarkleIllustrator(s): Simon Pollard (photographer) We have been spending hours in the garden where insects abound, and this new friendly title comes to entertain and inform my summer readers. The photos are very interesting and our 10 yr. old enjoyed reading about the reasons behind the dimensions of each of the unusually sized insects. The amount of information is juicy enough but also little enough to make this light and breezy summer reading! Have fun learning about these insects: the most numerous animals on earth! Read more about Insects
Faraway Island Author(s): Dianne Hofmeyr So, it just slightly based on the meager accounts of a tale that may have really happened... but still, it makes for a wonderful picture book! Perseverance, kindness, mystery... and true love bringing life to a lonely soul, all in the backdrop of the great navigations involving the Queen of Portugal herself: how can a reader resist it? Read more about Faraway Island
One Author(s): Kathryn Otoshi Our own Number Seven has read this new picture book aloud to me countless times since I picked it up at the library last week. She loves it! Perhaps it is because the numbers in the story stop at seven... or more likely it is because the book gives the colors personality and emotion, creating interesting twists to a fun story. Product Description: Read more about One
First Communion / First Confession Author(s): Our Lady's Catechists This is a relatively-recent reprint that combines two older titles by Our Lady's Catechists into a single volume. Please see our individual reviews: Review of First Communion Review of First Confession Originally published in 1954. Republished 2022. Read more about First Communion / First Confession
Ask Albert Einstein Author(s): Lynne Barasch So maybe your elementary school age child will not learn much Math with this book--the one problem shown involves the Pythagorean theorem and it shows the external tangent line touching two circles--but she may learn a few related things: who is Albert Einstein, why he came to America, where he worked and study, ... and how he actually helped some kids with their Math homework! Read more about Ask Albert Einstein
Piece = Part = Portion Author(s): Scott Gifford There are lots of fraction books for kids out there with photos of every conceivable flavor of... Pizza. This book has the fractions, it has pizza, but thankfully it does not stop there! It provides a progression of various portions to a sliced—but intact—pizza representing the whole (1/1 = 1 = 100%). The connections it makes between the fractional part and its decimal and percentage representations is what makes it different, and useful. My kids have had a difficult time making this connection at home, perhaps because their own homeschool teacher suffers from the same ailment? Read more about Piece = Part = Portion
