Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months written by Maurice Sendak, reviewed by Terry Wahrman

 

Summary:  Anytime of the year is a good time to have chicken soup with rice.  A small child goes through the months of the year while reiterating it is always nice to have chicken soup with rice.  Each page has a month and each month has a rhyming story, but in every month it is good to have chicken soup with rice.  

Straight Talk for Librarians:  Obviously for all you foodie teachers out there, this would be a wonderful book to have around during the cold season along with a cup of chicken soup with rice.  It helps to teach the months of the year and you cannot overlook the rhyming poetry lesson that goes along with it.  Some months are congruent to the seasons and some concentrated on rhyming.  Originally written in 1962, this book may need a makeover like an old house needs an update.  Update the pictures and rewrite some of the months to relate to today’s students. Keep it congruent to the seasons.  The bones are good, but it is revealing its vintage pages.

Nobody Is Perfick written by Bernard Waber, reviewed by Terry Wahrman

Summary:  Sometimes life can be annoying!  What do you do when a person says they want you to stop scaring them, but really loves to be scared?  Or when someone starts telling you a story, but is laughing so hard they cannot finish it?  These are some scenarios in this short story collection.
This collection of short stories proves that you can write about any of life’s inconsequential occurrences, instill a little laughter or shock, and you too can be an author. You can laugh or be indignant for the people in the stories. 

Straight Talk for Librarians:  The collection of life’s inconsequential stories is a great way to teach writing.  Everyone has a story inside them waiting to come to be written.  Nobody is perfick felt like I was reading a collection of 4th grade written books.  Some are cute and most say nothing of interest with little to no humor.  The illustrations saved the book from drowning in bad reviews.  The pencil drawings bring to life the characters and are more interesting than the written words. Teachers can use the book to teach early days of writing.  Recommended

 

Little Red and the Cat Who Loved Cake written by Barbara Lehman, reviewed by Terry Wahrman

Summary:  Little Red and Big Red bake a cake for Grandma.  Wolfie, the cat, thinks he’ll be getting cake until it’s boxed up and put in a basket.  Sneaky Wolfie, follows Little Red all through town and through the park hiding behind things for the right opportunity to grab the cake.  Little Red greets several people, but the timing is off for Wolfie.  Wolfie gets into Grandma’s house, puts on her clothes, and gets in bed, but Wolfie does not know that Little Red and Grandma have a surprise for him.

Straight Talk for Librarians:  This fractured fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood is told through pictures.  It is wordless, but not worthless.  The colorful pages tell a strong story and incorporate other fairytale figures along the way.  There is a find me section in the back pages of the book to find certain items or characters. Having the students look for items is a precursor toward learning to be observant and detail-gathering for later comprehensive reading.  Great for teaching fractured fairy tales or rewriting a story too.  Goes to show, you don’t need words to tell a story.  Highly recommended. 

 

Haggis and Tank Unleashed #2: Digging for Dinos written by Jessica Young and illustrated byJames Burks, reviewed by Terry Wahrman

 

Summary:  Haggis and Tank take off on an adventure to find Dinosaurs.  Tank read that they found dinosaurs right there near their backyard.  Haggis gets talked into searching for dinosaurs.  They pack food and set off on an adventure.  They find 3 dinosaur eggs all alone so they make a plan to sit on them to hatch, when along comes Mama triceratops and charges at them.  Tank shows her they mean no harm and helps cover them with leaves and grass.  She trusts them and makes them her friends.  They play games until a Tyrannosaurus Rex comes along to eat them, but as the ground starts to shake, he runs off.  Suddenly all the creatures, followed by all the dinosaurs, run away.  Tank and Haggis get worried and find a way to get home quickly.

Straight Talk for Librarians:  This easy reader chapter book with colorful pages has entertaining comical conversations between Haggis and Tank.  Tank is a dreamer, who misunderstands a lot of what Haggis says.  He constantly confuses similar sounding words into something else, which makes for a highly funny and entertaining book about vocabulary. Haggis, who is the smart one, is talked into these adventures by Tank.  Students learn how to be friendly towards people, some who are aggressive towards them or misunderstanding the conversation.  We all can learn to handle a hard of hearing grandparent or older person in our life.  This book would make a great classroom library book on diversity and age differences.  Highly recommended. 

Carmen Sandiego: Clue by Clue written by Catherine Hapka, reviewed by Terry Wahrman

 

Summary:  Carmen Sandiego is on a quest in Tortuga to find pirate Captain Goldtooth’s treasure.  It has been hidden since the 1600s.  Carmen needs to find it before VILE gets to it.  A former pirate who traveled with Goldtooth, wrote a diary and coded where to find the treasure. In this diary is the code breaker.  This pirate stole the treasure from Goldtooth and hid it in Tortuga.  This time VILE sent four of their best agents to retrieve it.  Tigress, Mime Bomb, El Topo, and Le Chevre are all there as well as Inspector Devineaux.  Can Carmen outwit them all?

Straight Talk for Librarians:  Mysteries are sought after books by students and this one will be a big hit with its special symbol decoder built right in.  These books are a welcome addition to any classroom library.  There are extra codes to solve in the back pages that will keep students engaged past the reading of the book.  Upper elementary teachers could have a field day which includes decoding of a puzzles, like an escape room environment to reach the treasure.  It’s a great way to engage students minds.

Mr. Complain Takes the Train written by Wade Bradford and illustrated by Stephan Britt, reviewed by Terry Wahrman

Summary:  Mr. Complain takes a vacation and on the train he notices things are not quite as he wants them to be.  He is a grumpy man and lots of things are wrong on the train.  His seat is too lumpy.  The passenger next to him is too prickly, although a porcupine can’t help it.  The train is moving too fast or too uphill.  He can never seem to find the train comfortable.  After the train and tracks do a loop de loop and a ride through a river, cleaning out the inside of the train, he finally makes it to his destination of Dullsville, but is that what he wants in a vacation?

Straight Talk for Librarians:  Mr. Complain makes a lot of work for the conductor and says mean things to those around him.  All the passengers and conductor remain in good spirits while trying to satisfy his complaints.  Vacations don’t always go as planned.  Students need to learn how to handle their emotions without hurting the others around them.  They can either learn to make a bad situation into a good situation or sulk.  This would make a great classroom discussion on how they would handle himself.  The interactive book is a lot of fun.  This large picture book is fun to read as the train moves up, down, and upside down as do the words on the page and most scenes take up both pages. Highly recommended.

Carmen Sandiego: Secrets of the Silver Lion written by Emma Otheguy, reviewed by Terry Wahrman

Summary:  Vile stole the throne of  King Felipe IV of Spain in 1621 from a New York museum.  On it are 3 hallowed out inlays for 3 silver symbols, two of which were stolen back in King Felipe’s time. One of them was found and Vile has stolen it too.  Carmen and friends fly to Spain to steal them back.  She is up against her arch rival Paperstar from days together in Vile training.  They constantly competed against each other in school and the animosity towards each other has not changed.  They must find this throne and all its components and return it to the people of Bolivia.

Straight Talk for Librarians:  Carmen’s feelings about being latin and stolen away in Argentina by Vile are surfacing in this caper. She’s longing to know who her parents were and to dig deeper into her family history.  Something several adopted teenagers have in common.  Students enjoy the mystery and the good vs evil in Carmen books.  As they run through Spain and Bolivia, they learn about the people and customs.  It would be a great addition to any social studies unit.  Detective-mystery books will always be desired in a school library and Carmen Sandiego books are like the old time Nancy Drew.   Highly Recommended. 

 

Louis written by Tom Lichtenheld and illustrated by Julie Rowan-Zoch, reviewed by Terry Wahrman

Summary:  Louis is a teddy bear who thinks he is unloved.  He is left on the subway train.  He is splashed with milk and he has been bitten by dinosaurs.  Louis wants to leave and find another home that will love him.  Louis feels underappreciated so he makes plans to run away.  With his decision made, now he has to find the right time to leave. He can’t do it during the tea party with cake, nor during bedtime struggles, he ferrets out that maybe he likes it right here at home.

Straight Talk for Librarians:  Things look different if you take the time to see it.  It’s not always bad.  This would make a great group read in a classroom or an individual building up reading skills.  A lesson plan could be about how to treat others and dealing with empathy.  Not everyone will find fun in everything you like to do. Colorful big pictures and large words will provide viewing from the back of any reading circle.

 

Horses: The Definitive Catalog of Horse and Pony Breeds edited by Scholastic, reviewed by Debra Gantz

 

Summary:  This is a stunning guide for kids to learn about the many horse breeds and their history. The book is separated into Light Horses, Ponies, Heavy Horses, and Care of Horses and there is so much to learn from every section. The Table of Contents and the Index do a great job of directing readers to exactly what they are wanting to find specifically, but I will bet many students interested in owning or already owning horses will ultimately read the book cover to cover! The glossary is wonderful, as well. Each breed has facts defining the breed, other names that connect to that breed, purpose of the breed, size of the breed, place of origin and ancestors. 

Straight Talk for Librarians:  My only frustration with this title is the format: Amazon calls it Flexibound. It is soft binding and due to the size of the book, I am not sure it will circulate well for me at my elementary library. Before you write this one off, though, browse a copy for yourself as it is very well done! 

Gossie and Friends: Ruby & Rufus Love the Water written by Olivier Dunrea, reviewed by Debra Gantz

 

Summary:  A friend story that shows their love for the pond throughout the year. Ruby and Rufus like to play on the pond and Olivier Dunrea uses one sentence per page paired with color illustrations of joyful play when the pond is ice and when it is water.

Straight Talk for Librarians:  If you have a space for tiny picture books, this one will be loved! (The book is quite small at about 9 x 9.) I bet that if you buy one of his Gossie & Friends books, you will want to buy them all!

Be a Friend written by Salina Yoon, reviewed by Debra Gantz

 

Summary:  Dennis is a quiet boy that wears black and white stripes and communicates through mime, like his hero Marcel Marceau of stage and screen fame. It can be lonely to not speak with words as other kids do not always understand. During show and tell, he mimed. When students climbed a tree, he became a tree. One day that all changed when Dennis kicked an imaginary ball and a classmate caught it. Together they played and discovered that play does not need words to fill our hearts with joy!

Straight Talk for Librarians:  Wow! What a special book this is and I have already added it to both of my school collections. Salina Yoon has found a way to help students treasure the differences in communication in our school communities. I have shared this book with all of my classes. I see the joy of students who are a part of both a small special services class and included into their grade level class for specials when I share this book in both library times. I see this book as a first purchase.

Everything Awesome about Space and other Galactic Facts! written by Mike Lowery, reviewed by Debra Gantz

 

Summary:  If your students like facts about space, jokes about space, and learning in a very visual way this book is for them. Each brightly colored page with a comic book feel offers all of the above items. Teachers will still have the non-fiction book parts of Table of Contents and Fact Boxes to showcase, but the delivery in this book is geared toward the readers in a delightfully appealing way that is like none other in my collection. Lowery also includes drawing guides as one of his chapters.

Straight Talk for Librarians:  This series is so visually appealing that many of my students want to read them all. (I have not bought them all yet, but I will!) From reading this series I have added some graphic novels by Mike Lowery to my library collection. I have added Everything Awesome about Sharks already and plan to add Everything Awesome about Dinosaurs in both of my elementary schools.

From an Idea to Lego: The Building Bricks Behind the World's Largest Toy Company written by Lowey Bundy Sichol and illustrated by C.S. Jennings, reviewed by Debra Gantz

 

Summary:  This book will take students to Denmark to learn the history of a company we all know and love and connect us to the process of creating a business idea, working through the changes needed to grow that business, and the marketing and distribution issues associated with selling a product on a global scale. With a focus on business terminology explained in fact boxes and the main text, students will learn about the 3 generations of Ole Kirk Chistiansen's family that guided and grew a famous name brand.

Straight Talk for Librarians:  I have to teach my students about careers and this book offers a product background that allows me to showcase many different business careers! I like the simple chapters and the timeline and other back matter. I suspect this will be the favorite of the From and Idea to series by Lowey Bundy Sichol in my schools. Buy if your library needs STEM, Career, business connections, or non-fiction that may interest your budding entrepreneurs.