library – Page 54 – One Chapter

The Big Book of Experiments by Dr. Kate Biberdorf

This book is a gem! Packed with 25 different experiments, I was excited to thumb my way through this beauty. I have to warn you up front, that I am not into science. I hated science as a child, as I didn’t understand any of it but now as an adult, I love experimenting and learning from it. This book fits right in with my needs.

If only as I child, I could have experimented with fun and interesting items instead of the beakers, test tubes and chemicals that we had to use, I think that I would have learned more and enjoyed science. In The Big Book of Experiments, the variety of experiments is great. Some of the experiments can be completed rather quickly and some can take some time while there are some which small children can complete with little assistance while others, you’ll need an adult or mature person watching over the whole experiment.

I liked that some of these ideas were ones that I had already completed and some were new to me. There was Dancing Raisins, Elephant’s Toothpaste, Moon Rocks, Unicorn Glue, Lava Lamp, Neon Brains, and Fake Tattoos, just to mention a few. I do like redoing experiments

Kate provides visual safety cues to each experiment. Whether that is a sink, goggles, gloves, a garbage can or adults, as these safety cues remind the reader to be safe when conducting the experiments. Along with the cues, each experiment has a small note about the experiment, a list of supplies, a messiness level, step-by-step directions with colorful illustrations, questions to ask yourself after you’re finished (science questions about what happened and what if questions) and then, the author explains to you the WHY, as to why the experiment worked. Now, that is some important stuff! This is the educational element of the book and important for you to read, you do want to become smarter, don’t you?

I liked that most of the supplies for these experiments were normal items that aren’t hard to find. Items like rubber bands, knife, dish soap, hydrogen peroxide, shaving cream, balloons, fishing line, etc. There are some that called for some more difficult items, like sodium alginate, calcium chloride, iron oxide powder, dry ice, and copper wire, for which you will have to do some planning to get these before having some fun. I I would have liked an idea where someone could locate some of these items, that would have been a big help. Some type of indexing at the back would have been great too. There is a Table of Content but I like indexes in books like these.

It’s a great colorful, fun book and I highly recommend it. If you’re homeschooling or trying to keep your child engaged, this is a great book to check out.

MonsterStreet: Camp of No Return by J.H. Reynolds

Every time I read one of these MonsterStreet books, I swear it’s the best one that I have read. So, I will say it again, these books just keep getting better and better! I’m hooked on this series! Every time that I hear that a new one is coming out, I’m all over it, just waiting for release day and I’m over 50 years old. This book had it all. It had the creep factor, the suspense, the cliff hangers at the ends of some of the chapters and fantastic characters. Do you need to start at the beginning of this series to enjoy this? No, but I guarantee that you’ll be inhaling them, once you start reading them.

As you read books in this series, you’ll come across aspects in the mystery that you know or you feel that you know, are not as scary as they come across. What I like about this series is that the author, dismisses many of these aspects immediately, instead of letting them add up, and then dismissing them later in the book. An example: if a character in the book finds a cloth with red liquid on it. Instead of having the reader believe that this cloth is a bloody towel throughout the book, the author lets the characters uncover what the cloth might be immediately and dismisses it as a napkin with ketchup on it. I feel that helps put the important pieces of the mystery together in the book.

Riding to summer camp on the bus, a few of the kids, made friends. They each felt special, as they were amongst a selected group to be invited to Camp Moon Lake. It was said to be magical yet they have promised, like all previous campers before them, not to disclose what occurs while at camp.

When Brodie tells Harper and Darla the rumor that he heard about the camp, this summer camp just took on a chill. As a fog smothers the camp and a scream welcomes the campers, this week at camp will be one that everyone will remember.

I enjoyed the horror aspects of this for young readers. No blood or gore but I would know your audience before letting young elementary children read this. Some children might not be able to handle it, and I’d hate to hear about someone having a nightmare. If a child is able to distinguish reality from everything else, they should be okay reading this. I’m not going to go into what this book was about as I don’t want to spoil it. I really loved the book and the ending was amazing! I can’t wait for the next one!

Issues: bullying, friendship, family,

The Red Zone: An Earthquake Story by Silvia Vecchini

This graphic novel addresses the issues an earthquake has on young children. Torn from their homes, these children have to deal with the issues of the unknown as their community tries to rebuild.

I liked how the novel immediately begins with some powerful action. Mother Nature begins unleashing her power upon the community, leaving its citizens left to fend for themselves. We follow Matteo, Giulia, and Federico as they learn to live with the aftermath of the destruction.

The devastation from the quake is massive. The citizens are warned not to enter the “Red Zone” but to some that zone is their life and contains everything they have. How can you tell someone to stay away from the only possessions they have?

A make-shift school is immediately constructed while the community tries to rebuild. Why is it taking so long to move forward? What are they supposed to do in the meantime? Each family tries to rebuild their lives and get some structure into their lives, to the best of their ability, but it’s hard when all your possessions are in the “Red Zone.”

I really liked the idea of this graphic novel and I thought, the illustrations were fantastic. We are experiencing more weather-related catastrophes lately and having children understand them is important. The illustrations were bright, colorful and had a great flow. I liked everything about this novel but I thought it was missing a few things. I really had no connections to the characters as I had no background on them. I wished I had known something about them and/or their relationships with other individuals in the novel, so I knew exactly the emotional toll this disaster played on their lives. I know that any tragedy is hard but I felt that my character and emotional connection was not fully engaged while reading this novel. I think this is a good novel to share with children, it’s a good starting point.

Snack Attack! by Terry Border

I liked it but it didn’t wow me, like I thought and hoped it would. I liked how the three snacks played together but wasn’t it smart Cookie who found the note? I thought it was interesting how Cheese Doodle came up with the interesting ideas and Pretzel was the scared one. Cookie was still the smart one who kept telling Cheese Doodle how his ideas wouldn’t work and then, what happens at the end? Oh, Smart Cookie….I’m sorry

I thought it was a cute story but maybe I’m reading more into the story than I need to be. The pictures were fun and I do hope there is another book that follows this one, as I need to know what happens next.

Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpre by Anika Denise

After reading this children’s story and the author’s note on the back two pages, I got chills. This story is fantastic and I am so glad that I picked it up. It tells the true story of a woman who shared stories from her childhood which changed the lives of many. As I read this story, I thought of how she stepped forward and went about making a difference. This woman was not a loud, strong woman. This woman saw a void and wanted to fill it.

The year is 1921 and Pura Teresa leaves San Juan to visit her sister in the U.S. Seeing what the U.S. had to offer, Pura finds a job and begins to settle in. When the library posts a job for a bilingual assistant, Pura knows that she is the perfect individual for the job.

Realizing there are no Puerto Rico folktales on the library shelves, Puro recalls the stories that she heard growing up. As the children gather around her during story hour, Puro doesn’t need any book to read from. Puro’s words are enough that the children are soon whisked away into Puro’s world and imagination. It isn’t long before Puro begins to create puppets to add to her stories and then, the word gets out about Puro and her stories and there is no stopping what happens to these wonderful tales.

This children’s book put a smile on my face and it warmed my heart as I read about her journey through life, sharing her stories. I hoped her journey would never end as she was such a positive individual. This book gives the full account of her life and it truly is a wonderful story. Make sure you read the author’s note which is located in the back of the book. Located also in the back of the book are a few pages on additional resources you could use for more information on topics contained in the story.

Another by Christian Robinson

3 stars Children’s

This is a wordless book that I liked yet I felt that it was missing something. The illustrations were wonderfully done with bright, bold colors and simple lines. It was the storylines that went through my head, as I flipped through the pages, that confused me. I went over this children’s book numerous times, looking at it a variety of ways and still, I’m puzzled.

As a girl slept in her bed with her cat (with a red collar) looking out her window, a bright porthole opened up in her room. Soon, another cat identical to the one lying on the bed (this one had a blue collar on) popped through the porthole and snatched the red toy mouse that was lying on the bedroom floor. Crawling back through the porthole, the cat carries the mouse, who is now followed by the first cat and the girl, who has awakened and seems curious to what is happening.

It seems that they have entered another world as gravity for one, is not the same. There are other differences but what I like is that this world is not too busy, the pages aren’t overflowing with colors and activities. The pages have a great flow to them and you can follow what is happening. There are geometric shapes throughout the pages yet no definite pattern.

Perhaps I am reading too much into this book. Perhaps I wanted too much from this book. I do feel that it would be beneficial a child who reads this book to talk about it someone. I think discussing it with someone, they might discover something they missed in the book or a different view.