flipped
wendelin van draanen
published by scholastic
copyright 2001
212 pages
fiction
juli baker falls for bryce the minute he moves in when they are both seven. she holds on to that crush to the eighth grade until bryce starts saying mean things about her and makes fun of her uncle. bryce has always been a little weirded out by juli but things start to change when he starts to see her in a whole new way. after trying to kiss her in front of everyone at school bryce tries to prove his love to juli by planting a sycamore tree in her yard because her favorite tree to climb was a big sycamore tree that was cut down. juli doesnt know what to feel because she doesnt know why bryce has acted the way he has. but after he plants the tree she decides to forgive him. i love this story because it is so cute and so real. every girl have a crush on a boy and every boy get weirded out by the girl who likes them. i would recomend this book to everyone and the only problem i see is the one swear word in the book.

a single shard
linda sue park
published by clarion books
copyright 2001
152 pages
historical fiction
this book is about a young orphaned boy named tree ear who lives with a man named crane mane under a bridge. he watches a potter names min and one day breaks something of min's. to pay off the broken pottery, tree ear agrees to work for min. after his debt is payed, tree ear stays and still works for min because he has a love for pottery and wants to learn the trade. min wont teach him because he isnt his son. min makes two beautiful vases to give to the royal commisioner but cant travel all the way there so tree ear does it for him. on th way to the city, the vases are broken by theives and all that is left is a single shard. tree ear goes to the city and shows the commisioner the shard and get min a commsion for his pottery. when he returns, he finds out that crane man died. min's wife takes him in and tree ear makes a beautiful vase with cranes on it for crane man. i really likes the story but i thought it was a little slow. it was really hard to get into and stay into. i wouldnt really recomend it but i would discourage it.

my very first book of numbers
by eric carle
published by philomel books
copyright 2006
10 pages
children's nonfiction
i really like this book becuase its not like other counting books. it had the page seperated so you can flip the top or the bottome of the page. the point of the book is to match the number at the top of the page with the number of fruits on the bottome of the page. this lets the child figure it out and makes it fun to do. i really think every parent should have this book to help their child learn to count. i would recomend it to every parent and i dont see any problems with it.

hurricanes and tornadoes
by malini cood
published by power kids press
copyright 2008
48 pages
nonfiction
this book offers a great source of information on hurricanes and tornadoes. it goes though each step of each disaster and has great bits of information. it shows how a hurricane is different from a tornado and shows what the inside of both a hurricane and a tornado look like. they have great diagrams of what happens inside the hurricane and the tornado and how you can tell if a storm is coming. they tell you what to do when a hurricane or a tornado comes. they tell you to have an emergency plan and how to weather proof your house. they even tell you how to keep your pets from getting hurt because animals know before humans do when a storm is coming and they start freaking out and they could get injured or killed. this book does a good job at getting the reader interested in hurricanes and tornadoes and gives the reader good information. i would recomend this book to anyone and i dont see any problems with it.

mudflows and landslides
by michael woods
published by lerner publications
copyright 2007
64 pages
nonfiction
this book explains a lot about mudflows and landslides and gives a lot of usefull information like how these disasters are usually caused by other disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanoes. this book has great pictures and awesome diagrams that explains how they work. it also includes stories from people who have been in landslides or mudflows. they are very dangerous and kill a lot of people when they happen. the information was very interesting and i could tell the info was good and reliable. i would recomend this book to anyone and the only problem i see is that some of the stories are intense and scary. they deal with some death.

george washington carver
by lori mortensen
published by picture window books
copyright 2008
24 pages
non fiction
when george was a baby his father died and he was taken away from his mother by slave stealers. he was found by a family who hated slavery so they took him in as their own. geaorge started doing experiements on plants when he was eight years old. he walked eight miles to go to school becuase it was the only one that black children could go to. george discovered more than 300 ways to use peanuts along with cowpeas, sweet potatoes and cotton. i really liked that at the back of the book is a timeline of his life. this book was a good start for informtation on his life but it didnt offer too much. i would recomend this book to anyone and i dont see a problem with it.

florence nightingale
by richard tames
published by franklin watts
copyright 1989
32 pages
nonfiction
this book tells the life of florence nightingale. she was very privlaged as a young child because her father was the son of a very successful banker. she annoyed her mother and delighted her father by reading books and learning. she bacame a nurse in the crimean war and nursed cholera victims. she helped imporve the conditions of the hospitals because so many soldiers were dying from diseases contracted in the hospitals. because of her efforts she was given a brooch by Queen Victoria. this book had a lot of information about her and it was very reliable. it had a lot of pictures and a lot of cool little facts about the time period to help the reader better understand florence nightingale. i would recomend this book to anyone and i dont see any problem with it.

guts
by seymore simon
published by south china printing company
copyright 2005
29 pages
nonfiction
guts is all about what is inside your body. it goes through all the major body parts associated with digestion. it explans why its important to chew up all your food and how long it takes for food to pass through your body. it even explains where bad smelling gas comes from. i wasnt too interested in the book becuase the pictures made me kinda sick. they have actuall pictures of the colen, intestines and the esophagus covered in mucus. this book has good information and interesting facts but i dont know if i would recomend it to young children because of the pictures.

giant snakes
by seymore simon
chronicle books
copyright 2006
31 pages
nonfiction
there are only two really bog snakes, pythons and the boas. pythons lay eggs while boas bear live young. boas are usually found in south american and central america and pythons are found in africa, india and southwest asia. giant snakes sufficate their prey rather than crushing them. they sometimes get bigger than elephants. this book had a lot of information about giant snakes and they are really cool. i would recomend this book to those who like snakes but for those who cant handle snakes, stay away from this book. the pictures are really gross and graphic.

the frog
by diana noonan
published by chelsea clubhouse
copyright 2003
32 pages
nonfiction
this book goes throught the entire life cycle of a frog, from egg to laying eggs. they give good details about each stage and have good pictures. this book made frogs really intersting to me. there was a lot i didnt know about frogs that i do now. some frogs keep their eggs inside their stomache so when they hatch they come out the mother's mouth. they show tadpoles at each stage of their cycle with gaining arms and legs and losing theit tails. i would recomend this book to anyone and the only problem i see is maybe the picutres being a little too graphic for some younger children.

the wright brothers
by lola m. schaefer
published by capstone press
copyright 2000
24 pages
nonfiction
this book goes throught the lives of wilbur andorville wright. it starts with their births in 1867 and 1871 in dayton, ohio and tells of their facinations with kites. when their father gave them a toy helicopter as boys started bulding their own. they opened up their own bycycle shop and uild those too. they strated building gliders in 1900 but they flew them as kites. after many trials and errors the wright brothers designed a glider that could fly with a man on it powered by gasoline. i like this book because it doesnt have too much into that it drounds the reader but just enought to get them interested. i also like that they have real pictures of the brothers and their gliders. i would recomend this book to those who have a facination with flying or want to know more. i see no problem with this book.

touch and feel shapes
published by dk publishers
copyright 2000
10 pages
nonfiction
this book is a good book for babies and toddlers. it shows all the shapes and how you can find them in everyday objects. it shows all the colors and it even has little things for the child to feel to experience different touches like fuzzy, bumpy and smooth. i think this book really does a good job with helping a child put together the color with the shape and be able to feel things. i would recomend this to parents with small children. i dont see any problems with this book.

George Washington
by Lets read biography
published by houghton mifflin company
copyright 1997
nonfiction
12 pages
this book is a book for small children because it gives small facts and doesnt go into a lot of detail. it has lots of pitures and facts but mainly about washington himself like how tall he was and who he married. it doesnt give a whole lot of detail to what he did in the war or as a president. i thought it was very interesting and very good for young readers who are just beggining to read. i would recomend this book to younger children and their parents and i dont see a problem with this book. i think it has just the right anount of info to get the child intersted in washington.

river discoveries
by ginger wadsworth
published by charlesbridge
copyright 2002
30 pages
childrens nonfiction
in this book, they describe all differnt kinds of anmals that are found inand around rivers. they talk about moose, trout, water beatles, and even raccoons. i love that they offer really good information on all of the animals and on every page they show each animal and they ask a question that the child can find in the reading so that they can grab their interest. i was really surprised to find out that catfish cant see at all and they feel their way throught the water by their barbels that are like whiskers. i think this book could get the attention of any child and get them interestes in wild life. i would recomend this book to anyone and i dont see any problem with it.

the best book of dinosours
by christopher maynard
published by kingfisher
copyright 1998
33 pages
childrens nonfiction
the best book of dinosours is a very intersting book about dinos. it starts off with babies and gives informationg about living in herds, the pant-eaters and the mea-eaters, how they hunt and they talk about how a meteorite might have smashed into the earth which caused them to go extinct. this book has a lot of good information and very descriptive picturs. the only problem i would see is the graphic nature of the pics. i would recomend this book to those who have a facination with dinosours because it is so informational. i really love how they show how fossils are found and then dug up. its all just so interesting.

giraffes cant dance
by giles andreae
published by scholastic
copyright 1999
29 pages
in this story, a girrafe named gerald wishes to dance, but he keeps falling over his long legas. every year at the jungle dance, all the other animals dance so amazingly that gerald feels left out. whenever he tries to dance all the other animals laugh at him and tell him the giraffes cant dance. gerald runs off by himself and wonders why he isnt able to. a cricket overhears him and tells him that he just needs to find the right kind of music. gerald listens to the wind and the cricket starts playing his violin and soon gerald starts to dance. all the other animals soon see how amazing he is at dancing and they ask how he did it. he says that anyone can dance as long as they have the right music. i love the message in this book. it shows children to not give up and to find a way to do what you want to do. i would recomend this book to everyone and i see no problems with it.

the paperboy
by dav pilkey
published by scholastic
copyright 1996
28 pages
chilren's book
the paperboy tells the story of a small boy who has to get up early in the morning before the sun and before anyone else in his family is awake. he has to fold up the newspapers and put rubberbands around them. then he loads them up on his bike and sets off to deliver them. he knows the route by heart and as time passes the world starts to wake up. when he returns home, his parents are awake and his sister is watching cartoons but he goes back up to his room and goes back to sleep. i love the illistrations in this book. it starts off all dark and as you turn the pages it slowly gets lighter as the sun comes up. i wouldnt really recomend this book just because it didnt really make me think or surprise me in any way but i wouldnt discourage anyone from reading it. i dont see any problems with it.

snow dance
by lezlie evans
published by scholastic
copyright 1997
30 pages
children's book
snow dance is a cute book about two children wanting it to snow so they can go outside and play in it. they wait and wait and finally decide to do a snow dance. when they wake up in the morning there is snow and school is canceled. they spend all day oustide with their friends having snowball fights, building snow caves and making snowmen and snow angels. when they come in for the night they cozy up by the fire and are so thankful for the snow. then they do the snow dance all over again. i love this book becuase i think children love to play in the snow. it really shows the excitment children experence when it snows. i would recomend this book to everyone. i see no problems with it.

the way i feel
by janan cain
published by scholastic
copyright 2000
29 pages
the way i feel is a very cute book about the emotions that children experience. they show anger, happiness, excitement, jelousy, pain, frustration and a whole lot more. the thing i really like about this book is the pictures. they use hard lines and sharp edges when describing negative emotions but use swirly soft lines for positive emotions. they use dark sad colors and they use bright happy colors. another thing i like is at the back of the book they have a thing for the parents to read. it has questions that parents should ask while reading the book to their kids. questions like, "how do you ask when you are angry?" or "what things make you excited?" i think this is a very good thing to do. i would recomend this book to everyone and i see no problem with it.

wild animal go round
by mary ling
published by dk publishing
copyright 1995
children's nonfiction
wild animal go round is a very cool book filled with intersting facts about wild animals. it has a little spinner thing inside the book that has little facts on each animal. they write about penguins, zebras, parrots, snakes, ostriches, giraffes, tigers and elephants. on each animal they tell how they are born, wher they live, if they love in heards or not, their eating habits and any intersting things about their bodies. i was really surprised to find out that when snakes hatch from their rubbery eggs, they brake through with a tooth that soon falls out after they hatch. i thought that was pretty interesting. i would recomend this book to the parents who have children who are interested in wild animals. the only problems i see with this book is that it shows what they look like at birth and its a little graphic.

me and my family tree
by joan sweeney
published by Crown publishers
copyright- 1999
children's book
me and my family tree is a book that explains how families are made. a little girls decides to put together a family tree. she has both sets of her greadparents and thier children including her parents. she has her cousins and her older brother and then she eplains how she came to be. it is a really cute story of family heritage and how you are part of a big picture. i really loved the back of the book beacuse it has a place where you can fill out your very own family tree. i would read this book to all my children and recomend it for other parents to do the same. i see no problems with this story.

my very own octopus
by bernard most
published by scholastic
copyright1980
28 pages
children's book
my very own octopus is a story about a boy who really wants an octopus as a pet because his brother is allergic to everything else. if he had an octopus as a friend he would be able to have him on the baseball team and no one would be able to get a ball past them. he would be able to clean up his room faster and never have to carry anything. they would have the best snowball fights and if there was ever a bully picking on someody, his pet octops would be able to teach him a lesson. but in the end he knows he wouldnt be able to have an octopus as a pet. this book really shows the imagionations that children have. kids dream of having the coolest pets. i really likes how he imagined the octopus helping him with everything that he does. i would recomend this book to anyone. i see no problem with it.

If you give a mouse a cookie
by Laura Joffe Numeroff
published by scholastic Inc
copyright 1985
30 pages
children's book

if you give a mouse a cookie tells the story of a little boy who gives a mouse a cookie, who then wants a glass a milk, but then he wants a straw and a napkin when he's finished. when he looks in the mirror to see if he has a milk mustache he sees a hair that needs to be cut. the mouse goes from cutting his hair to cleaning the whole house and then wanting to take a nap. the bedtime story he asks you to read will remind him to draw a picture of his family which he will want to put on the fridge. the fridge will remind him that he is thirsty for milk and then he will want a cookie to go with it. this is such a good story about how children are. the little mouse reminds me of children and how they go from one thing to another. i really like the face of the mouse. they are really cute. i would recomend this book to everyone but especially to those with small children that like to do everything. i see no problem with this book.

What Dad's Can't Do
By Douglas Wood
Published by Scholastic
Copyright 2000
28 pages
Children's Book

What Dad's Cant Do is a very cute book that goes throught all the stuff that dads cant do. like crossing the road without holding hands or saying goodnight without a goodnight kiss. you see this father doing all of this stuff with his son and in the end it shows the father just exhausted by everything they did but it says that a dad cant stop loving you. this book was so darling in the way that it is in the view point of a small boy. you know that dads can do all of this but they choose to do it for their sons. i really liked the pictures because it showed how it really is. i would recomend this book to everyone but especially to dads. i know everyone would love it. there are no problems with this book.

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
By Eileen Christelow
Published by Scholastic Inc.
Copyright 1989
32 pages
children's book

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed is a cute book that goes along with the song. it tells the story of five little monkeys who at bed time all jump on the bed and one by one they all fall off. the mother calls the doctor after each one and he tells them "no more monkeys jumping on the bed!" the part that surprised me was after the last little monkey is taken care of and they are all sent back to bed, it shows the mother finally going into her bedroom and jumping on her bed. it is a really cute book with really funny illistrations. i would recamend this book to all parents especially those who sing this song to their children. i dont see any problems with this book at all.