Carol S. Surges, formerly at Longfellow Middle School, Wauwatosa, WI

While most of these creatures have been covered multiple times in the past, continuing trends such as presenting this material to younger audiences, giving it fresh treatments, and including instructional or reading tools make these titles different.

Books on pet care are always popular, and this year is no exception. Early readers will find plenty to pore over, admire, and read in this fall’s collections

Using rich photos, great nonfiction features, and embracing species on the verge of extinction, these timely series will excite your readers this season.

This spring’s life-science entries offer an assortment of possibilities for refreshing your 500 and 600 sections. Most of the series come with the expected set of nonfiction tools (e.g., TOC, index, glossary, bibliography), but in some cases, publishers are including more text cues to aid the youngest readers with decoding and comprehension skills. Series for older readers are adding questions to help students read to learn.