Reviews

Gr 5—8—Though these books provide more information about their subjects than the other celebrity biography series on this list (there is a discussion of each star's childhood, rise to fame, and accomplishments), the information is not always conveyed clearly, and can sometimes be too casual—a discussion of pop music in Miley Cyrus, for example, statesj , "…when it's hot, it's HOT!" Also, quotes from sources such as the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal are used and there is a bibliography, but citations are not given...

Gr 5—8—Those who choose to mix epoxy instead of watercolors and feel more comfortable in a hardware store than an art store are the target audience for this series...

Gr 4—6—This is a lively and entertaining collection of tricks, jokes, facts, recipes, games, pranks, wordplay, and all-around fun...

PreS-Gr 2—The large picture-book format and inviting color photographs make these clearly written titles welcome additions...

K-Gr 1—Loosely interpreting "bugs" to include spiders, this series gives new readers a sense of the huge variety of shapes and colors in which insects (and arachnids) come...

K-Gr 3—On a beautiful summer day, a crate falls off a truck, and out pops a colorful peacock that wanders down the road and changes life on the Tuckers' farm...

PreS-K—Youngsters can easily relate to the difficulty of selecting a new pair of shoes at the store when there are so many from which to choose...

PreS-Gr 4—Slim and his grandson, Luis, ride into Skinflint hungry enough to "eat a boiled leather boot...

Gr 7 Up—Students will be enthralled by the exceptional, high-quality photography that brings them eye-to-eye with frogs of all sizes that reside around the globe in this classroom version of Frogs: The Thin Green Line, a title in the PBS award-winning Nature series...