Reviews+

Gr 9 Up—Adapted for younger audiences by the redoubtable Stefoff but not significantly different in scope, arguments, or, for that matter, reading level from Diamond's original (Harper, 1992, 2006), this wide-ranging study of what makes us human offers provocative views of evolution, adaptation, cultural diffusion, sexuality, genocide, race, mass extinctions of the past and present, the roots of drug abuse and language, and even the search for extraterrestrial intelligence ("we're alone in a crowded universe...

Gr 9 Up—When you wake up on the Island of Nil, the rules are simple: you have exactly one year to get off, or you die...

Gr 8 Up—Hollihan profiles the lives of 16 trailblazing war correspondents in this well-researched and riveting book...

K-Gr 2—Samuel accidently bumps into Hamza and further angers the boy when his goblet of wine tips over onto him...

Gr 1–4—To this eclectic mix of three individual 32-page sections (on penguins, monkeys, and polar bears) under one cover, National Geographic has added a fourth one that focuses on orphaned or sick baby animals thriving under veterinary care, eventually to be released into the wild...

Gr 1–3—Hooey's Higgins's teacher, Miss Troutson, is a little tired of the uproar caused by her death-defying class: staple guns used as weapons, children's legs being used as a sawhorse, and a student nearly getting hammered in the face...

K-Gr 2—Told in rhythmic onomatopoeia and rhyme, this tale is about farm animals that wait until the farmer heads out into the fields to cut loose...

PreS-Gr 4—Kids will jump right into this rip-roaring flip book—paced tale...

Gr 10 Up—Colette and Sadie are former best friends who have not spoken in three years...