Month: February 2019

The Fix-it Up friends Three’s a Crowd

three-stars

Frienships can be difficult and jealousy can be hard to undrestand or fix.   Margot is a new girl and Veronica with her best friend Cora welcome her. They believe that one can never have too many friends.  Soon Cora and Veronica’s friendship starts to change. Cora and Margot are doing more things  together, and without Veronica. They even  start wearing matching outfits. The more Veronica tries to bring Cora back, the more she feels left out of the new loop.

With some help the girls learn how to really talk to each other and how to listen.

Part of the series charm is just for kids the section at the back of the book with a tool kit for helping to fix problems.

 

Reviewed by Jeri Fitzpatrick, GNG Middle School, Gray

 

 

 

three-stars

Lighting Up The Brain the Science of Optogenetics

four-stars

A new science field, optogenetics, is allowing neuroscientists to look into the brain to see how individual brain cells work. Neuroscientists want to use this new technology on human brains to better understand how the brain processes information.  The hope is to be able to correct blindness,  Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, and other health problems. The book has four chapters: mind games, brain study breakthroughs, reading the mind, and mind control. it also contains source notes, a glossary, selected bibliography, further information, and an index. It includes great diagrams and illustrations. This would be good for middle school and above.

 

Reviewed by Jeri Fitzpatrick, GNG Middle School, Gray

four-stars

Dinosaurium

five-stars

This is a beautifully illustrated addition the the Welcome to the Museum series.  The full page pictures take you right back thru the ages to the time of these magnificent beasts with such detail  you can imagine them right before your eyes.  The text describes how scientists believed these prehistoric lived and died and also where the most recent specimens were discovered.  A  truly  magical book for hours of enjoyment for readers of all ages.

Karen Spiliopoulos, Parsons Memorial Library, Alfred

 

 

five-stars

On Gull Beach

ISBN: 9781943645183
four-stars

This is the third in the On Bird Hill and Beyond series, a collaboration between Jane Yolen as author and Bob Marstall as illustrator. This trilogy of books were written for the  renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology. In a rhyming format, a young boy is in pursuit of a starfish on a beach in Cape Cod,  but gulls are determined to thwart him as they have fun tossing the starfish back and forth. In the end, the boy rescues the starfish and returns it to the water and safety. The illustrations are simple, muted, and very appealing. The unusual appendix titled Life on a New England Beach will, perhaps, be the most wondrous portion of this offering. Information is shared about different birds along with pictures of each. Young readers are also instructed about how they can keep our beaches and wildlife safe and thriving. On top of all of this, 35% of the net profits from the books in this series go to  Cornell Lab to support projects such as children’s educational and community programs. This book will be appealing to both young readers and to their teachers and parents who will find themselves learning something about birds that, perhaps, they never knew.

 

Carla McAllister, New Gloucester Public Library, New Gloucester

four-stars

3D Printing The Revolution in Personalized Manufacturing

Pages: 112
four-stars

This is agreat book to show just how far technology has come. We copied nature… wasp nests are the first 3D print job. The seven chapters include inventing 3D printing, how it works, 3D printing and tradtional manufacturing, 3D printing our health, 3D printing our world, 3D printing our future, and disrupting and democartizing manufacturing. There is a timeline, source notes, glossary, selelcted bibliograpgy, further information, and an index.  Some cool things that can be printed are artifical limb sockets, toddler hearts so doctors can practice surgery before the real operations, used in dentistry,  the Chefjet 3D printer can make candy and other food, and clothes.

Reviewed by Jeri Fitzpatrick, GNG Middle School, Gray

 

four-stars

A Bad Night for Bullies

A Bad Night for BulliesA Bad Night for Bullies (The Goolz Next Door, #1) by Gary Ghislain
Published by Boyds Mills Press on March 13th 2018
ISBN: 1629796778
Pages: 160
Goodreads
four-stars

The Goolz family moves next door to twelve-year-old Harold and his mom and life in quiet Bay Harbor, Maine will never be the same.  Harold, confined to a wheelchair after an accidental fall from a tree, has not yet found is foothold in Bay Harbor, struggling to make friends and easily becoming a target for Alex Hewitt and his vicious gang.  Harold has come home more than once with scrapes and cuts from encounters with the bullies. However, all that changes when Ilona Goolz becomes Harold’s friend. She is brave and fearless and also accustomed to dealing with creatures far worse than bullies.  Ilona’s father is world-famous author Frank Goolz who writes terrifying horror novels and it turns out that his inspiration for his vampire/ghost/monster gore actually comes from his family’s real and harrowing experiences. Now in Bay Harbor, a ghost is hunting the bullies and the same power (an ancient stone) that has brought the ghost back to the living world is threatening to take someone from the living back to hell.  This is an intensely taut and unsettling title for middle school readers. Some may find the demonic being just a little too violent but the new friendship that grows between Harold and Ilona is sweet and funny and helps to balance out this scary ghost story.

Reviewed by Suzanne Dix, Westbrook Middle School, Westbrook

four-stars

The Red Ribbon by Lucy Adlington

The Red Ribbon by Lucy AdlingtonThe Red Ribbon by Lucy Adlington
Published by Candlewick Press (MA) on September 11th 2018
ISBN: 1536201049
Pages: 288
Goodreads
five-stars

Lucy Adlington’s historical novel, The Red Ribbon, is set in Auschwitz’s prisoner run, haute couture dress shop. The main character, Ella, is a talented young seamstress and designer who fights her way to work in the Upper Tailor Studio. In the midst of starvation, death, and torture, Ella forges a friendship an imaginative young prisoner, Rose. Daughter of a dutchess, Rose lifts the spirits of those around her with colorful stories and her selfless heart. The desperation of the prisoners and the vanity of their Nazi guards lends to suspense in the storyline as we watch the characters become cutthroat in order to maintain their position in the shop. There are special benefits to be the designer for the Commandant’s wife.

Well written and not glossing over the horrors of the camp, Adlington has made characters that the reader can relate to.  The author’s ability to focus on the struggle of humanity will cause readers to think.  It also shows the power of love, friendship, and hope are more powerful than even the darkest prison.

I would recommend this book for young adult collections in all library settings.

This book belongs with the creme of the crop!

Reviewed  by Liz Davis, Children’s Librarian, Waterville Public Library

five-stars

The Great Grammar Book

Pages: 14
three-stars

This pop-up book makes nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and pronouns come to life. `The book isn’t strong enough to go to a lot of homes, but it’s a greta resource for teaches working one on one with students struggling with grammar concepts. It a way to make a physical concrete connection with verbs by using a moving wheel. Flip up patches for nouns are used within a stort story for nouns. There is a mirror to help teach pronouns. A pop-up park to help teach conjunctions. Plurals. possives, punctuation, and complete sentences are all demonstrated in fun ways.

Reviewed by Jeri Fitzpatrick, GNG Middle School, Gray

 

three-stars

Secret Coders Monsters & Modules

two-stars

This is the last book in the series of the Secret Coders. The graphic novel collaborated on by two author-illustrators Gene Luen Yang and Mike Holmes.  You need some “basic” understanding of coding to enjoy the story.

Josh, Hopper, and Eni are the coders who need to create a program that will take them to a different dimension so they can save the world. They need to get into Flatland a two-dimensional plane where they must overtake the evil polygons. They need to bring back a turtle of light to fight off Dr. One-Zero. This is the sixth book of the series.

Book Reviewed by Jeri Fitzpatrick, GNG Middle School, Gray

 

 

two-stars

That Night

That NightThat Night by Amy Giles
Published by HarperTeen on October 23rd 2018
ISBN: 0062495771
Pages: 320
Goodreads
five-stars

That Night

 

That Night was the worst night of Jess and Lucas’s lives when a shooter at a movie theater killed both of their older brothers.  The shooting came out of nowhere and the ramifications continue to haunt both characters.  Jess needs to find a job to earn money to keep her household going as her mother slips further into a debilitating depression.  Lucas is working at a hardware store, partly to escape from his parents’ concern and his panic attacks, and he and Jess meet at her job interview.  Lucas isn’t sure he wants to work so closely with someone else who went through the same thing he did.  But they both soon realize that they are each what the other needs to climb out of the depths of sadness and continue on with their lives.

This book covers what happens after a terrible tragedy when the tv cameras leave and the survivors feel guilt and depression while wondering why they were left alive.  The love story that develops is sweet, optimistic, and a strong part of what will get Jess and Lucas through.  It was refreshing that the conflict wasn’t between the main characters and wasn’t over something silly or half-heard conversations.  From the very worst day will come a positive future.

I would like to recommend this book for Cream of the Crop for young adults in grades 9-12.

 

Reviewed by Ellen Spring, Oceanside High School, Rockland

five-stars