Boy by Roald Dahl

          Roald Dahl manages to make this book a funny and entertaining version of his life growing up in a large family (being the only boy), and going to boarding school in Europe. I wondered why he called the book "Boy" and I finally realized it was because he signed all his letters to his mother, "with love, Boy." It must have been horrible having your adenoids cut out with not anesthetic, or your nose almost shaved off and sewn on again with just chloroform. What about the poor boy with the boil on his leg?
          Can you imagine the punishment that went on at his boarding schools. The "canings" sound awful....and the yelling and the Boazers.........Dahl had tragedy in his life but he had a great mother,and he tried to keep a positive outlook on life. He was naughty too, such as when he put the mouse in the candy jar, or the goat poop in the pipe.......or dressed up and rode around the campus on his secret motorcycle.
         I enjoyed reading his descriptive writing, especially when talking about things such as traveling to China and how it used to take five weeks, but "these days nothing is fabulous anymore." Also, I have only know Dahl as a writer, I didn't know that he was a photographer too. I would love to see more of his pictures. I have read most of his books: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Willy Wonka, The BFG, and the list goes on. I do want to read the sequel to this book too. I am looking forward to it!

Hurricanes By Seymour Simon

         This book is a longer one and jam packed with information about hurricanes from the early 1900's all the way up to Hurricane Katrina. There is discussion including all the main facts about the major hurricanes that have occurred over the last hundred years. This book is probably better for second grade and up, and would be good to use within a science unit or a science center. It would also be useful as a read aloud. Vocabulary words are defined like "hurricane," "tropical," "depression" etc. Hurricanes are described by how they are formed, how they move, the mass destruction that they cause and what you can do to protect yourself against them. There are lots of descriptive pictures depicting various hurricanes, and radar pictures showing infrared images and temperature color scales of past hurricanes. There is great detail about all the different categories of hurricanes and how these categories are defined. I learned many interesting facts such as: in 2005 there were 27 named tropical storms and fourteen hurricanes- the most storms and hurricanes ever in a single season. I also didn't know that hurricanes can set off dozens of small tornadoes or that in early 1900 a hurricane swept through Galveston, Texas causing the worst storm tide in United States history. There is also information included about what you need for a hurricane survival kit. Overall it is an informative book that can be used for research purposes. It is part of the "Smithsonian" series; this series also includes Sharks, Oceans, The Brain, The Heart, and Stars etc.

EARTHSEARCH A Kid's Geography Museum in a Book by John Cassidy

         This is one of the most interactive and engaging books I have seen. Every page has some sort of interactive activity for the reader to do. This book is longer and divided into sections such as: "Get Lost," "Trash," "Meet the Humans," and "Earth." One of the first pages shows pictures of "wiener" hot dogs and describes how they were buried for ten years in a dump, then dug up and photographed.........they still looked pretty much the same because they had not rotted much. (landfills apparently store more things that don't rot as quickly as you would expect.) There is an actual sand timer built into one page to represent the fact that every 10 seconds, 44 people are born on Earth. There is a whole section about getting "lost" on Earth, and how Christopher Columbus is the most famous "lost" person.
          There is a section about the solar system, and earthquakes, and another section about how quickly Africa is growing. On another page there is an interactive "people color wheel" that spins around to create any skin tone......there is also a blurb about "the whole world handshake" because so many people have shaken hands that eventually everyone on Earth will shake hands through someone else. This books asks lots of questions and then provides the answers to them all in the last few pages. This book is packed with interesting trivia and would be a fun to have in a classroom library. John Cassidy also wrote, The Explorabook.

WACKIEST WHITE HOUSE PETS by Gibbs Davis

          This is a fun and informative book that describes all the pets that have lived at the White House, or been owned by a President. It is appropriate for all age groups including adults. There is a lot of information in this book, and if you were going to use it as a read aloud, it would be better to read it over a few days. This book could also be integrated into a social studies unit or used in a center for reading.
          Did you know that around 400 animals have lived in the White House? And that George Washington used to brush his horses teeth; and he had over 40 hounds that he treated like family and that had names like: Sweetlips, Madam Moose and Vulcan. Thomas Jefferson had two pet grizzly bears and a mockingbird. John Quincy Adams  had two pet alligators, and his wife had silk worms which spun the finest silk, that she used to make the most luxurious gowns for herself.
          The king of Siam presented James Buchanan with a herd of elephants that actually arrived at the White House, but that were later donated to the zoo. Lincoln had two goats, and Theodor Roosevelt had more than 40 pets ranging from snakes, a pony, a rooster, lion, five hyenas, and a zebra! President Reagan was the only President to have a "first fish" and President Bush's dog, Millie, was voted "Ugliest Dog" by the Washingtonian magazine!
          Along with all this zanny information, this book also presents interesting facts and trivia about each President. This past Thanksgiving, I had been wondering how the Presidential pardon of turkeys started, and I happen to read in this book, that Lincoln actually wrote the first Presidential turkey pardon because his son Tad had grown fond of the turkey that had been sent to the Lincoln's for their Thanksgiving dinner. The artwork is fun and whimsical, and presents the animals and Presidents in a humorous light. I will definitely have this book in my classroom. The author, Ms. Davis, also wrote 23 other popular books for young people and she lives in New York City with NO pets.
       

101 Freaky Animals By Melvin and Gilda Berger

          This book would also be good to use as an addendum to a science lesson or in a science center. I think it appropriate for students K-4th grade, although it would definitely need to be a read aloud in kindergarten and first grade because it does have some difficult words.
          There are several reasons that I liked this book: the cover alone makes you want to pick it up and read it, there are fantastic picture of unusual and odd animals and it goes in alphabetical order, and the blurbs are numbered! Very interdisciplinary!The first animal is #1: "Aardvarks have paws like shovels." Each animal has one sentence like that one, a paragraph describing it in more detail and a close up picture. #2 "Angler fish light up."There is also a picture of a fish with very sharp looking teeth. The whole book is like this up to animal #100: "Viper fish have teeth like needles." I have never heard of a viper fish, but here is the description: The viper fish has looks that can kill. It's bottom teeth are so long that they stick out of it's mouth. When a viper fish spots its prey, it heads towards it at top speed with it's mouth wide open. Slam! IT smashes into it's prey.......This paragraph might not be the best for the kindergartners.
          Other weird animals would include, dugongs, babirusas, capybaras, gulper eels, leafy sea dragons, stonefish, and tuataras. If you are curious as to what these animals are, you will need to read the book! The pictures are great and the book itself is very informative. I actually learned a lot. This book would also be good to help students chose a research project etc.

Amazing Snakes! By Sarah L. Thompson

Amazing Snakes! is a shorter book that is put out by the Wildlife Conservation Society, and is considered to be "An I Can Read Book." This book is appropriate for first and second graders and would be useful as an addendum to a science lesson or in a science center. I have read this book to my son a hundred times but he still loves it because it has great pictures of all types of snakes and most of them look very scary. Vocabulary words such as "constrictors" and "venom" are broken down and defined for the children, and most of the pictures are close ups. This book discusses the rattle snake, boa, python, garden snakes etc. Pictures of snakes skins and eggs are incorporated and the author also discusses how a snake swallows it prey whole. I like this book because the story is long enough but not too long, it defines the harder words, and it goes into detail, but not too much detail. Readers will also understand more about snakes bodies, tongues, fangs and where snakes can hide when waiting for their prey. So if you are looking for a basic book with lots of detail about snakes, this is a good one. Other "An I Can Read Books" include: Amazing Tigers, Amazing Whales, Amazing Gorillas, and Amazing Sharks. One other important note is that it can only be ordered through Scholastic.

The Secret World of Walter Anderson by: Hester Bass

             This book won the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children and after reading it, I can understand why. I didn't know anything about Walter Anderson, who died from a mysterious illness in 1965, but he was certainly an interesting person.Walter Anderson always wanted to be an artist from the time he was a young child, and he was gifted at drawing and painting. He loved nature and he especially loved to paint nature, so he would often row to a remote island, called Horn Island, off the coast of Mississippi. Here he would stay for a week or two just living with nature and the animals, eating what he had brought with him or what washed up on shore. Humans had lived on the island at one point, but now it was just animals. Walter didn't even bring a tent, he just slept on his boat. He liked to climb trees and wade out in the water or explore the island to paint the nature he loved so much. Walter thought living among the nature on Horn Island was paradise, and he even painted animals after they had died because he felt they were magnificent even in death.
          Walter had one private room at his house that no one was allowed in, not even his wife or children, because this was HIS ROOM. No one knew what was in it or what he did in there, but after he died, his wife did unlock it out of curiosity. No one could believe what was in there. Walter had spent all of his time painting images from the Horn Island nature and animals! He used water colors, and the central figure on the ceiling was a large zennia flower. Walter Anderson is best known for his water color paintings depicting nature scenes from Horn Island, but he also used charcoal, and scultped using ceramics.The book has a few examples of his paintings etc. and one of them uses oil and tempura on stucco. There is also a picture of the actual room from his house that he painted and it is titled, Little Room, 1951-1953, oil on wood.
          E. B. Lewis is the illustrator for this book, and his illustrations really help the reader to grasp what life was like on Horn Island. I am glad I found this book. I do plan on reading it to my third graders, but I think it could be read to kindergartners too. Everyone should read this book at some point and time.