Review: So You Want To Be A Veterinarian by Linda Soules

Posted on by
Reply
so you want to be a veterinarian cover image
Version 1.0.0

Lots of kids who love animals say they want to be a veterinarian when they grow up. Often, they know they’d like to help animals, but they don’t really know what kind of work a veterinarian does. That’s where So You Want To Be A Veterinarian by Linda Soules comes in. It’s a small book that packs a lot of details that help kids understand the ins and outs of the profession.

The book breaks down how different vets can specialize in different kinds of animal care. For instance, large-animal vets treat animals like horses, cows, sheep, and others mostly found on farms. Neighborhood clinic vets usually treat pets, like cats and dogs, but also bunnies, hamsters, birds, and more. There are vets that treat exotic pets, and those who work at zoos.

The book talks about tools of the trade, the best and hardest parts of the job, and surprising things. The back has lots of other information, like famous people in animal medicine, fun facts, a glossary of terms, and what a kid can do to prepare for the profession while they’re young.

So You Want To Be A Veterinarian is part of a series of books that take young readers behind the scenes of all kinds of professions. More than 180 titles are already available, and you can find out more by visiting the author’s website, lindasoules.com.

The author provided me with a copy of this book for review.

Review: Adventure in the City of Stories by Emma Otheguy

Posted on by
Reply
adventure in the city of stories cover image

Cousins Jorge, Camila, and Siggy don’t realize two things when they take an old book and some paper mâché puppets from their aunts cupboard: the items have historical significance and they are being reported as stolen. They know their aunt didn’t steal them, and to make sure she’s not blamed for it, they travel back in time to make things right.

Adventure in the City of Stories by Emma Otheguy is the story of their fantastical journey. The three end up in Depression-era New York City, when people were struggling and when some news reports whipped up anti-Puerto Rican sentiments. Right away they run across a woman who sees them as hooligans, and believing the book is stolen, she takes it from them.

To get it back and figure out what to do with all three items to safeguard them for the future, the cousins call on a whole community of kids and parents and librarians and poets and more. It’s a fun adventure that’s sure to appeal to readers aged 9 to 12.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book for review.

Review: Sharks in Kansas by Melissa Stewart

Posted on by

It’s hard to imagine sharks living in Kansas, which sits near the center geographically of the U.S. and far from an ocean. But if you go back far enough, like 85 million years ago, an interior seaway separated North America into two land masses.

Melissa Stewart’s picture book, Sharks in Kansas: The Ancient Sea in the Middle of America, introduces curious children to a time when dinosaurs, pterosaurs, mosasaurs, and yes, sharks, roamed freely in the area. Each page, colorfully illustrated by Becca Stadtlander, features a scene from back then. A herd of Claosaurus strolls along a beach. A Squalicorax (shark) swims beneath the water’s surface.

Each page also includes the scientific names for the creatures who lived at this time, which will appeal to kids who love to learn about the world through nonfiction. At the end readers find an illustrated explanation of how the Western Interior Seaway came to be created and how it disappeared. Also, readers will find suggestions for reading more.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book for review.

https://motherdaughterbookclub.com/wp-admin

Review: The New Norm by Matthew J. Gilbert

Posted on by
the new normcover image

Norm is just a regular kid in middle school with a trusted group of long-time friends. He’d love to fit in more with the popular kids, but that’s not the kind of person he is. He lives with his dad, who’s a therapist, and the two of them counsel each other. Norm keeps his dad up to date on current kid terminology, and his dad helps him figure out how to deal with school and friends.

I’ve read two books in the series by Matthew J. Gilbert: #1, The New Norm, and #2, The New Norm: Pranks and Prejudice. In The New Norm, a video of him doing a crazy dance at his dentist’s office goes viral and suddenly everyone wants to be his friend. The trouble is, his old friends aren’t invited into the new circle. And every time he tries to include them, he usually messes things up. Ultimately, he must decide what’s more important, upping his status at school or sticking with the people who have always been there for him.

In Pranks and Prejudice, Meadowview Middle School is taken by a great prank challenge, with increasingly inventive pranks played on students. Norm encourages his friend Mia to put her science-brain to work and come up with the ultimate prank, saying he’ll help her carry it out. But when Mia comes up with something that disrupts the whole school, Norm is worried they will get in big trouble. He has to decide how to own up to the mischief without making things worse.

The series is great at identifying issues that kids deal with in middle school—friendship, popularity, following rules— and helping Norm figure out how to deal with them. I recommend The New Norm series for readers aged 9 to 12.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book for review.

Review: Just One Oak by Maria Gianferrari

Posted on by
just one oak cover image

Oak trees are some of the most important sustainers of habitat. Its leaves and acorns provide shelter and food to so many animals. Maria Gianferrari’s picture book, Just One Oak, is a celebration of these majestic trees and the many ways they provide support. The book opens with the lines:

“Just one oak…from the tip of its crown down to the ground, with roots all around, sustains so very many creatures, from the teeny-tiny…to the big and mighty.”

Page by page, the author details how every part of an oak, in all seasons, nourishes its environment. Illustrations by Diana Sudyka are rich and dense, showing wildlife of all kinds with labels, so children can see the entire system and how it works together. One two-page layout, for instance, shows a red oak in snow with a white-tailed deer underneath and a saw-whet owl sheltering in its leaves. The other side depicts spring, with an Eastern bluebird singing in the branches and new leaves budding out.

just one oak interior page

The extra cool thing about Just One Oak is how it transitions from simple picture book for the very young to deeper nonfiction facts for school age kids. So parents can read the flowing text to their toddlers and the fact-filled text to older kids. The more detailed copy covers topics like how acorns provide food and shelter for all kinds of critters.

Material at the back give more information on all parts of the tree, such as the bark, the leaves, the acorns, and the oak life cycle. There’s also a whole list of things children and families can do to support oaks, which are considered a keystone species.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book for review.

Review: Notre-Dame by Lynn Curlee

Posted on by
notre-dame the world's cathedral cover image

Notre-Dame is one of the world’s most famous cathedrals as well as one of the most recognizable landmarks in Paris, France. When it caught fire in 2019, the steeple toppled to the ground and much of the attic burned. People around the world waited to see if the nearly nine-century old church could be saved.

The story of Notre-Dame throughout history and its repair after the fire is told in a nonfiction picture book, Notre-Dame: The world’s Cathedral by Lynn Curlee. Filled with facts, it’s great for young readers who are drawn to stories about real-life places. Curlee covers events like the settling of Paris by a Celtic tribe called Parissii. He goes on to write about Roman history and what the church meant to the people who built it. Illustrations show architectural features as well as familiar pieces of Notre-Dame, like the sculptures of gargoyles.

Pages at the back give statistics and interesting facts as well as a glossary of terms and a bibliography for anyone who wants to read more. It’s dense material, but it should be fun for kids who like to read history and are interested in how this famous building was put back together.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book for review.

Review: The Funniest Picture Book Ever by Derek Taylor Kent

Posted on by

Derek Taylor Kent knows how to write picture books that appeal to kids who love gross things. The Funniest Picture Book Ever, AKA, Fartnado! delivers plenty of humor along with the gross.

The story starts off with two children introducing us to their town of Ha! with a population that’s too lazy to count how many of them there are. Living in the town are a man with three butts, and a horse for a mayor among other eccentrics past and present. But Ha! is especially known for its museum of farts.

Lots of random things take place and they all come together in a surprising way at the end when townspeople rally to save their community from an outside threat. Illustrations by Filip Trajkovski are colorful and full of whimsy, matching the rhyming verses perfectly.

There’s lots to look at and laugh at, and parents can channel their own childhood love of gross things to have fun reading it with their kids.

The author provided me with a copy of this book for review.

Review: What Emma Wrote by Ann Diament Koffsky

Posted on by
What Emma Wrote cover image

I’m familiar with Emma Lazarus, the poet who wrote “The New Colossus” for the Statue of Liberty. The poem includes the well known lines: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” But I can’t say I knew much more about this fascinating woman until I read Ann Diament Koffsky’s picture book, What Emma Wrote: The Woman Behind the Words on the Statue of Liberty.

Emma began writing as a child, and her parents made the stories she wrote about kings, and goddesses, and biblical heroes into a book they shared with family and friends. She longed to write about more important issues, though, and when she overheard people she knew talking about the poor, ragged immigrants who had recently come to New York from other countries, she decided to find out more.

Emma’s family had arrived in New York as immigrants from Brazil, where the king made it against the law to be Jewish. They arrived in America with almost nothing. She visited a place where many immigrants lived and found out their stories. Many had come from Russia, and they also had been persecuted for being Jewish and had almost nothing.

Emma visited many times, and she helped the families get food and clothing. She also established a school to teach skills that would help the men get jobs. And she wrote about their situation. She helped others see that the immigrants were people who needed help to improve their situation.

And when Emma Lazarus was invited to write a poem about the Statue of Liberty, she imagined what the statue would say to people arriving in New York to make a new home in the United States.

It’s an inspiring story about how one person can make a difference for so many others simply by caring and deciding to do something. The back of the book includes a note from the author about the reasons people leave their home and travel to make a new home in another country. Among those who have come to the U.S. in the past are her grandparents, who came through Ellis Island in New York Harbor. There’s also a list of facts about the Statue of Liberty and a brief bio of Emma Lazarus along with the full poem, “The New Colossus.”

It’s an interesting book that should appeal to children and their parents. Illustrations by N. Tarcan are evocative of the times in the 1800s when Emma was growing up and during her adult life.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book for review.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...