Josh GregoryRecensioni

Independent Reading Level- 2nd- 4th grade
Awards- none

Gentle story of the Oregon Trail, narrated by two children whose paths cross.

Independent Reading Level: Grade 2nd through 4th
Awards: N/A

6C8GWFR8

The Newberry Honor (x3)

Bio

About a year ago I went to a 'Birds of Prey' live show and learned about a bunch of predatory birds, including vultures and came away thinking vultures were way neater than I gave them credit for previously. Then recently I was driving to work when I saw some vultures circling not far from the road and that renewed my interest so I decided to look for a library book about vultures.

This book was a good overview about these cool birds. I knew a little bit about them going into it based on that live show, but I definitely learned new facts almost instantly. For example, I did not realize that condors were considered part of the vulture family. Nor did I know how prevalent they are with habitats as diverse as savannas, rain forests, deserts, and more.

The book is broken down into relatively short chapters with subsections within them. Each subsection has a heading and is typically about a page long. This is good for young readers who might want to pause in reading with an easy spot to leave off / pick back up. More scientific or unusual words are in red font and then defined in a glossary at the back of the book. An index rounds out the backmatter along with a world map of where vultures live.

The illustrations in this book are gorgeous with full-color, full-page photographs of various different types of vultures (including one baby vulture) doing various things like gliding, feeding, nest building, etc. Sometimes this does include some slightly bloody bones or carcasses so some readers might think "ew" but in a book about vultures, it's kind of par for the course.

I liked this book for 3 reason. First, I liked the point of view that the book was told in. I liked that the book followed Maggie and her cousin, Alex, as they followed the Iditarod in Alaska. Maggie was from Alaska, so she had seen the Iditarod multiple times before as her family was very involved in it, while Alex was from Florida experiencing the cold weather and Iditarod for the first time. It helped to show the different feeling that people may have when they see the Iditarod. I also like that while Maggie and Alex’s story was illustrated, there were also facts from the race and real pictures from past mushers and races. I felt as though it helped to show that it is a real event, even though the characters telling their story are not real. It also helped to show how the dogs and mushers look like and the path that they take during the race. Lastly, I like that there was the extra-textual feature of bolded words and a glossary at the end of the book. Many of these words and concepts may be unfamiliar to students, so it helps students to learn what these words and the way that they are used within the story. Overall, I think that this is a good story that informs people about the Iditarod.

Great children’s book about medieval times and the differences in caste lifestyles!

This book is a short account of the life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass was born a slave, but eventually escaped slavery. Douglass was taught to read by one of his slave owners, which gave him an advantage. He advocated for freedom to all slaves. Eventually he was even able to travel abroad and continue his work in Europe. There he was gifted money to legally free himself from his owners. He later returned to the United States where he accomplished many things. He started his own newspaper written only by African Americans. He recruited African Americans to help fight in the civil war, and later even became the first African American to hold high positions in government. His life was dedicated to advocacy for change to fight for equal rights for all. This biography was very informative, and I learned a lot about Douglass and his contributions to society from it.

This book doesn’t talk about Cesar growing up on his family’s farm. After the book talks about his birth, it states they had to give up the farm because of The Great Depression. Cesar Chavez (A True Book) talks about how he learned about dealing with peaceful conflicts from Gandhi, but in Harvesting Hope, he learned it from his mother. This book doesn’t go into much detail about the journey of the protesters from Delano to Sacramento like Harvesting Hope does. This book talks briefly about his time in the military and him getting married to Helen Fabela and starting a family, Harvesting Hope doesn’t.

Both books talked about how he formed the National Farm Workers Association, but Harvesting Hope talks about having a flag for their cause. Both books also talked about how he used nonviolence to fight the injustice of the landowners. Both books talked about the strike against Delano and the walk protesters took from Delano to Sacramento in protest.

This book was about the national disaster that was Hurricane Sandy. The book talks about how scientists tracked Hurricane Sandy and the incredible impact which Sandy had in several countries. The book also has statistics about the storm itself, and it talks about how climate change impacts the weather.

From 1914 to 1918, nations from all around the world engaged in a war that was bloodier and more destructive than any that had come before it. Millions of men died in this conflict over the control of Europe. This title explores the events leading up to the war, the strategies employed by each side, and the wars lasting impact on global politics. It also details immediate consequences of the war such as the revolutions in Russia and Germany.

Even before the first glorious ring of the Liberty Bell, America was a land of freedom and promise. Read about what makes our country and form of government so great that it has inspired people from all over the world to start life anew here, endure the economic and social upheavals, and defend the land and rights that are unique to the United States of America.

This book is more advanced than the first informational book about sloths that I read and I definitely liked it much more. This Scholastic book not only talks about many of the different aspects and factors involving these slow animals, but also shows a wide variety of photographs to demonstrate what each section is describing to the reader. One reason that I really liked this book was because of the variety of information that it provided the reader. On page 25, the book talked about sloths as “ancient animals”. Not only did the author talk about the range of sloth species that roamed the earth, but they provided a caption for the picture of the ancient sloth skeleton; “Some ancient ground sloths were very large.” Then, if we look on another page, the author speaks to the reader about sloths in today’s world; “Scientists organize the sloth species still living today into two genera…three-toed sloths…two-toed sloths,” (p.33). The other reason that I really like this book was because of the combination of photographs and illustrations that were used to inform the reader about what the text really meant. On page 38, the author describes the disappearing habitat that the sloths are facing and then goes on to show the reader a picture on page 39 of a lumber worker chopping down a tree in the rainforest. If we then look to page 44 and 45, there is an illustrated map that demonstrates where there are large populations of sloths all over the world.
The main message of this book is to inform readers about the unusual animal, the sloth. Because there are so many different contributing factors to think of when talking about these animals, the author feels that it is almost necessary to describe to the reader what they can do to help the loss of sloth population. This book aims to show the wonders about these animals and gain empathy from its reader in order to help the cause of the loss of sloths.

Summary
This is a story about Cesar Chavez whom after working in the poor farming conditions himself worked to change the conditions of many migrant farm workers by forming unions.

Personal reflection
I enjoyed this book a lot, I have never heard of this man upon reading this book. This book had good information about the struggles of farm workers in America and one of the people that made it his mission to help.

Extensions
1. Take a field trip and visit a farm comparable to the ones talked about in the story.
2. Have the children give their views and concerns about people who farm and the their rights.
3. Have the children write about how they would help migrant farm workers.

Published a scant few months after the storm, The Superstorm, Hurricane Sandy is a formulaic book - part of Scholastic's A True Book - Disasters series, which includes incidents past and present, such as the BP oil spill, the Hindenberg disaster and 9-11. Each book contains the cause, the event and the aftermath, as well as statistics, timeline, map, resources, photos and glossary.

Having lived through Superstorm Sandy, I admit to some skepticism about the quality of such hastily produced books, however, given the limited amount of time, and the impossible task of trying to measure the storm's "lasting impact" after only a few months, The Superstorm, Hurricane Sandy is an adequate account of the storm for middle-grade students. I appreciated the look into the storm's effect on the Caribbean - something that was largely missed by those of us who were coping with the storm's impact on our own lives.

more at http://shelf-employed.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-superstorm-hurricane-sandy-review...½

Independent Reading Level: Pre-K - 2
Awards: none