Reading Abounds

Title:  Tad and Dad Author:  David Ezra Stein Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 104589 Description:  A growing tadpole loves his frog dad so much he never gives him a moment's peace. Curriculum Links:  Social Studies: Families Social Studies: Developing a Sense of Self Character Education: Respect Reading: Transforming Science: Needs and Characteristics of Living Things Science: Animals Writing: Explanation Notes:  Design:  This cover is adorable with a little frog bouncing on his somewhat disgruntled father.  The end pages are a dark green like a lily pad and the back of the front end paper has Tad swimming toward his father on the cover. Content and Illustrations:  This is a charming story that many parents - and children - will be able to relate to.  The child that wants to stay up and the parent who just wants them to sleep.  Each day Tad discovers a new skill that is just like his father and each night wants to sleep beside him.  But all of Tad's

Title: Cool Creations in 35 Pieces Author: Sean Kenney Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 74881 Description:  Offers instructions for creating seventy-five models using just thirty-five common LEGO bricks, including robots, spacecraft, household objects, goofy faces, and aliens. Curriculum Links:  Science: Materials and Structures Art: Design and Construction Math: Shapes and Spatial Perception Inquiry-Based Learning Reading: Non-Fiction Writing: Procedural Lori's Notes:  This is a highly visual non-fiction text that will assist even the youngest students in creating their own lego projects.  The book runs the gamut of projects from robots to faces, buildings to furniture, vehicles to spacecraft, and animals to aliens! The book has very few words - other than giving names to the creations.  Each creation is built using step-by-step visual instructions with the various lego pieces.  Each creation uses only the 35 pieces listed just after the table of contents.  Some

Title: Fiendish Author: Brenna Yovanoff Perma-Bound Catalogue #:  600259586 Description:   Clementine DeVore, seventeen, is determined to learn what happened ten years ago that led to her magical imprisonment and problems in her town, but a dangerous attraction to Fisher, the boy who freed her, town politics, and the terrifying Hollow get in the way. Rubric Rating: Level 2 - Like It Why I Read It:   Read another title by Brenna Yovanoff and picked up this one because I liked the cover. Notes: Clementine is just a child when she find something strange growing in her mother’s garden. It is the beginning of the reckoning, and she’s surrounded by destruction, but she’s locked in the cellar and told to wait for someone to find her.  So she waits, and sleeps, and she is found 10 years later by Eric Fisher. While Clementine dreamt of Eric, he could hear her breathing, he knew something was hidden in the burnt out basement.  While, her home and mother are gone, Clementine’s f

Title:  I Am the Weapon     (Alternative Title: Boy Nobody) Series: Unknown Assassin Vol. 1 Author: Allen Zadoff Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 85099 Description:  Sixteen-year-old Boy Nobody, an assassin controlled by a shadowy government organization, The Program, considers sabotaging his latest mission because his target reminds him of the normal life he craves. Rubric Rating: Level 3 - Laud It Why I Read It: Recommended by several teachers and I had read Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have which is also by this author Notes: It's been quite a while since a book has grabbed me to the point that I couldn't put it down and this happens to be one of those books.    Nobody knows who he really is, he gains the trust of his mark and acquires his target.  In and out with no ties and no connections.   It wasn't the life he expected, but it is the one he has been trained for, the one he was offered after the death of his father, by someone just like him.