I do not have a lot of background knowledge about Tibet in general or the plight of the Tibetan people. I have heard of the Dalai Lama and know bits and pieces. This book was interesting for me because it focused on 2 brothers who wanted to flee Tibet and go to India for the chance at a better life. Their travels through Tibet, Nepal, and then into India were dangerous and unsure. I enjoyed the book because it provided me with more information and it would be good for kids as a background to the issues in Tibet.
With a cover like that I was really expecting this to be a graphic novel. I guess I should have looked at the description more carefully. This was a really cute, fun book, and my "princess" lovers will - well - love it :) Alas it is a bit young for my normal reviewing but charming and will be purchased for the library.
This was a very different dystopian book. In the future the earth is very dry. The rich control the water and get richer. The poor are very poor. Devin has been fortunate enough to live with his grandfather on a nice, safe, relatively normal piece of land. But when his grandfather dies Devin can't manage by himself and goes to the city for help. Soon he becomes tricked into going to Gabriel Penn's Home for Childhood an idyllic refuge for children - or so they think. But everything is not as it seems and the children are being used in an experiement.
This was not what I expected but I really enjoyed it. I was worried as I started it that it would skew too old for my students but t didn't...very interesting book.
So overall I found this book interesting. Not only did it have true stories of survival (and in some cases not survival) but also the science behind our reactions and suggestions on how to survive in a difficult situations. Some of the stories were familiar and current - the miner in Chile and the cruise ship - and others I had never heard of before. Unfortunately there were some issues that made it difficult to read and in some cases distasteful. First the format. There were a few main survival stories that were introduced at the beginning of the book and then more was revealed as the book went on. You were given the page numbers to skip to if you wanted to just read about those stories (hard to do in the eBook I had) but it just made the whole book disjointed. And the illustrations - look at the cover - ugh. Then there was a mix of illustrations - some were okay, some were awful, and then there were weird looking creatures around some of them. Just didn't get it. I hate to give negative reviews - I did like the stories but the format wasn't so great.
I have been a fan of Rube Goldberg for awhile - his contraptions work so well when teaching about simple machines. I was pretty excited about the book and was not disappointed. Ruby is a quirky girl interested in science and inventing. Unfortunately she sometimes gets so wrapped up in her ideas that she rushes into things and forgets about the people around her. In this book she decides to create a Rube Goldberg invention that will help her grandfather. But she soon realizes that she may need to accept hep from a rival and that sometimes she makes things too complicated.
A fun book...I am glad we have a girl interested in science.
This reminded me of the Sisterhood of Traveling Pants for younger girls ;0 4 girls meet at camp and before they go home at the end of the summer they buy a charm bracelet. The idea is that each girl will have the bracelet for awhile and will buy a charm for it and then send it on to the next girl. Caitlin gets it first. She is going to a new school and struggles with making friends, runs for class president, tries out for the play, and is going through financial trouble at home. The plot was pretty predictable but 4th and 5th grade girls often eat this stuff up so I am glad I purchased the first 2 books.
I have read many, many books about the Holocaust. They are not always appropriate for the younger students and there is often a question of how young before students are exposed to this aspect of history and how much to tell at first. This book was done well in that regard. It discussed the issue without too many details.
Beatrix watches as her mother is taken by Nazi soldiers of the tram. Her mother had purposely distanced herself from Beatrix to protect her but now Beatrix is alone. Fortunately two brothers who operate the tram take her to their home and care for her with the help of some neighbors. The ending is happier than most Holocaust books and focuses on the kindness of some as opposed to the brutality. A good introduction to the Holocaust.
