Nic Bishop Frogs

How often does someone with a PhD write an interesting and attractive book for kids? I haven't found many, and this one, frankly, was fantastic. The photos are incredible (Nic Bishop is also an outstanding photographer and raised many of the frogs pictured in the book) and the text is informative and interesting. I learned a lot about frogs and enjoyed myself. When I showed the kids the book, there were instant requests to check it out.
A few months ago, Mr. Bishop published Nic Bishop Spiders, which is also good, but if you are squeamish about spiders, be warned! You'll see every eye or even hair on the spider, and you'll see a dragonfly becoming lunch, among other spectacular and detailed photos. (Many of the kids think these are fantastic details, of course, and we nearly had a fistfight over the book this morning. Yikes!)

Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley

I have read and enjoyed many of Robin McKinley's books (in fact, I've lost count of how many times I've read The Hero and the Crown), so I was excited to start this one. Unfortunately, I have to admit that if I hadn't read any of her other books, I would have given up after about 40 pages. The beginning is very slow (and the word "like" is used way too often and in all the wrong places. I've NEVER heard a kid talk this way!) The plot is an interesting one, though. 14-year-old Jake goes alone on an overnight stay in the dragon preserve his father runs and finds a dying dragon mother and a soon-to-be-orphaned newborn dragon. He takes the baby to try to keep it alive, but apparently saving the life of a dragon is a serious federal crime. So Jake has a serious dilemma: he can't let the dragon die, but he has to make sure that no one finds out what he is up to. But it took 50 or 60 pages before Jake even meets the dragons, so I wonder how many people even make it through to the fascinating and intricate main plot?. I'm not sure if any of my 5th or 6th graders would be interested in the book. Any comments or suggestions?

Hurricane Force: In the Path of America's Deadliest Storms

HURRICANE FORCE: IN THE PATH OF AMERICA'S DEADLIEST STORMS; Joseph B. Treaster; New York: Kingfisher, 2007; 128 pgs.
In this gripping and informative book, Joseph Treaster shares his own experiences with hurricanes, both as a young man growing up in Florida, and as a reporter for the New York Times. His account of trying to get into New Orleans as everyone else was leaving during Hurricane Katrina, and then trying to find a safe place to ride out the storm, is frightening and suspenseful--great non-fiction reading for middle-graders and up. What sets this book apart from most others in the genre is that it deals less with the science of hurricanes than it does with forecasting and logistics. Katrina, Camille, Andrew, along with the Galveston monster of 1900, the deadliest of all, fill these pages with fascinating stories of disasters suffered and averted.

Who Was First? Discovering the Americas

WHO WAS FIRST? DISCOVERING THE AMERICAS; Russell Freedman; New York: Clarion, 2007; 88pgs. Non-fiction.
Russell Freedman has done it again with this elegant volume about the "discovery" of the New World. He begins with Christopher Columbus (clearly not the first) and works his way back through the Chinese admiral Zheng He (who gave us the Seven Voyages of Sinbad under his alternate name, Sin-Bao), to the Vikings, and to the Native Americans who are thought to have come across a land bridge from Asia, or by sea from Africa. Eye-catching photographs and drawings complement Freedman's typically readable, even fascinating, text. What might be of most value to history-minded youngsters is that much of the research in support of Chinese and Viking arrivals in America has been done by "obsessed amateurs," people who believed in earlier arrivals and searched out the evidence for themselves. It might have been helpful had Freedman explained to his readers that human life is supposed to have originated in Africa, so that they would know why settlers had to come to the New World, but that is a quibble in an otherwise very fine text.