Ghost Ship

Owen, R. (2017). The Ghost Ship: The Pharaoh's Buried Vessel. New York New York: Bearport Publishing. 32 pages, Grades 4-6, Juvenile Nonfiction, ISBN 9781684020270.

This book is about an archaeologist named Kamal Al-Mallakh and his discovery. This archaeologist discovered the world’s oldest surviving ship in the Egyptian desert. The book then goes on and explains who the Ancient Egyptians are, how they lived back in 3000 B.C. to 300 A.D, and the impact that the Nile river had on them. The Nile river had a big impact on the people and fishermen, it was their source of food, water, and transportation by boat. The book then explains how ships were built, the importance of them and details about the ship that Kamal Al-Mallakh discovered.

This was a very informative book. I enjoyed reading it and learning new things about the Nile river, Ancient Egyptians and the ship that was discovered. The book has very detailed and colorful pictures to describe the text, which will draw students in to picking up this book and reading it. I think this book is aimed more towards older students because of the vocabulary and topics that it contains. One thing that I did not like as much about this book was how much information it contained within very few pages. It is a lot of information for a student to take in all at once, I think they will end up looking at the pictures and putting the book down. However, it can be used as a resource for teachers and a textbook in a sense.

Reviewed by: Jordyn R. 

Emma's Circus

Fleming, C. (2017). Emma's Circus. NewYork, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

40 pages, Grades 1-2,, Fiction, ISBN: 978-0374399078

Emma has never been to the circus before but when she begs her family to take her they sadly tell her no. The family has too much to do on their farm as winter approaches and cannot take a break. Then the next day something amazing happens. A bear on a unicycle shows up. The circus comes to Emma. Throughout her week more and more animals from the circus keep coming back to play with Emma. SHe tries to show her family but everyone is too busy with work to even notice the circus animals she sees. In the end, when all the work is done, her family comes to see what all the noise is. Emma finally gets to put on an amazing circus show for her family.

This book is a fun and creative story. It is a great book to share with kids to help them use their imagination. the illustrations are beautiful and they pull you into Emma's imagination. This would be a great book to use to learn about the circus or even families and the way they treat each other. There is a lot you can do with this book. It may even spark students interests to learn more about the circus and its history. I would recommend it to any K-2 grade teachers.

Reviewed by Kristina Smith

Noodleheads See The Future

Arnold, T., Hamilton, M., Weiss, M. Noodleheads see the future. 425 Madison Avenue, New York, NY: Holidayhouse Inc. 44 pages, Picture/Fiction/Inspirational, ISBN 978-0-8234-3673-6

This book contains life's lesson that are mostly found in our everyday circumstances. It uses two main characters named Mac which seems to be so gullible, and that they believe all things to be literal in meaning. For example, when their uncle asks if they could help him build a wall by saying, "can you give me a hand?" However, Mac and Mac interpreted it literally thus grasping the hand trying to cut it, so they can literally give Mac's hand to their uncle. And when their uncle says, "listen up" they literally listened turning their heads up and said that they could only hear birds chirping.

At first when I was reading the book I thought wow! This is funny and kind of silly, but it is true! There are some people in each walks of life that are easy to believe in what others would say, or sometimes would be too foolish to literally understand a statement word by word. This book would help kids understand how to be wise enough and not naïve in life. To understand that some people in life would take advantage of some others weaknesses and they have to be wise enough to at least notice that.




Reviewed by: Farah E.

The Warli People

Shin, H. (2017). The Warli People. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. 32 pages, 3-6 grade, picture, non-fiction, arts ISBN  978-0802854766

This book gives a short description about the Warli people and different life events that would transpire for them every year. Some of these life events would be the seasons or planting seeds, hunting, new life and the village at night. On each page is a short description of the event along with an some wall art which was known to be done by the woman of the tribe and was a sacred ritual for the Warli people. The book ends with a description of the Warli People in the very back along with key terms and concepts, the rise of civilization and more examples of Warli artwork.
This book is great to bring into the classroom to help children to gain new knowledge about different cultures and what life would have been like over 1,000 years ago. The illustrations are simple and show a lot of technique of the sacred ritual of drawing pictures that was part of the Warli people's culture. For me personally, the illustrations didn't draw me into the book as well as they could have. I do respect the illustrations and what they represent for the Warli people, they are just more difficult to understand what is going on with for me personally. The text is written in terms of seasons and major life events that happened for the Warli people in 10th Century BC. Once again, this is a great book to help students understand what life would be like 1,000 years ago.
Reviewed by: Karlie E.

The Great American Story of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts Gang!

Perkins, C. (2017). The Great American Story of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts Gang! New York: Simon Spotlight.

48 pages, Grade 1-3, Comics&Graphic Novel/ History, ISBN 9781481495547

Charles M. Schulz, the cartoonist of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts gang, liked drawing since he was little. In high school, he took a cartoon course and even after graduating from high school, he continued drawing. His mother was very sick, and before he left for army service, she told him that if the family got another dog, they should name him Snoopy. After returning the army, he polished his cartooning skills. His comic strip named Peanuts was published by many newspaper companies and became very popular. The Peanuts gang was animated for a commercial for the Ford Motor Company. While a TV producer wanted to make a documentary about the comic strip, many TV networks did not want to broadcast the documentary. However, luckily, Coca-Cola wanted to sponsor a special program for the holiday season. Then, a Peanuts Christmas cartoon hit. Even after Charles passed away, the popularity of the Peanuts cartoons has never stopped.

 This book has information that probably many people do not know about Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts gang. It is was to know about the hidden story. It is surprising that many TV networks did not want to broadcast the documentary of the comic strip. I think Charles experienced a lot of excitement and anxiety in his life. This book explains about his life very briefly, but if you read it thinking what was going on at that time, you will realize that there were lots of dramas until the animation came out on TV. Yuki Konno

Silent Days, Silent Dreams

Say, A. (2017). Silent Days, Silent Dreams. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books.

63 Pages, K-12, Picture, Fictional Biography & Autobiography, 9780545927611

This story is about a boy name James Castle. He was born premature and it cause him deaf. He could not hear and speak. It was hard for him to find friends. He grew up and go to school and all he wants to do at school was drawing. He will fill his room with his drawings. He could not keep all his drawings because his family keep moving from place to place. Until his nephew took some of his drawings to University in Portland and the professors were interested and want to meet the artist. James meet the professor and some of his artist were display at the school and they were sold. Again, Bob Clay, director of Boise Gallery Art invite James and put up some of his art in a show at the gallery. Some of his drawings were sold too. James finally have his own dream house and he continues his artist in the Dream House.

I like this story because of the greatest themes that it teaches. “Do your best in what you do best” This lesson can also apply in different situation of life. Kids that loves to draw can receive inspiration from this story. I love the illustration of this book because each it shows some of James Castle’s art. I also like the illustration because every page and every statement has an image to describe what is also written. If some deaf student look at the story they can read the story using the picture only.

Reviewed by Ola.

Sundown kid

Bietz, B. (2016). Sundown kid. Place of publication not identified: August House Pub. 32 pages, K-2 grade, picture book, ISBN  978-1939160942

It is a story about a Jewish family move to a town in the Old West and they are the only Jewish family there. even though they faced different challenging from strangers, they still worked very hard to adapt their new life. Shabbat is very important in Jew. They made a lot of food to celebrate. Since they are the only Jewish family in the town, there was no one celebrate Shabbat with them. His mother said " too much soup, but not enough family." Then the boy had an idea to invite their new friends and neighbors for some good old-fashion chicken. They all had a wonderful time together and they knew about what is Shabbat.

I think it is a good book to teach students about celebration, diversity, and family. Nowadays, we all live in a diverse community that there are many different cultures surround us. This story told us that we should embrace different cultures. On the other hand, this book told us how a family look like in Jew. Teachers can use this example to compare different countries’ family to find out what are common or uncommon. Furthermore, this book can use to introduce different festival and discuss about how people celebrate their traditional festival. 

Reviewed by Karman A