Reviews
SLJ Series Made Simple Review of Baby Animals in the Wild
Basic information about the lives of young wild animals is ably supported by excellent photographs. Short, declarative sentences cover food, grooming, play, and social groups, often with a single fact or two about each topic: “Tiger cubs are born! They drink their mother’s… W View →
SLJ Review of Let's Look at Body Systems!
Take a look under human skin and explore the fun world of anatomy and physiology with this early chapter series about how systems work in the body. The step-by-step processes take readers through each part of the body and talk about the interconnected aspect of how systems work. The… View →
SLJ Series Made Simple Review of Early Coding Concepts
Cheerful, diverse cartoon children play, create, and perform their daily tasks in this adorable series. When Gus comes home from school, he takes care of his dog by performing the same steps every… Min builds a train track and explores how it affects the train and the rest of t View →
SLJ Series Made Simple Review of Fairy Tale Phonics
Through the lens of fairy tales and magical creatures, this series presents different phonics concepts through short, narrative stories. Each book shares an original, fictional tale that focuses on one phonics area, such as word families and consonant… Readers are invited to View →
SLJ Review of Los trabajos de los perros (Dogs on Duty)
Repetition, early words, and simple narrative structure are major strengths in this series about the many service functions performed by working dogs. Herding dogs, military dogs, search and rescue dogs, and service dogs are profiled in these Spanish/English books for early readers who… View →
SLJ Review of Meet the Community Helpers
Early readers will love to learn about how veterinarians, bus drivers, construction workers, and garbage collectors work hard to serve people and animals in their communities. Each book features common situations associated with each job: Dr. Jenny has a busy day treating animals at her… View →
SLJ Series Made Simple Review of Holiday History
What is the background of holidays? What traditions are associated with them? How are they celebrated around the world? This series addresses these questions in short paragraphs and large-scale images with helpful… Text boxes ask “Did you know?” or “What do you think?” and t View →
SLJ Review of Mindful Cooking
Moving beyond deep breaths and yoga mats, these titles incorporate mindfulness practices into common middle grade activities like dancing and crafting. It is a clever expansion that builds on a secular understanding of mindfulness and its uses in daily activities to boost mental… View →
SLJ Review of Spot the Differences
Engaging animal comparisons are presented in a question-and-answer format. Text provides simple facts about the two animals. Readers examine the accompanying photograph, then try to identify it based on the words and image: “A frog has webbed feet. A toad does not. Which is this?” (Frog… View →
SLJ Review of Science Behind the Colors
Photographs in this series showcase the colors of various animals in beautiful detail. Easily understood text explains the causes of and reasons for the colors, such as camouflage, mating display, or even as a warning to enemies. Nonfiction features include labels on the photos, “Did You View →
Booklist Advance Review Mindful Music and Dancing
This resource-filled guide, part of the Art of Mindfulness series (4 titles), lets kids explore SEL after-reading prompts as well as an View →
SLJ Series Made Simple Review of Brainpower
Answer the question of what is going on inside a person’s brain when they feel strong emotions by looking at each individually and talking through the experiences, both chemical and biological. The families and children depicted across these titles come from diverse… Mo View →