Connie RoopBesprekingen

Based on a true story. In the winter of 1856, a storm delays the lighthouse keeper's return to an island off the coast of Maine, and his daughter Abbie must keep the lights burning by herself.

very good - Katrina

A great story for young readers. John Darragh, age 14, was an American spy. This suspenseful story, based on accounts of the Darragh family's spying activities for General Washington, young John undertakes a dangerous mission to deliver a message to the American army. Illustrations are a mixture of muted colors, and black/white images.

RTC

jB

TALES OF FAMOUS AMERICANS profiles the lives and major accomplishments of seventeen fascinating men and women, including Pocahontas, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Davy Crockett, Abraham Lincoln. Susan B. Anthony & Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, Sitting Bull, Thomas Edison, Madam C. J. Walker, the Wright Brothers, Helen Keller, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr., Dolores Huerta, Yo-Yo Ma, and Mia Hamm. And the innovative design and kid-friendly text makes this a must-have for any elementary school student!

Great children’s book about the Cherokee nation!

"Buttons for General Washington" tells the story of a Quaker boy who delivers secret coded messages to General Washington. He hides the, inside the buttons of his coat. Young students may have a hard time reading/comprehending this one due to a lack of background knowledge. The teacher reading this aloud to his/her students should give background information on the American Revolution.½

I read this book to my students once a month because we talk about Butterflies in April during our Spring Time unit. And also they get to watch their own caterpillars grow into butterflies, We do a whole unit on Nature, Spring Time, and Spring Animals. The children really love pointing to the Butterfly Cycle in the book and ask questions to why these stages of the butterfly happen.

Learn about the animals of the rainforest as the reader practices counting to 10.
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A great book about historical figures before they became famous.

A Scholastic chapter book biography

a great book discussing different aspects of whales and dolphins
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Go Fly a Kite, Ben Franklin! would be used for 3rd and 4th graders as an independent read. The story uses questions throughout the text to make it engaging and understandable. This book can be used to teach foreshadowing, the book uses many hints about what Ben Franklin will do later in his life. It is a basic way to present the idea of using this form of figurative language. This book could also be used as a reference for learning about inventions or about American history. Ben Franklin was both influential in american history and on inventions still used today. The students could use this as a reference book for knowledge.

Similar to "Go Hog Wild!" this joke book is space themed and "out of this world". As I said in my last review, I love joke books and so will your students. Cheesy and delightful.

I love joke books and this one is great. Very cheesy jokes that all kids will get a kick out of. The jokes are all animal themed which is also a plus. "How does a cow do its math? With a cow-culator!"

a great book about how to celebrate earth day and why celebrating earth day is so important
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I truly enjoyed this book because the authors do a wonderful job of portraying all of the important events and contributions that Martin Luther King, Jr. made throughout his life. The authors use vocabulary words that lower elementary grade students would be able to comprehend on their own. The illustrations that were used throughout this book also help the reader to visualize important events that happened throughout Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life.

"If You Lived with the Cherokees" walks the reader through the early stages of the tribe, through the different battles they fought in, and the Trail of Tears. It ends with the Cherokees been able to establish themselves in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The author describes specific clothing they used, the tools they needed to care for their families, and the rituals they held in order to live and honor their ancestors and way of life. This book is exceptional and engaging. It is a fifth grade level book, but could be used for children in lower grades if pulling specific parts out of the book to integrate into small lessons about specific parts of the lives of Cherokees prior to the formation of the American Nation.
I could and would incorporate this book in a lesson about the Trail of Tears by telling this story during that section of the unit. Pages 66-79 would be the pages I would use as a reference to aid me in telling this part of history.

Beautiful pictures and simple text about animal families: geese, dik-nik antelopes, robins, polar bears, white-tailed deer, alligators, emus, sea horses, Arctic wolves, seals, elephants, lions, giraffes, impalas, big-horn sheep, capybaras, howler monkeys, musk oxen, wildebeasts, prairie dogs.

"Go Hog Wild!: Jokes from Down on the Farm" by Peter and Connie Roop is a silly book filled with jokes and riddles. The book tells different jokes about farm animals and about farm life. The silly illustrations match well with the corny jokes that fill the pages. This book would be good to suggest to students who love jokes or just want to read something funny.

"Space Out!: Jokes About Outer Space" by Peter and Connie Roop is a silly book filled with jokes and riddles about space. The jokes are silly and the book has goofy illustrations that tie to the jokes. This book is great for students who enjoy reading jokes and being silly.

This book is perfect for any age and is great for learning about countries and travel.

Ahyoka and the talking leaves is a book based on the true story of how the Cherokee alphabet came to be. I really liked this story, it was very inspiring and was very enjoyable because it was based on a true story. This story tells how a Cherokee Indian has seen the letters that the white men receive from their families (the "talking leaves") and then devotes his life to understanding them and trying to develop a system of writing. Ahyoka is the main character and it is she and her dad who finally crack the code of the white men's letters and develop the Cherokee alphabet. This would be a great book to use when you are talking to kids about Native Americans, especially because it is more realistic and does not use stereotypes that could be offensive. This book would have to be used with older children, it is s a longer book with few pictures. The pictures it contains are in pencil and realistic.

Nonfiction easy readers are a trend that I absolutely get behind. They're super popular with both kids and parents and introduce beginning readers to a wider range of books, rather than just the typical odd couple friendship fiction of traditional easy readers.

Peter and Connie Roop, who have been authoring beginning chapters and easy readers for years, have adapted quite well to the new, photograph-illustrated model of easy readers.

Each page is arranged in two horizontal blocks. The top shows a dolphin photograph, matched by the simple text against a white background on the bottom half of the spread. Each side of the page has 1-2 short sentences. There is a lot of unused white space around the text and I felt the font could have been larger, especially since this is supposed to be the easiest reader level (although it's not aimed at emergent readers). I did appreciate that the photographs were laid out in conjunction with the text, so when it says "The pod swims fast. The dolphins jump into the air." the reader sees a photo of leaping dolphins.

The only thing that gave me pause was that in some of the pictures it appeared to me that it was a different baby dolphin, almost as big as the mother, although it's supposed to be a story of a baby dolphin's first day. However, some of the photos were unclear due to the poor binding, which gobbled up a lot of the gutter of the images. There's a "meet the expert" section at the back, which must be meant to be read aloud or by the parents. It's not really clear exactly what part the "expert" plays in the book, but I think these readers from the American Museum of Natural History have various museum staff vet them for accuracy.

Verdict: This isn't as eye-catching as, say, National Geographic Readers, but they can be quite busy for a beginning reader who needs less distraction. Dolphins are a popular topic and this is a serviceable selection that's reasonably well-written and has nice photographs. Recommended if you are purchasing additional nonfiction easy readers.

ISBN: 9781402777844; Published 2011 by Sterling/Prebound by Penworthy; Borrowed from another library in my consortium