#SteamStoriesTheGreatGoKartRaceScience #NetGalley

Short Review

Title: The Great Go-Kart Race
By: Jonathan Litton

Rating:🥄🥄🥄🥄

Review: Super cute and educational my favorite. Downloaded from Netgalley exchange for review.

#GlowInTheDark:voyageThroughSpace #NetGalley

Title: Glow In the Dark: Voyage through Space
Author: Katy Flint
Illustrator: Cornelia Li
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Publish Day: August 2, 2018
Rating:  🥄🥄🥄🥄

Summary:
See space as you've never seen it before!

 Join one little astronaut and her space dog as they voyage through our solar system. Journey from the Sun, to the planets, asteroids and Kuiper belt, before folding out your glow-in-the-dark poster. Simply turn off the light to bring the incredible glow-in-the-dark ink to life.

Review: 

Downloaded through Netgalley thanks to the publisher, honest review ahead!

This is an informational / nonfiction book with illustrations. Some of the text is over illustrations that can make it hard for readers to read.

This is a partial image just to show the places where I'm talking about in the book:

The text in the sun and the text under the "BE" are over imagery that has a lot going on. This can be a struggle for some kids to read and will miss the information from it. This happens in other places throughout the book. But few have the text over less background stuff so it's easier to read. 

Otherwise, informative and engaging illustrations. This is probably going to be one of those bigger informative books so the font / background may not interfere with reading as much. But still wanted to point out that there are a few spots -- thankfully not every page -- that may be harder for students/ kids to read. 

Spring into Action by Pat Brigandi

Score: 5/5

First sentence: Friday is Clean Up Day in town.

Summary: They're going to clean a part of a street to grow a garden. Max isn't happy because he doesn't like bugs.

Will be available for purchase on April 3, 2018!

Accessed through Netgalley for an honest review. 

Good:

Things that I enjoyed about this book:

• Dinosaurs 
• Vibrant artwork
• Easy to follow text
• Repetition with text
• Cleaning up litter
• Creating a classroom garden

One student named Max is not happy about his teachers plans about the garden. He is afraid of bugs so he arrives in a bug suit. One student giggles at seeing him in this bug suit. He explains that he's afraid of bugs so he's wearing it to protect himself.

What I love is that they reply with, "Don't worry, Max. We'll take care of you."

They do their best to protect him from the bugs. He struggles with working on cleaning up the yard because of the bugs. The other students remind him that the bugs won't hurt him and shoo away the bugs for him.

He does end up contributing in his own way with creating a home for a rabbit. He becomes the rabbits protector and creates a space for him in the garden. Max wears his bug suit throughout the story even at the end.

Max wasn't instantly cured from his fear of bugs. His classmates accepted him for who he was. They all participated in the garden in their own way. Loved it.  

Bad: 

The only thing I can thing of as a negative is the brightness of the artwork. It could possibly be an issue with over-stimulation and too bright for a student to focus on. But I doubt that will be a big enough issue or an issue in this age group as most stories are read as a whole group.

Recommend?

Yes. It's educational in regard to littering, class gardens and fears. It can be used in a science lesson or as emotional lesson -- fears and how to treat others who are afraid of things.

This author has another one of these out as well:

Seed School Planting A Garden of Diversity - Joan Holub

Downloaded through Netgalley to read for an honest review.

Score: 4/5

Summary: A new seed blows into Seed School. Everyone there knows what they will be when they grow up. The new seed doesn't know what he'll be when he grows up. We learn about plants along the way and eventually what the new seed is!

Good:

Font is easy to read. Artwork is SUPER ADORABLE!

I was excited about the artwork and how everything was styled. I flipped through this showing my boyfriend the artwork and the style of the book. He was confused but he doesn't have the same interest that I do in children's books.

The seeds are going through a similar school day as the students would go through.So, students have something familiar to latch onto in this story.

Garden of diversity -- the teacher asks how are they the same and their differences.

Anxiety/worry about not knowing yourself is present in this.

There's science, cultural/diversity differences, and personal identity crisis/learning about yourself. It is a super cute and useful book that would definitely be great to use with science lesson plans. 

Bad:

I can't think of anything that would fit in this.

Recommend:

Yes!



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