Month: June 2013

animals, children

Hickory

Bergers Book Reviews

Hickory
Author: Palmer Brown
Publisher: The New York Review Children’s Collection
Genre: Children
ISBN: 978-1-59017-627-6
Pages: 56
Price: $14.95

Author’s website
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Hickory lives with his siblings, Dickory and Dock, in the foot of clock. Living in the farm house is warm and safe, especially once he discovers how to disable mousetraps. But as he grows up, he becomes curious about the outside world, and one day he makes the choice to move to the field.

His family is supportive of his decision to strike out into the world, but once he arrives there, Hickory discovers he’s lonely. A grasshopper named Hope saves him from a cat, and the two become best friends. But, although mice can survive through winter, grasshoppers can’t, and the days soon grow colder.

Hickory is a delightful tale of friendship, in the tradition of Charlotte’s Web. Illustrations are in the old style of colorized pen and ink. The sad ending is a reminder to not take our loved ones for granted, and to enjoy every moment we have with them. I highly recommend this charming book.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

children, nature, science

Balloon Trees

Bergers Book Reviews

Balloon Trees
Author: Danna Smith
Illustrator: Laurie Allen Klein
Publisher: Sylvan Dell
Genre: Children
ISBN: 978-1-60718-6243
Pages: 32
Price: $9.95

Author’s website
Buy it at Amazon

Do you know where balloons come from? You may be surprised to find out that they come from trees – rubber trees. A spout is used to collect the milky liquid inside the rubber trees. Then it is processed to become the substance we see in balloons, tires, and other products we use every day.

Balloon Trees tells the story of this process in rhyme. Beginning with the harvest up to the end of the assembly line, this book shows how a balloon is created. Colorful illustrations bring this process to life, with a native bird guiding us through the narrative.

In addition to the descriptions of how balloons are made, this book also discusses rubber in general. It describes the plantations and tells us a little bit about the workers who harvest the rubber. Interesting and informative, Balloon Trees is perfect for classroom use and is a fun read.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

children, puzzles

Number Cross Puzzles

Bergers Book Reviews

Number Cross PuzzlesTeacher Edition
Author: Rich Rollo
Publisher: Xlibris
Genre: Children / Puzzles
ISBN: 978-1477150542 (student), 978-1-4771-5526-4 (teacher)
Pages: 122
Price: $19.99

Buy it at Amazon
Teacher’s Edition

Pencil puzzles with numbers can be fun as well as challenging. Using the style of a crossword puzzle, you need to decide where to place the selected numbers, so that all are used and all “fit” in the diagram. Numbers can go left to right or top to bottom.

In this classroom puzzle book, Rich Rollo has created a series of challenges in varying levels of difficulty. A teacher’s edition is also available, with answers to the puzzles.

I have to qualify my comments about this book by first stating that I am a math nerd. I enjoyed number puzzles of great difficulty when I was in high school, and would eagerly spend hours or even days working on the same puzzle. Number puzzles can be incredibly fun. However, this book provides a very simple version of these puzzles, geared toward younger children. Adults or older students will not find much challenge in these puzzles that may only take five minutes to solve.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

literary, teen

Good Kings Bad Kings

Bergers Book Reviews

Good Kings Bad Kings
Author: Susan Nussbaum
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Genre:  Adult / Young Adult
ISBN: 978-1-61620-263-7
Pages: 336
Price: $23.95

Buy it at Amazon

Yessenia Lopez has been through Juvie and now finds herself at ILLC – Illinois Learning and Life Skills Center. Disabled, orphaned and wheelchair-bound, she is full of anger and hostility. Soon she meets other disabled youth – Cheri, who becomes her friend, and Teddy and Mia – a troubled couple. Joanne – also disabled and the secretary at ILLC, and Jimmie – one of the house parents, also become friends.

But this isn’t just Yessenia’s story. Good Kings Bad Kings is told from all of these perspectives and more, as the corruption at ILLC is revealed. As they get to know each other and learn of the horrors perpetrated at the institute, they recognize that change is needed, and become determined to force it.

Good Kings Bad Kings is a powerful commentary on how society views the disabled, and does little or nothing to care for them. Through these characters’ eyes, their story is told with brutal honesty. For the YA reader, caution may be needed due to language and sexual situations. This is not your casual beach read. Instead, you may find a lingering disturbed feeling and an urge to check up on your institutionalized friends and relatives. 2012 winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction.

Reviewer: Alice Berger