Bergers Book Reviews

Number Cross Puzzles

June 5, 2013June 7, 2013 Bergers Book Reviews

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

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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

June 3, 2013 Bergers Book Reviews

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

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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

animals, children

Little Raccoon Learns to Share

May 30, 2013 Bergers Book Reviews

Author: Mary Packard
Illustrator: Lisa McCue
Publisher: Sterling Children’s Books
Genre: Children
ISBN: 978-1-4027-7230-6
Pages: 24
Price: $7.95

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Little Raccoon has some nice things, and she keeps them to herself. When she is out collecting flowers, she makes sure she gets plenty, and she never shares. But one day as she gathers berries, she overhears her friends talking while she hides in the bushes, making sure to keep her basket to herself. They are having a party, and everyone will bring something.

Little Raccoon goes home and tells her mother, who suggests she should bring berry muffins to the party. When Little Raccoon arrives, her friends are thrilled to see her, and happy with the muffins. And they in turn offer her some of their own goodies. Little Raccoon now understands that sometimes it’s nice to share with her friends because it makes them happy, and they will share back.

It would be easy to turn this cute story into something preachy, but author Mary Packard has skillfully avoided this pitfall. Instead she shows kids the benefits of sharing, while the refusal to share only leads to feeling lonely and left out. Lisa McCue’s illustrations are bright and cheerful, and the animals are adorable. This feel-good story will be a hit with kids, while teaching them a valuable lesson.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

animals, children

Otter Lee Brave

May 28, 2013 Bergers Book Reviews

Author: Rena Cherry Brown
Illustrator: Mikaila Maidment
Publisher: Schiffer Books
Genre: Children
ISBN: 978-0-7643-4155-7
Pages: 48
Price: $16.99

Author’s website
Schiffer Books
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Lee’s mother is trapped in a fishing net while he’s still small, and suddenly he’s an orphan. When a rescue boat comes through, they bring him to the aquarium, where he meets other otters. But life in the aquarium is no fun when a bully named Brody steals all the food and attention.

One night an earthquake strikes, and all the otters are dumped in the bay. Lee is the only one who knows how to survive, and he tells them what to do until help arrives. But Brody has other ideas, and soon finds himself in trouble. Now, Lee needs to make some decisions. Does he help Brody? And does he return to the aquarium?

Otter Lee Brave is a cute story focusing on several difficult issues, through the eyes of this young otter. He faces the loss of his mother, the meanness of a bully, and an earthquake, which all challenge him to deal with these problems as best he can. But it’s his bravery that saves them all, and earns him the respect of a female otter that befriends him at the end.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

self improvement, teen

Your Superpowers Vol. 1: Dream It, Achieve It

May 24, 2013 Bergers Book Reviews

Author: Steve Gardner
Genre: Teen / Self improvement
ISBN: 978-0-9839332-0-5
Pages: 106
Price: $12.95

Author’s website
Buy it at Amazon

Life just isn’t going the way you planned, but you don’t know how to change it. Maybe you don’t know about your superpowers! Yes, you do have superpowers, and Steve Gardner shows you what they are and how to access them, in this book.

You are greater than you realize, and you can attract good things into your life. But how, you ask? By following this five step process. There is a logical technique to attracting your best life to you, and if you follow these steps, you’ll be well on your way.

Adults have followed the Law of Attraction for a long time, but it may surprise teens to know this law can also be applied to their lives. And once these principles are established, they can easily be used forever. One of the things I really like about this book is the author’s encouragement to establish contact with Heavenly Father. Without divine assistance, the Law of Attraction doesn’t work, so it’s great to see Gardner’s insistence on prayer and gratitude. Overall, this is a nice, concise guide in easy to understand language, on how to live a wonderful life.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

children

The Pout-Pout Fish (Kohl’s Cares for Kids)

May 23, 2013 Bergers Book Reviews

Author: Deborah Diesen
Illustrator: Dan Hanna
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux Books
Genre: Children
ISBN: 0-374-36098-7
Pages: 32
Price: $5.00 at Kohl’s

Author’s website
Buy it at Kohl’s

I’m a pout-pout fish with a pout-pout face, so I spread the dreary-wearies all over the place. At least that’s what Mr. Fish thinks, as he speaks with his friends. As they try to convince him to cheer up, he repeats this dreary refrain, swimming away with a blub, blub, blub.

This adorable rhyming tale has a happy ending when a mischievous lady fish surprises him with a kiss. And suddenly Mr. Fish doesn’t feel so pouty anymore.

Kids will absolutely love The Pout-Pout Fish. And with these cute stuffed characters to accompany it, all for only $5.00 each, this set from Kohl’s Cares for Kids is a real winner. All proceeds go towards kids’ health and education.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

children

A Giant Pencil

May 22, 2013 Bergers Book Reviews

Author: Connor Wilson
Illustrator: Alyssa Machette
Publisher: Magic Dreams Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-937148-12-6
Pages: 52
Price: $12.95

Author’s website
Buy it at Amazon

Billy is frustrated because everyone picks on him. One day he finds a magic pencil that lets him erase anything that annoys him. Over the course of the day, he erases them all, one by one. But suddenly he discovers he’s lonely and he misses them.

Luckily for Billy, pencils don’t just erase. He has to decide if he wants to draw these people back into his life again. After thinking things over, he makes the right choice and is finally happy.

A Giant Pencil was written when Connor Wilson was nine years old. This heart-warming story will remind kids how much friends and family really mean to them.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

children

All Kinds of Beliefs

May 21, 2013May 21, 2013 Bergers Book Reviews

Author: Sheri Safran
Illustrator: Emma Damon
Publisher: Insight Editions
Genre: Children
ISBN: 978-1-60887-159-9
Pages: 12
Price: $12.99

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There are many religions, such as Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, or Hindu. In this lift-the-flap book, children are introduced to some basic things that they may see in others of a different faith.

Focusing on clothing or head wear, types of buildings people worship in, things you might find inside those buildings, and holiday celebrations, it provides some idea about the religion. It doesn’t explain the actual beliefs, but instead shows kids that there are different faiths, and that kids who practice these faiths may look or act differently than they do.

In a multi-cultural world, kids will often see people of other faiths. All Kinds of Beliefs will give them the ability to recognize why people look different, and to treat them with respect.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

children

I Hate Picture Books!

May 17, 2013May 17, 2013 Bergers Book Reviews

Author & Illustrator: Timothy Young
Publisher: Schiffer Books
Genre: Children
ISBN: 978-0-7643-4387-2
Pages: 32
Price: $16.99

Schiffer Books
Buy it at Amazon

Picture books can be trouble! If you read about the boy with the purple crayon and draw on your own walls, your mom will be angry. If you eat green ham, you’ll barf. And wishing really hard won’t bring you to the jungle. So this boy has had enough! He’s getting rid of all his picture books.

But wait, he really does like this one. And this one. And this one. In fact, he really likes them all! He won’t ever toss these books in the trash. They’re each special, and he’s going to read them all right now.

I Hate Picture Books! incorporates scenes and concepts from many of the best picture books of the last few decades. This cute story is a fun reminder of the joy these books continue to give us.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

memoir

Driving the Saudis

May 16, 2013May 16, 2013 Bergers Book Reviews

Author: Jayne Amelia Larson
Publisher: Free Press
Genre: Memoir
ISBN: 978-1-4516-4001-4
Pages: 224
Price: $28.99

Author’s website
Buy it at Amazon

When Jayne Amelia Larson hit a lull in her acting career, she turned to chauffeur work to fill the gaps. This provided her a unique opportunity to drive the Saudi family visting Los Angeles for their summer vacation. In Driving the Saudis, she relates some of her experiences in this unusual assignment.

There are some interesting moments in this narrative. When one of the princesses does not handle American currency properly, it’s obvious she feels some shame, which is surprising in royalty. There is a bond that develops between the nanny and Larson, while chaperoning the princess and looking out for her best interests. And there is unexpected kindness that the servants show her as they all become weary of the endless work. There is also lavish spending, elective surgeries, rudeness, and high expectations that all who serve the family will do so quickly and efficiently. The long hours and many demands take their toll, but the promise of a hefty cash tip keep Larson going until the very end.

Unfortunately, this book gets off to an extremely slow start. Larson shares too much about herself, her education, and her career. She offers her thoughts and opinions of the family and their behavior, but there are few actual anecdotes. These are brief, and leave no lasting impression of the individual family members. Instead, we are given just a sketchy overall picture of the family and their collective behavior.

Reviewer: Alice Berger