Skip to main content

Display - Books (and other things) for which I am truly grateful

By Steve Sheinkin
Recounts the scientific discoveries that enabled atom splitting, the military intelligence operations that occurred in rival countries, and the work of brilliant scientists hidden at Los Alamos.

By Gordon Korman
 Due to an administrative mix-up, troublemaker Donovan Curtis is sent to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, a special program for gifted and talented students, after pulling a major prank at middle school.

 By Doreen Rappaport
Through twenty-one meticulously researched accounts-- some chronicled in book form for the first time-- Doreen Rappaport illuminates the defiance of tens of thousands of Jews across eleven Nazi-occupied countries during World War II.

By Sally M. Walker
 When two ships collided in Halifax Harbour, on December 6, 1917, one of them was full of munitions for World War I. The ensuing explosion, aftershocks, and tsunami wrecked unbelievable devastation. It was the largest explosion in the world until the atomic bomb was detonated in World War II in 1945.

Two Eggs, Please
By Sarah Weeks
A look at the many different ways to prepare the very same food, as everyone in a diner orders eggs.
 
By J.R.R. Tolkien
The Dark Lord Sauron, an utterly evil and powerful being, is stirring again after a long period of dormancy. He will soon dominate all of Middle-earth if he is not stopped. The key to Sauron's defeat is Frodo, nephew and heir to Bilbo Baggins--he has the One Ring into which Sauron deposited much of his power. If the Ring is destroyed in the volcano at the heart of Sauron's realm of Mordor, Sauron too will be destroyed.

By Jon Klassen
A tiny minnow wearing a pale blue bowler hat has a thing or two up his fins in this underwater light-on-dark chase scene.
 
By Vandana Singh
In a small town in northern India, three siblings await their father's youngest brother, Younguncle, who is said to be somewhat eccentric.
 
By Erik Kraft
  Twin brothers observe a year's worth of holidays in some very unusual ways.
 
By James Marshall
 Relates two episodes in the friendship of two hippopotamuses.
 
It's a Secret
By John Burningham
Every night Marie-Elaine's cat, Malcolm, goes out, and every morning he comes back in and sleeps. "Where do cats go at night?" the girl wonders. So when she sees him at his cat door dressed to the nines, she begs to come along. And amazingly, Malcolm agrees, as long as she puts on her fancy clothes, gets small, and keeps it all a secret.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

Review: The Amazing Generation

The Amazing Generation: Your Guide to Fun and Freedom in a Screen-Filled World Written by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price  Illustrated by Cynthia Yuan Cheng New York: Rocky Pond Books, 2025. Informational. 226 pages.  In a kid-friendly adaptation of his best-selling book, The Anxious Generation , Jonathan Haidt teams up with Catherine Price, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone , to bring the power of good information directly to the hands of those that this issue affects most directly — kids on the cusp of getting their own smartphones. The book presents information about the drawbacks of having a smartphone and social media too soon in clear and easy-to-understand language, with eye-catching graphics and pop-outs. Throughout the book, quotes from real teens and young adults, called screen "rebels" by the authors, emphasize the points the authors are trying to make. Fictional characters are featured throughout in a graphic novel story, which further emphasizes the po...