Author: Scotti Cohn
ISBN: 978-1-934359-92-1
Publisher: Sylvan Dell
Audience: Picture Book for children
One Wolf Howls combines counting, the months of the year, seasons, and poetry to introduce children to wolves. The rhyming text is gentle and repetitive, making this an excellent choice for reluctant readers, while still using appropriate and engaging language.
Susan Detwiler's beautiful illustrations bring the wolves and their habitat to life. Her choice of colors and contrasts create a couple of spreads that are so beautiful, I would hang them as art. I can't choose a favorite spread, but my three-year-old granddaughter loved finding the wolves in September's bright golden foliage.
Children will enjoy the rhythm and illustrations, while also learning about the majestic wolf: how they communicate, hunt, their social order, and more. The teaching activities at the end of the book are fun and appropriate. More importantly, children will learn the truth about wolves, their importance in our ecosystem, and respect for their presence.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Something Wicked
Author: Alan Gratz
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3666-5
Publisher: Dial Books
Alan Gratz has done it again. Something Wicked, a modern version of Shakespeare's Macbeth is a treasure. This companion piece to Something Rotten (Hamlet) makes Shakespeare fun. This book has it all -- mystery, murder, romance, a cool hero, and a sense of humor. Gratz does a great job of drawing you into the story quickly, keeping you entertained, your curiosity piqued, and occasionally, making you laugh right out loud. Most importantly, Gratz doesn't expose the murderer until the right time.
Horatio Wilkes, the main character, is as cheeky and cool as ever as he starts a fun weekend in the Smokey Mountains. He thinks he's going to spend a few days at a Scottish Highland Fair with good friends. Is he in for a surprise! First the weather turns foul. Then the games' founder and leader, Duncan MacRae turns up dead -- the victim of foul play of course. A name written in the victim's blood points to Duncan's own son, Malcolm, but Horatio thinks things aren't as simple as they seem.
Like Something Rotten, most teen readers will enjoy Gratz’s modern version of Macbeth more than the original. Something Wicked is a bit fouler than Horatio's first murder mystery as Gratz plays havoc with the lives of characters we care about. Horatio is often disrespectful, but always loveable -- a complex character that most teens will identify with. He has morals, and a lack of them in others is what usually gets his dander up, so he's definitely one of the good guys. Teens and adults alike will champion Horatio.
Like Something Rotten, I hope teachers consider assigning Gratz’s version as extra credit. Comparing and contrasting Gratz's modern version to the real deal will ensure that students learn Shakespeare's Macbeth, and have some fun at the same time.
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3666-5
Publisher: Dial Books
Alan Gratz has done it again. Something Wicked, a modern version of Shakespeare's Macbeth is a treasure. This companion piece to Something Rotten (Hamlet) makes Shakespeare fun. This book has it all -- mystery, murder, romance, a cool hero, and a sense of humor. Gratz does a great job of drawing you into the story quickly, keeping you entertained, your curiosity piqued, and occasionally, making you laugh right out loud. Most importantly, Gratz doesn't expose the murderer until the right time.
Horatio Wilkes, the main character, is as cheeky and cool as ever as he starts a fun weekend in the Smokey Mountains. He thinks he's going to spend a few days at a Scottish Highland Fair with good friends. Is he in for a surprise! First the weather turns foul. Then the games' founder and leader, Duncan MacRae turns up dead -- the victim of foul play of course. A name written in the victim's blood points to Duncan's own son, Malcolm, but Horatio thinks things aren't as simple as they seem.
Like Something Rotten, most teen readers will enjoy Gratz’s modern version of Macbeth more than the original. Something Wicked is a bit fouler than Horatio's first murder mystery as Gratz plays havoc with the lives of characters we care about. Horatio is often disrespectful, but always loveable -- a complex character that most teens will identify with. He has morals, and a lack of them in others is what usually gets his dander up, so he's definitely one of the good guys. Teens and adults alike will champion Horatio.
Like Something Rotten, I hope teachers consider assigning Gratz’s version as extra credit. Comparing and contrasting Gratz's modern version to the real deal will ensure that students learn Shakespeare's Macbeth, and have some fun at the same time.
From Program To Product
Author: Rocky Smolin
ISBN: 978-1-59059-971-6
Publisher: Apress
Rocky Smolin's From Program To Product is a helpful guidebook for turning a custom computer application into a marketable product. Smolin's advice will help you polish your program into a professional and marketable product.
Developers are usually concerned with customizing a solution, but to market your solution, you need more. Smolin will help you gain a new perspective -- what must I do before I release this software? The first step is to gauge the market. Not every masterpiece has a market, and Smolin forces you to be realistic and honest. During development, Smolin stresses benchmarks that will help you produce the best product. These points are more about "best practices" for programming rather than marketing, but they're essential to a quality product. It's often in the details, as they say.
Smolin discusses ethics, details, promotion, capital, insurance, taxes, the competition, and how to keep customers wanting more. Along the way, Smolin encourages the reader to keep engaged and focused. Each chapter is followed by an interview with a developer who met the challenge. These interviews are insightful and inspiring. Don't skip them!
This book provides an insightful step-by-step guide to turning your software into a marketable product. Smolin offers solid business advice in clear and accessible language. He talks to you not at you, and occasionally, he makes you laugh.
You've got the idea and the programming expertise. From Program to Product will help you turn your product into profit.
ISBN: 978-1-59059-971-6
Publisher: Apress
Rocky Smolin's From Program To Product is a helpful guidebook for turning a custom computer application into a marketable product. Smolin's advice will help you polish your program into a professional and marketable product.
Developers are usually concerned with customizing a solution, but to market your solution, you need more. Smolin will help you gain a new perspective -- what must I do before I release this software? The first step is to gauge the market. Not every masterpiece has a market, and Smolin forces you to be realistic and honest. During development, Smolin stresses benchmarks that will help you produce the best product. These points are more about "best practices" for programming rather than marketing, but they're essential to a quality product. It's often in the details, as they say.
Smolin discusses ethics, details, promotion, capital, insurance, taxes, the competition, and how to keep customers wanting more. Along the way, Smolin encourages the reader to keep engaged and focused. Each chapter is followed by an interview with a developer who met the challenge. These interviews are insightful and inspiring. Don't skip them!
This book provides an insightful step-by-step guide to turning your software into a marketable product. Smolin offers solid business advice in clear and accessible language. He talks to you not at you, and occasionally, he makes you laugh.
You've got the idea and the programming expertise. From Program to Product will help you turn your product into profit.
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Brooklyn Nine
Author: Alan Gratz
SBN: 978-0-8037-3224-7
Publisher: Dial
Audience: Middle grades
Gratz scores again!
One thing's for sure, Alan Gratz is not a one-book flash-in-the-pan author. This guy just keeps knocking hits out of the ballpark!
The Brooklyn Nine, Gratz's most recent novel, is aimed at the middle grade reader. It's a nostalgic piece covering nine generations (innings) of the same family. As you might suspect, baseball is the ribbon that weaves through the years to bind the characters. However, this book isn't really about baseball -- it's about the varied lives of nine American adolescents.
Ten-year-old Felix allows us to witness the birth of American baseball. However, through Felix, we learn far more about the plight of immigrants in the early nineteenth century than baseball. Then, there's Louis Schneider, who plays baseball, when he's not fighting Civil War battles. Frankie Snider gets the best of a con artist and Kat Snider gets to play league ball during WWII because all the men are at war. Those last two characters are girls; this is not a boy's book. This book isn't just for sports or baseball fans either. Most middle grade readers will find something to identify with and enjoy in this book.
Each chapter is a new character with a new story. Gratz artfully connects them through baseball history and paraphernalia. Despite the one story per chapter format, you still get a big story experience.
Gratz's knowledge of baseball and American history is impressive. In truth, this book is really an historical narrative, although readers will never realize it. Every fact has its purpose and each character is well drawn, developed, unique, and delightful.
SBN: 978-0-8037-3224-7
Publisher: Dial
Audience: Middle grades
Gratz scores again!
One thing's for sure, Alan Gratz is not a one-book flash-in-the-pan author. This guy just keeps knocking hits out of the ballpark!
The Brooklyn Nine, Gratz's most recent novel, is aimed at the middle grade reader. It's a nostalgic piece covering nine generations (innings) of the same family. As you might suspect, baseball is the ribbon that weaves through the years to bind the characters. However, this book isn't really about baseball -- it's about the varied lives of nine American adolescents.
Ten-year-old Felix allows us to witness the birth of American baseball. However, through Felix, we learn far more about the plight of immigrants in the early nineteenth century than baseball. Then, there's Louis Schneider, who plays baseball, when he's not fighting Civil War battles. Frankie Snider gets the best of a con artist and Kat Snider gets to play league ball during WWII because all the men are at war. Those last two characters are girls; this is not a boy's book. This book isn't just for sports or baseball fans either. Most middle grade readers will find something to identify with and enjoy in this book.
Each chapter is a new character with a new story. Gratz artfully connects them through baseball history and paraphernalia. Despite the one story per chapter format, you still get a big story experience.
Gratz's knowledge of baseball and American history is impressive. In truth, this book is really an historical narrative, although readers will never realize it. Every fact has its purpose and each character is well drawn, developed, unique, and delightful.
Finder's Magic
Author: C. M. Fleming
ISBN: 978-0-9790857-1-0
Publisher: On Stage Publishing
Audience: Middle grades
Finder's Magic is magical. It's packed with excitement, mystery, intrigue, despair, and hope. Young and old readers alike will enjoy C. M. Fleming's story of early twentieth century Atlanta.
Hank McCord thinks life can't get any worse. His father's dead, he and his mother both work in the mill and barely survive, and his best friend is leaving town. Unfortunately, life's about to take a dark and sinister road that Hank McCord might not survive. After witnessing the murder of his best friend at the hands of two mill supervisors, Hank McCord goes into hiding with the help of a stranger, Calvin Yates. A young Negro boy, Calvin thinks Hank's crazy for wanting to go to the sheriff. The sheriff's not going to believe Hank!
Against his better judgment, Calvin hides Hank in the cabin of an old blind black woman, Miz Mancala. Some say she's a witch because she can find lost things. Hank becomes a threat to the small enclave of black families when he's framed for his own friend's murder! The law and the Klux Klux Klan (KKK) are looking for Hank and Calvin.
Their salvation is one another, according to Miz Mancala. After a vision, the old woman encourages the two boys to work together. If they don't, they'll surely die together, she warns them. Can a poor white boy and an orphan black boy forget that they're not supposed to like or trust one another?
The author does a good job of capturing the nuances of the south. The colloquial dialogue adds a wonderful flavor. Descriptive passages draw a vivid picture of dark shanties hidden by old trees and a dangerous mill that thrives on child labor -- it's a picture of want and harsh survival. You'll dread the river's cold rushing river, hear the trees cracking in the cold wind, and smell catfish frying in the campfire. You'll fall under the spell of Miz Malcala's soft voice and her savory warm biscuits.
Fleming gives us a stark peek at racism and labor abuse in the early 1900's. Although the story's fiction, the plot's historically plausible -- 1911 Atlanta was a corrupt and dangerous place. The story's more than exciting; it's downright scary.
ISBN: 978-0-9790857-1-0
Publisher: On Stage Publishing
Audience: Middle grades
Finder's Magic is magical. It's packed with excitement, mystery, intrigue, despair, and hope. Young and old readers alike will enjoy C. M. Fleming's story of early twentieth century Atlanta.
Hank McCord thinks life can't get any worse. His father's dead, he and his mother both work in the mill and barely survive, and his best friend is leaving town. Unfortunately, life's about to take a dark and sinister road that Hank McCord might not survive. After witnessing the murder of his best friend at the hands of two mill supervisors, Hank McCord goes into hiding with the help of a stranger, Calvin Yates. A young Negro boy, Calvin thinks Hank's crazy for wanting to go to the sheriff. The sheriff's not going to believe Hank!
Against his better judgment, Calvin hides Hank in the cabin of an old blind black woman, Miz Mancala. Some say she's a witch because she can find lost things. Hank becomes a threat to the small enclave of black families when he's framed for his own friend's murder! The law and the Klux Klux Klan (KKK) are looking for Hank and Calvin.
Their salvation is one another, according to Miz Mancala. After a vision, the old woman encourages the two boys to work together. If they don't, they'll surely die together, she warns them. Can a poor white boy and an orphan black boy forget that they're not supposed to like or trust one another?
The author does a good job of capturing the nuances of the south. The colloquial dialogue adds a wonderful flavor. Descriptive passages draw a vivid picture of dark shanties hidden by old trees and a dangerous mill that thrives on child labor -- it's a picture of want and harsh survival. You'll dread the river's cold rushing river, hear the trees cracking in the cold wind, and smell catfish frying in the campfire. You'll fall under the spell of Miz Malcala's soft voice and her savory warm biscuits.
Fleming gives us a stark peek at racism and labor abuse in the early 1900's. Although the story's fiction, the plot's historically plausible -- 1911 Atlanta was a corrupt and dangerous place. The story's more than exciting; it's downright scary.
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