Nonfiction Monday-- Pets

Miles, Ellen. The Puppy Place: Guide to Puppies
Miles, Ellen. The Kitty Corner: Guide to Kittens
1 April 2013, Scholastic
E ARC from Netgalley. com

These are both absolutely adorable books that offer quite useful information on picking out and caring for a new pet. They are only 80 pages long, well illustrated and beautifully arranged. I looked at these at school and my library helpers who were looking over my shoulder immediately wanted copies to check out! I didn't realize that there are series to go along with these, but they are those insidiously long series with 50 books that children find so addictive. Hmmm. I appreciated that these offered good information about care and also addressed the issue of pets dying in a delicate way.  Must have for elementary and middle school libraries.

 It's Marvelous Middle Grade Monday at Ramblings of a Wannabe Scribe and What Are You Reading? day at Teach Mentor Texts. Both sites have lots of links to reviews about books that are great for the 4th through 8th grader. It's also Nonfiction Monday, hosted this week at Wendie's Wanderings.


Messner, Kate. Hide and Seek
1 April 2013, Scholastic Press
E ARC from Netgalley.com

Anna, Henry and Jose and their parents go to a reception at the White House to recognize them for saving the day in Capture the Flag. While there, they see an exhibit on Pre-Colombian god that includes an artifact from the Silver Jaguar Society-- a gold chalice used in ritual initiation that has been lost for 500 years. The only problem? It's a fake. The parents decide to take off for Costa Rica to investigate, and bring the kids with them. They stay at an eco lodge with another Jaguar Society person and meet the daughter, Sophie, as well as a teen raised by the society, Alejandro. The chalice was in Alejandro's possession when it was stolen, so while the parents are off in the city trying to solve the mystery, the children are working hard at the lodge. All of the tourists seem suspect, and Alejandro's slightly illegal tours make the children question his intentions as well. Gooshen of the Serpent Princes shows up, and things go from bad to worse. Can the kids keep the chalice safe?
Strengths: Messner is a great writer, and it's clear that she researched this very well. Lots of adventure, good gross middle school details like bat guano and bullet ants, and a range of interesting characters.
Weaknesses: I was coming down with a cold when I read this, and it made me super jealous of Messner(a former middle school teacher and now super successful writer!), so we will attribute all of my crankiness with this title to those things. Also, the two boy characters were slap worthy. Jose is agonizing over something he needs to tell his parents which turns out to be really inconsequential, and Henry needs to have the video game yanked out of his hands! Anna is okay, but I wish that more were done with her. Other than that, there is not concrete reason for me not to like this.

E Books do need to consider page decorations when formatting e books. A lot of times, these will slow down the page turns, and are really not worth it. In this case, there was just a line drawing of the chalice. There have been some e books where the page turns were slowed down all black pages, like Shadow on the Mountain. In that case, I couldn't even read the e book because the black pages crashed my Nook!

Nonfiction Monday-- Pets

Middle school students love to read about cats and dogs. Either they have them, or they wish they had them. My Dorling-Kindersley and ASPCA god and cat care manuals are falling to pieces, so I was looking around for some other books about pets. And just so you know, I decided NOT to let my dog "write" the reviews. It may be January, but I'm not that many kinds of crazy. Yet.

Brownlee, Christen. Cute, Furry and Deadly: Diseases You Can Catch from Your Pet!
The Scholastic 24/7 books on war are very popular in my library, so I looked into the Science Behind the Scenes series. This volumn presents several real life cases where pets made their owners very sick-- prarie dogs with monkey pox, kittens with rabies, and baby chicks with salmonella. Medical terms are explained, all article are well-illustrated, and additional information is given about zoonotic diseases. Scientists who worked on the real life cases are also profiled. A glossary and resource pages are included at the end of the book.
Strengths: Rabid kitties-- what's not to like? The short chapters will appeal to nonfiction readers who like a little bit of text with their pictures.
Weaknesses: While this has really good information, I find the format hard to read. This will not be the book for my students wanting information about animal care, but will be great for the students who like grossology type books. I still like the Sheila Keenan Animals in the House for a good overview of the history of pets.


Klam, Julie. You Had Me At Woof: How Dogs Taught me the Secrets of Happiness.
This memoir is not really suitable for middle school students, but I treat myself to the occasional adult book on Friday evenings, because my life is just that exciting! Ms. Klam was trying to figure out her single life and her career when she decided that a dog was what she needed. Enter Otto, a Boston terrier, who so endeared himself to Ms. Klam that she got involved with a Boston terrier rescue group and started fostering dogs. She eventually got married and had a daughter, but continued to make the dogs a very big part of her life. I wouldn't say that this book, or the dogs, really taught me much about the secrets of happiness, but it was an amusing read, and it encouraged me to rub Sylvie's tummy while I read it. Warning: several dogs pass away in this book. Sad.

Lemke, Don. The Amazing Mini-Mutts.

Capstone Publishers, February 2012

E ARC from Netgalley.com

This is certainly fiction, and for grades 1-3, but it was so cute that I had to take a look, even though it is waaaay on the elementary side of the Pilkey side. The Mini-Mutts are tiny little fuzzy crime fighters who are going up against Brainicat, who is evil. The text is simple, the pictures bright, and my children would have loved these when they were emergent readers. This would also be a good book to, um, read to your dog!

Nonfiction Monday was created by Ms. Suen, and today's roundup is hosted at Shelf-Employed.