(3) K-3 Seedlings series. These attractive books provide bite-size facts about their subjects, including their habitats, physical appearances, family relationships, diets, and behavior. Engaging, bright close-up photographs are prominently featured, and each book concludes with anatomically labeled photos of its respective insect. Spare, kid-friendly text with highlighted vocabulary words makes the information accessible to new nonfiction readers. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. This covers includes these Seedlings titles: Bees, Butterflies, and Ladybugs.

Reviewer: Julie Bartynski-Fenner

(3) K-3 Seedlings series. These attractive books provide bite-size facts about their subjects, including their habitats, physical appearances, family relationships, diets, and behavior. Engaging, bright close-up photographs are prominently featured, and each book concludes with anatomically labeled photos of its respective insect. Spare, kid-friendly text with highlighted vocabulary words makes the information accessible to new nonfiction readers. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. This covers includes these Seedlings titles: Bees, Butterflies, and Ladybugs.

Reviewer: Julie Bartynski-Fenner

(3) K-3 Seedlings series. These attractive books provide bite-size facts about their subjects, including their habitats, physical appearances, family relationships, diets, and behavior. Engaging, bright close-up photographs are prominently featured, and each book concludes with anatomically labeled photos of its respective insect. Spare, kid-friendly text with highlighted vocabulary words makes the information accessible to new nonfiction readers. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. This covers includes these Seedlings titles: Bees, Butterflies, and Ladybugs.

Reviewer: Julie Bartynski-Fenner

(3) K-3 Seedlings series. This attractive book provides bite-size facts about frogs, including habitat, physical appearance, family relationships, diet, and behavior. Engaging, bright close-up photographs of frogs croaking, catching insects, etc. are prominently featured, and the book concludes with anatomically labeled photos. Spare, kid-friendly text with highlighted vocabulary words makes the information accessible to new nonfiction readers. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind.

Reviewer: Julie Bartynski-Fenner

(4) YA Voices in Poetry series. Illustrated by Gary Kelley. In these revised editions, excerpts from each poet's work alternate with biographical passages describing major influences or periods in the artist's life. The arty design calls attention to itself; every page is decorated with a photograph (in Shakespeare's case, a drawing) or a themed illustration: flowers for Dickinson, historical postal stamps for Hughes, leaves for Whitman, etc. The tiny type may put off some readers. Ind. Review covers these Voices in Poetry titles: E. E. Cummings, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Mark Summers. Story by Mark Summers. Play-by-play narration describes a baseball match-up between Wild Bill and Hopalong Cassidy's cowboys and Long John Silver and Blackbeard's pirates. Needless to say, the game deteriorates into a trash-talking scuffle ("ya lily-livered seadog"; "ye bow-legged landlubber"), until Mom's call for dinner puts the game--and the boy narrator's imagination--on hold. Expertly rendered scratchboard illustrations act out the young sportscaster's story.

Reviewer: Carrie Harasimowicz Sullivan

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Roberto Innocenti. Story by Roberto Innocenti. Little Red travels a 'hood of a different color in this gritty adaptation. The story begins in a crumbling housing project; along the way Red meets with "jackal" hooligans and a motorcycle-riding "wolf"; we last see her at the door of Nana's trailer, in which we know the wolf waits. Innocenti sets a menacing scene through his terse narrative and dark illustrations.

Reviewer: Thom Barthelmess | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2013

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Etienne Delessert. A pine tree in the Arctic north observes the seasons changing around it along with the animals that come and go. Frisch's text, while lyrical, takes itself too seriously in its earnestness. Delessert's illustrations are refreshingly subdued. A calendar, inexplicably from 1945 and with someone's scribbled appointments on it (a musical theater lover) tracks the seasons.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Chris Sheban. Young cowboy-wannabe Cole daydreams about roping strays and hunting down rustlers. He's beyond excited for his first camping experience--that is, until it gets dark. Is that sound a rattlesnake? Dreamy, expansive illustrations distinguish between Cole's wild imagination and his reality--a suburban backyard--in this well-done ode to self-fulfillment.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Gary Kelley. Paganini's life is told through a calculatedly creepy, unintentionally confusing blend of biography and the supernatural, as a gravedigger tells his assistant about the virtuoso nineteenth-century violinist and composer. An appended "postlude" does some (but not much) to help separate fact from speculation. Accomplished dark, brooding, strikingly angular illustrations are reminiscent of Paul Klee's paintings. Bib.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(4) 4-6 Built for Success series. This book provides facts about the events that led Nike, armed with innovative designs and the Swoosh logo, from being a distributor of imported sneakers to leading the world market in athletic footwear production. Photographs of Nike-wearing megastar athletes dominate the pages. Too-small font is offputting. Bib., glos., ind.

Reviewer: Christina Dorr

(4) K-3 Wild World of Animals series. Basic facts are presented about these animals' traits, habitats, behaviors, and relationships with humans. Report writers will find ample information. A few awkward page breaks mar the otherwise clean design, and the stunning glossy photos seem to leap off the pages. Glossary terms are presented in context sentences, instead of traditional definitions. Reading list, websites. Ind. Review covers these Wild World of Animals titles: Lions and Dolphins.

Reviewer: Elizabeth Shaver

(4) 4-6 NFL Today series. These two titles hit the historical and current highlights of the Raiders, an AFL franchise begun in 1960, and the Panthers, an NFL team that played its first game in 1995. Though hardly comprehensive, these volumes make good introductions to the teams. Some of the full-page photos are grainy, but they lend strong visual appeal. Ind. Review covers these NFL Today titles: The History of the Oakland Raiders and The History of the Carolina Panthers.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(4) 4-6 World of Sports series. Covering the history, equipment, venues, strategies, professional stars, and future of golf or motocross, these two series books are dominated by large, sharp color and black-and-white photos. The text is informative but meandering, and the page design is rather busy. The books will be most appreciated by those familiar with the particular sport. Words printed in bold in the text are defined on each page. Ind. [Review covers these World of Sports titles: Golf and Motocross.]

Reviewer: Jack Forman

(4) 4-6 World of Sports series. Covering the history, equipment, venues, strategies, professional stars, and future of golf or motocross, these two series books are dominated by large, sharp color and black-and-white photos. The text is informative but meandering, and the page design is rather busy. The books will be most appreciated by those familiar with the particular sport. Words printed in bold in the text are defined on each page. Ind. [Review covers these World of Sports titles: Golf and Motocross.]

Reviewer: Jack Forman