(4) K-3 Tiptoe into Scary Places series. Rundown buildings, deserted locations, and ghost stories provide the creepy premise of this series. Each volume includes four spooky locations in a category, but some examples are a stretch and others are only indirectly related to their location. Background info, brief details on a specific haunting, and crisp photographs round out the presentation. There are four other spring 2017 books in this series. Reading list. Glos., ind. Review covers these Tiptoe into Scary Places titles: Horror Hotels, Haunted Amusement Parks, Deserted Prisons, and Spooky Libraries.

Reviewer: Antonio Trujillo

(4) K-3 Weird but Cute series. Though they offer only barebones information, these books for beginning readers are accessible introductions to standard features of nonfiction. With large close-up photos dominating the pages, each volume touches on its subject's habitat, diet, care of young, behaviors, and defenses; the "weird but cute" angle isn't a focus. Vocabulary words are printed in bold type and defined in an appended picture glossary. Reading list. Ind. Review covers these Weird but Cute titles: Barn Owl and Rockhopper Penguin.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(4) K-3 No Backbone! The World of Invertebrates series. This series allows readers to come safely eye-to-eyes with larger-than-life spiders of all shapes and sizes. The texts, which are occasionally too vague, offer basic and interesting facts about spiders' body structures, their young, how spiders eat, and where they live. Their many vivid close-up photographs are the books' main appeal. Glos., ind. Review covers these No Backbone! The World of Invertebrates titles: Hairy Tarantulas, Jumping Spiders, Spooky Wolf Spiders, Tricky Trapdoor Spiders, Deadly Black Widows, and Crafty Garden Spiders.

Reviewer: Betsy Murray