Michael J. DaleyReseñas

Comprehensive, informative and fun to read Catholic Questions, Wise Answers offers responses to hundreds of questions about Catholicism in 10 chapters: Angels and Saints, Mary and Joseph, Catholic Beliefs and Practices, Pastoral Puzzles, The Bible, Liturgical Practices, Morality, Sacraments, Prayer and Church History. Culled from the "Ask a Wise Man" columns by Father Norman Perry, O.F.M., in St. Anthony Messenger, Catholic Questions, Wise Answers tackles hundreds of commonly asked questions of Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

The story is about a young hedgehog named pinch who is very hungry, but is too lazy to do anything about it. He checks his fridge, but is too lazy to cook. He thinks about going to a diner, but he doesn't want to walk that far. He finally chooses to go to his friend Dash's house, who is always cooking, and eat his food. Pinch gets to Dash's home and finds him cooking skinny soup. They call it skinny soup, because there is not much in it. Pinch is not very impressed, so he says this soup could use a potato, spinach, and cheese. Dash doesn't have any of that, but pinch does, so he runs home and gets all of it. When they are done making the soup, Pinch thinks that the soup could use pepper and hot sauce, but Dash will have any of that. Pinch then goes behind Dash's back and puts pepper in it anyway. Dash tastes the soup and finds out it is ruined. Pinch apologizes and Dash forgives him. They both decide to go to a diner instead. "Pinch and Dash Make Soup" is a great book to teach children friendship and forgiveness. It is enjoyable for reader k-3.

Pinch and Dash Make Soup by Michael J. Daley is a story of two friends compromising to make soup. My nieces and i read this story together and they loved it. My nieces are cousins and they often disagree. After reading the story I asked them what they had learned and they said that maybe they should try a little harder to understand where the other is coming from, basically. I thought that was great because the message i got was similar. There should be compromise in almost everything that you do especially in friendships. You are not going to always agree, but sometimes you just have to compromise to make everything run smoother.½

This is a book about two friends cooking together! This is a wonderful book for kids learning to read and I really liked the illustrations!

Pages: 48
Reading Level: 2.2

This was a cute book about two friends making soup together. I read this as an audio book and I think it is a great way for young readers to read a book. The ending of the book is really sweet and students would enjoy it.

This is a fun story that shows how our reactions about something can change from bad to good after a period of time. The illustrations are done in pen, ink, watercolor, and hot-press paper. This helps to make the characters and the sofa come to life. I would use this in class with children when talking about sharing and compromising.

April 2010 Cover to Cover Discussion title.

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to live on a space station? Jeff thought it was going to be awesome, full of excitement and special activities, like the space walk he and his Dad are supposed to be training for while Mom works on her super important solar data tracking. The truth: thanks to Mom’s assistant Doctor Krosta getting sick at exactly the wrong time, everyone, even Dad, is way too busy doing important science stuff to do anything else, especially anything that involves Jeff. Instead, Jeff is stuck with an annoying baby-sitting robot named Nanny. Jeff is bored out of his mind – until the e-mail from Earth arrives. “Hi! I am looking for a pen pal who lives in an unusual place. Your address seems unusual. Do you live in an unusual place? Are you looking for a pen pal? Write back. P.S. Do you like peanut butter???” Soon Jeff and his new pen pal are exchanging e-mails non-stop, but little does Jeff know that his pen pal isn’t on Earth. His pen-pal is right there with him on the space station. Rat turned the wrong way when she escaped from her laboratory on Earth and now she’s stuck on the space station and starving. Jeff is her only hope to survive, but Rat isn’t about to trust a human ever again so she’ll have to trick Jeff into helping her. Good thing Rat has some special skills like knowing how to type…

I really enjoyed this, but it was a bit of stretch for my 3rd and 4th graders to catch the nuances of emotion from the characters. They were mixed in their reviews - some found it totally boring, others thought it was pretty good and couldn't wait to read the sequel. I'd recommend it for 3rd through 6th graders who are looking for science fiction, but not as a first foray into the genre.

This science fiction book is about a rat that has lab rat that has escaped into a space station. The rodent named Rat has been trained by scientist to be a super spy rat. He can communicate by typing and using sign language. The rat figures out to e-mail a lonely boy named Jeff. Rat hopes he can convince Jeff to help him find food. Things go wrong when Rat accidently chews a cord that causes the power to go out in the space station. Jeff starts helping the crew look for Rat not realizing they are trying to kill his new friend. When Jeff realizes he has to make a choice, will he help his friend or help harm him for what he has done to the space station?
I think this a great fast paced story of friendship and adventure. It would be neat if some animals even as small as a rat could communicate with us.
I would use this story with third through fifth graders. I would discuss different elements of a sci-fi story. Then I would have them read the story and ask them to list the sci-fi elements. After they are finished, I would have students do a group project writing a short story about an animal they would like to communicate with them.

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