Samantha Bell

This review is based on: Cursed by Christmas, Dynasty of Blood Saga: A Christmas Story by Stephany Wallace

Such a fun Christmas story filled with vampires, witches, and one amazingly sweet baby gargoyle. After reading this gem I'm definitely going to check out the DYNASTY OF BLOOD series its from. I was happily surprised to learn one didn't necessarily need to have read the books prior to this novella. Suffice to say family is the theme of this super quick and enjoyable read. Whether by blood or choice, family is the heart of.our lives. This year more than most, this book resonated with me for the love these characters had for their family.… (más)

Meet a Baby Lemur, part of the Lightning Bolt Books, Baby African Animals series, is an interesting expository informational text that is perfect for elementary readers. It covers the life-cycle of a lemur from birth to adulthood. The bold headings, vivid photographs (taken from several different sources), informative text boxes and short simple sentences, filled with useful facts are ideal for young researchers. The text includes several facts that are framed with the young reader in mind. “Each baby lemur measures about 4 inches (10 cm) long, smaller than your hand. Their parents are about 17 inches (43 cm) long. That is the size of a house cat.” Other nonfiction features included in the this book are table of content, subject headings, text boxes, diagram, glossary, index and biography. In writing this book, Bell consulted with animal expert Dr. Mark C. Andersen from the Department of Fish Wildlife and Conservation Ecology at New Mexico State University and Lemur expert, Chris Smith from Duke Lemur Center.

Both the fascinating content and reading level are a perfect fit for the youngest researchers. Recommend for students kindergarten to 2nd grade.… (más)

A simple book with illustrations that gives a few simple duct tape projects. Some of the projects have what I would deem as an extra step that I think they believe will make the project easier (using construction paper to make duct tape sheets rather than just making the sheets of back to back duct tape). I think rather then adding the extra step it would have benefited from pictures rather then illustrations and I think it could use a few more actual projects and ideas for how to adapt projects rather then just suggesting that kids can adapt projects.

I do want to make a duct tape turtle though...which is giving it an extra star.… (más)