An Egg is Quiet
Dianna Aston and Sylvia Long

This is one of those books that will make you say “Wow!”  The main text is simple and visually artistic.  “An egg is quiet.  It sits there, under its mother’s feathers...on top of its father’s feet...buried beneath the sand.  Warm.  Cozy.  An egg is colorful.  An egg is shapely.  An egg is clever… ”  There is a phrase per page with watercolor illustrations that are absolutely exquisite!  Even the endpapers made us stop and browse for a few minutes each, trying to match the diverse eggs on the front to their hatchlings in the back.  Smaller text blurbs accompany the illustrations, providing interesting facts about everything from bugs to birds.  You and your kids will want to pour over it more than once!

>> Buy the book
>> View All 2008 Children's Books

Frogs
Nic Bishop  

This book has fabulous photographs and not too much text.  It is filled with fascinating facts that girls, and especially boys, will revel in.  For example:  “Frogs like to look after their special skin.  To do this, they shed it every so often.  They wriggle and arch their backs to split the old skin and roll it off.  Then they usually eat it!”  Oh, what could be better than the gross factor when considering non- fiction!  Did you know that a toad can eat up to 5000 insects in one summer?  You can’t help but think they are wonderful creatures after reading this!

>> Buy the book
>> View All 2008 Children's Books

Great Estimations
Bruce Goldstone

Ok, so we’ve never won any contest which required us to correctly guess the number of jelly beans, buttons or anything else in a jar….but after this book, we just might have a chance.  Bruce Goldstone helps you train your eye by looking at various objects in groups, and as a result, you can’t help but hone your estimation skills!  The photographs are colorful and fun, kind of I Spy style.

>> Buy the book
>> View All 2008 Children's Books

Professional Books View All

Best Practices in Literacy Instruction - Third Edition
John T. Guthrie, Linda B. Gambrell, Lesley Mandel Morrow, and Michael Pressley  

We loved the first two editions of this book, and think the review on Amazon sums it up perfectly, "Now in a thoroughly revised and expanded third edition, this evidence-based book distills the latest knowledge about literacy teaching and learning into clear strategies for helping all children succeed."  We consider this one of our top 'go to' books for best practice in our classroom.  A must-have for all teachers.

>> Buy the book
>> View 2008 Professional Books

Comprehending Math:  Adapting Reading Strategies to Teach Mathematics, K-6
Arthur Hyde

This has been another book we have been reading this spring.  Once we read the review, see below, we thought it was worth checking out.  It has certainly not disappointed us!  If you are working on creating students who think in all curricular areas, this book might be one to add to your summer read list. Review: No matter the content area, students need to develop clear ways of thinking about and understanding what they learn. But this kind of conceptual thinking seems more difficult in math than in language arts and social studies. Fortunately we now know how to help kids understand more about mathematics than ever before, and in Comprehending Math you'll find out that much of math's conceptual difficulty can be alleviated by adapting what we have learned from research on language and cognition.

>> Buy the book
>> View 2008 Professional Books

Things and What ElseView All

Colette Sorenson, of Grand Island, NE, made these “Perfectly Polka-Dot Pensieves” with nifty handles for us.  They are some of our Favorite Things. Not only cute, but very useful! If you are interested in these binder covers, you can contact Colette at:  cosorens@gips.org