Another sure-fire winner for math teachers and school libraries alike, this follow-up to Great Estimations (2006) recaps the basic estimation methods (eye-training, clump-counting, box-and-count) and gives readers several opportunities to practice them. But then the author gets tricky, mixing up the groups of objects with things of vastly different sizes, unevenly spreading them across a surface or irregularly layering them. Finally, readers will be challenged to use what they have learned to estimate length, height, weight, area and volume (in both U.S. customary and metric units). The “Hints” boxes at the bottom of each page give readers a starting point, as well as help with some of the mathematics involved in estimating large numbers of objects. Speech bubbles add some levity to a subject that children often find difficult, especially since there are no concrete “correct” answers (in either real life or in this text). Most importantly, the author’s note gives specific examples of the ways estimation skills are pivotal to many professions, giving readers extra motivation to push toward mastery. Don’t underestimate this one’s value. (Informational picture book. 7-12)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8315-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2008
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda.
Hank Zipzer, poster boy for dyslexic middle graders everywhere, stars in a new prequel series highlighting second-grade trials and triumphs.
Hank’s hopes of playing Aqua Fly, a comic-book character, in the upcoming class play founder when, despite plenty of coaching and preparation, he freezes up during tryouts. He is not particularly comforted when his sympathetic teacher adds a nonspeaking role as a bookmark to the play just for him. Following the pattern laid down in his previous appearances as an older child, he gets plenty of help and support from understanding friends (including Ashley Wong, a new apartment-house neighbor). He even manages to turn lemons into lemonade with a quick bit of improv when Nick “the Tick” McKelty, the sneering classmate who took his preferred role, blanks on his lines during the performance. As the aforementioned bully not only chokes in the clutch and gets a demeaning nickname, but is fat, boastful and eats like a pig, the authors’ sensitivity is rather one-sided. Still, Hank has a winning way of bouncing back from adversity, and like the frequent black-and-white line-and-wash drawings, the typeface is designed with easy legibility in mind.
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-448-48239-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Printed on heavy, coated stock, with wide floral borders adding further notes of luxury, these three complete tales from Kipling’s classic, with attendant verses, get both sumptuous packaging and a generous helping of small, finely detailed illustrations. This treatment not only captures the action and exotic locales, but, most expressively, the power and beauty of the wolves, Bagheera, Balloo and the other animals among whom young Mowgli is raised. As always, Kipling’s measured prose and poetry is a treat to read alone or, especially, aloud; here the story of Mowgli’s education in the Law of the Jungle, his first try at living among humankind, his kidnapping by the Monkey People, and his triumph over the tiger Shere Khan will keep young audiences rapt. An ideal replacement for the edition of these tales illustrated by Inga Moore (1992), and other edited versions. (Fiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: June 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7636-2317-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2005
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