Interactive learning quests, book reviews, lesson plans, teacher tools and technology tips for teachers.
The True Story of the Greatest US Naval Disaster: USS Indianapolis American History
Written by Patrick Spencer
This book is a fictional reenactment of the true story of what happened to the USS Indianapolis in July, 1945, and the trial of its captain, Charles McVay. The cruiser has just completed a mission that was even secret to her captain and crew and was on her way back to base in the Philippines. On a foggy night, she is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine under the command of Hashimoto. In a matter of minutes, the American ship sank below the black waters taking 300 of her crew with her. Some eight or nine hundred men, many burned and injured, were floating in the shark infested seas. It would be five days until they were spotted by air, and by that time less than half remained.
The most important part of this story is why was the ship was never reported missing, and how could the captain who has acted so valiantly to keep his men alive be charged with disobedience and negligence in the loss of his ship. This trial had a serious impact on the captain’s career and later life. What is even more astonishing is that it was not until a sixth grader named Hunter Scott decided to research the McVay trial that the true story became known. What was the mission of the USS Indianapolis and why was its disappearance never reported? Spencer’s reenactment of the tragedy allows the reader to experience the full range of emotions associated with this tragedy.
Recommended for readers age ten and older, particularly those interested in American history and politics.
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Children of Lir: (Ireland’s Best Known Stories in a Nutshell Book 1)
Written by Ann Carroll
Illustrated by Derry Dillon
First in a series of books that explores Irish folklore for children. In the first book, readers are introduced to the king of Lir who is happy living in the castle with his wife and four children. They rule over their subjects until one day the queen dies. The family is disconsolate. After a time the king invites his wife’s sister to come and live in the castle to help take care of the children. He eventually marries her. Unknown to the king, Aoife is mean and unloving toward the children. She lets out her frustrations by retreating to a distant spot in the castle where she screams. One day she decides to take the children to the lake where she places a curse on them. She condemns them to spend three centuries as swans. They plead with her to leave them with human voices and the ability to sing. Feeling a bit guilty, she accedes to that wish.
The king is furious with his queen. Meanwhile, the king is distraught and searches throughout the kingdom for his children. The king discovers them one day and decides to spend the rest of his life living by their side. He uses his own magic to turn his wife into a shrieking crow. The children spend their lives swimming and wandering the seas until one day they meet St. Patrick.
Charming pencil drawings enhance the story. Most children will not be familiar with the plot. This book is an easy read for middle-grade students who enjoy folklore and myth.
Barbara Ann Mojica
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Ants: Amazing Facts about Ants with Pictures for Kid
Written by Hathai Ross
The author packs a lot of information into this reference book about ants. Many kids enjoy watching them while exploring outdoors or under glass in an ant farm.
These fascinating creatures live in all parts of the world except Antarctica. More than 12,000 species have been alive for millions of years. Ants live in colonies and are social insects with designated roles. Broadly speaking, there are queens, workers, and male ants. The queen is the largest in the colony whose only job is to lay eggs. Male ants’ only responsibility is to mate with the queen. Worker ants feed the larvae, defend the colony, and remove the waste.
Ross spends a bit of time describing Argentine, Pavement, House, Carpenter, Crazy and Fire Ants. The author describes their appearance, environment, daily life and interesting characteristics. Amazing facts include their exceptional strength, being able to carry twenty times their weight, and the fact that they fight till the death. Ants usually crawl in lines because they are following the pheromones of ants that have crawled before them. There are one million ants for every single human living on earth.
I would have liked to see more photos included in the book. At times the text begins to sound like a list of facts rather than a story about ants, but this book is an excellent reference for children who are interested in these fascinating creatures that are all around us. Recommended especially for young scientists in the eight to twelve age range. Good starting point for a research project.
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Spider Quest: The Secret Life of Lollipop Lisa
Written by Sharon Skretting
Illustrated by Elizabeth Porter
Lisa is an independent strong willed fourth grader who isn’t afraid of being different. She does not conform to the crowd in the way she dresses or how she expresses her opinions. Lisa received the nickname Lollipop or Lolli because she does enjoy eating lollipops and because they are as colorful as her appearance.
When Miss Warner decides that the class will keep a daily journal, Lisa is reluctant because she is afraid someone will read her private thoughts. After thinking about it, Lisa decides she will solve that problem by keeping two journals, the second one to record her private thoughts. Unlike the other girls in the class, Lisa is not afraid of the spiders kept inside a jar. One day, they escape from the science corner and screaming chaos erupts inside the classroom. Once Miss Warner establishes order, the students put their minds to work employing all the things they learned about spiders in order to find them. They discuss how spiderlings hatch, the kinds of food they eat, where they hide, how they molt, and the way spiders move from place to place.
Will Lolli and her friends use their smarts to find the missing spiders? If found, what should they do to prevent their escape in the future? In reading this adventure, one discovers a lot about spiders and the reasons we should not be afraid of them. This book is recommended especially for children ages seven to ten. It is an excellent choice for reluctant readers because the length is manageable and the pictures make it easy to follow the text. As an added bonus, both students and teachers are given the opportunity to download their very own secret journal.
Barbara Ann Mojica
Click HERE to get your copy of Lollipop Lisa
Grab the FREE teacher download filled with reading comprehension, writing, and fun learning activity pages, HERE
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The War of the Stories
Written by Galia Koplis
This book is an interesting mixture of genres, science fiction, fairy tale, and time travel. The plot is an unusual one combining many themes that will appeal to a variety of middle grade, teen and adult audiences.
Shirley is the protagonist. Her best friend Orelia is retelling the story to us many years after it happened. On the first day of school, Miss Brown has asked each member of the class to relate an interesting story that they have read during the summer. Shirley is embarrassed because she does not have one. She is given an extra day to find one. When Shirley retreats to the library for her search, the adventure ensues.
Shirley becomes trapped in Storyland. Here the short stories are less important than the large and famous ones. Royalty, commoners, and warriors are engrossed in life and death struggles for survival and dominance. Shirley decides to help a princess find her true love, and persuade a shy story to overcome his diffidence. The tides of battle are constantly changing; Shirley experiences difficulty distinguishing right from wrong and fact from fiction. How will she fare in the battle? Will Shirley escape Storyland, and if she is successful how will her life and those of the characters in Storyland be changed forever?
Young and older readers will be able to look in the mirror and see themselves in the pages of this fantasy that has more elements of realism than appearing on the surface. This tale is fun and pleasant to read, and it contains many layers of meaning embedded deep within its surface. Recommended for anyone age nine and older who enjoys fantasy and is up for a unique read.
Barbara Ann Mojica, Author
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Owls: A Children’s Book About Owls: Types of Owls, Owl Facts, Owl Life, and Owl Images
Written by William Widman
There are more than 200 species of owls living on every continent except Antarctica. They live in forests, deserts and the tundra. Owls are raptors or birds of prey. They might be as small as six inches or as large as three feet. Owls are territorial and tend to reuse their nest. They have huge eyes and excellent hearing. Their specially designed wings enable them to be silent in flight and their feather colors help them to camouflage themselves. Sharp and powerful talons and claws assist in capturing and holding prey. Many owls have names determined by their environment like barn owls and snowy white owls. Different types of owls emit different calling sounds; the Great Horned Owl makes the familiar, “Hoo, Hoo sound, while the Barred Owl vocalizes a call similar to a monkey.
The author includes photographs of each type of owl, as well as nesting pictures and owls in flight. They are colorful and detailed. He suggests that you carry binoculars and a journal pad while owl watching in the woods. I really enjoyed the links provided within the book that allow the reader to hear and experience the sounds that various owls emit.
Recommend this book for children ages six and older who enjoy reading about animals. Librarians and teachers should consider adding this nonfiction kindle book to their reference collection.
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BeachBoundbooks is pleased to be coordinating a Blog Tour for the middle grade fantasy, Initiation: Sky Raiders Academy Book One by Kirstin Pulioff from April 3 – April 24, 2016. 
About the Book
Title: Initiation: Sky Raiders Book One | Author: Kirstin Pulioff | Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy Number of Pages: 150 | Publication Date: March 27, 2017
Summary: Tommy feels lost after his father’s death. To make matters worse, his mom moves him to a new town where he doesn’t have any friends, and he quickly becomes a punching bag for the school bully. He can’t win. So, when a mysterious visitor approaches him with the promise of adventure, Tommy jumps at the opportunity. Whisked away to a school in the sky where magic rules and storms are forged by an elite group of Sky Raiders, Tommy learns that the world’s problems are much larger than his own. When the weather spirals out of control and a rogue Raider’s diabolical plans surface, Tommy must decide how much he is willing to risk to save the world.
About the Author
Kirstin Pulioff dreams big, wishes on stars, searches for rainbows, finds treasure in everyday blessings, and lives life to its fullest… Happily married and a mother of two, she lives in the foothills of Colorado. When she’s not writing an adventure, she’s busy living one.
She loves to hear from fans.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Blog Tour Giveaway
AND NOW FOR MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK
Initiation: Sky Academy Book 1
Written by Kirstin Pulioff
First book in a new fantasy middle grade series. Tommy has recently undergone a double trauma, the death of his father and a move from California back to his mother’s home town in Colorado. As he faces the first day of school as a shy fifth grader in the middle of the school year, he begins by falling as he steps out of his Uncle’s truck. Of course Devan, the school bully, would witness this event and taunt him for the remainder of the school year.
One night a surprise visitor appears in Tommy’s bedroom. Mr. Bellarmie gifts him with a hologram ankle bracelet that transports Tommy to Sky Academy. Tommy is surprised to learn that his father was an honored member of this elite group, but he is astonished to learn that the invention of his father got him killed. At the Academy, Tommy meets fellow newcomers Rachel and Will, who will become his best friends. Every night the members of this elite weather group come together to learn about how to control weather catastrophes down on the earth. Tommy is thrilled to be involved nightly until the increasing number of weather disruptions on earth make it too dangerous for the students; Mr. Bellarmie temporarily shuts the school down. Tommy’s world comes crashing down on him once more.
Tommy’ s frustration and disappointment escalates until he discovers his father’s holographic bracelet in his mother’s jewelry box. Then Tommy is successful in traveling back to the Sky Academy. He is able to call back his friends to enlist their help to end the weather mishaps and unravel the mystery of how his father died and who is manipulating the weather mayhem. Will, Rachel and Tommy go on a wild adventure invoking all sorts of magic, lightning bolts, green slime, poison gas, and gargoyles to name a few. Will Sky Academy be able to survive and restore weather on earth to normal? Who killed Tommy’s father? Can Tommy succeed in preventing Devan from bullying him?
Middle grade students who like fantasy, adventure, mystery and magic will enjoy this first book in a new series. Well suited to the issues facing this age bracket, the book will inform, entertain and inspire the reader. Can’t wait to see what adventures emerge in Book 2.
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Life in the Gumball Machine
Written by Maureen Bartone
An interesting chapter book targeted for readers in the seven to eleven year age range. On her tenth birthday, Daisy goes for a bike ride with her two best fourth grade friends, Patrick and Michael. Daisy is often considered a tomboy, but one thing her two friends have never persuaded her to do is to play football. When the three friends pause to investigate an old shed, they discover an abandoned gumball machine. Daisy decides that she must have one so she deposits a coin. Soon the machine rumbles and sucks all three of them inside. Little do they realize the adventure awaiting them inside.
Bartone uses lots of human and kid-friendly dialogue to describe how the three humans shrink and meet the gumball people and their exciting world. Our three human friends will discover that outside appearance matters little, the real person is wrapped inside. Daisy will experience that football game and face her hidden fears. Lessons learned include how we behave and what we do are a lot more important than how we look.
Daisy is looking forward to her birthday party that afternoon, but things are looking grim that the three friends will free themselves from the gumball world and return to their normal size. The only way to escape is for another person to come along and discover that abandoned candy machine. That does not appear to be a likely possibility. Will the three friends keep their cool and figure out a way to return home? What will happen to their newly found gumball friends? How will Patrick, Michael and Daisy’s lives be changed forever?
The plot of this middle-grade chapter book is simple and the text straightforward with enough excitement, surprises and humor to keep the reader entertained and the advice from becoming preachy. A surprise near the end sets the scene for a new adventure. Recommended for children in grades two through six.