February Picks

This month I would like to highlight some new eBooks and Audiobooks we have in our digital collection. These resources can be accessed from the Follett Shelf, which is linked to the Media Center homepage. Please come see me if you have any questions about how to read or listen to these digital resources.

eBooks:

These books can be read by all your students at the same time (on iPads or computers), and can also be used on Smartboards. Below are detailed descriptions of 5 of them...we have 31! Check them out!


A Butterfly's Life, by Ellen Lawrence (Grades 1-3)

Life Cycles series, this book chronicles the mysterious and colorful sequence of a butterfly’s maturation. Formatted as a series of late-summer diary entries written by an inquisitive young boy, the book describes events from two butterflies mating in his backyard through their fall migration south and eventual return the following summer. Photographs combine with kid-friendly maps and illustrations to display migration patterns and metamorphosis in a vibrant manner. The text, though written from the point of view of a child, is insightful and straightforward while still maintaining an age-appropriate reading level. Also included is a science lab that explains the process of growing butterfly-friendly plants like verbena and milkweed in window pots and transplanting them outdoors to provide food and nectar to growing insects. A list of science terms is explained through an illustrated glossary. This book explains a complicated process in a factual, understandable, and attractive style. ~Erin Anderson, Booklist  


Can You Tell a Frog From a Toad, by Buffy Silverman (Grades 1-3) 

Something small and green hops through the wet grass. It watches with big, round eyes. Then its long tongue shoots out from its mouth. It caught an insect! Did you just see a frog? Or was it a toad? These animals look very similar, but they are different. Read this book to become an expert at telling these look-alikes apart! Learn the fascinating differences between similar animals in the Animal Look-Alikes series--part of the Lightning Bolt Books collection. With high-energy designs, exciting photos, and fun text, Lightning Bolt Books bring nonfiction topics to life! ~Amazon


Meet the Planets, by John McGranaghan (Grades 2-4)

Soar into the Solar System to witness the first Favorite Planet Competition, emceed by none other than the former-ninth planet, now known as dwarf planet Pluto. The readers become the judges after the sun can't pick a favorite and the meteors leave for a shower. Who will the lucky winning planet be? Could it be speedy-messenger Mercury, light-on-his-feet Saturn, or smoking-hot Venus? Readers learn all about each planet as Pluto announces them with short, tongue-in-cheek facts. Children will spend hours searching the art for all the references to famous scientists and people of history, space technology, constellations, art, and classic literature. ~Amazon 


Disaster on the 100th Day, by Jean Robertson (Grades K-2)

In this early reader animals bring 100 things to celebrate the 100th day of school. Someone spills 100 marbles! ~Amazon 






What's the Difference? An Endangered Animal Subtraction Story, by Suzanne Slade (Grades 1-3) 

Similar in format to its companion book What's New at the Zoo? An Animal Adding Adventure (2009), this picture book introduces a dozen endangered, threatened, and recovered species while offering practice in subtraction. Each double-page spread includes a simple subtraction problem (“6 - 1 = ?”); a related rhymed couplet about a group of animals (“Six silly prairie dogs / frolic most the day. / One guards the colony. / How many dogs at play?”); and a paragraph of information about threats to the species and its current status of endangerment. An intriguing feature on the appended pages is a chart showing what happens to an ocean habitat when one species, sea otters, disappears from the area's food chain. The paintings clearly depict the animals and settings, although there is occasional awkwardness in figure drawing as well as the scale. Though not a necessary purchase, this blend of math practice and science facts may be useful to supplement classroom units in either area. ~Carolyn Phelan, Booklist 


Here are the covers of a few more digital resources on our Follett Shelf. 

Audiobooks: 

These audiobooks are hosted through Catalist Digital. They can be listened to on the iPads and on computers. Each audiobook has 1 copy available and can be "checked out" by the student for two weeks. After those two weeks it will automatically returned and the student can renew it if needed. I tried to purchase a variety of audiobooks at a multitude of levels to accommodate for all our students. These are just 5 of the titles...we have 38!


Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen (Grades K-3)

A girl and her father go owling on a moonlit winter night near the farm where they live. Bundled tight in wool clothes, they trudge through snow "whiter than the milk in a cereal bowl"; here and there, hidden in ink-blue shadows, a fox, raccoon, fieldmouse and deer watch them pass. An air of expectancy builds as Pa imitates the Great Horned Owl's call once without answer, then again. From out of the darkness "an echo/ came threading its way/ through the trees." Schoenherr's watercolor washes depict a New England few readers see: the bold stare of a nocturnal owl, a bird's-eye view of a farmhouse. In harmony with the art, the melodious text brings to life an unusual countryside adventure. ~Publishers Weekly 


The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo (Grades 3-6) 

A charming story of unlikely heroes whose destinies entwine to bring about a joyful resolution. Foremost is Despereaux, a diminutive mouse who, as depicted in Ering's pencil drawings, is one of the most endearing of his ink ever to appear in children's books. His mother, who is French, declares him to be "such the disappointment" at his birth and the rest of his family seems to agree that he is very odd: his ears are too big and his eyes open far too soon and they all expect him to die quickly. Of course, he doesn't. Then there is the human Princess Pea, with whom Despereaux falls deeply (one might say desperately) in love. She appreciates him despite her father's prejudice against rodents. Next is Roscuro, a rat with an uncharacteristic love of light and soup. Both these predilections get him into trouble. And finally, there is Miggery Sow, a peasant girl so dim that she believes she can become a princess. With a masterful hand, DiCamillo weaves four story lines together in a witty, suspenseful narrative that begs to be read aloud. ~Miriam Lang Budin, School Library Journal


Extra Credit, by Andrew Clements (Grades 4-6)

A forced pen-pal exchange turns into an opportunity for real communication between Illinois sixth-grader Abby Carson and Sadeed Bayat, the best English-language student in his Afghan village. When Abby's first letter arrives in Bahar-Lan, 11-year-old Sadeed is asked by the elders to compose his sister Amira's reply; it isn't proper for a boy and girl to correspond with one another. But soon Sadeed can't resist telling Abby that it is he who has been writing to her. The third-person narrative alternates points of view, allowing for inclusion of intriguing details of both lives. Never a scholar, Abby prefers the woods behind her family's farm and the climbing wall in her school; in the afternoons, Sadeed works in his father's grain shop. In spite of their differences, Abby and Sadeed connect through their imaginations, and their earlier readings of Frog and Toad Are Friends. They learn, as Abby reports, that "people are simple, but the stuff going on around them can get complicated." ~Kathleen Isaacs, School Library Journal 


Spirit Animals: Book 1-Wild Born, by Brandon Mull (Grades 4-6)

In the world of Erdas, when children turn 11, they drink Nectar in order to see if they will have a spirit animal. Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan are chosen, and, with their spirit animals-a wolf, a leopard, a panda, and a falcon-they must summon the Four Fallen, Great Beasts that gave their lives many years earlier to defeat the Devourer. Now the Devourer is back, and the children have to use their animal powers to defeat it. Minions of the Devourer are hot on their trail and will do anything to stop them from succeeding. ~Kira Moody, School Library Journal


Navigating Early, by Clare Vanderpool (Grades 5-6) *Now a Printz Honor winner!*

When his mother unexpectedly passes away and his father returns from serving in World War II, Jack Baker's life is turned upside down. He's moved from his home in Kansas to a boy's boarding school in Maine. He meets a unique boy named Early Auden who has an obsession with pi, seeing an unending story in the mathematically significant number. Caught up in their own sorrows, the boys take a chance during a school break to head off on a quest along the Appalachian Trail. Early's telling of the pi story seems to oddly mirror the strange characters and happenings that the boys encounter in their journey. This is a journey of loss, discovery, and deep-rooted friendship and love. ~Deanna Romriell, School Library Journal 


Here are a few more covers of the books in the current digital audiobook collection.