Nic Bishop Spiders by Nic Bishop.

Breathtaking photographs accompany gripping information in this award-winning nonfiction book for children.  The photographs are crystal-clear, illustrate the text well, and will get children dashing from one to the next.   Each page is a different color, highlighting the photographs themselves and lending an air of fun to the book. The text is easy to read and fascinating. 

Highly recommended for any child, but especially for those who enjoy nonfiction more than stories.  This is a perfect bedtime or lap book for those children who will want to pore over the details in the photographs and talk about their own discoveries.

Make sure you read the note at the end that talks about Bishop’s techniques.  They are just as interesting as the spiders themselves. 

Nic Bishops website:  nicbishop.com

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson.

I loved Pearson’s A Room on Lorelei Street and so immediately tore into her new book.   And was completely surprised and amazed by what I found.

Jenna has just awoken from a coma that she was in for over a year.  She had been in a horrible car accident and has to relearn how to speak, walk and return to a normal life.   She lives with her grandmother and mother in an old grand house in California while her father lives in Boston where the accident occurred and Jenna used to live.  Jenna has lost her memory after the accident and doesn’t remember her childhood, who she was or the accident itself.  As she watches movies of her life, she slowly begins recovering her memories and one thing becomes clear to Jenna and the reader: all is not right with the situation and Jenna is not being told the truth.  As Jenna begins to search for the truth, she and the reader begin a quest to discover what really happened in the accident and afterwards.

Pearson has created a story that reads as a teen medical drama but is so much more.  It is set in the near future where many medical breakthroughs have happened.  Part of the fun of the book is discovering this new society along with Jenna, finding out the new laws and agencies that have been put in place to protect the public.  And a larger part of the joy is discovering Jenna herself, a heroine who is complicated and caught in a situation beyond her control. 

Pearson’s writing is masterful as she slowly reveals the truth to Jenna and the reader with great control but wonderful surprises as well.  Her secondary characters are just as complete and complicated as Jenna is and the time period itself is complete enough to be considered another character in the book. 

Highly recommended, this book will appeal to fans of Lurlene McDaniel who are willing to take a look at something with great writing, vivid characterization, complex issues, and no need for a box of Kleenexes at the end.  It will also appeal to mystery readers and science fiction fans.

A Story with Pictures by Barbara Kanninen, pictures by Lynn Rowe Reed.

The author has forgotten to giver her manuscript to the illustrator, so the illustrator doesn’t know what to put in the book.  But the illustrator goes ahead and starts to illustrate the book, starting with a duck which does not belong in the book.  The author then discovers she is a character in her own book and has no control over the setting or the story until she gets a paper and pencil from the duck and decides how the book will continue.

Uproariously funny, this book will teach children about plot, characters and setting without them even realizing they are learning something.  The illustrations are wonderfully quirky with a mix of collage and paint which suits the strange story to a tee.  There is plenty of slapstick humor to keep children engaged.  The entire effect is rather like my childhood favorite:  The Monster at the End of This Book. 

Perfect to share in classrooms learning about the structure of stories, this is also a great readaloud in general.  Appropriate for ages 5-8.