by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Humor
When A. J. stands up in class and announces that he loves football and video games and hates school, he is very surprised to hear his teacher, Miss Daisy, say that she hates school too. Miss Daisy is crazy. It turns out she hates arithmetic and, really, it seems as...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Picture Book
When friends ask David Carter which one of his books is “safe” for a toddler, this is the book he recommends. It’s a great book for touching and feeling and doesn’t have the tempting pieces that little fingers sometimes tear. Bright and shiny...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Realistic/Contemporary Fiction
When he heads off for the first day of school, Donald Zinkoff is determined to wear his Dr. Seuss Hat – you know, the big one with stripes that the Cat wears? His concerned mother tries to talk it off of him, but to no avail. So it is with Donald. He just...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Historical Fiction
Winner of the 1996 Newbery Medal When I first met the protagonist in this medieval England village, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know her. She literally stepped from a dung heap – not exactly the person you want to identify with. Day by day, though, she grows...
by Dawn | Mar 24, 2009 | Mystery
When Michael and Molly’s mother marries the father of 5-year-old Heather, the two families move into a house out in the country, next to a graveyard. Heather is no prize, but, little by little, Molly begins to see that Heather is being pulled into another world...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Picture Book
When one is going to be encountering various monsters during one’s day, it’s important to be armed with the appropriate defenses comprised of knowledge of the enemy and appropriate weaponry. My guess is that you may be acquainted with a young mind that...
by Barb Langridge | Mar 24, 2009 | Non-Fiction
When Ryan was a first-grader, his teacher at school told his class that people in some countries in Africa have to walk as far as twelve miles to get water and that that water may be so dirty that children and grown-ups die from drinking it. Ryan cared very deeply...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Non-Fiction
When the fun of Actual Size is over, there’s still hope. He did another one, and this time it’s prehistoric animals. So you get to put your hand up to the pictures on each page and imagine just how big that prehistoric creature really was. This is an...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Fiction
When the older brother is killed in a tractor accident, the Baggs family has to find ways to go on. They set off in their own directions. Mother decides to buy a typewriter and get a job. She chooses to “strike out” in a new direction. Father just wants to...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Historical Fiction
When the school board decides to end the school year early, all the kids clap and go home. Right? Not, in Elk Valley, Colorado in 1925, when 14-year-old Ida Bidson decides she can’t let school end now. She needs to take the final exams. So, she accepts a...
