Sharon Katz CooperCritiques

Students in grade 1 enjoyed this read -aloud as part of a unt on the ocean. I accompanied this book with "Dolphin Baby!" and we compared facts about these two marine mammals. The book is fact-filled and also has beautiful illustrations.

Have you ever tasted a Hershey chocolate bar? Milton Hershey’s chocolate bars are famous around the world, but it wasn’t an easy path to turn his idea into a reality. Readers will love learning the story behind the name as they follow along with Milton’s beginnings as a family farmer, his string of failed candy businesses, and his eventual massive success.

This book teaches children about tools. Children will learn that utensils are tools along with shovels and things we use to cook as well. Children will also learn the names of tools that some workers use as well.
Age: 3-6
Source Amazon

I like this book very much because it shows the different hats that belong to different helpers in our community. It also shows that many of these roles can be done by women or men. The book is entertaining, interesting, and has many colorful pictures.

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This guided reading book is about a farmer, then failed businessman, to finally a successful candy bar manufacturer. Kids can connect to the theme of trial and error and share their love for chocolate at the same time.

Put on your thinking cap and guess whose hat is whose. There are hard hats and soft hats, square hats and round hats. There are even very tall hats. Some workers wear special hats to help them do their jobs. Can you guess whose hat is whose?

This book helps the students to think about the tools that they have been seen or used in the past. It is a great book to learn about math skills as well. The student can describe which one is big, small, soft, hard, sharp, and smooth. Furthermore, who can use these tools, your family members or the construction worker or others? The students get to know how community workers can use the tools. This book promotes the children's cognitive skills as well. I love this book.
I can read this book with the pre-k to kindergarten.
Source: FP ELC Reading Book Collection (Teaching Strategies Gold)

Milton Hershey’s Sweet Idea- A Chocolate Kingdom informs readers of the story behind Milton Hershey’s success. In the first pages of the book, the reader learns that Milton Hershey was born on a Pennsylvania farm in 1857, at age fourteen he started working at a candy shop in Lancaster, and at age eighteen, he opened his first candy shop in Philadelphia. As the story continues, readers learn that after six years, Milton had to close his shop because he was not making enough money. He then moved to Denver, Colorado where he got a job with another candy-maker. There, he learned a new way of making caramels. After several years of living in Colorado, Milton borrowed money from his family and moved to New York City. He tried again to open his own shop, but it too went out of business. In 1886, Milton returned to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Milton asked his aunt for financial help because he wanted to use the skills he had learned in Denver to make caramels. His aunt agreed to help him, and he started the Lancaster Caramel Company. Every day, he would walk several miles to a dairy farm to pick up fresh milk for his caramels. By the 1890’s caramels had made Milton a millionaire. In 1893, Milton attended the World’s Fair and saw a display of chocolate-making machines from Germany. He bought the equipment and decided that from that point on he was going to make chocolate. Readers then learn how Milton’s Hershey factory came to be. In 1900, he sold the caramel company for one million dollars and then bought a large piece of land in Derry Township, Pennsylvania. In 1903, he started building his giant chocolate factory. While his factory was being built, he made plans for a model town nearby. He wanted his workers a place to live. He laid out streets and built houses, schools, and parks. Hershey, Pennsylvania was born. In an afterword, readers learn that Milton and his wife, Kitty, were unable to have children of their own, so they used part of their fortune to open a school for orphaned boys. They also learn that Milton died in 1945, at age 88, and that the Hershey Company employs more than 13,000 people around the world. In the back of the book there is a list of additional resources (books and websites) where readers can learn more about Milton Hershey.

The workers in the different professions are represented by both male and female characters. The book also provides a glossary of vocabulary words and suggestions for further reading at the end.

This is an informational text about Emperor penguins. This book works chronologically through the months in a year starting in February, where the penguin prepare for the winter ahead and dive into the ocean to eat fish and krill. Then March arrives and it is time for the penguins to leave the sea, a long line of male and female march across the ice and occasionally slide on their belly. Then the penguin reach the breeding ground, and after about a month they start to mate. At the end of May the female penguins lays her egg and the male penguin takes the egg. Then the female penguins leave to prepare for the birth of the baby, they head back to the ocean to eat for about two months. The male penguins all huddle together and take turns being on the outside of the circle, this entire time they make sure the egg does not touch the ice and they do not eat either. Around 70 days later the eggs begin to hatch, and the male penguins make crop milk that the new chicks can eat. Come august the mothers return to find their mates. once they are reunited the mother takes over and starts feeding their chick, now the male penguin can go back to sea. The mother and father take turns watching over their chick until it is about 50 days old, then it can start being by itself. Then December comes and the parents head back to the ocean and leave their children and within a couple weeks their children will begin diving in the ocean too.

Whose Tools are These is about various kinds of tools that workers use, including lifeguards, doctors, and a field biologist.

Pierce County Library (3-5)

This book is great to teach about all the customs, people, and places in Costa Rica and great to teach the alphabet all while teaching about a different culture

This book gives some great information, dispersed in small chunks, and illustrated beautifully. It's educational and I bet every kid will love to learn about these giants of the ocean.

This book gives some great information, dispersed in small chunks, and illustrated beautifully. It's educational and I bet every kid will love to learn about these giants of the ocean.

This book gives some great information, dispersed in small chunks, and illustrated beautifully. It's educational and I bet every kid will love to learn about these giants of the ocean.

Cute book about the different hats workers wear. Simple and easy to understand. Many different characters and workers. A way for children to see the different hats in different types of jobs.

has all different kinds of tools and it shows who uses them.

When Whales Cross the Sea is an informative children's science picture book about the migration of grey whales. Information is chunked into nice sections along with colorful but life-like pictures.

I read this to a group of 5-8 year old children. They loved the facts about how much a whale ate and how much a baby whale weighed. There was also enough of a story line along with the facts to keep them interested the whole way through.

I liked all the information about habitats, food chains and why the whales migrate.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

This book is part of the Country ABC series. Most pages contain the main topic and a fast fact. Some of the topics include Italian words such as buongiorno and dolce. The topics also include places such as Rome, Pisa and the Holy See. The illustrations remind me of the pictures in textbooks from the 1960s. This book contains an index, list of books and websites for further exploration. While Italy ABCs does not have enough information for students to use to write a report, my fifth graders use this series every year to explore different countries. They then choose a country for further exploration. This book is also often checked-out by a group of my kindergarteners who are on an “alphabet book kick” right now.

Whose Hat Is This? was a really adorable look at community workers and the hats that they wear. The book is interactive too! Each job has a page with the hat in bright colors, and then the page following has the worker and the name of the job that they do. The kids had a blast trying to guess the hats before the page was turned. I have older children, and they still considered it completely worth the challenge!

I was especially enamored with the fact that there are both men and women in each job. The girls were very happy about the police woman because there are three of them who have mothers in the police department! It was definitely a nice touch. After reading through this book, I also understand why it is rated from ages 4-8. Although the pages themselves have very simple wording, underneath each job is a longer and more in-depth description of that job.

I would recommend this book to any teacher for use with their Kindergarten, First or even Second Grade classes! I'll also say that this is an exceptional book for the boys, they were entertained the entire way through.

Caves and Crevices
(Horrible Habitats series)
By Sharon Katz Cooper
(Read Me series)
2010, Raintree, Capstone Global Library

Review by Debra Louise Scott

This is one for the Goth kid! All the icky, gory, creepy zoology you could wish for will make your skin crawl and probably keep your children from exploring dark caves on their own.

It is well laid out, with simple, albeit weird, facts laid out on each page with detailed (read ‘graphic’) pictures of spiders, vultures, vampire bats, ticks, bed bugs, parasitic worms and salamanders. Words in bold type are referenced in a glossary in the back as well as additional references for books and web sites.

Some of the “Fun Facts” you’ll come across: “The giant salamander hunts at night. To catch prey, it opens up its huge mouth and sucks in anything nearby.” This fact accompanies a picture of a salamander with half a mouse hanging out of its jaws. About the parasite: “The worm’s larvae or babies live inside other animals, such as crickets. The larva slowly eats the cricket’s insides!”

I really am not sure what age would be old enough to handle this kind of information. I’m not altogether sure –I’m- old enough!

$4.95