Jon BullerCritiques

Another fun hybrid book from the authors of the Fog Mound trilogy.

5/11/2022: Just as fun and enjoyable as the first time around! I really like the art style, and the graphics / text combo is pretty unique.

This has been a great favorite in my house at bedtime

A delightful book. I like the idea of alternating illustration and text. The art is as cute as the story.

Note: Received a free copy from the publisher. My review and rating are not influenced in any way.

If you want a short read that will make you feel good, then you have come to the right book. Anne’s family makes green bagels. It’s because of the seaweed they contain. But this book is not about bagels, that is just how she gets her nickname. This story is about a girl who moves to a new town, makes friends, and tries to find her place in the world. Her dad is missing by choice, and the rest of her family is just a little weird. This was very heartwarming. I love how the author choose to show us Anne’s dreams in the form of graphic novel mini’s, and how the dreams play into the story.
#LitzyAtoZGN

Bob is excited because he finally has something neat for show and tell. He’s found an unusual shiny talking rock from outer space! He’s worried that the other kids won’t believe him about the purple rock, but he has a bigger problem: how can he return the rock to Kal-dor, its home planet?

A Level 3 STEP Into Reading book, written at a mid-second grade reading level, “Space Rock” is appropriate for young independent readers in second and third grades. Written for children ready to read on their own, the stories have easy-to-follow plots about popular topics and have engaging characters. Bright watercolor illustrations accompany the five-chapter, forty-eight-page text of “Space Rock” and, while some of the vocabulary is more challenging, context and illustrations ensure understanding for the young reader.

Highly recommended.

This book is a great resource for learning about the 50 states. Each state is one page & gives a brief description of the state with illustrations. At the end of the book they have a bibliography of books & websites they pulled info from which is great if your child wants to do more research about a particular state.

The wright brothers were ordinary yet fascinating brothers. These guys really enjoyed creating and building things since they were kids and eventually developed a love for building planes. Though they had many trials, errors and constant setbacks, they continued to perfect the airplane as best they could. It's inspiring to read about the lengths these brothers had gone through to create and do something thats never been done.

I believe this book is set up to be a mock up of a research project done by a boy in 'Ms Brant's' class. There is a full history of aircraft running from Da Vinci to modern fighter jets and there is an in depth study done on the Wright Brothers with full description, illustrations, and real photos of their process. What I liked about this book was it created a relationship between the reader and this boy whose project it is. He describes his interest in planes and experiments that he has done with items that fly and there are even projects provided for readers who are a little antsy. There is a little too much "HOW COOL IS THAT?!!" in the written part of the text so I was not thrilled with how it was written but it seems its goal was to pull in a reader who is a little mentally busy and to be a little inspiration.½

toad gets on a railroad train and discusses the different aspects of an overnight train
1 book

This is an older book, however still very fun and interesting for students. This book would especially be a favorite for a student who enjoys to learn about space. Students can relate to the young boy in the story and imagine how they would feel if they came across a space rock. There is some humor in the story, which makes it a fun and easy book to read. This book has chapters, however it is still a very simple read for students. There is good science vocabulary used that students can definitely benefit from.

This review is also available on my blog, Read Till Dawn.

This is definitely an interesting book. Its format reminds me a lot of Brian Selznick’s books, except where his books are told in alternating prose and drawings Scarlett is told via prose and comic strips. I don’t read a ton of comic books so I can’t say much about the quality of the artwork or anything like that, but I can vouch that they definitely create an interesting effect and seem well-done to an amateur like myself. The comics were really good for showing things (like, for example, the beginning where Scarlett escapes from the lab), and then the prose passages worked well for the scenes that involved more thinking and less action. The story might have worked okay if told purely in prose (though it might have been a little dry), but I don’t think it would have been possible to tell the story entirely in comic strips - it’s too complicated. You don’t get that strong flavor of Scarlett’s personality and opinions the way you do when you’re reading prose in first-person narrative by her.

I enjoyed the story, which reminded me a lot of the movie Bolt in some parts (escaped animals from a movie set, anyone?), but wound up taking a very different course toward the end. It's a rather disturbing book if you actually sit back and really, truly think about the revelations made toward the end, but Scarlett herself decides not to think about the implications, and hopefully most younger readers won't either. Set aside the sci-fi at the surface (oh come on, you know there has to be some explanation for the talking animals), and this is actually a very heartwarming book about a talking cat and dog, their search for a place in this world.

I'm not absolutely in love with Scarlett - it's a little different from my usual reads, and I think I'm just a little older than the usual audience with this one - but I did enjoy it, and I'm sure kids will even more. The unique format is a definite plus, the talking cat an instant draw, and the exciting, humorous story a great source of entertainment for any kid looking for a book at their level that contains more than just the usual cliche characters and rote plots. So go ahead, check Scarlett out: I can't promise you'll fall in love with it, but I can promise it will be a little bit different from anything else you've ever read.

Disclaimer: I received a complementary copy of this book at KidLitCon, which in no way affected my review.

This story is about a parent that is telling their child all the ways they love them before they go to sleep. The speaker uses analogies to express their multitude of feelings to their child such as "I love you like vines love trees", and other analogies that a young child is easily able to comprehend. The speaker relates their love to common items that they reader may know and love as well, such as strawberry milkshakes and blueberry pancakes and activities such as splashing in puddles, which can excite the reader as they have a similar interest to the speaker. The big idea of this book is to show comparisons of intangible things, such as love of another person, to tangible things, such as the moon and how plants grow, as well as recognizing patterns in poetry, as shown in the end word rhymes found within the book.

Lesson on disasters. Can be used for a lesson timelines. Includes timeline in the back of the book.

The Wright Brothers Take Off by Jon Buller tells the story of The Wright Brothers from a kids point of view. The story is in the form of a book report and is told from a child's point of view. I think that would definitely appeal to children, because children learn from other children. The book is visually attractive and it is also a history lesson. The little boy in the story uses comic-strip type pictures and he even uses humor to get teach readers about the Wright Brothers.

This book can be used to show students examples of other students' work about the states. Students can relate more to work that is written by other students of their age and grade. It gives students ideas about how they can become an "expert" on a particular state. This shows how a class can make their own book about the 50 states.

First semi-graphic novel. Huge hit . . . on to the sequels.

This book is about a boy writing a report about the Wright brothers for school. The book has many interesting facts, illustrations, and photographs included in it. I would like my students to read this book, not only to learn about the Wright brothers, but to get ideas from this book on how to write a report about someone that they admire.

This book taught me things about airplanes that I didn't know. This is a great book for children who may be interested in planes. It gives background information about airplanes in general and more specifically how the Wright brothers were involved inthe building of airplanes.

This book is very nicely illustrated. It uses larger print that would make it appeal to a 2nd or 3rd grader. The sentences are simple but not too easy and the story flows nicely. It is about a young boy who finds a mysterious cookie shop. The owner of the shop sells him magic cookies that he feeds to his family. The different animal shapes of the cookies indicate what you will turn into when you eat it. The boy realizes what is happening and demands the cookie maker make him people cookies to turn his family back into themselves. Along the way a duck finds a cat cookie and eats it leaning the family with a very unique pet.
This could be used in the classroom to:
-have early readers read a few pages at home
-break the book into sections and have kids write a story that parallels the book
-pick out new vocab and learn it
-provide students with the confidence that they can read well
-introduce children into longer books that may seem intimidating

Travels Of Thelonious is a book about a talking chipmunk named Thelonious. In a flood he gets washed down the river and he ends up in the city of ruins. When he is down at the city of ruins he sees a porcupine. His name is Fitzgerald and he owns a book store. Thelonious and Fitzgerald take his motor scooter. They meet a bear named Olive and they try to take a flying machine but they get attacked by the evil dragon and her evil army. They make it out and now they are trying to get to the fogmound. This book is written with a mix of a real book and a comic book but it is a novel. I recommend this book too people who are looking for a funny book and has some action. I really liked this book because I thought it was funny. The message of this book is that never give up your dream.

By Anders Newberg

Travel of Thelonious the fog mound Thelonious is a talker he is known for his words he is a chipmunk “ he also believes in humans. He has paper postcard he keeps with him and that’s how he believes in humans Thelonious wants to know more about humans. Then Thelonious gets swept down by the river and enters a new world. With three new friends a bear a porcupine and a lizard. Thelonious and his friends are off to the far off fog mound. I liked this book because it was really cool how they live where humans use to live there. I think the message to this is that they are trying to uncover earth’s past. I recommend this book to the people who like adventure books.

In Thelonious the chipmunks world no one was sure if humans existed. After being washed away from his home Thelonious went on an adventure and was able to find out the truth about humans himself. After meeting some other animals in the City of Ruins he confirms his thoughts plus more.

Travels of Thelonious is a book of talking animals who set out on an adventure to find out the mystery on whether or not humans really existed. A chipmunk named Thelonious is a talking chipmunk who has a postcard that is very special to him and he believes that because of the postcard, humans then must have existed. A rain storm sends Thelonious into a crazy world where he meets Fitzgerald a porcupine, Olive a bear, and Brown the lizard. Soon the animals all team up and set out on a unique adventure to Fog Mound.

Website: http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Susan-Schade/707198
A great site that has all the author's latest books and information.
Content Summary: fantasy, adventure, friendship, animal characters.