Daily Archives: July 29, 2016

Curious Minds by Ty Kolstedt and Azeem Z. Vasi

29 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by in language arts, Non-Fiction, science, social studies, Young Adult

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Curious minds

The authors have provided the middle school to high school reader with a fascinating book of various experiments in all fields of learning – including Language Arts and Social Studies.  Usually, books of experiments are limited to mathematics and/or science.

Each chapter begins with a topic to pique the interest of the reader.  The “Content Area” and “Primary Skills’ being taught by the experiment, along with the “Mission Objective” begin each chapter.  These sections are followed by “Learning the Lingo” in which the reader learns the terms pertinent to the topic at hand.  Next comes the list of materials needed to perform the experiment, followed by the “Plan of Attack,” or the steps in the experiment.  Finally each chapter ends with “Take it to the Max,” an attempt to get the reader to go beyond the given experiment and to discover more about the subject on his/her own.

This book is for younger readers, but it may well be used by a teacher or a homeschooling parent for extra activities.  I recommend its purchase, but a librarian may have trouble cataloging it because of its broad range of subjects.

Darkest Hour by Carolyn Tung Richmond

29 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by in Historical Fiction

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darkest hour  As a spy of the Allies during World War II, sixteen year-old Lucie Blaise was not always the most proficient.  She had messed up two operations already, and the commander of Covert Ops was nearly ready to send her back to the U.S. before she could do any serious damage to the operations.

Then came the assignment to track down and interrogate a Nazi traitor who was offering the Allies important information about a new “weapon” than the Germans were about ready to release on the world.  Lucie and two other Covert Ops girls set out through France into Germany to complete this mission.

These types of assignments are always dangerous, but the girls nearly get themselves killed several times.  How they found the spy and then were able to destroy the lab where the weapon was being created is only a part of the story of espionage and intrigue. Lucie discovers that Covet Ops has a mole, and she must figure out who that is before someone dies.

The reader should be ready for a thrilling adventure as he/she sits down to read.  The fact that there actually were many real-life women operatives during World War II makes what might seem fantastical come to life.  I recommend the purchase of this book for readers in grade 7-13.