Sue Heavenrich's Blog

Hello, and thank you for dropping by to explore Sally's Bookshelf. There are more than 500 book reviews stuffed, stacked, and crammed into the bookshelf. You can search for a title or author in the search box to the right.

Click on the Archimedes Notebook button to find my STEAM blog. That's where I post hands-on STEAM activities, book reviews, interviews with authors, and thoughts about writing. And "follow" my Facebook page to get updates on book reviews and STEAM stuff.

Hello, and thank you for dropping by. "Sally" is currently on break while Sue works on some book projects.

Meanwhile, feel free to explore Sally's Bookshelf. There are more than 500 book reviews stuffed, stacked, and crammed into the bookshelf. You can search for a title or author in the search box to the right.

Click on the Archimedes Notebook button to find my STEAM blog. That's where I post hands-on STEAM activities, book reviews, interviews with authors, and thoughts about writing. And "follow" my Facebook page to get updates on book reviews and STEAM stuff.

Embassy of the Dead: Hangman’s Crossing  by Will Mabbitt; illus. by Taryn Knight 240 pages; ages 8-12Walker Books US, 2021
Jake, fresh off his adventure in book #1 of Embassy of the Dead, is trying to get back to his normal life. But, since he can see ghosts (not to mention has one hanging out in his house) he has been appointed as an “official Undoer”, someone who helps ghosts pass on. So Jake ignores the summons to the Embassy.
Until he can’t. There is a state-of-emergency and the Ambassador needs to swear in the newest Undoers so that the elder, elite Undoers can head off on a mission to save the dead-world. At the ceremony, each new Undoer is sworn in, receives an official ID card, a special box, and a name. “Wormling” is NOT the name Jake would have chosen.
After the ceremony Cora, former hockey player and now Jake’s ghostly assistant, wanders into a room. Jake sees a line of photos of a missing ghost – a test pilot from the 1920s. She was investigating a gang involved in the illegal trade of artifacts stolen from the afterworld, but no one has seen her for weeks.
Jake’s first assignment is to locate a career criminal haunting a snookers club in London. Jake’s ghost-handler is so recently dead that it’s his first case, too. What could possibly go wrong?


What I like about this book: This is the perfect book for today’s political climate. It is about followers of a corrupt leader, growing in power and working to overturn the rules of the Afterworld.There is a Plague demonA wardrobe turns out to be a portal to another worldThere’s an out-of-body experienceAnd lots of Old Magic
Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the publisher.

  The Daily Bark: The Puppy Problem  by Laura James; illus. by Charlie Alder128 pages; ages 7-10 Bloomsbury Children's Books ~ releases January, 2022)
Gizmo was a city dog – until he wasn’t. For some inexplicable reason, Granny packed up the car, loaded up Gizmo, and drove away from the only home he’d ever known. Now he’s far from his familiar world of groundskeepers and manicured landscapes. There are flowers. And bees. And mud!
And the dogs out here in the country are …. Ginormous! Well, at least they look that way to Gizmo, who is a tiny little sausage dog. A sausage dog, NOT a sausage! he has to remind his new friend Jilly, an Irish wolfhound. At least the puppies are Gizmo’s size, more or less. They are cute, energetic, and friendly.
They are also being put up for adoption to people who might live far, far away. And Jilly has no idea what to do to prevent this from happening. Luckily, Gizmo has a nose for a story, and he knows this one will sell. So he does what any newshound would do: start a newspaper. Soon the New Dog in Town finds himself editor-in-chief.
STOP the PRESSES!
Will Granny discover muddy paw prints on her keyboard? Will she miss that ream of printer paper? Will the puppies be saved?And why does Jilly insist that Gizmo read the news out loud? 
As a journalist, I totally enjoyed this first book of a new series. I can’t wait to read what adventures lie ahead, and what new stories the Daily Bark will paw-print. I wonder whether they’ll do doggie-bag reviews of local eating establishments… 
Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review ARC provided by the publisher.

  A Sled for Gabo  by Emma Otheguy; illus. by Ana Ramírez González 40 pages; ages 4-8Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2021  
theme: friendship, winter
The day it snowed Gabo followed the whistling sound of an old steam radiator into the kitchen.
All the other kids are outside sledding. But Gabo doesn’t have a sled. He doesn’t have warm boots or wool socks or a winter hat, either. But Mami is a problem-solver. With many pairs of socks and plastic bags tied over his sneakers, Gabo is ready to go play in the snow. But first, he wants to find a sled.
What I like about this book: I like how Gabo goes to neighbors to see if they have a sled he can borrow. They don’t have a sled, but offer him other things. Eventually he does get something that will slide down the hill, and in the process makes a new friend.  I also like that the opening spreads show Mami and Papi cooking something on the stove: a can in a pot of water. And at the end, Papi cranks open the can and Gabo and his new friend grab spoons and dive into the Dulce de Leche. 
I also like the illustrations. Ana Ramírez González captures the expression of Gabo’s thrill and joy of riding down a hill perfectly! 
Beyond the Books:
People use all kinds of things to slide down a hill, from plastic saucers to lunch trays . What sorts of things could you use to slide down a hill if you don’t have a sled? Try some of them out and see how they work.
Make some Dulce de Leche (cooked sweet milk). You can do it in a can like Gabo’s Mami. Here’s how.
No boots? Try this. The trick to keeping your feet warm when all you’ve got is sneakers to wear on a snowy day is to insulate. Grandma used to grab bread bags to put over our socks. Here’s how to do it: Get two pair of knee socks (or socks that go up your calf a little bit). Put one sock on your foot. Put your foot inside a bread bag. Now pull the second sock over the bread-bagged foot. Put your foot in your sneaker and lace it up. Now do the same for your other foot. Go. Play in the snow. 
Today we're joining Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy is from my local library system.

 

tis the season to: drink hot cocoamake snow angelscut out paper snowflakeswatch starsmake popcornread books
See you Next Year!

Fergus and Zeke and the 100th Day of School  by Kate Messner; illus. by Heather Ross 56 pages; ages 5-8Candlewick, 2021
If you have not read any Fergus and Zeke books, then go get a couple. They are fun, fun, fun! This is the newest in the series, book #4 and it deals with math. In particular, the number 100.
For students in elementary school, 100 is a benchmark: the number of days you have been in school. Celebrated with snacks and parades and the creation of collections of 100 things. Zeke and Fergus, the class mice, want to participate in the excitement. Maybe they could run 100 miles on the mousewheel in the cage. It only takes a few minutes to figure that 100 miles is Too Long. 
Maybe they should take a nap. It doesn't take any time at all to figure out that 100 seconds is Too Short. Maybe they could collect something... but 100 rocks are Too Heavy. And sometimes they begin counting or collecting only to discover that a box labeled "100" doesn't have 100 things in it! What's a mouse to do? You'll have to read the book to find out!

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the publishers.

 

‎Scholastic Press, 2021In the normal course of events, I request books to review. And so I was surprised to get a package from Scholastic. Had I asked for a book and forgotten about it? Nope. Inside was a young adult novel that I never would have looked at, much less cracked the covers of, had it not ended up in my mailbox. By mistake? By fate? Who knows. Good thing it did, though, because I love a good story. Especially when it is grounded in fact and history. And doubly especially when it is written so well I just have to read another dozen (or 50) pages - even if it is one in the morning! 
The opening chapter introduces Eva, standing on the deck of a ship and gazing at the sea before her and the city approaching. It’s August 1946 and she has left behind a world of burning rubble. She gathers her suitcase and that of Brigit, who does not speak. She gathers their papers, and checks to make sure her secret documents are safely hidden. Then, together they follow their guide down the gangplank and into immigration.
America is bright, and friendly – and Eva and Brigit are here ostensibly to begin a new life. Eva has come for justice. She has come to search for a Nazi physician responsible for conducting horrific medical experiments on prisoners in concentration camps. She has come to uncover secrets, with hope of bringing this person to justice before the US government recruits him for their own dark programs. She has come to dig for the truth about Project Bluebird.
Eva has also come to protect Brigit, and help her recover from the horrible suffering at the hands of soldiers. Chapters alternate between 1946 America and war-torn Germany. We see flashes of Eva’s childhood as a schoolgirl under the Nazi regime. Living in Germany, Eva knew no hardship (her household included servants). But as she begins uncovering clues, dark memories begin to surface and Eva wonders about her place in her family. And now she is being followed by mysterious men.
Eva eventually finds a job and covers the hospital expenses so that Brigit can get treatment. As Brigit regains her memories, we learn how the two girls are connected – and we see how their experiences translate into different views of the world they now find themselves in.
What I like about this book: Sharon Cameron paints a detailed picture of an American city post-war. Her characters are so three-dimensional they could walk out of the book and carry on a conversation with you. But what I really like is the backmatter. Sharon adds a dozen pages of well-researched material that provides historical context and perspective for her story and the era. It should come as no surprise that Germany was not the only one conducting research on human subjects during the war.

 

Explorer Academy: The Dragon's Blood (Book 6) 
by Trudi Trueit 
216 pages; ages 8-12
‎National Geographic Children’s Books, 2021
Cruz joins his best friends in another race-around-the-globe adventure in search of the next clue to his mom’s secret formula. This time we begin our adventures in a steamy rainforest in Borneo. Cruz Coronado and his friends are gathering information as part of a Bioblitz. They’re taking photos of animal and plant life they find, seeking the rarely seen. They find an orchid mantis that perfectly mimics the flower it’s named for, and pitcher plants that digest leaves instead of insects.  Di Pavel Kirillov/Wikimedia commons
After they’ve had an opportunity to sharpen their observation skills, the students are sent into the Tasmanian wilderness on their real mission: searching for an animal thought to be extinct for the past hundred years. They deploy cool technology, such as the SHOT Bots (Soft Heliomorphic Observational Traveling Robots). The robots are designed to resemble stinging nettles so that the local wildlife won’t nibble on them.
But the creature they are searching for is so rare that the students wonder if they will ever see it. The book raises good questions, such as how do we protect species with small wild populations? It also highlights the importance of preserving biodiversity.
Of course, as the expedition unfolds, Cruz is drawn into searching for the missing pieces of his mother’s code. Clues point to the Terra Cotta army, an army of clay soldiers that were buried more than 2,000 years ago where the ancient capital of Xianyang once stood. Could the missing puzzle piece be there? 
Meanwhile, it becomes clear that someone in the Academy is a spy. But who? and what does it have to do with emo-glasses and weaponized goo? 
Like the other books in the series, the back matter explains the truth behind the fiction. You’ll meet an ocean explorer, an explorer who uses camera traps to document wildlife in a rainforest, and more who are involved in preserving the diversity of plant and animal life on our planet. 
You can check out reviews of previous books in the series here, here, here, and here . Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by Media Masters Publicity.

 

Henry at Home  by Megan Maynor; illus. by Alea Marley 40 pages; ages 4-7Clarion Books, 2021
theme: family, growing up, school
As long as there had been Henry and Liza, they were together.Liza and Henry.Henry and Liza.
They shared friends, adventures, and the marvelous Twisty Tree. But one day, Liza got a backpack and new pencils and fresh crayons and her very own pair of scissors. She was getting ready to go to school – and Henry was NOT happy about that! Because, up to this point, they had Done Everything Together. When the bus roars away, Henry roars, too!
What I like about this book: I like the close relationship between Henry and his sister. I like how Megan shows his jealousy that Liza gets to go to school, but he has to stay home. But what I really like is how Henry discovers that he can do his favorite things on his own. And when Liza returns from school, he has something special he can share with her.
Beyond the Books:
How do you feel when an older sister, brother, cousin, friend, gets to start a new adventure and you’re left behind? Draw a picture or tell a story about how you feel. Do you roar? Stomp your feet? Hang out on the swings at a park and create new ways of swinging?
If you go to school, what are your favorite school supplies? Do any of them have a smell that you associate with going to school? I confess, I love the smell of new crayons!
Think of something you can do with a younger or older sibling that you only see after school. Maybe it’s a favorite game. In our house it was listening to an audio book and coloring.
Today we're joining Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by the publisher.