Everyone in eight-year-old Artie's family loves lighting firecrackers at the Lunar New Year. One day, Artie's mean cousin Petey teases him too long, driving Artie to make a rash promise. He says that he'll buy firecrackers for all his cousins' Chinese New Year celebrations. How will Artie come up with the money to do this? Can his favorite Uncle Chester help him? Read this gentle story for a look at life in San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1950's

Reviewed by: msp

Date read: 12/8/2011

ISBN-13: 9780060253158

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This book tells the story of how Francis Scott Key's poem became our national anthem. The story is told in a simple and beautiful way. Francis, who was a lawyer, boarded a ship in hopes of freeing his friend, who was being kept a prisoner by the British. He wrote the Star Spangled Banner while aboard the ship, as he witnessed a battle between the Americans and the British. As he wrote the poem, he anxiously wondered who had won the battle, and kept looking to see whose flag was still flying. When did it become the national anthem? Read this book to find out this and other interesting facts about our beloved anthem.

Reviewed by: sc

Date read: 4/14/2009

ISBN-10: 1575056976

ISBN-13: 9781575056975

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Ten-year-old Sally feels like her life has come to an end. Her older brother had rheumatic fever, and her family is planning to move 'temporarily' to Florida from their home in New Jersey. Sally has lived in NJ all her life ' she will miss her best friends, and her relatives, and school. Sally's favorite hobby is to make up movie stories, in which she is always the star. The year is 1945, and WWII has ended. In some of her scenarios, she saves her cousin, who in real life died in a concentration camp. In Florida, Sally meets some girls who are just like her ' teetering between little girlhood, and the teen years. Sally encounters an old man who, she is convinced, is Hitler masquerading as an old Jewish man. In this year she spends in Florida, Sally learns a lot about herself, and about those she loves.

Similar books: Anastasia Krupnick series by Lois Lowry

Reviewed by: sc

Date read: 3/27/2009

ISBN-10: 088103181X

ISBN-13: 9780881031812

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'Starry Messenger' by Peter Sis is a unique biography of Galileo Galilei. Through this book's captivating illustrations and text, the author connects with a variety of readers. The basic text is written in such a way that the very young reader will learn about the amazing life of Galileo; the courageous mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and physicist. However, due to the author's decorative inclusion of Galileo's own words and detailed fact-filled illustrations, Sis enables the more advanced reader to find this book equally fascinating. Read how one man's search for the truth changed the way that people looked at the stars.

Similar authors: Paul Hightower; Jacqueline Mitton; Rachel Hilliam

Similar books: The Tree of Life: A Book Depicting the Life of Charels Darwin, Naturalist, Geologist and Thinker by Peter Sis; Play Mozart, Play by Peter Sis; Follow the Dream by Peter Sis

Awards won: Caldecott Honor 1997

Reviewed by: mb

Date read: 7/14/2010

ISBN-10: 0374371911

ISBN-13: 9780374371913

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Robert, an Italian boy living in Venice, happens to go to the movies just before Nazis invade the theater, and send the audience to cruel work camps. He, and his best friend, Samuele, endure the hardships of the camp, while dreaming of escape. The sequel is Fire in the Hills.

Reviewed by: sc

Date read: 4/13/2009

ISBN-10: 0525458425

ISBN-13: 9780525458425

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