Nonfiction Monday...on Tuesday again!

Today's theme of sorts is geography and history. Each of these books was graciously sent to us for review by Lerner Publishing.



There is not a huge selection of children's books about ancient Babylon, and since many home schoolers do study this time period, this was a pleasant find. Written around a fourth grade reading level, it focuses mainly on the culture and daily life, with a little bit of the history and leaders. While one chapter is entitled "Present-Day Babylon", it just talks about archaeological finds, not modern-day Iraq. While I think they missed an opportunity to include a few related craft projects, making this more attractive to teachers and home schoolers, it does include a nice timeline, glossary, pronunciation guide, index, and reading/web site lists. Looking forward to other books in the series, which include the Aztecs, Egyptians, and Ancient Chinese.



and


are both new offerings (due out in 2010) in the ever-popular Visual Geography Series. These newer books offer a centralized web site (www.vgsbooks.com) with what they promise are continually updated, related internet links.

A book with "in pictures" as part of the title had better have some good photographs. The covers are striking (we loved the frogs on Suriname's), and we liked the way the text was framed by pictures at some of the chapter beginnings. Many of the photographs were a bit dull, however, and except for the sections on people and cultures, were a bit small in relation to the text. On the one hand, this series is written for middle/high school students, and has a great deal of very accessible information for research and report writing. On the other hand, the series name and book titles would make one expect a bit more to look at as well.

Overall, a good quality series, though. To order yours, click on the covers - we will receive a smallpercentage, which will go towards more materials for our public library.

Check out more nonfiction reviews at: Books Together

Nonfiction Monday - geography and biography, reviewed by Yoda

I am definitely memory-challenged. I meet new people and read new books every day, and I forget names and titles about three seconds after I hear them. I use my status as the oldest as an excuse, but it is a little frustrating at times, so I was especially interested in the "Adventures in Memory" series from Millbrook Press (division of Lerner).



Lerner was kind enough to send us the above title to review. While learning the original 13 colonies might not directly help me with kids' names, studies have shown any work with mnemonics can help in other areas. According to the AMA, exercising your brain can make it stronger at any age, so there is hope for me yet!

This edition had a nice mix of mnemonic devices, from anagrams to songs to silly stories. It also gave tips on adapting some to make them easier for you to remember them personally. In some places it had a little too much information - for example, while I would certainly recommend reading Anansi stories if you were doing a unit on Africa in school, it really doesn't relate if I'm trying to memorize basic facts about the continent. I'm also not sure that word scrambles are a helpful mnemonic device, especially when the scrambled word is so unrelated, you would have a hard time remembering that one, too. Finally, they missed some simple tricks that I learned back in school a million years ago - i.e., LONGitude lines go the LONG way down, lATitude lines show how fAT the earth is. I'm not sure I would remember the banana and watermelon thing.

Then again, everyone's brain is different, so what doesn't work for one reader or student may be just the ticket for another. While it's not their best offering, it may be handy to have around the classroom.

Also received from Lerner:



We definitely do not discuss politics at work, but there is no denying the public's interest in the First Family at any given time, and it has been encouraging to see more books offered about the Presidents' wives over the last few terms. This one had more information than some others I've seen about Michelle Obama's childhood, which children may find more interesting - what types of toys she played with, what her chores were, etc.

Typical of most children's biographies, there is only one paragraph in the whole book with any negative information, summing up her "proud of her country" gaff and other tidbits reported throughout the campaign. This is, as I said, typical of children's books, and not necessarily a complaint. Overall it was very readable, both entertaining and informative. A good addition to any library.

To order either book, click on the cover above. If you order through the link, we receive a very small percentage, which is used to purchase more books or materials for our public library.