Reveiws+

Gr 5 Up—Louisa May Alcott's charming, although now somewhat dated, companion piece to the perennially popular Little Women highlights the life of the wildest of the March sisters, Jo, now married to "her professor," and presiding as the harried but happy mistress over the Plumfield Estate School—home to a small group of needy boys, relatives, and sons whose mischievous antics and emotional upheavals provide ample opportunities for Alcott to share her personal philosophy about learning and life...

PreS-1—Research has determined that children who are exposed to books and language in the preschool years have a much better chance becoming successful readers when they reach school age...

PreS-Gr 3—Author/singer/songwriter Sarah Pirtle's latest release of children's music is filled with songs about animals, nature, and family...

K-Gr 2—In this easy-read chapter book, Andy Shane and Dolores Starbuckle both select Egypt as their project for the Cultural Fair at school...

Gr 4—7—Based on a tantalizing mix of hard facts and credible rumors, Kathleen Krull's book (Harcourt, 2010) contain 20 brief biographies of pirates arranged chronologically...

Gr 6—10—Crispin "Pin" Carpue must make ends meet on his own...

Gr 3—6—Minli, who lives with her poor parents in the junction of Fruitless Mountain and the Jade River, loves her father's stories about Jade Dragon and the Old Man of the Moon...

Gr 8 Up—This tale about orphaned sisters in 1890s New York strikes a gothic chord in Michelle Zink's first book (Little, Brown, 2009) in a planned trilogy...

Gr 5—9—Kristin Levine's stellar novel (Putnam, 2009), set in a small Alabama town in 1917, is a coming-of-age story that deals with segregation, racism, social justice, and friendship...