Best Children's Geography & Cultures Books

Gas station bathrooms, crazed seagulls, a fender bender, and a runaway pig—not exactly Greg Heffley’s idea of a good time. Gr 5–8—When Greg's mom, who's obsessed with family time, insists on a road trip, things are bound to get interesting. Will the Heffley family make it home?

They also express the love of a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur's life when he was born the runt of his litter. White's Newbery Honor Book is a tender novel of friendship, love, life, and death that will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come. The handsome volume sports a clothbound cover framing original jacket art; inside, Rosemary Wells adds country color to Garth Williams's original b&w illustrations. An afterword by Peter F. Neumeyer illuminates White's life and work, including photographs of the author on his farm in Maine as well as pages from the seminal manuscript.

So when the siblings’ lemonade stand war begins, there really is no telling who will win—or even if their fight will ever end. Brimming with savvy marketing tips for making money at any business, definitions of business terms, charts, diagrams, and even math problems, this fresh, funny, emotionally charged novel subtly explores how arguments can escalate beyond anyone’s intent. The story is highly readable and engaging, filled with real-life problems that relate to math, getting along with siblings and friends, dealing with pride, and determining right from wrong. The result is a funny, fresh, and plausible novel with likable characters, and is suitable for reluctant readers.– Maria B. Salvadore, formerly at Washington DC Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Davies, author of Where the Ground Meets the Sky (2002), does a good job of showing the siblings' strengths, flaws, and points of view in this engaging chapter book.

And he is carrying medicine to sick children miles away in Nome, Alaska. --Sharron McElmeel, Cedar Rapids Community Schools, IA. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. "A compelling account, told in easy-to-read format, of a sled dog who led his team over 53 miles of Alaska wilderness to deliver medicine during an outbreak of diphtheria in 1925.

In a starred review, Booklist notes, “Seuss’s message is simple but never sappy: life may be a ‘Great Balancing Act,’ but through it all ‘There’s fun to be done.’” A perennial favorite and a perfect gift for anyone starting a new phase in their life! The incomparable Dr. Seuss rejoices in the potential everyone has to fulfill their wildest dreams: "You'll be on your way up! While doting relatives will find this extended greeting card an ideal gift for nursery school graduates, the story will have less appeal for children than Seuss' story books and easy readers. Seuss' characteristic drawings carry and extend the text through mazelike streets, over colorful checkerboard landscapes, into muddy blue "slumps," through heady highs when fame results from success at the game of life, and through dark, lonely confrontations with graveyard-like fears in times of solitude. While the text gives a strong message of self-determination and potential, the small, male "you" pictured seems more of a passive passenger on his journey through life, reacting to things as they come and walking along with his eyes shut on both the first and last pages of the text.

OF COURSE you think Cinderella was the sweetest belle of the ball. While she didn't grow up to be Wonder Woman, she still uses her imagination to write stories and to teach creative writing. Trisha has taught creative writing to children and adults for thirteen years.

America’s #1 radio talk-show host and multi-million-copy #1 New York Times bestselling author presents a book for young readers with a history teacher who travels back in time to have adventures with exceptional Americans. Talk about a rock star—this guy wanted to protect young America so badly, he rode through those bumpy, cobblestone-y streets shouting “the British are coming!” On a horse. But what if you could get the real picture—by actually going back in time and seeing with your own eyes how our great country came to be? Our exceptional nation is waiting to be discovered all over again by exceptional young patriots— like you ! After offering a wide-ranging definition of American exceptionalism that begins with the statement that the U.S. is a “land built on true freedom and individual liberty, and it defends both around the world,” Limbaugh goes on to explain that the Founders believed all people were born to be “free as individuals.” Really? The book’s premise is that a substitute history teacher, Rush Revere, who dresses like his hero, Paul, along with his talking horse, Liberty, can go back in time. The text is wordy, and many of the pages are spent on the banter between Rush and Liberty, occasionally amusing but mostly just filling space, as do the tedious explanations of the way time travel works. They hadn’t been spoiled by wall-to-wall carpets, central heating and microwave ovens.” The fact that many modern-day people do experience incredible hardships, albeit different from the Pilgrims, seems not to have occurred to Limbaugh. Apparently, the turnaround for the struggling colony came “when every family was assigned its own plot of land to work.” Rush Revere drives home the point that it was after the Pilgrims stopped sharing the profits that success was ensured. Even Squanto adds, “No more slaves to the Common House.” As for factual inaccuracies, Paul Revere never said, “The British are coming!” That was Mr. Longfellow.

Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He expects disaster when he transfers from the reservation school to the rich, white school in Reardan, but soon finds himself making friends with both geeky and popular students and starting on the basketball team. Arnold Spirit, a goofy-looking dork with a decent jumpshot, spends his time lamenting life on the "poor-ass" Spokane Indian reservation, drawing cartoons (which accompany, and often provide more insight than, the narrative), and, along with his aptly named pal Rowdy, laughing those laughs over anything and nothing that affix best friends so intricately together. He weathers the typical teenage indignations and triumphs like a champ but soon faces far more trying ordeals as his home life begins to crumble and decay amidst the suffocating mire of alcoholism on the reservation.

With this adorable board book of essential signs, babies and toddlers can easily learn how to communicate their needs, wants, and feelings and even make basic observations with a simple gesture. Joy Allen lives in Cameron Park, California.

So one day they decide to switch places: Disguised as a girl, Thom heads for the convent; Alanna, pretending to be a boy, is on her way to the castle of King Roald to begin her training as a page. With Alanna: The First Adventure , veteran fantasy author Tamora Pierce has created a lively, engaging heroine who will charm middle-school readers with her tomboyish bravado and have them eagerly searching for the next book in the Song of the Lioness series. Gr 5-8-Actress Trini Alvarado, known for her roles in such films as Little Women and Paulie: A Parrot's Tale, superbly narrates this unabridged audio version of Alanna: The First Adventure (Atheneum, 1983), the first book in the popular The Song of the Lioness quartet. Tamora Pierce's story of Alanna, a girl of noble birth who disguises herself as a boy in order to become a knight, is a spirited fantasy/adventure that is only made more captivating by Alvarado's lively performance.

Gas station bathrooms, crazed seagulls, a fender bender, and a runaway pig—not exactly Greg Heffley’s idea of a good time. Gr 5–8—When Greg's mom, who's obsessed with family time, insists on a road trip, things are bound to get interesting. Will the Heffley family make it home?

Pioneer life is sometimes hard for the family, but it is also exciting as they celebrate Christmas with homemade toys and treats, do the spring planting, bring in the harvest, and make their first trip into town. Any boy or girl who has fantasized about running off to live in the woods will find ample information in these pages to manage a Wisconsin snowstorm, a panther attack, or a wild sled ride with a pig as an uninvited guest. Every chapter divulges fascinatingly intricate, yet easy-to-read, details about pioneer life in the Midwest in the late 1800s, from bear-meat curing to maple-tree sapping to homemade bullet making.