Yva Momatiuk

This book comes advertised, and looks a lot like, a photography book, but for mine the photos were pretty average and mostly reproduced in small format, so it was a fail from that standpoint. At its heart this is an oral history, with a variety of Newfies and Labradorians reminiscing. There isn't a lot of classroom history here aside from a few bits about the Confederation controversy and some sort of barely explained resettlement project to get people out of scattered villages and into show more population centers. Most of the narratives concern their occupations, usually fishing, and community life. I enjoyed the narratives, the more so since they were tramscribed with the dialect intact, and it did give a compelling accouint of rural life in the tenth province back in the day. show less

I liked reading this book for a couple reasons. The illustrations were up close and real, as explained in the research and photographic notes section in the back of the book. All of the pictures were extremely detailed and colorful and were even more exciting and interesting because they were real. Being nonfiction, this book was very organized. I liked how each picture had its own caption to inform the reader about it and what exactly was represented/going on in the picture. I also like show more that there were side notes of interesting facts about the penguins. I thought that these side notes acted as a type of “breather” for the reader, so they don’t get lost in rather long description of the certain animal. I had to laugh when I came to a side note that discussed penguin poop. Yes, it actually discussed a penguin’s poop, including the proper name of it, color- depending on what the bird ate, and the normal length of it. Being a college student and still chuckling about this section, I’m sure younger kids got a kick out of it. I also like how near the end there is a section on how the reader can help penguins and doing small things to help their environment, such as changing light bulbs in your home to energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs. I also enjoyed reading more facts about different types of penguins towards the end of the book. I liked that the book gave additional books, films, and web sites to check out if the reader was interested in the topic and wanted to find out more about it. The big idea of this book is to inform readers about the different types of penguins and all of their interesting facts. show less

This would definitely be a higher level read. But what I liked most about it was the little snips on the side. Things that I'm sure fifth graders would be interested in like penguin poop.

This is another informational text, however the presentation is a lot more fun. The book is full of information regarding penguins, but there is also additional vocabulary, maps of locations, and graphics that appeal to the eye as well as the brain. Along with that are exceptional photos of our new friends.

I have no real complaints about the books as it is very straight forward in its delivery style.

This is another book where the big idea is There is a hint throughout the book regarding show more animal rights and conservation. show less