Amy E. Sklansky

Trick or treating rings in spooky fun with a cute, door-to-door adventure, which holds tons of surprises.

The well-known tradition of going from door to door on Halloween and shouting 'Trick or Treat!' takes a new twist in this fun book for the youngest readers. The board book is robust and each page has been cut to a different house size, making it great for small fingers to feel, grab, flip and carry around. The illustrations are bright, bold and full of details, inviting to gazing. But of show more course, these aren't nearly as exciting as the house door found on each page. Opening each one discloses a surprise and a Halloween creature, which displays a huge smile.

It's a sweet take on trick or treating, and allows young readers to go from door to door all on their own. The text is written is swinging rhyme and builds up right before the door is opened. There it describes the character in short words. The text works great as a read-aloud, but I do see young readers more invested in discovering this book on their own. The Halloween creatures are mostly familiar, while a couple might introduce something new.

Its a cute book with the perfect amount of spook to create a Halloween atmosphere.
I received a complimentary copy and found this one great for the Holiday. show less

Genre: Poetry
Reading Level: Primary

Summary: Filled with poems about space, children will learn about astronauts, planets, the moon, stars, and zero gravity. Along with the fun poems, facts about each subject are included in the margins.

Evaluation: Out of This World was a fun book to read because of the format of the poems. For example, the poem called Zero Gravity has upside down words for emphasis. The Black Hole poem does the same type of thing, but it swirls its words into a black hole. show more The figurative language that accompanied the poems was terrific. Just by reading the words, you could imagined what the pictures would look like. On the other hand, illustrator Stacey Schuett did an awesome job. The pictures are great and compliment the poems perfectly. For each poem, author Amy E. Sklansky wrote factual information in the margins to help make sense of the information being portrayed in the poems. show less

The story of this duck picturebook is ok in theory but falls flat in poetry. A lonely duck, his flock gone in a hurricane, sits alone in his lake playing a shiny kazoo. When winter comes, he flies away and finds a new family.

The couplets and refrain are rhythmic, "And he played a sad song on his shiny kazoo: La ditty, da ditty, zu zu." but the narrative sections of the poetry don't scan well and the word choice is poor. "So the duck packed his things and gazed at the view. 'Good-bye, my dear show more lake. I'll truly miss you.'"

But the pictures, oh the pictures are worth the story. They're watercolor and mixed media and the colors are marvelous. Soft, fading backgrounds, cheerful plump ducks, a shiny blue kazoo, and small humorous touches of anthropomorphism. The scenes with the other ducks are vibrant with reds and oranges, a deep green landscape as they fly, and a soft purple night. The text may be somewhat deficient, but the pictures are worth it!

Verdict: There are plenty of duck books out there with more interesting text, but I do like the illustrations in this one...

ISBN: 978-0618428540; Published February 2008 by Clarion; Borrowed from the library; Added to my personal wishlist show less

Poetry about space is a great concept, especially when paired with sidebars explaining background information. "Out of this World" left me wanting more though. The poetry varied between the thought provoking and illuminating poetry that I desired and the others that felt stilted. The illustrations were similar for me...portions were appealing and other illustrations left me cold. This room for improvement could make this book a great jumping off point, by providing the reader with ideas to show more build and improve on. show less