Mary Berendes

Well laid out book (for K-2nd grade) with a good balance of pictures and words. Broken into easily digestible pieces for easy classroom use. This book goes into the science element of shamrocks and could be great for 3-4th grade classes as well (with usage of the web site links offered in the index).
Key words are highlighted allowing for great read aloud and photographic images are beautiful. History can often be less exciting, but this book makes it easy to keep students engaged with direct sentences and short sections covering a variety of elements of St. Patrick's Day.

My only wishes are that it would be longer to cover different celebrations in different countries (which is a fascinating element) and potentially some graphic elements to create a more visually stimulating scene (there is a good amount of white space that could have been filled). To make it superb, there could be inviting questions that the reader to ask with students, such as "what do you use for a good luck charm?"… (more)

I'm a sucker for Aesop stories, and this one is done right. For one thing the drawings are funny and the moral of story is put out there first thing, so that kids can think about what the story means as they are reading it, or listening to someone else read it.

The text is at the 3rd grade reading level, and the font is good sized. In fact, this might be a good book for a reluctant reader at that level because there are fewer than 400 words.

There are not drawings on every page, but there are frequently little silhouettes under the text --with the drawings on the right hand page. In the silhouettes the wolf is sneaking around in an exaggerated manner. And the expressions in the drawings by Nancy Harrison are just priceless.

No overt violence. The wolf does carry off the sheep, and the shepherd at one point does carry off what he thinks is a sheep for dinner.

Pam T~
more at me blog… (more)

NCLA Review - This is part of an excellent new series of books for younger children, each retelling six well-known parables of Jesus (The Good Samaritan, The Prodigal Son, The Lost Sheep, The Ten Bridesmaids, The Unmerciful Servant, the Sower and the Seeds). Using simple and easily understood language, each book relates its story in ways that a child can grasp and relate to the principle that Jesus is teaching. The well-done illustrations are very colorful and help the reader to visualize the action. At the conclusion of each parable, there is a two-page section “Beyond the Story” that further interprets the content of the lesson. This series would be a welcome addition to any church library and a resource for parents and teachers. A further plus is the sturdy binding and library reinforced paper that will stand up to a great deal of use. Ages K-3rd grade. Rating 4 —AL… (more)