Workman Kids | Daddy Mojo

World Without Birds is conservation, via regional stories on extinct birds

World Without Birds is not what you’re probably thinking it is. Its title, World Without Birds: How to Save Our Planet One Bird at a Time could infer to some people that the book is impossibly pessimistic. The illustration on the cover expands that hypothesis by showing a factory in the bottom sixth that’s belching green pollution. There’s a lonely, white bird flying to the right as if they’re trying to escape the gunk that’s ruining their home, leading to a world without birds. It looks like that. Adults and older readers need to read the introduction first. I know, you never read the introduction, but the one in World Without Birds sets up the book as a series of measured short stories.

Hopefully, World Without Birds knows the adage “don’t judge a book by its cover” and uses its content to win over young readers and naturalist kids.

Birds yes! Conservation yes! Cover meh.

My First Seek and Learn: At Home, makes learning Spanish seem like play

No bones about it, full immersion is the best way to learn a second language. Full immersion is also a luxury. If you don’t live in a country where your native tongue isn’t the primary language or can’t afford a school where that’s the modus operandi of teaching, it’s also not an option. This is where you’re thankful for those relatives who still speak a second language fluently or need to seek out books that start at a very young age. My First Seek & Learn: At Home, Mi Premer Busca & Apprende: En Casa is the same either way you say it. It combines the curious element that toddlers have hardwired into their brains and adds a bi-lingual element that will pay dividends for years to come.

My First Seek and Learn: At Home uses common, household words and happy illustrations to make learning Spanish a seek and find, for ages two and up.

Open, abierto el libro y apprendre

Lot and Lots of Ocelots make math students wish they had it earlier

Why do I need to remind our 14-year-old of his multiplication tables? He’s “on level”, got a B in eighth-grade math, but I’m still reminding him of what 8 x 8 or what 64 divided by 8 is. Something is amiss in the state of middle school mathematics. Lot and Lots of Ocelots: A Skip Counting Book does not have this problem. If anything, Lots and Lots of Ocelots is the pre-school and early-elementary school- kryptonite to a problem that could vex kids in four-to-seven years.

Lot and Lots of Ocelots: A Skip Counting Book is the fun, effortlessly educational book that delayed middle school math students secretly wish that they had seven years earlier.

I say skip, you say count, Skip, count, skip count

Actual Factual Files: Ancient Egypt, gets young ages to read non-fiction

When I was in elementary and middle school I was knee-deep in curiosity about ancient Egypt. I also wasn’t a reader at that age. The internet didn’t exist and if I wanted to browse information on a topic I had to look through an encyclopedia. Yes, my family had a set of them, which weren’t used nearly as often as my parents would’ve wished. I remember my sister searching in vain for information on the cold war and having to ask my father instead. RIP, the physical monolith of Encyclopedia Britannica. Actual Factual Files: Ancient Egypt is the time-traveling book I needed when I was seven years old.

Actual Factual Files: Ancient Egypt is the most approachable, non-intimidating and informative text aimed at elementary school readers on the area we’ve seen.

Lock, meet key

Be Yourself and Other Bad Advice is girl-manna for middle and high school

Be Yourself and Other Bad Advice is a very helpful, readable, relatable book with a bit of a subtitle problem. Problem might not be the most accurate word. Limiting comes to mind, but specific could also be used, and specific isn’t bad per se. A Teen Girl’s Guide to Unlearning the Rules is the subtitle and immediately identifies the book’s target audience. That subtitle will almost certainly rule out all but the most read-hearty boys.

Be Your Self and Other Bad Advice is as approachable and judgement free as a book on growing up can get. It’s fun to read and spot on for young girls.

Fun to read and life lessons for girls? that’s so fetch.