This book Step-by-Step Crafts for Summer written by Kathy Ross and illustrated by Jennifer Emery is the type of book i longed for as a child. The crafts are fun and easy to make. They are made with everyday items laying around the house; you dont have to go out and buy some expensive or hard to find items to make the projects.
There is a wonderful project that kids will absolutely love it is a covered/insulated water bottle. It is easily made from a discarded sock and some craft beads. The only suggestion i have for this project is to use plastic lanyard in place of the string that they suggest. I think it would be stronger and more supportive for carrying the water bottle when it was filled. This project and many of the others are easy to do with or without adult help.
The creativity in the book is wonderful and may trigger hours of busy time for kids with nothing but time on their hands this summer. I liked the project for gift giving as well. They have a wonderfully useful and fun gift to give away to a school graduate. It is a small film canister decorated to look like a graduate and it is filled when completed with quarters to be used like for laundry or something equally needed when the graduate goes off to college on their own for the first time!
I love that the illustrations are colorful and eye catching. Kids will make good use of this book giving parents some much needed down time during the summer. Parents will love having this book around for those moments when the comment ”there is NOTHING to do” is spoken. 
This book was copyrighted in 2007 by Boyds Mills Press. Their website is: www.boydsmillspress.com.
Tsunamis, a book in the Natural Disasters series was published by Smart Apple Media. There are six books in the series. One subject for each book; they are as follows: Droughts, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Volcanoes: and again, the book we are discussing today is Tsunamis.
This book is filled with many colorful pictures, charts and illustrations. While the subject is about the destructive force of tsunamis…it takes special care to explain how a tsunami is formed; and about the care that has been taken to develop warning systems.
While a young child might find the pictures disturbing, of the damaged buildings and properties, there are no pictures of dead human bodies. Certainly the words discuss this great loss but the pictures have shown more of the damage in the areas of damage to inanimate objects.
For the child who reads, the book does well explaining how tsunamis are triggered. It explains the cause and effect of the earth’s shifting of it’s tectonic plates; or eruptions of underwater volcanoes, and of the power of an earthquake’s effect on the movement of the ocean’s water.
There is one picture that stands out, in my mind, of people standing on the beach where the water has receeded, staring out to sea; farther out there are two much larger ridges of waves crashing towards the humans as they realize the danger they are in. It is a strong visual of the human being’s fascination with the power of nature even when common sense says to flee.
Finally, there is an important passage about disaster relief and the high cost of rebuilding these communities. It communicates to the reader how important it is for nations to work together when disaster strikes.
Tsunamis was written by Louise Parks and it was published in 2008. The publisher has a couple of websites that can be visited. The first of the websites: http://www.macmillan.com.au/ and the other is http://www.macmillanlibrary.com.au/; macmillan is one of the best out there for publishing books kids want to read.
Rainy’s Recommendations
