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While some athletes like Simone Biles and Lionel Messi, have wide notoriety, some stars may not be as familiar to readers, such as New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart or stock car racer Kyle Busch. VERDICT A solid selection of animal books, particularly for libraries with strong bilingual needs or interests. From snow leopards to Komodo dragons, each volume benefits from a dynamic layout that includes a development timeline running along the bottom of each page, marking milestones of each animal's growth into adulthood and close-ups of remarkable features, such as the komodo dragons' long and powerful claws. VERDICT A strong set of animal titles for grade school students looking to research or expand their personal knowledge.
Spanish
With the school year in full swing, librarians may be recognizing holes in their Spanish language collections. These new nonfiction selections represent high-interest titles for animal enthusiasts, sports fans, or online gamers. Other series feature migrating marvels, countries across the world, and simple machines and support classroom curricula or library programming across ages and grade levels.
Elementary
K-Gr 2—This engaging narrative series chronicles migratory journeys of different creatures. While each journey—across oceans, skies, and land—is distinct, each creature is motivated by their need to nest, mate, or feed. Their migrations are defined by long distances and include the perils that each faces, such as predators and environmental dangers. Amstutz's detailed text makes for strong read-alouds, ripe for conversation about these tireless and impressive creatures, while the seasonality of migratory patterns provides opportunity for programming or curriculum ties. Digital illustrations pair well with the text and shift between spreads and close-ups to capture details or scope. Back matter includes a map of migrations for each animal, a How to Help section with tips on being responsible stewards of the environment, and a glossary. VERDICT This selection of impressive migratory animals features strong content that offers numerous uses.
Gr 2–4—Since the first World Cup in 1930, only eight national teams have won the prestigious tournament. This series presents an overview of each of those nation's teams, five European (England, Spain, Germany, France, and Italy) and three from Latin America (Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil). The titles briefly describe the home country of each team, look back at the history and traditions of each club, and highlight star players and accolades. Featured photographs depict former and contemporary players, such as David Beckham, Neymar, and Diego Maradona. About the Team/Acerca de la seleccíon wraps up the action with quick facts, including inaugural year, team colors, home stadium. The volumes conclude with a glossary and index in the back matter. VERDICT Ideal for inclusion in collections in preparation for next year's World Cup.
Gr 2–4—Covering sports figures from NASCAR to gymnastics, this biography series features four men and four women, providing background for each. Their early careers, current accolades, and personal lives, including how they give back through charitable organizations or personal causes, are explored. While some athletes like Simone Biles and Lionel Messi, have wide notoriety, some stars may not be as familiar to readers, such as New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart or stock car racer Kyle Busch. Back matter includes a stats section (Superestadisticas) with basic information like birthdate, hometown, and accolades. A glossary features terms highlighted in bold within the text. VERDICT A solid series for sports enthusiasts.
Gr 2–4—This bilingual series features a range of popular animals and species, including lions, sharks, and polar bears. Each title is composed of dual Spanish and English text, covering the habitats, diets, and the young of each animal in straightforward detail. Both languages are given equal prominence throughout, including in the captions and vocabulary inserts, making this an accessible series for bilingual readers or those developing reading skills in a second language. The vibrant photographs are well selected and striking, offering close-ups of animal features or illustrating the information offered in the text. All titles conclude with a paragraph-length folk story about the animal (Un cuento sobre…), but the provenance or attribution of these tales is not always indicated (the wolf tale is attributed to Aesop). VERDICT A solid selection of animal books, particularly for libraries with strong bilingual needs or interests.
Gr 2–4—This series highlights four cultural celebrations with strong community bonds. Each of these narrative titles provides background information, describing the history or traditions that established them as a day or days of celebration, their cultural or symbolic traditions, and the customs that define each one—from food like fry bread to the significance of the harvest during Kwanzaa. While these volumes explore celebrations through an American lens, Día de los muertos and Kwanzaa are further contextualized, distinguishing how these celebrations differ in Mexico and African nations, respectively. In addition, the Kwanzaa title includes a ¿Como se dice? section with pronunciation guidance on terms with origins in various African languages featured throughout. VERDICT Recommended for locations in need of greater representation of cultural celebrations in their collections.
Gr 3–5—A series for older readers featuring a diverse selection of animals from different habitats and parts of the world. From snow leopards to Komodo dragons, each volume benefits from a dynamic layout that includes a development timeline running along the bottom of each page, marking milestones of each animal's growth into adulthood and close-ups of remarkable features, such as the komodo dragons' long and powerful claws. Pastel-colored chapter headers contrast well with the vivid photographs that feature each animal in their natural environments and at various stages of life. Each installment concludes with a chapter on conservation efforts, and back matter features sections of fast facts (Instantaneas), a glossary (Palabras para saber), recommended places to see or experience the environments these animals live in (Visita), and an index. VERDICT A strong set of animal titles for grade school students looking to research or expand their personal knowledge.
Gr 3–5—Four countries—Egypt, Italy, Japan, and Mexico–are given deep coverage in this series. Each volume is divided into six chapters that provide overviews of the country's history, geography, daily contemporary life, and sports and recreation. Within each chapter topic, subsections highlight areas naturales (natural areas) and días festivos (holidays), alongside contemporary and historical photos. The thoughtfully assembled layout uses text boxes, maps, timelines, recipes, and captions to provide additional context and information. The Japan volume has a repeated sentence. As the series name implies, these titles may be of interest for travelers looking to learn more about a country they may be visiting or for assignments or programs focusing on any of these nations. VERDICT Thorough and informative, with an accessible layout.
Gr 2–5—With the growth of online gaming, this series highlights six types, including role playing, sports, combat, and strategy. Each title provides a synopsis and characteristics of each category and gives examples of popular games within each genre. An emphasis is placed on gaming as a profession, and each installment explores real-life possibilities, from online gaming clubs in school to scholarships in gaming, and the paid competitive gaming realm, along with skills that gaming can help to develop or requires, like quick thinking and collaboration. Images consist of stills from different games and photos of relevant figures or competitions but largely consist of stock images. Cover illustrations for this series are AI-generated (Creditos de imagen). Informational graphics are included in several volumes and include timelines and graphs. VERDICT Recommended where titles on gaming are of interest or library gaming clubs exist.
PreS-Gr 1—This Spanish-language early reader series on community helpers focuses on familiar careers. A list of vocabulary words kicks off the books by highlighting four terms and prompting readers to search for them within the pages. Each word relays an example of what the featured helper does and is recounted in the concluding ¿Lo encontraste? section. The stock photos offer diverse representations of people of different genders and skin tones working within these fields, performing varied non-stereotypical tasks. The title on police references an officer making an arrest, while it does not depict an arrest, it features an officer brandishing a badge. The titles on construction workers, mechanics, and farmers offer insight into less frequently covered community members. VERDICT A suitable primer for the introduction of community helpers or vocabulary.
K-Gr 2—Well-known fairy tales are retold with small doses of reality. Digital illustrations depict beloved protagonists from Snow White to Little Mermaid, with an effort made to depict them and secondary characters with varying skin tones. Each retelling sticks to the most familiar plot points, with occasional asides (La hora de la verdad), that offer facts or context relating to the occurrences in the story. While some asides provide interesting connections, others are odd, such as a warning about trespassing in the Cinderella volume ("Si un desconocido aparece en tu casa, eso se llama allanamiento/If a stranger appears in your home, this is called trespassing.") Each book concludes with a "Rasgos de los cuentos de hadas" which outlines the defining features of fairy tales, like moral (moraleja/leccion) and heroes and villains (heroes y villanos). VERDICT With uneven success across fairy tales, a secondary purchase for most libraries.
PreS-Gr 1—This series focuses on six simple machines that serve mundane to extraordinary functions. Each machine, from ramps to pulleys, is depicted and defined in its most basic form and broken down into its different parts, then shown in a variety of real-world adaptations. A wedge (cuña) is used in pencil sharpeners and door stops, and a pulley system is used in elevators and fishing rods. Vocabulary is highlighted in bold green font, and is revisited in the appended glossary, which features text definitions along with an accompanying image to illustrate the term. The term force (fuerza) appears in each of these volumes, providing a connection between the titles and the different ways force can be applied. VERDICT Ideal for curious engineers and early physics lessons about force and shapes.
K-Gr 2—Sesame Street characters celebrate different aspects of young children's lives. Muchas formas de ser (Many Ways to Be) sets the empathic tone for the rest of the series, emphasizing "Hacemos las cosas de la manera que funciona mejor para nosotros ("We do things in the way that works best for us"). Subsequent volumes cover different ways to eat, believe, be friends, dress, and be a family. Photographs depicting people of diverse races, ethnicities, and abilities (though the emphasis remains primarily on children) are featured throughout alongside the familiar muppets. Brightly colored speech bubbles and page layouts are what readers expect of Sesame Street titles and capture the good-natured message. Each book concludes with a prompt for further engagement titled "haz un dibujo" (draw a picture), a glossary, bibliography, and index. VERDICT Nuanced and affirming representation and insight into children's lives. Highly recommended, especially where Sesame Street is popular.
Highlights
While the selection of Spanish-language nonfiction series is wide and varied, a standout this season is "Migraciones increíbles" (Amicus), which features a well-selected group of animals embarking on migratory journeys in various parts of the world, from Alaska to Australia. The illustrations and narrative text make for a dynamic set of titles that will fit in well on public library and classroom shelves.
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