Polly's pen pal, Ally, is 125 centimeters tall, weighs 25 kilograms, and lives 450 kilometers away -- and Polly is determined to find a way to visit her! A story of long-distance friendship introduces basic metric measurements to children.

Illus. in full color. "This introduction to sharks keeps within a first-grade reading level without sacrificing information. Cole tells about different kinds of sharks, and facts on their food consumption and innumerable teeth. The text makes clear that few sharks eat people and that sharks come in a variety of shapes and sizes."--Booklist.

Kindergarten-Grade 3-Youngsters won't gain much knowledge about this subject from this title and may even acquire some misinformation. The sentences are short and the vocabulary is basic. Leonard's illustrations are colorful and active; many pages are covered with honeybees at work. The information, however, is not always complete. Early in the book, readers learn that honeybees gather nectar and pollen and take them back to the hive, but they don't learn about what happens to that food until many pages later. There is no mention either of pollination or of how long it takes a larva to become a honeybee. Some oversimplifications can lead to misconceptions. Not all beekeepers keep bees to sell their honey and wax, and how do we know that these insects "shiver" in winter? The book mentions that bees rest throughout the winter but since their life span is only a few months, most won't live through the season. Readers will be challenged by the text of Deborah Heiligman's Honeybees (National Geographic, 2002), but

Welcome to Owl's cozy home.Owl lives by himself in a warm little house. One evening he invites Winter to sit by the fire. Another time he finds strange bumps in his bedroom. And when Owl goes for a walk one night, he makes a friend that follows him all the way home.

Grade 1-3-Kindergartener Junie B. Jones is back, and she has decided to become a spy. Curious to discover where her teacher, "Mrs.," lives, she takes her sneaky feet out on the case. When she thinks that she has witnessed Mrs. committing a crime, she tries hard to keep quiet, even when a friend warns her that keeping secrets can make your head explode. Junie's chatty narrative style, reminiscent of Eloise, becomes a bit much at times, but her five-going-on-six viewpoint rings true. Young readers ready for short chapter books are close enough to their own kindergarten memories to find Junie B.'s adventures, illustrated with black-and-white drawings, both familiar and funny.

In book 8b, Peter and Jane's family look after a friend's house in 91 new words including ' sunny', 'private', 'room' and 'dressing'. Once this book has been completed, the child moves on to book 9b.