The Weird, True Facts series tackles holidays in this high-interest offering, which takes a global look at strange celebrations. Examples of the different ways people celebrate the same holiday around the world abound, as do wacky religious traditions. Some have historical roots (like the Italian re-creation of the 1194 revolt), and others honor local beliefs (the Monkey Buffet Festival in Thailand), while others are far simpler (the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California). Each holiday gets only one brief paragraph, so this serves best as a jumping-off point, and more organization could have served to alleviate confusion (the color scheme sometimes...

Aided by a dynamic, photo-rich layout, this entry in the STEAM Jobs You'll Love series neatly and informatively explores careers in wildlife conservation. After a brief introduction to the field, it breaks down different potential career paths using STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics). The most natural section, science, showcases jobs in ecology and forestry, while the technology section explains how new technological advances, such as remote-controlled cameras, help wildlife biologists get closer to wild animals. Similarly, conservation engineers work to show animals to people without negatively impacting their habitats, and wildlife photographers and illustrators make up the art section....

Luna, Mags, Scarlett, and Dakota (Scarlett's service dog) — aka the G.H.O.S.T Squad — are all about helping ghosts. In this episode, the school principal asks the girls to solve a mystery at the school-carnival fun house. This is typically the highest-grossing attraction at the carnival, but not this year. Something or someone is frightening away all of the children. The girls skip lunch, sneak into the fun house, and catch sight of the ghost! Assisted by Luna's psychic mother, they return to the fun house with a surefire plan to draw out the ghost and save the carnival. The...

Each volume in the wide-ranging Science Alliance series introduces a specific science concept to elementary-school readers. By keeping the language accessible and limiting the depth of coverage, readers should come away with a basic understanding of the topic at hand. Nearly every page pairs a short paragraph with a large color photograph or diagram relevant to the text. The books also feature simple experiments that demonstrate a particular concept and prompt critical thinking. Rather than assembling collective nouns, Animal Groups focuses on the advantages group living can provide, from safety to increased food supply to social orders. In Animal Senses,...

Multiethnic babies smile from every page of this bilingual board book, which seeks to illustrate happiness. An emotion can be a tricky thing to define, but this book manages it by drawing attention to behaviors commonly associated with this feeling. The layout is clean and inviting, featuring a close-up photo of one child per page, placed against a white backdrop. Simple, colorful text runs along the top and bottom of the pages, with English words printed in red and Spanish in blue. Starting a prompt, "When I am happy," the book offers cheerful possibilities, such as "I am silly /...