A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Raincoast

Review: The Dolphins of Shark Bay

By 2 Comments

I thought this would be a super easy quick review to do.  Take pictures, read a bit of the text from The Dolphins of Shark Bay, and say whether or not it would be worth getting or reading.  I didn’t anticipate that I would find myself so fascinated that I would simply put down my camera and read.  I didn’t anticipate that I would talk with my lad about what I was learning as I read.  I didn’t anticipate him coming over and looking over my shoulder as I read.   “What’s that dolphin doing mom?” and then marvelling at how unique these dolphins seemed to us.   I love it when books surprise me, don’t you?

What do you get?
Pictures OH MY this book is loaded with pictures, and they draw you in.  Pictures of baby dolphins with their moms, pictures of dolphins swimming in groups, pictures of researchers watching the dolphins, dolphins that are hunting, sponging, and/or swimming.

Chapters are as follows, 76 pages broken down into 8 chapters.
1. Mystery Dolphin
2. Monkey Mia
3. Mothers of invention
4. Young and restless
5. Dating Games
6. Advanced Dolphinomics
7. Sticky Questions

I found the images inspired me to read more, and then to beyond the reading to videos. 🙂
I never knew that dolphins hunted differently around the world. Yeah, I knew about the dolphins that swam in circles stirring up the water dirt so the fish rose to the surface, making it easier to catch them. But I didn’t know a dolphin would drive a big fish toward the shore for the same reason, or that they would carry a sponge to protect their rostrum as they hunted for food on the ocean floor. 

 Reading about this inspired me to look it up on youtube. Skimming the water, the speed at which they can turn, it surprised me.

What else can I tell you?
The author brings you right into the life of the scientists, sharing their joys and sorrows.  Their sense of wonder and confusion.  Why do some offspring (usually just the girls) pick up their mothers hunting methods (like sponging) and others don’t?   The text is quite readable.

 I love how the book leaves you with the questions that the researchers ask themselves 
1. How do the males choose their herd mates
2. Is it okay for dolphins to be used as swimming buddies or kept in aquariums where they are safe from attack?
3. What causes some dolphins to pick up sponging?
4. Why do some dolphins from the bay stick with their own families, and why do others mingle with the visiting dolphins?

My thoughts:
I am so glad I got this book as a review.  It was so fun learning about the Dolphins of Shark Bay.  Seeing the tools the dolphins use, learning some of their unique struggles, and oh.. the images bringing it all to life.  This is an excellent book to learn about dolphins, not just the dolphins of shark bay, though these dolphins have some unique skills.  Well written, good material, with no prejudices to say what is right or wrong.

The Dolphins of Shark Bay
Author: Pamela S. Turner
Photographer: Scott Tuason
Ages: 10-12 years (or older)
Approximately 11 by 8 inches
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Series: Scientists in the Field
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Where can you find it?

Amazon.ca: The Dolphins of Shark Bay

Amazon.com:  The Dolphins of Shark Bay (Scientists in the Field Series)

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Review: Voyage to Magical North

By 2 Comments

I have to admit to eagerness with Voyage to Magical North.  I thoroughly enjoyed the sequelin  Journey to Dragon Island and now I had a chance to find out how the whole thing began.   AND the book did not disappoint.  

What can I say… if you have youth who like fantasy… these books will not disappoint.  🙂   Cleverly written with humour… it works!

Enter a girl (Brine), add a boy (Peter), an evil magician, a bunch of pirates (with their own set of rules) and a girl who isn’t plus..throw in an unusual quest.. perhaps an impossible one.  Can they do it?  Will they survive?  Is it a hoax?   Will evil triumph?  NOW THAT is the question.

I absolutely refuse to tell you too much about the story.  I want you to dive right in and enjoy it from start to finish.  Use your brain, try to see where the story is going, quotes at the beginning of the chapter lend a clue.  BUT Brine is trying to find her place in the world, Peter is trying to be a decent magician, Pirates well.. they want to be the best pirates they can be, and well .. evil will be what evil is right… even clothed in an odd ball figure!

Know this.. the characters are real, their struggles seeming insurmountable.. but through it all they build their friendships, their loyalties are tested, their characters developed and life is lived.  This is not a humdrum book, but one full of life and wit. 

Watch out for the penguins… seriously….

Book Synopsis:
A swashbuckling story of a girl and a boy, an evil magician, a merry band of pirates, and an unthinkable quest.

Twelve-year-old
Brine Seaborne is a girl with a past – if only she could remember what
it is. Found alone in a rowboat as a child, clutching a shard of the
rare starshell needed for spell-casting, she’s spent the past years
keeping house for an irritable magician and his obnoxious apprentice,
Peter.
……

Title: Voyage to Magical North
Author: Claire Fayers
Publisher: Square Face
 336 pages
Ages 8-12 years
Series: Accidental Pirates

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

What are you waiting for?  Get this book!   Not just for your middle schooler…but for yourself!
  Amazon.ca – The Voyage to Magical North

Amazon.com – The Voyage to Magical North (The Accidental Pirates)

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Review: Secrets and Sequences

By 2 Comments

Do you want a painless way to interest your students or children in coding?   Secret Coders has come out with a series of graphic novels to intrigue and entertain.   Mystery mixed with coding.  It’s a good thing eh?   Last year I reviewed another Secret Coders book, and today I have Secrets and Sequences to share with you.   Learn coding through reading a graphic novel!   Neat Idea eh? 

Hopper and the gang have a mystery to solve.  What’s going on with Professor Bee, who is one-zero and still.. where is Hopper’s Dad?   Will they get closer to figuring this out?
As the gang works through the mystery they make new friends (who would have thought!) but danger does make for strange bed fellows.  🙂   They learn how to code better (even Josh) and before you know it, they have worked out more of the mystery’s answers!  WOOT WOOT!!!

They learn to work together all the better, though sometimes it’s not so easy.

I love how the graphics are simple and not hard on the eyes like the graphic novels of old.   These are clearly legible, with simple colours that don’t detract from the storyline.

This graphic novel does what many do well… leave you hanging so you want to get the next book so you can solve the mystery.   Will they be able to see it through?   Will the gang solve the code?

Do I recommend it?
For sure.  It’s an easy read that introduces coding to your students AND if they decide they are interested, they can visit the secret coders website and learn more!  Pretty cool that!  🙂

Title: Secrets and Sequences
Author: Gene Luen Yan
Illustrator: Mike Holmes
Series: Secret Coders
Publisher: First Second Books
Pages: 112
Age: 8-12 years
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

 Where can you find it?
 Amazon.ca – Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences

 Amazon.com – Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Review: Tournament of Champions

By 2 Comments

Rip and Red are at it again, basketball is the name of the game and these two boys, one autistic and the other from a single parent home, are full into the spirit of the game.   Oh the joy of it!   They are going to part of a basketball Tournament of Champions.   My son and I were eager to read this newest book in the Rip and Red series since we enjoyed A Whole New Ballgame so much.

Challenge one: Can Rip get Red to be part of the tournament?
Challenge two: How will Rip handle the person from the past?
Challenge three: Can they win the tournament?

Team Motto: We will rise to the occasion which is life. 

The tournament they are to be part of is called the Jack Twyman Spring Showdown.   I thought I would see if Twyman was an actual player and learned that he was.  According to Wikipedia, he took guardianship of a fellow basketball player who became paralyzed and cared for him until his death. 

16 teams are invited, Clifton United is one of them and they have only two weeks to prepare. The tournament will be played single elimination style.   The boys are totally stocked with bams, booyahs and high fives all around.

The chapters are short and laced with a lot of communication.   I actually found all the communication with little scenery, or setting made for a less interesting read.  It seemed to me that every other work was “bam” or “balling” or “booyah”.  I used it as a read aloud with my 11 year old and he commented on it as well saying “it’s not as good as the first book mom”.

That said though, it was interesting enough to keep us reading it, we wanted to know if Red would actually play in the game, or if Clifton United would do well, and later on, to see how Rip would do with a situation that popped up in his life.

The chapters are short, short enough that we frequently had time to read two or three chapters  instead of just one. Those short chapters are what help to carry the book along.

Illustrator Tim Probert adds to the story with his great illustrations.

My Recommendation:
 If you have a sports minded child living in your house, this is a book well worth getting.
Short chapters.  Oodles of dialogue, real players discussed, and two active boys in the midst of a big tournament.  It makes for interesting reading.  The side stories add intrigue and what ifs which make the book all the better.

Title: Tournament of Champions
Author: Phil Bildner
Illustrator: Tim Probert
Pages: 235
Age: 8-12 years
Series: Rip and Red
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux 

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Where can you find it?
Amazon.ca – Tournament of Champions

Amazon.com – Tournament of Champions (Rip and Red)

 This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Review: Mission to Pluto

By 2 Comments

I have to tell you this.. I have not read this book, my lad did. Boy did he ever talk about this first visit an ice dwarf and the kuiper belt, as found in Mary Kay Carson’s book “Mission to Pluto”. 

AND.. wonders upon wonders.. he actually told me what he thought about it.   So this review is based solely on what he told me about it.

HE LIKED IT!

OH,… he was full of information.  He researched additional ideas on youtube and just filled two weeks with reading and watching.  🙂   Here’s one video he told me about: 

It’s a good thing that you know?

What he liked:
LOTS of pictures.    Not just pictures and colour graphics to fill space, but ones that actually had to do with what he was reading about.

It had interesting cut-outs…you know when they bring up interesting facts not directly related to what they are talking about.  Like when they talked about the girl who named Pluto or when they talked about the colours of the spectrum and what not.   My lad was going on and on about how that led to him learning about Red  S____ .  He’s told me and explained it to me but it keeps disappearing into the nether on me!   (how red isn’t really red cause it disappears ???)   Anyways, it has him all fascinated and talking.

He loved it when they had all the pictures on the page in one spot OR taking up the entire page.   He didn’t have to wonder where he should start reading.

If the picture was at the top of slightly off center he didn’t know if he should start reading under the picture or beside the picture, so “tell them mom that if they are writing this for me to read they should put the pictures either at the top or at the bottom so it isn’t confusing”. 

It has lots of information in it but “I found it really easy to read.  It didn’t take me very long”.

When I asked if he thought other boys might be interested the answer was “yes”.   He admittedly wasn’t sure if girls would like it… but honestly.. I think they would if they are into the things of outer space and seeing how a scientist realized a dream.

When my son realized there were several others in the series he wanted me to rush out and get more of them.. so expect a review or two to come along yet from others in the series.  🙂

Title: Mission to Pluto
Author: Mary Kay Carson
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pages: 80
Age Range:  10-12 years
Series: Scientists in the Field
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Book Synopsis:  In July of 2015 a robotic spacecraft reached Pluto after a nine-and-half-year journey. New Horizons
is the first spacecraft mission to Pluto and revealed its five moons
as never before seen. Images from the mission show a reddish surface
covered in ice-water mountains, moving glaciers, and hints of possible
ice volcanoes and an underground ocean. Pluto is geologically alive and
changing!…….Follow along
with the team of scientists as they build New Horizons, fly it across the solar system, and make new discoveries about a world three billion miles away.

Where to find this book: 
 Amazon.ca – Mission to Pluto: The First Visit to an Ice Dwarf and the Kuiper Belt

 Amazon.com – Mission to Pluto: The First Visit to an Ice Dwarf and the Kuiper Belt (Scientists in the Field Series)

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Art Series: Darth Vadar and Family, coloring book

By Leave a Comment

Most of the colouring books I do on this blog are for adults, but today I have a book geared at the younger set…. particularly those youngsters who like Darth Vadar and the different characters from Star Wars.    Jeffrey Brown has put together a colouring book called Darth Vadar and Family.

Do you like Star Wars?   Are you children lovers of this long-running series?
I have to admit, I like watching the movies though I am not a die-hard fanatic.  🙂

Both my son and husband have a firm fondness for this series and frequently rewatch the movies.   I am just delighted they have a movie interest to share in common.

In this colouring book, Jeffrey Brown combines normal family life with the characters and life of the Star Wars movies.

What do you think?    Would it be fun to go sledding with Star Wars Characters, or share a hot cocoa with Darth Vadar himself?

Or go
engage in a spot of friendly fishing…who knows who will catch the
biggest one…as long as they don’t use the light saber on the poor
fish.

Each page is one sided, which prevents bleed through, and if carefully done, would tear out to make for great refrigerator art.  (if the pages were perforated it would make tear out easier).

I appreciate that this book has simpler drawings that children can colour in, they can imagine (and laugh about) the idea of Darth Vadar playing the role of dad.  Or Chewbacca being one of the kids or heading up into a tree fort with one the Ewoks.

It’s a fun, fanciful approach to using Star Wars Characters.   It will appeal to some or … if they are like my lad .. “BUT MOM!!!   Chewbacca would never do anything with Darth Vadar!!!!!”   So depending on what your child(ren) are like, this may or may not be the colouring book for you.

One of the small gems of this book is on the inside front cover when Mr. Brown gives the reader a “Darth Vadar drawing lesson”.

Darth Vadar and Family, a coloring book.
Author/cartoonist: Jeffrey Brown
Pages: 96
Age range – 5 and up

Reviewed for: Raincoast books

Amazon.com: Darth Vader and Family Coloring Book

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

Review: A Dog in the Cave

By 2 Comments

I have to admit, I am not quite sure how to write this review.

I found the book fascinating despite the fact that I don’t believe in evolution.  I do believe that species can change over time to suit it’s environment better, but I don’t that reptiles can become mammals or that a one-celled critter can suddenly become a fish.  There are no gap animals.  This book is less about evolution, though that thought comes up frequently, and more about how two species influence the development of each other.

The book Synopsis:
We know dogs are our best animal friends, but have you ever thought about what that might mean?

Fossils show we’ve shared our work and homes with dogs for tens of
thousands of years. Now there’s growing evidence that we influenced
dogs’ evolution-and they, in turn, changed ours. Even more than our
closest relatives, the apes, dogs are the species with whom we
communicate best.
Combining history, paleontology, biology,
and cutting-edge medical science, Kay Frydenborg paints a picture of how
two different species became deeply entwined-and how we coevolved into
the species we are today.

My thoughts:
The premise of the book is that does and humans have been together for far longer than has been thought, and the question is this… when did those first dogs start to coexist with people?

Numerous examples from archaeological finds are used to further the questions being raised.
Could prehistoric dogs be distinguished from prehistoric wolves?   Current dogs have a shorter, broader muzzles today than wolves have so perhaps that might be true from days gone by. 

Contained within the pages of this book you will find seven chapters.
1. Close encounters of the Canine Kind
2. Written in the bones
3. Wolf-dogs: these skulls are how old?
4. A meeting of minds
5. Written in the genes
6. The dog on the couch:  Canine Psychologists
7. A wolf on the bed

The premise of the book is this.   Dogs made us the people that we are today, and we made dogs the creatures they are today.  There is I think, some truth to that statement… from how dogs make the job of a shepherd easier, how dogs can provide comfort to individuals, and then on the flip side, how dogs are been specifically bred to be companions, guardians, or hunters.   

We shape them, they shape us.

Did they make us human?   Read the book…you decide.  🙂

A Dog in the Cave: The wolves who made us human
by Kay Frydenborg

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt books for young readers
244 pages
Aged for 12 years old and up

 Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

 Amazon.ca: A Dog in the Cave: The Wolves Who Made Us Human

Amazon.com: A Dog in the Cave: The Wolves Who Made Us Human