Catherine Stier

My 7 year old has been obsessed with snow globes for the past few years. When I saw Catherine Stier's new book entitled Secrets of the Snow Globe, I couldn't wait to read it with my son. (As we were reading, my son had to go grab his own snow globe to hold onto the whole time.) We ended up both loving it!

Secrets of the Snow Globe is a great read for those youngsters who are into science and learning. Reading this book, it felt like we were getting a science lesson but in a very fun way. My son and I enjoyed the fact that the language wasn't in "baby talk" as my son put it. The author doesn't talk down to the children throughout the book which I appreciated. The language is appropriate for the age group of this book. I enjoyed how it would have the actual science word for something, and then it would explain what the word meant. However, it didn't explain what the world "soluble" meant, so my son and I looked that word up online. Other than than, everything was explained very well.

My son and I very much enjoyed the story of Secrets of the Snow Globe. We loved learning the background on where snow globes were invented. We loved reading about how Lily makes her own snow globe and watching her collection of snow globes grow. I really enjoyed Lily's inquisitive nature and her initiative to find out information. She reminded me very much of my son who is very curious and thirsty for knowledge.

My 7 year old said his overall favorite thing about Secrets of the Snow Globe was the illustrations. Floss Pottage, the illustrator, did an amazing job at making this book come alive. Floss' illustrations are spot on at keeping a child's attention, and they were very well done and very realistic looking. Many times throughout the book, we would have to pause for a few minutes while my son took in everything the illustrations conveyed. The illustrations are colorful and very vibrant for sure!

All in all, Secrets of the Snow Globe is a fantastic children's book full of learning adventures. You and your child will be instantly transported to Lily's world of snow globes. With colorful illustrations and a well written educational story, this is a book that children and adults will enjoy over and over again. I would definitely recommend Secrets of the Snow Globe by Catherine Stier to those aged 5+ who constantly love learning and like finding out the why's of things. This is a book though children and adults can very much enjoy together. Just be ready to make a snow globe together afterwards!
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(A special thank you to the publisher and Lone Star Book Blog Tours for providing me with a paperback copy of Secrets of the Snow Globe by Catherine Stier in exchange for a fair and honest review.)… (mehr)

This is the first in a series of first-person narratives of working dogs for beginning chapter readers. I was excited to read this, because it features a Great Pyrenees, a breed which I personally like and which our library patrons are familiar with because of a beloved reading dog we had for several years.

Jax is one of several working dogs on a ranch in Texas. Sweep, a border collie, herds the sheep. Bev, an Anatolian shepherd, is the lead livestock guardian dog with Stormy, another Great Pyrenees, the puppy in training. Jax's job, along with the other livestock guardian dogs, is the live with the sheep, his pack, and take care of all of them. While he enjoys attention from the humans and looks out for them, his real family is the sheep that he was raised with.

Jax takes readers through an exciting night on the ranch, guarding the sheep from various perils including a coyote and finally a mountain lion. Narration from Jax and dialogue from his owner, Gail, as she explains Jax's job to her grandson Colton, fill out the details in the life of a guardian dog. Black and white cartoons are scattered across the pages and the book comes in at a tidy 90 pages with easy to read large font.

I do have several caveats on this book. There is a minor typo on page 5 (a missing "a") and Jax, as well as other characters, go back and forth between speaking very formal English and Texas drawl, which sounds forced. The plot overall feels a little forced and the writing is somewhat stilted.

Verdict: Despite the drawbacks, kids love beginning chapter animal stories and this is sure to find an audience. It's outside the norm - there are lots of animal series, but none with working dogs and not a lot with the animal narrating the story - so this is unique as well. I hope that future volumes will show diversity in the human owners involved in the stories as well. Not a definite purchase, but if you are filling out your beginning chapters a nice additional choice. I'll be waiting until there are a number of titles available in paperback and then probably will add it to my series collection.

ISBN: 9780807516638; Published April 2020 by Albert Whitman; Borrowed from another library in my consortium… (mehr)