Saturday, April 09, 2016

Book Review: Tooth by Tooth

TOOTH BY TOOTH: COMPARING FANGS, TUSKS, AND CHOMPERS by Sara Levine is a fun follow-up to the popular Bone by Bone.
This informational picture book designed for the primary grades introduces readers to the teeth of mammals. Taking a question-and-answer approach, children are asked to look at their own teeth, then think about the teeth of other creatures including dogs, cats, and bears.
T.S. Spookytooth’s illustrations add to the fun, but they also contribute to the high-quality learning experience.
Information about animal adaptations adds depth to the text. The book includes additional facts, a glossary, bibliography, and online resources.
Librarians will find the humorous approach will appeal to young readers who enjoy informational reading. Use this book as the focus of a dental health display that includes nonfiction works along with models of teeth.
Published by Lerner Publishing Group on March 1, 2016. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

Website Review: Chrome Music Lab

CHROME MUSIC LAB is an addictive, interactive music website from Google.
The intuitive web project provides a dozen easy-to-use music tools. Each experience helps users explore some aspect of how music works. Users can create, analyze, and visualize music using their web browser. Topics include rhythm, spectrogram, chords, sound waves, arpeggios, Kandinsky, melody maker, voice spinner, harmonics, piano roll, oscillators, and strings.
Librarians will find this app to work well in a music maker station along with traditional hands-on music activities. While even young children can explore music using this website, older students will be interested in how the freely available code can be repurposed for other programs.
To visit the website, go to https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/.