Early Book Review: Fussy Flamingo by Shelly Vaughan James, Matthew Rivera
Early Book Review: Witch Hunt by Cate Conte
Early Book Review: When Darwin Sailed the Sea: Uncover how Darwin's Revolutionary Ideas Helped Change the World by David Long, Sam Kalda
When Darwin Sailed the Sea is a book that offers readers a look at Darwin as a person and a scientist. The book does a good job of explaining his interests, determination, and how he collaborated with a variety of people. The information was accessible and interesting.I found the accompanying artwork to be lovely to look at while also adding meaning and detail to the text as appropriate. I learned quite a bit about Darwin, and liked the narrative tone that I think works very well in this format. I will admit that I was not expecting it to be as text heavy as it was, but the style and substance balanced that out. I am hoping some young people reading this will see how hard Darwin worked to follow his interests and be inspired. I really liked the timeline, further information on the people Darwin worked with, and additional information included in the endpages. Good use of this section always makes me happy- and this book delivered.
When Darwin Sailed the Sea would be a great addition to school, classroom, and public libraries. Some readers will want it for their personal collections as well.
Early Book Review: Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist by Linda Skeers
Early Book Review: Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
Early Book Review: Ocean Speaks: How Marie Tharp Revealed the Ocean's Biggest Secret by Jess Keating
Early Book Review: SuperSimple Chemistry and SuperSimple Biology: The Ultimate Bitesize Study Guide by DK Children
Book Review: The Easy Baked Donut Cookbook: 60 Sweet and Savory Recipes for Your Oven and Mini Donut Maker by Sara Mellas
The Easy Baked Donut Cookbook is a cookbook for every donut lover, particularly those of use that do not want to fry. Spending the last twelve weeks or so home with my family I have made all of my tried and true recipes, ran out of flour and yeast, and resupplied while looking for new things to try. This book was well timed, and inspired me to make some donuts. I am lucky enough to have a donut pan, and plenty of other pans, and was happy to find some new things for my weekend baking. I thought the introduction, including the basic techniques and supply lists were nicely done, and as a fellow New Englander the explanation behind writing the book resonated with me. I thought the recipes were easy to follow, well labeled, and detailed. I like the variants and options were also included, because I love to fiddle with recipes and find these suggestions helpful both in deciding if my idea will work and if the author already came up with something even better. There are several recipes that really caught my eye, some I was ready to try right away and others needed a shopping trip to complete so had to wait a bit. I was impressed that there were gluten free, vegan, and boozy recipes. The classics went over the best in my house, like the chocolate cake and pumpkin donuts- but the glazed blueberry and several filled donuts were also well received.
The Easy Baked Donut Cookbook is a great resource for bakers that want to try their hand at donuts, without frying anything. Frequent bakers might want to add this to their cookbook collection, dabbles might want to borrow it from the library for the first look through to decide if they will use it often enough- I have a feeling I will be needed a paper copy.