Thursdays with the Crown by Jessica Day George

Thursdays with the Crown
by Jessica Day George
224 pages, 2014
Elementary +

After Celie helped heal the Castle in Wednesdays in the Tower, she is suddenly transported somewhere new with Rufus her griffin, her siblings, and their friends.  Surrounded by forest, they have to start exploring in order to discover where the Castle has taken them.

After most the others have left, Celie is shocked the see some griffins racing around the tower.  Wild griffins!  As she runs after them, more discoveries await her.  Can she finish healing the Castle and make it back home in one piece?

Wizards, magic, griffins, adventure!  What more could you want from a book!  I think I liked this one more than than the second book!  Fast paced, lots of action and discover. Really fun read! Jessica Day George continues to be on my go-to list for recommendations!

America's National Parks: A Pop-up Book

America's National Parks: A Pop-up Book
Paper Engineering by Bruce Foster
Illustrations by Dave Ember
Concept and Text by Don Compton
Elementary+ (with supervision for really young kids)

Take a trip across the United States and catch the vision of the National Parks.   Learn about their features, their history and what makes them special!  Several parks are mentioned, with 6 covered more in depth.  Lots of illustrations, but lots of facts as well!

Not only is this book informational, but it is simply amazing!  This officially takes it's places as my favorite pop-up book of all time.  It has 6 full pop-up pages, plus fold outs, little booklets, sliding windows, plus more pages of info on other parks.  Each pop-up has lots of details, and is fascinating from any angle. Tons of information presented in such a unique format.

My favorite quote from this book was on one of the side columns: "'To a grizzly bear every-thing is food, except granite.' -John Muir" (from the Glacier National Park page).  This totally shows the feeling surrounding the National Parks!  Nature is powerful, amazing, and we can't really control it.  But it's beautiful and worth exploring!

Great book!  Lots of info, great pictures.  I went to Yellowstone recently, and the pop-up page on Yellowstone captured the feel and majesty of the park wonderfully.  Love this book!  This would be a great gift for any kid!