Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia at To Be Continued, formerly The Printed Page, has a permanent home at its own blog.
To check out what everyone has received over the last week, visit the blog and check out the links. Leave yours too.
Also, each week, Leslie, Vicki, and I will share the Books that Caught Our Eye from everyone’s weekly links.
Here’s what I received:
1. The Wing Wing Brothers: Geometry Palooza! by Ethan Long for review from Holiday House.
Your favorite five wacky birds are at it again. This time teaching readers the building blocks of geometry, while trying not to topple over themselves!
2. Plants Feed Me by Lizzy Rockwell for review from Holiday House.
A cheerful cast of multicultural kids demonstrates how plants are instrumental parts of what we eat in the latest from Rockwell (The Busy Body Book, 2004). Detailed colored-pencil-and-gouache illustrations show plants and the parts we harvest for food—leaves from lettuce and chard plants; roots and tubers from carrot and potato plants; fruits from apple trees, tomato plants, blueberry bushes, and pumpkin vines; seeds from wheat grass and walnut trees; and all kinds of beans from pods of many shapes. Full-page spreads depict children in the garden and on a farm harvesting fruits and vegetables, and helpful cross sections and close-ups reveal plants above and below the ground, with each part clearly labeled and a recognizable image of what that plant looks like once it gets to a grocery store. It’s easy to forget where everyday food comes from, but this gentle, colorful picture book explains, simply and accurately, how food gets from the garden and farm onto dining-room tables. Preschool-Kindergarten. –Sarah Hunter and BookList
3. Mice Mischief: Math Facts in Action by Caroline Stills for review from Holiday House.
Ten colorful and acrobatic circus mice demonstrate how the numbers from 1-9 can add up to 10, matching the kindergarten Common Core State Standards for operations and algebraic thinking.
4. Jane Austen Cover to Cover: 200 Years of Classic Book Covers by Margaret C. Sullivan for review from Quirk.
Jane Austen’s six novels are true classics, still immensely popular some 200 years after their first publication. But although the celebrated stories never change, the covers are always different. Jane Austen Cover to Cover compiles two centuries of design, from elegant Victorian hardcovers and the famed 1894 “Peacock” edition to 1950s pulp, movie tie-in editions, graphic novels, foreign-language translations, and many, many others. Filled with beautiful artwork and insightful commentary, this fascinating and visually intriguing collection is a must for Janeites, design geeks, and book lovers of every stripe.
5. The Company of Strangers by Robert Wilson for 50 cents from the library sale.
The stifling summer streets of Lisbon are teeming with spies and informers when Andrea Aspinall, an English mathematician turned spy, disappears under a new identity. Military attaché Karl Voss, experienced in the illusions of intrigue, arrives in Lisbon under the German Legation, though he is secretly working against the Nazis so that atomic and rocket technology do not find their way into Hitler’s hands.
In the lethal tranquility of a corrupted paradise Andrea and Karl meet and attempt to find love. Tragically, a night of violence leaves Andrea the keeper of a secret that triggers a lifelong addiction to the clandestine world. From Portugal to England and finally Cold War Berlin, she gradually discovers that the deepest secrets aren’t held by governments, but by those closest to you.
What did you receive?