The Wildlife of Star Wars

The Wildlife of Star Wars;  A Field Guide
By Terryl Whitlatch and Bob Carrau

For any Star Wars lover, or even someone who is not, this lovely illustrated field guide will give you all the information you'd ever care to know about the beasts of the Star Wars universe.  From hot, dry Tatooine to icy Hoth and more, the habitats and creatures are sketched in pencil and watercolor and explained in detail. 
(ISBN: 978-0-8118-4736-0)

Mega-Beasts

Encyclopedia Prehistorica;  Mega-Beasts
By Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart

This ultra-sophisticated pop-up book will really wow you, guaranteed.  Not only is it chock-full of incredible facts about prehistoric mega-beasts, but the illustrations literally jump out at you each time you turn the page. 
(ISBN: 978-0-7636-2230-5)

Spore

During spring break in Colorado my three nephews have been showing me some of their favorite games, including Spore, which we all agree is really amazing.  Rated 10+, it's a complex, visually incredible, multi-leveled game of evolution and adaptation.  The game starts with single-celled organisms and culminates with intergalactic space travel.  One of the most impressive aspects of Spore is the design element;  you get to design everything from creatures to vehicles to town halls to spaceships.  And there are hundreds of features and colors to choose from...every game can be different. 
There are five stages to progress through beginning with Cell and moving to Creature, Tribal, Civilization, and finally to Space.  At each stage there is an "economic" component;  you spend DNA to make your creature more evolved, for example, or look for food which enables you to help out your tribe.  Once the civilizations have evolved, there are Spice Geysers to seek out and mine, and Spore Bucks to spend and earn.

You learn as you play this game that you can change your mind about something, go back and adapt your creature or try a new strategy.  Things are flexible and always evolving, which is what makes the game challenging and fun.
One part of Spore that I find interesting is that a player can decide how they want to "behave" in any particular game.  The creature you design can be an herbivore, a carnivore, or an omnivore, and this determines the level of "violence" in a game.  Or, later on, you can decide if you will trade with other cities and planets, or try to destroy them.  There isn't an obvious advantage either way, though my nephew Miles told me if you go around destroying all the time "people won't like you very much."
Eventually there are the agressive Grox to deal with, creatures who live at the center of a galaxy and must be overcome to finally end the game.  However, my nephews have had Spore for almost a year and haven't come to that point yet.  There are so many cool creatures, structures, and space ships to design, this game never gets boring, or old, or even finished!

Edible Schoolyard

Edible Schoolyard;  A Universal Idea
By Alice Waters

With lots of beautiful, colorful photographs, this book explains how Alice Waters' dream to transform a Berkeley public middle school lunch program really happened...and it started a food revolution just across the Bay.  I hope we're next!
(ISBN: 978-0-8118-6280-6)

Necessary Noise

Necessary Noise;  Stories About Our Families As They Really Are
Edited by Michael Cart

A collection of short stories by Nikki Grimes, Lois Lowry, Walter Dean Myers, Joyce Carol Thomas, and many other excellent young adult authors.  Sometimes troubled, sometimes in serious situations, all of the characters in these stories explore their relationship to family.  One young man visits his dad on death row, a pair of teen sisters take their little brother to the hospital after a drug overdose, and a teenage son tries to make sense of his two moms' relationship...many different kinds of families are described in stories and poetry.  Five stars.      
(ISBN: 0-06-027-500-6)

Athletic Shorts

Athletic Shorts;  Six Short Stories
By Chris Crutcher

It's fun to read short stories sometimes.  Especially good ones.  You don't have to read them in order, you don't even have to finish the book (though you'll want to with this one), and it's just not as big of a commitment as picking up a novel.  Almost all of the stories in this book feature characters from other novels by Chris Crutcher--so if you're familiar with his books, you'll probably recognize some names.  But you don't need to read the other books to enjoy this one.
The teenage boys in these six short stories are all dealing with different issues;  one boy lost his parents and little brother in a drunk boating accident, another puts up with teasing about his gay parents, yet another is afraid of humiliation when he has to wrestle a girl during a tournament.  There are loving fathers and abusive fathers and absent fathers and racist fathers within these beautifully written stories.  What all the teenagers have in common is a love of sports--wrestling and swimming, especially.  For them, being athletes is the way they release anger, sadness, joy, and playing sports allows them to feel like part of a team.
Chris Crutcher tackles real-life problems.  I kept thinking about the characters even after I finished reading--because they seemed real.  I wondered how they were going to overcome certain things, and felt sort of proud of the way they got through hard situations.  Mostly I admire how the author is not afraid to write about serious, hard-to-hear-about subjects like racism (one story is told from the point of view of a white boy who has always been racist, but starts to question his own perspective).  For those readers who enjoy(ed) Matt Christopher's books but want something more challenging and complex, try reading Chris Crutcher.
(ISBN: 978-0-06-050-783-1)

Center Court Sting

Center Court Sting
by Matt Christopher

I thought I'd read a Matt Christopher novel, since he's the #1 Sports Writer for Kids and has written about a million books.  So I chose Center Court Sting.  I was impressed!  Not only was the play-by-play basketball in the novel exciting and graphic, but the story of Daren McCall figuring out how to be a better team player and friend was realistic and gripping.
Daren is a decent basketball player on his middle school team, the Rangers.  They are one of the best teams in their league.  However, their success is jeopardized when Daren can't get his anger under control.  He loses it on the court and in the locker room one too many times.  His coach, and even his close friend Lynn start to call Daren on his bad attitude.  But the trouble is that Daren isn't sure why he's acting the way he is--it seems like all the problems are other peoples' fault!  He even messes up a chance to impress his next door neighbor, Judy, when her little brother goes home crying after playing ball with Daren.
Luckily, Daren has a dad who listens and helps him out by giving him some good advice.  At school and then on the court, Daren starts to pull it all together--just in time for the final game with their rival team, the Demons.
Daren seems like a regular kid, dealing with the kind of frustrations everyone has sometimes.  When he finds out some sad information about one of his teammates, he's able to understand why the other player has seemed so hostile.  And he changes his own behavior.  For anyone who likes basketball, or any sport, this book is a great read. 
(ISBN: 0-329-09547-1)