XThe Next Step

by Beth XPollock

Overview

After losing her mother, Clara tries to get used to her new life -- shopping for clothes with dad; Tess' chocolate chip cookies (instead of the sugar cookies Mama made); and more responsibility with her little brother Calvin. Hardest of all, Clara doesn't know how to tell her Dad that dance is just not for her. Mama was a great dancer. But, with the help of her good friends and caring teacher, Clara learns how to grow up without leaving the memory of her mother behind.

[Fry Reading Level - 3.2

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459403987
Publisher:	James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers
Publication date:	08/01/2014
Series:	Lorimer Streetlights
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	281 KB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Like Harley's mother, BETH POLLOCK keeps all of the Christmas tree ornaments that her children have made. She lives in Toronto with her husband and two daughters. She is also the author of Harley's Gift.

BETH POLLOCK lives in Toronto, Ontario. She has written three books in the Streetlights series. Her Streetlights novel The Next Step was chosen as a Resource Links Year's Best in 2009 and The Witch of Bloor Street was chosen as a Resource Links Year's Best in 2011.

www.bethpollock.ca

Editorial Reviews

Food chains? That’s simple: big fish eat little fish, right? Not exactly. Food chains in our vast oceans are far more complicated than that. This book, part of Capstone’s “Food Chains and Webs” series, begins by offering a world map, showing what a huge percentage of the planet is covered in water, especially salt water. Under all that water is “an amazing living world,” ranging in size from microscopic zooplankton to whales. The world relies upon energy, which comes from food; so a far better definition of a food chain is energy in food passing from one living thing to another. The author uses this example: penguins eat krill and the penguin’s body breaks down the krill/food into energy. The book, with its dramatic photographic illustrations, explains how zooplankton gets and processes sunlight into energy; ocean dwellers feed on this zooplankton; and the chain begins. Featured are simple food chains from the Pacific, Atlantic, Arctic, Antarctic Oceans as well as a coral reef. The author includes predators at the top food chains, such as killer whales, polar bears and so on. The book moves from food chains to food webs—food chains that are linked together. Charts with simple phrases and pictures help explain food webs and chains. Especially interesting is the discussion on what happens when these interconnected chains and webs are broken. For example, sand eels, creatures that many animals eat, are becoming scarce. This will directly affect sea birds and fish that eat sand eels. This, in turn, makes things harder for animals farther up the food chain. The book concludes with a brief discussion on protecting food chains. The book, like others in the series, presents a complicated subject in an understandable, interesting way. It includes a glossary, index and web sites and books with which to learn more. Reviewer: Judy Crowder; Ages 6 to 10.

Children's Literature - Judy Crowder

11/01/2014
Gr 1–3—Similar in scope and overall approach to the publisher's "Protecting Food Chains" series (2011) but aimed at a younger audience, these studies progress from examining each element in a simple food chain to a more complex one. They then move on to a food web, before ending with very brief observations about environmental damage and conservation efforts. Each volume focuses on three selected examples of a particular habitat and in accessible language—general enough to be similar, though not identical, from volume to volume—explains the relationships among the elements in the chain or web from plant or other energy producer to top predator. Along with simplified world maps (oversimplified in Desert Food Chains, as Antarctica is not included in the tally), the illustrations include photos of flora and fauna caught in natural settings but not in the midst of actually chowing down. Consider this series as a geographically broader alternative to Paul Fleisher's "Early Bird Food Webs" (Lerner, 2008).

School Library Journal