School is just beginning again for many of our young book readers (not to mention some of us older ones). So, we thought that we would do a quick re-cap of things we learned this summer so that all of you would know that we didn’t just sit and veg watching TV all day.

From Holly:

Do you remember when your teacher would ask you to bring an article to school or tell about a current event that relates to something you are learning about? Well, just this past Sunday I had one of those aha! moments that make you wish you were still in school because it would be an automatic A+. Okay, not really, I’m glad to be done with school, but here’s a tip for you science buffs out there. The New York Times published an article about atrazine, a common pesticide. Why did this ring a bell with me? Because of The Frog Scientist by Pamela Turner, which I just posted a review for last week. Prior to last week, I had never thought too deeply about our water supply, other than having our well tested periodically. Our tests always came back fine, so I never delved any deeper, now I’m curious. If you’d like to know more about atrazine feel free to click here for the article or here for more information about The Frog Scientist. You may be surprised (or not) to find that Dr. Tyrone Hayes has found scientific evidence that refutes the  manufacturer (Syngenta) safety claims.

What else did I learn this summer? I have a new favorite book called Pinkalicious! Having kids at home full time doesn’t allow for much uninterrupted posting time. It does allow for lots of book reading, though, so look for many more reviews to come soon!

From Cari:

I’ve spent a lot of time this summer getting ready for the school year. I will be working as a reading coach – which means I will be working at a middle school supporting teachers and assisting struggling readers. I also spent a fair amount of time at the swimming pool, attending events at the library, playing at the park with my kids and hunting gophers with a hand shovel (see my Grandma Dowdel post for more details). I’ve done a ton of reading, just not a lot of reviewing and we participated in the summer reading program at our local library.

Our Double Scoop of the summer

I Will Surprise My Friend by Mo Willems – the Dr. Suess of the 21st century. We highly recommend his whole series of early readers with Elephant and Piggie.

List of Books reviewed this summer

One Wolf Howls by Scotti Cohn, illustrated by Susan Detwiler

Peace Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson

Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Harry Bliss

The Frog Scientist by Pamela Turner, photographs by Andy Comins

Pinkalicious! by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann

Goat Nappers by Rosa Jordan

Other News and Upcoming Events at Bookscoops

Cari also participated in the Bloggiesta hosted by Natasha at Maw Books Blog – a party to improve your blog. It was a fabulous challenge to participate in and thanks to Natasha we have a new theme which, although Holly would have liked it to be pink (since she is a little obsessed with the color), Cari won out with the blue theme. After all since Holly gets a fun book like Pinkalicious then Cari should get a blue theme, right?  Or maybe it’s just because she is older.

We will be participating in a blog tour with Aaron Zenz, the cool dad of all the z-kids over at Bookie Woogie, for his upcoming re-release of his book Hiccupotamus – a fun book about a Hippo who gets. . . you guessed it – the hiccups. We will be hosting an author interview and a signed book give-away on September 12th. So please come and get to know Aaron a little more and see our review of Hiccupotamus.