Be Smart About Shopping.

Kowalski, Kathiann M.   Be Smart About Shopping.  Enslow    2014  48p  $15.95  ISBN 978-0-7660-4283-4  series: Be Smart About Money & Financial Literacy  ms/jr  G           

This useful and educational volume encourages readers to make smart shopping choices, both in the type and manner of their expenditures. The book discovers prioritizing purchases, comparison shopping, protecting yourself and your privacy, and knowing your rights as a buyer.  Written by a qualified expert, the information in this volume is important and highly relevant in a world where younger people have access to credit cards at an early age.  Each chapter comes with questions for the reader to consider, with answers provided in the back of the book.  Some of these questions are more difficult than others, or require mathematical calculations. Unfortunately, there is not a hint of color in this volume, which makes it significantly less interesting to readers of any age.  Given that the subject is not one which is likely to attract too many young readers of their own volition, this is a grievous error. There is also a typographical error in the table of contents, where Chapter 6 reads “Consider the Bigger Pictur” instead of “Picture.”

Be Smart About Money & Financial Literacy is a five-title series that serves to instruct middle-school and junior-high-school students in responsible money matters.  

Summary: This useful and educational volume encourages readers to make smart shopping choices, both in the type and manner of their expenditures.

Home economics, Consumer education              --Bethany Geleskie

Kowalski, William. Something Noble.

Kowalski, William.      Something Noble.  Orca/Raven  116p  $9.95

978-1-4598-0013-7       hs    Series: Rapid Reads(Orca/Raven)     VG         

Linda has faced many difficulties since getting pregnant at 16, but she has persevered and raised her two sons well.  Now Dre, the older son, needs a kidney transplant.  Her quest to find a donor takes her to prison and back, but she continues to hope.  Then she finds the only match -- his recently-discovered half-brother, LaVon, a drug dealer who robbed Linda at knifepoint. 

The story line and conclusion are simple and predictable.  The text is structured and uses repetitive and familiar words.  The reading level is third grade, but the subject matter and characters are for the mature teen.  Curse words are non-existent or minimal.  The main characters are well-drawn and sympathetic, while the ancillary characters are more stereotypical.  With an eye-catching cover, this is a quick read, and will appeal to reluctant readers.

This volume is part of the Rapid Reads series.  There are 25 volumes in the series at this time.  The focus of the series is to provide short, easy-to-read novels for adults and young adults with literacy and/or reading difficulties.

The book is recommended for high-school students with reading difficulties.  These high-interest, very low-reading-level titles will appeal to challenged readers.

Realistic fiction, Hi-lo books                              -- Pat Naismith  

A hotly debated topic

Kowalski, Kathiann M. A Pro/Con Look at Homeland Security.
Enslow, 2008. 112p $31.93 978-0-7660-2914-9
Issues in Focus series

This hotly-debated topic is given a balanced and historically-grounded treatment in this informational book for middle school readers. Historical background on security throughout US history follows a chapter on the 9/11 attacks. The Homeland Security Agency is profiled, as are the main participants in the “War on Terrorism.” Color photos, quotations, a glossary, bibliography, and index supplement the text. Of interest to libraries is the photo and caption on page 43, about the Patriot Act and the government intrusion into the circulation records of public libraries. It is a useful volume for starting research on this timely topic. PN