The Inspiring Tale of Wilma Rudolph makes the claim of being for readers from one to hundred. This is a very bold claim, one that this book surprisingly delivers on.

The book is a picture book that is 51 pages long. Each page has four lines of text and utilizes an A,A,B,B rhyming technique. This means the first and second lines rhyme together and the third and fourth lines rhyme together. If you have read my other reviews then you know that I am not a huge fan of rhyming. It is often not pulled off well. Random words are added to satisfy the rhyming sequence, and even the order of information can be altered. Rhyming just is not worth it. It is no exception in this book. The rhyming sequence did nothing to add to the book. After the first few pages I just did my best to ignore it completely.

The pictures are colorful, but are more of a clip art collection with some pictures thrown in. I enjoyed that the book is different. It is very colorful, and the words are presented on wood panels to offset it from the backgrounds. I do wish that more actual pictures were included, it would have been a big asset to the book.

I picked the book on Wilma Rudolph because I wanted to know more about her. I am happy to say that I now know a lot more about her. The book is full of content that was interesting to me as an adult, but I still fill it would be appropriate for a child. That is a hard combination to reach, but Locker did reach it. I found out many aspects of Rudolph's life from her childhood, her professional career as an olympian, and even after she retired. It is amazing what she overcame to get where she did. I really wish that there was a bit more on the fact that she was an african american women athlete in a time when there was still segregation. It was touched on, but only briefly.

As an adult this series is a great way to get a brief overview of someone's life. I could see this series being a great edition to a home library to give children information about a wide variety of individuals. However, the books will stand alone if you want to buy one for someone your child is interested in knowing more about.

I really enjoy this series. It is a great way to learn about many historical and modern people. It is a great series for students to research an individual. For adults it is an interesting, and fast, way to learn something new about someone you find interesting.

I was excited to find out about Joanne Rowling. I had heard her story many times, and was uncertain if there would be anything new to learn in this book. However, considering I did not even know her first name is Joanne I figured I had a lot left to learn. I was correct. I only knew about a small portion of JK Rowling's life. It was fascinating, if you like Harry Potter at all then this is worth reading.

For those who read my reviews you know that I am not a huge fan of rhyming. It is hard to rhyme well. I tried to just ignore it, but there were too many times in this book were it just led to ackward word and sentence combinations just to keep with the rhyming scheme. It took away from the amazing content in the book. Also, at times it went a bit too much into Harry Potter and not enough focus on JK Rowling. Although, I know that this is hard because the two are pretty much synonymous.

I am really glad I picked up this book. I learned a lot about one of my favorite authors. It was an interesting look into her background, her struggle to become a published author, and her life after.

The Shortcut to Purpose: A No-Fluff Guide to Choosing The Right Career is a well written, compact book on career selection. The primary target is more towards high school students who have not given much thought to a career path. A lot of the information contained in the book is fairly intuitive. However, it is presented in a structured manner that may be helpful for some individuals. There are also a variety of questions and prompts to help sort the priorities that a student has for the future.
The writing is fairly well done. The words flow well and the topics are fairly structured and build on each other. The chapters are fairly short. This book will not provide a wealth of information. Instead it is more of a guide to thinking about career choices.

In my opinion, the downside of this book is that it unbiasedly helped students to look at their own measures of success. Then the last few chapters of the book practically told the reader that reasons that were valid in the beginning of the book, ie material possessions, were no longer valid reasons for picking a career. It also went on a moral rant about leaving a legacy and not being caught up in the present. This could have added value to the book if it was a consistent opinion and it did not came off as a rant.

The book itself is published by a company that runs a free career assessment. For fun I decided to take the assessment. For myself I found the results to be fairly accurate.

Degrees that Matter focuses on the Tuning system of assessment. It is about approaching learning assessment at an institution from a holistic approach. The book is more a theoretical approach to how assessment should be administered across the institution. While it does not go into the step by step details of assessment, the more broader based approach is of immense value. It is a great book for individuals who are responsible for all aspects of a higher education institution, but also a useful read for those of use who are only responsible for our pieces.

The book does go and focus more on curriculum mapping and assignment design. The curriculum mapping had the most applied data, unfortunately it was also the least engaging chapter of the book. Assignment design left me pondering the specific value of using assignments for measuring student learning.

Overall I found the book to be engaging and pushed me to think beyond my current understanding. Although it did not really present anything new, per say. It did present the information in a way that I think many will find a useful way to connect to.

I wish that I could obtain multiple copies of this book and distribute it to key faculty across my campus.

This is the most concise, structured, and applied books on assessment that I have read to date. It is truly a 'how to' book for faculty to implement assessment in their department. It is perfect for colleges/universities that are just starting assessment programs, faculty that are new to assessment, or even faculty that could just some more direction. The entire time that I read this book I kept thinking how it would make a great outline for several assessment workshops.

The book breaks down assessment into 13 applied modules. It starts with an overview of assessment, talks about designing/starting an assessment program, then breaks down the tools needed for assessment, and finally tells you how to use and store your assessment data.

Each module is short and specific while still containing the needed information. The book itself is only 160 pages with references. It is a good length even for the busy professor.

The book is not perfect, but it is close enough. There are some items that I thought were too vague. I was not overjoyed with it not specifying a recommended limit on program learning outcomes, as I have seen them exceedingly high. However, further in the book it did give more specific recommendations. Also, the analysis portion of the book will probably be too basic for faculty in natural or social sciences.

With supplementation this would make an amazing guidebook for an assessment workbook. It is also an amazing resource for faculty and for assessment staff to have on hand.

Road Brother's is a collection of short stories taken place in the Broken Empire. Most characters are from The Broken Empire trilogy, with some from The Red Queen's War Trilogy. I read this collection after The Broken Empire and before The Red Queen's War Trilogy. Currently, this is how I would recommend reading it as well. As much as I would have liked the more personable stories of the road brothers, the collection would contain too many spoilers to read before the trilogy.

I live tweeted the review to each story. You can see the detailed reviews and mixed in thoughts here. I averaged out my review and gave it a 4 star rating - the same rating as I gave The Broken Empire trilogy. However, I think this book may be my favorite of the four.

While some stories I like better than others, I really enjoyed seeing the side characters become the main characters. Mark Lawrence has a way of making you see every character in his worlds. I thought I knew them, then I found out that there was so much more to know. They all had their back story or side story. I also enjoyed seeing how Jorg finally came to lead the brothers. I admit to wondering about that quite a bit.

The last story was almost an intro to his second trilogy. It left me both excited and hesitant to start the new series.

When the Eye Sees Itself is a complex novel about a society that uses personality traits to classify individuals in society. You can be an aggressive, a vulnerable, or a citizen. A citizen is the only one with rights, for an aggressive or vulnerable to obtain these rights they have to undergo a psychologically damaging reclassification procedure.

The novel focuses around the challenges to this system. What happens when someone is so aggressive and so vulnerable that the two traits even themselves out? How would this impact an already polarized society?

The novel also looks at technology and its impact. Devices start appearing on the black market that not only allow you to connect with the internet but to each other's minds. What happens when these devices are used to commit a crimes?

This novel is extremely packed. It also contains violence, terrorism, and hacking. There is a wide assortment of characters that interact in very complex ways.

While I enjoyed reading When the Eye Sees Itself, I think it would have been better served sectioned out into multiple books. There is just so much going on and so many people involved in the action. This is not genre fiction, or rather it is not a book to pop open on the beach for some light reading. The story is complex and the topics may be disturbing to some. Part of the novel is an investigation into violent acts against others. The descriptions never get graphic but the tone is aptly set. In addition there is drug abuse and other pretty heavy themes.

I really enjoyed the writing. The story itself could have been aided by some restructuring, but the writing is spot on. The words flow well together, it is well proofread, and it is just overall well done.

Desert's Secret is about Reesa, a girl orphaned by her parents at a young age. Thankfully she was taken in by her parent's friends and was continued to be raised around the horses that she loves. Reesa has an affinity for working with horses, one that goes beyond a natural ability. She can feel what they feel. When she finds a magic book and is taken to another land by a powerful God she finds out that her ability is part of a heritage that was not passed down before her parents death.

This is a debut Indi novel and the first in a series. The novel is not perfect. There are a few spelling errors, awkward spaces, and incorrect words. There is enough that even I noticed but not enough that they were distracting or annoying. The start of the story was a little slow and it took me a few pages to really get into the characters.

Yet, I did. I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed this book. Reesa was a determined and independent American women who was thrown into an extremely repressive culture. Her struggle to come to terms with her new world and to discover her own hidden talents was captivating. I found myself sucked into the story wanting to read more.

The ending was fitting, it left the story ready to continue. I especially appreciate that it was not a cliche ending, although there was acceptance. I do wonder how Reese responded to actually seeing the slaves sold off at the market. I can not imagine that it would have gone over too well.

I am excited to see how Munsterman grows as an author as the series continues.