Do Something in Your Family

November 1, 2004
Reviewed with Amanda Rondeau's " Do Something in Your Community" .

K-Gr. 2. The small, short books in the Do Something about It! series are adequate additions to community-service curriculums. Both books feature full-bleed color photographs that face a white page with short sentences of text. " Community " is the better book. The photographs show people in community-helper roles--doctors, tutors, firefighters, and even several teens. The final page notes that there are many ways to make a difference and asks, "What would you like to do?" " Family " is less focused, with "doing something in your family" including everything from a mother teaching her child to brush her teeth to recycling. In both books, the photos are posed, and there's not much action in them; sometimes they don't illustrate the text particularly well, especially in " Family" . With an adult's input, however, these can be useful in the classroom. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)