Do Kids Have Too Much To Do? by Jennifer Joline Anderson, and Do Kids Need Video Game Ratings? / Do Kids Need Year-round School? by Carolyn Williams-Noren are part of a series that teaches elementary age students about opinions and debates using topics relevant to them. Each short book asks three questions related to the topic at hand, and provides evidence for and against. At the very end is a section walking students through writing their own opinion essays. The importance of facts and research is stressed, as is thinking for oneself, and keeping an open mind. I read these books with my cubs. We had fun discussing the topics and the art of forensics/ debate itself. While devil's advocate wasn't specifically discussed or mentioned, I appreciated the attention to both sides of an argument. That teaches kids to be more receptive to other people's points of view. Highly recommended!

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Norwood House Press for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The information found in this book is well done and makes good arguments for both sides of the debate. It is written at about a second-third grade level, and has helpful tidbits throughout to teach kids how to make a good argument. However, it seems like the publisher used the cheapest stock images it could find. For example, when talking about the ESRB ratings, show a nice big close up of the rating label. Instead, this book shows a picture of 10 year old games sitting on the shelf were the reader is barely able to read the label. Plus, almost every pictures shows games with wired in controllers. Those are not so easy to come by, and most of the kids reading this book and playing these games are not using a wired controller. The book mentions at least once, mobile games, but other than that does not take into consideration video games on smart devices that don’t have ratings. Overall, this book feels 10 years old, and already out of date.