This is a charming beginning reader book with darling illustrations! This story has Mouse and Mole set in a wintry scene in the woods where there are many activities for them to participate in and has the story ending with them in front of a cozy, warm fire sipping a warm drink, eating cookies, and gazing out the window and deciding that it is a Winter Wonderland.  Great addition to an elementary library for 1st-3rd grade readers.

This nonfiction book gives detailed information about cell phones and communication history.  It contains a great timeline, starting in 1746 with Jean Nollet proving that electrical signals move fast, and then progressing on to 1837 with the invention of morse code and the telegraph, and 1962 the first satellite, and now (2009) there are over 4 billion cell phones in use worldwide.  A nice synopsis of telephone communication is given through the context of  history.  This book is complete with an index, glossary, and additional resources.  Recommended for the technology section of your library.

Another great beginning reader chapter book by Cynthia Rylant and her charming characters Mr. Putter, Tabby and Mrs. Teaberry and Zeke. This adventure takes the four of them out on a cruise aboard a wooden ship, complete with a white bearded captain.  There was a small amount of conflict as Zeke didn’t want to let go his his grip on the mast with his teeth, but when offered a small toy ship, he decided to let go and keep his toy to sail in his waterdish back home.  Great Addition to an elementary library.

This is a great book with real mathematic tricks!  A great hook for intermediate math students.  The table of contents includes mind games, calculator magic, dice, magic numbers, etc.  The directions are stepped out so that a teacher or student can follow the instructions and leave another person or group through an activity.  This reviewer worked through the tricks in this book and they worked!  This is a recommended addition to an elementary or middle school library.

This glossy paged book is noted for the colorful photographs throughout every page.  There are great photo’s of humans interacting with dogs in positive ways.  The table of contents include choosing a puppy, taking care of your retriever, grooming, clipping nails and helping people as a service dog.  Each page has a paragraph of information as well as Fast Facts in a separate caption.  In the back of the book, there is a glossary, and index.

It’s 1918 and 15-year old Rosalind, who is British, is living in India with her mother.  When WWI ends, her strict father returns, unhappy with Rosalind for her spunkiness and interest in India gaining its freedom from the British.  Rosy calls on her own courage several times throughout the book — as she is shipped off to England, alone, for a better education, to sneak off to listen to Mahatma Ganhdi speak, and to give courage to her Aunt Louise who is bullied by Aunt Ethyl.  Gloria Whelan’s writing style once again invites you in to the inner thoughts and struggles of the protagonist, while learning political history and Hindi vocabulary.

This book is about a Little Princess and her greedy appetite for birthdays! The Little Princess discovers she isn’t happy with just having one birthday a year, so she asks for another and then another and then another. Pretty soon Little Princess has a birthday every day of the year. Soon, she sees this isn’t such a good idea. The presents, cake and guests get crummier with every passing day and birthday! She soon realizes how special just one birthday a year is. The presents, cake and guests are amazing! A popular series in Great Britain that has even been made into a children’s television series, this is a really nice picture book that has a cute story line and cute illustrations to go along with it.

This is a nonfiction book about harvesting apples in a picture book style. The book reads along like a story with drawn illustrations, but teaches children about apples and their harvest. A family travels to an apple orchard and partakes in the apple picking process. The boy and girl help tell the story with their speech bubbles. The book teaches about the different kinds of apples, storing them, the worms that can be found in them, and that they are used for pies, games and cider. At the end of the book there are directions on making a dried apple wreath, a glossary, more books to read, Internet sites, and index. This is a nice, simple book to pull out in the fall when apple season is starting, but I didn’t find the information and illustrations to be too intriguing.

This book is about a little zebra named, Ollie. Ollie loves everything about Christmas. The book talks about all the things he loves at Christmas time, like crinkly paper, tinsel and string. This is just a cute book that is fun and has great water color illustrations. The pages are thick and it is a good smaller size for little hands. It is a cute, little book that is a nice addition to the Christmas section in an elementary library.  There are other books about Ollie, including I Love My Dad and I Love My Mom.

This biography would best fit middle schools, although I will place it in my elementary library.  This isn’t a typical hero worship type of biography.  Michael Phelps is looked at objectively, regarding both his big Olympic wins and his trouble with alcohol and marijuana through some poor choices.  Students will learn the consequences and also how this athlete apologized and picked himself up to continue with his swimming and other work.  It also speaks of his ADHD diagnosis and his parents divorce, which weren’t through bad choices, but big issues for him to deal with while he excelled in his sport. Overall, a strong book and is recommended as an addition to your sports section or biography.

In this installation of the Boxcar Children, the Aldens are gearing up for Halloween by doing some decorating.  That grandfather of theirs has many friends, one of which owns a pumpkin farm and needs help to solve a mystery.  It seems that their farm is haunted, causing employees to quit.  The owners, an elderly couple, are unable to work the farm on their own and don’t want to sell to a local developer who wants to build lots of news houses on the land.  The Aldens help with the farm, the haunted hayrides, and selling produce from the stand, along with solving who the ghost is.  Interesting enough to make me wish it was October rather than Memorial Day weekend.

The Maltese Mummy is the second installment of the graphic novel series Chicagoland Detective Agency, a new agency made up of a computer nerd, a teen girl who considers herself a haiku poetry expert and a talking dog.  Business is slow, in fact, it’s nonexistent.  Megan wants Raf to attend a concert with her starring Sun D’Arc, a popular teen idol of whom she is a big fan.  Raf is ill and Megan takes William, an acquaintance, instead.  At the concert, Sun D’Arc is rude and invites William backstage.  Come to find out, Sun D’Arc is actually an Egyptian mummy who is cursed and needs a body substitute to take his place in the sarcophagus, and William is just the right size.  The story starts slow and builds nicely, with kind of an abrupt finish.  But that is the beauty of graphic novels–pictures are worth a thousand words and readers can fill in between the dialogue.  Book is on the thin side and I believe readers would like a longer or meatier story, however, this should keep them satisfied until number three comes out.  I just wish Megan had better manners.

There’s a new kid in town; actually, it’s a new second-grader named Sam, who doesn’t play well with others.  Sam is a large imposing force to be reckoned with and a bully to the first-graders who begin to fear recess.  But when Henry goes shopping with his mom, he sees Sam being forced by her mom to try on a frilly dress.  At school, Sam threatens Henry not to tell anyone of her embarrassment, and when Henry says he would never do something like that, a light bulb goes on for Sam.  Sam realizes her bad behavior towards Henry and his friends would warrant retaliation, but that friends shouldn’t act like that towards one another.  Friendship blossoms!  Carlson gives the characters life with her brilliants choice of colors.  Plus, she has a keen understanding of how to explain things, life situations, to young children in ways they can understand.

Elizabeth is a lively, happy, and curious child who loves to play and dress up.  Her exuberance causes her to bump into another child, knock him, who in turns knocks over someone else, and so on.  Just like dominoes. The last person knocked over is angry and the person who knocked them over, who in turns blames the person who knocked them over, and so on.  Elizabeth sees the havoc she has wrecked and apologizes.  They are all friends again!  A good story for kindergarten and young first graders to see how their actions affect others.

This installment of Gertrude Warner’s Boxcar Children, very much focuses on Benny’s love to eat–especially cupcakes!  Who doesn’t?  Mama Tova’s cupcakes are so good and so unique, she opens up her own store and sells nothing but cupcakes.  They are so popular, people wait in line outside an hour before she opens in order to get one of the limited morsels.  The owner of a local bread company is interested in expanding and wants to buy Mama Tova’s secret recipe, but she won’t sell.  He decides to hold a cupcake competition to determine the best baker in town.  When Mama Tova mischievously whispers that her secret recipe is under a flower, her store is ransacked.  The Alden children make their requisite list of suspects and methodically go through each one.  This storyline is cohesive and interesting and will make a great mystery novel for young readers.

This is a story of a little boy who has to be at his aunt’s charity party.  He is sleepy and finds an armchair, when he falls asleep and has a wonderful dream that makes the party fun and exciting.

The pictures are wonderful and fun to look at.

A jun rebus story.  The story is simple, fun, and has yummy pictures.  It is an easy read for beginning readers.  A great book to get children involved in reading.

This was a wonderful story dealing with problems most children face at times.  it was fun to read, and teaches how too deal with cheating.  the pictures are full of character, and are fun to look at.  This is a great story for kids first through fourth grade.  i think most kids would identify with one of the characters.

Meet Hank Greenberg, two-time MVP for the American League, five-time all star, first Jewish Hall of Famer, 4-time World Series player.  This biography will appeal to baseball fans who will find themselves cheering on the young Jewish baseball player, playing at a time of great prejudice.  At 6′ 3″ and Jewish, Hank turned to sports as a way to try to fit in.  The New York Yankees wanted Hank on their team, thinking it would broaden their fan base to include more Jews.  “Hammerin’ Hank” had some struggling years, but with hard work and determination, came within two home runs of tying Babe Ruth’s home run record.

The Alden children get involved in the community recycling center by volunteering and trying to figure out who keeps breaking in.  But things aren’t what they seem.  The break-in must be linked to the recent burglary at the local jewelry store.  Keeping track of the clues, the children solve the case.  Yet another Boxcar Children mystery, this time with an updated, contemporary cover.  The story, however, is weak and somewhat boring.  I would not deem this a necessary purchase.

Good story?Poem with great color in illustrations.  Religious in nature.  Good for Sunday School or Christian school.

Good story with a lesson to learn about cheating and friendship.  Great pictures and illustrations.

This is a fun book for kids with wild imaginations.  The illustrations of the words to an Irish sounding song are wonderfyl.

It’s a short read, good for young children.

Pepi the parrot belongs to a boy named Peter. Pepi loves to sing to Peter, but Peter gets tired of his song. Pepi goes on an adventure to learn a new song. He goes to the bakery, the music studio, the art studio, the market, dog park, and finally back home. Pepi learns so many new words at all of his places he visited, that he comes up with a great new song for Peter that they sing together every night. This is a really cute book with great illustrations. The predictability of the book makes it great for little kids. Each different place is introduced on facing pages with the person that is at the place. Then the place is on the next two facing pages with Pepi saying all his new words in speech bubbles. For example, he goes to Manuel’s bakery and learns the words, “messy,” “whisk,” and “pastries” for example. I liked the thick, paper (not glossy) like pages of this fun book.

In this cute little book, bunnies are getting ready for bed. They scamper into their tree house, chomp their dinner, sip their drinks, scrub their teeth, splash in the tub, snap on their pajamas, snuggle in for stories, bounce on the bed, hug, and shush to bed. With only four words per page, one for each bunny, this book is great for PK or kindergartners. The book has really cute illustrations and is a fun bedtime story.