Glamorous Glasses

This darling picture book is about Joanie, a young girl who learns that she needs glasses.  She goes into town with her mother, aunt and cousin, Barbara Louise to pick them out.  The girls are dazzled by all the glamorous eye wear choices and Barbara Louise becomes quite jealous that she doesn’t need glasses.  She tries everything to convince her mother that she needs them, but to no avail.  When Joanie becomes disenchanted with her glasses, the girls switch and Barbara Louise tries wearing them with silly consequences.  In the end, the girls decide to return the glasses to Joanie.  Walking home, they came upon a yard sale and Barbara Louise finds a treasure, her own pair of glamorous glasses without the lenses!  The style of this book reminds me of the Fancy Nancy series and the girls are accessorized to the hilt and very focuses on their appearance.  The illustrations are bright, colorful, and cartoonish.  The wonderful cover art is sure to draw in young readers.  This fun book is perfect for a girl who is new to wearing glasses.

Princess in Training

Princess Viola is a spirited girl, more fond of diving into the moat, skateboarding up and down the drawbridge and karate-chopping, than doing all that princesses typically do.  She decides to go off to princess camp where she can learn to be a proper princess.  However, her true nature cannot be suppressed and in the end that saves the day!  This is a fun, free-spirited book about being true to yourself and being loved for it.  The illustrations are reminiscent of a graphic novel and the cover features glitter which is sure to draw young readers.

The Shepherd Girl of Bethlehem

This is a beautiful nativity story about a little shepherd girl who followed her father into the night and toward the stable where she discovered the baby Jesus.  Joining Mary, Joseph, the three kings, shepherds and stable animals, the girl meets Jesus, who enters her heart.  The illustrations are gorgeous watercolors, rich and detailed.  I’m thrilled to have this treasure for our Catholic school library.

The Highway Rat

The Highway Rat is written by the creators of The Gruffalo and has the similar theme of a character who uses his/her clever wit to solve a problem.  In this case, Duck tricks the Highway Rat, stopping him from stealing everyone’s food.  The author and illustrator use rhyming, repeating text and engaging illustrations to create this folktale.  It would be fun to pair this book with The Gruffalo for story time.

Elmer and the Birthday Quake

In this Elmer book, a herd of pink elephants are having a birthday party for Old, who was turning 100 years old.  Elmer and his cousin, Wilbur, went to check out the commotion and ended up witnessing an earthquake disaster!  Old was stuck on a small rock that separated from the cliff during the earthquake.  Fortunately, Super El came to the rescue and lifted Old to safety before the rock crumbled into the valley.  Colorful and fun, this book will appeal to young students for story time.

Two Shy Pandas

Two Shy Pandas is a lovely children’s picture book with a friendship theme.  The two young pandas are lonely playing by themselves at the zoo and long to have a friend but are too shy to introduce themselves to each other.  One day it snows and one panda goes inside while the other plays outside.  Both worry when they don’t see each other and decide to venture out to check.  They bump into each other and decide to be friends.  It’s a nice lesson about reaching out to others to pursue friendship.  The illustrations are colorful and sweet.

Dinosaurs

This fun dinosaur book is written in a bit of a story style.  It is full of questions to make the reader think.  The pictures are inviting and interesting.  At the end of the book are a variety of fun activities, a puppet making project, a quiz about the information in the book, and a couple of poems.

I enjoyed the light humor and interesting facts.  It’s a wonderful book for young readers and listeners with a large variety of things.  A good addition to our library.

Can we share the World with Tigers?

This book surprised me.  It looked like and started like a story book about a tiger family. The book ended up being a book about ecology.  It has a wide variety of information about our earth and how it has and is changing throughout it’s history.

It encourages us to be good to the earth and take care of what we have. throughout the book are learning circles filled with interesting facts that clarify or enhance the information on the pages.

The pictures are fun, colorful and interesting.  This is a good science book for children.

Parrots

“There are 418 different kinds of parrots and related species.”  This small  7″ X 6″ page book shows only a few of them, but these usually highly colorful birds pictured will elicit ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’.  Brief, simple, general information is given about parrot claws, coloring, size, hooked beaks, good memory and habitat are given.

Includes 6 transparent pages among the highly glossy pages with metal comb binding.

Trees

The reader follows a chestnut tree through the changes of four seasons. Three of the six transparent pages reveal the inside and outside of a chestnut husk, above and below the ground of the tree, and before and after the tree bud opens. Then examples of five distinct deciduous tree shapes are illustrated, followed by five distinct deciduous tree leaf shapes and their corresponding seeds. Finally, five evergreen tree examples are pictured with five different evergreen tree cones.

This book has heavy board pages with sturdy metal comb binding.

Earth’s Surface, The

“What is geography for? To get to know what the surface of the Earth looks like.” So begins this First Discovery book for second through fourth graders. Illustrators Ute Fuhr and Raoul Sautai have created mountain, coastline, valley, plain, delta, river valley, the Grand Canyon, and volcanic island landscapes with distinct geographic features labeled. The text across the top of the page is over simplified without supporting details. The readers will enjoy the four transparent pages flipping them back and forth to see the before and after erosion scenes.

This book is made of heavy board pages with sturdy metal comb binding.

The Trap Door

In book 3 of the Infinity Ring series, Sera, Riq, and Dak travel to the year 1850 in the state of Maryland.  Their mission is to fix a break in the time continuum that has something to do with the Underground Railroad and Harriett Tubman.  With Riq being of African descent, he is immediately captured and fixed to be sold at a slave auction with a black woman and her two children.  While waiting for the auction, Riq discovers that the woman is an ancestor of his and he must help her to fulfill her destiny if he is to even exist in the future.  The three time travelers work to ensure the right people get to Canada to freedom and that the Underground Railroad is successful.  McMann does a great job of keeping the action moving as well as characterization.  This is a great way for young readers to get to know more about American history.  Each book takes the three friends to different eras throughout history.

Pluto Visits Earth!

Pluto Visits Earth! is classified as an Everybody Reads/Picture book, however it is chock full of science factoids.  The story goes that Pluto has heard that he’s been downgraded from a planet to a dwarf planet.  He goes to the other planets to find out why and at each one the reader gets a nugget of knowledge.  Eventually Pluto goes to Earth and finds out eventually that he doesn’t meet all the requirements to be a planet, which is to be able to “use it’s gravity to clear it’s orbit of any asteriods.”  Students will recognize the familiar artwork of Jared Lee because of the Black Lagoon series.  What a gentle, interesting way to learn about the solar system.

The Loopy Coop Hens: Letting Go

Letting Go is the story about three hens who believe that a fox is up in an apple tree throwing the apples at them.  They get hysterical because they are afraid the fox will come after them next.  They run to get the rooster, but when he is almost hit by an apple, he runs away.  The hens muster up the courage to get a ladder and go up the tree to see about the fox.  When one hen finally reaches the top, she realizes that the apples just ‘let go’ and fall.  She realizes the view from the top of the tree is beautiful and the other hens come up to see for themselves.  The moral to the story is that sometimes you just have to ‘let go’, let go of fear and anything else that paralyzes you.  The story is simple yet eloquent.  The illustrations and dialogue are reminescent of Mo Willems.  This is the perfect pairing with Chicken Little.

I Want My Mom!

Mom’s are wonderful!  They kiss our boo-boos, they play with us, read to us, and generally make all the icky things in the world better.  For Little Princess, her mom made everything right.  Then one day, Little Princess was invited to a sleepover, and although she was scared at first, it was alright.  But it was mom who suffered because it was the first time her baby had been away from home at night without her.  This is a perfect story for the younger kiddos, especially for Mother’s Day.  Everyone (hopefully) can identify with that one special person who makes our life so enjoyable.  Clear illustrations that show perfectly the neediness of Little Princess and the anxiety she causes others.

Randy Kazandy Where are your Glasses?

Randy needed glasses to see better, but he does not want to wear them.  He finds ways to lose the or get them broken, but each time his mother has another pair for him to put on.  She bought four extra pairs!  When he thought he has done away with all four of them his doctor came over and brought him five more specs just in case.

Randy wasn’t happy until his father came in with new glasses and told him,”Now I will look a bit more like you.”

Then Randy was happy to be able to see.

I didn’t like the way Randy was able to lose or break is glasses without consequences.  That can be very expensive for a parent.

I loved the pictures.

Boy with Pink Hair, The

This is a super story.  It shows the positive side of being different, and that our uniqueness can be a good thing to share with others.  It is positive and full of love and acceptance, and shows how those qualities can also have a positive effect on others.

It is a great lesson for kids.  The pictures were colorful and interesting.  I like this book!

Box, The

This is a cute story about using your imagination.  Many children use boxes to play with and make many this from a box.  In this story a boy named Kenny has a box that becomes many different things.  Even better than a new bike.

A great story about using your imagination.

The Golden Door

Emily Rodda is a master at characterization and the making of a hero.  Her heroes are not beautiful, strong people, but someone who is ordinary, like you and me.  In reading her first book of her newest trilogy, The Golden Door, you connect with Rye, her new hero.  Rye lives in Weld, a walled city on a island, that has no contact with other cities on the island.  During the growing season, Weld comes under attack at night by ‘skimmers,’ creatures hunting for live food, whether it be human or animal.  These creatures fly and will attack wherever they sense smell, hear the scratch of a creature, or see light.  Come nightfall, the citizens of Weld imprison themselves in their homes in order to fend off the skimmers.  Rye lives with his widowed mother and two older brothers.  The citizens of Weld do not believe that the warden of Weld is doing much to protect it’s citizens.  First his older brother, Dirk, leaves home to find out who sent and where the creatures come from.  After more than a year’s absence, the second brother, Sholto, leaves.  Again, he doesn’t return. With his mother safe within the city’s walls, Rye finally leaves.  As he leaves Weld, he must choose which door to travel through and believing that Dirk must have chosen the Golden Door, so does he.  He travels with another youngster from Weld, a girl named Sonia, and they become friends, so to speak.  They eventually arrive at the Fell Zone whereby Rye is given a pouch containing nine magical objects to aid him in his quest.  He eventually arrives at Olt and finds that come Midsummer’s Eve a  ritual will take place in which seven human sacrifices will be given to the dragons of the sea in order for the ruler of Olt to continue to live.  Dirk, Rye’s brother, as well as Sonia, his friend, are two of the sacrifices.  It is up to Rye to save them.  Rodda does an excellent job of showing the reader how reluctant Rye is to do the impossible, but that he musters up the courage to do so, and is able to use cunning and intelligence to overcome the odds.  This book is exciting to read and makes the reader feel as though anyone can be a hero.

Little Chick and Mommy Cat

This is the story of a cat who couldn’t have kittens and a chick whose mommy couldn’t take care of her.  They took care of each other.  People would always comment of how different they were and wondered what is was like to be so different.  The lesson to be learned is that it’s okay to be different, it makes you special.   The colored pencil illustrations show a contented cat and happy chick and their love for one another.  What else do they need?

Hoop Genius: How a desperate teacher and a rowdy gym class invented basketball

The hoop genius is James Naismith, a high school gym teacher, with a class of rowdy boys that no one wanted.  Naismith tried all sorts of games but to no avail.  His boys were beat up and bandaged from the physicality of the games.  Until one day he remembered a game from his own childhood in which the target was up in the air and the player had to accurate throw a rock to knock it off its stand.  Instead of a rock he used a soccer ball.  He used an actual basket for the target and he instituted fouls for pushing, tripping and holding.  If a player had two fouls they had to sit on the bench.  The popularity of the game spread nationwide and worldwide.

Students enjoyed hearing how basketball got started.  However, it was the illustrations which threw them off.  They thought the students looked too old to be students, they had mustaches and facial hair.  In looking at the original photograph of the gym class that’s at the back of the book, they do, in fact, have mustaches and do look older than high school students.  The illustrator used the photograph to make accurate illustrations.

The Last Tiger

The Last Tiger is a treat to both your eyes and your soul.  The story is about the last tiger left in the world, a world in which there no longer existed animals or trees or flowers.  The environment was dirty and cluttered, filled with castoffs.  People no longer cared.  But Luka cared, and he  befriended tiger who needed his help.  They became best friends until one day the lion was captured and put into a cage.  Again, Luka helped the lion get free by showing the people the lion’s cave, in which all manner of trees and plants and flowers bloomed, with no garbage or clutter.  People once again saw what life could be like.

The story is simple and idealistic, but clearly states the message in the very first sentence of the book….the people had forgotten what was important.  What is important?  Is it friendship?  Empathy?  Cleanliness?  The illustrations are in tune with the story, simple and blending in well, not cluttered but still detailed.  This would be a great book for Earth Day as well as just about any other day of the year.

Barry

Colin Thompson is so clever and has a vivid imagination and gift of storytelling.  Barry is an alien-made robot who came to planet earth with his makers, but got left behind.  He doesn’t look like much, mostly put together from recycled cans and odds and ends.  But he has a huge brain which is back on his planet and which he can access.  Barry is stuck down in an old sofa and lives there through many generations of mice, dust, and lost items.  His job is to control events and natural disasters on earth, but because of his precarious position and loss of body parts, things on earth are not what they should be.  Barry is discovered by humans, taken out of the sofa, and put on a shelf.  From there he can see the results of his mismanagement, and he sets out to correct it.  In the past, the Ice Age took care of life on earth by destroying it and allowing itself to regenerate.  Barry figures the same thing will work again.  Thompson has some subtle humor which the young children will not understand, but the grown-ups reading this story to them will.  The illustrations are what will hypnotize the younger set and will capture their attention for many hours.  I could see kids trying to replicate the image of Barry by making a recycled robot and creating stories of what their robot can do.  Hugely entertaining.

Tricky Tarantulas

Divided into 2 sections, this book on unusual pets begins with basic facts.  Because there are often laws about owning unusual pets, the reader is advised to check state laws.  Facts include details about preferred environments, food, and care.  The second section is atypical of most animal fact books.  This section is a rhyming short story about a young boy’s pet tarantula.  It is an interesting combination of genres.  The book ends with a page of additional facts, a short quiz, and a glossary.  Photographs are large, illustrations colorful, and large font text is simple.  This is a good introduction to an unusual pet for younger readers.

Tales for Very Picky Eaters

What a fun book!  James is a very picky eater – most families have one.  Dad needs to get inventive to entice his son to try meals.  Divided into 5 chapters, in the first, James is encouraged to eat broccoli or choose between the finest dirt, walked on by only the best chefs wearing deluxe boots, fastidiously already-chewed gum, or a smelly sock worn by the world’s fastest marathon runner.  He tries smelly mushroom lasagna so Dad won’t fire the troll in the basement.  Refusing to drink repulsive milk would have the undesirable result of soft bones, which would mean he could not play baseball with friends or even scratch his dog.  By the end of the book, James is suspicious of another underhanded trick by Dad to get him to try the slimy eggs until he decides to try them simply because he might like them.  The watercolor, pen, and ink illustrations are humorous and are a wonderful match to this amusing story of a very picky eater.  This provides a smooth transition into chapter books for those resisting the move away from picture books.