Michael Pine is an orphaned 12-year-old living with his uncle in a town called Moss-on-Stone.  He often skips school in order to hang out with older boys, who are trying to recruit and groom him as one of their gangmembers.  During an gang initiation event (stealing a video game from a store), he gets caught, runs out into the street and get hits by a car, gets up and runs again out of town, through the woods, until he comes to what looks like an abandoned cottage with a ten-foot high stone wall.  He sits, hides, and rests, during which he hears music he has never heard before.  Later, he is caught by the police and brought before the judge.  The plans are to put him and his kind in juvenile detention, but the judge believes/hopes there is a future for Michael.  He gives Michael a choice:  either juvenile detention or he goes to school, has a job after school, and reports to the court clerk every day; oh, and must stay away from gang members.  He agrees to the offer and actually finds that he really enjoys the work and structure.  Finally things seem to go his way.  As part of his job as delivering groceries, he finds himself back at the abandoned-looking cottage, and is introduced to Lemuel Gulliver, a giant of a man, whose back yard is a garden city for Lilliputians–a race of people only inches tall.  Gulliver sees Michael as a kindred spirit and recruits him to be a guardian of the Lilliputians and teaches him how to help and protect them.  Michael also becomes friends with Jane, a girl his age who lives a pampered life.  However, the gang members are still on his case, and work hard to recruit him, or at least make people believe that he is a gang member.  Michael is falsely accused of crimes and is sent to juvenile detention.  Meanwhile Gulliver has left and the Lilliputians are in trouble.  Heavy rain is threatening to destroy their village and weasels are finding their way in, intent to eat them.  You find yourself cheering for Michael in all that he has accomplished–he is originally portrayed as a follower, without much incentive or morality.  But his character grows as his life is given structure and he learns that people care about him.  He finds a way to right the wrongs.  This book has great characterization, a fast-moving plot, and well-described settings.  You don’t have to worry about reading the original Gullivers Travels–just jump right in and enjoy yourself.

Wow!  This book is pretty amazing!  Lots of non-stop action and twists and turns; I could see it all play out in my mind like a movie.  (is there a movie deal for this series?)  This is the fourth installment of the series H.I.V.E., and as I hadn’t previously read one, two or three, I wasn’t too excited to start this one.  My previous experience of jumping into a series without having read the beginning, has been rather unsuccessful.  However, I was willing to give it a try.  I am so glad I did–once I started, I couldn’t put it down.  H.I.V.E. is The Higher Institute of Villainous Education, and the students (kids) each have a specialized skill (i.e., picking locks).  At the school, they are basically learning how to become worldwide spies and have the benefit of professors and teachers with skills James Bond would envy, as well as resources of every kind imaginable.  In this book, a new student, Lucy, is introduced, and it isn’t until the end until we find out her special talent.  I imagine future installments will have her as the main character.  In the meantime, a group of students are on their way to a field trip (sub-zero temps in the Arctic) and while on their journey in a ship called the ‘Dreadnought,’ they are overtaken by a rogue rebel, a former employee who helped to create the Dreadnought and has dreams of becoming the world’s leader.  The name Dreadnought sounded so familiar and I wondered why the ship would be so named.  According to Dictionary.com, the Dreadnought was a well known battleship from the year 1906 which was heavily armored and had battle turrets.  It’s important, I think, to understand the historical meanings of language used to better understand the story, so get that dictionary out.  But for this story, think of the Dreadnought as a newer version of the U.S.S. Enterprise of Star Trek fame, but with cooler stealth capabilities.  The rogue rebel is Jason Drake (again, think history, the infamous pirate Drake?).  Drake has a bevy of double agents working for him and he has well planned this takeover.  The theme of the story is that Drake has taken over the ship, is holding several key people hostage, and has plans to takeover and ruin the United States, throwing the whole world into turmoil, and he will be the only one smart enough to save everyone.  Good idea, however, the group of seven students and a couple of instructors, have other plans.  The action is fabulous, and just when you think you’ve got it all worked out in your head, something else pops up.  Many of the fight scenes are violent, but considering the age of the target audience, 10-14, it isn’t something they haven’t already seen.  The characters are well established, the plot is understandable with just enough kinks in it to keep it interesting, and the dialogue and multi-syllabic words will keep even the best readers on their toes.  This book should be on every library shelf in elementary and middle school.

Life in rural China is excruciatingly painful for Jade Moon.  Without her mother and under the Zodiac sign of the Fire Horse, she is a quick to speak, hot tempered, feisty young woman in a society that would never let her be true to her spirit.  She yearns for freedom — that which America could bring if she follows the aptly named Sterling Promise, her adopted cousin, to the United States.  Dreams of Jello and unbridled opportunity give strength to this Fire Horse as her new world does not match up that of her imagination.  The realities of how Americans treated Chinese immigrants coming into Angel Island in the 1920’s as well as the underground gang-like world of San Francisco’s Chinatown come from Kay Honeyman’s fastidious research.  This research also provided the thread for the Romantic narrative woven into the storyline through the Chinese oral tradition of storytelling that Nushi, Jade Moon, and Spring Blossom share with the reader.  The Fire Horse Girl is an excellent piece of literature that blends multiple worlds, has action that both male and female readers will enjoy, and will allow for rich classroom discussion.  Highly recommended for 8th – 10th grade humanities classrooms to adopt into their curriculum as well as for classroom, school and public libraries to promote.

Beginning with a definition of a rainforest or jungles near the equator where the sun shines hottest, one is taken on a journey around the world.  Each floor of a rainforest is home to a variety of plants and animals – each vying for food and space.   Many wildly colorful, strange-looking plants and animals of the rainforests of the Amazon, Africa, along the Congo, Madagascar, and Asia, from India to Australia, are portrayed.  The photographs are colorful and engaging but sizes are not comparable.  Many plants and animals are showcased, but there is no mention about where they are found.  One may download a digital book to accompany this one using a provided website and code.  This book ends with a warning about the potential loss of rainforests without the interference of concerned people.  An interview with a conservationist, and extensive index, and a glossary are included.

What an eye-catcher!  Large, colorful, magnified images fill every page in this engaging book.  Bugs can be grouped into six categories: insects (beetles, flies, bees, ants), arachnids (spiders, scorpions, ticks), centipedes and millipedes, wood lice, worms, and slugs and snails.  Each category shows close-up examples, includes informative captions, and a “Find Out More” section which directs one to other pages.  Words along the bottom of the pages provide even more facts.  Stunning photographs show the adult, often including images of life-cycles and habitats.  The reading level is for upper elementary, but the book is fascinating to kids of all ages.  An extensive index, a glossary, and an interview with an entomologist (insect expert) are found in the back.  Great addition to any library!

This brief biography of Jackie Robinson is written by his daughter.  It is filled with many back-and-white photographs from childhood throughout his life.  He excelled in many sports but wanted to play professional baseball.  Segregation was strong within the country but Branch Rickey of the Major League Baseball team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, encouraged the board to integrate and take advantage of talent from the Negro Leagues.  They chose Jackie to help break the racial barriers.  He not only needed to play exceptionally, he needed to show strength, courage, and composure when dealing with angry and vicious insults and physical attacks.  With a loving family and the support of his team, Jackie became an American hero.  Other than reading about this admirable person, this book may also be a resource during discussions on bullying, segregation, or strength of character.  Jackie’s legacy lives on through the Jackie Robinson Foundation and scholarships.  A glossary and an author question/answer page are included.

This is an interesting topic about being truthful.  Most kids like quizzes found in magazines and social sites. Fifteen scenarios present a variety of situations in which one can choose one of three responses.  Most people probably feel they are honest, but what about the little fibs or “white lies”?  When finished with the quiz and points are added, the results are explained and additional information is given.  Tips and examples from others in the same category are offered.  This may be a great conversation starter about friendships and being honest with one’s self and others.  Other books in the series are: Are You a Good Friend?, How Much Do You Know about Bullying?, and How Trustworthy Are You?

Jake loves playing on his championship soccer team but a family move results in him playing on the worst team in the league.  As in many of Mike Lupica’s books, the main character seems to have more maturity than most 11 or 12 year olds.  In Shoot-Out, Jake tests his sportsmanship and skills with helping his team grow as a unit.  Jake learns that Kevin is a superb kicker but is wallowing in grief for his mother who has recently died.  As captain, Jake feels he needs to assist his team both on and off the field.  Even though many of Lupica’s books share a common theme, the storylines are engaging.  The soccer commentary from the field is realistic, the action is lively, and the personal struggles and behaviors are believable.  Other Comeback Kids books include: Hot Hand and Long Shot, both about basketball, Two-Minute Drill, about football, and Safe at Home, about baseball.

Strictly a book for the youngest audiences.  Three hens try to work up the courage to go for a ride in the farm truck, but they are scared of the noise it makes and of the unknown world beyond the farm.  They decide to go together, but after Pip gets into the truck, the other two make an excuse to stall, and while they’re gone the engine revs, Pip gets scared by the noise and hides her eyes until it stops, and when she looks around she thinks the rest of the wide world looks just like the farm, until the other hens inform her she never really went anywhere, and they all decide sitting in the wheelbarrow is more their speed.  In some respects, it is a book about facing up to one’s fears, but at the same time, it’s suggesting that venturing away from home is something to be scared of.  Also, the text is written in such simple sentences as to be stilted.

The fun illustrations are as charming as in the other grandma and grandpa books by this author.  The text follows a day-of-the-week pattern, describing something different each day that Anya cooks with her grandma, and what they do with what they make, each item also representing something one eats at a different time of day.  On Saturday they make a cake, which they save instead of eating right away, because on Sunday Anya’s dad and dog arrive and they have a party.

It’s trying to cover too much information in a too simplified format for that information.  The result is shallow, surface statements, that seem a bit disjointed and unorganized. It’s bound to leave young readers with more unanswered questions that any real clear understanding.  I’d rather find a book targeting slightly older students — I think it would do it’s topic more justice if it had more words to work with.

I don’t like it when books make statements as fact that are really over-simplified generalizations.  In describing parts of a day, this one says, “In the afternoon the bus takes you home from school.” Yet not all kids ride busses.  It says, “Aftern dinner the sun sets and night falls.” Yet around here in the winter, that would likely happen before dinner.  It says, “One day rain falls. The next day the sun shines.” Yet rain could stick around for weeks on end or only last for half an hour.  It says, “Celebrations last a day.”  Yet some celebrations last a week or a month.  It says, “You celebrate your birthday.” Yet not all families do.

The simple text has lots of rhyme, rhythm, and repetition to help emergent readers, and the illustrations add meaning to the text, to share with young dinosaur fans the processes involved in digging them up, jigsawing them to make sense, and rigging them together so that museum visitor can “dig” them on display. A page in the back offers further explanatory paragraphs to explain the simple text in the body of the book.

The illustrations are cute, and it’s great that when Chick get’s fired from the egg factory for not conforming to the plain-white-oval requirements, she continues with her passion of creating uniquely shaped and painted eggs, gets discovered and becomes famous for her artwork.  But the last page, when she declares her best creations, the prettiest things she ever made, are her babies, could either be taken as a sentimental declaration for mothers to share with their children, so they know how precious they are, or it could be taken as a regression to the pre-feminism era, teaching young girls that the most important thing they can do in life is to bear children.

The illustrations are nice, the simple counting text rhymes, and I would probably recommend it for Australian audiences, whose young children would appreciate having a counting book that featured familiar images.  But the images and vocabulary are “absolutely Australian,” as the cover states.  It would’ve been more useful as a cross-cultural tool for American children if there were explanatory sentences or paragraphs to provide context/definitions.

The stated mission of the group publishing this series of books is to preserve our heritage of children’s folksongs.  If you share this mission, this may be a worthy addition to your library, but as a stand-alone picture book, it doesn’t hold up as well as some of the others in the series.  On the back of the book they spin it as a “great American nonsense song with a real tongue-twister for the chorus,” but really that means it’s hard to read aloud, many of the non-sense words leaving the reader unsure how to pronounce them, and the story seems to be that of a man who married a wife who’s a slob.  The illustrations do their best to try to make sense of the nonsense (with mice mirroring humans), but it seems a case of doing the best one can with what one has to work with.  The music is in the back, and maybe if I could read music the tune would’ve helped, but as is, it was an awkward read.

It might get recommended for libraries in New York, but kids who are unfamiliar with New York landmarks are going to miss a lot of the references in this book.  The illustrations are fun, and the story is cute:  it tells of a taxi driver who picks up a funny-dressed passenger who asks to be taken to Schmeeker Street, on the other side of town.  At a dead-end, the passenger pulls out a remote control that opens the entrance to the Finkon Tunnel, and leads to the other side of town (a very pink a green kind of place), where they root for the Spankees baseball team, have to drive around spotholes, etc. After dropping off his passenger, the cabbie makes his way home by way of the Snooklyn Bridge, and is much relieved when he finds himself back in Times Square, but when he gets home his family are all dressed in pink and green, and his wife is serving tweet loaf and bravy for dinner.

A fun read-together for kids and dads to share, it points out all the ways kids are lucky if there dad is the kind who never grew up.  The silly illustrations accompany a long list of indicators of dads who have never grown up, from racing grocery carts to reading comics and making pancakes in shapes.

Well, when it comes down to it, this is the story of a not-too-bright man doing a strip-tease at the train station, in an effort to find the ticket that he’s got in his mouth. When he gets down to his underwear without finding the ticket, he yells out about losing it, and then finds it on the ground since it fell out of his mouth while yelling.  He puts it back in his mouth so that he has his hands free to dress again, and when he gets on the train he laughs at his own silliness, thereby swallowing the ticket.  Lucky for him, he has cash to buy a new one on board because folks standing by while he stripped had thrown money into his hat. The illustrations are cleverly drawn, but colored in such drab, dreary colors, they’re not as appealing as they might have been.

It’s rather pedantic and cheesy.  It tells of a selfish, whiney, demanding little bear who has created a long list of all the things he wants from Santa, insisting that if he can’t have them all it won’t be a happy Christmas.  When Christmas arrives, his cousins do too, and they get most of the things on Little Bear’s wish list, but all he gets is a folded piece of paper that he refuses to even open.  He sulks for a while, then decides to help each of his cousins with their toys, until his father reminds him that he forgot about his note, which directs him to look under the stairs, where he finds the last item of his wish list, a tricycle, which he decides to share with his cousins.

The illustrations for this book are bright and interesting and unusual and intriguing.  I just wish the story lived up to the artwork.  There’s not really a plot.  It basically tells about someone who loves magic so much they imagine all sorts of magic they can do, each of which is a function of nature (make the sun rise, the rain fall, flowers bloom, etc.).

Though a picture book, this title is really better for older students.  The bright, somewhat abstract paintings that illustrate it are beautiful, and draw one in to this biography of jazz musician John Coltrain.  It describes how his music was influenced by life experiences, which included poverty, race issues, family issues, drug use, and spirituality.  It’s a compelling story, well-told and inspiring, but a bit too dark for young readers.

The illustrations are absolutely charming!  Hugo is a small yellow bird, living in Paris, who doesn’t like to fly.  One day he meets a new friend who wants to take him to the Eiffel Tower, but Hugo keeps making excuses to put off the adventure.  Finally that evening he confesses to a local owl that he is afraid of flying.  The owl is both understanding and helpful.  After practicing all night, Hugo is finally ready to take the leap the next day when his friend returns, and thoroughly enjoys the adventure.

The illustrations are soft and charming.  The text is rhythmic and rhyming and repetitive.  The story tells the simple tale of a young owl who watches his older siblings fly away and leave the nest, but is afraid to attempt to fly herself.  When she finally does, she’s glad because she then sets up her own nest, and hatches her own chick.  My one criticism is that there’s no actual compelling reason that finally spurs the chick to try flying: after repeatedly refusing the attempt she just finally does.

This is the second picture-book biography of Alice Coachman I’ve read in the last year, and though very different, they’re both fabulous in their own way.  This one has the advantage of offering the reader more detailed information about this inspiring woman who beat all kinds of odds to become the first African-American woman to win Olympic gold in 1948, from the poverty in which she was raised, to the societal prejudices against both blacks and women, to the cancellation of the 1944 Olympics during WWII.  When she finally did get her chance, it was an amazingly close contest.