Two little yellow goslings explore their little world in this 6″ X 6″ book meant for little hands.

Gemma, the older sister, wears a pith helmet and  binoculars around her neck. Gus dutifully follows her around looking into an old barrel, a patch of cattails with frogs, from the top of a large upside down terra cotta flower pot, and from the top of Molly the sheep dog.  Then “Gus peeks underneath  the hen”, back to the flower pot, “jumps into the pond”, and up onto a rock.

A cute, sweet, easy read with two goslings inquisitively and curiously looking at the big items around them, as well as, the small snails and grasshoppers.

Originally published in 1893, The Green Fairy Book is a compilation of fairy tales from all around the world.  In his preface, Lang explains that it’s not a book about fairies, but about fairy tales, stories that have a magical quality.  Also, it’s not a ‘green’ fairy, but it is simply his way of making the books separate, and has titled his volumes according to colors: blue, red, green, and yellow, and so on, rather than I, II, III or IV.  The stories can be centuries old, from anonymous sources, from many different countries, and also from the Grimm Brothers.  What makes these fairy tales stand out from our more modern, traditional published fairy tales is the quality and quantity of language.  Many of the fairy tales are familiar and well known, yet still vastly different.  The basic story is the same, but the descriptions of the settings, actions, and characterizations are much more embellished.  These embellishments give readers a much better understanding of the characters and locales and paints us a better picture of the story.  Today’s children are used to ‘Disney-fication’ of fairy tales and many haven’t been read the original fairy tale.  The Green Fairy Book gives children language from which to learn by.  How wonderful!  This book has been in my library for over 50 years, and this fresh new copy will be here for another 50.

Guy Fieri is known for his Food Network television shows and his restaurants.  “Fieri never attended culinary school, but he has written several popular cookbooks of original recipes.” ( p. 4)

During his elementary school years, Guy and his father worked together to help Guy make a business selling pretzels from a three-wheeled bicycle push cart.  He sold pretzels for six years. During his high school years, Guy moved to France as an exchange student, after meeting his mother’s requirement of learning the French language to her satisfaction.  Back in the United States, he attended the University of Nevada Las Vegas earning a degree in “hospitality and management”. Guy first managed a restaurant, then a restaurant chain. Then came his own restaurant, with a partner, Johnny Garlic’s California Pasta Grill,, followed by Tex Wasabi’s Rock n’ Roll Sushi BBQ, and then Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar. Guy was encouraged to enter a Food Network contest which he won out of more than 1000 entries. The prize was six episodes of Guy’s first show- Guy’s Big Bite. His next show- Diners, Drive-ins and Dives evolved from a TV special in November 2006.

Fieri works on ways “to educate kids on healthy eating habits” (p. 26) through his TV shows and through the California State Legislature.

Includes:   a recipe, timeline, glossary, and index.

Harper Lee, by Alexis Burling, a biography that is part of the Essential Lives Series, succinctly details the highlights and controversies that surround one of literature’s best-love, yet little known writers.  Nelle Harper Lee’s first novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, was a literary sensation from the moment of publication, garnering the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1961.  The immediate acclaim for the book and the huge success of the movie put Lee in an unwanted spotlight.  Being essentially a very private person, Lee stopped granting interviews and became very wary of the intent of strangers.  The biography addresses the questions and speculations about Harper Lee and her status in American literature.  Side bars, photos and interviews highlight specific details about her life including speculations about the authorship of Mockingbird as well as legal battles concerning royalties.  It also discussed is the current  controversy about the publication of her “lost” novel,  Go Set the Watchman , in May of 2015. Source notes by chapter facilitate further research.  In a brief 106 pages, this is an excellent non-fiction book about the author of an iconic American novel.

Six Degrees of LeBron James: Connecting Basketball Stars is actually more of a historical accounting of the greatest basketball stars than just about LeBron James.  James is in his prime and students are very aware of who he is, however, this book isn’t about him, it’s about how basketball players are linked to one another and to the past.  Much of sports involves lots of math; statistics of who’s the best at what.  This book covers who’s the best.  Those interested in basketball will enjoy reading why people consider the greatest, the greatest.

An eight year old boy is “pleased” to be invited to the dinosaurs party, but he soon has doubts once he arrives. “There are plenty of meat eaters in here. Are you sure you want to go?”  The invitation reads, ” Dear Special Guest    you are invited to be (‘be’ is crossed out) dinner at the dinosaurs’ party at 3 pm on Saturday. Yours   Mr T. Rex   xx”

The boy squeezes between the other dinosaur guests who are playing musical chairs. The bouncy house pops when the stegosaurus jumps in it.

Some uncalled for, pointless bathroom humor surfaces when a line begins to grow outside of the bathroom. Various dinosaurs are shown dancing around and crossing their legs while waiting for T. Rex to step out of the bathroom.

Then the boy decides to leave and grabs a party bag. The T. Rex begins to chase him. The boy finally looses the T.Rex after a wild bus ride home. As the boy rests at home on top of his bed with the dinosaur bed spread, he thinks,

“ I mostly enjoyed the dinosaurs’ party,

There is just one little snag.

I don’t think the bag I picked up… 

Was really a PARTY BAG!” 

His ‘party bag’ has a T. Rex hatchling  emerging from an egg.

Hercules makes Hera, the queen of the gods, so jealous she “drove Hercules mad with rage. In his madness, Hercules killed his wife and children in a fire.” (p. 4) To gain forgiveness for this action Apollo’s oracle tells Hercules he must “Perform 10 tasks for your cousin Eurystheus, king of Mycenae.” (p. 5)  So begins this accounting of the 12 labors of Hercules. This retelling is an “adaptation of Hercules’ story is based on the book The Library, written by Greek historian Apollodorus.” The labors have Hercules killing the Nemean lion, which his cousin purposefully omitted to tell “was invulnerable to weapons.” This is not the only time Hercules’ cousin, King of Mycenae, keeps valuable information from him, either. Hercules kills Hydra, but since his nephew helped him, the king won’t count it as one of Hercules’ labors. Hercules captures the Cerynitian Hind , brings back the Erymanthian Boar, cleans the king’s stables by diverting a river, and chases away a flock of nesting birds. Some of the other labors include bringing the king the Cretan Bull and feeding King Diomedes to his own cruelly mistreated horses, so Eurystheuscan  can have four of the mares.

Author- Blake Hoena and illustrator – Estudio Haus do not pull any punches on telling Hercules’ story just because it is in graphic novel form.

Includes: glossary, www.facthound.com, and index.

An informational text about the theropod, Allosaurus.  Topics included are body features, era, range, hunting, babies, and fossils are all covered.  Contains table of contents, glossary, additional information, and index

All but one of the artist rendered illustrations show the Allosaurus with a layer of fur.  In no place does it provide evidence to support this rendering.  In conclusion, the book’s unsupported illustrations contradict accepted scientific thinking on external dinosaur physiology.

High Hopes is a stable where people can board their horses as well as take riding lessons.  Libby, an almost 12-year-old girl, has dreams of earning a blue ribbon at an equestrian show, and spends most of her time there.  When she is saddled with a challenging horse, it seems her dreams will never come true.  But riding teaches Libby quite a bit:  learn to be confident and be a leader, work hard, be patient and understanding, be a good friend, and to be kind, because things aren’t always as they seem.    For girls who love horses, this book is for them.

This nonfiction title is divided into chapters covering different features of Northwest Native American plank houses.  The elementary level text is enriched with photographs, illustrations, and a map.  The chapter, Building a Plank House would benefit from a diagram to provide a visual explanation of the multiple steps described only in text.

Contains table of contents, glossary, additional information, and index. Glossary terms are also defined on the page they first appear.  A recommended title to support Washington State mandated Native American curriculum, Since Time Immemorial.

This book follows Oscar Gutierrez’s rise as a professional wrestler while also providing background knowledge of the sport of wrestling.  Simple text and action photos create an engaging read.

Wrestling specific terms are defined on the page they are first used. Contains table of contents, timeline, index, glossary, and a list of both additional print and electronic resources.  Holds definite appeal to young boys and shows an example of a successful Mexican American.

This is a reprint of a 1973 book in which Andy approaches a bored group of older kids pulling a wagon with his name spelled in large letters.  The older kids claim he’s too little to play as they grab his letters and use them to create a series of rhyming words; ran, man, pan, ran and hand, band, sand, stand.  “Can I have my name back,” Andy repeatedly asks and the kids always answer with, “No.” Finally he grabs his name and walks away leaving the kids and the remaining letters in a jumble.  A great book for reinforcing both decoding and rhyming.

In this fantasy adventure graphic novel, a young boy named William goes off in search of his sister who is trying to find their father’s spirit. In the process, he meets a mercenary named Barbant, a magical goat, and a troubadour named Counterpane. Together the trio go on an adventure across the magical lands. They meet many monsters and kings in the pursuit of what happened to William’s father.
The book’s plot is rather dull and confusing. The artwork is just OK. The reader is led to believe that the adventure will be a grand one but, the adventure is rather short and boring. I rate this book as a marginal purchase for a school library.

— Kellyn S.

Covering a 24 hour period in 3 hour increments, this book shares the diverse plants and animals found in the Sonoran Desert.  A hummingbird whirs it’s wings, peccaries grunt to one another, a rattlesnake slips out from under a rock as the day progresses.  As night arrives, the nocturnal animals begin their nightly adventures. Well paced descriptive text is framed by wonderful cut-paper illustrations.  Pronunciation included in the text for unusual or difficult to pronounce plants and animals.  Each two page spread has factual captions about the portrayed animals to supplement the narrative.  The book wraps up with Fun Facts, glossary, index, and internet link as well as the identification of a desert and a world map.

I noticed that this book was originally written and published in 1982 and that might explain why it seemed a little dated.  The illustrations are cheerful, highly detailed and colorful.    In this story Mrs. Hen’s egg rolls out the her next and down a hole.  Friend Pakkun the wolf (he doesn’t resemble any kind of wolf I’ve ever seen) volunteers to go and get it.  Underground he encounters strange creatures and they go to sea where he swims with other strange creatures.  They go to dinosaur land and meet Mr. T Rex, who is friendly beyond belief.  They finally travel up Mt. Sulfur and in a cave find the ground littered with eggs, all starting to hatch.  Mrs. Hen’s egg is the smallest and he takes it back to her above ground.  All is well.  Kids will enjoy looking at all the details.

Boy, Were We Wrong About the Human Body is a non-fiction book which looks back over time as to what were accepted medical practices.  It begins with mummification in Ancient Egypt, includes leeching, and goes through time rather quickly until the past 100 years when medical knowledge expanded rapidly.  This book is for the older elementary student, however, this age of student typically likes actual photographs rather than watercolor illustrations.  Good idea but falls short.

Anyone who has small children knows that this book is non-fiction.  Beautifully illustrated it tells the story of Fred who is up and about on his adventures at night while everyone else sleeps.  In the story the everyone else is animals.  In real life, it’s the parents.  Lots of rhyming and lyrical couplets, the story is a great read aloud.  However I would hesitate to recommend purchasing for a school library simply because the audience is so limited.  I would recommend it for a parent with a young child.

I Feel Sick! is a version of the boy who cried wolf, in which the little princess didn’t want to do pretty much anything the grownups told her, so she pleaded illness.  And it’s really no surprise because each page is littered with junk food droppings so she probably really did feel sick.  The doctor says to eat lots of vegetables.  Funny illustrations as the doctor is covered with red spots and has a hacksaw in her pocket.  Interesting also that the grown-ups humor her and keep giving her junk food.  Finally she’s invited to a party of a friend and while there eats more bad food and dances and actually ends up sick.  Yup, that’ll do it.  I wish the parents hadn’t let her go to the party or had done something about her eating habits, in which case there would be a benefit to read it to child.

This is a story about something that has happened to everyone at some time or another:  saying something embarrassing.  In First Grade Dropout,  a boy accidentally calls his teacher mommy and his classmates howl with laughter.  He’s so embarrassed by it he doesn’t want to return to class the next day.  He thinks of running away, inventing a time machine, disguising himself into someone else, anything to avoid being laughed at.  Even his best friend laughed.  But at the end of the day he meets up with his friend who accidentally says something wrong.  Instead of being embarrassed, well..maybe he was for a second or two…but instead of letting it get him down he just laughed at himself.  And that was the key…everyone does it, it WAS funny, and he learned to laugh it off instead of crippling himself with embarrassment.

A colorful, imaginative story, Starring Shapes, has book characters which are the actual shapes and they are auditioning for a school play. The illustrations are bright and cheerful and the school (Shapeton Elementary) building and other buildings in town are all easily recognizable shapes.  All shapes play an important part of the play.  Young students will enjoy identifying the shapes and making their own Shape Town.

Can a story be too cute?  If so, I think Maple and Willow Apart is that book.  The third story of the sisters by Lori Nichol has Maple beginning kindergarten and Willow is home learning how to entertain herself.  As Maple comes home each day she excitedly tells Willow what happened at school that day, and Willow starts to come up with equally exciting news to share with Maple.  They are each a little jealous of each other.  It isn’t until Willow invents a new friend named Pip, that Maple realizes she misses being with Willow each day. Over the weekend they play together, and when the new week starts, Willow tells Maple that Pip wants to go to school with her.  Pip is actually an acorn but throughout the story you see a little boy wearing a knit cap that actually looks like the top of an acorn.  Both the story and the illustrations are simple and beautiful.  This book would be an excellent addition to any library and parents of young children could use it to guide their children.

In Scissors and Needle, originally published in Korea, Little Witch is out walking with her bag of fabrics.  As she needs something, she stops and fishes out the fabric she wants and cuts and sews what she needs.  And so it goes.  The illustrations look like quilts and objects are made using just three common shapes,  triangles, squares, and circles.  Young children will enjoy finding and naming all the shapes as well as creating some objects of their own.

Sport-O-Rama includes 22 different sports, each sport on a colorful two-page spread depicting the terminology, actions, and equipment of the sport.  Interesting choices in actions and all are worthy of attention.  Students will love to find their favorite sport and learn about others as well.  The end of the book includes descriptions of the alphabetized sports as well as a glossary.  This should be a popular book on the sports shelf.

Starting school as a kindergartener can be a scary experience and intimidating for little kids.  Princess Cupcake Jones is no different.  In this second installment of the series, Cupcake (her first name) doesn’t want to go to the first day of school and comes up with a full menu of excuses.  But what her mom manages to get out of her is that she is afraid no one will like her–a common fear among kids.  She goes and gives it a try and meets another girl who loves tutus as much as she does.  The story is told in rhyme and the illustrator does a nice job of incorporating various ethnicities into the story.  Kids should be able to relate well to Cupcake.  But I hope she loses the tiara in future installments.

Like many little girls, Princess Cupcake Jones has a favorite article of clothing–her tutu.  One day it goes missing and Princess Cupcake Jones searches everywhere and finds lots of lost things, but not her tutu.  She cleans her room–mops, dusts, polishes–and still cannot find it.  But as she looks up she sees it stuck on the ceiling fan where it landed when she took it off and threw it the night before.  All is well.  The fact that the main character is African-American fills a gap in children’s picture book collections.  However, what I’m confused about is the ‘princess’ part–many parents call their daughters princess, but moms don’t go around wearing tiara’s–is she really supposed to be a real princess?  Would a real princess clean her room while chefs are in the palace kitchen cooking?  I wish she was just her parents’ princess and not a real princess, then maybe kids could relate better.