One of the things I like most about this picture book are the illustrations which are quirky, colorful and fun, depicted from sometimes interesting perspectives. I also appreciated the introduction to opera, with which many young children are unfamiliar or even unaware. In this story, an lovely opera singer, Madame SoSo, has a talented Siamese cat, Alma, who can also sing opera. Madame can no longer hide her kitty’s talent and decides to include her in her next performance. She makes the cat a gown and takes her on the train to Switzerland to join her in the show. Despite some challenges on the way and cold kitty feet at the last minute, Alma braves the stage and steals the show. The audience is enchanted and Alma’s performance changes everything as pets now flock to attend the opera to watch her and Madame SoSo sing. This is a fun read which I think the students will enjoy checking out from our library.

This nonfiction book is all about the rain forest animal, the lemur. Starting with a table of contents of all the chapters, the lemur is identified, explained and photographed. Each set of facing pages are a chapter with facts and great photos. While the book has quite a bit of information, it is presented in a simple way that young readers will understand and enjoy. I enjoyed reading about this mysterious animal. I learned some interesting facts, such as they only live in Madagascar. I really liked the simple layout as well with the white pages and large pictures. At the end, there is also a lemur body map, glossary with accompanying pictures, find out more section and index.

From Scholastic, this book is all about the life cycle of the fascinating sea horse. With wonderful photographs and interesting facts, this is sure to be a hit in elementary libraries. The book starts out explaining what a sea horse is easily explaining their characteristics. It then talks about sea horses courting, babies being born and then growth into adulthood. There is also a glossary, learn more and index. I like that the facts are simply stated but easy to understand. The accompanying photos are beautiful and amazing. This is a great animal nonfiction book.

This lovely biography of Howard Thurman is a graceful and spiritually grounded depiction of an intelligent, determined and talented young man who grew into an inspiration for those who love peace and equality in the 20^th century. I’m glad to know more about Mr. Thurman and am happy to share this biography with our elementary aged students. The illustrations convey the story well with special attention given to facial expressions and object texture. The afterword was also well-written, explaining and analyzing the great and on-going impact of this incredible man upon the American Civil Rights movement and leaders.

This is a unique picture book about a poor mouse who lives under the floor of a castle where a princess and her many cats enjoy a life of luxury and splendor.   The mouse has the idea to bell the cats, with a nod to Aesop’s fables, so that he might know where they were and avoid them to enjoy the amenities of the castle.  In the end after many failed attempts, he befriends the princess and she bells the cats.  I especially enjoyed looking at the illustrations, which are beautifully detailed with rich texture and colors.

This step-by-step cookbook includes preparation and safety tips which are helpful to young and inexperienced bakers and will hopefully prevent disappointing cake failures.  Necessary kitchen pans and utensils are pictured and labeled so bakers can locate what is being described in the recipe directions.  Common ingredients and good baking techniques are also clearly described with helpful pictures to illustrate.  Finally on page 17 we get to the first of 6 luscious-looking cake recipes.  With step-by-step full color pictures and beautiful shots of the well-presented final product, I have the impression that even the novice baker could not fail (provided he or she can read the directions).  This would make a nice first cookbook.  This book circulates constantly in our library.

Exciting and festive, this picture book will be a nice addition of our Christmas collection.  Reminiscent of The Polar Express, a young boy has a magical Christmas Eve adventure including a ride on Santa’s sleigh.  In the end, he discovers that the love of family is much more important than the wishes on his Christmas list.  The illustrations are captivating, exciting, detailed and lovely.  Bright colors and plenty of texture make the characters and story come alive.  Students will enjoy reading this book.

I enjoyed this beautifully illustrated and joyful version of the Christmas story.  The story of Jesus’ birth is places in context of the God’s presence in every human birth.  Our Catholic elementary students will appreciate this book and it will make a lovely read-aloud at story time.

What I loved most about this picture book was the illustrations which are colorful and bright, with an eye-popping 3-D effect at times.  With lots of darling details and facial expressions, the pictures are very engaging.  The mousie love story is sweet as well with the classic boy gets girl theme.

This wonderful science experiment book for elementary readers gives some background information regarding various creatures from nature from bugs to pets.  It asks good questions to consider and observe and offers easy ideas for viewing nature purposefully.  There is an index as well as a table of contents, glossary and page listing additional related resources to read.  I liked the accessible and common sense nature of these projects and activities.  I predict that this book will circulate well in our elementary school library.