Cartoon-like illustrations accompany photographs and magnified images of dust mites, bed bugs, clothes moths, germs, bacteria, and mold that can be found in a bedroom.  Each living thing is described along with its living conditions.  There is a box on most pages with additional information.  This colorful book is well designed with a good balance of photographs, illustrations, and text.  A glossary, index, related books to read, and two informational websites are included.  Readers will enjoy the “gross” factor.

It’s the first day of second grade in a brand new school, in a brand new city, and Lillian is nervous.  The teacher explains that Friday is her show-and-tell day, and each day as she watches and listens to her classmates tell about their toys and other possessions, she gets more and more nervous.  She’s nervous because she doesn’t feel she has anything to share with her new classmates.  She and her mom had to leave their home and all their possessions to move to a shelter, and all their money is being saved to pay for a new apartment.  When Friday comes around, Lillian shares her magic beads.  With them she shows her class all the wonderful things she can do with them:  use it to play circus and walk a tightrope, use it as a leash to walk her pet elephant, and turn it into a snake to scare the monsters out from under her bed.  Her classmates all see the wonder of imagination and want to play, too.  Imagination beats toys, hands down.

The title says it all, this dog loves books.  So much, in fact, he opens his own bookstore.  But no one comes.  Tired of waiting, dog decides to read and loses himself in one adventure after another, and realizes that this is the exact reason why he loves to read.  A customer comes in, a little girl, and he loves to share his favorites with her.  Very simple story, very simple illustrations, but it needs no more embellishments.

This 32 page book puts two dinosaurs, the T-Rex and the Velociraptor, in a battle, although they lived in different time periods on different locations of the earth.  It compares each dinosaurs size, speed, weapons and attack style, and then proceeds with a fictional, blow-by-blow, announcement style of attack. Illustrations and fast facts trivia are found throughout. This book contains a glossary, read more, internet sites, and index pages.  This was a fun read!

Airy Fairy attends Fairy Gropplethorpe’s Academy for Good Fairies. However, things tend to be a bit tough for Airy Fairy because Scary Fairy tends to pick on her, and Scary Fairy is the neice of the teacher, Miss Stickler. With Scary Fairy’s help, Airy Fairy seems to get into trouble. When the Academy takes a camping vacation, Scary Fairy tries to cause trouble for Airy Fairy, but her friends Buttercup and Tingle come to the rescue. Miss Stickler is proud when Airy Fairy wins the scavenger hunt.

While riding on his bike, Rusty sees a German sheppard chained in a yard with no food or water. Rusty takes it upon himself to care for this dog daily. On one of his visits, he notices a ghost dog with the Sheppard. The ghost dog visits Rusty at times when the sheppard needs help. When Rusty finds the sheppard injured one day, he dicides to take the sheppard and hide it in his back yard, which turns out to be challenging as well as dangerous. With the help of his friend Andrew, and the ghost dog, Rusty exposes a meth lab which is run by the dog’s owners. This book is very intense and fast paced!

This 32 page book is filled with color photographs and great information about monster trucks. The historical piece of how monster trucks started in the 1970’s is especially interesting starting with the first official monster truck, Bigfoot. It tells of the evolution of monster trucks from “crushers” to “racers” to “stunt performers.” It also informs of the significant parts of a monster truck as well as safety features. Most page spreads have a fast fact which offers monster truck trivia. This book comes with a table of contents, glossary, read more, internet sites and index pages.

Teen twins Rich and Jade know danger due to traveling with their spy father, John Chance. When they are invited to the White House for a banquet, they had no idea what danger they would encounter as a terrorist group takes the visitors hostage. The Chance twins join their father in his effort to save the President of the United States and stop the terrorists from stealing the nation’s nuclear launch codes. There are four books in this series.

This 24 page nonfiction book is very informative for children to determine if a Dalmation is a proper dog for them.  It is filled with color photographs that are relevent to the information on the pages. It covers a large range of information from a Dalmation’s appearance, health and care, exercise and training, attitude and intelligence, purchasing a Dalmation, history and more. This books has a table of contents, and glossary.

Buddy is a Golden Retriever that was taken in by an elementary principal as a therepy dog for students. One day, while listening to a young girl read to him in the library, Buddy spotted a monster. This monster was quite small, had a blue tongue and was quick to hide! By listening to students read books, Buddy learns that the monster is a Blue-Tongued Skink. With determination, Buddy sets off to capture the Blue-Tongued Skink and crack the case of how it got in the school!