This is the traditional story of little Red Riding Hood who disobeys her mother and talks to strangers in the woods.  In the end little red is alive and grandmother is found alive.  but the wolf dies of fright.

This is a great book of gun safety. There is a lot of information on the correct use and handling of guns.  I like the golden rules of guns, remember to treat every firearm as if it were loaded.  Your gun should only be loaded when you intend to fire it.  There are guns around, we have military and hunters so children see guns and should know the safety of guns.

I like the pictures that go with the text, they are bright and easy to look at.  The information is good and tells many things that a person should know about a gun. There is a glossary and a web site in the back of the book.  There is a table of content in the front of the book.

This picture book is a fairy tale about a king who wouldn’t sleep because he was worried about finding the perfect prince for his daughter.  Many princes came to court the princess and were turned away.  Finally, a simple farmer outwitted the king by tricking him into counting sheep.  The king fell asleep and the princess married the farmer and lived happily ever after.  The story was cute and the illustrations were very entertaining.  The illustrator used a cartoon-ish style and the expressions on the characters were humorous.  The drawings were detailed and brightly colored.  This book will appeal to my many young students who love princess books.

This picture book is a fun twist on the Snow White and Cinderella fairy tales.  The classic story lines for both fairy tales are told in letters written between Snow White and Cinderella, who are pen pals.  The language and style of the letters make them believable as written between young girls hopeful to be rescued from their wicked step mothers by a handsome prince.  The ending is fun, a double wedding for these princesses.  The illustrations are colorful, detailed and engaging.  This book is a great read-aloud.

This is a wordless picture book filled with pages of detailed illustrations depicting several mysteries at once.  The setting is a park on a sunny day where a kid’s birthday party is in progress.  All the characters are animals dressed and behaving like humans.  The illustrations comically tell the stories of the progression of the birthday party, a stolen necklace, the baking of the birthday cake and several other sub plots.  There is a group of mischievous monkeys, a tantruming party guest, and some very suspicious-looking rats.  This book could be enjoyed by a wide range of ages since reading is not required and the clues for the various mysteries range from obvious to subtle.  I think it is one that children would pick up again and again to discover some new detail each time.

This is a wonderful informative book about the out door sport of hiking.  There are wonderful things to see along the way.  Through the forest and into the meadow.  You don’t have to travel far to find a trailhead.  You have to prepare for all possible conditions to be ready for a hike.  Water is very important when hiking.  When you hike you should leave no trace that you were there.

There is a glossary in the back with a “To Learn Move” page.  There is also an index and in the f ront is a table of content.

Thomas Fleming freely admits that there will be confusion as he tries to explain the philosophical shifts in the theory of socialism in his book of the same title from Marshall Cavendish’s Political Systems of the World series.  Classical definitions of socialism, communism and liberalism will are used, which means that a liberal believes that everything can and will be done to achieve liberty, or independence from the government.  What is currently described as being a “democrat” in the United States is really more of a socialist – society ensuring fairness among all people.  Fleming begins his history lesson with Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s dissection of Plato’s ideas as unmanageable, Christianity’s influence, and the rise of Utopias.  When the US colonists declared independence and the French Revolution put the world’s elite classes on notice, the hope for new mindsets by which to inspire rose again.  This ebb and flow continues through the historical timeline of this book reaching a crescendo of sorts in the late 19th and early 20th century.  The United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden are 3 focal countries for discussion purposes in the text. The constant question of political vs economic means justifying the ends is raised again and again.  The comparison table of socialism and other governments in the back is particularly helpful.  Students will need to ignore their “Americanized” concepts of liberal vs. conservative and instead go back to history to learn how these concepts came about.  Not many pictures or sidebars to glamorize the topic, this book is good for advanced students at the high school level and above.