Glamorous Garbage is pretty realistic in the fact that kids don’t see messes, especially in their own rooms.  Bobbie loves to have her best cousin, Joanie, come over to play but it isn’t until Joanie gets upset over the messiness of Bobbie’s room and stomps off that Bobbie realizes she needs to do something about it.  Together, she and her mom sort, paint, and organize and transform her little girl’s room into a big girl’s room, without spending any serious money.  The illustrations are colorful and relevant.  Kids, especially girls, should love reading this book for inspiration.

A harlequin clown main character in this book is what makes the book qualify with a number circus theme. I found this particular clown ‘creepy’.

The book itself is good on several levels. Each numeral from one to five has a page of its own. Each numeral is represented with an embossed spot the reader can touch, there are items to count, and the numeral is written in word form. I did not like the numeral represented by the clown(s)  contorted into the shape of the numeral.  The set of objects to count, often behind a window to open, is good, but not from a library longevity point-of-view. Once the reader reaches the numeral six, there is a quick one page count to ten, before giving 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 their own page. The six through ten pages have the numbers shown, but in a jumble of overlapping numbers which are not in sequential order.

The windows to open ( I had trouble opening some of them without causing small tears)  and the cut-out shapes do not make this a book suitable for library use, due to poor longevity.

If you know right off the bat what an ‘anorak’ is than this might be the alphabet book for which you are looking. I had to use the dictionary, though the illustration on the front cover of the book had me convinced an ‘anorak’ was a raincoat. This book was first published in Australia, so that being said, some of the pictures chosen might not be as familiar to children in the United States. The pictures are cute and often hilarious: Urchins in Undies, Ibis in an Igloo, Owl in Orbit, and Newt in a Necktie. There is one picture per page for each letter of the alphabet and as always, some of the items pictured are obscure: Jackdaw in a Jar, Elephant in an Eggcup, Giraffe in Galoshes, and Xantus in an X-ray. Depending on the child’s age, one of the alphabet words will be recognizable and the other may need to be inferred.

The entire alphabet is recapped with its illustration in 1 inch tall miniatures on the last page.

Jon Scieszka brings to human anatomy, in this new book, in the new Frank Einstein series what J. Cole brought to science through the Magic School Bus series. The Frank Einstein series is written for a slightly older audience, in that it is  not written in picture book format, although there are black and white (and orange) sketches sprinkled through out its 173 pages.

As this book begins, 11 year old Frank Einstein wants to create a better human body to make his good friend, Janegoodall, a better baseball pitcher before this season’s team try-outs. Frank, his friends Watson and Janegoodall, and robots Klink and Klank are practicing on Menlo Park’s baseball field when one of Klank’s hits flies over the ballpark fence breaking the window on villain T. Edison’s laboratory destroying his latest invention the SuperBrain.  Hearing the glass break the young baseball players run to Frank’s home before they are caught by T. Edison.  At home in his laboratory, Frank begins analyzing the human body’s  five senses by systems in an effort to improve on Janegoodall’s pitching. While Frank does this, Klink spouts off the functions of that particular body system. Klank tells bad jokes. Watson and Janegoodall inform Frank why Frank’s first possible idea/ invention for each sense isn’t a desirable solution. Thank goodness Frank’s philosophy is- if at first you don’t succeed- keep trying new ideas and inventions. Along the way, they investigate blind spots (sight), having a bigger outer ear (hearing), the number of nerve cells (touch), brain freeze (taste), and taste without smell ( smell).

Meanwhile, T. Edison, who found out who broke his window and the SuperBrain, is working on his latest invention the Brain Swirler which looks a lot like a toilet sitting on his head. When the T. Edison Brain Swirler does not pass all of its tests, T. Edison decides to take Frank’s “Brain Turbo.” Frank has Klank guarding the Super Brain so they can rest up for the team try-outs. Klank tries out the Super Brain, scaring people in the neighborhood. Mr. Chimp leads Klank away and right into T. Edison’s hands. Now, T. Edison uses the Brain Turbo, he has transformed, to control all the minds of the humans on the baseball try-out field. Edison has Watson doing the chicken dance. Edison wants to control the minds of the town, no the world. As a result, the power is turned up on the Brain Turbo which causes Klank’s head to blow up ending Edison’s dream to control the world.

Frank, Watson , and Janegoodall are all sad Klank is gone, but they soon find out Klank is not gone for long.

Includes: Frank Einstein’s Human-Body Notes, Pitching with Janegoodall, Watson’s Inventor Corner, Bob and Mary Einstein’s Travelallovertheplace.com Travel Hot Spot!, Klank’s Turing Test, Mr. Chimp’s Word Search, and Mr. Chimp’s Alphabet.

A king hears of the existence of the singing moon dragons with silver scales that live on a far-away mountain top. So the king, desperate to have a moon dragon of his own, sends messengers to all corners of the kingdom announcing the payment of a room full of gold to anyone who finds the moon dragons. Although many people tried, huntsmen, herders, trappers, mountaineers, etc… no one could find the moon dragons.  Alina, a young girl who’s grandmother told her stories of the beautiful, mysterious moon dragons, lived alone at the base of the mountain and announced she will find the dragons. Even though the king and the villagers laughed at the young girl, Alina was determined in her search. When she slept in a hollow tree, she was awakened by the singing of the moon dragons and was amazed by their graceful flight, their beautiful song, and their scales of shining pearl and silver that shone in the moon light.

She returned to the kingdom and announced to the villagers that she had not seen the dragons, fearful the king would put them in cages or hang their heads on the palace walls. Although she was ridiculed, she knew a flight of dragons was worth far more than a room full of gold.

This is a great message of humanity.

The tenth book of the Dork Diaries series, drama hits the beginning of this book hard!! Nikki and Brandon find a dog and litter of puppies, but can’t keep them at the pet shop until space opens up. In the meantime, Nikki volunteers to care for the dogs against her parents’ wishes. This means that Nikki has to sneak puppies around the house, in the school and principal’s office with disastrous situations around every turn. Once the dogs are taken to a girl scout troop meeting, the dogs are all adopted, including the puppy that Nikki’s family gets to keep. Many illustrations are found throughout the book, making this series enticing to children.