A sweet (though perhaps a bit cotton-candy-sweet), story of a boy’s little stuffed lamb who is curiously poking about Santa’s great big bag when Santa stops by on Christmas Eve, and accidently falls into the bag.  Throughout the rest of the evening, as Santa continues on his rounds, Lamb visits with the other toys in the bag, calming their fears and offering the wise council of an experienced toy.  At the end of the night, when Lamb is the only toy left in Santa’s bag, he fears Santa may give him away to another child and wonders how he will get home to his own boy, but of course Santa knows better, and Lamb finds himself safely returned home.  A good addition to Christmas collections.

In a family full of folks who are expert multi-taskers, always in a rush, Fiona is a slowpoke who likes to take her time.  One day when her dawdling has made her miss the bus one too many times, her mother insists she attend Speed School.  Then Fiona finds herself multi-tasking with the best of them, rushing through life with her head spinning so much one day it gets stuck.  When she can’t take it anymore she makes a deal with her parents that she will be on time if the rest of the family will attend Slow School, where she teaches them to slow down and taste their food and notice flowers.  It’s a simple easy-reader book with a nice message we can all relate to on one end of the story or the other.  I just wish the internal illustrations were in color.

This book is intended for very young, pre-school audiences.  It has only a few words per page, sometimes only a phrase, sometimes a couple sentences.  It tells of a three-year-old proclaiming all he can do now that he is three.  The problem is that many of the things he declares he can do would be things he could do before he was three (e.g. cuddle, wiggle, flop, giggle).  The colors in the illustrations are rather drab, and they don’t always clearly support the text:  it took the second reading of the book before I could even figure out the picture on the “now I can swing” page.

A delightful book that stays true to the characters and artwork of the original Peanuts comic strip while creating a bridge to tradition text for early readers.  It tells the story of Lucy’s frustration over her little brother Linus’s dependence on his trusty blanket.  Lucy tries calling in Grandma as backup; she tries taking it away; Linus tries asking Snoopy to hold it for him.  In the end, Linus decides that though he may have to give up his blanket someday, that day is not today.  The story is one that so many children can relate to, and in the end, they can be reassured that it is okay to have a comfort object.  This is an early reader that is also a good story. And the binding is nice and durable.

As his family gathers in preparation for his big sister’s wedding, Gaps, a Nguni calf, is presented with a pair of long trousers from his father.  The problem being that the new trousers are too long.  Gaps proceeds to go from relative to relative asking if there is someone who can shorten them for him, but everyone is too busy with other wedding preparations.  That evening everyone he asked suddenly remembers that the trousers need shortening, and each do so in turn, resulting in trousers that are much too short, but in the end that turns out to be a good thing because the day of the wedding is so hot that everyone else is uncomfortable in their wedding finery, but Gaps is “fresh as a daisy.”  The story is good, but at first I was puzzled as to the author’s decision to make the characters cattle, especially a specific type of cattle with a name that will be hard for young readers to pronounce, but then I discovered that the story was originally published in South Africa, where I presume children are familiar with this particular type of cattle.  I have to confess I was not overly impressed with the artwork.

When a young monster by the name of Harvey hears his parents discussing the new baby that’s due soon, his father refers to it as “another mouth to feed.”  Harvey misinterprets this to mean that the new arrival will be just a giant mouth, and his spends the rest of the book stressing over what that will be like, only to discover when mom does return from the hospital that it’s not just a mouth, but a regular monster with all the usual features, including three eyes.  A page in the back of the book describes what an idiom is, and the meaning of this particular idiom.  I’m not a fan of the artwork in the book, and the plot seems a bit blah.  There are better things out there to teach idioms.

In some respects this story is likely to “expire” soon, as its setting is specific to the recent aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, and it won’t be long before many young students won’t remember hearing about this in the news.  Still, the messages of the book (looking to the future and holding onto hope in the midst of crisis; generosity; games bringing children together) are easily transferrable to any crisis situation.  The book tells the story of a boy helping his mother build their new “home” out of a bit of tin and some blankets and poles, and then getting acquainted with his new neighbors when a girl produces a ball of rags with which they are able to get up a game of soccer.  An adult watching their play begins reminiscing with them about soccer greats who have played in the very stadium where they now have their temporary shelters, and before he goes, he offers them his own real soccer ball, autographed by one of those greats, as thanks to the children for restoring his hope in the future.

This story is just so utterly bland.  A short beginning chapter book, obviously intended for early readers, it’s got nothing about it to convince kids that reading is a worthwhile pursuit, worth their efforts to learn and their time to indulge in.  It tells the story of a young boy who is with his friend along the river one day when they discover a statue which comes to life and asks their help in finding his way to the city to be reunited with his statue girl-friend.  Along the way they meet some bullies on the subway, who get put in their place by the magic statue’s power to freeze them.  There’s just no character development to make the reader care about what’s happening.  It’s not bad. It’s just blah.  But it does have a sturdy binding.

It’s always dangerous to enter a fantasy world in the second book of a series.  There’s so much the reader is left trying to piece together and figure out as they go along.  As a stand alone, I would probably only give this a “Additional Purchase,”  but it was a good enough book for me to want to seek out the rest of the series to go with it (the first book, Happenstance Found, has been nominated for the Young Reader’s Choice award in 2012).  Happenstance is a boy with some kind of power he doesn’t quite understand, mysterious past he can’t remember, and an invented name that’s recently been invented for him.  Apparently in the first book he stumbled into the care of the man who is currently serving as his guardian:  Lord Umber, and adventurer of the first order, who will go to most any lengths to seek out and expand his knowledge of magical creatures.  As they set out together on one mission (in response to a mysterious plea for help), it seems to unfold into one adventure after another, with danger lurking around every bend.

Mac Slater, “cool hunter,” has won an all-expense-paid trip to New York City for himself, his best friend, and his dad, on a mission for some website, which tasks itself with finding the next latest coolest trend.  As the second Mac Slater book, it left the reader with a few holes as to character-development (presuming you’ve already read the other?):  we’re never told exactly how old Mac is, though early adolescence is implied, and we’re never clearly told exactly where Mac is from, though he describes this as his first trip to America and talks about being half a world away from home (I’m guessing Australia).  Set loose in New York with a full arsenal of high-tech gadgetry, Mac ditches his less-than-overly-protective dad, and pursues his goal with single-minded determination.  Along the way, he disses his best friend, lies, breaks promises, follows a stranger into unknown territory (even after reflecting that this is not a wise thing to do), and generally makes a whole lot of poor decisions.  In end he must choose between success at any cost or trying to regain some integrity.  As an adult I was less than impressed, but it’s likely to hold great appeal for its target audience.