I like this book. It’s a science lesson disguised as a picture book. It’s written in a friendly, conversational tone, and begins by telling the reader how to find a worm in their yard, and the little cartoon-side-kick worm suggests some other things they’ll need, too (all easily accessible household items). It goes on to essentially offer a series of instructions for an observation lesson on the structures and behaviors of a typical worm. It doesn’t feel like the instructions for a science lesson, though, because it feels like the reader is just joining the kids in the illustration on an interactive adventure.

Some students may be put off by Ed Young’s somewhat dark mixed-media illustrations, but the really do a good job of evoking the mood of the story. This retelling of a Chinese folktale describes the efforts of the wind and rain and sun to win a bit as to who can force young shepherd girl (I like that the shepherd is a girl) to lose her cap. After the wind sends gales to try to blow it off, and the rain likewise storms at her through the night, it is the rising of the warm sun that shines upon her and warms her enough that she removes it herself when she begins to sweat.

It’s fun. We usually use the term “cat ladies” to describe women who have a lot of cats. But in this case the cat who’s telling the story uses the term to refer to the four women who take care of her. Princess is quite content with her comfortable world filled with the devoted attentions of the four cat ladies, until an interloper arrives. When a stray (grandchild?) shows up on the scene, the ladies’ attentions are diverted, and Princess begins feeling neglected. When she sets out on her own, she gets herself into a bit of a pickle, and it’s the stray who comes to the rescue. Princess decides she might be trainable after all.

This is a beautiful book! The color photos that fill the pages are vibrant and detailed. The text is a poem on the life of a frog. Because the text is simple and repetitive, with just a few sentences per page, it is good for beginning readers, and yet it is full of rich vocabulary (lunges and gaze and spelunks and ponder). The two page author note in the back points out the differences between anecdotal observations and scientific studies, but it doesn’t undervalue the anecdotes, pointing out that wondering and imagining are what help scientists come up with good questions to investigate. It’s not heavy on the information, but it’s the kind of book to spark curiosity.

It’s a cotton candy book. It will be popularly checked out, and loved by many, if only for its pretty, pink, sparkly cover and the pretty, sparkly rainbow on the last page. Oh, and because it’s full of fairies. It tells the story of Twinkle and her fairy friends, on their way to their Fairy Godmother’s garden party. As pretty as the roses are when they arrive, Twinkle’s friend Pippa wishes that more of them were pink, so Twinkle tries her hand at making them so, but making them so, but as she is still a bit of a novice with her magic wand, she manages to turn the entire garden and everything in it pink by mistake. When she is unable to undo her mischief, she fesses up to her Godmother, who opts for a perfectly pink party, at the end of which Twinkle’s fair power grew, and she is able to wish the world back to a rainbow of colors (on a very sparkly rainbow page).

It’s cute. Even if I don’t really like the font for some reason. The story tells about when a seed lands and starts sending down a root. The personified animals who live underground near where the root begins to grow (a mole, a family of field mice, and some ants), are all rather annoyed by the way the root begins to disrupt their lives. It blocks the paths the ants are trying to make, it pokes a hole in the mole’s bathroom ceiling, and eventually it pokes it’s way through the home of the field mice so badly that they have to move. For most of the book, about two thirds of the page area is dedicated to the illustrations of what is happening underground, with only the top third showing what’s happening above. Until they all storm up in their frustration, ready to bring the plant to its end, until one of the little mice stops them and pleads the plant’s case, pointing out that it provides shade and a view point for the ants and play space for the mice and tomatoes for all.

It’s definitely the middle book of a trilogy, and one you wouldn’t really want to purchase without having the rest of the series available, too. But I give it points for standing on its own well enough that if a student randomly picks this one up without having read book #1 (which I hadn’t), they can enjoy this adventure anyway. Enough information is explained along the way so you get the gist of what has gone on before, but this one has it’s own beginning-middle-end. Readers who enjoy it would be drawn into seeking out the other books, but it wouldn’t hurt too much that they read them out of order.It’s the story of Egg (short for Egbert), and his friends traveling through lands where they don’t speak the languages in search of someone who can help them decipher a treasure map, while dodging others who are after their secrets. It’s got pirates and jungles and human sacrifice and slave traders and a bit of romance, too.

You definitely don’t want to buy this one unless you already have or are intending to also purchase the rest of the series. This is definitely one of those series books that needs the rest of the series to complete it. As a stand-alone book this one lacks any sense of beginning-middle-end. You definitely feel like it’s all part of the middle of something bigger. There’s enough explanation offered along the way to allow the reader to more or less follow along, but it’s clear you’re missing out if you haven’t read what came before, and it ends with a cliff-hanger that leaves you feeling incomplete. It opens with two kids (the main characters) racing for their lives through some city they have just mysteriously found themselves in, being chased by bad guys. On the run and in hiding, they need to contact their adult companion while avoiding the supernatural evils who are after them, because there’s been some sort of rift opened between the world of the dead and the world of the living, and they need to put it right. It’s got an online game coordinated with it as a gimmick which will appeal to some.

This book manages to do something I appreciate but often fail to find: though it is the 6th book in a series, it stands on its own two feet, as a satisfying story itself. It has a clear beginning, middle and end of its own, and the author offers enough backstory explanation woven into this one that as a reader who has not read the rest of the series, I was able to enjoy this one just fine; I could tell these characters had had previous adventures and relationships, and reading this one gives me the hook to want to go read those others, but I did not feel like I was wandering through this story blindfolded. It opens as a slapdash “pack” of wolves, bears, and an owl find themselves compelled to leave their homeland and brave crossing a dangerous ice bridge into the unknown, as their only hope of survival. It tells of the dangers they face throughout their journey, some from nature itself, some from an enemy pack on their trail. It also tells of the friendships and discoveries made along the way.

I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve written a book review for a book I didn’t finish. I tried. I forced my way through 100 pages to give it a fair shot and see if it was going to finally get better. But I gave up. It’s slow, and rambling, and boring, with nothing offered to make the reader care about the characters or what is happening. In reading the translator’s afterword, I learned that it was originally published in the 1930s in Poland, as a serial, at a time when little was available in the way of stories written for children. This edition does not succeed in bridging the cultural gap between 1930s Poland and 2000s America. I don’t know of any child who will stick with this book past the first 10-20 pages. When I read in the afterword that, “We shall also never know if the story ever had an ending,” I thought I could never justify asking a child to slog through something that was never even going to come to conclusion. What’s the point?