It’s a lovely book. The illustrations are warm and rich. The story tells about a walled village where the townspeople are painting a mural on the wall to welcome all to their town, but they face the problem that no one in town is tall enough to reach the top part of the wall. When Billy expresses concern about this, his grandfather tells him not to worry, as he knows just the fellow for the job. He reminds Billy of all the times the local giant has come to their aid, but young Billy refuses to believe his grandad’s stories are anything other than stories, because he’s never actually seen the giant, despite hearing the stories for years. When he asks why the giant would hide if he’s so nice, his granddad explains that people are often scared of things that are different, and can be unkind, and he encourages Billy to visit the wall at Dawn to see what he will see. When he does indeed see the giant painting the top of the wall, he runs away in fear, until he realizes he has behaved just as others have, and has contributed to the giant feeling unwelcome. He is determined to make things better, and he does indeed find a way. It’s a sweet story that encourages kindness and believing in things we cannot see.

It’s a repetitive tale, based on the pattern of “The House that Jack Built,” except it’s about the building of a piñata and party preparations. The illustrations are bright and help support the text of the story. It’s a good introduction to some Spanish vocabulary, even though the bulk of the story is told in English: the first time used, all words are in English, but as phrases are repeated, certain vocabulary switches to Spanish. The illustrations help support determining the meaning of the Spanish words. It ends with instructions for making one’s own piñata and songs in both Spanish and English for singing while smacking it.

A beautifully illustrated picture book biography of Sue Hendrickson, the woman responsible for finding the biggest, most complete skeleton of a T-Rex that has ever been found. The telling of the story, beginning with the habits she developed as a child, encourage readers to be curious and observant, and to explore. It describes the many years of searching, and the serendipitous nature of stumbling upon her famous discovery. It describes the long, laborious process and the teamwork required to uncover the full skeleton and transfer it to its eventual home in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The author’s note in the back tells, too, of the dispute over ownership that arose from Sue’s discovery: did it belong to Sue Hendrickson, who found it? Or the Sioux tribal member who owned the land where it was found? Or the federal government who held the land in trust? Or the institute which organized the dig of which Sue Hendrickson was a member?

The quality of the information is good. It is well-organized, and thorough. It is illustrated with detailed color photos and labelled diagrams. The photos zoom in close to show students details that might not be noticed from casual observation. Unfortunately, the quality of the binding is kind of flimsy and does not feel like it will stand up well for library usage.

It’s got a large font and bright formatting, with color photos, to make it inviting, and yet with limited text per page, it doesn’t feel like it skimps on information. It discusses the traits that make Golden Retrievers unique; it considers issues that should be considered when deciding if a Golden Retriever would make a good pet for a specific family (e.g. they need lots of exercise, and room, and company); and it describes their needs for proper care: diet, toys, vet visits, etc. It also shares a bit about their origin, and roles they play as service dogs. It includes all the basic non-fiction text features for teaching purposes, including table of contents, index, glossary, and further reading suggestions. A solid choice.

It’s okay, but it doesn’t really live up to its title. It’s like it’s trying to spin something into more of a story than it really is. It starts out telling the story that townspeople like to share, which brings tourists to this small Alaskan town, but just a few pages in it tell us that all of that is just a legend, and that the town is really too small to have a formal government. The whole second half of the book is just telling the story of the life of a small town cat. In the end, it left me wondering what the point of it all was.

For a beginning reader, this one really packs in some solid information. I think it’s a great idea to get kids thinking early about career possibilities. This one uses a popular topic of interest as a springboard to spark young students’ curiosity about possible future careers they might have never known about — Aquatic Veterinarian, Marine Biologist, Underwater Filmmaker, etc. It was well-organized and rich in information. One innovation that I decided I particularly liked was that they put the Glossary in the front instead of the usual position in the back of the book: though students may not take the time to read it first, they will at least have seen it, so they know they can refer back as needed.

As is so often the case when trying to create a non-fiction early readers, the constraints of the format limit the information severely. With only 1-3 sentences per page, it’s important in such a book to be very careful about choosing what information to include and how to organize it coherently. This one came off as very disjointed.

I love a good wordless picture book, and the illustrations in this one are simply gorgeous! The soft, moody watercolors show us a father-son fishing expedition on the high seas. Below we see a pod of whales swimming by until one gets tangled in some discarded nets and crab pots. As their day comes to an end, the young boy notices the whale’s distress and convinces his dad they must help. As they get close, we see the whale reflected in the eye of the fisherman, and the fisherman and his son reflected in the eye of the whale. The fisherman dives in and cuts the whale free of the ropes, and after he returns safely to his boat, the whale breeches in thank you. Then they sale home in the sunset.

The illustrations in this book are absolutely gorgeous. They invite you into the story so that you almost forget that a tame, talking tiger wouldn’t really wander out of the woods at a family campground. At his family’s traditional end-of-summer camping trip, the young narrator is feeling down about growing up. After a week of sleeping with the tiger, boating and fishing and stargazing with the tiger, he is sad when it leaves camp on their last day to return to its cave, just as his family must return to their home. When he gets home, he immediately draws his tiger friend to show to his new teacher. It’s a story that left me a bit puzzled at the end, wondering, “huh…I wonder what the point of all that was supposed to be…” and yet I didn’t really care that I was a bit confused. It managed to evoke such sentiment and emotion that I really enjoyed it, even if I didn’t quite “get it.”