Kids love to ask, “What if…?” This story is a series of adventures had by a couple young polar bears whose imaginations jump into high gear to address a series of what-if situations, beginning by finding themselves lost and alone floating on a chunk of ice, and ending with setting off in a rocket made from their backpack. It’s one of those books in which the illustrations really add meaning to the brief text, often offering previews of things to come alluding to past pages. This book would be a great launching tool for a conversation or writing assignment asking the students to generate or complete other what-if scenarios.

This edition is a reprint of a book originally completed in 1982. It’s a poem imagining a world without war. The illustrations are paper-cut images where partial pages turn one image into another, showing the transformation of a war-torn world into a land of peace. It begins with a hawk who transforms itself into a dove; a tank becomes a tractor; bombers become butterflies…etc. I just don’t think young kids are going to get the symbolism involved.

It’s one of those picture books that combine a story with informational text. The story tells of a group of children visiting a neighbor who keeps bees, but the story is just a vehicle for the information the book is sharing about the importance of bees to our ecosystem: their needs and what they contribute. The cartoonish illustrations and story invite the reader in and the non-fiction text is straight-forward and clear, while still offering significant depth of knowledge.

This non-fiction picture book tells the story of the invention of Crayola crayons. Crayons are such a ubiquitous part of childhood, it’s fun to hear the back story of how they came to be. This is a great way to introduce children to non-fiction connected to something they are all familiar with. The illustrations are colorful and inviting and help set the stage for the turn of the twentieth century, when this childhood toy came into being.

There are only three words used to tell this story: ours, yours, and mine. Normally I am a big fan of wordless and nearly-wordless picture books. But this one seems to struggle with making its point. I think it’s trying to say it’s better to share than to worry about what’s yours and what’s mine. It begins by showing a young panda entering the cave of an adult panda asking if it’s theirs, to which the adult panda replies that it is his. After a series of “this is mine; this is yours,” the adult panda sends the youngster off with a kite. As the young panda wanders through the forest following his kite, he keeps running into other woodland creatures who are possessive of their stuff. Eventually the little critters all grab onto the string of the kite and are flying away until the grown panda pulls them back to earth and then they all end up hanging out together in the cave, sharing all their stuff. It’s just a little vague.

Beautiful illustrations and poetic text introduce students to the different types of homes animals build. The vocabulary is rich, the illustrations are lush, and it ends by acknowledging that Earth is the home shared by us all. It really is a lovely book.

The story consists of a dialogue between the narrator trying to tell the story and the panda who is intended to be the main character. But when the narrator declares that the panda has a problem, the panda protests that all is well, and turns the table on the narrator, suggesting that perhaps the narrator is the main character and the panda is the problem. The panda suggests a whole series of problems, including raining jelly beans and aliens and a trip to the antarctic, until they are in such a muddle they need the narrator to find them a way home. It could be useful in teaching story elements.

I think maybe I would appreciate it more if I were more familiar with Robinson Crusoe (I keep meaning to read that!). But since my students are probably even less familiar with the famous adventure novel than I am, I suspect they, too, may find the story a bit flat. They would probably relate easily to the uneasy feelings the main character faces when he shows up at a costume party in a costume that gets him teased, and the desire to leave early that results. But when our hero does escape the party to go home to bed and ends up dreaming of a life of adventure on a deserted island, I’m not sure most of my students would get the connection. Though they would appreciate the ending in which his friends show up with apology notes, asking to hear more about the character he had dressed as.

It’s a celebration of the power of imagination. The illustrations are charming and fanciful. A little girl complains to her grandmother that she’s bored, so grandma suggests she go play in the garden, where she’s sure she saw a tiger earlier. Young Nora insists she’s too old for such silly games, so she sets out to prove her grandmother wrong. As she ventures forth, she does find some of the other things her grandmother said she would (dragonflies the size of birds, plants that want to eat her — or at least her toy giraffe — alive, and a grumpy polar bear — which talks, no less), but she keeps insisting there couldn’t possibly be a tiger. When she does indeed find herself face-to-face with a friendly tiger, she asks it if it is real, but the tiger turns the question back at her, asking if she is real, which leaves her puzzled. The two come to a deal to believe in each other, supposing that that will make them both real.

It’s cute. It begins the morning of a big auto race with Mama Lion and Tiger making final preparations before heading out to join the others at the starting line. Just before the race begins Mama Lion takes a look at the prizes on display and notices that second place wins a small cup, which is rather significant, since during their morning preparations she had just noticed that Tigey’s cup at home was leaking. Mama Lion and Tiger get off to a strong lead, so that they even have time to enjoy the ride through the countryside, but just as they notice the Pandinis hot on their tale. Braking in a hurry to avoid hitting a butterfly Mama Lion and Tiger lose a wheel, giving the Pandinis a chance to take the lead, except the Pandini team stops to help. Just as they are ready to return to the race, the shady knitted monkey crew fly past, throwing banana peels into the road behind to slow down their competition. Just as it looks like it’s going to be close, Mama Lion makes the decision to slow her car, letting the helpful Pandini team take the grand prize. She is content with the useful second-place cup and the knowledge that she’s won some friends that day.