The artwork is cool:  a lot of diverse folks in an urban setting.  The text is philosophical: a series of questions, each a variation on the theme of why are we each who we are and not somebody else? I was a bit disappointed in that I hoped it would eventually have some philosophical thoughts to share as to possible answers to such questions.  It’s meant to be targeting a childhood audience, but I fear it will find a limited number of children who truly appreciate it.

Steve Jenkins.  He never disappoints.  Here he presents a whole host of animal statistics with the visual graphs and charts to put the numbers in perspective.  It’s visually appealing and highly informative.

It tells the story of a part of the civil rights movement that was unknown to me, and certainly one whose story deserves to be told, both to recognize this bit of history and to inspire young people to do their part for things they believe in.  The end papers provide several dates for significant events throughout the civil rights movement, providing the context/timing for this bit of the struggle.  When MLK Jr. tried to organize marches in Birmingham in May of 1963, the adults feared losing their jobs if they marched, so the children stepped forward, offering to march instead.  Over three days thousands of children marched, were arrested and fire-hosed, while televisions across the country broadcast their treatment.  Days later city leaders begin to negotiate plans for desegregation.  The illustrations are rich in color and emotion, contributing greatly to the impact of the story.

When the children gather for story time at the library, but the librarian is missing, the clues lead to a bear behind the librarian’s desk.  The bear stomped and growled and roared his way through story time, much to the children’s delight.  When the librarian finally returns and introduces “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” as the day’s story, they find baby bear missing from the pages of the book. After urging the bear to step back into the story, they begin again, only to find Goldilocks missing this time.  It’s fine, but not exactly gripping.

It’s a simple story about a girl’s day out with her grandfather to celebrate his birthday, riding the streetcar together to a nearby beach, having lunch out, and returning to the rest of the family and cupcakes to end the day.  It reminds us all to enjoy the simple adventures to be found close to home, that the adventure is in the attitude rather than the destination.

A fun story, full of classic David Shannon illustrations that add to the fun and appeal.  It’s also got a good message, reminding us all of the value of stopping to smell the flowers.  Mizz Lizzie is very proud to be the busiest bee around, and highly accomplished because of it.  But when she pushes herself too hard preparing for the big spelling bee, she ends up collapsing in exhaustion right at the crucial moment, missing her chance to meet the queen bee.  When enforced rest is thrust upon her, she finally joins her friend who loves lazing in the garden, and ends up meeting the queen after all, who is also fond of the garden.

Oooh. Ick. Avoid this series.  I don’t like to be mean, but I was only part way through the story before I had to check the publisher to see who was responsible for letting this get to print.  It’s meant to be some kind of hybrid between fiction and non-fiction — on the back of the book it bills itself as a tool for “understanding and comparing literature and informational texts.”  But this is a far cry from literature.  The fictional part of the story is lame and stilted and lacks any kind of character development, and the information is limited.  Stick with straight forward volcano information books.

Even the end papers and the title page bring the reader into the genre of the classic detective story.  The story is about an out-of-work Pigeon P.I. who is brought back to service when several birds turn up missing.  The clues lead him to his former partner who was tired of being a plain gray pigeon and kidnapped a multitude of colorful birds to provide feathers to add to his own plumage.  Both the illustrations and the tone of the story telling evokes a Dick Tracy type gumshoe story.

It gives a clear account of many aspects of Chickasaw culture.  It is careful to acknowledge the injustices they faced at the hands of the U.S. government.  It is illustrated with color photos of actual artifacts.  It recognizes the tribe as a unique nation.  It’s got a good sturdy binding.  I am delighted to see that the list of significant dates that recaps the history of the people is not mistakenly described as a “timeline” as so many books do.  My one criticism of the book is that it deals almost entirely with the history of the Chickasaw people:  the one page dedicated to “The Chickasaw Today” merely states rather vaguely that many people continue to honor the traditions and stories of the past, without really telling us anything about the people of today, other than to say that there were about 49,000 people in the Chickasaw tribe in 2011.  I would like to know more about what those 49,000 folks are experiencing and contributing today.

The illustrations really add to the interest of this book.  The writing is a bit flat.  It does the basic job of telling many different aspects of Lena Horne’s life, but it seems to leave out some basic details: since it never actually says when Lena was born, when it mentions other specific dates later on, the reader has no way of tracking how old Lena was at different points in her life story.  It does include a lot of information about the roadblocks Lena faced as a woman of color in the days before the civil rights movement, as well as efforts she contributed within the civil rights movement.