Well, it’s definitely not an R*, which I really wanted it to be, since I recognized the kitty on the front from it’s partner book, Lost, which I absolutely loved.  I’m sorry to say this one did not live up to my hopes, and out of frustration I almost knocked it down to an additional purchase.  But I decided that wasn’t really fair.  Disappointment aside, the illustrations are strong, and kids will eat up the story of the cute kitty who sneaks into Mr. Fluffy Boots’s bag, gets a ride on his sleight and gets to visit his North Pole workshop, before deciding he really longs to be home.

Very real story, addressing a very typical challenge to friendship:  Paula, the beaver, and Maggie, the elephant, have been friends their whole lives.  Paul tells about all the fun things they’ve done together and all the nice things Maggie does for her.  But Veronica doesn’t agree. Veronica is an indeterminate animal, but based on her behavior, I’m deciding she’s a weasel.  Veronica whispers to Paula that she thinks Maggie is too big.  Paula knows she should stick up for Maggie, but makes the decision to play with Veronica and her posse, and ignores her life-long friend (but the illustrations make it clear she’s not comfortable with her choices.  Despite Paula turning her back on Maggie, when Veronica turns on Paula, Maggie comes charging to the rescue, proving that she’s a true friend, no matter what.  The illustrations alone show the hurt and contrition and forgiveness that are needed to mend the friendship after it’s been damaged, leading to the hopeful ending declaring that they’ll be friends forever.

I LOVE this book! The illustrations are simple, yet really charming and sweet.  The story is one every child can relate to:  it’s a whole series of things that Aberdeen didn’t mean to do, but circumstances keep leading him a little farther from home on an adventure that starts with following a red balloon that floated by.  Before he knows it, he’s alone and lost and it’s getting dark.  When Mom comes and finds him, he apologizes and says he didn’t mean to worry her.  Mom hugs him tight, and tells him she knows he didn’t mean to.  But he did.  I think it does a fabulous job of recognizing that very human experience of creating unintended consequences that wasn’t really what we meant to do, while also getting in that reminder that we need to acknowledge those consequences, whether or not it’s what we meant to do.

It’s basically a celebration of kids spending a day with Dad.  The illustrations and words work together to honor ordinary everyday delights, like pancake breakfasts and running errands and playing in the park and building forts and reading stories, while giving them some fun alligator twists (a fish tail sticking out of the pancake, bathtub letters spelling out, “swamp,” etc.)

The illustrations are fun, colorful, childlike cartoons.  The story is convoluted.  It starts out with a knight who rode away, but then the teller of the story remembers he didn’t actually have a horse, so he changes his mind and says that he strode away.  It continues is this manner — every time something is said to have happened, the narrator changes his mind and says it was really something else.  It rhymes more or less, but is still awkward to read.

It’s a bedtime story a little bit reminiscent of Goodnight Moon, but in a softer, more lyrical sort of way.  And instead of saying goodnight to the things in the room, the young boy and his friend are walking around the whole farm/household watching as the world settles into night.  There are only a few words per page, with lots of repetition and rhyme.  The illustrations set a quiet bedtime mood.  It’s sweet.

I’ve read several books in this series, and I keep being disappointed.  They have a really good designer who has created a layout that makes for an attractive book to sit on the shelf, or pick up and flip through.  The covers are shiny.  There are lots of attractive color photos.  I just wish they’d paid more attention to the most effective communication of information.  These are dull and basically read like textbooks — a general overview of all the pertinent information on a very shallow level.  They miss so many opportunities to use the photos in a more effective manner:  when they are describing unusual fruits or animals specific to the country, likely to be completely unfamiliar to students from other parts of the world, photos would have been highly appropriate.

The illustrations are really cute.  The story is okay.  Edgar is a mouse who loves to build things from the food scraps he finds, but his best friend Toby keeps eating his creations, so he heads off to go where he will be appreciated, only to find mice everywhere keep eating his creations.  He heads home dejected, but finds a gift from Toby — his own set of inedible building blocks.  It’s fine, but I’m thinking the solution to the problem seemed a bit obvious.

I’m a fan of this whole series.  They both share the real-time science currently being investigated and studied in different parts of the world (in this case about sea turtles), and also share about the life and work of the scientists themselves.  Illustrated with full-color photographs, they offer readers a chance to be fascinated by creatures they didn’t know were fascinating, and they also inform students about career possibilities in the sciences.  This one does a particularly good job of communicating the dangers faced by the leatherback sea turtles, and efforts being made to help them, while also making clear that there is still much that is still unknown.

I’m a fan of this whole series.  They both share the real-time science currently being investigated and studied in different parts of the world (in this case about octopuses), and also share about the life and work of the scientists themselves.  Illustrated with full-color photographs, they offer readers a chance to be fascinated by creatures they didn’t know were fascinating, and they also inform students about career possibilities in the sciences.