I love this pair’s work, and this one does not disappoint.  The illustrations are fabulous and draw the eye, and the text is simple yet fascinating.  We all have the understanding of what little humans are able to do on their first day of life (and just in case young readers aren’t sure, the first page reminds us).  Each page in this book is dedicated to a different animal describing it’s first day.  The selected animals are wide-ranging, from the familiar to the exotic, from those born helpless to those who are independent from the start.  Though the few sentences on each page are just enough to tantalize, detailed paragraphs in the back of the book offer more detailed information on each animal, including what part of the world it inhabits, and it’s typical birth size and weight.

A clever little story about a pig and an alligator who share the same birthday.  When they stumble upon each other, the alligator captures the pig and thinks it’s his lucky day, as he ponders the birthday feast the pig will provide.  But the clever piglet outsmarts the alligator at every turn, manipulating events so that all the alligator’s plans turn in his own favor.  A twist at the end lets us know that the clever pig has been plotting all along, as a true trickster character.  A delight.

It’s beautiful and it’s sentimental and sweet, without being cotton candy sweet.  The text declares Christmas to be a quiet time, and then goes on to list a variety holiday situation that bring on different kinds of quiet, from the sneaky quiet of not wanting to get caught looking for presents, to the chastised quiet when you’re in time out after getting caught, to the quiet awe of lighting up the tree.  The illustrations are soft and charming and add meaning to the two-three word phrase on each page.

Fans of the other Scaredy Squirrel books will be drawn to the illustrations, which are very much in line with the character of the other books, but I am afraid they may be disappointed as they start reading, because there is no actual story to this one.  It is instead a Christmas manual, written from the perspective of Scaredy Squirrel, filled mostly with lists, outlining his views on mistletoe, fruitcake, gifts, etc. Visually appealing, but lacking much in the way of substance.

Wow! This book is fabulous! Just like it’s companion book, “Mirror Mirror,” this book is a series of Reverso poems based on fairy tales, some obvious and familiar, others more obscure.  Reverso poems are two side-by-side poems that use the exact same words, but by reversing the order in which the lines are written and changing punctuation, they completely alter the meaning of the text (often reversing the meaning entirely).  I was grateful for the paragraphs in the back which offer brief synopses of the fairy tales on which the poems are based, as some were unfamiliar to me.  The illustrations and bright and eye-catching and really contribute to setting the two poems against each other. I think this kind of play with words would have applications at all age-levels.  A treat!

ARG! Most definitely NOT recommended.  I’m not even sure I want to put it in my library.  It does have some nice features – great photos, a consistent layout, basic information outlined for struggling readers, with extra information added for those interested & ready to read a bit more.  I was almost ready to forgive it for being guilty of my biggest pet peeve with books written for early readers — when in their efforts to keep the text simple they oversimplify to the point of inaccuracy.  On the page about macaque monkeys, it states that, “During the winter, they warm up in hot springs.”  While this is certainly what is depicted in the photo chosen for the book, it cannot be said of all macaque monkeys, as they don’t all live where there is winter, let along where there are hot springs near by.  Then they compounded their mistake by putting a true/false quiz in the back, designed to test students’ comprehension of their reading, when they come right out and ask students whether it is true or false that, “Macaque monkeys warm up in hot springs.” Of course, their answer key declares this to be a true statement, even though it’s not necessarily so. Ugh!

Given that it’s trying to cover the animals, weather, industry and landscape of an entire (and very diverse) continent in only a few simple sentences per page, it doesn’t do a bad job.  I only found one place to object to it’s oversimplification: when the sentence, “Other people live in villages,” is immediately followed by, “They grow rice on farms,” it implies that all villagers are farmers, which of course is not accurate.  But over-all not bad, just basic.

It’s a decent little book: sturdy binding, nice full-page color photos, solid information in clear sentences.  But with it’s limited scope (32 pages, with just a couple easy sentences per page), trying to cover a vast topic like an entire continent means it’s only very basic, generalized information.  The photos don’t always do as good a job of supporting the text as I would like, either (e.g. text says that lions, giraffes, and zebras live in Africa, but accompanying photo shows only zebras).  Still, not bad.

The title says it’s “A Day with Mail Carriers,” but it’s really only about half about what the mail carriers are doing, and the rest is about the people sending and receiving the mail.  To be true to it’s title, I wish it had told more about what happens at the post office, and about different types of mail carriers.

If I had looked closer at what I was getting I wouldn’t have even taken these for free — they’re completely not suited to library use.  I know the kids like the transparent pages, and though not sturdy the regular ones are fine.  But these transparent pages are in front of black pages, so that the only way the reader can view what’s on them is by sliding a punch-out “torchlight” behind them (a piece of paper with a white “spotlight” to illuminate small portions of the illustrations at a time).  It’s gimmicky, and there’s no way the punch-out torch will last more than a month before getting lost.