The story is about a young Irish girl discovering a mummy buried in a peat bog.  Told from the young girl’s perspective, it recounts the events from discovery through placement of the mummy in the museum.  Throughout, the young girl who made the discovery is caught up in wondering about the young girl who was buried perhaps 1000 years before.  When she goes to see the museum exhibit, she raises the question of whether the dead girl misses her cozy resting place, and minds being put on display.  Normally I’m a big Eve Bunting fan, but this one didn’t capture me as much as I hoped.  There really wasn’t enough to the tale to make me care about the characters.  I don’t think most of my students will be impressed, but still I’m glad to own it, as part of the Eve Bunting collection.

Kids love how-to drawing books, but often they are too complicated for young artists to really achieve success.  The cute cartoon-like versions of the creatures in this book will be appealing to students, and they are broken down into simple-enough step-by-step procedures that young artists will be able to create reasonable facsimiles of their own without much trouble.  The final two-page spread shows all the creatures from the book gathered together in a single tableau.  I’d like to get the rest of the books in this series, as well, as I am sure they’ll be quite popular.

This fabulous bit of historical fiction, set in the era of reconstruction after the Civil War, is told from the perspective of a young girl, whose family is getting their first taste of freedom.  When news comes through that permission has been granted for all former slave couples to officially register their marriages in the eyes of the law, Ellen’s parents reminisce about their “broom wedding,” the only type of wedding that had been allowed under slavery.  The day the family goes together to the court house, Ellen brings along the family broom, and decorates it with flowers from the roadside as a wedding bouquet for her mother.  The cut-block illustrations are stunning, capturing both the time period and the mood of the story.

Bright, cheerful, fun illustrations and rhyming text tell the story of Zog and his classmates at dragon school.  Poor Zog is ever so very enthusiastic and well-meaning, but he struggles with each lesson, but after each failure he is comforted by a young girl who tends his bumps and buises.  When it comes time for the final lesson, how to capture a princess, the young girl reveals herself as Princes Pearl, and offers herself to be captures, so Zog finally gets his gold star.  Princess Pearl stays to tend the other dragons, too, until a knight shows up to rescue her; when she declares herself uninterested in being rescued, she and the knight team up as a flying medical crew, with Zog as their transport.  Presumably, they all live happily ever after.  Sure to be a hit.

I have a young niece who loves painting nails, and I’ve had the experience with other nail art books of having her want a design that is so complicated that I don’t even feel up to attempting it, let alone her being able to do it on her own.  The main thing I like about this book is that it really does seem geared to its target audience:  the designs are fun and showy, but (mostly) of very simple composition, with lots of close-up step-by-step photography, giving the impression that a young artist might actually be successful.  The text is simple and straight-forward and offers practical helpful hints.

This picture book graphic story is set on the streets of New York in the early 1900s.  A small shoe-shine boy is not having much business luck among the bustling crowds, when a bit of red falls from laundry lines strung between the buildings.  The young boys climbs crates and drain pipes and fires escapes as he scampers from balcony to balcony in search of the owner.  At each balcony he meets another of his neighbors, each from a different corner of the world, and each offering another suggestion as to who the bit of red may belong to.  The illustrations are fun, and kids will be drawn to the graphic format, but they may be disappointed it doesn’t have a more exciting plot.

A collection of short Christmas stories, including bible stories, stories describing the origins of holiday traditions from around the world, and assorted legends and others, the focus of the book is definitely on the religious aspects of the holiday.  Each story is 2-3 pages, and the author’s background as a story-teller comes through in the fluency and voice with which the stories are infused, intending them to be read aloud.  The illustrations are soft and inviting, and an appendix in the back offers readers specific ideas for each story to turn  it into an interactive experience if being shared with a large group.  A great tool for families wishing to share holiday traditions.

Beautiful illustrations accompany this tale of an old winter wind who is tired and looking for a place to rest.  Unfortunately, everywhere it tries to stop, someone shoos him along for fear of the damage he will do.  Every time he gets sent packing, his anger and frustration builds until he is quite the raging storm.  At the peak of the storm, a young girl takes pity on him and offers the wind refuge under her house.  His anger gone, the wind is able to rest until spring, when he awakes and flies away, leaving behind magical snow that never melts, keeping the kind girl and her family cool throughout the hottest summers.  An afterward shares what the author knows about the story’s origins, which may or may not be a Jewish folktale.

In this latest adventure of Elmer, the patchwork elephant, Elmer helps the little guys stand up to a bully.  All the animals of the jungle are noticing the quiet when the usual songbirds refuse to sing as they hide from the big bird who’s being a bully.  When the big bird refuses to listen to reason, Elmer comes up with a plan that brings everyone together to scare away the bully.  It’s bright colors and familiar character will be engaging to young students, and it’s message of sticking together to stand up to bullies is needed.

Charming water-color illustrations set the stage for this picture-book biography of Sarah Hale, the woman credited with convincing Abraham Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday.  Though it doesn’t have the same voice and drama of “Thank You, Sarah,” it’s got more concrete information, filling in gaps where the other story skims over some details.  Together they make a good pairing to share this little known bit of history.