I noticed that this book was originally written and published in 1982 and that might explain why it seemed a little dated.  The illustrations are cheerful, highly detailed and colorful.    In this story Mrs. Hen’s egg rolls out the her next and down a hole.  Friend Pakkun the wolf (he doesn’t resemble any kind of wolf I’ve ever seen) volunteers to go and get it.  Underground he encounters strange creatures and they go to sea where he swims with other strange creatures.  They go to dinosaur land and meet Mr. T Rex, who is friendly beyond belief.  They finally travel up Mt. Sulfur and in a cave find the ground littered with eggs, all starting to hatch.  Mrs. Hen’s egg is the smallest and he takes it back to her above ground.  All is well.  Kids will enjoy looking at all the details.

Boy, Were We Wrong About the Human Body is a non-fiction book which looks back over time as to what were accepted medical practices.  It begins with mummification in Ancient Egypt, includes leeching, and goes through time rather quickly until the past 100 years when medical knowledge expanded rapidly.  This book is for the older elementary student, however, this age of student typically likes actual photographs rather than watercolor illustrations.  Good idea but falls short.

Anyone who has small children knows that this book is non-fiction.  Beautifully illustrated it tells the story of Fred who is up and about on his adventures at night while everyone else sleeps.  In the story the everyone else is animals.  In real life, it’s the parents.  Lots of rhyming and lyrical couplets, the story is a great read aloud.  However I would hesitate to recommend purchasing for a school library simply because the audience is so limited.  I would recommend it for a parent with a young child.

I Feel Sick! is a version of the boy who cried wolf, in which the little princess didn’t want to do pretty much anything the grownups told her, so she pleaded illness.  And it’s really no surprise because each page is littered with junk food droppings so she probably really did feel sick.  The doctor says to eat lots of vegetables.  Funny illustrations as the doctor is covered with red spots and has a hacksaw in her pocket.  Interesting also that the grown-ups humor her and keep giving her junk food.  Finally she’s invited to a party of a friend and while there eats more bad food and dances and actually ends up sick.  Yup, that’ll do it.  I wish the parents hadn’t let her go to the party or had done something about her eating habits, in which case there would be a benefit to read it to child.

This is a story about something that has happened to everyone at some time or another:  saying something embarrassing.  In First Grade Dropout,  a boy accidentally calls his teacher mommy and his classmates howl with laughter.  He’s so embarrassed by it he doesn’t want to return to class the next day.  He thinks of running away, inventing a time machine, disguising himself into someone else, anything to avoid being laughed at.  Even his best friend laughed.  But at the end of the day he meets up with his friend who accidentally says something wrong.  Instead of being embarrassed, well..maybe he was for a second or two…but instead of letting it get him down he just laughed at himself.  And that was the key…everyone does it, it WAS funny, and he learned to laugh it off instead of crippling himself with embarrassment.

A colorful, imaginative story, Starring Shapes, has book characters which are the actual shapes and they are auditioning for a school play. The illustrations are bright and cheerful and the school (Shapeton Elementary) building and other buildings in town are all easily recognizable shapes.  All shapes play an important part of the play.  Young students will enjoy identifying the shapes and making their own Shape Town.

Can a story be too cute?  If so, I think Maple and Willow Apart is that book.  The third story of the sisters by Lori Nichol has Maple beginning kindergarten and Willow is home learning how to entertain herself.  As Maple comes home each day she excitedly tells Willow what happened at school that day, and Willow starts to come up with equally exciting news to share with Maple.  They are each a little jealous of each other.  It isn’t until Willow invents a new friend named Pip, that Maple realizes she misses being with Willow each day. Over the weekend they play together, and when the new week starts, Willow tells Maple that Pip wants to go to school with her.  Pip is actually an acorn but throughout the story you see a little boy wearing a knit cap that actually looks like the top of an acorn.  Both the story and the illustrations are simple and beautiful.  This book would be an excellent addition to any library and parents of young children could use it to guide their children.

In Scissors and Needle, originally published in Korea, Little Witch is out walking with her bag of fabrics.  As she needs something, she stops and fishes out the fabric she wants and cuts and sews what she needs.  And so it goes.  The illustrations look like quilts and objects are made using just three common shapes,  triangles, squares, and circles.  Young children will enjoy finding and naming all the shapes as well as creating some objects of their own.

Sport-O-Rama includes 22 different sports, each sport on a colorful two-page spread depicting the terminology, actions, and equipment of the sport.  Interesting choices in actions and all are worthy of attention.  Students will love to find their favorite sport and learn about others as well.  The end of the book includes descriptions of the alphabetized sports as well as a glossary.  This should be a popular book on the sports shelf.

Starting school as a kindergartener can be a scary experience and intimidating for little kids.  Princess Cupcake Jones is no different.  In this second installment of the series, Cupcake (her first name) doesn’t want to go to the first day of school and comes up with a full menu of excuses.  But what her mom manages to get out of her is that she is afraid no one will like her–a common fear among kids.  She goes and gives it a try and meets another girl who loves tutus as much as she does.  The story is told in rhyme and the illustrator does a nice job of incorporating various ethnicities into the story.  Kids should be able to relate well to Cupcake.  But I hope she loses the tiara in future installments.