A beautifully illustrated story about elderly cats, young cats, and helping children overcome the death of a pet. Toby’s cat, Jack, is the best cat ever. But Jack is getting old, and Toby will miss his furry best friend terribly when he’s gone. Then Toby meets a crazy cat called Humphrey. In this charming and beautifully illustrated picture book Rebecca Elliott addresses the difficult subject of a child’s first experience of the death of a pet with warmth, sensitivity, and well-placed humor.

Baby Billy was born with a mustache. But Baby Javier, the new baby in town, was born with a beard. When Baby Javier comes over for a playdate, Baby Billy tries to show him a thing or two—but it quickly becomes a competition of manliness! Has Mustache Baby met his match? Or will the two remember the real point of a playdate?
The first book, Mustache Baby, was good, but this just takes it up to a whole new level! Again, there’s the hilarious character plays behind each style of mustache, but now throw in a beard and it gets that much better. Also, it still has the sentimental side where two kids are learning how to become friends. The illustrations? This book would not be what it is without them. There’s so many subtle little jokes in the illustrations! I love it. I love that it’s hilarious, clever, sentimental, and well-done. I highly recommend it, even if you haven’t read the first.

Kids are fascinated by sharks; the bigger the teeth, the better.  Plus, sharks this past summer have been in the news almost daily because of attacks on beach-goers.  By page 40 of Surrounded by Sharks, I had goosebumps and was scared for the main character, a 13-year-old boy named Davey.  Davey and his family were on the first day of vacation on a small island off the coast of Florida.  An early riser, Davey gets up and leaves the room while the others are sleeping.  Thinking he’d do some exploring and quiet reading, he finds a secluded beach which fits the bill.  There is a No Swimming sign posted, but Davey just wants to wade in to his knees and feel the warm water.  As waves splash him, he decides to go a little farther since he’s already wet.  He’s up to mid-chest but still touching the bottom, when he realizes the beach is farther away than he thought.  He turns to go back towards shore, but the riptide is carrying him out farther and farther.  No matter how hard he swims, he cannot get closer, until finally the current carries him out to sea.  Meanwhile he parents and brother have awakened and are searching for him, becoming more desperate with each passing minute.  Where could he be?  The obvious is on everyone’s mind–sharks–but no one had the courage to speak it out loud.  The suspense in this book is unbelievable–frantic swimmer, frantic parents, makes you want to scream Hurry!  Hurry!  Get a boat!  This is a real nail biter and should be a huge hit with the intermediate age readers.

I occasionally find myself watching a television show about haunted houses. If you do too, then this might be the book for you.

I’m not saying one way or the other whether or not I believe in ghosts and that is the stand Kat Sinclair is taking also. As this book series begins, 13 year old Kat Sinclair and her father are off to travel the world with a “ghost hunting” TV show Kat’s father will be hosting. Kat’s grandmother ( a former horror movie actress) has given her a very expensive camera to take along  on Kat’s travels. Also, grandmother is requesting Kat start a blog about her travel experiences.

Kat tries to be objective, but “Suddenly, I felt ridiculous. One day with a bunch of ghost hunters and I was already buying into the whole paranormal activity thing. Still…” (p. 59) “So that made three weird glitches: the printer, the camera, and the laptop… I wasn’t ready to believe the glitches were all thanks to a restless spirit haunting the show, but at least now I had something to write about for my second blog post.” (p. 64)

The pace keeps building and the suspense with it as urban legends of haunted places in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and a prison in Brussels keep the reader racing across the pages. So fast paced, I suspended my skepticism in ghosts and took the actions for fact.

Warning! If you are squeamish over the mere mention  of a ‘tween being bullied for being gay, this is not the book for you. The bullying is mentioned early in the book, but the reason for the bullying isn’t revealed until p. 214 of  the 240 pages. And at this point in the series, it is only mentioned as a reason for the boy’s unfriendliness.

Warning! The book has a Ouija Board being used by two young people who believe in its powers.

Poet Brian P. Cleary has done it again! Twenty-eight limericks are hilariously shared with the reader together with the comical illustrations of Andy Rowland.

A great pasta maker named Freddy

cooked eight hundred pounds of spaghetti.

He carted it down

to the center of town,

rang a bell, and yelled, “Supper’s ready!”   ( p. 21)

Cleary begins the books with, “Limericks… are a short, rhyming, and nearly always funny form of poetry that tells a story, and they have a few simple rules.”  (p. 4)  Some of the rules talked about are number of lines and rhyme scheme, giving examples along the way.

Though the book’s title ( Something Sure Smells Around Here)  will grab readers’ attention, that limerick is my least favorite in this collection of limericks.

Primary grade students will enjoy seeing farm life, as well as, other life which co-habits a farm. Across the bottom margin of each right-hand page are miniatures of: a pig, wheat, a frog, barn owl,  pea pod, ant, bee, and a sheep. These are the animals and crops  given a  few sentences ( three or four), on a page or two in this book as the reader tours a farm.

The idea of wild and domestic plants and animals successfully co-habitating the same area is well represented, though not directly stated.

Beatrice Bunny and Bear become best friends one spring. After a busy summer and fall doing everything together, Bear goes away to hibernate without telling Beatrice. When Beatrice finally discovers about hibernation, she plans to turn it into a sleepover with Bear. When Beatrice can’t sleep, “Beatrice had a brilliant idea. ‘I’ll share winter with Bear!’ “ With squirrel’s help, Beatrice created a book of winter things and activities which Bear missed while hibernating. Finally when Bear reappears in the spring, Beatrice has the perfect gift –– The Great Scrapbook of Winter Delights and Adventures for Bear, by Beatrice. “It was the perfect gift to read together again and again.”

Mônica Carnesi’s happy energetic illustrations are the perfect addition to her text, proving once again, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Twins Noah and Emma and their volcanologist father have traveled from Hawaii to spend a year in Alaska.  Noah thinks Alaska is the most boing place on Earth and cannot wait to return to Hawaii.  Their dad wants to take measurements on a dormant volcano on an island and Emma wants to see an eagle’s nest.  Their neighbor, Alex, goes along as a guide.  Almost immediately, the mountain begins grumbling and before they know it, they are in real danger.  They race back to the boat, hoping their dad has made it back as well.  Throughout their rush, they encounter quaking, poisonous gases, choking ash, sticky mud flows, and molten lava.  The action is fast and the story is sprinkled with many volcanic facts.  Additional volcano information is found in the back.  Fans of the “I Survived” series by Lauren Tarshis will be attracted by this and other books in the “Disaster Strikes” series.