Stonehenge is truly an unexplained mystery.  No one knows why it was created or how it was used.  Large, heavy stones came from miles away and were set in a circle in a pattern of large sarsen stones and smaller bluestones.  Some suspect the site was sacred and used for ceremonies.  Some say it was set up to track solar movements.  Scientists have detected other monuments underground in the area.  Others believe aliens built it.  The stones have a bell-like tone when struck so perhaps it was used for festivals.  Scientists believe it took 1500 years to create, beginning around 3000 BCE.  The book presents many points to ponder but offers no answers.  A factsurfer website leads to additional information.  Three books are references along with a glossary and index.

Being true to oneself is the theme of this Helen Lester book.   Sloths do what sloths do, which is very little and very slowly.  All is going along contentedly until Sparky, a new classmate, comes to school.  She is full of energy and bounces around trying to get others to interact with her.  She thinks they were all bores until a real boar came to Sleepy Valley Sloth School – to close it!  The sloths only hope is Sparky, the only one with enough vim and vigor to change his mind.  She convinces the wild boar that the sloths are doing quite well in every school subject, especially in poetry.  They have known the sloth poem since they were babies and could recite it in their sleep… which they did!  This is a reissue of the original copyright date 1987.  A downloadable audio is available along with discussion and activity guides.

This story is about being considerate.  Pookins always gets her way because if she doesn’t, she makes faces, throws apples, or yells very loudly.  She is selfish and demanding.  One day while on a walk, she meets a magic gnome.  She insists on three wishes: new cowboy boots, a crown with plenty of diamonds, and to become a beautiful flower.  The gnome tries to talk her out of it, but a wish is a wish.  He puts her in a pot, dumps soil over hew new cowboy boots, waters her, and leaves her out in the sun.  Hours later, she becomes a flower.  She is not happy but can not do nothing about it because, as a flower, she can not make faces, throw apples, or yell loudly.  Suddenly it begins to rain.  The gnome’s powers will be lost if his hat gets wet.  For once, Pookins feels sorry for someone else and offers shelter to the gnome.  After the shower, the gnome proposes a deal.  He will release her from being a flower if she will give up making faces, throwing apples, and yelling loudly.   Watercolor and pencil illustrations are colorful.  Originally copyrighted in 1987, this is a reissue.  There is a free audio download and a discussion and activity guide for books in the series.

Evidently there are mysterious, hidden creatures living around the world but no one has ever been able to prove their existence.  Collectively called cryptids, they include beings such as trolls, unicorns, the loch ness monster, werewolves, goblins, mermaids, etc.  Blizz Richards is a yeti.  His cousin, Brian, was once photographed and immediately went into hiding.  George Vanquist, a rather inept crytptozoologist, took the photo of Brian and is on the hunt for other cryptids.  Blizz travels from Nepal to the wilds of Canada to search for Brian and to hold a family reunion.  George Vanquist and his underappreciated dog, Noodles, also arrive in British Columbia, Canada to hunt for proof of Bigfoot.  With so many cryptids gathered in one place, it is no surprise that Vanquist stumbles upon the reunion and snaps several photos.  He orders Noodles to put the camera in his bag as he envisions his new success.  Noodles has finally had enough of George and hands the camera over to the cryptids.  Proof gone.  Cryptids live safely on, undocumented.  The storyline tends to wander.  It is lack-luster and sometimes confusing.  Numerous black and white illustrations depict round-eyed, large mouthed characters.  The target audience would be young readers with an interest in friendly monsters.

Louis and his older sister Sarah were out riding when suddenly Louis got eaten by a large creature.  Sarah chases after trying to save him when suddenly the creature who ate Louis is eaten by another larger creature.  This happens three more times.  Finally Sarah catches up the the last and largest creature, crawls in it’s mouth, and into each mouth of each creature until she reaches Louis, who is calmly reading and waiting for her.  She figures out their escape, which works, and then the creatures all turn on her and Louis saves her in return.  First graders loved the story and did not even stop to think of how that could even remotely happen.  They cheered for Louis standing up to the creatures saving Sarah.  Who knew?  The illustrations look to be colored pencil, clear and crisp.  All in all, a fun book.

Caterina is a very organized little girl bird and is about to throw her first party.  Being organized means she has lots of lists.  She has lists of friends, food, decorations, and so on.  She is totally prepared for her first party when, of course, the only thing she cannot control happens–the weather.  But her friends show up and they have the best time ever.  The illustrations in this book are beautiful–each pair of pages has colorfully designed backgrounds, Caterina and her friends look to be typical illustrations maybe done in colored pencils, and then there are photos of real objects and textures and collages of different textures laid upon one another for depth.  To true enjoy this book, you need to look at the small stuff and how Kono gave her illustrations life.

This story gets funnier and funnier as you read.

It is a creative spin off “There was an old Woman who swallowed a fly.”

The pictures are big and colorful.  The text is large, clear, and easy to read.  There is an interesting facts page at the end of the story.

I liked the book.