The audience for Triceratops is preschool through first grade.  The text is large and the vocabulary is geared for the earliest of readers.  The information is adequate for a young child.  The photos are obviously taken from exhibits featuring life-like dinosaurs.  Younger boys usually can’t get enough of dinosaurs so this book is perfect for them.

Caterina loves riding her scooter and wants to buy another one.  She decides to make a lemonade stand but she knows that in order to make money she will have to have outstanding lemonade and a stand that will attract customers.  Erin Kono is the author and illustrator of this book and her creativity is clearly seen in her beautiful designs and colors.  You have to admire Caterina’s creativity and work ethic, but at the end of the story you’ll see that Caterina isn’t doing this for herself.  She is buying a scooter for Leo, her little brother.  The message is a good one for kids to read about.

Kids are fascinated by robots and this book, Zoobots, explain how scientists have studied animals and applied the animal’s skills to a machine.  Each pair of pages depicts a real animal and the robot which mimics it.  A picture of the animal, it’s characteristics and behavior are explained and then a picture of the robot, it’s abilities and purposes are explained.  Scientists have really tried to replicate features which will be able to do jobs to help mankind.  Those kids scientifically oriented will love this book.

The Queen and Mr. Brown is a charming picture book about Queen Elizabeth of England and her corgi, Mr. Brown, who decide to spend the day at the Natural History Museum.  After a long walk, they arrive and see all sorts of dinosaur skeletons.  Getting tired, the Queen sits on a bench and falls asleep dreaming of Ascot, a horse racing venue in England, and she is riding a dinosaur.  She is awakened by a guard who tells her it’s closing time and she and Mr. Brown goes home.  The illustrations are colored pencil drawings, and it’s easy to recognize the Queen, but all the dinosaurs look the same.  The text/story does give some brief facts about dinosaurs, but not much. American students who heard the story did not know who the Queen was, and it would not have made any difference.  This is probably a book best used in England.

Animals on the African Savanna follows animals around from sun-up to sundown.  Every two pages constitute a chapter, and the table of contents shows a nickel-size picture of the chapter subject along with the chapter title telling where the animals are and at what time of their day.  Each two-page spread shows a vignette of the savanna with one of the native animals.  I could not figure out if they were photographs or illustrations, but I see that there is an illustrator, not photographer, that’s given credit.  The picture fades to blur along the outside edges and the inside of the picture shows one of the animals in nice detail and color.  Each chapter also has insets that are a little larger than a quarter coin depicting other animals which might be seen at that particular location.  The text is in a large font and readable, however young children won’t understand many of the words.  I usually update my non-fiction collection with books which have outstanding photography that captures the creatures in action with every little detail shown; photos that almost as good as being there.  This book just doesn’t meet my standard.

The two main characters, Prince Aspen and Snail, are as different as night and day.  The prince has been trained to be a royal and Snail is an apprentice midwife.  Aspen is a hostage prince.  His father, a king of the neighboring Seelies, exchanged him with a son of a king of the Unseelies.  If a war were to break out between the two kingdoms, the princes would be the first to be killed, so this is their way to prevent war.  However, Jack, a traitorous ‘friend’ to Aspen, has told him war is about to break out and he will help him escape to go home.  This is all a lie in order to kill Aspen.  Snail and other midwives and their apprentices are locked up in a dungeon about to be sentenced to death for their bungling in the queen’s birth of a new child.  Snail escapes and hooks up with Aspen to find their way out, encountering a myriad of creatures and soldiers.  Aspen may be the prince but it is Snail and her wits and common sense that save them.  They finally make it to Aspen’s home only to find out that there is no war brewing.  The king decides that Aspen’s return might actually cause a war and orders him killed.  He and Snail escape, again, and she thinks they should begin a new free life and he wants to stop the war.  Good descriptive characterization and  plot,  lots of surprise action.  Should be a hit with fantasy lovers.  This is book one of a new trilogy.

In June 1941, Otto and Leni, two young refugees from the Nazis living in England, are sent on a secret mission to Bavaria, to extract a young girl attending summer camp, and who may hold the key to the war.  Filled with suspense and plenty of action, this WWII novel should appeal to both boys and girls.  The relationship established by hero Otto and heroine Leni adds to the interest of the story.  But who is this young girl they’ve been sent to “rescue” and return to England?  Could it be Hitler’s daughter?  An addendum to the book explains the historical figures appearing in the book and the roles they played in true life WWII on both the German and English sides.  Surprise ending holds the reader to the very last!

Best Kept Secret, the third book in the series Family Tree by Ann M. Martin, begins in the year 1977. In Princeton, Dana’s daughter seven-year old Fancie is struggling to keep her dyslexia a secret from her teachers and her family.  Even the thought of high school and college is part of the remote and unattainable future.  Events in her family life include the divorce of her parents, the cancer death of her dear Aunt Adele, and eventually a household which includes her Down Syndrome 31 year old Uncle Peter.  Francie is supported by a number of really good friends and finds herself developing her talent as a writer.  At the end of the book she marries the brother of her best friend and leads the reader onto the fourth book in the series with her daughter Georgia.  Written on a fourth grade level I would recommend this book, and the entire series, to middle school girls because of the life circumstances presented.  The storyline is somewhat predictable having read Books One and Two, but enjoyable.

This is a typical Boxcar Children mystery, however, the illustrations are more contemporary and interesting.  In this episode, the Alden children are at a wild west town when mishaps begin to occur.  There is a stranger in town who wants to buy the town, but the children gather clues and find the culprit.  This story was a little too easy to solve and the story would be perfect for the minds of first and second graders who would be able to read it.  Maybe written at a third grade reading level it just doesn’t quite match up with age of student who’d be interested. Needs to be more of a story; good illustrations.

Who knew feet could be so interesting?  Arndt is both author and photographer in this compilation of the feet of various animals.  The feet are divided into groups according to how they move: walk, climb, swim or dig, an interesting approach.  Many of the photographs have captured the animal’s foot against a pure black background, the contrast making the textures stand out more noticeably.  No table of contents and the index is arranged by the various animals’ feet shown.