People are becoming more and more conscious of the environment, kids included, and this book has great ideas on what to do with all those plastic gallon containers.  Ventura gives lots of ideas (kind of like Pinterest for kids) for games and actual useful items like bird feeders, bird houses, piggy banks, and so on.  The supplies necessary for each activity are mostly found around the house.  For kids who are crafty, this book is a winner.

In this retelling of the classic tale Chicken Little, Byrd does an excellent job in illustrating the various animals who believe the sky is falling.  His attention to the minutest detail is very pleasing to the eye.  This is the typical story with a slightly different ending.  Here, Foxy Loxy manages to get the group to his house and locks them up waiting to be cooked in a stew.  Chicken Little escapes and makes Foxy Loxy believe the sky really is falling by throwing apples on his head.  Foxy Loxy and his family run to tell the king thereby allowing the others to escape, who then run home.  This version does seem more believable than that of Steven Kellogg which was published in 1985.  This version makes a great replacement.

I’ll be the first to admit it, I am not a Captain Underpants fan, and this book reminds me why.  Basically, I have three main gripes: first, the comics portions of the book have such bad word choice, grammar and spelling.  Is this really what we want our impressionable kids to read?  Second, I find the illustrations of the teachers in their underwear or not and pulling down someone else’s pants pretty crude.  Really?  Do we want kids to laugh at teachers?  And, third, the telling of the story is all over the place.  Kids reading this aren’t tracking a story line–it’s just snippets of a story here and there, changing as fast as possible.  This series is extremely popular, mainly for boys in grades two and three, and those who are not so mature.  I am sure that this book will be too.

This fun, flip-book story is told from two perspectives.  Lucy, the cat, cannot wait for Luke to leave for school so she can begin her day’s adventures.  She chases squirrels, visits the supermarket for a snack, and stops by the pet store to play with toys.  As she plays in the sock display at the clothing store, she hears her boy.  She rushes home and is happily settled when Boy returns.  On the flip side Luke, the boy, leaves for school with a list of errands to do for his mom after school.  As he learns about lions, he thinks about his sleeping cat.  He stops by the supermarket, the pet store, and the clothing store just after his cat has caused a disturbance.  When he returns home, he curls up on the couch with his lazy cat.  Looking closely at the features in the colorful illustrations, one can find small details indicating the presence of both Luke and Lucy throughout the book.  Conversations and thoughts are written in a different font than the narration.  Fun to read with multiple classroom uses!

Boom, Snot and Twitty are three best friends.  Boom is a bear, Snot is a snail, and Twitty is a bird.  All three were relaxing and thinking of what to do that day and all three had different ideas.  So they did nothing and stayed where they were….and then a storm came up and left them worse for wear.  After the storm they were exhausted and were content to once again hang out with each other.  This is a very sweet, calming story of friendship and especially young children will relate to the fears of the storm and the comfort of home.

The cover itself of this book is striking–the different colors, shapes and textures–all on one animal.  I have to give this book a starred review simply because of the photos, which are totally awesome.  Each page features different iguanas in different situations–laying eggs, hatching from eggs, in trees, and so on.  The fine details, which a person wouldn’t really notice if one were looking at a live iguana, are highly visible for inspection.  The text has info which relates to each photo.  Terrific book and highly recommended for all elementary school libraries.

The color and clarity of these photos of zebra sharks are amazing–it seems that the fish are being suspended by some invisible thread.  The details such as their eyes, gills, and teeth are clearly seen.  The information is concise–not too much and not too little.  After all, most young children check out sharks books mainly just to look at the pictures, and they won’t be disappointed here.  Great book for use in teaching non-fiction skills.

The photos of the Siamese cats are large and clear, as they show off their beautiful blue eyes.  This book talks mainly about the social characteristics of the cat, but does not state anything about grooming, life expectancy, etc.  Towards the end there is a photo of a young girl holding both a Siamese cat and a dog; the cat doesn’t look too happy.  However, the accompanying text states that Siamese cats are good with children and other animals. Sure doesn’t look that way, plus on the very next page under More Facts, it states Siamese cats tend to be jealous.  They would not be happy if you brought home another animal.  It seems that there is a contradiction here.  This book would be good for teaching young children about the table of contents, glossary and index.  However, in my opinion, the facts and information need to be beefed up some more.

This book is like those Super Bowl commercials featuring the golden retrievers and horses–who doesn’t love them?  The photos in this book are crystal clear and the text aptly describes what the photo is showing.  The book provides basic information about the breed and would make a good beginning book to teach about index, glossary, and table of contents.