Sometimes trying to doll yourself up, or change into something you aren’t, backfires. Glamsters is the story of two sister hamsters who are awaiting adoption in a pet store.  One is worried she’ll never get a home and so she makes herself into a ‘glamster’ or glamorous hamster.  When her sister awakens and sees her, she freaks out.  Realizing that trying to make yourself into something different won’t work, it’s not natural.  So one sister cleans the other one up and the act of taking care of one another is what attracts a young girl looking for a pet.

Zena wakes up to a gray, colorless room and embarks on a journey outside to find the colors.  Each page she comes to is one color whereby kids can name all the things that color.  The book introduces the primary colors first and then the secondary colors.  Each time a new color is introduced, Zena’s hat turns that color, and a polka dot on both her and her dog become that color.  At the end all colors join to become a rainbow.  There is a color wheel activity at the end, which is written for people with absolutely no experience doing art with little kids.  Preschoolers totally enjoyed this book.

Sometimes you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and that’s what we call grumpy.  Maya, a little girl, didn’t know why she was grumpy, she just was.  Everything she did was done grumpily.  But grandma had the fix and slowly, slowly, a little bit at a time, grandma got her to smile and be happy, all by going to the park to play on Maya’s favorite toys.

Three Cheers for Trees explains to young children through the use of text and clear photographs how important trees are to earth and to us, by providing clean air.  Although the message is a good one, I believe that the definition and examples of fossil fuels were weak.  There could have been better explanation as to how people or machines use these fuels before explaining how to decrease our carbon footprint.  A valuable, but weak message.

Clear, colorful photographs on each page distinctly show what each letter of the alphabet stands for, and there doesn’t have to be any imagination to figure it out.  Football covers it all.  Either kids know everything about football or they seem to know nothing.  This book does a good job of explaining some basics.  Considering I read this book just before the Super Bowl and the Seahawks were on their way, all kids were eager to learn more.  It makes a good addition to our school’s library.

Charming story set in New York city during the early 21st century when libraries were not allowing children inside.  This story tells the life of Annie Moore, who was trained to be a librarian, and helped to revolutionize library access to children in New York city, setting an example for other cities and countries to follow.  Heartwarming story with bright and cheerful acrylic paints. Recommended.

French words are deftly intertwined within this story of a French mouse living near a beautiful cathedral who is hopeful to become the next tooth mouse, which is a “tooth fairy”.  Since she is so young and small, she is told that she doesn’t have much of a chance.  She enters the contest and the rules are stated: you must prove yourself brave honest and wise.  The wall of names of children about to lose a tooth was daunting and her greatest challenge was what to do with all of the teeth!  But, alas, this little mouse comes up with the wisest of ideas.

The illustrations beautifully assist in the story telling of the young Chinese American girl who is learning to use her chopsticks as adeptly as her older family members.  Her perseverance pays off as she succeeds by the end of the story with the encouragement and support of her family.

This is a cute book that has only one word “BALL.”   The illustrations are what make this book so fun and entertaining.  Most everyone can relate to a dog or cat that has a toy that they obsess over. This is a very fun book.

This book has fun pictures but the story line seems to have no real conclusions.  Maybe for kids who like to imagine their own solutions, this could be an interesting book, to me, it just seamed to ramble around.