Sam is very excited to hear that the new neighbors had a child named Charlie. He was surprised to find out that the new neighbor, Charlie, was a girl who had a little sister with his name, Sam. The two neighbors develop a great friendship that had its bumps along the way, such as small disagreements and accidental hurt feelings. However, Sam and Charlie knew the golden rule: love thy neighbor as thyself. This book has five stories that are approximately six pages each. It is perfect for children who want to start reading chapter books but are not quite ready yet. Cute, color illustrations are found on each page spread. Jewish religion is lightly brought into the stories.

Humphrey the hamster had a great summer break, but when he returns back to school in the fall, all of the students in Ms. Brisbane’s room are missing! Ms. Brisbane’s class is filled with strange students! Humphrey is determined to solve the mystery of what happened to the missing students. He sneaks out of his cage at night and explores the school looking for clues. While Humphrey discovers where his old classmates are, he also discovers the new classmates have specific needs that Humphrey can help with, and he learns that he loves his new classmates just as much as the others. This Humphrey book will surely be kids favorites!

Nugget and Fang, a minnow and a shark, are the best of friends until Nugget goes to school and learns about the food chain, that SHARKS EAT MINNOWS! Nugget tells Fang they cannot be friends and leaves him all alone. Fang tries to win Nugget back by doing things such as getting a tattoo of Nugget and inviting him to dinner, but nothing seemed to work. Suddenly a net swooped down and captured Nugget and his friends. Fang took the opportunity to be a hero and chew a hole in the net, winning Nugget’s friendship as well as all the minnow friends! Super cute friendship story about diversity. Brightly colored  illustrations will intrigue kids.

This cookbook contains over fifty braces-friendly recipes that kids will love, braces or not! It starts with substitution foods for the forbidden foods and offers delicious breads and breakfasts, lunches and main meals, vegetables, desserts and finally, tips and advice for those who wear braces. The recipes have a full color photo of each dish that can make the reader’s mouth water! I was surprised to see alcohol on the ingredients list of a recipe in the book. The binding is a spiral type that tends to not hold up to multiple uses. Comes with a table of contents, glossary, and index.

George “Suds”Morton introduced in Jerry Spinelli’s Fourth Grade Rats is the main character in Third Grade Angels. The teacher of third grade, Mrs. Simms, holds a competition every week to see which student deserves to be awarded “the halo” – which student is best-behaved, kindest to others, and in short, perfect.  Suds is determined to be first to earn the halo.  Striving to be perfect proves to be nerve-racking for Suds.  It’s not until the 16th chapter that the reader and Suds learn who is given the first halo. Should be an easy read for most third graders.  Enough humor and suspense to keep a child reading.  Good life-lessons taught subtly.

Did you know that in the year 2011, 7 trillion texts were sent worldwide?  This nonfiction book is full of valuable facts, information, and advice about internet use.  It teaches what cyberbullying, what is looks like, the seriousness, and what to do about it.  This information is current, relevant, and useful for instruction.  I recommend this book.

There are many different versions of this Grimm’s classic, but this is one worth investing in.  I recommend Mark Teague’s version because of the bold, large, wonderfully created illustrations and his great sense of humor infused in this “happy ending” tale of the bully wolf changing his persona by the end of the story.  Good use of infusing modern problems into this antiquated tale by including the lazy pigs eating soda pop and potato chips instead of healthy vegetables and fruits, like our brick building pig was eating.  Recommended!

This is a primary book with an easy reading level for those beginning readers.There are two sentences per page, with vocabulary words in bold and large colorful photos.  This particular book from Scholastic has heavy duty binding, which makes it a good value as it should wear well with student use. Recommended for PreK, K and perhaps 1st grade readers.

This ‘wonderful’ story takes place in 1939 when the United States was recovering from a severe depression, world wars were raging, when gypsy encampments were common in towns, when traveling carnivals and freak shows went from town to town, when schools for ‘wayward’ girls existed (no foster care system) and human trafficking was common.  Ah, the good ol’ days—NOT!   Portia Remini grew up in a gypsy family and loved to learn old stories.  One by one, her family members left in order to scratch a traveling itch.  With only an aunt, her father’s sister, to care for her, Portia had become a true loner.  The townspeople didn’t understand her, but were afraid of her free spirit.  Then, finally, the day came when her aunt took her to the McGreavey Home for Wayward Girls; Portia wasn’t wayward, it was just that her aunt was tired of looking after her.  Mister McGreavey, who ran the home, used the girls for slave labor for his apple orchard.  His treatment of them was harsh and devoid of any humanism.  His goal was to sell girls to men who required dutiful, obedient girls.  After Portia had seen his evilness, she escaped one night on Mister’s bicycle, getting as far away as possible.  She knew he would try to find her.  Her goal was to find her father.  She came upon a traveling circus and sideshow and was allowed to stay with them.  She learned each person’s story, and they became her family, what she had been looking for.  This book is told in the third-person narrative, with a sideshow person and others, each given a turn to speak.  The chapters, their thoughts and histories, are short.  The result is that the reader feels that they, too, are learning about each person, just as Portia does.  Alas, Mister sends some goons to track Portia down and to bring her back, plus his bicycle.  He holds her prisoner and delights in tormenting her and telling her she’ll never leave again.  But, she has a family now and they are loyal and come to rescue her.  A truly beautiful story of hope and family.  The storyline was interesting and snappy, never a dull moment.  The only objection I have is the book jacket art–the scenes are too busy, even though they are meant to represent the sideshow freaks.  That would probably be better left to a reader’s imagination.

Set in rural Kenya, this inspiriting, fictionalized account of Mimi’s village without health care gives the reader a viewpoint  about the urgent need to improve developing countries by providing them with clean water, protection from mosquitos, and vaccinations.  The reader’s world views are expanded  with the ultimate goal  to create change.  In the developing world, 21,000 children die every day from preventable diseases.  This fact alone, illuminates the dire situation that cries out for attention.  Organizations such as Partners In Health and Malaria  No More  are explained. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also began helping parts of Africa , Asia and Latin America to  eliminate malaria.  Each year, for five years, they contribute $100,000  to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.  Rates for malaria are now falling.  The website, www.mimisvillage.org provides more information for students and teachers who want to become involved in this global program.