Young learners will enjoy seeing where eggs come from- the chickens and the farm. They will see: a side by side labeled diagram of a chicken (both hen and rooster), eggs naturally come in colors other than white, chickens raised for egg production and for meat, free range chickens with movable coop, different breeds of chickens are different colors, baby chicks, and a diagram of the life cycle of a chicken.

Each turn of the page give a full page photo, four or five sentences of factual text, and  usually a smaller photo by the text.

If you don’t look closely, you’ll miss the note on the last page (below the index) “from Matt and Tara of Howling Wolf Farm…We work in partnership with  nature and people to grow vibrant, abundant food…”

This book contains two graphic novel episodes of Scooby-Doo and two one-page “Velma’s Monsters of the World”.

When college students begin to disappear,  Scooby and gang investigate the video tape of the fast acting super contagious Virus-Z. They figure out Virus-Z isn’t from a biology lab class, but from a film making class. Case solved.

Velma gives information about the Yama-Uma from Japanese folklore.

In the second case, after a hurricane doesn’t ruin the Gumbo Restaurant, the owner still isn’t out of trouble because a bayou monster is creating havoc. Scooby and gang split up and chase the monster down on air jet boats to find the restaurant owner’s jealous twin brother in the monster outfit. Case solved.

Velma gives information about the griffin.

Though Paula Danziger is no longer with us, her good friends Bruce Coville and Elizabeth Levy have brought her, Amber Brown, character back to life in this new book in the Amber Brown series.

“I, Amber Brown, have to spend a million dollars.” So begins this tale of a school project in Chapter One. “We have to include: 1. Buy a house, 2. Pay for college, 3. Give to charity, 4. Spend the rest in $25,000 chunks”.  Chapters 2-17 are about Amber’s relationship with her father and soon to be remarried mother. Money issues arise as the wedding is planned, but they work themselves out.  Amber’s best friend, Justin, will be coming back to town from Alabama, for the wedding. And Amber makes a new unexpected friend of a follow classmate through the wedding planning.

“Sometimes happy and sad comes so close together in my life that I can’t keep track of how I’m feeling.” (page 87)

Nine year old Amber does not like to hear her divorced parents talk negatively about the other parent and tells them so, several times.

There is a happy ending!

This Iroquois creation myth is told using modern style artwork in graphic novel form, but with only one frame per page. The text box at the top of each page sits in a frame made of four bare bark tree branches stretching an animal hide. Sky Woman is wearing stylized pre-1492 Iroquois clothing.

Sky Woman becomes ill, then falls through a hole in the clouds. Swans gently carry her to a watery earth. Toad brings up earth from under the water and places it on Big Turtle’s back. It magically grows into an island, which eventually becomes all of North America. Sky Woman has twin boys, one is evil-spirited and the other is good-spirited. They bring good and evil into the world.  Six pages later, it skips back to “Big Turtle still carries the land on his back. Sometimes he stretches out his legs, causing the earth to tremble.”  [The End]

This darling picture book is about Joanie, a young girl who learns that she needs glasses.  She goes into town with her mother, aunt and cousin, Barbara Louise to pick them out.  The girls are dazzled by all the glamorous eye wear choices and Barbara Louise becomes quite jealous that she doesn’t need glasses.  She tries everything to convince her mother that she needs them, but to no avail.  When Joanie becomes disenchanted with her glasses, the girls switch and Barbara Louise tries wearing them with silly consequences.  In the end, the girls decide to return the glasses to Joanie.  Walking home, they came upon a yard sale and Barbara Louise finds a treasure, her own pair of glamorous glasses without the lenses!  The style of this book reminds me of the Fancy Nancy series and the girls are accessorized to the hilt and very focuses on their appearance.  The illustrations are bright, colorful, and cartoonish.  The wonderful cover art is sure to draw in young readers.  This fun book is perfect for a girl who is new to wearing glasses.

Princess Viola is a spirited girl, more fond of diving into the moat, skateboarding up and down the drawbridge and karate-chopping, than doing all that princesses typically do.  She decides to go off to princess camp where she can learn to be a proper princess.  However, her true nature cannot be suppressed and in the end that saves the day!  This is a fun, free-spirited book about being true to yourself and being loved for it.  The illustrations are reminiscent of a graphic novel and the cover features glitter which is sure to draw young readers.

This is a beautiful nativity story about a little shepherd girl who followed her father into the night and toward the stable where she discovered the baby Jesus.  Joining Mary, Joseph, the three kings, shepherds and stable animals, the girl meets Jesus, who enters her heart.  The illustrations are gorgeous watercolors, rich and detailed.  I’m thrilled to have this treasure for our Catholic school library.

The Highway Rat is written by the creators of The Gruffalo and has the similar theme of a character who uses his/her clever wit to solve a problem.  In this case, Duck tricks the Highway Rat, stopping him from stealing everyone’s food.  The author and illustrator use rhyming, repeating text and engaging illustrations to create this folktale.  It would be fun to pair this book with The Gruffalo for story time.

In this Elmer book, a herd of pink elephants are having a birthday party for Old, who was turning 100 years old.  Elmer and his cousin, Wilbur, went to check out the commotion and ended up witnessing an earthquake disaster!  Old was stuck on a small rock that separated from the cliff during the earthquake.  Fortunately, Super El came to the rescue and lifted Old to safety before the rock crumbled into the valley.  Colorful and fun, this book will appeal to young students for story time.

Two Shy Pandas is a lovely children’s picture book with a friendship theme.  The two young pandas are lonely playing by themselves at the zoo and long to have a friend but are too shy to introduce themselves to each other.  One day it snows and one panda goes inside while the other plays outside.  Both worry when they don’t see each other and decide to venture out to check.  They bump into each other and decide to be friends.  It’s a nice lesson about reaching out to others to pursue friendship.  The illustrations are colorful and sweet.