This is the ugly duckling as you’ve never seen him before.  As in other titles in this series, Blecha re-imagines the duckling and his companions in a visual style that’s half Tim Burton and half SpongeBob SquarePants.  With a few exceptions, the story is intact in its traditional form.  The mother has no part in the abuse of our young protagonist.  There is no mention of the cave by the lake from the original story.  And instead of going to the lake to seek death by swan-pecking, Duckling is going to the lake for no apparent reason at all when he sees his pleasing reflection.  And it just so happens that the swans are there, too.  Although Duckling’s experiences along his journey don’t make a lot of sense from an adult point of view, the illustrations and side jokes have massive kid-appeal.  As with other volumes in the Graphic Spin series, this includes a glossary, background information about the author, reteller, and illustrator, discussion questions and writing prompts.  All of these add value for educators to a version of this story that will catch the eyes of their students.

This is a cute book about a girl, Jenny,  who loves to jump, but she gets into trouble while jumping.  She wants so much to jump.

Her teacher suggests that the class have a fair to learn about African traditions, and raise money for books and computers for the Ugandan school.  Everyone seems to have an idea, except Jenny.  Then Jenny decides she can do a Jumpathon 1,000 jumps.  She asks people if they will pay for every jump she does.

In the end she jumps 1,000 times and gets her picture in the local paper.

A cute story of how every one can help make a difference in the world.

The pictures are bright and fun to look at making the story more fun to read.

Grandpa takes Timmy to the farm where he grew up.  It seemed long ago that the farm was far away, but now houses and neighborhoods have sprung up nearby.  The farmhouse and barn are ready to fall down.  Out in the field the old red tractor sits covered with rust and weeds.  Grandpa reminisces about how the tractor was used and how much fun he’d had on it.  Timmy sees the past through Grandpa’s stories and just how valuable a tractor can be.  This is a very enjoyable story about how important a piece of machinery is to a farmer and his family, one that we often take for granted.  It’ll make you think twice the next time you see an abandoned, forgotten old tractor.

In this brightly, cheery book of collages, Ehlert presents animals with spots and stripes.  Descriptions of the animals are given in a four-line verse, which rhyme awkwardly and take away from the pictures.  It is the handmade and painted papers from which the animals are made which is the main attraction here.  The pictures are large enough to see texture and how it was assembled.  Ehlert tries to interject some non-fiction into a picture book, but the facts are rather weak.  I will use this book more for it’s art, color, pattern and design.

This sequel to 13 Treasures can stand alone without having read the first book, however, you’ll become addicted to Harrison’s marvelous story and writing style and want to read it.  I read them out of order and understood the story perfectly–no awkward or wasted time in the story backtracking or explaining or transitioning.  In 13 Curses, Red (Rowan) is working to find her baby brother who had been kidnapped by the fairies, but time is against her.  The fairies have quite a different set of rules and Red ends up trading places with Tanya, the main character in book one, and must stay in the fairy underworld.  In order to get her brother, Red must complete a task, to recover the 13 charms from an ancient bracelet.  The charms all have a specific power and are hidden in the real world.  Red works with Tanya and Fabian, also from book one, to figure out the puzzles.  One storyline within the book is how Red feels so different from others.  Both she and Tanya are similar in how they can both see fairies and are fearful of them.  But Red feels responsible for her baby brother being kidnapped as well as for the accident that killed their parents.  She discovers that her Aunt Rose is actually her real biological mother, and the woman she thought was her mother is her aunt.  She is angry and can’t understand how Rose could have given up her baby.  But when she completes her task and finds her baby brother, she realizes that he has bonded with his new ‘fairy’ mother and doesn’t remember her at all.  She realizes she must give him up, even though she loves him, in order for him to be happy.  This helps her in realizing her own situation with her own mother.  I can’t wait for the third book.  Excellent!

This book makes you look at words in a whole new way.  It also makes you social.  First you want people to hear you try, then you want to hear them try.  The pictures are bright and fun to look at which adds to the interest of the book.   It is a lot of fun!

This is a tongue-in-cheek instruction guide on how and what is needed to be  a pirate.

A picture gallery is given of nine “Unkown Pirates of history” (the word unknown is misspelled) : Evil, Smiley, Hunky, Stumpy, Peg-leg, Grouchy, Greedy, Gnarly, and Magical. Of these nine, only six are given a two sentence mini-bio.  Also, included are a pirate’ Treasure Map’ with secret code, ‘Pirate Vocabulary’, ‘Pirate Code’, and ‘ Parts of the ship’ which includes #5- “King’s daughter who fell in love with a pirate and ran away to sea with him…#17 – the bad guys in the crew , #18 the fun guys in the crew”.

Dogs and horses help police with their special skills. “On horseback, an officer can see more of an area and move quickly.” (p. 24)

The author, Julie Murray, uses the word guard on pages 4,6,10,12,and 16. She used the phrase find clues on pages 1, 6, 12, 22,  & 30. Murray does not get much more specific in describing what the dogs and horses do as crime-fighters.

Proficient third grade readers enjoyed this book, as did low preforming  fifth grade reading students, but  proficient fifth grade reading students did not enjoy it.

‘There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices — found only in the pettiness of the human mind… and the pity of it is… that these things cannot be confined …to the Twilight Zone.” So ends this episode (and now graphic novel) of Rod Serling’s THE TWILIGHT ZONE first aired on March 4, 1960.

Anxiety and fear of the unknown, in a time of stress and uncertainly lead to unusual and harsh actions and reactions. A neighborhood is thrown into panic when a strange light zooms past their homes followed by a loss of electricity.

This is a fun and clever book.  It explores friendship and mother-daughter relationship in a really humorous way.  A good read.

This book is about a girl whose mother is an actress.  Mum is asked to be on a  reality show. Polly, the daughter, is sure this will be a total disaster. Polly writes in her diary about the happenings of her life as she is in the middle of this nightmare.  Mum has a life coach, Vanilla, who adds chaos to the mix.

I like the way the book is written from Polly’s point of view and the notes she writes.