By the creator of the comic strip, “MUTTS”, Me…Jane is an exquisite example of a picture book biography.  Detailing the young life of Jane Goodall, this gorgeous book explores the magical connection between a young child and the world around her.  With her stuffed chimpanzee friend, Jubilee, Jane joyously interacts with her environment – hiding in the hen-house to see where eggs come from, reading books about Tarzan, and dreaming of living in Africa.   McDonnell has created a magnificent work of art – many of the pages feature lovely watercolors on one side, and scientific animal rubbings and sketches on the other, mirroring Jane’s dual nature of joy and inquiry.  A few pages even contain actual sketches by Jane Goodall herself.  The minimal words are simple and elegant, and perfectly capture the mood of the story.  From the opening photograph of Jane with her stuffed monkey, to the ending picture of adult Jane reaching out to a real chimpanzee, this book is simply a pleasure, and a must have in any library collection.

At first glance, this adorably designed picture book is cute and fun.  A small mouse peeks into each of his animal friends’ diapers to see what’s inside, and readers have the opportunity to pull down the diaper and see for themselves what kind of poo is hiding within.  However, the subtle lessons in the book (the differences in animal droppings, using a potty instead of a diaper) are overshadowed by the lift-the-flap concept.  Also, the casual manner in which the animals pull down each other’s undergarments to see what is underneath is a little disturbing and could prompt unwelcome behavior in the littlest of readers.  While the pictures are precious, filled with bright colors and furry details, this may not be the best choice for well-used libraries as the lift-the-flaps are fairly fragile.  There are better book choices to use when teaching children about potty training.

Mary Elizabeth Salzmann jam-packed more information about money, nutrition, and value than I would have thought possible in a 24 page book meant for school children. This kid friendly interactive book takes the reader in small steps along with the main character Adam through life lessons about using money wisely.  “Meet Adam! Adam’s parents give him money. He gets to decide what to buy. Follow along with Adam as he tries to make good decisions.” ( The reader must make some allowances for Adam’s utopic life : his parents always have money to give to him, his parents always let Adam keep the change, and sales tax is automatically included in the price of the item. )   The reader follows Adam through his 5 food purchasing choices : snack – $3.51, dinner- $4.55, dessert – $4.00, lunch – $4.00, and breakfast – $3.75. Each time, some possible choices will be too expensive and some will not be a good value.  ” Remember that value is a combination of price, quantity, and quality. You usually can’t have the best of all three…”

There is an incongruency on pages 18-19 over the price of the yogurt and the amount of money Adam has available to spend.

I especially like that the money is always a photo of our most current coins and bills, instead of an illustration.

Laura Purdie Salas has chosen the Florida Everglades for the setting of this book, but explains these animal ” groups live all around the world.”

The nine verse song is sung to the melody of “Clementine.” Six animal groups: reptiles, amphibians, mammals, insects, fish, and birds each have their own verse in this song which states at least one commonality within their group/classification. Following the verse more concise/specific information is given about the group/classification.

Includes: musical score, “Did You Know?”, glossary, index, and internet sites (www.facthound.com)

Young readers are first introduced to Three Claws by illustrator Dennis Messner’s visual of Three Claw and his mountain home’s floor plan.  Then, Cari Meister elaborates on how Three Claw uses his claws. But every good story needs a problem to be solved. Three Claw’s problem is, “He has really, really bad breath” which even the other mountain monsters don’t want to be around. When Three Claw doesn’t want to change his diet the happy ending comes when Three Claw is offered the mountain look-out position , away from everyone else, because he has the best vision.

This nonfiction book by Donna Latham in the Endangered Biomes series reminds me, in a good way, of the movie FINDING NEMO. The colorful action shots of clown fish, tropical fish, coral reefs, sea turtles, kelp beds, shark, and pelican mixed with the ocean currents,  topography, and how ocean plants and animals adapt bring the reader to a deeper understanding of the ocean biome in just 8 short chapters in 27 pages. Environmental threats to the ocean: climate change, oil spills, and trash, are also discussed. The glossary is well done and matches the glossary word-for-word in Latham’s other book from this series – DESERTS.

One typo on page 13, the word ‘each’ should be ‘eat’.

Author Donna Latham presents a short 8 chapter, 27 page run down on deserts – “the most arid biome”. The page lay-outs help the reader move from the generalities of the  text to specifics of captioned inset photos and “Do You Know?” factoids. The vibrant colors in the photos with the accompanying text grab the readers attention and will inspire him to read the entire book in one sitting. Includes: plant and animal adaptations, environmental threats and biodiversity risks.

The proofreader missing one word – on page 21, damanged, should be damaged.

Excellent glossary

I f you have ever been in a play one of the worst things you can do is to forget your lines. When Herbie Bear’s class puts on a Thanksgiving play, he fears this will happen to him and is teased about it by another classmate. In the end, Herbie performs on cue and rescues ‘the’ classmate who does forget his line.

Big emotion-filled action -packed illustrations by Bob Ostrom make this a fun read.

As Herbie Bear’s birthday approaches he realizes he has outgrown the skateboard his father made for him. At his party , each present is a new piece of skateboarding equipment. After the cake and ice cream , the grand finale is the new skateboard Herbie has secretly been wanting. “Thanks, Dad! Thanks, Mom! This is the best birthday ever.”

Big, emotion-filled action packed illustrations by Bob Ostrom make this a visual treat to read.

Thirteen-year-old Jackson Jones becomes a young entrepreneur when his widowed neighbor, Mrs. Nelson, convinces him to get her neglected apple orchard up and going again.  If he does so, she promises the deed to the orchard to young Jackson.  Seeing dollar signs, Jackson accepts the challenge, getting a lesson in the hard work it takes to grow and sell apples.  He enlists his siblings and cousins in the hard work, keeping from them the fact that Mrs. Nelson will get the first $8,000 of the profits.  Young readers will get a lesson, along with Jackson, on the endless work and expenses of running a business.