Four trucks, 2 big and 2 small, with headlights for eyes and bumpers for mouths start their day. ” ‘I will help you! ‘ says Blue Truck”, but his offer is turned down twice by the big trucks. Discouraged and giving up Yellow Truck asks Blue Truck for his help. Success follows. The End.

Illustrator Patrick Girouard has added a Pesky Pigeon to find on every turn of the page.

Word Count – 115.

Gary Lizard has been marking the days off on his calendar until his first day of school. Mom and Dad Lizard help send him off with (new) clothes, backpack, sack lunch, and by taking his picture before climbing onto the school bus.

Word count – 88. with bright, child-friendly pictures by Andy Rowland

This nonfiction book tells the story of the mystery behind a little seabird, called the marbled murrelet in a picture book format. The murrelet makes its home in the ocean until it is time to lay it’s egg. This bird that is the same size of a robin lays just one egg, that is the size of a chicken egg. For hundreds of years, it was unknown where they lay this egg. It has just been discovered that they lay these eggs in the forest trees along the west coast. It is amazing because this bird will travel up to 50 miles one way to deliver a fish to the nest when the chick has hatched.  This is a story that takes place in the Pacific Northwest, making it of real interest to students in our area. The paintings just add to the beauty of the story. As the story is told, there are additional information boxes about these birds, forest and other forest animals set in the pictures, as well. The story brings to light the environmental ramifications logging companies are causing by taking the birds’ nesting ground. This is really neat story with lots of information about the outdoors that would be great to share with students.

Stanza, the dog is a thug and a rotten dog that prowls the streets with his rotten brothers by day. But by night, Stanza writes poetry that would only come out of a sensitive hound. He lives in fear of his brothers finding out about his dark secret. When Stanza sees a poster display about a poetry contest, he can hardly wait to start writing. When he comes in second place and his secret is out, the outcome is terrible! He hates losing and worst of all, his brothers make fun of him. Stanza becomes a hero when the townspeople see his talents and his prize gets delivered (chicken pot pies). Stanza and his brothers soon make a new life showcasing their talents and forgoing their bad ways. This book tells a cute story centered around poetry and the rhyming makes it a fun read aloud. The illustrations help to tell the story perfectly.

This nonfiction book is all about the life and career of pro wrestler, Shawn Michaels. The book discusses Shawn winning the World Championship, Shawn proving himself with his small size, his life growing up, Shawn losing his friendship with Marty Jannetty and then getting back on his feet. The book is nicely set up, has great photographs of Shawn and good information. My only problem with this book is the large amount of text. It seems like a lot of information in paragraph style for elementary students to read and comprehend.

This nonfiction book goes over the achievements and career statistics of some of the greatest football stars, such as Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Randy Moss. Each chapter has facing pages with a photo of the star, their personal information, their regular season rushing stats, achievements, a little paragraph about the player and a fact. The book is visually stimulating and has nicely organized information that is not overwhelming to read, although there is a lot of information. My only negative critique is that all the stars are from around the same time (2000-present). I feel that this may date the book. It would have been nice to have a little more variety of players in the years they played.

In this picture book, all the stars at school will get a turn to be star of the week. All the stars are so excited to be chosen and share something special. Twinkle knows right away she wants to sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Poor Twinkle is very upset when another star shares her song. She just doesn’t know what to do. Luckily, when it is Twinkle’s turn, she wishes and wishes for help and is visited by a wishing star. She is very excited to share that she has been chosen as a wishing star. This is really cute book and all the references to stars and space is an added bonus. In the front and back cover pages, there are even star facts. The illustrations just make the story even cuter.

This nonfiction book is from the Extreme Machines series and is all about smart machines. The book first teaches students about smart machines that are in the ocean. There are underwater vehicles that teach scientists about the ocean and robots that go underwater and take videos. The book then talks about trains that are smart and drive without drivers and smart cars that have sensors, lasers and radars that help drivers be safe. The book also teaches about smart machines that deal with bombs, planes that are smart and smart machines used in space. The book also has a test students can give themselves, a glossary, find out more page and index. The book is presented simply with large font, a low reading level and straight forward facts. The photographs are high quality and book has really nice thick pages.

In this nonfiction book, students are presented with the concept of texture. Texture is the way something feels. The entire rest of the book is about different textures in our world. From things that are soft and fluffy (furry slippers) to knobbly and warty (squash). The descriptions are vivid and make great use of adjectives. The photographs that accompany the descriptions are vivid as well and of great quality. There are just so many neat parts to this book. I loved it (and I am not an art person)! The photos that go with the descriptions of textures are ingenious. This is a great book to add to the art section in any elementary library.

In this fun book, J. Otto Seibold has taken the popular Mother Goose nursery rhyme classics and rewritten them to his style. This book is supposedly written by a real goose unlike Mother Goose who is not really a goose. These nursery rhymes are “more modern, more fresh and more Goosian.”  For example, he writes “It’s raining, it’s boring, The snoring creaks the flooring. With that said, go to bed, and I’ll see you in the morning! The rhymes are fun and the illustrations to go with them are funny and appealing. This is just a fun book!