Here are the facts about the United States flag we would desire all of our youngest people to know: the number and color of stars and stripes, when the first flag was made, and it should be held with respect. “The United States flag is a symbol for freedom and unity.” (4)

There are one or two sentences, in large font, on the left hand page opposite a photo, on the right, of the United States flag being displayed on a government building or being held in the hands of waving waving people.

The six word glossary containing : word, picture, and definition, is followed by a short list of books and the www.factsurfer.com web site for more information, and an index.

Best graphic novel ever! If you can call a 38 page, 11.25″ X 8.75″ book a novel?

When the world is threatened with the destruction of all books by the evil Doctor Glockenspiel if his demands are not met, who will save the day? The top secret agents fail.

Lyric McKerrigan takes it upon herself to stop this villain using various disguises and a tool box full of books that win over each guard and hunchman that stand between her and Doctor Glockenspiel. When Doctor Glockenspiel releases the book eating moths as his last resort, Lyric McKerrigan “shines a flashlight onto book. The moths love flashlights… The moths like stories even better than flashlights.” Soon Doctor Glockenspiel is back in jail and the world’s books are safe once again!

Illustrator Vera Brosgol has won both Eisner and Harvey Awards and received a Caldecott Honor for her past work. This book is in true comic book style which young and old readers will enjoy.

Fabian Starr wants to be in a rock band. Fab’s friend Emilio would rather be an inventor. Both of their friends, Lola is thinking about giving swim team a year off. Together they agree to give being in a rock band a chance for one month, but they need a drummer badly. After posting audition posters in the middle and high school wings of their school, two people show up at Fab’s garage for auditions. Thank goodness the strange high school student (Zee), who just moved in across the street from Fab, comes over to audition. Zee’s audition is over the top! The band is formed! Lola gets the band their first gig playing at her 6 yr old sister’s Princess birthday party.

Emilio is not too confident about the band. He builds a dog-sized unicorn which shots “a small jet of rainbow sparks”(80) out of its horn to ‘wow’ the party-goers, in case, the band does not. Never fear, the band is fantastic! When asked the band’s name, Fab yells out, ” ‘We’re called Electric Zombie!’ ” (101)

Lola’s cousin thinks the band is ready for the middle school fair, with their adrenalin pumping Fab, Emilio, and Lola agree to sign up. Will Zee agree, too? Fab is not so sure. Fab is beginning to wonder if Zee might actually be a zombie. The reader is left with this cliff-hanger. Read book two- “Shock and Roll”, maybe it will give Fab the answer he is after concerning his neighbor Zee.

Zombie lovers and middle school rock band lovers will enjoy this book. I am not sure there will be a bigger audience for this book, though.

The book does have one color illustration per chapter.

Modern day Robyn Hood are her sidekicks the Hoods are up against the Havocs. The Havocs pick pockets and steal from anyone and everyone. They poke fun at Robyn and her Hoods “who only took from bad guys to HELP people in need.” (15)

Each time the thefts end with a cloud of smoke and the victims yelling and accusing each other of stealing from them. Robyn and her Hoods decide to look for the Havocs at the open-air market, where there are always large crowds of people. Sure enough Robyn spots a Havoc. They run in their direction, but find nothing. After chasing after another suspicious person, Robyn trips over an open sewer grate. Again they find nothing. Then Robyn concludes they should look down in the sewer. There the Hoods find the stolen valuables. They collect it to return to the victims.

“After returning the STOLEN goods, the Hoods convinced everyone to STAY OUT of the market so they could face the Havocs.” (36) The Havocs want their loot back. When the Havocs ‘LUNGED‘ at the HOODS they trip over ” the camouflaged trip line at their feet.”(43) The Havocs release a thick cloud of smoke. By the time the smoke clears, the Havocs are gone. Robyn and the Hoods have returned the valuables, that is the important part. They “will FACE the Havocs another day.” (48)

Good over evil wins again in this updated version of Robin Hood and his merry men. This version has color graphics on each page by Abigail Dela Cruz. The text has a key word in bold or a stylized font in almost every sentence adding to the enjoyment and to the reader’s comprehension. After four short chapters, the reader is on to the next book in this series.

Book #7 in The Graveyard Diaries series takes place in “The small town of Marshfield … known for its four old cemeteries. Local people call the place Graveyard City.” (29) What better place for an urban legend dealing with a ghost to take place.

This story reads and feels like a reality TV show GHOST HUNTERS. There are no silly little anecdotes.

As Jared and his mother drive home, on a December evening, they take a short cut through one of the town’s cemeteries. There, they almost hit a girl with their car. They volunteer to take her home, as she (Tammy) has hurt herself from a fall in the cemetery. Once they arrive at Tammy’s house, she disappears. The house is terribly run down, looking like no one has lived there in years.

A little by little, Jared researches the house at the public library. Jared meets a local librarian who remembers when Tammy died back in 1961. Jared and his two closest friends (they’ve named themselves the Zombie Hunters) will try to help Tammy if she is a ghost who wants to escape or a ghost who wants to be rescued. When Jared enters the house Tammy tells him to leave them alone. Jared flees the house after seeing an allusion of flames. These ghosts do not want his help. He will leave them alone.

The book concludes with a page of five steps entitled TRACKING GHOSTS and a second page of eight items entitled GHOST FACTS.

This is a fast read for those young people who either believe in ghosts or are border-line believers. The slightly enlarged type hint this is a hi-lo book. The single black and white sketch in each of the ten chapters keeps the mood alive and moving.

Here are ten fairy tales: Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, The Pied Piper, Snow White, The Princess and the Pea, Red Riding Hood, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Hansel and Gretel, and The Swan Brothers ‘reimagined’,”not quite as you remembered.”

Different back stories make these tales more easily relatable to the youth of today who are wise about interpersonal relationships.Sometimes the title character is not always the one who wins in the end. Sometimes the story affects characters from more than one generation. Sometimes characters from other traditional tales make guest cameo appearances in another tale.

I was thinking – “That’s not the way this story goes, but I like this way better!” For example: Rapunzel has twin children, or Hansel and Gretel retell what happened to them for a writing assignment at school, or Snow White has a small glass shard of the wicked witch’s magic mirror which is controlling her, or the prince liked Cinderella best because she didn’t have ‘blue’ blood when the rose the prince gave each attendee to the ball was pricked by its thorns.

Each tale is accompanied by black silhouettes of the characters in action amidst varying tones of gray settings by Sarah Gibb. The cover art is for Rapunzel, while the book’s title refers to Rumpelstiltskin.

Whether you one tale or read them all, this book is a winner.

In Kathy Cannon Wiechman’s novel Not on Fifth Street you explore the treacherous 1937 flood in Ironton, Idaho. The two brothers, Pete and Gus, struggled because of the rising water of the huge flood. Gus falls in love with someone his parents don’t approve of and causes tension with his parents and his brother. Pete has to take care of the family and deal with problems with his brother and his best friend Richie. The boys grow distant because Gus was seeing a girl named Venus Marlowe. The book is action-packed and informs readers about the record setting flood Ironton experienced in 1937. The book is about what the people in Ironton experienced during the flood and how it affected the people. I would recommend this book to people who like to read about historical events and stories of how people survived disaster. When I started reading this book, I didn’t want to put it down even to take care of my needs. The book was intriguing and interesting even though it’s factual. It is full of information and true stories about the terrifying river during that season. Not on Fifth Street is a very good and interesting book about a record setting 1937 flood and the terror it caused in Ironton.

Review by Janelle

My favorite part of this series are the illustrations by David Clark. The illustrations are humorous. Whimsy with plants and insects both having facial expressions and acting like humans, only to have a photo of an actual plant tucked away amid the cartoons.

This book tries to inform you of the ways plants and humans are alike. This is all true at a basic level of life: basking in the sun, breathing, need for water, having babies, and even at times wearing armor. From there, Bridget Heos goes onto tell of some quite unusual plants and their added characteristics to which she attaches human attributes.

It is a fun way to learn about plant basics and then on to more diverse characteristics that only a few plants may have.

I have a friend who can crochet the cutest little stuffed animals. This book reminds me of her. In this picture book, Greta, the goat, likes to knit.

When Greta knits animals they come to life. First, she knit baby goats. When Mr. Sheep teases Greta about her messy knitting, Greta knits a wolf that eats Mrs. Sheep. Now, Greta is hiding in a closet so the wolf won’t eat her. “clickclickclicketyclick”, Greta knits a tiger who eats the wolf. Now Greta is hiding in the closet so the tiger won’t eat her. “I have to get rid of him! What should I knit now? she wonders. Something even bigger, something even more dangerous!”

“Clickclickclicketyclick go the needles.” Greta has created a monster! But Greta has learned an important lesson about the animals she knits. Greta does not quite finish the monster, leaving him still on the knitting needle. Greta pushes the monster out into the room where it eats the tiger. Then without wasting any time Greta starts to unravel the monster, then the tiger, then the wolf, and Mrs. Sheep is saved.

Greta decides to knit some green grass for her goats. Oops, while Greta wasn’t paying attention to her knitting, the green knitting has become a green alligator. It is a good thing she has not cast off yet.

This is part of the new series-MAKERS Make It Work. “Makers Make It Work is a series of fun easy-to-read stories that focus on problem-solving and hands-on action. Each book also includes an activity for young makers to try themselves.” (back cover)

Arun and Keya find a raccoon damaged bees’ nest, in the woods near their home, while looking for the perfect tree in which to build a tree house.Luckily, one of their neighbors, Dr. Chen, is a beekeeper. They show Dr. Chen the nest. Arun and Keya help Dr. Chen move the bees to one of her newly built hives, while Dr. Chen helps Keya overcame her fear of bees. The happy ending comes with the bees getting a safer new hive, Dr. Chen sharing the honey with Arun and Keya, and mom and dad will now help them to build a tree house in the tree that once held the nest.

Sprinkled throughout the story are seven information boxes about bees. At the end of the story there are three small sections: Learn Like a Maker, Look Back, and Try This!