A charming story about Lola Zuckerman who always seems to get herself into some trouble. Hilarity ensues as she offers to watch her friends’ dogs over Thanksgiving break when she can barely control her own dog from running away, and she must tell both her grandmothers that their pumpkin pie is “the best” when they come for the Thanksgiving meal.  Throughout all this, she hasn’t brushed her hair in days and she tries to cover up the knot that has formed using hats and other disguises. A light, fun-loving story that is sure to cause smiles and giggles for kids grades 2-5.

Grace wants her papa to tell a scary bedtime story. Her brother, Walter, is not so sure and wants a story that is “not too scary”. Papa weaves Grace and Walter in the story and starts out scary, but then discover that whatever is scary is something familiar and not too scary. Papa has to walk a delicate balance between making his story scary for Grace, but not too scary for Walter. Towards the end, the story ends up being too scary for both of them and they want to sleep with the light on.

A collection of poems by Jane Yolen about things that are under the ground. Some of the things described are found in nature, while others are human made such as the subway. The full page color illustrations add to the poems. There is the combination of art, poetry, and science. The notes on the end of the book give us scientific information about some of the topics as well as personal anecdotes on some of the poems from the author.

A girl needs to give a presentation about personification, but she is scared. She ventures to the park where she finds personification all around her. Each page is filled with examples of personification. This would be a great accompaniment to lessons on figurative language.

A nonfiction book about ragdoll cats with many text features including headings, keywords, glossary, and text boxes. The photographs span the full page. Only about five pages have information specifically about ragdoll cats, the rest of the book seems to be about cats in general. Each page has about two paragraphs of 2-3 sentences each. This book would be a good resource for those interested in getting a ragdoll cat or a cat in general as it provides tips for feeding, care, and what things they need.

Create 5 different robots with this book. Directions are numbered and include color pictures to assist in the creation of the robots. The book defines a makerspace, has many everyday objects for the robots, and includes safety tips. The robots do include some specialized equipment that would not be found in every house such as littlebits, cubelets, and solar cells, which makes the activities not attainable for everyone. The book suggests that if you don’t have something find a substitute, but does not include what you might use as a substitute.

The tale begins as expected. Jack and his mother, both depicted as white, are poor; Jack goes to town to sell a cow; he returns with no money but a handful of magic beans. His mother throws the beans out the window, and the next day a gigantic beanstalk has grown. But here the story takes a new path. No longer will Jack and his mother starve, as the stalk bears a huge number of beans, and she cooks up baked beans, pickled beans, mashed beans, bean soup, and bean chowder. Jack soon tires of beans and dreams of burgers and french fries. When he climbs the beanstalk, he finds a like-minded giant (also white) who’s so tired of beans he wants to eat Jack instead. But the bean-hating duo heads down the stalk and plants a garden with a more diversified crop of vegetables, to the delight of the whole, not-particularly-diverse community. Teague defuses a conflict through the promise of good food. His illustrations effectively emphasize the size of both giant and beanstalk, culminating in a humorous final page depicting the giant’s arm reaching down from off the page to give Jack’s plate of french fries a nice squirt of ketchup.

Delightfully entertaining fractured fairy tale!

The story begins when the U. S. flag had only 48 stars. America goes to war. Steve Rogers goes to enlist, but is turned down, except for a top secret experiment. From skinny and weak to big and strong a hero is made. “He fights for justice, equality, and freedom.”

Young fans of Captain America just learning to read should enjoy the introductory story of this hero laid out in action filled pictures with one or two sentences in large font per page.

Sunny’s story from SUNNY SIDE UP continues in this edition of SWING IT UP, SUNNY. As the scene opens on the Sunny TV Show (each episode is matched with a TV show from the 1970s) .

THIS book is so realistic in pointing out day-to-day bits of life.  Authors Matthew and Jennifer Holm excel is sharing how hard life can be when a member of a family is hurting and you are hurting for them, too.

Mom is busy cooking dinner and asking Sunny to change her little brother Teddy’s diaper. Gramps phones, from Florida, to ask Sunny how her first days of middle school are going.

Neighbor and best friend Deb watches ‘General Hospital ‘ with Sunny after school. Halloween comes up with the topic of this year’s costumes. Perhaps they should be nurses like on ‘General Hospital’. OK, but no kissing of doctors for Sunny. Then, when Sunny needs  allergy tests, she finds her doctor is not anything like the ones on ‘General Hospital’. Sunny’s doctor is not romantic at all! On Halloween night, as Deb and Sunny head home from trick-or-treating, they witness two bullies taking a smaller child’s candy. Sunny talks Deb into hiding in a big pile of raked leaves and wait for the bullies to pass by. As the bullies walk by, they jump from the pile of leaves, (looking like Swamp Thing nurses- all dirty now) scaring the bullies away.

Older brother Dale comes home from military school for the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays, but he is grumpy. Dale does not appreciate the ‘Pet Rock’ Sunny gives him for Christmas. Dale is supposed to be watching Deb, Sunny, and Teddy on New Year’s Eve. Shortly before midnight, Dale is seen walking off and meeting up with his old friends. The next morning, all the mailboxes in the neighborhood are found knocked down. Coincidence?! As Dale gets ready to go back to military school, Sunny notices Dale has left the pet rock behind, but Sunny sneaks it into his duffle bag when he is not looking. During lunch after Dale leaves, Gramps talks with Sunny about how hard it has been with Dale,     ” ‘I know it’s hard to watch somebody you love struggle. All you want to do is make it better.’ (says Gramps, then Sunny) ‘So what can I do?’  (Gramps) ‘ What we did. Just keep loving him and hope for the best. ‘ ” (145)…” ‘Life’s not like television.’ ” (146)

New neighbors move in next door to Sunny. She and mom take them fresh baked cookies. Though the girl at the door, Neela, is older than Sunny, they will soon be great friends. Neela will soon be teaching Sunny flag twirling, an activity that accompanies the high school marching band.

In May, Sunny sends Dale a hand-made blanket to keep his pet rock warm. Surprising, Dale phones Sunny to thank her and is very cordial. Dale goes on to explain that ‘Rocky’, his pet rock, ” ‘ was kind of having a hard time at first. But , uh, he’s trying to figure things out, so he’s doing a little better now.’ ” (209)

Pointe, Claw is the intense story of two wild girls, but not wild in the way one would think. Both are struggling to break free and find something missing in their lives.
Jessie Vale is a ballerina performing in an elite ballet program that requires absolute perfection to be accepted into a professional company. When she is cast in an animalistic avant garde production, her composure begins to crack. Danger abounds.

Told from another point of view is the story of Jessie’s Dawn McCormick. Dawn’s world is full of missing information and illness. She wakes in strange places, looking bruised, battered, and unable to speak. The doctors are baffled. Her parents are frustrated.

These childhood friends are running out of time, with Jessie having just this one shot at her ballet dream, and Dawn’s blackouts and illness rapidly getting worse. The girls feel that they are being judged and watched by everyone. They also are being kept apart from one another, for reasons they don’t understand, but they both remember their childhood when they were inseparable.

Will they overcome the stresses in their lives? Will they be allowed to recreate the happiness they once shared as children?
Point, Claw will keep the reader devouring the pages to find the answers.